Sermon Tone Analysis

Biblical Sanctification: God’s Plan for Us

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Intro.

The Bible addresses the issue of sanctification in so many places it made it difficult to discern which one God wanted for today.

The one verse that lays out why our sanctification is vital is found in .

The many other passages address what is meant by sanctificatioin and the role that both God and we play in it.

As I said last week, many churches and Christians in America are becoming more and more worldly.

Obscene language, immoral activities, and various forms of ungodliness are not only practiced by Christians, many churches and denominations openly condone and even honor certain sexually immoral activities with ceremonies and the ordaining of those who practice such activities.

Last Sunday I said the reasons behind this sinful accommodation by churches and Christians involve certain key aspects of Christianity.

It has to do with salvation or the lack thereof, sanctification or the lack thereof, and biblical decision making or the lack thereof.

The unsaved will live ungodly and impure lives, for that’s their nature, but what we often fail to realize is that true Christians, who have never grown in the Lord, may resemble the unsaved at times.

They may still embrace certain worldly attitudes and actions.

They may still resemble the same old person they were before they were saved.

Such carnal Christians might even boldly say, “Well that’s just the way I am and I’m never going to change.”

On the other hand, true Christians, who do have the Holy Spirit living within them, but have never grown in the Lord, may resemble the unsaved at times.

They may still embrace certain worldly attitudes and actions.

They may still resemble the same old person they were before they were saved.

They may say, “well that’s just the way I am and I’m never going to change.”

But such a statement cannot be true for a Christian.

For if we have the power that raised Jesus from the dead residing within us, there is nothing we can’t do.

There is no change we can’t make for the glory of God.

There is no addiction we can’t break.

There is no attitude we can’t transform and no habit we can’t stop.

The problem is not a lack of power, but a failure to allow God to sanctify us, to wash us with His Word.

The word “sanctify” means to be set apart for a special use.

The idea of sanctification is the process of making us separate from the world, so we can be used by a holy God while living in an unholy world.

The sad state of Christianity today, no doubt can be traced to the fact that most Christians don’t realize we have a huge responsibility to grow in Christ, to grow in our understanding of Christ—our understanding of what it means to be a Christian, our understanding of the sanctification process and the role that God and we must play in it.

Do you think that we as Christians understand that we have a huge responsibility to grow in our understanding of Christ—our understanding of what it means to be a Christian, our understanding of how to become

The song “Sanctify me Oh God” clearly expresses the Biblical view of Sanctification.

Listen to it’s words: Play Song

Did you listen to it closely?

It said,

Sanctify me oh God

Cleanse my body, mind, and soul--Purify me and make me whole

Cleanse my body, mind, and soul.

Purify me and make me whole.

Sanctify me Oh God.

Help me to put off my old self.

Corrupted by all its sinful desires.

(That’s God’s part.

He cleanses and purifies us.)

Purify me and make me whole

The song continues with our part:

Sanctify me Oh God--Help me to put off my old self

Help me to put off my old self

Corrupted by all its deceitful desires--Create me a new, in your likeness O Lord

Create me a new, in your likeness O Lord

Make me righteous and holy--Sanctify me oh God

Sanctify me oh God

Let me not confirm any longer--to the pattern, set by the ways of this world.

o the pattern, set by the ways of this world

to the pattern, set by the ways of this world.

May I offer myself as a living sacrifice--that is holy and pleasing

that is holy and pleasing

Strengthen me with power through your Spirit

Transform me Christ, in the fullness of your love.

(God’s part).

God expects, no He requires, the sanctification of all believers.

Look at our text.

We begin with Romans 8:29

There’s no past, present, or future with God.

He sees it all as one, so He foreknew who will and who will not be saved.

Those He foreknew would be saved, He predestined them to become like His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

So if you are one of those that will one day walk into heaven, you are also one who God is working on to make you like Christ.

Remember the children’s song, God is still working on me.

The chorus goes like this, He's still working on me

To make me what I need to be

It took him just a week to make the moon and stars

The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars

How loving and patient He must be

'Cause He's still workin' on me.

God doesn’t give up on us.

The problem is that we give up on God or fail to hook up with God.

We stop believing God can do the impossible, or we try to do the impossible without God’s help.

The first thing we need to know and rejoice in is that God has a plan for us.

I. God’s Plan For Us

God has a plan for us.

It’s a good plan.

The prophet Jeremiah says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” ().

lays out His plan for us.

Although it’s God’s plan to save us first, which is our justification, Paul is dealing with the aspect of sanctification here, so he takes us first to the sanctification part of God’s plan, then the justification or saving part, and lastly to the glorification, the new resurrected body part.

But our focus today is our sanctification.

A. Our Sanctification

Sanctification is the process of making us like Jesus.

If we are God’s children, we need to look like God’s children, which means we should resemble Christ.

We should be obedient to God the way Christ was.

We should be humble like Christ.

We should be holy like Christ.

We should be loving like Christ.

We should seek to serve, and not be served like Christ.

We will look more at the role God and we play in this sanctification process later on, but we must acknowledge that God’s plan first includes our salvation, our justification.

B. Our Justification

There can be no sanctification until we’ve experienced God’s justification.

Salvation must come before sanctification.

Only the saved can be sanctified.

We can no more become like Christ, without first having Christ in us, than we can have electricity without having voltage.

Just as voltage is needed to push the electrons through the power lines, so we must have Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit pushing us to become like Christ.

The desire to be like Christ, the desire to be holy in an unholy world, comes only from a heart that has been regenerated—only the saved have a desire to be sanctified.

We are justified by God through Jesus Christ.

He was totally holy and righteous whereas we were totally depraved and sinful.