SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/26/2014 8:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Sanctification’s Goal and Culmination
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 5:23c
Message of the
verse: “be preserved complete,
without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you
entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without
blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is the third day that we have looked at verse 23 and
so I though it wise for us to look at the entire verse to help us focus on what
we have been learning from this verse.
We first looked at “Sanctification’s nature, source, and extent on
Sunday, and then yesterday we looked at “Sanctification’s Human Components, “
and now today we look at “Sanctification’s Goal and Culmination,” and tomorrow,
Lord willing we will look at “Sanctification’s Final Security.”
The goal of sanctification is that we will be preserved
complete, and that we will be without blame when our Lord returns from
heaven. John MacArthur writes “Complete
(holkleros) means ‘with integrity,’
‘total,’ intact,’ undamaged,’ and perfectly conforms with Paul’s and his Lord’s
desire for the church to be holy, without blemish or defect (Eph. 5:25-27; cf.
2 Cor. 6:16; 11:2; 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Peter 2:5; Rev. 19:7-8; 21:2).” Let us take a look at these verses so we can
get a better idea of what we are studying today.
Eph. 5:25-27 “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify
her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He
might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle
or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
2 Cor. 6:16 “16 Or what agreement has the temple of God
with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I
WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL
BE MY PEOPLE.”
2 Cor. 11:2 “2 For I am jealous for you with a godly
jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present
you as a pure virgin.”
1 Tim. 3:15 “15
but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to
conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and support of the truth.”
1 Peter 2:5 “5 you also, as living stones, are being
built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Rev. 19:7-8 “7
"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the
marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." 8 It
was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine
linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
Rev. 21:2 “2 And I
saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”
As believers in Jesus Christ we look forward to that day
when we will be with our Lord, but we must not be ashamed when we go to be with
Him. We do not want to be like those who
have nothing to offer our Lord when we get to heaven, for when we get to heaven
we will receive crown’s that have jewels on them and the more jewels we have
means the more we have followed the leading of the Holy Spirit in doing good
works for the Lord and soon after we receive them we will lay them at the feet
of Jesus our Lord because without Him and the sacrifice that He made for us we
would not be there in heaven.
We will now look at a couple of verses that Paul wrote to
the Philippians “13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it
yet; but one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” We see what Paul’s goal for his ministry on
earth was by reading these verses. Paul
wanted to keep with his goal, and that means that he was continuing his
sanctification process until he would be completely sanctified when he got to
heaven, and this also should be our goal.
MacArthur writes about this goal by saying “In the wondrous balance of
diligent effort and divine power that is in every aspect of salvation, Paul prayed
that the saints would be preserved (‘kept’), that God would keep them in the
path of holiness until they received their ultimate sanctification.” As we see in our verse Paul wanted his
readers to reach that point without blame, and MacArthur writes the following
about “about blame:” “(amemptos) is the same word archeologists
have found on Christian tombs from ancient Thessalonica. When people wanted to identify a deceased
friend or loved one as a Christian, they inscribed ‘blameless’ on his or her grave—and
behavioral blameless (not just imputed or forensic) is the Lord’s desire for
His church (cf. Eph. 5:26-27).” “26 so that He might sanctify
her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He
might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle
or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
We now look at the last part of this verse, a section
that has been in every chapter we have studied in 1 Thessalonians and a section
that will be in every chapter when we study Paul’s second letter to the
Thessalonians and that is a reference to the second coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, at the Rapture of the Church. Paul writes the following to the
Corinthians in what is called the “Resurrection Chapter, which is the 15th
chapter of 1 Corinthians “50 Now I say
this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor
does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery;
we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the
imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this
perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on
immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in
victory.
This is a wonderful comfort to those believers in
Thessalonica who were under persecution from either the Jews of that day or
people who did not like believers, and this is happening around the world in
difference places today. I have some
friends who minister in a foreign country and they wrote on their blog about a
man they knew that had a portion of his orchard burnt by a man who said he did
it because he hates Christians. We only
have to look at places like Iraq to see that this is still happening and will
continue to happen until we are taken from this earth at the Rapture of the
Church. When Paul wrote about this even
in the fourth chapter he ended by saying “Therefore comfort one another with
these words.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have been
trying to see Jesus in the verses that I study from the Word of God and what I
can see about Him in this passage is that He will return again, and before He
does return He will work in my heart to continue the sanctification process in
my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Be willing to work for the Lord in His power
to bring glory to His name.
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
your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden
with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who
is our life, is revealed, they 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: “Hand turned leprous” (Exodus
4:6).
Today’s Bible
question: “What are three things
mentioned in Romans by which one may be justified?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/26/2014 9:51 AM
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