SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/27/2014
9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Sanctification’s Final Security
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:24
Message of the
verse: 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will
bring it to pass.”
“Php. 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according
to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn
among many brethren; 30 and these whom
He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
As we conclude Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians I want
to make a very long quote from the pen of John MacArthur who will give us seven
essential principles that all Christians need to remember concerning the
sanctification process.
“First, experiential sanctification is inherently both
negative and positive. Negatively, it
involves the purging out of sin.
Scripture compares sin to leaven which connotes the evil influence with
which sin permeates humanity.
Sanctification does not remove the presence of sin, but it purges from
the believer his love for sin and decreases sin’s frequency in his life. Positively, sanctification involves the
renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2) and the putting on of Christlikeness. The
negative and positive changes occur as the Holy Spirit continually uses Gods
Word in believers’ lives (John 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; cf. John 15:1-3).
“Second, sanctification occurs chiefly in the heart, the
mind, the inner being. It is not
concerned with modifying one’s outward behavior—even if that behavior were in
line with God’s law—apart from the changed heart, nor is it circumscribing one’s
attitudes and actions to an arbitrary code of ethics (cf. Rom 14:17; Col.
2:16-23). Sanctification does affect a
Christian’s outward actions (cf. John 15:4-5; Eph. 2:10), but it is essentially
an inward grace. It is illustrated by
what the apostle Peter wrote to believing wives: ‘Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding
the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the
hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet
spirit, which is precious in the sight of God’ (1 Peter 3:3-4).
“Third, the Bible implicitly calls sanctification a
beautiful reality (cf. Ps. 110:3 KJV).
Holiness is the beautiful crown jewel of the Godhead, reflecting divine
perfection, unmitigated virtue, absolute righteousness, and pure sinlessness
(cf. Ex. 15:11; Pss. 47:8; 145:17; Isa. 57:15).
Sanctification, then, is a noble experience, imparting to believers a
measure of the majesty God intended for them when He created mankind in His
image (cf. Gen. 1:26-27; Ps. 8:4-6).
“Fourth, sanctification is an ongoing reality. At the new birth, God plants the seed of
righteousness, the principle of divine life, into the believer’s heart (cf. 1
Peter 1:23-35). That does not mean he
will never sin again, but it does mean he will discontinue living in his
previous unbroken pattern of sinfulness and begin to live in a new pattern of
holiness (cf. Rom. 6:17-18; 1 John 3:9).
Fifth, believers must remember that people can
counterfeit sanctification in a number of ways. First,
moral virtue can substitute for true sanctification. People can exhibit character qualities such
as fair-mindedness, loyalty, civility, kindness, generosity, diligence, and
philanthropy and yet at heart be unbelievers cf. Isa. 29:13). Second, religious activity can masquerade as
sanctification. For example, devoutly religious
people might spend years avoiding the most heinous sins and seeking to pleas
God by adhering to their church’s rituals and self-righteously engaging in good
works (cf. Matt. 23:23-25; Luke 18:10-14).
But they do it all because they are afraid of God and want to earn His
forgiveness, not because they are His children who sincerely love Him for His
grace. Third, outward Christian
profession can appear to be genuine sanctification (cf. Matt. 23:27-28). It often parades a hypocritical type of piety
that is merely superficial (cf. Matt. 7:21-23).
Such false sanctification deceives not only those who witness it, but
also those who practice it. Fourth,
their conscience and fear of sin’s consequences often restrain people from bad
behavior. Most of the time they reject
sin because they fear its negative physical, psychological, or even legal
consequences. They may have grown up in
a Christian family in which their parents taught them biblical principles and
established a doctrinal foundation that informs their consciences with moral
convictions. Such people are afraid to
engage in overt sin and on the exterior appear to be righteous, but only
because they do not want a guilty conscience to bother them. A saving love for Christ does not motivate their
behavior; instead, human fear and a sensitive conscience drive their actions.
Sixth, sanctification keeps believers from polluting holy
things. ‘To the pure, all things are
pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both
their mind and their conscience are defiled’ (Titus 1:15). Unbelievers mock and blaspheme God and His
Son. They ridicule the things of God and
the people of God, which means they also ridicule and demean the Word of God. They pollute everything God has designed for
His glory and mankind’s blessing (cf. Rom. 1:21-32), such as the beauty of
creation, marriage, and friendship. By
contrast, when God is sanctifying believers, they consider the simplest, most
mundane things in life as holy and respect all the things the unbeliever does
not (cf. Ps. 1:1-6).
“Finally, Christians must remember that sanctification is
God’s priority for their lives. It is
His will for them (1 Thess. 4:3; cf. Heb. 12:14) and the result of Christ’s
death on their behalf—‘who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless
deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for
good deeds, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous
for good deeds’ (Titus 2:14). All
believers are to live for sanctification.
They have no other goal in life than to be like Jesus Christ: ‘The one who says he abides in Him ought
himself to walk in the same manner as He walked’ (1 John 2:6).”
I have a new friend that I meet in the church we now go
to and he is involved in a Bible study that I now attend, and every since I
meet him in that Bible study he talks about sanctification, and to be honest I
was, at times wondering how he could take the different verses from the books
of the Bible we were studying and see sanctification in them. After going over what I have learned in this
prayer that Paul prayed for the Thessalonians I have a much better
understanding of sanctification and a much better appreciation for my new
friend.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire to think
much more about the sanctification process that I have been learning about,
with a desire of continuing to better understand it and to do the things that I
am to do to grow in the Lord, which is what sanctification is all about.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
2 Peter 3:18.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-7.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set
you mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you died and your life is hidden with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our
life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is
because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of
disobedience; 7 and in them you once walked, when you were living in them.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Grace (3:24), Faith (5:1),
Blood (5:9).
Today’s Bible
question: “When Jesus was betrayed, what
did one of the disciples do to a servant of the High Priest?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/27/2014 10:36 AM
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