What is definitive Sanctific..

If you have your Bibles, please open them up to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. We are going to continue this morning with our study or with our journey through the first letter of Peter. We have addressed already verse 1 and the first section of verse 2. And this morning we're going to be focusing our attention on the remaining section of verse 2.

As we always do, we're going to be reading from verse 1. to verse 9 to have the immediate context that the Apostle has given us, and then we're going to be focusing our attention to verse 2, as I said. 1 Peter 1, I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. This is the words of God. Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, In sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he 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 by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials that detested genuineness of your faith. or precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Amen, beloved. Last time when we came together and we had the opportunity to start a journey through this letter, probably three or four weeks ago, we started saying that these precious letters, perhaps one of the most theological and practical letters that we find in the New Testament, that has been given from the Holy Spirit to the church through the ministry, through the unique ministry of the apostles. In this case, this is the apostle Peter writing this letter. And the word that I gave you the first time that we came together that summarizes the substance of this letter was encouragement.

The Apostle is writing this letter to offer encouragement to these churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Asia, and by the providential power of the Triune God, of course, to the church of this age, to every one of us. This letter is a letter of encouragement for us in times of tribulations and difficulties and trials. And something that we said the first time that we came together is that the substance and the foundation of that encouragement is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We have been caused by God himself to be born again to a living hope by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is verse three.

It is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the substance of the encouragement that the apostle Peter is trying to communicate and confer to the church. Then, after that, we address aspects that we find here in verse 1 and in verse 2. The Apostle calls those who are in those churches exiles of the dispersion. And we said that exiles of the dispersion is referring to Christians being exiles in this world, that we do not belong to this world, that we belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, that in the mind of the Apostle, he's using allusions of the Old Testament applying to the New Covenant people. Just as Israel was walking through the wilderness to the promised land, the church is walking through the wilderness of this present evil age, Galatians 1, towards the glory that is promised, the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as Peter calls it here.

He calls us exiles of the dispersion. But not only that, he also calls us that we are elect. just as the people of Israel were elect under the covenant given to Moses, we are electing Jesus Christ in the covenant that was given to the beloved Son of the Father. And we address that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. We actually said that that word elect that is found in verse 1 would be better placed in verse 2.

And we said that if you have a different translation of the Bible, you will see that this word elect, actually, it is in verse number two. Because verse number two is actually addressing the nature of our election. So that verse two will go something like, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience of Jesus Christ, and sprinkling with His blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. Verse 2, therefore, is addressing the nature of election. Last time, when we came together, we addressed the foreknowledge of God in election.

And we said that this was a covenantal foreknowledge, that just as Christ is foreknown from eternity past and is chosen to be the mediator between God and men, in the same sense, those who are in Him, Ephesians 1. chosen in Christ, they are elect according to this foreknowledge. So this foreknowledge is not simply God seeing through the corridors of time and then choosing those who will choose him, but rather, this is a covenantal union that is attached to his will that requires his decree and his loving predisposition to choose and elect unto salvation. That is the foreknowledge of God the Father. But now here, we have more aspects of this election and beloved.

what we are going to be addressing this morning is very profound. Our minds are not sufficient to comprehend these things, and even the limitation of my words are not sufficient to communicate the depths of the truths that are found in the second half of this verse two. So I'm going to require much of your attention and your patience with my words, so what is contained here in verse two can not only go to your minds, but by the power of the Spirit to your hearts. So let's start. Beloved, what is the meaning of verse two?

What is the message of verse two? I have said that already. Verse two is explaining the nature of our election. And if we could divide that verse into two categories, that verse will be divided into the source of our election, which was addressed last time that we came together. That is the foreknowledge of God the Father in eternity past.

And the second section of this verse will be the application of that election that happened in eternity past. Have that in your mind because that's going to be the structure that we are going to be working in order to understand and comprehend what is contained here. This verse is teaching us the nature of election, the source of election in the full knowledge of God the Father in eternity past, and then the application in time of that election that happened in eternity past. The foreknowledge of God the Father is the source of that election. And then the sanctification of the Spirit, obedience to Jesus Christ, and the sprinkling with His blood is the application in time of the coming to happen of the operation or execution of that election in time.

If I can give it another word, the application of the election, it is what we call conversion. The moment that a person is converted to Jesus Christ, the moment that that person receives life, eternal life, the moment that that person is inserted into the new covenant of Jesus Christ, the covenant of grace, that is the application of election. I'm saying that that happens in a particular moment. Once for all, the conversion of the soul of the believer. And now the apostle is going to tell us that the application of that election, beloved, pay attention to this.

The application of that election contains sanctification of the spirit, obedience to Jesus Christ, and a sprinkling with his blood. Now, if you know your Bible, and I know that you do, you should see now the challenge of interpreting this text. Why? Because sanctification in our minds It's something that happens after our conversion. We are converted to our faith or we are converted to Jesus Christ.

We are believers in Christ. And then we start our process of sanctification. It is an ongoing process of conformity to Jesus Christ, of being holy as he is holy. This is actually what Peter says in chapter two. Not only that, but we know that As our brother said, a faith that is real in Christ is an obedient faith.

So, obedience is a result of our conversion. Now, I'm saying to you, that this sanctification of the Spirit, that this obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, and this sprinkling with His blood, happens at conversion. you should see the challenge there, and that you should be with expectation in your mind of how am I going to prove this from the canonical text here, not only from Peter, but from the whole New Testament, because this is very important. And bear with me, I haven't gone outside of orthodoxy, not yet. So I'm going to explain to you what is happening here with this sanctification of this period, this obedience to Jesus Christ and the sprinkler with his blood.

So how do we know that this is speaking of the conversion moment? How do we know that this is not speaking of something that happens after the conversion of the person? How do we know that this is not referring to the future after conversion? I'm going to answer that question from the structure of the verse itself. Apostle Peter is giving us a logical building up of concepts.

He's saying that our election is according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, and then this is in sanctification of the spirit, that is, for or to and to obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, for this sprinkling with his blood. This is not sequential, but it's rather logical. The foreknowledge of God the Father in eternity past is the foundation of the source of our election, and these three other elements are the applications in our conversion of that election. The key word for us to understand or the key statement in the verse that helps us comprehend that this is speaking of conversion, it is found in the last part of the verse. It's sprinkling with His blood.

Many things should come into your mind right now, because the Apostle here is bringing allusions from the Old Testament. Not only the fact that we are exiles of the dispersion, not only the fact that we are elected as Israel was elected, but also that we, in Jesus Christ, are sprinkled with His blood. This is a covenantal term that speaks of the inauguration or the commencement of a covenant, that speaks of the purification of something unto a covenant. That means of the establishment of a covenantal relationship between God and the recipients of that covenant. Even the shedding of blood implies the remission of sins.

So sprinkling with the blood of Christ, it is necessarily attached to the moment of the justification of the believer. This is what Paul says in Romans 4, speaking of justification, that by faith we have been justified. And then, quoting Psalm 32, it speaks of David, that blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, and whose the Lord will not hold those sins against him. Those sins have been forgiven. There is remission of sins.

This is a once-for-all moment that happens. Now, if I'm saying to you, Beloved, keep your mind with me, please. If I'm saying that these concepts build logically upon the other, if I say that according to the full knowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto all full obedience to Jesus Christ, for the sprinkling with His blood, and if I'm saying that the sprinkling with His blood is related to our justification, then everything that happens logically after that, it is a conversion. Let me just show you that from Hebrews 9. Let's go to Hebrews 9.

In Hebrews 9, we are going to see how this is sprinkling with the blood. It is attached to the inauguration of a covenant, and it is intrinsically attached to remission of sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9, verse 18. This is here the author of Hebrews comparing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant.

And then he will say, Therefore, verse 18, Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. The shedding of the blood and the sprinkling of that blood symbolizes the inauguration of a covenant, the institution of a covenant.

In this case, the old covenant given to Moses. And then we know, because of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that he says that in his blood is found the new covenant. Every time that we come together and partake of the table, we go and read Luke 22 or 1 Corinthians 11. Take from the cup that is the new covenant in my blood. The shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God symbolizes the institution, the establishment of the new covenant given to the church.

Now it is by faith that we enter into that covenant. Remember that what I'm trying to show you is that the sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ is something that happened in the moment of conversion. The Lord Jesus Christ is on the cross. It is finished. His blood has been shed for His people.

And then the author of Hebrews will tell us in Hebrews 4 that this covenantal aspect of God given to the church is an aspect of rest. That those who are in Him have rested of their works in the same sense that God has rested of His works of creation. God instituted this covenantal relationship in the garden and He completed the works of creation and then Jesus Christ comes and He fulfills the requirements of the law, the works of the law that is required of those who are created by the Creator and He Himself entered in a state of rest. He is resting from the works that are required under the law, and then those who believe in Him enter into that rest, a covenantal rest that was accomplished by the sprinkling or the shedding of His blood. That only happens, beloved, in the moment of conversion.

If we say that we are continually sprinkled with the blood of Christ, we are heretics. If we say that we need to come and atone for our sins one and more time and no more time during our life, we are heretics. We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ once for all. We are sprinkled by his blood and our sins are forgiven. We are given acceptance before him and we have entrance.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father In what Are we sanctified in conversion? Beloved, we know from our understanding of theology and doctrine that, as I said before, sanctification is an ongoing process that happens after our conversion. But I'm going to set it to you. that the New Testament speaks of a once-for-all sanctification of new covenant members. This is the already-not-yet aspect that we have in Reformed theology, but it also belongs to the aspect of sanctification.

This is very important because this has been neglected for the last 100 or 150 years in Reformed theology. This aspect of the once-for-all aspect of our sanctification in Jesus Christ. Think about this. When the Apostle Paul is addressing letters to saints, he says, saints. He does not call them believers.

He calls them in Christ, or he says, to the saints in Corinth. He calls them saints. And now you have to understand that in the Greek, the word saint or holy is exactly the same. In Spanish, we have only one word for holy or for saint, and it's the same in the Greek. Holy or saint being holiness or sanctification, they refer to the same thing when it is speaking of those new covenant members.

I'm going to submit to you, therefore, that the New Testament speaks of New Testament believers as saints. This is what we see, for instance, in the doxology or in the final greetings of the Apostle Paul to the Church of Philippi, to the Philippians. In chapter 4, he's saying, greet every saint. He calls them Saints. Come with me to 1st Corinthians and I will show you that.

1st Corinthians. 1st Corinthians chapter 6. 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9 and 11. Here the Apostle Paul is speaking of how a person, or who enters the kingdom of God. And then he's going to say in verse 9, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, that is, homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, swindlers, I hope that that's the pronunciation of that word, will inherit the kingdom of God. And he says, and such were some of you. Now pay attention to what he says here. But you were what? Washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified.

He's putting washed, sanctified, and justified in the past tense, that we have been already washed, that we have been already sanctified, that we have been already justified, putting sanctification in the same category of justification that happens once for all. And now pay attention to what he says, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by what? By the power, and by the Spirit of our God. In the mind of the apostles, those who inherit the kingdom of God, they have been already washed, they have been already sanctified, and they have been already justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. The same apostle, when he is given an exhortation to the elders at Ephesus in Acts 20, he says, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance.

among those who are sanctified. In the mind of the apostles, we have been already sanctified. There is an aspect of a once-for-all, definitive aspect of sanctification. Beloved, you might remember the story when the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching this great and beautiful example of humility, and he comes and he's going to wash the feet of the disciples. You remember that, right?

He comes, he's going to wash the feet of the disciples, and then he has washed the feet of all the disciples, and he comes to our beloved Peter, and then Peter says to him, I don't deserve that you wash me. I don't want to be washed. Don't wash me. And then the Lord says, if I don't wash you, you don't have part with me. And then he says, then wash me entirely.

And then the Lord Jesus Christ says something very important. I do not need you to wash and to bathe you entirely because you are already clean. He only washes his feet. And then he says that there is someone who is not clean or who is not washed among the disciples. Speaking of Jude, his carriage.

The commentator said many things about this. Of course, the preeminent teaching of this section of the Gospel of John, it is the humility of Christ washing the feet of the disciples. but also speaks of this aspect of once for all washed in Christ, clean in Christ, that does not require a further cleaning, only the feet. And some commentators will say that the washing of the feet refers to the ongoing process of cleaning, of ongoing sanctification. Beloved, I'm saying to you, therefore, that the sanctification that we understand under our doctrine theology has two aspects.

Not only the one that we've paid attention to many, many times, which is the ongoing process of sanctification after our conversion, this conformity to Jesus Christ, but there is an aspect very important that happens in the moment of conversion that is called definite sanctification. It is not only a progressive sanctification, but it's also a definite sanctification. That yes, we are to be holy, but we are already holy. Let me show you these two terms in the mind and in the words of the Apostle Paul. Go to 1 Corinthians in chapter 1.

And this morning I'm going to be taking you through different verses because I really want us to see it together in a scripture. So 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Here is where we see it very clearly, these two aspects of sanctification. The definitive aspect of it, the once-for-all sanctification that happens at conversion, and the progressive aspect of sanctification that happens after our conversion. 1 Corinthians 1, it says, Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ and a brother sustenance to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.

And next to it, after it, it says, called to be what? Saints. The Apostle Paul calls those who are at Corinth, he calls them sanctified. Yes, guys, you're sanctified, but you're called to be saints. This is the definitive and the progressive aspect of sanctification that is found in 1 Peter 1.

that we are elect in the sanctification of this period. Now, the question that you should have in your mind and that we need to address, therefore, is what is, therefore, that definitive aspect of sanctification? If progressive sanctification is growing in conformity to Jesus Christ, then what is this definitive aspect of sanctification, that we are already sanctified if we are in Jesus Christ. That every person who has been saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, that that person is a saint, is sanctified, is holy. What is that sense that cannot be lost, cannot be removed?

Let's go to Acts, and we're gonna see it from the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Acts 26, here the Apostles go. He's giving his testimony to the King Agrippa, Agrippa, Agrippa, right? To the King Agrippa, he's just giving his testimony and he's speaking of the words that were said to him from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read from verse 16 and 18.

It says, but rise and stand upon your feet for I have appeared to you for this purpose. He's the Lord Jesus Christ commanding Paul and his ministry. to appoint you as a servant and a witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, deliver you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you." Now pay attention, the mission of the sending of the Apostle Paul, to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." This definitive aspect of our sanctification, it is the setting apart of the people of God during conversion from the dominating power of darkness, Satan, and sin.

it is the removing. Now this is very important beloved, because every time that I ask someone to define the word holiness, they will go and say that being holy is to be set apart. It's usually the answer that is given for holiness. This is only one aspect of holiness. The setting apart, it is only the first initial layer of being holy or being sanctified.

There is more than being set apart. And we're going to see when we reach the last part of the sermon. This definitive aspect of our sanctification is being removed from the dominating power of sin. In the mind of the apostles, in the New Testament, this is what they call, die to sin. That you are dead to sin.

That in Jesus Christ, you have died to your sins and now you live in the spirit. This is the clear teaching of Romans chapter six. Let's go to Romans chapter six. And there, I'm going to show you the relationship between this definite sanctification and the progressive sanctification that comes after conversion. Okay?

Romans chapter 6. I'm going to be reading from verse 1 to 5. What shall we say then? Here the apostle is addressing... He has just come with a statement that when sin abounded, grace was more abounding than sin.

So then people might say, look, if every time that there's much sin, grace abounds, so let's sin more so grace abounds more, right? This is the question that some people will have in their mind. But then the apostle is going to answer that question in chapter 6. He says, but what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

And then he says, by no means. How can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been, this is very important, baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? Just remember that being baptized simply means to be immersed, to be inserted. Baptism is just a word that was translated from the Greek and we created that word in the English.

It is to be immersed, to be inserted. And here the puzzle says that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus and that we have been baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into his death. This is the definitive aspect of sanctification. We died to sin.

We were removed from the dominating power of sin, because we were united to Christ, and as He died, we died. He was buried, we were buried. But it goes beyond that, because then the apostle says, in order that. Here comes the progressive aspect of sanctification. Here comes the aspect of being sanctified, he says.

Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. The newness of life in the mind of the Apostle Paul, which is progressive sanctification, is result of our dying to sin by being united to Jesus Christ. It is the setting apart from the dominating power of Satan, the setting apart from the dominating power of our sin nature, that happens at conversion. So then, when the Apostle Peter is saying that we have been elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, this is the source of our election, but this election is applied in our conversion, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience of Jesus Christ and sprinkling with His blood. We know that this is a once-for-all moment, beloved.

You might remember the prophecy that was given in Ezekiel 36, speaking of the new heart and the conversion of people. Ezekiel says that from all nations He will gather them. He will set them apart from all nations. Ezekiel 36 and then He will sprinkle water on them and He will clean them, the Lord will clean them. And I will give you a new heart and I will put my spirit within you.

I will remove the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. And when I change your heart of stone into a heart of flesh, I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to follow my statutes obey. Beloved, this is what is called the order of salvation. This is what happens when the glorious proclamation of the gospel comes into the ears of those who listen. How are they going to call upon the name of the Lord if they have not believed?

And how are they going to believe if there is not a preacher who has preached a message? Life comes through the preaching of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. What happens is that the The power of the Spirit sets apart the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Sets them apart from sinful nature. Sets them apart from the dominating power of Satan so the message of the Gospel can be effectually applied through them and their heart can be changed.

They have been once for all sanctified. It is now by having this new heart of flesh, it is by having these eyes open to the majesty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they can obey. This is the next step in the reasoning of the Apostle Peter. Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, the source of election, application of election, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, our beloved brothers who will have a more Arminian view of salvation will see a contradiction in the genuineness of our obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They will say that if everything is predetermined and decreed in eternity past, then therefore we are just simply robots that respond to a script that has been written by a divine programmer in eternity past, being God. But that is not the case, beloved. The obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the result of a regenerated will. The will of man was a slave to the same nature, so God gives us eternal life through empowering our obedience to the gospel. It is a response of the will of the saint, because now we have been sanctified through the power of the sanctification of the Spirit, so we can be sprinkled with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible is very clear, beloved, in speaking of the obedience to the Gospel. The same Apostle Peter will say in chapter 2 that we have been purified by the obedience to the truth. The same Apostle Peter, chapter 2, in 1 Peter. that we have been purified, that we have been sanctified by the obedience to the truth, then he will say also in chapter 4 that judgment is going to come first of all to the household of God and there to unbelievers. And the judgment will come to them because they have not obeyed the gospel of truth.

The Bible is very clear of his speaking of a required obedience to the message of the gospel. You might remember when the apostle Paul is writing his letter to the Romans, and then he says, Paul, a born servant of Jesus Christ, that he has been called as an apostle by the commandment of God, set apart for the gospel, a gospel that was promised from before by the prophets in scripture, according about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ being a descendant of David from the flesh, who was powerfully resurrected by the Holy Spirit, who was declared to be the Son of God. Romans chapter 1. And then he says that the purpose of his apostleship, and that that grace that was given to him, was for the obedience of the faith.

Speaking of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The same apostle would say that everyone He is commanded or requested to repent and to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ because there is going to be a day in which he is going to come and he is going to judge everyone. Obedience is required when the Gospel is preached. The problem is that because of our depraved, radically depraved nature, we are unable to respond to the calling of the Gospel. The calling of the Gospel is only made effectual in our lives when we are sanctified by the power of the Spirit and we are given a new heart that is not of stone, but is of flesh.

Beloved, the depths of this glorious truth cannot be contained in human words, cannot be expressed with human words. But what can we learn from these things? Pay attention to me, please. What can we learn from these things? When we are speaking of this verse, when we are speaking of this verse, and we are thinking of the contents of this verse, and when we are debating or actually having conversations with our brothers who are a little bit more Minyan in their view of election, we can have a deep and profound rest in the fact that God is not only sovereign in election, what happens in eternity past, but God is sovereign in applying that election in our lives.

He is the one through the power of the Spirit, the one who sanctifies us and gives us life so we can obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we can obey the faith, so we can obey the message that is being preached. So therefore, our will becomes a will that is not enslaved anymore to a sinful nature, but we have a will that is enslaved to the righteousness of Christ. If we were slaves to sins, now we're slaves to righteousness. And being a slave to Christ is freedom. That brings all the glory to our Lord Jesus Christ.

And as our brother said during the Bible study, the end chief of God is to glorify himself. And he does it through the whole process of our salvation, the source of our election in eternity past, and also in the application of it. So we are once full, sanctified by the sprinkling blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Another thing, beloved, if we do not understand the nature of sanctification, then we may have some problems. Because the ongoing aspect of sanctification or the progressive aspect of sanctification is a result of my definitive aspect of sanctification of the life that I had been given in Jesus Christ.

Set apart or being set apart is only one element of my sanctification. That happens in the moment of conversion. But being holy and growing in holiness and sanctification is not only being set apart, but devote myself to the God who saved me. to give me entirely to the God who set me apart in the first place, because now I have a heart that can obey Him and can respond to Him. If we do not see sanctification in that sense, we are going to reduce the progressive aspect of sanctification to be set apart.

And sometimes what we do is that we just simply remove ourselves from the world and from things and from all things that are around us. Yes, we are called to flee from temptations and all of those things. But progressive sanctification is a more active work because now we have the power through the Holy Spirit to emulate Jesus Christ to the world. We now have the ability because we have been set apart of a will that can respond in obedience to God. And then we understand that obedience is not of us, but rather the result of the empowering work of the Spirit that has given us a new heart and that we can respond to Him.

Let's go to Hebrews 10 and we'll see something very important. Hebrews 10. Verse 1, here the author of Hebrews is going to be comparing also the two covenants and giving us a little bit of insight into the effectual work of the shedding of blood. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never but the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have seeds to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?"

Speaking of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. In burnt offerings and in sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. This is Christ.

He does away with the thirst covenant that was through the sacrifices and the blood of animals in order to establish the second covenant. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Beloved, I don't have sufficient words nor eloquence to explain to you the depths of the beauty of that truth. That we were dead in our trespasses, that we were totally depraved, that we were wicked, that we deserved the righteous judgment of God because we were not able to keep the requirements of the Old Covenant. who loved us from eternity past, being united to his beloved Son, he chose us according to his foreknowledge.

And we know that we have been chosen because, in time, he applied to us that election by the sanctifying work of the Spirit that opened our eyes to see the glories of the Gospel and obey it. Don't take that for granted. Don't take that for granted, that you understand and that you can see the light of Jesus Christ, because there are millions and thousands of millions out there that do not see the light, that they are enslaved to their unrighteousness. And just as the brother said, there's going to be a day in which judgment will come, and everyone will be judged according to the works and according to the deeds, and only those who are in Jesus Christ will be forgiven, will be accepted, because they have been sprinkled with the blood, not of animals, but sprinkled with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved of the Father. Only then is when we can understand the salutation words or the greeting words of the Apostle Peter when he says to the church, grace and peace, not only grace and peace, but that they might be multiplied to you.

Because God who chose us has given us new life, and now by being united in Jesus Christ, we are recipients of the heavenly blessings that we have in Christ, that grace and peace may abound in us, not because of who we are and the things that we do, but despite of them. Amen.