Sermon Tone Analysis

God Sanctifies

 

September 27, 2009

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

 

We’re coming to the end of our study in 1 Thessalonians.

And as Paul often does, he’s saved the best for last.

Our key passage for today is amazingly freeing.

If you are struggling in your Christian walk, take heart.

Sanctification is God’s work – not yours or mine.

God is the only One who can make holy people.

Let’s look at what Blackaby says about sanctification.

Henry Blackaby says that we are first  Sanctified and Then Sent.

As it says in John 17:17-18,

/Sanctify them by the truth;/

/Your word is truth./

/As You sent Me into the world,/

/I also have sent them into the world./

God will always sanctify you before He sends you.

The Father set aside the twelve disciples and made them holy by the Truth, His Son.

As they related to Jesus, the Truth (John 14:6), the disciples were refined by that Truth and were prepared to be sent out to preach the gospel.

Jesus challenged their ambitions (Luke 9:46–48), chastised their lack of faith (Matt.

17:19–20), refuted Satan's influence (Matt.

16:23), and denounced their pride (Matt.

26:33–35).

When Jesus had finished preparing them, the disciples were sent out in such power that their world was never the same again.

Satan will try to convince you that your sin renders you useless to God.

That is a lie from the author and father of lies.

As soon as you sin, the Deceiver will whisper, “You failure!

You are now of no use to God.”

This can bring a deep sense of defeat and hopelessness to a Christian.

Yet, there is no freedom that compares to a soul set free by God's grace.

When God's people allow God's truth to realign them to God's will and God's standard, then the power of God will be released through them the same way it was through the first disciples.

The Truth will set you free.

The Truth is: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), and we are restored to usefulness to God.

/ /

Please turn to 1 Thessalonians 5:23 – 24 and we’ll read today’s Scripture./

May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who called you is faithful, and he will do it.

/

 

Vast portions of the Christian church in Canada seek assurance now by making holiness unnecessary.

If holiness is not necessary to get to heaven, then an unholy person can have assurance that he will get there.

They don't just deny that perfection is not required for entering heaven, but they go beyond that and say that no degree of obedience or holiness or purity or goodness or love or repentance or transformation is required for entering heaven.

James4:1 says, /You will be perfect and complete needing nothing./

It is only through patient abiding faith and trust in the Lord we become perfect.

A lot of us confuse “perfection” with “sinlessness”.

The Greek word for perfect used here is “teleios”, and it refers to maturing growth.

For example, an oak tree is the teleios of the acorn.

It is the perfection of the acorn.

So, when you despair of ever becoming holy, take a look at a mighty oak and what a little nut can do!

Those who believe holiness is impossible, therefore unnecessary, say if God required any measure of holiness, it would do three terrible things: 1) nullify grace and 2) contradict justification by faith alone and 3) destroy assurance.

But that is not true.

The Bible teaches that none of those things happen when the biblical necessity for holy living is rightly understood.

There is a glorious assurance to the Christian, that his salvation is sure.

But it is not found by denying the demand for holiness.

So, our question for today is, how can you have the assurance of salvation if holiness is necessary?

That’s what we’re about to find out.

First, the necessity of holy living does not nullify grace.

It is based squarely on the pardon of grace.

And it demonstrates the power of grace.

In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul said, /"By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain but I worked harder than any of them.

Nevertheless it was not I but the grace of God which is with me."/

Grace is not only the pardon that passes over our badness; it is also the power that produces our goodness.

If God says that it's necessary for grace to do that, it is not a nullifying of grace when we agree with him.

We are saved by grace.

As Ephesians 2:8-10 states, /For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

/GRACE!

God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense!

Second, the necessity of holy living does not contradict justification by faith alone.

Justification is God’s work too!

It’s His pronouncement that we are freed from guilt or blame.

All the sins of God's people, past, present, and future, are forgiven because of the death of Christ once for all.

This justification on the basis of Christ's death is the foundation of our sanctification—not the other way around.

The only sin we can fight against successfully is a forgiven sin.

Without a once-for-all justification through Christ, the only thing that our striving for holiness produces is despair or self-righteousness.

We don’t strive!

God strives to make us holy.

He is faithful; He will do it!

The work of God in justification does not make the work of God in sanctification optional.

The Bible doesn't say that forgiveness makes holiness optional.

It doesn't make holiness optional, it makes holiness possible.

What we will see today is that the God who justifies also sanctifies.

The faith that justifies also satisfies—it satisfies the human heart and frees it from the deceptive satisfactions of sin and the burden of striving to be free from sin.

Remember what I said, “we don’t strive!

God strives!” Thomas Chalmers says, faith is the expulsive power of a new affection.

Again, faith is the expulsive power of a new affection.

Justification and sanctification always go together.

Faith expels all other affections.

Justification and sanctification come from our faithful God.

Perfection comes at the end of life when we die or when Christ returns, but the pursuit of holy living begins with a mustard seed of faith.

That's the nature of saving faith.

It finds satisfaction in Christ and is weaned away from the satisfactions of sin.

Third, the necessity of holy living does not destroy assurance.

The human mind might reason like this: if some measure of holy living is required and — if you can't tell me exactly how much is necessary — then that requirement will always leave me unsure if I have done enough.

This is much like works as a way to heaven.

How much work will get me there?

I will never know, so I will never have assurance.

I’ve worked hard enough.

Measuring destroys assurance.

We’re saved by the grace of God, saved to live a holy life.

Not saved because we live a holy life.

So any requirement for holiness or obedience at all destroys assurance.

This is simply not the reasoning of the Bible.