How Does Sanctification Work During the Dispensation of Grace? | Bible Questions & Answers

good evening everyone welcome to the Columbus Bible Church livestream question and answer session we appreciate you joining with us tonight let me go ahead and open us in a word of Prayer and we will begin finally God thank you for this time we thank you for your word we pray that the study of your word would encourage us that we would come to greater understanding we would come to greater peace and assurance we pray all these things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ amen question how does let me fix the chart here I've been instructed to by the studio audience how does sanctification work during the dispensation of grace this is a good question it does not have a short answer so we're going to spend some time together start with me in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and we may take some time beyond 8 o'clock tonight and so just that's warning enjoy as much as you want to but we are going to possibly take some more time to give this the the full attention that it deserves 2nd Timothy 2:15 study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth now that's a verse you are all familiar with but let me just make this point so part of being approved is rightly dividing the word of truth but notice with me the first part of the verse study to show thyself approved unto God a workman it doesn't say a manager it doesn't say a delegator it doesn't say a boss it says a workman so to be approved to study properly requires work it's not passive sometimes people have the idea that that watching videos is enough and I'm gonna just tell you it's not enough it can be helpful but it is not sufficient there is more that must be done in terms of individual study so we're gonna start with this we're trying to understand how sanctification operates during the dispensation of grace during the time period in which we live today now the first thing that we're going to have to just come to terms with is this the word sanctify is used in more than one sense in the scriptures in other words it's used different ways in different places now some people don't like that they have the idea in their heads that it should only ever be used one way the problem is the Holy Spirit doesn't agree with that we've talked on this program before about the word saved and the word saved in Scripture can mean different things sometimes it means salvation from hell but other times it can refer to a city being saved from destruction there's times in Scripture where people are saved from deception so there's different ways to be saved in the scripture not different not different plans of salvation that's not what I'm saying there's only the only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ so let's let's not be confused about that but what I'm saying is the word saved is used in different ways the word sanctify is used in different ways so as we study this we're going to have to look at the different ways the word sanctification is used now get with me Romans 8 I want to show you another principle Before we jump in and that is this sometimes scripture will give meanings to words that are specific to the scriptures Romans 8:23 is an example and not only they but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body the adoption in that verse to wit - no to beasts cific is the redemption of our body now if you pull up a dictionary you look up the word adoption it's not going to use that meaning because that is a specific meaning that scripture has given to the word so as we study adoption in the scriptures we're going to use that definition another example I'll give you and this is your homework are you ready does the Bible define the word hand the way that we normally do and the answer is it doesn't and I'll leave that as a homework assignment to figure out why I say that and if that's true or not but I'm going to tell you the Bible uses the word hand in a way that is different than our common understanding so what we're seeing is as we come to the scripture we are going to let scripture to find its own terms when it does so it doesn't always do that many terms it simply uses according to their normal everyday meaning so I want to start with this I want to show you a couple dictionaries here let's start here and I'm first gonna start with the Oxford English Dictionary and this is something that's available online often you can get a membership to the Oxford English Dictionary through your local library so there's different ways to do it but I want to just show you a couple things about about it so here's the word sanctify that's the word that we're interested in and as I just scroll down here you're gonna see there's the first definition to set apart religiously for an office or function to consecrate first meaning to to canonize to make a saint of four meaning three to honor as holy to ascribe holiness to and so on so there's different ways that there's different meanings that sanctify has now I want to show you two things about the Oxford English Dictionary that are very interesting the first is it will give you the years of different quotations so in other words meaning 3a is to honor as holy to ascribe holiness to well why do they say it means that and what they'll give you is they'll give you a list of times where the word is used in a piece of literature or in a publication and it will tell you the source and it will tell you the year very helpful because one of the things you can do is you can then look and see how those words were used at the time the King James Version was translated so that's a very helpful feature another helpful feature I want to show you is this I'm gonna read the word find and I'm gonna do bibl and you might know the next letter B I be on that watch what happens look at this it's going to show me all instances so in 1526 in Tyndall's translation he used the word sanctify in person first peter 3:15 in 1582 the reims which is not a version we would endorse used the word in Matthew 6 verse 9 so one of the things you can do is you can go through the Oxford English Dictionary you can see the different meanings you can see the source of where they were used a certain way you can see the year and you can see various biblical uses of the word very very helpful in getting an understanding of how that word is used so that's the Oxford English Dictionary that is the authoritative dictionary in the English language there is nothing better than that period end of story it is the gold standard now I want to show you something else that I view as this is that the silver this is almost as good it's very very strong and what this is is this is Webster's 1828 dictionary this is the American Dictionary of the English language and this is just a terrific dictionary this is available free on the internet so if you go to Webster's dictionary 1828 dot-com here it is so I'm just going to go up to the search bar and I'm going to type in sanctify look at that and notice what it does it pulls up a bunch of meanings for me and so let's notice one thing about this and this is something that I sort of enjoy about Webster's 1828 it will give you the different meanings and then it will frequently give you Bible verse that shows how the word was used so if we go to the second meaning of sanctify two sets two separate set apart or a point to a holy sacred or religious use as an example God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Genesis 2 verse 3 and you can see here Exodus 19 10 john 10:36 and so on so the Webster's 1828 dictionary is a tremendous resource because it will not only give you the meanings of the words it's free it's available online but it will frequently give you Bible verses that you can consult to see how the word was used in the scriptures so one final thing before we jump in what we've seen from both the Oxford English Dictionary as well as Webster's 1828 is that the word sanctify has multiple different meanings so as we look at the different verses which we're about to do we just have to begin with that understanding the word sanctify can be used in different senses alright so now what we've done is we've looked at the two leading dictionaries we've I haven't read them all to you but I've looked at them and as you're doing this study that's what you would do now what I want to do is let's go to the Bible so we're gonna run the word sanctify sanc TI f wildcard and i'm gonna run that but then I'm gonna refine it a little bit so first we're gonna let it pull up the terms and then I'm going to show you why I'm going to restrict the range the first thing that we would do because the question that we're trying to answer is how does sanctification operate during the dispensation of grace now it's good to look at the EDD at all of Scripture for the sake of time you can see there there's 141 times where it's used in Scripture I'm going to narrow it down for purposes of this study so I'm going to go to Advanced Options here I click on Advanced Options and you can either choose a predefined range or you can set a range I'm going to set a range and what I'm going to set here is I'm going to set acts to Philemon now we why am i doing that here's the reason I'm doing that we know that Paul's epistles are Romans to Philemon so as we think about sanctification during the dispensation of grace obviously we want to include all of those Hebrews is not written by Paul people sometimes think it is it is not you can tell that if you read Hebrews chapter two but the reason I'm going to include Acts is sometimes there are uses in the book of Acts which is obviously a transition book that are there good to know about and they can be helpful so I'm going to run the search for acts 2 acts 2 Philemon alright so we have some answers here and what we'll notice here is there are two times where sanctify is used in acts we'll look at those and then there's 13 where it's used in Paul's epistles so let's just go ahead and jump in the first time that sanctify is used in this range is in Acts chapter 20 verse 32 Acts chapter 20 and verse 32 and now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified now it uses their it describes it as which are sanctified present tense they already are and get with me acts 26:18 and we're gonna go to acts 26:18 next because I think it's going to clarify what we just saw in acts 20 verse 32 so acts 26 verse 18 to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive the fir that they may receive forgiveness of sins an inheritance among them notice which are sanctified by faith that is in me so how did they get sanctified by faith that is in me so did they get sanctified by living a holy life for 30 years as a saved person or did they get sanctified by having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in a moment it was in a moment so just look at it again that they may receive forgiveness of sins that happens in an instant and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me so an individual gets sanctified by faith in Christ in an instant what we've seen in Acts chapter 20 and Acts chapter 26 is that these folks were sanctified not by a long process of holiness they were sanctified in an instant when they had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ now I'm gonna read to you one of the meanings of sanctified from Webster's 1828 it's the second meaning to separate set apart or a point to a holy sacred or religious use in other words it's it's to take something in to separate it to set it apart for a holy sacred or religious use and I'm gonna suggest that's what happens to the believer at Salvation when when you have faith in Christ when you believe the gospel you're saved in that moment and you are set apart to a holy use God has purposes for you that are holy you are set apart from the very moment that you have faith let's go to Romans 15 so now we're gonna look at some of the Pauline uses of sanctify Romans 15 sixteen that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministering the gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost I'm gonna suggest to you that meaning is similar to what we've looked at already Gentiles are sanctified by the Holy Ghost they are set apart to a holy use at the moment of salvation and that happens by faith again with me 1st Corinthians 1 in 1st Corinthians 1 you're gonna see something similar 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 2 unto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours now I want you to think about that verse very carefully think about the Corinthians for a minute we're the Corinthians living holy lives were they living in such a way they're what God did is he looked at him and said well you guys are hitting out of the park I'm just thrilled with your holiness and your sobriety and your good judgment and your excellent behavior and your wonderful speech or did Paul write 1st Corinthians because hey guys you got lots of problems and I'm gonna have to write you this letter of rebuke because you're doing all kinds of things that are wrong well you know that it's it's the latter right first corinthians is a book of reproof so now look at this verse again under the church of god which is at corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints see what that verse is saying the Corinthians were sanctified even though they were not living properly that tells you that their sanctification their calling to be Saints took place the moment they were saved that tells you that that sanctification is not dependent upon behavior it's not dependent upon holy living they were set apart for a sacred use at the moment of their salvation even if they didn't always walk in it get first Corinthians chapter 1 1st Corinthians chapter 1 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 first Corinthians 1:30 but of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption get with me 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and we're gonna see something here that I think is a similar usage so let's just read it and we'll deal with them both together 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11 and let's start in verse 9 to get the context know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God some people get scared at that that verse because they think wait a minute I'm not living the way that I should well let's keep reading be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God now that list can be a little bit scary because if you're honest you see some of those those things in your own life and thought patterns don't you mean for being honest verse 11 notice this and such were some of you what a wonderful phrase in other words all those things you were that but you aren't that and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God I love first Corinthians 6:11 I think it's powerful here's what it what it means as you reflect on your life and you think about some of the most horrible things you've done and by the way Paul says forgetting those things which that are behind so it doesn't only go to dwell on them but what do you do when you feel guilt what do you do when you feel condemnation what do you do when you feel regret do you ever have thoughts occur to you where you think I just hate that I did that I wish I had never done that I wish I had handled that situation differently if I could change it I would but I can't yet it bothers me the human condition is to have things like that let's just be honest right have you ever said something that you wish you hadn't said well you know that to be the case well how do you how do you deal with that how do you deal with that remorse how do you deal with that guilt look what 1st Corinthians 6:11 says and such were some of you you no longer are what you were you're a new creature in Christ all those sins all that wickedness whatever torments your conscience it's no longer who you are you're done with it hopefully that frees you hopefully that frees you from guilt and condemnation and regret and fear now here's what one should get from this verse when it says but ye are sanctified see that's something that happened to you at Salvation here's the glorious thing that happened from the moment before salvation to the moment after you are a guilty sinner you lost you were on your way to hell but you had faith in the gospel you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and in a moment you went from being that guilty sinner that was on his way to hell that was going to spend an eternity in the lake of fire and now you have this position in Christ for all eternity and not only that you've been justified you've been declared righteous you've been washed you're not dirty anymore you've been cleansed from your sins and you have been sanctified you've been set apart to a new and holy purpose that's what happened for you at Salvation all right let's get the next one now this next one is gonna be tricky and we're gonna take a few moments on it because this is one of those that that people just struggle with because of what it says so get 1st Corinthians 7:14 1st Corinthians 7:14 for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean but now are they holy well what does that mean how does the unbelieving spouse become sanctified well to just start it can't mean that they become saved right in other words if a spouse is an unbeliever they don't become saved because they're their wife their husband is a believer look with me at verse 16 for what knowest Thou O wife whether thou shalt save thy husband or how knowest Thou O man whether thou shalt save thy wife well that tells you that the the unbelieving spouse they're not saved yet verse 14 says they're sanctified well that obviously tells you that the sanctification in verse 14 that we're looking at this is different from the sanctification we've looked at in the past those sanctification 's belong to a saved person and occurred the moment that they had faith in the gospel so this sanctification is something different now notice what verse 14 says again notice the last part of the verse else were your children unclean but now are they holy okay so there's something going on here because there's two people that are married one's an unbeliever the unbeliever isn't saved based upon verse 16 but they are sanctified and the children are called holy well what does that mean well let's just let's just run a little search here are you ready if we run a search about hol asterisk and then CH I LD asterisk so we're gonna see all the verses that have holy children in the scriptures so it'll capture holy holiness etc it's gonna get all of them now the interesting we're gonna the interesting thing we're gonna see when we run that search just a little refill there oh and see here's what its gonna do it's gonna pull up hollow and so on and I'm gonna tell you this and you can just decide you can validate this so this is another part for your homework are you ready in the scriptures there is only one child that is described as holy can you guess who it is Jesus Acts chapter 4 Acts chapter 4 verse 27 for other truth against thy Holy Child Jesus acts 4 verse 30 and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy Holy Child Jesus so the only child other than in 1st Corinthians 7 that's described as holy is Jesus Christ so what's going on in 1st Corinthians 7:14 it can't mean that the children of the unbelieving spouse are somehow superior to those of the believing spouse that doesn't make any sense so go back to 1st Corinthians 7:14 notice the first word of the verse four four is a term that's essentially saying because of so whenever you see four you know that it's in the middle of a thought so what we're gonna do is we're going to go up to verse twelve and we're gonna read those verses to get the context so 1st Corinthians 7 verse 12 but to the rest speak I not the Lord if any brother hath a wife that believeth not and she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away and the woman which hath an husband that believeth not and if he be pleased to dwell with her let her not leave him so verses 12 and 13 deal with the situation of what happens when there is a believer married to an unbeliever what should be done and what the verses say is that if the unbeliever is pleased to dwell to remain then the believer shouldn't divorce them they shouldn't separate from that they should stay together what verse 14 does is it it begins with the word for and it's giving the reason why they should stay together and the reason why is for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband so what it's saying is believer you don't have to depart from the unbelieving spouse for what reason for because of the unbelieving spouse is sanctified doesn't mean the unbelieving spouse is saved it says the unbelieving spouse is sanctified now let me ask you this next question are you ready where would a believer possibly get the idea that they should divorce the unbelieving spouse why would they think that and the reason why I think is in the context of first Corinthians 7 there's a chapter right before it called first Corinthians six so look with me at verse 15 first Corinthians 6 verse 15 know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot god forbid what know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body for to say if he shall be one flesh but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit so what is 1st Corinthians 6 verses 15 to 17 sing well what it's saying is for someone who is a believer they are joined to Christ as one spirit since they are joined to Christ as one spirit it is completely wrong inconsistent terrible bad and overall not good to be one with a harlot right because if one is one spirit with the Lord then one shouldn't be one body with a harlot it tells specifically not to do that it seems to me what's going on in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 is that the the question raised by the believing spouse is this I am one spirit with the Lord but my spouse is not one spirit with the Lord if they're an unbeliever so is that a union that I should avoid is there something wrong about this marriage Union because I'm one spirit with the Lord and my spouse isn't well scripture answers that question and what it says in verse 14 is for the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing spouse they're not they don't become saved but they're considered sanctified by virtue of the believing spouse so that's what the what's going on there and then that that's why it means so look then at verse 4 team one more time first Corinthians 7:14 for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband so it is a proper union then notice what it sells says elsewhere your children unclean but now are they holy so since it is a valid union that children are clean the children wouldn't be clean if it was an invalid Union but the Lord considers it a valid union because it is sanctified by the believing spouse that's what's going on there in that passage in my opinion now that's a lot of work to get to that conclusion and that's why people often decide well you know it's easier just to pick up a commentary or you know the reason I love a Study Bible is it's like having a test with an answer key right because you just go to the bottom of the page and it'll tell you what to think well you can use those things as inputs you can use those things to stimulate your thinking but there is no substitute for actual study of the Word of God there's no substitute for looking at cross references for reading the context and coming to an understanding based upon research all right get Ephesians chapter 5 Ephesians chapter 5 so we're going to continue now we're going to look at the next use of the term sanctify Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word well in this verse sanctify is used in the sense of cleanse and this is the church being sanctified and cleansed by the washing of water by the word in other words the church is purified is sanctified by the word get 1st Thessalonians 4 now first the stone is 4 is going to introduce us to a new meaning so let's pay close attention to it first Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3 4 this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor so now think with me for a minute a few moments ago we were in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2 and when Paul wrote to the Corinthians he described that he said to them they are sanctified well there were people in Corinth if you read 1st Corinthians chapter 5 there was a lot of non sanctified behavior going on that was in violation of this verse right there was but in 1st Corinthians 1 when Paul said that they are sanctified that they were sanctified he's clearly referring to what happened to them at Salvation at Salvation they were set apart for holy purposes what 1st Thessalonians 4 is talking about is not the setting apart that occurs at Salvation it's talking about your ongoing manner of living let's look at it again for this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication in other words that's a day-by-day decision the believer needs to make to abstain from fornication verse 4 that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor this sanctification in 1st Thessalonians 4 isn't one that occurs at salvation this is the ongoing sanctification in the believers life as they walk the way that they should look at verse 7 to see a clearer explanation of this for God hath not called us unto cleanness but unto holiness what God has done as he's called us to walk as the way that we're supposed to were supposed to walk in sanctification and therefore abstain from fornication so we see there's a difference there look with me at first us alone Chapter five first Thessalonians chapter five verse 23 and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ see here's the reality you determine what the judgment seat of Christ is going to be like so every believer is going to go through the judgment seat of Christ they will appear there and they will give an account for their works as a member of the body of Christ we're all going to be there well you know how it's gonna go you're gonna decide right because you're gonna decide on a daily basis how you walk how you live how you serve the Lord and it's up to us right we're gonna control that would what first of all sermons 5:23 says and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless he's not saying that they'd be preserved from hell that's already resolved that's a done deal what he's praying there is that the Saints would walk the way they should so that when they get to the judgment seat of Christ their blameless they're not to be blamed that's the practical day-to-day sanctification that takes place as the believer chooses to walk the way they should Geir with me second thessalonians chapter 2 2nd thessalonians chapter 2 2nd thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 but we are bound to give thanks all waited odd for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth what happens is the way salvation works is your set aside by the spirit when you believe the truth that's how you know that's how it operates and there's a a salvation and a sanctification that takes place instantaneously when you believe the gospel get first Timothy chapter 4 and we're gonna see another way that sanctification is used first Timothy chapter 4 and verse 4 first Timothy 4:4 for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving verse 5 for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer now here's what that passage is telling us meet during the dispensation of grace is sanctified by two things the Word of God and prayer so let's talk first about the Word of God if you think about the Old Testament were there some unclean animals there were you can read about them in Leviticus chapter 11 there were some animals that it was unclean to eat we've talked recently about Acts chapter 10 in Acts chapter 10 Peter has a vision where he perceives all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things and the voice says to him arise Peter kill and eat and he says not so Lord for I've never eaten anything common or unclean in other words what he's saying is I had this vision and a bunch of those animals were unclean so I'm not gonna eat him and then Peter had to learn that God had cleansed them what I want you to get is this if we were still under the Old Testament law there would be meat that is not clean not sanctified because Leviticus specifically said that it was unclean but we live during the dispensation of grace and you know what the Word of God has done what the Word of God has done look at with me at first Timothy 4:4 for every creature of God is good every creature of God is good today now I know that there are some within Christianity that'll tell you well you're not allowed to eat pigs or pork or bacon but that's not what the Word of God says it says for every creature of God is good so the first thing that was necessary to sanctify meets to make them clean is the Word of God made them clean now what's the second thing look at me at first Timothy chapter 4 verse 5 for it is sanctified by the Word of God in prayer so the first thing God did is he made every creature of God good and clean because he sanctified it by his word the next thing that he did is it is sanctified by prayer so God made the animals clean you can eat any of them but what do you need to do you need to pray about it now what's fascinating about this look at look at verse 4 and it's fascinating how when you compare verse with first it gives you clarity for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused that's the sanctification by the Word of God then notice what it says if it be received with Thanksgiving that's the prayer so God's Word made the creatures good but what do we we need to do we need to be thankful now let me pause here for a minute what are we supposed to give thanks in all things right in other words here's what happens we're thankful at times if we get stuff that we like admit the truth of the matter but when there are things that we don't like we're often not thankful for them and if we're honest about things aren't we very entitled and we think we deserve more the stuff that we have we deserve it because we worked hard for it or whatever justification we have in our minds but scripture tells us to be thankful people and so the way that we should think about food being sanctified is it sanctified first of all because god's word sanctified it during the dispensation of grace and second it's sanctified by our giving of thanks so we need to be thankful for what we have get with me second Timothy chapter 2 second Timothy chapter 2 and look with me at verse 21 if a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified and meat for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work well that sanctification didn't occur at Salvation because it says if a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified so this is something that has to be done post salvation for a man to be sanctified and to be a vessel on the honor and meat for the Masters use so what is it that needs to be done well look at verse 21 if a man therefore purge himself from these so we have to figure out what the these is that's that's a pronoun and we have to figure out what the antecedent is and what happens if you you spend the time to do this go up to verse 16 and the way that I normally do this is I would read right before it I'd read verse 20 and then I'd read verse 19 and then I read verse 18 and I keep reading until I found the antecedent let's just start in verse 16 and then we'll read down but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more ungodliness we live in the communication age so we have cell phones so you can talk to anyone around the world at a moment's notice we have email so you can email anyone in the world at a moment's notice and we have text messages and of course we have YouTube and we have we have endless ways of communication this is my opinion you can decide for yourself that doesn't mean that everything that is said is worthwhile and I would argue what's happened is the more methods of communication that exist it's nice that they exist thankful for that but what happens is the heart of man is full of profane and vain babblings and they just keep increasing and increasing and increasing and if you doubt that I just wonder if you have internet access because there's just no end of profane and vain babblings and what it says is they will increase unto more ungodliness and their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is hymenaeus and philetus who concerning the truth of Earth saying that the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity but in a great house there not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wooden of Earth some to honor and some to dishonor now if you read through that passage I'm just going to suggest this to you when it gets to verse 21 and it says if a man therefore purge himself from these so you're looking for a plural noun prior to this verse that you're to avoid and what happens is it goes all the way back up to verse 16 here's what that's saying for us to be sanctified and meet for the Masters use you know we have to do we have to avoid profane and vain babblings and there's tons of them there is tons of them get with me and so look at me then at verse 21 before we go to a different verse look at verse 21 do you see how it says a vessel on the honor and then it says sanctified and then it says meat for the Masters use those are all similar concepts they're the vessel unto honor is the vessel that is designed it's reserved to have an honorable use it's sanctified it's set apart for a holy use and then what does it say meat for the Masters use Scripture does that many times where it will give you a number of phrases in the row where it's it's giving you clarity as to the meaning of the term the idea of being a vessel unto honor is that you're sanctified you're set apart and your meat your suitable for the man there's use get second Timothy chapter two you'll see a similar concept second Timothy chapter two verse three thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ no man that warith entangle if himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier what happens if you're gonna be a soldier you have to decide not to engage in some civilian activities right in other words if there's a purpose you're trying to accomplish you have to limit your involvement in non-essential things I don't know if you heard this story recently or not but one of the things that happened was the United States had some ships that were out in the middle of the ocean and what happened was there were individuals on those ships who were using social media that identified their presence so in other words if you had access to the software and you saw this little dot in the middle of the ocean it wasn't a dolphin right there was a sailor there that was using that social media device so what happened the Navy said we're not letting you guys use that anymore because part of being a soldier is you can't get entangled with things that defeat your purpose you follow me soldiers go through boot camp to get trained to get equipped to get skilled to perform that that God has called them to do so let me put it this way you decide for yourself I think what happens a lot with saved people is we get entangled with the affairs of this life I'll give you one example that I see many saved people think that part of their Christian ministry is to criticize the government and it's you it's up to you you have freedom of conscience to do what you want to do but let me let me just share this thought with you part of being a soldier for the Lord Jesus Rhys is you need to be dedicated to serving his purposes there's a lot of things on this earth that don't make any sense and by the way the earth isn't gonna make any sense until he returns so if you look out at the earth and you think this place is crazy you're right but it's not gonna be fixed until the Lord comes back it's just not and you can spend your life trying to fix it but you're not going to be able to because sinners are running the thing see what we need to do is this we need to purge ourselves pro from profane and vain babblings and what we need to do is we need to be sanctified we need to be meet for the Masters use because we have a very clear dedication to his purpose which is seeing the Lost get saved and teaching right division that's what he called us to do look at me at Romans 6 verse 19 I'll show you a verse that has a similar use of sanctification to the one we're talking about here look at Romans 619 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as you have yielded yourself servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness the idea that verse is what do we need to do we need to yield ourselves to righteousness and holiness so let me pull this all together during the dispensation of grace sanctification has different meanings we saw the meaning of sanctification where the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing spouse we saw the meaning of sanctification where what happens is the way that meet today is sanctified as it's sanctified by the Word of God and prayer so we understand those meanings but there's two that are really important that we need to talk about and that's this the first is you were sanctified the very moment you had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ from that very moment you were set aside for a holy purpose think of it this way you get saved by believing the gospel what happens if the rest of your life you live like a nitwit you just do all sorts of things you shouldn't do well that's not going to change the fact that you're going to be caught up and you're going to be given a celestial body and you're gonna have a spiritual purpose in the heavenlies you're setting apart two that can't be changed that is unchangeable inalienable unalterable irrevocable that's the sanctification that occurs at the moment of salvation but what happens the rest of your life see what happens is we get to decide on a daily basis what we do we can either possess this this vessel in sanctification and honor so it's meat for the Masters use we can purge ourselves from profane and vain babblings we can endure hardness and we can choose not to be entangled with the affairs of this life and we can be that vessel that is practically suited for the Masters use and what I would tell you is you need both sanctification you need the one that you get at salvation in an instant and then what we each need to do on a daily basis is we need to walk in holiness we need to possess our vessels in sanctification in honor that's the high calling for our lives let me close with this thought people sometimes don't like the exhortation to walk worthy because they just want to do what they want to do they want to live carefree lives they don't want to be under constraints they just want to be able to do whatever they feel like doing and I want to give you a word of encouragement your your life has a purpose and a meaning that is eternally profound there's eight billion souls on this planet there's billions of people that are going to go to an eternal hell and what we need to do is we need to take our lives and use them in such a way live in such a way that we can be vessels unto honor so that we can present the gospel so that we can present right the vision so that we can present God's Word and so it will change people's eternal destiny that's the purpose of life if you're investing your life in anything else stop it's not worthy of you thank you for joining with us tonight father God we thank you for your word we thank you for how you preserved it for us we thank you for its perfection we thank you Lord for the sanctification that you gave us the moment we believed the gospel we thank you that you set us apart for a holy purpose and we just pray Lord that the Saints would be preserved blameless that they would walk worthy and they would be the vessels of Honor that she wants them to be it's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray [Music] you you [Music] you you [Music]

Channel: Columbus Bible Church

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Length: 56min 25sec (3385 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020