Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Sanctification II


Continuing with our study of sanctification we will look at some Scriptures that relate directly to our topic.

Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.   Leviticus 20:8

The reason we are in the process of sanctification or the process of being made holy is because we have been brought out of deep, vast spiritual darkness and placed in the light of the Kingdom of God, we have been saved. Think of the time before you were saved, you had no idea that you were in darkness, you had no idea of the things of God. But God broke through, showed you your sin, and your hopeless condition, than He pointed you to Christ, your rescue. Just as it was God who called you out of darkness, and He who justifies you, so it is He who sanctifies you. (see Exodus 20:12, Ezekiel 20:12)

And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has become to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."  1 Corinthians 1:30-31

Jesus Christ should be the one who we boast in when we talk about our salvation, when we talk about the salvation of our family and those we love and care about, if we know they are saved, it should be easy for us to boast in and to proclaim Jesus, look at what He has done. We should also boast in Him in our sanctification, when we obey God, and say no to sin, it is to the Glory of God!, it is Christ that has helped us, when we pray for help, Christ stands ready to help, boast in Him, the great God-man who came down to help us, oh how readily His name should come out of mouth - Jesus said that what is in our hearts is what comes out of our mouths. Is Jesus coming out of your mouth?

And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.  John 17:19-20

Our great Lord and Savior prayed a prayer of consecration just before He was to die. He consecrated Himself to His Father and to our Father through Christ, that His death would be counted for the sanctification of the apostles and for all who would later believe in Him and trust in Him, that means me and you. Jesus Christ is indeed our sanctification. All that we have, we have because of Christ, we have nothing in ourselves that God would or could recognize, but the Holy One came down from heaven to spread His Holiness, to spread His Love, His Peace, His Joy over all of us who believe, making us His own.

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  1 Corinthians 6:11

The verses just before this one describes the sins that the members of the Church at Corinth were involved in before their conversion; sexual immoral, idolatry, adulterers, homosexuality, thieves, drunkards, swindlers. Paul says that they were involved in these sins before they joined the Church. You notice that there is a high volume of sexual sins, in any list that Paul presents you will always see sexual sins at the very top. None of us need to ask why, sexual sins are the biggest sins against God that we do and that we repeat against God, sometimes over and over, we know that God knows what He is talking about. In fact, the list of things that God tells us to put off also has sexual sins listed at the top.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Colossians 3:5-6  

Sexual sin is our weakness. God commands us to put them to death. God warns us because these activities have been slated for His wrath. God says they deserve His wrath. One of the big things of Christianity is that we must think differently then we thought prior to our conversion. The Bible tells us to renew our minds, to be transformed, and not to be conformed to the world. The big thing of the world is sex and now it has become homosexuality. We are going to have to adjust our thinking to God's in the area of sexual sins. We may struggle with sexual sin, and we know that God forgives us when we confess and repent of our sins. We must come around to the God's perspective on sex, His wrath is over all other ways of sex, if you are not married - no sex. That is God's way, the world says have all the sex you want and with anyone. We must come in line with our Savior, we must agree with our God. We are to be light and salt in the world. We must turn our backs on the sexual attitude of the world. When we are saved we are removed from the wrath of God, so we must not run back under the wrath of God by choosing sexual sin or any other sin. We can not  push Christ away and say we can can get more satisfaction from a few moments of sexual sin than to continue in our relationship with Him, we choose to break our relationship with Him for the pleasures of sex. How God deals with each one of us is in His hand, but we must expect God to deal with us.  We may be weak in some areas and God knows our weaknesses, but like Paula states Christ is His strongest in our weakness. The only way we can replace something that has great valuee to us is to replace it with something that has greater value. We must recognize who it is we are dealing with, He holds the key to heaven and hell, He can kill and give life, He can turn the mind of the king as the river flows, God is in control of everything. He has warned us that His wrath is coming and has made it clear that we should flee it.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour, not in the passion of lust like the gentiles who do not know God.  1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

Our God is a holy God, we don't fully understand that, but we know it is what makes God different that we are even though we were created in His image. He is God, we are not. Jesus Christ is holy, the Holy Spirit is as well. We have been called out of death into life, a life that is one of holiness and honor. We cannot walk any longer as if we are still in that world and the biggest identifier of that world that is going to hell and the world that is going to heaven is being able by God's power to abstain from sexual immorality, it is God's will. Because we are Christians we have the capacity to experience Christ in an intimate way, the question we must ask ourselves is are we pursuing intimacy with Christ? have we tasted of His sweetness, have we expereinced the joy of being in fellowship with other believers in prayer, and study, have we seen His grace save loved ones, have we seen His love being displayed, we must fight for it - we have to fight against the things of the flesh and desire Christ above all else.



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