Biblical Sanctification

Let us then please open up our Bibles to Romans chapter six. We are going to continue with our study through the book of Romans. This is what we do at Cornerstone. We we preach expositionally and that is that means that we take a book of the Bible and we try to study that by God's grace and through the spirit and bring not only the meaning of God's word to God's people, but also the application of it. And we hope that the way that we do it is by the spirit of the Lord and by the will of God and not inventions of of men.

Today we are going to be addressing verses 19 through 23 of chapter 6. We were supposed to finish that last week but we couldn't but in God's providence so we're going to be addressing today verses 19 through verse 23 of the sixth chapter and I want us to consider this afternoon the meaning of biblical sanctification. I was between two titles and I just made a decision just like five seconds ago. So the meaning of biblical sanctification, the meaning of biblical sanctification. You've heard this word, and also the apostle uses that word there, the last word of verse 19.

He says that we are to present our members as slaves to righteousness. And then he says, leading to sanctification. He's going to use this concept of sanctification two times. Sanctification is something that the genuine Christian experiences. So it is very important for us to consider the biblical meaning of sanctification.

We're going to be reading together today two passages. The first one is going to be in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 through 3. And then we're going to be coming to Romans chapter 6. We're going to be reading from verse 15 to verse 23. So let us please go to Ephesians so that we have our place there in Ephesians chapter 2.

That is going to be our first reading. We're going to be reading Ephesians chapter 2 from verse 1 through 3. And then we're going to be reading Romans chapter 6 verse 15 through 20. But as we always do, before we read the Word and before we preach the Word, we're going to come before the Lord and ask that He will help us by His Spirit, that He will lead us by His power, that He will give us freedom to speak, freedom to receive the words of the Lord, and that what comes from this pulpit would be in alignment to the will of the Lord and not in alignment to the will of men. So let us come before the Lord and pray.

Father, Lord, we come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Once again, we give you thanks for your abundant mercy and grace that you have bestowed upon us, and that you have rescued us from darkness and from our sins, and you have translated us into the kingdom of your Son, Jesus Christ. We praise you, Lord, and we don't fully comprehend the greatness of what you've done in giving us eternal life. But we do pray, Lord, that as we come before you, as your people and as your church, that you will speak to us through your word. We have before us the Scriptures, Lord, and apart from Your Holy Spirit applying Your perfect Word to our hearts, these are just going to be empty sounds that go through our ears and perhaps temporarily into our minds, but they don't go into our hearts.

We want to be changed. We want to be transformed. We want to be strengthened in our men, inner men. We want to become like Jesus Christ. We want to be exhorted.

We want to be given encouragement. We want to be pointed to Christ. We want to see you. And we ask, Lord, that you will do this by the power of your Holy Spirit, that we will bear fruits of righteousness for the glory of the one that is seated at the throne through the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to play Christianity.

We don't want to do things in our flesh, Lord. We pray that you will bless us by your Holy Spirit. And as many saints, brothers and sisters throughout the generations have gathered together on the Lord's day to come before your presence through the power of the Holy Spirit, and you have spoken to them through your word, we ask, O Lord, that on this afternoon, Lord, that you will speak to us through your word and by your Holy Spirit, that you will lead us in freedom that You will prevent us, Lord, from confusion, that You will prevent us, Lord, from not having clarity about Your Word, but that You will lead us by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that the outcome of this will be the glory of God through the exaltation of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in the truth of the Scriptures and in the context of Your bride. I pray, O Lord, that those who are in Christ will be strengthened in their faith, and those who are not in Christ, if there's anyone among us who is not in Christ, I pray, O Lord, that only the reading of your word will bring conviction of sin to the heart of the one who is not in Christ, and that you will bring them by the power of your gospel and by the power of your Holy Spirit to genuine salvation, and that in you, Lord, they will find freedom, they will find peace, they will find forgiveness, and they will find eternal life. We praise You and we give You thanks, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen. Very good, brethren. Ephesians chapter 2. This afternoon we're speaking about biblical sanctification. So I'm going to invite you to read, as I said before, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 through 3, and then we're going to be getting into Romans chapter 6.

This is the Word of the Lord. This is the same apostle. In this instance, speaking to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 through 3. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were, that is, we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

This is Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 through 3. Now let us come to Romans chapter 6. There in Ephesians chapter 2 the apostle speaks about the natural condition of humanity apart from Christ. Now here in Romans chapter 6 we are going to see the effects of the gospel of Christ in liberating the natural condition of men and making them Christians. This is Romans chapter 6 verse 15.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? Either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you were now ashamed?

For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. Why? For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen. This is the reading of God's Word. And last week, my dear brother and sister, it was my intention that we will understand from the scriptures the biblical meaning of true freedom. If you remember, that is what we did last week. We tried to explore from this passage and from the Scriptures the meaning of true freedom.

And in investigating and in researching or in getting into this meaning of true freedom, of course, we spoke implicitly about the definition of false freedom. The definition that people and humanity will give to freedom. And what I said last week is that from a human perspective, to be free, it is to do whatever you want to do with your body, with your life, with your future. It is my body, it is my choice. It is my life, it is my future.

It is what I want to do. The definition of freedom, according to the world, it is that you are autonomous and you can do whatever you want with your life. I try to show you from the scriptures that when we come to the scriptures, the Bible tells us that there's no such a thing as freedom. People are influenced either by desires, their passions, or the life that they live. Because according to the Bible, biblical true freedom is not about not having a master, but true biblical freedom is about having the right master.

According to the Scriptures, we are all born slaves of sin according to Ephesians chapter 2. We are all spiritually dead. And because we are all spiritually dead, then we are slaves. Slaves to our own passions. Slaves to our own desires.

The Apostle tells us in Ephesians chapter 2 that that which is operating In us is the prince of the power of the earth, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, that we were those sons of disobedience, those children of wrath. That is the natural condition of humanity. We have the principle of the flesh. We have the principle of sin that is naturally operating. And that is not a principle that operates by choice, but that is a principle that operates by nature.

Every single human being that is conceived and that is born, it is born in that principle of unrighteousness, of sin, walking according to the passions of our flesh. But it is when the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ comes, and when this Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see who Christ Jesus is, is that true biblical freedom happens. We are no longer slaves of sin, which is in our nature, but by true biblical freedom, we are translated into the kingdom of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are liberated. But true biblical freedom is not only that we die to sin and that we are disconnected from sin, but more importantly, that now we become slaves of Jesus Christ, that we become servants of Jesus Christ, that we become servants of righteousness.

So to be free is not to have a master. To be free is to have Jesus Christ as our Lord. That is true biblical freedom. Salvation is not only that Jesus Christ comes and saves you from your sins, but salvation is that Jesus Christ is also your Lord. And that's what the apostle is trying to address in Romans chapter 6.

Because there's going to be people that in their flesh, they're going to be tempted to say, I am a Christian, and because I have been forgiven, and because I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to live my life in whatever way I was living it before. I do not care about what the scripture says. I do not care about what the Bible says that my life should look like. I'm going to live my life in the freedom of my will, in the freedom of my decisions, in the freedom of my pleasures, in the freedom of my desires. That is what the apostle is addressing here.

That even though we are under grace, that is not reason or allowance for us to continue to live a life of sin. But because we are living in grace, we are now free. And this freedom means that we are slaves of righteousness, that we are bond servants of God. that we are to follow our Lord and Savior. The one who is not a Christian follows his or her own passions, and is a slave to those passions.

And there's nothing that they can do to liberate themselves from those passions. The one who is a genuine believer is a slave of Jesus Christ, a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now the Spirit of God in that person leads them to sanctification and to eternal life. We don't have the power in and of ourselves to liberate ourselves from our natural condition. It is not a matter of convincing someone in the mind that they are not what they are supposed to be.

It is not that I need just to simply present the right colors and the right sounds and convince someone to accept this Jesus, and then you're going to be OK, and God loves you so much, and he has a wonderful plan for your life. It is not about convincing the intellect of a person, it is about transformation. And that transformation happens by the power of the Holy Spirit operating in the heart of a person. That that person once was blind, enslaved to their passions, and now the Spirit of that comes, liberates them genuinely, translates them from that kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of life, and now they are followers of Jesus Christ. Just as Christ took up his cross and died upon the cross, the genuine believer is not concerned with the satisfactions of this world, with the pleasures of this world, with the benefits of this world, but the genuine believer now counts his life as nothing.

Philippians 3, for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that this world is temporal, and that that which is most important is not what we have or what we see here, but that which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the eyes of the genuine Christian are not set on things that are passing away, but the eyes of the genuine Christian are put on things that are eternal, that belong to Jesus Christ. And of course, that does not mean that we are disconnected from the temporal. It only means that the perspective of the life of the believer is now rooted in eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That is the difference between false religion that speaks to the senses of people and true religion that presents Christ from the scriptures and that brings salvation to the one who is death.

So Paul says here that true, genuine salvation is freedom. And this freedom is the one that leads to sanctification. That is what we have in verse 19. Pay attention. It says, I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now, the apostle says, now that you are a Christian, present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. true biblical freedom, the person who has experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and who has been rescued from that condition of Ephesians chapter 2, there in our sins and our trespasses, following the course of the world, having the spirit of the prince of the power of the air operating in us, the sons of disobedience, that we are by nature children of wrath, those who have been translated from that into the kingdom of the Son are the ones who are now able to present their members as slaves, not to impurity, but to righteousness. And this righteousness is the one that leads to sanctification. This is the not very popular doctrine of sanctification. For who wants to speak about sin?

Who wants to tell people that we are sinners and that if we are walking in sin, that that is not correct? That is the not very popular doctrine of Paul that speaks about the reality of our flesh. Who is going to feel the church is speaking about sins and the things of our flesh? Don't we want to simply just speak about things that are more convenient to our ears and that are easy to accept, and perhaps just encourage us emotionally, just to live our lives emotionally? That perhaps will be an easier and better way.

But that's not the way of the Scriptures, brethren. That's not the way of Paul. That's not the way of Jesus. That's not the way of the apostles. The call of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is this, that when the grace of God comes upon the heart of a person, that person has not been convinced to join a club, that person has been transformed.

It is a new creation. No longer it's slaves to the past, but now it's a slave to Jesus Christ. And that is what is called sanctification. I want us, with the time that we have before us, just to consider the biblical meaning or the meaning of biblical sanctification. Understanding sanctification, and I'm going to give a general definition of what sanctification is, because I see some of the kids and some of the teenagers, what is even sanctification as a word in English.

Once we give a general definition of that word and we understand that, I'm going to submit to you that not having a correct understanding of sanctification can lead us either to doctrinal error in which many, many of Christian churches and Christian denominations fall first, and second, it can lead us to a horrible experience of the Christian life. I defeated life as a Christian, a life in which we live in the jail of guilt, perhaps, or we live in the freedom of our passions, thinking that we can just simply be whatever we wanted to be in the past. So let me submit to you that it's very important that we address that. I'm going to do just two things today. And the first one is not actually going to be found here primarily in our passage.

It's going to be in Paul and in his writings in Romans chapter 6. But I want us to consider the what. What is biblical sanctification? What is the meaning of biblical sanctification first? And then second, I just simply want us in the fruit or the result of biblical sanctification, which is what we see here.

In this passage, we see the result, the fruit of biblical sanctification. And if I don't make it there, because it's 13 minutes now, and if I don't make it there to the fruit of biblical sanctification, let me just simply say this from the onset of my sermon, and this is that biblical sanctification will show you and be proved in you in that you have a will that has been liberated from sin. And we see that here in verse 19 when the Apostle calls the Romans to present your members, not as slaves to impurity, but present your members as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification. The person who has genuinely experienced the power of the Holy Spirit has a will that has now been freed from the bondage that we had to our natural condition and now can hear the voice of God and obey it. In this case, to present ourselves in righteousness to sanctification.

And second, it is that our affections are also transformed and changed. Pay attention there to verse 21. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The affections of the Christian. The Christian is now ashamed of the things that they were doing in the past because their affections have been changed, not only their will to do the things of the Lord, but the affections in the past when we were in our deaths, in our sins, in our trespasses, we rejoiced in our sins.

And we were not ashamed of that. We were rejoicing in our sins and our trespasses. And we saw that as, this is my freedom. I can do whatever I want with my life. This is what I want to do.

This is where I want to go. This is what I desire to do. We were not ashamed of the things of the flesh. But now... that we have the Spirit of God that gives us light, and when we see those things now, we are ashamed, not as religious hypocrites like the Pharisees in the times of Jesus Christ, but one who has the Spirit of Christ that knows that those are the things that the Lord does not desire, and he's ashamed of those things which we did before, and now we want to do the things that please the Lord.

Not because we are moral, religious, dead people, but because we are slaves of Christ. Because He is not only our Lord, He is not only our Savior, but He is also our Lord. So, let us start with the first thing. What is biblical sanctification? And as I said, this is perhaps a word that we don't use very often in English, at least not in my circle.

I don't know if this is the way that you speak to each other beyond church. We don't use the word sanctification, but if we were just going to put it in simple terms, it is just living a holy life. I'm not even sure if holy is a word that you often use in the English language, but it's to live a life that is not characterized by the sins in which we once walked and once lived. The idea is that the person who is a genuine Christian Now it is in a journey, in a journey of transformation, in a journey in which I'm not doing the things that I used to do in the past. And now I'm becoming more and more and more like what the Scripture says that I should be, living a holy life.

Some people say that to be set apart, that I have been saved by the Lord and have been disconnected from the world. And now I'm living a holy life, a sanctified life. But let me submit to you. that in order for us to understand the biblical meaning of sanctification, there are two things that we need to have in our minds, and I'm going to show you this from the text. So let me just explain it, and then I will show you this from the text.

Two things that we need to have in mind and that we need to understand to understand biblical sanctification. The first one is separation, and the second one is consecration. Biblical sanctification requires that the Christian will go through a process of separation first, and second, that there will be a process of consecration. And once again, I don't know if consecration is a word that is used in English on a daily basis, but what I'm talking about, consecration, is devotion, to give oneself unto something, to be given unto something. So there is separation, and there is also consecration.

Biblical sanctification. It is the work of God, by His Spirit, in which when a person has genuinely trusted in Jesus Christ, then this person will be separated, divided, set apart from the dominating power of sin in their own nature, and they will be consecrated unto the things of the Lord. Pay attention, please, in Romans chapter 6, in verse 5 through 8, the apostle there is going to give us. Let us just simply read. And eight, six, seven, and eight, it says.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. Pay attention to verse 7. It says, For one who has died has been set free from sin. Or you may have something like justified from sin.

That is, disconnected from sin. The Apostle elaborates, let me just read with me, please until 11, it says, 9. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourself death to sin, that is separation, and alive to God in Christ Jesus, that is consecration to God. Sanctification is the spiritual process in which the genuine believer is separated, is disconnected from the dominating power of sin of our nature. And more importantly to that, it is that now we are consecrated to the Lord, given to the Lord. If we do not understand these two elements of sanctification, we can easily make the mistake to believe that sanctification is just not to do those things that the sinners of this world do. I'm not going to lie.

I'm not going to watch movies. I'm not going to do these things. I'm not going to do these things. I'm going to separate myself from the sinful things of this world. I'm going to disconnect myself from the sinful things of this world.

And there is an aspect of separation through the scriptures. But the most important aspect of sanctification is not only that we are disconnected from our sinful flesh. The most important aspect is that this disconnection has a direction. And that direction is the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are separated from the world in order to be consecrated to the Lord, that we are separated from the things of the flesh in order to be given to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we die to sin, and that we are now alive in the Lord. That is sanctification.

That's why we say that sanctification is the process of becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctification is not the process of becoming a better version of yourself. Because a better version of yourself, then the standard of what is better is yourself, your own mind. That is not sanctification. Sanctification is to be separated from the things of the flesh and the world, to be consecrated unto the standard of sanctity or holiness that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then Christ becomes The power by which I'm separated from the world and Christ becomes the objective of my consecration. Christ is the center of my behavior and Christ is the center of my will. Now, this is very important because when we speak about sanctification, we see in the Scriptures that there is a responsibility both of God and a responsibility of men. We know that salvation is purely from the Lord. We know that He is the one who saves.

We know that He is the one that gives the grace for a person to be saved. But when it comes to bearing fruit of sanctification, when it comes to bearing fruit of righteousness, we see through the Scripture that the one who does that work is God Himself. But every time that He works, this will be seen in the act of the Christian that wants to be sanctified. Come with me, please, to Ephesians chapter 1. And in Ephesians chapter 1, we have read Ephesians chapter 2.

But there in Ephesians chapter 1, I can show you that the desire, the eternal desire of God from eternity past will be that we will live holy and pure lives. Pay attention to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, pay attention, he chose us that we should be holy and blameless before him.

That we should be holy and blameless before him. The purpose, the eternal intention of God in eternity past, in Him choosing His bride before all things were created, it is that the outcome of this bride, the outcome of these people that are the people of God is that they will be holy and blameless. That is that the eternal decree of God is that those who are chosen, those who are saved, those who are Christians will start and begin a process of becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ. So anyone who presents a gospel in which the gospel that they preach says that a person now can live their life according to the standards of the world, that can live according to the things of the world, that can love the world and the passions of the world, and that they are free because they have been forgiven, and that they can do all of the things that they were previously doing, is a gospel that is in opposition to the Scriptures. The eternal decree of God is that He will choose unto Himself a people that will be holy and blameless.

And actually, when you come to the book of Jude, and we read that beautiful doxology there in the book of Jude, then we realize that the work of God is going to be fulfilled. that there is nothing that men or that we can do in order not to achieve that final outcome in Jude chapter 1. If you come to Jude chapter 1, there we have that glorious promise of how God is actually going to achieve the ultimate and final goal of the sanctity or the holiness of his people. It says in Jude, Verse 24, now to him who is able to keep you from a stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. Did you see that?

Sometimes we just read it and we just pass it very rapidly there. It says now to him who is able to keep you from a stumbling and to present you. Blameless. Using the similar language of Ephesians chapter 2. That is that he's going to present us before him blameless, without a spot, without a wrinkle, he says in Ephesians chapter 5.

For his glory, with great joy, the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all the time, now and forever. Amen. It is the teaching of the scriptures that in the application of the gospel to the sinner, the sinner is separated from the sinful nature and now it is consecrated by the Spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ. Does this mean that the Christian is going to be perfect? Of course no, because we still have the presence of sin within us.

But what it means is that the genuine believer goes through a process of transformation by the new birth that the Holy Spirit gives to the sinner, and now this new creation starts this journey of becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ. That work of biblical sanctification is first of all the work of God, but God works through the means of faith in the life of the Christian. Come with me to 1 Peter chapter 1. In 1 Peter 1, there we have a glorious, beautiful combination of the sovereignty of God, in sanctifying a people with the faith that we are supposed to have. 1 Peter 1.

It says in 1 Peter 1, Pay attention to verse 3 of 1 Peter 1, verse 3, very similar language to the one that Paul uses in Ephesians. 1 Peter 1, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope. What is that living hope? That living hope is that we're going to be with Jesus Christ.

And when we're with Jesus Christ, we're going to be blameless and holy with Him. It says, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who, pay attention to verse 5, by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The keeping or the preserving of the work of God is by God's power, and then he says, through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. The faith of the Christian is in connection with the sovereign power of God. So those who have received the life of the Spirit are those who have genuine faith, and genuine saving faith is the one that is going to produce the works of genuine saving faith.

That's why James says in James chapter 2 that faith without works is Death. Because works are the qualifier of a genuine, saving, living faith. Why? Because there are many people that say, I believe, I believe, I believe. Like the demons.

Even the demons believe. Remember James chapter 2? It is not only about saying with the mouth that we have believed. It is about the transformation of the Holy Spirit that comes into our hearts, that opens our eyes to know that we were dead in our sins and our trespasses. And apart from the cross, we deserve hell.

And it's only Jesus Christ, the one who can give us not only forgiveness and make us children, but the one who can justify us and make us what we need to be in order to be presented before the Lord. That happens through the work of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not mental ascent. Christianity is transformation. I do not have the power to transform the lost sinner.

You don't have the power to transform the lost sinner. The power is found in the gospel, because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. And in this is the power manifested from faith to faith. The beginning of faith, Jesus Christ is the author of faith, until the consummation of faith, Jesus Christ is the perfecter, or the one who brings perfection to that faith. Genuine faith then is going to be manifested in a life that is transformed, in a life that is converted, a life that is different by the power of God and the genuine saving faith that is a gift of the Spirit that empower us to live like the Lord Jesus Christ.

How can we grow in holiness? How can I die to the passions of my flesh? How can I mortify the temptations that are still within me? How can I mortify these thoughts that I have even when I'm 40 years old, or sins that I committed when I was 13? How can I mortify these uncertainties and these fears and these things that I have in me?

How can I? The answer to that is, the Word of God. Come with me to Ephesians chapter 5. In Ephesians chapter 5, while the Apostle is speaking about this glorious truth that the Church of God is going to be blameless and holy, in Ephesians chapter 5, the Apostle is going to give us an insight into the end times of when he's going to be with his bride, the Church. It says in Ephesians chapter 5, Am I speaking too fast?

Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25. Ephesians chapter 5. Pay attention to this. Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Jesus Christ gave himself for the church, the bride.

Ephesians chapter 1, we know that we are blessed in him who chose us and we receive the blessings that are in the heavenly places even as he chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. Ephesians chapter 1. Now pay attention to verse 26. that He might, that is Christ, speaking of the church, the church is not a building, the church is the people of God, that he might sanctify her. And I love that is used here, you know, like the female pronoun of direction.

That he, that is Christ, might sanctify her. You know, that word sanctify means sanctification or holiness, brethren, right? This is not a word that we use in English very often, but it says that he might sanctify her. In other words, the reason why Jesus Christ died upon the cross in a loving sacrifice for his people, the church, It is that He might sanctify the bride, that He might purify the church. It says in verse 26, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in a splendor and now he uses the same language of Ephesians chapter 1 without spot or wrinkle or any such a thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

These are not my words. These are the words of the Apostle Paul. And that is that in eternity past, God chose in Jesus Christ a people that is the bride with the purpose that in the consummation of times, this church will be presented to Jesus Christ and the outcome of this bride is that this bride will be holy, sanctified, perfected without a spot, without wrinkle. Are we going to become perfect in this time? No, we're not.

But we are going to start a process of becoming like Jesus Christ so that the bright will be light in the midst of darkness. So that the bright of Jesus Christ will not be like the world, will not smell like the world, will not speak like the world, will not do the things of the world, but that the bright of Christ will continue to have the light of Jesus in the midst of darkness. So we are to remain with one purpose, single-eyed, single-minded, and that is that we should become like Christ, not like the world, not like the things of this present time, that we should treasure up the words of Christ in our hearts, that we may not sin against God, that we're going to become like Jesus, to stand against the things of this world, to remain like Jesus Christ, who is the one who died upon the cross. And that happens, brethren, through the word of the Lord. There is a powerful verse that I don't remember now exactly what it is.

I think it is in John chapter 17. Come with me to John chapter 17. And I hope that if it's not there, one of you remembers. John chapter 17. John chapter 17.

Verse 17. 15, read with me, this is the words of Jesus Christ. Verse 15, John chapter 17, verse 15. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Then he says in verse 17, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. How am I going to die and mortify to all of these thoughts and these things that remain within my heart of things that I didn't and saw when I was 13 or 15 or 16 or 20?

How am I going to overcome these passions that seem to be so strongly moving inside me and my affections? How am I going to die to these things that seem to define me so deeply and so perfectly? How am I going to put to death these manifestations of myself of 10 or 15 years ago? The answer is not found in me. The answer is found in Christ Jesus and His Word.

Because it is the Word of God and the truth of God, the one that when is poured into this feeble mind of me. That is when the Word of Christ and the truth of Christ is poured into this feeble and wicked heart of me. It is when the Word of Jesus Christ is poured and treasured up into this vessel that is dirtiness and righteous. It is when the Word of Christ is poured into me That the unrighteousness that is mine naturally, it is brought out, taken outside by the power of the word of the Lord. And someone might say, well, thank you, Lord, that we have the scriptures.

And because we have the scriptures now, I'm going just to read the scriptures every morning. And because I read the scriptures every morning, then the equivalent to that is going to be that I'm going to be holier. No, brother. To have the Word and to have the truth is not only to have it here, and it's not only just to wake up every morning and to read it. We ought to do this.

We ought to come to the Scriptures. What is needed, it is the power of the Holy Spirit bringing application of His truth to our minds and to our hearts. John speaks about this in 1 John chapter 2, if you come with me. A powerful verse that many times people will not only just simply jump over or just simply ignore in 1 John chapter 2. Come with me to 1 John chapter 2.

In the church of Ephesus, which is likely to whom this letter was written, there were false teachers. There were false teachers that were trying to convince the people that they could live their lives in the way that they wanted. Why? Because Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh. And because Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh, there's no requirement that you will be like Jesus.

You can just simply be whatever you want. There's no requirement of righteousness or holiness in you. That is the false teaching that were coming to this church. And then John is going to say this in verse 18. Pay attention to verse 18, speaking of these false teachers, which he calls them antichrists.

It says in verse 18, Children, it is the last hour, as you have heard, that the antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists, this is referring to the false teachers, have come. Therefore we know that is the last hour. They, that is these false teachers, antichrist, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. These are these antichrist false teachers. Verse 20, pay attention to this, but you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you have all knowledge." Or in other words, you know all things, you know everything. Pay attention to that once again.

You have been anointed by the Holy One and you know all things. Do I really? Do I really know all things, Lord? Do I really know everything? Certainly not.

I do not know all things. The puzzle is going to tell us something deeper there in verse 26 that makes us and helps us understand this. Verse 26, I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing, he says once again, but the anointing that you received from him abides in you. and you have no need that anyone should teach you.

But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and it's true and it's not lie, just as he has taught you, you will abide or abide in him." What is the point of John? The point of John is very simple. This Holy One is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Mark chapter 2 and also Galatians chapter 4. The Spirit of Jesus Christ that has been given genuinely to the Christian.

The genuine Christian has not only just in mental ascent said, yes, I want to be a Christian. Yes, I want to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord. I'm going to pray this prayer, and I'm going to go to church. Yes, we do all of those things, but something deeper and more transformative happens. The Spirit of God is given to the person in the new birth, and now the Spirit of Jesus dwells within us.

And it's by virtue of the deposit of the Spirit of Christ that is in us that we have hope of truth. Because when He speaks and we understand the words of the Lord, it is not because of your intellectual abilities or the lack of them, But it is by virtue of the Holy Spirit with which you have been anointed. So the certainty that we have of truth, it is a spiritual certainty that has been given by the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, I am condemned to my own interpretation. I am condemned to my own senses.

I am the jailed of my temporality. But because I know that the Scripture says that the genuine believer has been anointed by the Spirit, now I know that through the Scriptures I can come to the truth, and by coming to the truth, I become like Jesus Christ. To be sanctified is to be like Jesus, and that happens through the word of the Lord. The more that the word of the Lord abides in my heart, the more that I have the thoughts of Christ in my head, the more that I know my Savior, what He did, His sufferings, the more that I understand my corruption and my feebleness, the more that I understand how weak I am, the more that I understand that I don't deserve what He has given me, the more that I will, by the Holy Spirit, want to become like Him. And am I going to fail in the process?

I am going to fail. I have failed, and I'm going to fail. But as I look back through that whole process, it will be the hand of the Lord that is faithfully working in the life of his people, brothers and sisters, who are being sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit and that are appointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is a miraculous work that cannot be accomplished by any other thing than by the power of the gospel. Let us return to our text, and let me now just simply point you to the two fruits, and with this I finish.

The Apostle is going to give us there in Romans chapter 6, two important, or better, three important things that are going to be qualifiers of true sanctification. There are going to be evidences, if you want, or fruit of true sanctification. I'm going to give them to you first, and we'll see them there in the text. The first one, it is a changed will. Second one is changed affections.

And then the final one is going to be eternal life. Let us just see there in verse 19, as I presented in the very beginning. Let us just see them there in verse 19. It says, I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regards of righteousness. What does the Apostle says? The Apostle says here that when we were slaves of sin, we were not under the master of righteousness. We were free in terms of the master of righteousness. But when the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ comes and takes us from the dominating power of sin, we are inserted into a new master.

And this new master is righteousness, obedience, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because we have been translated from the dominating power of sin into the grace of the Savior, now we have the power and the ability to present our members as slaves of righteousness and not as slaves of sin. Apart from the grace of Christ, the only thing that we do is to sin. Everything that we do apart from Jesus Christ falls into the category of sin. And then you may say, what about the good things that people do?

The good works that they do, the money that they give to the poor, and when they feed the needy. Or what about, I don't know the name in English, but Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Is that how you pronounce it? What about this type of people that are doing all of these good things externally? If those things are not rooted in a transformative power in the heart, then these things are done in the flesh.

It says in Romans chapter 14, verse 23, that that which does not proceed from faith is Sin, thou which does not proceed from faith, is sin. Sin is not only doing external things, but having the right motivation for it. I can have all the money and give it to the poor, but if my intention in it, and I'm not saying that this was the intention of people who have done this, but I'm just saying if I have all the money and I give to the poor just for the purpose of getting the pleasure of what human praise signifies, which is a very powerful pleasure, by the way, of getting just people to say, thank you. Oh, that was really good. Oh, you are so good.

Nobody does those things. If I'm just investing my efforts and my resources for the pleasure of self-satisfaction, and I label that as my Christianity, or listen to the Lord, it is the worst sin that I can commit. Because I'm not doing things unto the glory of the Lord, but unto my own glory. And apart from the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, we all by nature do things that puts us in the pedestal of our lives as kings and queens of our lives. We want friends and people around us for the satisfaction of our own self.

It is only when Christ comes and changes and transforms us that now we know that we do things unto the glory of the Lord and that we can present our members, no longer as slaves of impurity, which is by nature what we do, but that we can present our members as slaves of righteousness, leading to sanctification, sanctification that leads to eternal life. My will has been freed. Not that I was in a prison unwillingly, but rather my corrupted will has been transformed and changed. If I have a desire to love Him, to love God, it is not because I have that in me. It is because the Spirit of Christ has now changed me.

If I have any desire to love my brothers and sisters and to serve them with right intention, It is not because of me, it is because of the Spirit of God now that is leading in the heart of the person. If brothers and sisters have a genuine intention to love one another in the ways of Christ, it is because of the Spirit of Christ in them. We can say now that the Christian is able to present themselves as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification and that eternal life. And as I said before, then verse 21, our affections have been changed. Verse 21, but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things which you were now ashamed?

For the end of those things is death. Now it is only now that we have the concept and the understanding and the affections of the sinner have been changed to the affections of Christ. And we know that the things to which we were given before were shameful before the eyes. of the Lord that to be slaves of lies and pride that was shameful that sexual immorality and to give ourselves into things that are not of the Lord that is shameful because there's someone who sees all things and that is the one that is above that is God who sees all things and the fruit of all of it is going to be eternal life as we're told there in verse 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification, and this sanctification has an end, eternal life. Why?

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Having been set free by the power of God, then we can live in sanctification. Sanctification is these two things, separation from my sinful condition by the power of the Holy Spirit that now consecrates me to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been separated from the dominating power of sin to be given and consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a work of God from eternity past until eternity future, but that happens through the faith that is given.

So my faith is going to be qualified in good works. Are my good works the ones that I do? No. These are the good works that God has ordained before the foundation of the world, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, that now are going to be naturally manifested through the spiritual reality that has taken place in me. So he takes all the glory, and he makes me partaker of this process of sanctification that eventually leads to eternal life.

Are good works necessary for salvation? No, but good works are present in a genuine salvation. Good works are not a requirement for us to be saved, but good works are present in the life who has been genuinely saved. Good works and the abundance of good works are going to be present in the life of the person that has been saved. So faith without works will not be dead, but faith with works will be alive.

I mixed that up. Faith with works will be alive because it's the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, how are we going to face the difficulties and the struggles of our flesh? How are we going to overcome the temptations of our minds? How are we going to overcome the pleasures that so heavily and strongly push us to the things of the world?

just by looking to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Because you know what Paul says there in Galatians chapter 2, which is the verse that I always repeat in the end of my sermon? He says this, I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that now I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

dead to the things of the world, but alive in Christ. And the life that now we live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. Because the beauty of the Christian life is not the benefits that I receive out of it. The beauty and the power of the Christian life is Christ Jesus in us. May the Spirit of the Lord gives us the grace that is needed for us to look to him in times of trial, tribulation, difficulty.

Because the only way that we are sanctified, brother and sister, it is by coming in humility to him, submitting to his words, and looking to what he has done, what he continues to do, and what he will do. And the more that we go out of ourselves by faith through the word into the things that he did, he continues to do, and that he will do, the more that we become like Jesus, not as a process of moralistic reformation, but as the spiritual power of Christ operating in us. Amen? Amen. Let us please pray.

Father, we give you thanks for your Word and for the Scriptures. I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us by your Holy Spirit the truths in our hearts, not only in our minds. I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us a genuine desire to be like Jesus. I pray, O Lord, that you will protect us from ourselves, Lord, that you will protect us from these passions of our minds and our hearts. That you will protect us, Lord, from even the thoughts that we remember of the things that we've done and seen and touched.

I pray, O Lord, that as we have and experience all of these things, that you will point us to the completed and finished work of Jesus Christ. For you have appointed unto you from eternity past a bride that you're going to present before yourself, holy and blameless. And we know that this work is the work that you will do to us, through us, by our faith. So Lord, we pray that you will strengthen us in our faith, that you will strengthen us by and through your word. In times of trial, tribulation, and temptation to despair, Lord, that the gospel of Christ will be so clearly in our minds.

The exaltation of who Christ is and who we are. Lord, please protect us from thinking that we deserve. Protect us, Lord, from thinking that we are something in ourselves when we are not. That it will always be clear, abundantly clear in our minds that Jesus Christ is the one who accomplished all things and apart from him we're nothing. Empower us through your word.

If there is anyone among us that is not in Christ Jesus, I pray, O Lord, that just the reading of the things that we have read and said, Lord, that any manifestation of Christ, Lord, that will be used by your grace to bring them to Christ. I pray for my brothers and sisters. I pray, O Lord, that in speaking of these difficult matters, I pray, O Lord, that the gospel will be clear in their minds and in their hearts. Lord, please, that the limitations in the way that I speak and the way that I present things will not be an unnecessary burden to their shoulders and to the heart of my brethren. I pray, O Lord, that you will use the truth of the scriptures and of the gospel to bring consolation, exhortation, confrontation, and that you will bring us to Christ Jesus.

Help us, Lord, please, to look to Jesus, to depend upon him, to know that he is the one who has initiated the work, will bring it to completion, and that that work that is completed today is according to what is written in the Word. We praise you now, Lord, because as we have the opportunity to take of the elements in our hands, we are proclaiming that glorious truth that we have been separated from the body of this world and that we have been consecrated into the body of the Son. We are proclaiming, Lord, with these elements before us, that we have been united mystically with Christ by faith, that we have been inserted into his body, that we're one spirit with him, never to be separated. And just as our Lord is holy, then also your bride will be holy by the power of your decree and the working out of your providence in this world. I pray, O Lord, that as we come to this table and as we have these elements in our hands, you will remind us by your Holy Spirit of the truth of our oneness with you, of the sacrifice of Jesus for us and that we will do it with a reverential heart before your presence for the glory of your precious name according to the truth of the scriptures.

I pray that you will do this in Jesus' name. Amen.