Holiness Matters. How to be Holy - Sanctification101 #bibleschool #beholy #sanctification #holylife

[0:00] Welcome everyone. Tonight we're talking about sanctification. Sanctification. And what that means is holiness. Sanctification is really a technical word that means holiness and holiness means to set apart to separate to disconnect really and it's mentioned over a thousand times in the Bible sanctification or holiness.

[0:24] So you see as it shows us here Psalm 4 verse 3 says but know that the Lord had set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call unto him.

[0:39] Holiness is the act of God by which he cleanses and separates believers from sin to himself. So it means to set apart from sin and to make holy. Not only in position but in practice.

[0:52] So we're going to look through some of those truths tonight. God helping us. So the word holy is hagios in the Greek which basically means different. And it's interesting it's got two components hagios.

[1:08] So hagios means not and geos means as in geography the world or the earth. So not of the earth or not of the world. Literally not earthly. And so we know the Bible tells us that we don't belong to the world. We're not of the world. We don't belong to this world. This cosmos anymore.

[1:27] Our allegiance our allegiance our government is to the kingdom of God our king the Lord. So just an interesting thought to capture that idea as we go along. Not of the earth. Not of the world.

[1:41] Holiness sanctification. It means to separate from defilement or to purify. So you've got some different scriptures there. As we've got there Titus 2. He wants to purify unto himself a peculiar people.

[1:55] to separate from defilement to purify to dedicate is another meaning as it tells us that we should come out from among them and be separate to consecrate Romans 12 1 a familiar one that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice which consecrate ourselves to him and holiness sanctification has got this connection to with service so we are called a holy priesthood in the Bible people and things were classed as holy in other words separated from the common different and holiness is not about religious observance or rules or morality or externalism really it's not self-righteousness or isolationism or something that's performance based truly sanctification holiness it's the work of God comes from God and really and truly our holiness is Christ himself it tells us here that we're partakers of the divine nature 2 Peter 1 verse 4 it's like God's nature is holy sanctification is that relationship with God by which men enter by faith in Christ and to which their sole title is the death of Christ that Christ died for our sins Christ died to make us holy it's

[3:14] God's will for every believer to be holy that we are sanctified made holy as you see there in 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 3 to 4 it says this is the will of God even your sanctification so God wants us to be sanctified to be made holy and this process of becoming holy and pure is God's will for us and it tells us in the word that our old nature is crucified and our new nature is strengthened Galatians 2 verse 20 it says I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me so it's Christ's life in us it's God's will that we be sanctified so we're going to learn about what that's all about as we go through and sanctification is a two-fold thing it's both the separation from evil and a separation unto God many scriptures talk about cleansing about sanctifying about carrying forth as this example here carrying forth filthiness bringing out the uncleanness cleansing so there's a separation from evil and then there's a separation unto unto God so we should sanctify unto the Lord as in when we serve him or whatever we do we can serve God because we sanctify it and really holiness is a positive thing as much as there's a negative aspect really it's a positive thing that's unto God unto the Lord and so as a believer we want to please our God we want to depart from sin we want to die to self and to sin we want to walk in newness of life because of our love for our Lord we want to become more like him and less like the world so unearthly not of the earth and through the bible it talks about sanctification of many different kinds of things for example certain places the tabernacle the temple a house of field a mountain it's called holy sanctified certain places certain things as well the furniture and vessels of the tabernacle days and seasons are called holy even food is sanctified so things and then people is ral's firstborn priests are sanctified jeremiah paul believers even our lord is sanctified made holy so of course tonight we're really just focusing on people as in how do we get holy it's about the people of god sanctification for the people of god and here's a quote in your notes it says sanctification is the operation of god the father whereby he makes the believer like his son the lord jesus christ and sanctification is a new creation a new man a new heart a new spirit the conformity of man to the image of the son of god sanctification so we're going to look particularly at the sanctification of the believer tonight and when does it happen what's the timing the time of sanctification it's actually as we see here in hebrews 10 verse 10 that it's instantaneous it tells that through the offering of christ once for all we're sanctified it says 1 corinthians 1 30 it says of christ jesus who of god has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification that word and redemption so it's instantaneous when we receive christ we receive sanctification at the point of conversion and we made a saint which means a holy one a sanctified one and this is used of every christian every believer is a saint and saints are mentioned over 100 times so as god's people were all called saints so sanctified ones holy ones the time of sanctification is at conversion as we see those different scriptures there and the source of sanctification sanctification is as we said before it's from god it's the work of god and the whole godhead is really that source of sanctification he doesn't expect us to achieve sanctification of ourselves god sanctifies

[7:16] us and it's the power that worked for us at the cross and the resurrection the power that is at work in us uh through our christian walk the presence of god affects holiness so we see those different scriptures there it tells us that it's the power that worketh in us ephesians 3 20 talks about strengthen with might by his spirit in the inner man it tells us be strong in the lord and the power of his might so it's god's doing it's god's grace that helps us and we see all of those aspects of god at work in us it's god that strengthens us and helps us to be righteous and it's the work of the three persons of the trinity we see god the father it tells that we're sanctified by god the father in jude 1 verse 1 there and he preserves the believer blameless unto the coming of our lord 1 thessalonians 5 23 24. it tells us that god the son the lord jesus sanctifies believers and through his death and he is our sanctification as we read before christ is made unto us our sanctification says we're sanctified once and for all by one offering perfected forever it tells of his church that he might sanctify and cleanse it through the washing of water by the word so holiness comes to us through christ it's made possible through him it's god's gift to us here's a quote holiness is not the way to christ but christ is the way to holiness some people think they've got to become holy in order to be saved but no the holiness comes after we get saved holiness is not the way to christ but christ is the way to holiness and all holiness really comes from him and then we said god the holy spirit makes us holy too he's the resident indwelling agent of sanctification he's resident in us he should be president in us the holy spirit is the agent that makes us holy and he affects holiness in his people it tells us here that we're justified in the name of the lord jesus and by the spirit of our god it tells us there 1 peter 1 2 talks of through sanctification of the holy spirit of course we know at conversion we made his living temple he dwells within us by his spirit next section the means of sanctification we see these various means here faith the holy spirit the word and grace so we're sanctified by faith as we trust in the work of jesus our lord in dying on the cross for our sin the blood of christ makes us holy and it's affected the same way redemption justification and regeneration is through the sacrifice of christ and the saved man by faith in christ through union with christ has died to the old life and the fetters of sin are broken by faith in christ he is dead to sin and a life to righteousness and because of the finished work of christ we have that wonderful blessing of sanctification by faith as we trust as we believe his work at the cross then we see it's by the holy spirit we're sanctified by the holy ghost as that spirit comes and dwells within us at salvation he affects that deliverance from sin enables us to serve god the holy spirit continues to work in us as he convicts us empowers us draws us to christ transforms us into greater conformity to christ the third one there we see the word of god the lord jesus prayed for his church he said sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth so we know the word of god tells us that we're born again and we're begotten again by the word of god 1 peter 1 23 we're sanctified by the word as the psalmist cried wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word psalm 119 9. of course the word of god

[11:21] god shows us what sin is apparently there's 103 different sins listed in the new testament it shows us what sin is it reveals it and it's compared to like a mirror in james 1 where we look in the word and it's like a looking into a mirror we can see our defects and we can see how we need to wash the dirt away and the bible talks about a renewing of our mind it says we align ourselves with god's truth his word and then we see really that sanctification sanctification is by the grace of god as it says in john 15 5 our lord says without me you can do nothing we need the grace of god and man can only use the grace provisions placed at his disposal which he's encouraged to do so it talks about cleansing ourselves perfecting holiness in the fear of god here's another quote holiness is not an achievement to be accomplished but a gift to be accepted there's a wonderful truth that sanctification is it's god's grace he helps us he affects it yet we are called to action too you see in the next section here some of the things that god calls us to exercise to make that holiness effectual we see that we should exercise faith as we trust in the fact that christ is made unto us our sanctification we should study the word of god that it has that cleansing that washing of water by the word we should pray it talks about things being sanctified made holy by the word of god and prayer we should fellowship have fellowship one with another and we should yield to god as these vessels unto honor sanctified made holy made made prepared for the master to use so all of those things are more like practical things we can also put into action in our lives so there's somewhat of a complexity in that there's really three different aspects to do with sanctification a three-fold aspect as you see pictured here in this table and in your notes there we see you've got past you got present and you've got future so the past is the positional standing that we have really that's that that's that salvation that's instantaneous that in the past we have that standing we're saved and we sanctified as saints every believer is called a saint and that is the fact that we're saved we're in the past we've got that positional standing then in the present time there's a progressive element in that god's working that sanctification in our practical living in that experiential state and then ultimately in the future we see the complete state of when we get to glory we see as you can see those different scriptures there so in the past some of you were in sin it talks about in the context and it says but ye are washed ye are sanctified so present sense you're sanctified in the past then in the present we've got the experiential the progressive thing that he's called us to be holy so be ye holy there's a need to exercise and to implement that holiness in the day by day living it out in the progressive ideally growing in holiness and then the last one they see one john three two now are we the sons of god and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is in the ultimate glorified state when we get our new body and we're in heaven that our holiness will be perfected then there'll be absolutely no sin and we'll be in that perfect state so again that this table we put it differently here in that in the past we deliver from the penalty of sin so that's our position we're saved we're sanctified delivered from the penalty of sin there's no more punishment or penalty for our

[15:26] sin because christ has paid for the cross in the past and in the present the progressive he's delivered from the power of sin so in the sense that we've been changed from glory to glory he's working in us we're growing in holiness in exercising it practically and then we're going to ultimately be delivered from the presence of sin there'll be no more sin in heaven as we see at the coming of our lord so you can see in the notes there a bit more description of all that so it's like there's a kind of sequence you know there's sanctification that in the salvation context and then we see that's that's positional and then we see more the practical the more the progressive is living it out and then ultimately glory heaven and the scriptures tell us about this truth called positional sanctification like we've talked about it's just really kind of restating it here that it's instantaneous it's done once and for all hebrews 10 14 for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified so it's instantaneous absolute done once and for all for all eternity when we've trusted christ we've realized that positional sanctification it's who i am in christ it says colossians 3 ye are dead and your life is hid with christ in god it says 2 corinthians 5 he hath made him to be sin for us and you know sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him so that's our position we're called saints we're called sanctified and christ is the believer sanctification as certainly as salvation is our full and free possession so too sanctification we have it as saved people in the present sense so if we are saved we are sanctified we stand before god and christ's righteousness is affected now there's different teachings that different ones have had over the time we're not going to labor those different teachings unduly i'm just trying to give you what i see as the scriptural elements but there's some that teach a second work of grace or a second blessing but really it's not it's not really so when we're saved we are sanctified we have that sanctification we are entirely sanctified when we are saved when we're born again at that positional level the the other aspect is more the progressive as we get to the next section here so we see that it's who who we are in christ we have his righteousness and and he has been made sin for us and you know sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him so that's the positional sanctification and as part of that we see that there's a security that we have we've got a wonderful security in christ as well it tells us there that believers are called saints irrespective of their spiritual attainment so it's not about our works the corinthians were called sanctified they were called saints even though the corinthians were quite carnal and worldly at times so it's not dependent on our works that positional sanctification that we have moving on we'll talk about progressive sanctification here and again the progressive sanctification is not to be confused with the positional sanctification so as saved people we have sanctification we've got that position of being sanctified the progressive is more talking more about the maturity or the growing it's about christian growth effectively so we see 2 peter 3 where we're told by peter but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ romans 6 it sells us to yield your members servants to righteousness and holiness there's an exhortation there to put it into action and then paul to timothy says if a man therefore purge himself from these as in sin cleanse yourself he shall be a vessel unto honor

[19:30] sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work so there's come these two different aspects as safe people we sanctified but then in the reality when the rubber hits the road in the real practicalities of life there's a call really for us to walk holy it's more of our that more the onus is on us to put it into action into practice and he god wants us to walk holy and to live holy progressive sanctification is more about the christian growth and and how he wants us to be more living to his glory and it's a reality that day by day we can be transformed as it talks about as we mentioned we're transformed we're changed into the same image from glory to glory we're made more like christ god helping us as a growing christian will be more evidently walking righteously and living right and we'll separate from the ungodly and so there's practical things we can do to separate from ungodly things false teachers and doctrines and address our own sinful nature to to walk more closely with god and the believer sets himself apart to god 1 peter 3 exhorts us but sanctify the lord god in your heart so there's a call there to to application on our part as in the notes it talks about the quote there holiness is a conformity of the heart and the life unto god so different different authors or bible teachers have described it differently like the sanctified life it's the exchanged life hudson taylor says the abiding life in other words abiding in christ and also the crucified life so it's different aspects of practical living for christ there so from the moment of the new birth we are christians in the fullest sense we complete in christ but there is that practicality of life that we should be growing we should be exercising our faith and some of the practical things we can do as it talks here in this paragraph as we sanctify the lord in our hearts the holy spirit will put to death the deeds of the body the holy spirit will work in the believer to obey the word the holy spirit will produce the fruit of the spirit so while we are completely sanctified forever as far as salvation is concerned there is a continuing need to be progressively sanctified as far as our service so in other words our walk it's our our serving our walk with god and that's where the holy spirit enables us to do god's will in all of those different ways and others too and then we see again just to repeat that final stage the complete and final sanctification is glorification that's when we get to glory either we're raptured or resurrected we're taken to glory we come into the lord's presence and we have the new body and that's the ultimate and final stage really of sanctification it's glorification it's called we get a glorified body we'll see our lord face to face and then our sanctification is complete when we die and go to be with the lord and all the presence of sin is removed and we enter into really sinless perfection that's when sinless perfection happens and when we get to glory when we glorify it and what joy that will be with no sin and we'll be entirely conformed to the image of his son and no matter what progress we may make in a life of holiness entire conformity to christ won't be realized till then we've been saved from the guilt and the penalty of sin at salvation we are being saved from the power of sin as we walk with god and hopefully grow as a christian ultimately we'll be saved from the very presence of sin we'll have complete conformation to the image of christ but that's not till glory for the meantime we still got to struggle in effect with the practicalities of of living the life of walking the walk but the good news is that we've got christ as our model he's the one who helps us his

[23:36] his likeness is formed in us and we're to follow him we're to know that he is our sanctification and really our sanctification is not something we do it's someone it's christ christ is our sanctifier i can't live a holy life it's quite true to say that but you can decide to let jesus make you holy now there's let let the lord have his way it's letting the more we let the lord have his way the more we'll be like him and that's what holiness is really it's christ likeness it's having the mind of christ it's appropriating christ as our sanctification and the word of god tells us jeremiah 23 verse 6 that uh the lord jesus he is the lord our righteousness it's the fact that jesus christ is our righteousness himself and we appropriate that his holiness is our holiness it's not conformity to a code as conformity to christ it's having christ as our model and god helping us will become more and more like him as we go through life and paul talks about christ being formed in us that's galatians 4 verse 19 here's another quote you have as much holiness as you have of god in you so the more we let the lord have his way the more we'll be transformed into his image and as far as a motive for holiness our motive for holiness is our love for god it's not because it's a burdensome dutiful thing it's because we love our lord and as we grow in his love we'll appreciate what he has done for us we'll grow in that motivation to want to please him to live a life that's holy there'll be that desire to be that living sacrifice to be conformed to his image and we'll be willing to part with sin and uncleanness when you think that god has poured out his love into our hearts by the holy spirit think of his love for us it's a motivator isn't it when we love god we'll actively hate evil we'll obey his word we'll avoid what displeases him we'll be dedicated to living to please him and it'll be in all manner of conversation so 1 peter 1 says be ye holy in all manner of conversation that's the scope in other words the behavior in every department of our lives that's that's how big he wants it to be that holiness should be something that is in our thoughts in our mind in our actions in our living and another thing about holiness is that the call to holiness is a relational thing it's because we love god the call to be holy is the call to know him to love him to follow him it's relationship with our lord isn't it that's the fundamental really sanctification holiness is not a list of rules it's a relationship it's as we come to know him as we draw closer to him as we improve that relationship enhance that relationship with our god as we deepen and strengthen it that we'll have that more vibrant relationship he'll help us to live the life that honors him and as part of this walk that we have we've got the father the son and the holy spirit that all three dwell in us work in us and as we've seen above we've seen that he gives direction help and encouragement assurance he helps us to live by faith it's the father the son and the holy spirit that indwell us as believers and so we're not alone we've got his help we've got divine enablement and he is going to guide us through our walk with him yet there is a battle element to it as well there's a battle there's a struggle involved as unbelievers we were servants to sin unwilling and unable to resist sin but then when we were regenerated we were freed from the power of sin we became willing and able to not

[27:42] sin why then do we still sin of course there's this reality that the day by day battle goes on because we've got the flesh we've got the world the flesh and the devil and the flesh is still a factor in our lives we are free from its dominion but not its presence and influence so there's this daily battle paul talks about the struggle inside the good that i would i don't the the bad that i shouldn't i do you know the struggle within that he says that it's sin dwelling in me it's just my flesh there we see that in romans 7 as he describes it it's that inward fight that contest that struggle we know what we ought to do for god but we don't do it we know what we ought not to do and at times we fail paul noted the struggle that continued in his life really one of the most holy men of the word of god and the battle for holiness is being fought too in the mind it's like a battle in the mind the control room the nerve center if you like it's not a sin to have a bad thought but it is a sin to nurture a bad thought and we read there 2 corinthians 10 to bring into captivity every thought bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ so for the meantime that this battle raging between the flesh and the spirit and feelings can be and often are self-centered self-centered self-serving the bible talks the word lusts or desires so we've got listed there numbers of lusts deceitful lusts foolish and hurtful lusts youthful lusts worldly lusts fleshly lusts ungodly lusts and that's the reality of the day by day this practical this present time sure we've been made holy we called holy we designated as holy as the saints of god but in the meantime there's this flesh and spirit battle going on that will go on until our deathbed we see this battle raging and so there's this process where god's continuing his work in the believer we're declared righteous we're justified with we're also becoming righteous in our personal conduct god helping us it's a process so we've got this legal status of holiness and then there's this moral condition that should be brought into conformity this process this development and it says we draw near to god he will draw near to us so it's continuous thing and we're exhorted constantly obviously to obedience to to to walk holy to choose rightly to walk rightly to be being filled with the holy spirit that growing that abounding more and more that's god's will for us that we think godly thoughts you know think on these things rather than on other things and so it's this process that we don't instantly become perfect there's this progressive nature to the walk that we have for all of us and we're growing in that god helping us to have more personal righteousness so we declared righteous because of the righteousness of christ when we justified we're saved but there's this overcoming this walk this personal righteousness that is the constant grappling and struggle for the meantime but in it all it's a work of grace it's the grace of god many make the mistake of thinking that we are saved by grace but then we must become holy by our own efforts you know there's well-meaning people that think okay we're justified by grace but we've got to keep ourselves or make ourselves holy by our own efforts and strength but really we're sanctified by grace too it's all the grace of god that we're even saved and so and it's all unmerited we don't deserve it when we get saved we don't deserve it while he's bearing with us with our walk when it's faulty but grace is what meets us in our unworthiness and grace declares us accepted by god it meets us in our inadequacy to strengthen us for holy living so god's grace teaches us it talks about in titus 2. it trains us it teaches us how to live righteously soberly and godly in this present world but it's all the grace of god that we

[31:45] can hang on to right through our christian walk and this practice of sanctification is some practical things that tells us that we should do is that we should put off sin and put on righteousness it's like a picture of putting off as in taking a garment off and then putting on being clothed with a garment so we put off the garment of sin we put on the garment of righteousness that's ephesians 4 talks about that how we should put off the old man the fleshly man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust be renewed in the spirit of your mind put on the new man which after god is created in righteousness and true holiness so you see in the notes there we won't labor all of that but that sense of putting off the truth of realizing sin of dealing with temptation of asking the lord to help us to repent to ask god to help us to overcome to deal with sin and get victory the nature of sanctification next the nature of sanctification again i'm just going to repeat some of the things we've probably touched on already but the fact is sanctification or separation to god is imputed in other words it's christ's righteousness you know he has he's made sin for us and you know sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him it's imputed christ's righteousness is granted it's a gift and we're made purified hopefully in our walk from moral evil and then conformed ultimately to the image of christ so again some of this is a bit repetitive but there's that separation that's positional the the fact that we're saved there's that dedication as we're separated unto god unto his fellowship we're god's property there's purification so god cleanses us we're sanctified by the blood and there's consecration conformity we're called to be conformed to the divine nature to follow holiness and then the service as well so when israel was called holy the priests were called holy it was with the intent of service there's a real aspect of service there and for us today we are called the royal priesthood so we're actually meant to be serving god as worshippers we're meant to be walking in in that servant servant capacity to serve god and we can't really serve god unless we've got that holiness because otherwise it's vain we see degrees of sanctification there it's going repeating really the same thoughts in a different different way in your notes there we'll move on to practical suggestions and this is a helpful little list that might help us you know to guide us in that practical aspect of how we live the christian walk when we're faced with a decision or some challenge as to what to do whether something's right or wrong or something is sin or not these questions can help us to determine that can i do this in faith can i do this with all my heart can i do this as if for the lord is it something that's profitable am i bound by it does it become a bondage for me does it hinder my neighbor would i be ashamed to be doing it at his coming so there's lots of ways practically we could think of the decisions we make of things that we do or don't do what actions we take or don't take really asking what would god want what would the lord think of that what would help me to become more like christ what would help me to walk righteously and holiness has been called the power to overcome temptation so it's the daily work of the holy spirit to clean out and clean up our life so that honors him here's another quote saying yes to god means saying no to things that offend his holiness so

[35:48] it's just having that heart what would the lord want what is the best what is god's best so next section how can we live the sanctified life this picks up from romans 6 to 8 where it talks about some key things to do and again in that struggle with sin that paul talked about we should firstly know that the old self was crucified this is how we can get victory over sin to know that our old self was crucified with christ and now we've been raised with him to new life so henceforth we should not serve sin that's romans 6 verse 6 so we can know as believers that our old life the old man the old andrew craig was destroyed put to death at calvary colossians 3 says you are dead and your life is hid with christ in god so we can know that we're put to death we know that we've died we've crucified the flesh by faith we can see that our fallen human fleshliness was dealt with at the cross then we can reckon we can consider ourselves to be dead to sin reckon it i guess determine it consider that that we are dead to sin but alive to christ and so we must not yield our body to sin but rather yield ourselves to god and that's the the third aspect there is yielding to god to let the lord be the king that rules over us to let the lord use us in his service to yield to god to surrender talks there of yielding your members and it's got the sense i understand of like weapons of war yielding yourself is like weapons of war as servants to righteousness it takes a deliberate decision of the will and then romans 8 talks about there's no condemnation to them which are in christ jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit so as we appropriate the power of the holy spirit he will help us to walk after the spirit by his power under his control next one it talks about sanctification is a living person again sanctification our holiness is christ our holiness is christ and our continuing fellowship with him so we call to abide in him his word to abide in us we're called to press on towards the mark for the prize of the high calling there's a sense where it's christ it's christ in us it's christ working in us through his word it's us walking with him another aspect is cleansing cleansing is talked about in connection with holiness a lot too like the old testament priests had to wash themselves before they could be consecrated the high priest had to wash himself before going into the holy of holies and many new testament passages talk about cleansing and holiness they're kind of connected that we're washed free from sins of course it talks about how we we're washed by his blood we've got cleansing by the blood and god does a purifying work when we're saved and then we see this like this ongoing cleansing of a cleansing of hands of heart of conscience of mind as well we're crucified to the world so that's another thought just a another aspect we talked about the world the flesh and the devil and of course we talked about when we started about we're not of the earth hagios we're not of the world we're not worldly and the world really is a picture of the enemy's territory really we're strangers and pilgrims here we're just passing through aren't we we're laying up treasures in heaven and we're to set our affection on things above and the bible tells us that we're crucified to the world and it talks about a number of things here the things of the world the world's sin wisdom the world's friendship pollutions the elements of the world the contamination the corruption the filth the spirit of the world we're crucified to the world and the

[39:50] things of the world so as god helping us as sanctified people as a people made holy by god that we should want to be unearthly we should want to be unworldly we shouldn't want to be like the world and the things of the world and when you think about sanctification think of the cost of it it was the blood of christ it was our lord and his precious gift his sacrifice on calvary and it's a very valuable thing our sanctification and how do we receive it by faith we trust that just as we're justified by faith we're regenerated by faith we're sanctified by faith we trust that god is doing that work god has done that work god did everything that he had to do to take away our sin at calvary and so we've got that wonderful realization that we have sanctification and yet there's kind of a as it talks about here in the section there the dual responsibility it's almost like the hymn trust and obey so we trust that we saved we're born again but allied to that there's a thought we should we should obey we should we should walk in obedience so there's positionally we trust we saved obey is more the progressive it's the practicality of that walk of holiness that he calls us to to live that we've got that responsibility to walk with him god helping us to so just some practicalities that it talks about here of how we can put it into action put it into practice the justified believer is expected to live a holy life it should be seen in our living so here's how someone's described it obeying the law the law of love the law of christ the law written in our heart we should see that we should be putting off the old man putting on the new we should be walking in christ lordship walking in the light walking in the spirit walking in love we should be abiding in christ depending on him for power and fruitfulness we should be putting to death putting off evil putting on the good and putting on love we should be doing good in every possible way and living the life of faith so these are some practical things we think about how can i exercise that in my life how can i practically walk that walk that he wants us to to walk another set of lists here is how sanctification can show itself in our life in our daily life we should have a fear of god a love for god a submission to his will we should attend to his word we should want to witness the ministers of reconciliation we're all called to be ambassadors of christ we should want to fellowship with those of like precious faith we should want to be living and walking in the spirit and seeking for the glory of god in all that we do in the ultimate time that we will see his glory so there's a decision here that's called for this choices we can make there's ways we can practically determine how can i walk that walk that i'm called to and that holiness is not something that you're supposed to achieve on your own the good news is you're not on your own we can't make ourselves holy you know there's lots of cults out there that try to walk a holy walk or or live a holy life but they're not even saved so they're not even at first base but holiness comes from god he imparts it he imputes it christ is our righteousness and the good news is that christ enables us to walk with him and we see as it's listed here holiness it's a decision of your will it's what you choose to do there's daily choices really hourly choices that we make isn't that through life and it talks about a departing from sin 2 timothy 2 19 tells us the lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that name at the name of christ depart from iniquity so choose to depart from iniquity it's a dying to sin

[43:53] a dying to self a walking in newness of life it's a desire to please god yet in those healthy desires for heavenly things it's seeking those things those things which are above setting your affection on things above colossians 3 1 to 2 not on things on the earth so our lord calls us to have this heart to cultivate this holiness through spiritual disciplines we could think of prayer or fasting studying the word of fellowship it's a choice that we make isn't it we can think about how can i implement some practical things in my life to be more pleasing to my lord maintaining holiness we see that god's provided the means what is our response realize our need of it know that holiness is god's will recognize it as god's work in us he's going to finish what he started you know he's working in us um it talks about he'll perform that which he started philippians 2 so know your position in christ that you're dead to sin that's what it tells you that you are so we appropriate holiness by faith it's his promise that we can have it we can know it and we can be more like christ we can copy christ and be like him be christ-like we can reckon ourselves dead to sin the desires of the old nature we can day by day god helping us we can put to death those fleshly desires and crucify them and throw off the old sinful ways of the old life now it's very easy you know we can all have things that we used to do as an unsaved person to revert back to them but we god helping us he'll keep us strong and we'll say no to that and while there's a battle with the indwelling sin sin is not to have mastery over the christians so it's god helping us will exercise practical obedience as we walk with him and it'll be the power of god it'll be the blood and his spirit that we recognize has sanctified us will take heed of the word of god how to maintain a sanctified walk again here's another kind of list someone's put together some practical things we can do we can think about how to maintain that walk with god actively obey the holy spirit through the word and conscience so try to keep that sensitivity to what what the holy spirit's prompting you and obviously through his clear teachings through his word discipline yourself to set apart time for prayer and study if you fail confess it immediately to god he will restore you and keep those those close short accounts with god when you know you've slipped up go to prayer and ask god to minister to forgive you of course we know we are forgiven uh for all of us in any way at salvation whether that sense of that daily walk where we want to keep that fellowship right we want to keep that intimacy right with our lord and so it's good to keep those things right with god when we slip up we can find his help resist the devil of course submit to god resist the devil and the devil will flee from you james 4 verse 7.

[47:12] seek to be faithful in regular time of study of prayer of witness rely on the lord there's a scripture that says faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it and don't look within we can all get discouraged because we can all slip up and fail thank god it says that the righteous man the just man falls seven times but he keeps getting back up again and so we can look up and be encouraged don't look within because we can look at ourselves and think i've failed again or i've slipped again i've not been as holy as i should have been but god will help you you're not under condemnation we should have conviction but we're not under condemnation that god will help us to get stronger and to keep walking righteously and god will help us to overcome discouragement and to know his strength and sometimes god might actually use chastening as well that there might be times where if we're out of accord with god if we're in a backslidden state if we're in some sin god uses chastening there's discipline and he talks about that chastening is that we might be partakers of his holiness so sometimes god will use chastening to help us get right of course we call to live the crucified life to learn to crucify the flesh the ungodly desires the the lusts die to self to die to the world galatians 6 14 it says but god forbid that i should glory save in the cross of our lord jesus christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and i unto the world so it's all by virtue of the cross that christ died for our sins he's given us salvation and sanctification is affected really by the cross too and we can know that the world is crucified unto us we can practically determine to die to self to die to the world just a quick recap really this one is just summing up really what we started with how are we sanctified it's by the word of god the lord jesus prays sanctify them through thy word thy word is truth the word of god purifies and cleanses us it makes us holy so the more word that we get the more we get fed and nourished and nurtured and the more word we feed our hearts with the more we'll be stronger which what we feed is what grows isn't it if we feed the flesh the flesh will grow but if we starve the flesh and rather feed the spirit then our spirit will grow so we feed the spirit with the word of god basically feed your feed your spirit with the word of god and starve the flesh starve it to death so the word of god purifies it cleanses us the the blood of christ affects our sanctification sometimes there might be discipline chastising yielding to god is that daily yielding to him it's that daily surrender and really it's moment by moment surrender isn't it as we walk with god day by day moment by moment we ask god to show us his way and we'll be sensitive to his holy spirit to show us his way it's interesting the holy spirit is called the spirit of holiness spirit of holiness so he'll help us in that walk he'll help affect holiness in our walk and there's a sense where we exercise our will as well that we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit there's that sense where we exercise our will to determine what to what to do to seek out sin to judge it to cast it away to pray for cleansing and strength to live a holy life and so the doctrine of sanctification it glorifies the lord it shows us that freedom from sinning has been obtained at calvary the power of sin has been broken at the cross the power of sin was broken and so god just wants us to claim that freedom to claim that righteousness that he grants to us by faith to know that and to walk in that so really the most important thing in the whole world is for the believer to know the will of god and of course it

[51:15] says this is this is god's will your sanctification god's will is that we live holy that we live righteous he says be ye holy even as i am holy and so he'll help us to affect that to have that holiness it's not some impossible thing it's not that we have to have some thought that it's impossible for us to to know it because we realize it by faith at salvation at salvation we realize that we're made holy because jesus has taken our sin and we've realized his holiness we've exchanged our sin for his holiness so we have holiness in the present tense but in the practical sense sometimes we struggle there's that battle that fight that contest going on that daily walk that daily surrender that he wants us to have to keep close to him that sensitivity to his holy spirit and then as we have that abounding more and more that will grow in our faith we'll grow in that walk with him we'll grow in that walk of holiness and then ultimately in glory we'll see his face and we'll know that full sinless perfection is really when we see his face it's when we enter eternity that will be free from all the presence of sin all of it will be gone i trust that's helpful to to get a picture of sanctification it's a really big subject as we say mentioned over a thousand times in the bible sanctification and holiness so hopefully we can think about how we have it at salvation at the point of salvation at conversion we are christ is our sanctification we have that walk with him that's a ongoing it's our christian growth it's our spiritual growth and then ultimately in glory we'll have the glorification will be conformed to his image we'll be fully freed from sin and the world and all of its ways so let us pray lord we thank you that your word tells us about these truths of holiness of sanctification dear lord we know that it's your holy spirit the spirit of holiness that can work in our hearts and affect that gracious work that you call each one of us to to know you as savior as lord we pray if there's any yet to trust you they'll simply say lord jesus thank you you died for my sin to make me yours to save me as i receive that gift of salvation and lord even as we receive salvation we have that forgiveness of our sins such that it's forgiven it is no more and we can walk in that in a practical way help us lord in the practicalities of life to crucify the flesh to die to self to the world to determine lord to live that surrendered life all to your praise and glory in jesus name amen