1 Corinthians 6:9-11 "Be All That You Can Be!"
Today we are talking about a word that most people have heard, many Christians brag about, and few understand: sanctification.
Sanctification can be a really confusing word because of the way people use it.
Most Christians understand the word "sanctification" to mean "set apart."
When we say we’re sanctified what we mean is that we have been set apart for God’s glory to be used by God to accomplish his purpose.
Others use the word to mean "made holy."
People who use that definition think that when you’re sanctified that God declares before all men and the angels that you have been made holy and that you can do no wrong.
While sanctification might contain both of those definitions, sanctification is more than just being set apart or being made holy.
You might have heard people say, "I’ve been washed in the blood of Jesus, I’ve been justified by the grace of God, and I’ve been sanctified by the Holy Ghost!"
And, that is true.
The Holy Spirit is responsible for our sanctification.
God the Father is responsible for disciplining us as his children.
He causes us to want to do his will and gives us the power to do it.
God the Son earned our sanctification for us and set the example for us.
God the Holy Spirit works within us to change us and give us greater holiness of life.
But what makes this word so confusing is that we tend to think of it as something that happens once, like justification.
You might remember from last week’s message that justification is a one time thing when God declares us legally innocent and free from the penalty of sin.
Sanctification is not a one-time declaration by God.
Sanctification is a process in which we have a part.
Here’s the definition: Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and more like Christ in our actual lives.
Now I want you to be clear about one thing: we aren’t talking about salvation.
I want to reiterate that there is nothing you can do to earn your salvation.
No amount of good works can get you into heaven.
But you can’t be sanctified unless you are saved.
Sanctification is the process that causes us to grow in Christlikeness.
The more we grow in the likeness of Christ, the more we personally experience the joy and peace that are part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The more we draw near to Christ the more we experience the kind of life we will have in heaven.
As we grow in holiness we grow in conformity to the image of Christ, and more and more of the beauty of his character is seen in our own lives.
That’s the goal of sanctification.
Because sanctification is a process I want you to know how the process works and I want you to pay close attention to your part of the process.
I. How Does Sanctification Work?
A. Sanctification has a definite starting point.
A definite moral change begins when we are born again.
Remember that the word for "born again" is "regeneration."
That’s when God prepares us for conversion by changing our hearts.
He gives us new spiritual life.
This initial moral change is the first stage in sanctification.
It involves a break from the ruling power of sin so we are no longer controlled by sin.
We are given the power to overcome acts and patterns of sinful behavior.
It causes us to be able to say with confidence "I will not give up" when it seems like, no matter how hard we try, that one sin that keeps popping up over and over in our life.
It causes us to say, "I don’t care if I have had this temper for 50 years I will not let it ruin my relationship with Jesus."
This initial break with sin also changes our desires so that we no longer have a dominant love for sin in our lives.
You already know the reason most people sin is because they think it’s fun.
When the process of sanctification begins in your life you suddenly realize that not only is sin NOT fun, it is dangerous.
Every day it seems like we read in the paper or hear on the news that this child killed that child or this child killed his parents.
We hear of men and women getting arrested for prostitution or selling drugs.
We see politicians and judges taking bribes and doing other illegal things.
We hear of more and more people getting AIDS as men and women become more and more promiscuous and open with sex.
All of these things happen because people love to sin.
When the process of sanctification begins in your life you begin to see sin for the destructive thing it is, not as just a "little mistake" that can be overlooked and swept under the rug.
B. Sanctification increases throughout life.
The process of sanctification continues until the day you die.
One of the biggest tasks we have as Christians is to grow more and more in sanctification, just like we grew more and more in sin before we became Christians.
Even though we are "dead to sin and alive to God" (Romans 6:11) we have to understand that sin still remains in our lives.
The goal is to not allow it to have it’s way in our lives.
We do this by progressively becoming more and more like Christ.
Think of the Christian life as a pilgrimage.
Some of are wandering in the desert; some of us are in the valley; some of us are on the mountaintop.
We’re all in different stages of the journey, but we are all on the same path.
Sometimes we are moving ahead; other times we take a step or two backwards.
Ultimately we make progress, but we have to keep on working at it.
As we grow in Christlikeness and become more and more spiritually mature the kinds of sin that remain in our lives changes.
If you’ve been a Christian for a while, think back and try to remember some of the sins you used to commit.
Most of them were outwardly noticeable, like cursing, for example.
Foul language seems to magically go away when you become a Christian.
And there are some other outwardly noticeable things that often go away: some of which are sins, others are just bad habits.
Some people quit drinking; some quit smoking; some quit being abrasive; some become polite.
You get the picture.
As time goes on and you become more sanctified, the Holy Spirit begins to reveal the REAL sin in our lives: inward attitudes and motives of the heart.
These are the ones that are harder to deal with.
Desires such as pride and selfishness, lack of courage or faith, lack of zeal in loving God with our whole hearts, unwillingness to love our neighbors as ourselves, unwillingness to forgive, failure to fully trust God for all he promises in every situation.
These are the real sins!
They show how far short we fall of the moral perfection of Christ.
That’s how sanctification works.
It has a definite starting point and continues throughout our earthly life.
II. What is our part in the process of sanctification?
A. God has the primary role.
If not for God, we wouldn’t need to be sanctified.
Our part is actually secondary, but vitally essential.
One part of our sanctification is passive.
We don’t do much, and that’s the point.
We stay out of God’s way and let him work in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this passive role we trust God to sanctify us and to fill us with the Holy Spirit to guide and to teach.
We are completely dependent on the Holy Spirit to grow in sanctification.
We have to be careful, though, in this passive role. Sometimes we emphasize this part so strongly that it’s the only thing that we know.
That’s how we come up with the idea that it’s a one-time thing.
God sanctifies us and it’s a done deal.
Have you heard the phrase, "let go and let God"?
We mean well when we say that because we want to emphasize trust in God.
But there are too many people out there who have let go and don’t let God.
What I mean is that they say they let go of all of life’s situations but they don’t let God control their lives.
They hide behind a religious mask and blame God when things don’t work out the way they want.
God does not do everything for us.
He expects us to work with him as he works through us.
When the Holy Spirit convicts you of some sin in your life you can’t just say, "Oh, I’ll ask God to take it away."
He doesn’t always take it away, but he does give us the power, and the authority, to deal with it in such a way that He is glorified.
You might remember that Paul asked him three times to take away a thorn from his side.
He didn’t.
What was his response?
My grace is sufficient.
That brings us to the second part we have in our sanctification:
B. The Active role.
In this active role we do something.
That’s what Paul meant when he said, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)
Obedience is the way we work out our salvation.
Again, I want you to understand that we work OUT our salvation, not FOR our salvation.
If God is at work in your life you will desire to actively deal with the sin in your life.
God has dealt with the penalty; you deal with the reality.
If you don’t deal with the reality of your sin God will.
Here are some ways we play an active part in our sanctification.
We can:
1. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy” (Hebrews 12:14)
2. “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable..." (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)
3. “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self- control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:5-8)
4. “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14:19)
5. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3)
Look through the Bible.
You’ll find more.
We are to continually build up patterns and habits of holiness.
And there are no short-cuts for growing in sanctification.
Just the old-fashioned, time-honored means of:
1. reading the Bible
2. meditation
3. prayer
4. worship
5. witnessing
6. Christian fellowship
7. self-discipline
It’s important that we continue to grow in both our passive trust in God to sanctify us and in our active striving for holiness and greater obedience in our lives.
If we neglect striving to obey God we become passive, lazy Christians.
If we neglect the passive role of trusting God and yielding to him, we become proud and overly confident in ourselves.
