OUR PRESENT SANCTIFICATION

OUR PRESENT SANCTIFICATION

      

             ITS NATURE: A present work of God whereby the believer is progressively set apart from sin and brought towards perfection. This is personal, vital, changing, perfectly set apart by the blood of Christ.

               cf. past sanctification produces a present standing that is perfect.
               Past work: Cut away from doomed world like rocks from quarry;
               Present standing: Finished, polished, shaped like rocks at the factory.
               Progress (state): the work in the present is making the state conform to the perfect standing.

             ITS METHOD: It is accomplished through the instrumentality of the Word.

                        John 17:17  cf. v. 16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."
                         This method is threefold: it reveals, cleanses, transforms.
                            - The Word is used to reveal our sinful conditn. Jas. 1:23-24 Mirror of the Word
"For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:" "For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."

                             Heb. 4:12-13 Discerner of thoughts and intents.  Critic

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

                                    1 Jn. 1:8, 10 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

 Our declarations. These show that the truth is not in us; that His word is not in us. The revelation of sin is the first part of the sanctifying process.

                                  -The Word is used to cleanse us from sinful ways.

                                   Eph. 5:26 "With the washing of water in the Word."
                                   Jn. 15:3 "Ye are clean through the word I have spoken unto you."
                                    Question: In what sense does the Word cleanse from sin? Takes us step by step towards perfection from the standing to the state. (Our stand is perfect but not yet our state. Our state must be perfect before going before the Father and signifies a completed sanctification process that the Son has brought to His bride before she goes before the Father to live in their mansions in the New Jerusalem to serve Him in His thousand year reign.
           David keeping the commandments does not mean sinless perfection. (1 Kings 14:7-8).
"Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel," "And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes."

                                    cf. 1 Jn. 1:7-9 Refers primarily to the guilt of sin.

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

                                    1 Jn. 2:1-5 Refers primarily to the habit of sin.

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:" "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." "But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him."

                                      Propitiation (Advocate) deals with guilt;

                                         keeping word deals with habit.
                 Illus.    see Luke 22:60-62 “And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew." "And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." "And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.”
My own experience when, after almost 40 years something in the word caused my whole perspective to change, and I had to make it right.

                    -The Word is used to transform us into the image of Christ. 2 Cor. 3:18 - classic text

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

              - Explain. Sin revealing and sin cleansing is negative. Virtues must grow in the place of the vices. This is the positive side.

                            Whatever we look upon with approval will change us.
          If we look long enough at any person with admiration and approval, we tend to become like that one (psychological principle).
This change takes place without any conscious effort on our part and very often without our knowing it. Good men never know that they are good. This process of sanctification is very simple. It is impossible to sanctify men practically by laws and rules.
God's method is for us to take the Word and study it. But we must find Jesus there. Failing to find him we have missed everything.

Conclusion: This threefold work of the Word implies a threefold responsibility.

           -That we will read and hear the Word.       
           -That we will submit our lives to its cleansing action.
           -That we will find Christ in the Word.
                        cf. Jn. 5:39
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me."

 

If the church today accepted the Bible as the modernist proposes, we would have a distorted vision of Christ, and this would make development of Christian character impossible. The main difference between all the denominations are what they believe to be true concerning Christ.