SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/24/2014 8:28 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: Sanctification’s
Nature, Source, and Extent
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 5:23a
Message of the
verses: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you
entirely;”
We are coming near to the end of our journey through the
book of 1 Thessalonians and in many ways we are looking at the most important
part of Paul’s letter to this very young in the Lord church, and what we are
looking at and what we have been looking at in these previous SD’s is
sanctification. I have mentioned in
earlier SD’s that there are three parts to sanctification and they are as
follows: First we are sanctified (set
apart) when we become a believer in Jesus Christ, that is accept Him as Savior
and Lord; next we continue to be sanctified while on the earth as we continue
to grow in Christ; Finally we are completely sanctified when we arrive in
heaven where there is no flesh, no Satan, and not worldly influence to tempt
us. In verses 23-24 Paul is praying that
the Thessalonians will be complete in their sanctification that is that they
will continue to grow in their walk with the Lord.
John MacArthur writes “Sanctification is inseparably
linked to saving faith, because those whom God justifies He also sanctifies
(cf. Rom. 8:28-29). The apostle Paul
began this epistle with testimony that the Thessalonians had truly responded in
saving faith to his gospel preaching and been justified (1:2-5; 2:1, 12-13),
and here at the conclusion, he prayed for their complete sanctification. His prayerful benediction for them in these verses reveals several
essential elements of sanctification:
its nature, source, and extent; its human components; its goal and culmination;
and its final security.” We look at the first element in today’s SD.
Sanctification is to separate from sin and then going
towards holiness, and as I mentioned it is a process. John MacArthur writes “Sanctification is the
ongoing spiritual process by which God increasingly sets believers apart from
sin and moves them toward holiness. The
apostle’s entreaty or the Thessalonians parallels and reiterates the theme and
form of his earlier prayer for their spiritual growth in 3:11-13: ‘11 Now may our God and Father Himself and
Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; 12 and may the Lord cause you to increase
and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for
you; 13 so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before
our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.’”
There are examples of setting apart things in the Old
Testament which is what the word sanctification is. We see in Genesis chapter two that God set
apart the seventh day and rested from His creative work. Job regularly made burnt offerings and
consecrated his sons to the Lord. We
read about God setting apart the nation of Israel for His work, and also
setting apart the first born children and animals as holy to the Lord. We see that Moses set apart Aaron and his
sons for the priesthood. We see that
Samuel sanctified Jesse and his son David in 1 Samuel 16:5, 12-13, and then we
also have seen that the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem was sanctified to the
Lord. In our study of Jeremiah and even
in our last SD we read that God set apart Jeremiah to be His prophet even
before he was born.
In the New Testament we see that John the Baptist was set
apart by the Lord to be the forerunner of our Lord. God the Father set apart His Son for the
purpose of obtaining salvation for all those who would accept it. Jesus set apart twelve of His disciples to
become apostles and this was from a larger group of his followers. In Acts chapter six we see that the Apostles
set apart seven men as deacons and the early church set apart some for
missionary service: “1 Now there were at
Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and
Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been
brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to
the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which
I have called them." 3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and
laid their hands on them, they sent them away.”
I have already mentioned that God has set apart every
believer for salvation, and this happened when the believer had accepted the
Lord Jesus as his Savior and Lord. I
also mentioned three parts of sanctification for believers and now I want to
quote from John MacArthur on what he calls the third element of sanctification,
the element of the believers walk on this earth to become more like Jesus
Christ. “The third element defining
biblical sanctification is the experiential aspect, which concerns present
Christian living and thus lies between the past/positional and future/ultimate
aspect of sanctification. It is the process
in which believers strive, by the Spirit’s power, to be more and more conformed
to the image of Christ. Paul summed it up in 2 Corinthians 3:18: ‘But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.’ Experiential
sanctification is the pursuit of holiness (cf. Matt. 5:48; 1 Peter
1:14-16). The Puritan Thomas Watson
stated it this way ‘[Sanctification] is a principle of grace savingly wrought,
whereby the heart becomes holy, and is made after God’s own heart. A sanctified person bears not only God’s
name, but His image’ (Body of Divinity [reprint;
Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979], 167). In all of Paul’s epistles, whenever he moves
from doctrinal exposition to practical exhortation, he has this aspect of
sanctification in mind. His passionate
prayer for the Thessalonians and for all believers was that through
experiential sanctification God would progressively conform them to
holiness.” He goes on to say “God is the
source of sanctification.” “Paul wanted
them to recognize that ultimately it is God who enables believers to obey those
admonitions and progress in sanctification.
Centuries earlier the prophet Zechariah made that principle clear: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My
Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts’ (Zech. 4:6).”
Now I am going to quote MacArthur again to help us answer
a question that has been a question for the ages and that is if it is the Lord
doing the word through us how do I know when to work and what to do in my
power? Let us look first at Colossians
1:28-29 “28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with
all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor,
striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. “However, Paul’s assertion to the Colossians
also reveals the inseparable link between human effort and divine power in
living the Christian life. Believers
must yield themselves to God (Rom. 6:19; 12:1-2) and diligently pursue holiness
(1 Cor. 9:24-27; 2 Tim. 4:7; 2 Peter 1:5-11), yet always proceed in humble dependence
on Him (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:20).
“From a human standpoint, it is impossible to fully
understand how this symbiosis works.
Paul summarized this unfathomable process best when he told the
Philippians, ‘So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with
fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to
work for His good pleasure’ (Phil. 2: 12-13; cf. Gal. 2:20). Christians are to live out in their daily
lives the salvation God has wrought in them.”
8/24/2014 9:26 AM
8/24/2014 7:55 PM
Paul wanted us to positively know that it is God who is
the One who does the sanctifying in our lives as He did not send an angel to
accomplish this. Let’s look at our verse
again so we can understand it “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you
entirely.” We see the word “Himself” in
this part of verse 23 and this means that Paul is showing us that it is God who
sanctifies us. MacArthur writes “Himself
(auto) in the emphatic
position.” He writes the following about
this “Entirely is used only here in the New Testament and is a compound of two
Greek words, holos, ‘whole,’
‘complete,’ and teles, ‘end,’
‘finish.’ Paul asked that God would sanctify the Thessalonians ‘all
the way through,’ or ‘through and through’—that sanctification would leave no
part of their beings unaffected.”
We have been learning about the sanctification process in
this SD today, and when you think about it sanctification is one very important
process that we as believers are to be a part of. I have been trying to see the Lord Jesus
Christ in all of the verses that I have been studying and as I look at this
first part of verse 23 I see the grace of my Lord in the fact that He not only
died for my sins, but also is the One responsible for me growing in Him.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I want to trust
the Lord fully to accomplish this process of sanctification in my life as He
has promised to do so that my life will be pleasing to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Have faith and not fear, and have contentment
and not complaining.
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 the 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 yesterdays Bible
question: “Judah” (Genesis 49:10).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which book tells of a man who
went to Neneveh?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/24/2014 8:16 PM
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