SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/27/2014 9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Sanctification’s Final Security
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:24
Message of the
verse: 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will
bring it to pass.”
“Php. 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that God causes all things to work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His
purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn
among many brethren; 30 and these whom
He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
As we conclude Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians I want
to make a very long quote from the pen of John MacArthur who will give us seven
essential principles that all Christians need to remember concerning the
sanctification process.
“First,
experiential
sanctification is
inherently both negative and positive.
Negatively, it involves the purging out of sin. Scripture compares sin to leaven which
connotes the evil influence with which sin permeates humanity. Sanctification does not remove the presence
of sin, but it purges from the believer his love for sin and decreases sin’s
frequency in his life. Positively,
sanctification involves the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2) and the putting on
of Christlikeness. The negative and positive changes occur as the Holy Spirit
continually uses Gods Word in believers’ lives (John 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; cf.
John 15:1-3).
“Second,
sanctification occurs chiefly in the heart, the mind, the inner
being. It is not concerned with
modifying one’s outward behavior—even if that behavior were in line with God’s
law—apart from the changed heart, nor is it circumscribing one’s attitudes and
actions to an arbitrary code of ethics (cf. Rom 14:17; Col. 2:16-23). Sanctification does affect a Christian’s
outward actions (cf. John 15:4-5; Eph. 2:10), but it is essentially an inward grace. It is illustrated by what the apostle Peter
wrote to believing wives: ‘Your
adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold
jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart,
with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious
in the sight of God’ (1 Peter 3:3-4).
“Third,
the Bible implicitly calls sanctification a beautiful reality (cf. Ps.
110:3 KJV). Holiness is the beautiful
crown jewel of the Godhead, reflecting divine perfection, unmitigated virtue,
absolute righteousness, and pure sinlessness (cf. Ex. 15:11; Pss. 47:8; 145:17;
Isa. 57:15). Sanctification, then, is a
noble experience, imparting to believers a measure of the majesty God intended
for them when He created mankind in His image (cf. Gen. 1:26-27; Ps. 8:4-6).
“Fourth,
sanctification is an ongoing reality.
At the new birth, God plants the seed of righteousness, the principle of
divine life, into the believer’s heart (cf. 1 Peter 1:23-35). That does not mean he will never sin again,
but it does mean he will discontinue living in his previous unbroken pattern of
sinfulness and begin to live in a new pattern of holiness (cf. Rom. 6:17-18; 1
John 3:9).
Fifth,
believers must remember that people can counterfeit sanctification in a number
of ways. First, moral virtue can
substitute for true sanctification.
People can exhibit character qualities such as fair-mindedness, loyalty,
civility, kindness, generosity, diligence, and philanthropy and yet at heart be
unbelievers cf. Isa. 29:13). Second, religious
activity can masquerade as sanctification.
For example, devoutly religious people might spend years avoiding the
most heinous sins and seeking to please God by adhering to their church’s
rituals and self-righteously engaging in good works (cf. Matt. 23:23-25; Luke
18:10-14). But they do it all because
they are afraid of God and want to earn His forgiveness, not because they are
His children who sincerely love Him for His grace. Third, outward Christian profession can appear to be genuine
sanctification (cf. Matt. 23:27-28). It
often parades a hypocritical type of piety that is merely superficial (cf.
Matt. 7:21-23). Such false
sanctification deceives not only those who witness it, but also those who
practice it. Fourth, their conscience and fear of sin’s
consequences often restrain people from bad behavior. Most of the time they reject sin because they
fear its negative physical, psychological, or even legal consequences. They may have grown up in a Christian family
in which their parents taught them biblical principles and established a
doctrinal foundation that informs their consciences with moral
convictions. Such people are afraid to
engage in overt sin and on the exterior appear to be righteous, but only
because they do not want a guilty conscience to bother them. A saving love for Christ does not motivate
their behavior; instead, human fear and a sensitive conscience drive their
actions.
Sixth,
sanctification keeps believers from polluting holy things. ‘To the pure, all things are pure, but to
those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and
their conscience are defiled’ (Titus 1:15).
Unbelievers mock and blaspheme God and His Son. They ridicule the things of God and the
people of God, which means they also, ridicule and demean the Word of God. They pollute everything God has designed for
His glory and mankind’s blessing (cf. Rom. 1:21-32), such as the beauty of
creation, marriage, and friendship. By
contrast, when God is sanctifying believers, they consider the simplest, most
mundane things in life as holy and respect all the things the unbeliever does
not (cf. Ps. 1:1-6).
“Finally,
Christians must remember that sanctification is God’s priority for their lives. It is His will for them (1 Thess. 4:3; cf.
Heb. 12:14) and the result of Christ’s death on their behalf—‘who gave Himself
for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people
for His own possession, zealous for good deeds, and to purify for Himself a
people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds’ (Titus 2:14). All believers are to live for sanctification. They have no other goal in life than to be
like Jesus Christ: ‘The one who says he
abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked’ (1 John
2:6).”
I have a new friend that I meet in the church we now go
to and he is involved in a Bible study that I now attend, and every since I
meet him in that Bible study he talks about sanctification, and to be honest I
was, at times wondering how he could take the different verses from the books
of the Bible we were studying and see sanctification in them. After going over what I have learned in this
prayer that Paul prayed for the Thessalonians I have a much better
understanding of sanctification and a much better appreciation for my new
friend.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire to think
much more about the sanctification process that I have been learning about,
with a desire of continuing to better understand it and to do the things that I
am to do to grow in the Lord, which is what sanctification is all about.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
2 Peter 3:18.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-7.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set
you mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you died and your life is hidden with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our
life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is
because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience;
7 and in them you once walked, when you were living in them.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Grace (3:24), Faith (5:1),
Blood (5:9).
Today’s Bible
question: “When Jesus was betrayed, what
did one of the disciples do to a servant of the High Priest?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/27/2014 10:36 AM
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