Names for the People of God: “Saint”
Series: Names for God’s People
Chuck Sligh
May 15, 2016
NOTE: A slide presentation is available for this sermon upon request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: 1 Corinthians 1:2 – “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”
INTRODUCTION
We have been looking at “Names for the People of God,” and our focus each week has been this central question: Are you as a Christian living up to your name We’ve looked at several names so far: Believer, Child of God, Disciple and Faithful. Today, I want us to examine another name: “Saint.”
Joke – There’s a story about two brothers who had terrorized the small town where they lived for decades. They were unfaithful to their wives, abusive to their kids and dishonest in business.
One day, out of the clear blue, the younger brother died. The older brother went to the preacher of the local church and said, “Preacher, I’d like you to conduct my brother’s funeral, and it’s important to me that during the service, you say my brother was a saint.”
The preacher said, “I can’t do that. We both know he was far from that.” The older brother pulled out his checkbook and said, “Preacher, I’m prepared to give $100,000 to your church. All I’m asking is that you publicly state that my brother was a saint.”
On the day of the funeral, the preacher began his sermon this way: “Everyone here knows that the deceased was a wicked man, a womanizer and a drunk. He terrorized his employees and cheated on his taxes.”
The preacher paused for a second and then continued, “But as evil and sinful as this man was, compared to his older brother, he was a saint!”
Paul opens his letter to the Corinthians with the greeting typical of letters in that day by stating who it’s FROM, then who it’s TO. Who was this letter written to?—It was to the “sanctified in Christ, called to be saints” in Corinth. Let’s think about this title for the people of God today.
I. FIRST, WHAT IS A SAINT?
When I say the word “saint,” what image does it conjure up in your mind?
• Many people use the word in a general way to refer to a really good person. – “Oh, she’s such a saint,” we might say.
• To others, it conjures up someone particularly religious or devout – If you came from a Roman Catholic background, the image that comes to your mind is probably of great and holy men and women of bygone days who were especially good and devout people and who the Catholic Church deems to have done at least one miracle in their lives, and who are declared to be saints by the Catholic Church.
• Others think of stained glass windows with people with halos over their head or plastic statuettes on a dashboard.
The word “saint” in the Bible has none of these things in mind. Paul wasn’t addressing some select group of particularly pious or good people, but EVERY believer in the church of Ephesus—the good, the bad and the ugly!
In the Bible, ALL believers are “saints.” The name “Saints” was perhaps Paul’s favorite word for Christians because he used it about 60 times in his letters. And yet “saint” is not a word we use today of one another. We don’t say, “I’m having Saint John and Saint Ava over for dinner today,” or “We’re going with a bunch of saints over to the Chinese buffet. You want to go too?”
But it certainly would be appropriate to talk like that, because if you’re saved, you’re a saint. So from now on, I want you to start referring to me as “Saint Charles.” We used to have a guy in our church in Wiesbaden named “Bernard.” (Saint Bernard, get it?)
Well, what does the word “saint” actually mean? The word “saint” simply means “one who is set apart.” In other places the Greek word is translated as “holy.” If something is holy, it simply means that it is SET APART from common, everyday use for a special purpose.
Illus. – To illustrate, all of you have regular dinnerware that you use for common everyday use. But many of you have special fine china that is set apart for a special use. It’s set apart for those special dinners, like when the preacher comes over for fried chicken (Amen!) and you really want to make a good impression!
Christians are saints because they’re SET APART by God from the everyday life of sin and corruption of the world for a special life apart—someone devoted to the purposes of God.
Illus. – A boy was asked in Sunday School what a saint was. – Thinking of the stained glass windows in the chapel, he said, “A saint is a person whom the light shines through.”
That is EXACTLY right!—Saints are men and women through whom the light of God’s love and character shine into this world.
• Saints don’t sit on dash boards—they live in homes and have addresses.
• They don’t exist in stained glass windows—some of them clean windows for a living.
• They didn’t live just hundreds of years ago—they have lived in every generation of the church, from Pentecost to this very day, for every blood-bought believer is a saint.
• They don’t work in monasteries and nunneries—they work on Army posts, in schools, at Walmarts and McDonald’s, at police departments and garages and hospitals.
• And they don’t have halos over their heads—they have Army hats and baseball caps and “saints” in Texas wear cowboy hats, and most saints don’t wear hats at all.
II. MEET THE COGNATES.
To really understand the term saint, you have to understand its cognates. A “cognate” means a related term. The Greek word for “saint” one of several terms from the same source and which convey similar concepts.
The words holy, sanctify, sanctification, dedicate and saint are all related terms from the same Greek root word. And their meanings are also all similar:
• To be holy means to “be set apart from sin and to God.”
• To sanctify means to set something apart from sin and for God. Paul uses the term in this way in our text. Before calling them “saints” he says they are “sanctified in Christ Jesus”—that is set-apart in Christ Jesus from the world and sin and the flesh to be put into the service of God.
• To dedicate means essentially the same thing as sanctify, though usually used of set-apart things.
• And of course, as we said, “saint” means a “one who is set apart from sin to God.”
All these words are common concepts in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, the idea of holiness or separateness was inherent in the concept of God. Ordinary people could not approach God directly in the the tabernacle or the temple. He was only accessible to the priests and only under very exact conditions. God’s presence (the Shekinah glory) dwelled in the Holy of Holies, which was the most remote and inaccessible place in the tabernacle and later in the Jerusalem temple. Only the high priest was allowed to stand in God's presence in this area, and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement (often referred to as at Yom Kippur today). The Holy of Holies was further separated from the ordinary Jewish worshiper by another room called “the Holy Place,” which could be entered only by priests.
The purpose of all this was to impress upon the people the utter holiness and sacredness of the God they worshiped, as well as the necessity of their being set apart or sanctified as saints—“set-apart ones”—in God’s service.
This idea of the separateness of God and His people was carried forward in the New Testament. If you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior, you are holy—set apart for God’s service—even if you sometimes do not ACT holy and set apart. What God wants for you is to live up to your name.
III. TWO ASPECTS OF HOLINESS.
The Bible talks of these various cognates in two separate ways.
• On the one hand, as in our text, they refer to God’s declaring us as holy, sanctified, or dedicated to God as a result of being saved by God.
So it is an act of salvation just like regeneration (the theological word for being born-again) and justification (being declared righteous by God). This is called “positional sanctification” by theologians.
In our position before God, believers are once and for all set apart from sin, hell and destruction to God’s holy purpose and plans.
• But the Bible also talks about what theologians call “practical sanctification.”
This is living out in our lives practically what is our positon in Christ. So besides God’s declaration for eternity that we are set apart, the Bible simultaneously exhorts us to live in such a way that our lives accurately reflects our spiritual, heavenly position before God.
For instance, Peter says in 1 Peter 1:15 – “But as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.”
The words “all manner” means “every area.” “Conversation” is an old King James word that today means “behavior” or “lifestyle.” So Peter is saying, “Be holy in every area of your behavior or lifestyle. Why?—“Because,” Peter continues in the next verse, “it is written, Be ye holy as I am holy.”
IV. THE PATH TO HOLINESS.
The Bible teaches that we as believers are to separate ourselves from the sinfulness of this world and dedicate ourselves to the holiness of God. Biblical separation is a commitment to godly behavior in opposition to the sinful activities of the world.
In the book of Daniel, Daniel and several of his Jewish friends had been taken captive to serve the heathen king. They were put on a special diet to prepare them to serve in the king’s court. They didn’t want any skinny, weakly or sickly servant in the King’s presence
The problem was that the food and wine they were required to eat were not kosher: that is, they were not allowed for Jews according to the Old Testament Law. One of the purposes of the dietary restrictions in the Old Testament Law was to set them apart from the rest of the world.
So Daniel 1:8 says, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”
This is an example of an Old Testament saint practicing separation. Daniel purposed in his heart not to compromise on what he knew was forbidden in God’s Law.
Separation is taught in the New Testament too: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 – “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial [another term for Satan]? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”
So as followers of Christ, each of us is called to be separated from sinful influences and activities. A saint practices separation when he refuses to go to the bars and participate in the drunken activities that go on there. A saint practices separation when she refuses to stoop to the gutter language of our day. Saints practice separation when they refuse to look at the filth of porn; even so-called “soft porn” and seek accountability from other mature believers if they repeatedly fall into the trap of porn. A saint practices separation when he refuses to listen to dirty jokes. A saint practices separation in the TV shows she watches; in the music on his iPod; in the movies she exposes herself to; in the books and magazines he reads.
A saint living up to his name lives a life of holiness; she separates from ungodliness. Now this requires discernment.
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 – “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. – In these verses, Paul gives a simple formula for saints to be holy:
• First Paul says to “prove all things.”
The Greek word translated “prove” means “1. to test, examine, prove, scrutinize (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals. 2. to recognize as genuine after examination, to approve, deem worthy.” (Strong’s Enhanced Concordance) Paul is calling us to test the moral value of EVERYTHING.
• Next, he says to “hold fast” the things that are good.
The Greek phrase “hold fast” means “to possess, retain, seize on, stay, take.” That doesn’t have to mean just Bible things. It stands to reason that we should hold fast to our bosom anything in the Bible. Paul is talking here about the influences and activities we encounter in everyday life that are not in the Bible per se, but which reinforce Bible truth and Bible holiness. We should hold fast to anything that is good and true and edifying and wholesome.
> It could be a Bible truth that helps you understand and serve God better; but it could equally be a secular idea or political goal that affirms a Christian value.
> It could be a Christian radio song that stirs your heart to love God or serve others; but it could just as well be a secular love song that speaks of selfless love in a non-sensual way.
> It could be a Christian movie that presents a Christian perspective on an issue; but it could also be a secular movie that is uplifting or agrees with a godly idea or calls us to good and lofty action.
> Not everything in our culture is evil and anything that is good, uplifting and edifying; anything that honors goodness or unveils the consequences of sin, Paul says to seize it; take it; hold on to it.
• But then he says to “abstain from all appearance of evil.”
“Abstain” is pretty clear, isn’t it? It means to not have ANYTHING to do with it; to refrain from it.
The word “appearance” means any shape or form of something. We too often make excuses for evil things in our lives that we really should abstain from because they’re not overtly, in-your-face evil. If something promotes evil in ANY FORM AT ALL, we should shun it; abstain from it; avoid it; reject it.
It’s significant that Paul does not end there. In the very next verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Paul goes on to say, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly…”
Sanctification—being set apart from sin and for God, is connected to Paul’s command in the previous verse to test all things and evaluate them carefully, and if something is good, embrace it; and if it’s evil in any any way, shape, form or fashion, reject it.
CONCLUSION
Let me close by bringing these things home to where you and I live.
• First let me ask you if you are saved; if you have repented of sin and trusted in Jesus, who died on the cross for your sins, as your Savior.
Vance Havner used to say, “There are only two kinds of people in the world: the saints or the ain’ts.”
Are you a saint, having been set apart by God by virtue of your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation? If not, you can become a saint today by placing your faith in Jesus Christ. I hope you will do it.
• Second, if you’re already a saint this morning, let me ask you this: Are you living up to your name as one who is set apart from sin unto God for His service?
Have you allowed sinful thoughts, influences, people and activities in your life that you know are wrong.
If so, here’s what James tells you to do in James 4:8-10 – “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
