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INTRO: been looking at words:
Inspiration, Revelation, Justification-Atonement, Worry,
Today: Sanctification
Sanctification – set apart, consecrated
1. Sanctification is based on God’s Holiness
2. God calls us to be sanctified – set apart for His purposes
3. Sanctification involves our decisions as well.
SANCTIFICATION IS BASED ON GOD’S HOLINESS
Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.
Holiness is one of God’s characteristics
Leviticus 19:2 Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
In the OT we see things, places, & people set apart as sanctified
Utensils for the Temple worship
Jerusalem
Priests, Nazarites
Separated from impurity and uncleanness
GOD CALLS US TO BE SANCTIFIED – SET APART FOR HIS PURPOSES
Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,
God wants us to be sanctified
As a believer we are now a child of God
Separated from the world
We are born again, we are saved
We now are to live in obedience to God
1 Corinthians 9-11 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no-one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Pauls writes to believers in the NT and calls them "saints" or "holy ones"
God does His part in making us Sanctified – The Holy Spirit working
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
1 Peter 1:2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
God in His grace, helps us to become Sanctified
SANCTIFICATION INVOLVES OUR DECISIONS AS WELL
Sanctification is a process of becoming more Christ-like
Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed— not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence— continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
1 Peter 1:15-16 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
We make moral decisions daily
The Christians is to exercise faith in Christ
The Christians is to be obedient to Christ.
Reading and studying God’s Bible helps us become sanctified
John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Acts 20:32 Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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