The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E91 - Sanctification

Episode Date: September 29, 2020

Hey, church family. If you got your Bibles, hope you do, we're going to continue in Philippians chapter 3. We're going to pick it up in verse 10 again. I think I read it yesterday, but let's do it again. Before we dive in, what Paul is going to be talking about in 10 through 16 is sanctification, okay? Sanctification. Salvation is a multi-layered process and experience. Okay? And what Paul just laid out in chapter 3, verses 1 through 9. which we covered yesterday, essentially what he was talking about is justification. A way to remember what it means to be justified. This isn't complete in its definition, but it's a good enough way. That is that when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, when you believe when Jesus died on the

cross, that counted for me, when you surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then in that moment, you are justified. Now, whether you can remember when that moment happened or not, some moment in your life where that happened in a moment. You can't gradually ease your way into justification. That's now how it happened. Now, my testimony, I can remember the exact moment. If we could get my truck, I could drive you to the exact place I was standing when my justification happened when I put my faith in Christ. And a part of the reason is just my background. I was really bad and I didn't grow up in church. So I know that moment where I surrendered my life to Christ. my wife cannot remember that moment, but she grew up really good, and she grew up going to church,

and she can't ever remember a moment where she didn't have faith in God. But it's not remembering that moment that saves you. It's her current posture to her Lord and Savior that saves her, okay? But there was a moment at some point where she crossed over from death to life. So that's called justification. and to be justified means that when Christ died on the cross for you, if you put your faith in him, it's justified, never sin. According to God's view of you, he sees you justified, never sin. Okay? So salvation includes

justification. That's what he talked about in the first nine verses of chapter three. It's very important. And he wants you to know that you were not justified by your works. It's not like you did a bunch of bad stuff. Now you've got to work it off by doing a bunch of good stuff. And thank God that's, thank God we're not saved by our works, because if we were saved by our works, some of us don't have enough time left in our life to do enough good works to undo all the bad works that we've done in our past. Amen? So when we're saved, we're justified. And then that leads to a process of salvation from that moment until the day we breathe our last breath. That process is called sanctification.

sanctification is ultimately an ongoing progressive process where the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to like a hammer and a chisel to chisel away everything in our life that does not look like Jesus. And so essentially we are continuously working out our salvation with fear and trembling. That's what we covered in chapter 2. And it is a process, not overnight, but over time. And so that's called sanctification. The third aspect of our salvation means that one day we will be glorified. That one day in the twinkling of an eye, then we will be transformed into our glorified self.

There'll be no more pain, no more tears, sin will be punished once and for all. The devil himself will be cast away, will be locked up and thrown into a pit of fire forever and ever and ever. And you and I will not even, we will not even be impacted by sin whatsoever. There'll be plenty of food. The Bible talks about it as a banqueting table, like a wedding feast. And so that's called glorification. So salvation really has three aspects to it. There's justification, sanctification, and glorification.

And all of that together is our salvation. There's a past attents to it. there's an ongoing present to it, and there is a future to it. A way to think about it is that the moment you surrendered your life to Christ, you were saved, past tense, from the penalty of sin. Currently, as you continue with your faith in Christ, you are being saved from the power of sin over your life. It's called sanctification.

And then one day, when we get to heaven, we will be saved, even from the presence of sin. That's called glorification. So what Paul does, and I think the reason he does this, is in chapter 3 verses 1 through 9, he just lays out that by, that no one by your own works will ever be deemed righteous before the Lord, that you and I do not have a righteousness on our own. And what that can always lead to is that can always lead to what's called antinomianism. Antinomianism just means without law. And what that means is, maybe you've heard the phrase like cheap grace. That means that, okay, you hear that I'm saved by grace and not by works, well, then does that mean that I can just do whatever I want? Because

if I'm saved by grace and I can't lose my salvation, then can I go and do whatever I want? And then I've got God in a loophole because he has to forgive me because I claim Christ is my Savior. And basically what Paul's going to say in verses 10 in following is this, he's going to say, if that's the way you're acting, then that is evidence that you didn't actually surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Because think about it, if you have surrendered to Jesus as your Lord, ultimately what you're saying is, I'm not in charge of me anymore. You are in charge of me. So you cannot simultaneously say, well, I'm saved by grace so I can do whatever I want, because essentially what you're saying is, I've surrendered my life.

to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, now I'm not going to surrender my life to His Lordship. Here we go. 3, 10, and following. He says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So when you get saved, not only do you get saved from, you get saved from your sin, you get saved from yourself, you get saved from eternity in hell, you also get saved to something.

But what Paul would have us believe is we're not ultimately saved to heaven, we're ultimately saved to Jesus. You know what makes heaven heaven heaven? Jesus. He's saying what he wants more than anything in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him. That's what he wants ultimately. This is what sanctification is. It's a continual deepening in your knowledge, not like knowledge just like to know about, but when the Bible uses the word no, it means the ultimate relationship. To just jump right to it in Genesis, the Bible says, and Adam knew Eve, and she bore a child. So he wants to be in the ultimate relationship with Jesus, that I may know him

and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his soul. sufferings becoming like him in his death, that as we walk through sufferings in this current life, then it is, God is in charge of even those sufferings to prune away the dead branches in our life so that we can be more and more like him, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. And he keeps going in verse 12. He says, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect. This is why sanctive is progressive. There are a group of people. Actually, there's a group of people here in Jacksonville that have picketed our church before, and the reason that they're picketing our church is because

they say that I am light on sin. I am not light on sin. I think sin is so atrocious that Jesus had to die on the cross for it in order for us to be forgiven. But what that group believes is they believe in an instantaneous perfect sanctification, that if you are a Christian, then you don't struggle anymore and you don't sin anymore. Paul right here says, I have not obtained that perfection in my sanctification, that I am a work in progress. And can we all agree that when Paul writes Philippians chapter 3, that he is already Christian? And don't you know, like God's word is the ultimate authority? Yes and amen. But doesn't your own testimony align with the truth here? I mean, can't you say about your own walk

with Christ? Not that I have already obtained this or am already. ready, perfect? Yeah, I got a long way to go. So here's what he says. But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. This is how Paul argues. Let those of us who are mature think this way.

And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Okay, what have we attained? we have attained salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. That is a done deal. Then what are we pressing towards? What we are pressing towards is we are pressing towards the goal of the high calling of Christ in our life,

the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What we are pressing toward is what is not yet obtained, which is his sanctification. So here's what this means. This is like athletic terminology is what he is using here. what he is saying basically is we've got to forget the things behind us and set our eyes on Jesus, the author of the perfect of our faith. There's a bunch of things in this world that are keeping us from attaining this sanctification that he talks about here. Let me ask you this. What are those things

in your life? You've got to forget those things. You've got to put those things behind you. some of them are mental things like you're believing in the lies of the enemy and he whispers lies of condemnation and you're believing them you got to forget those things those things in the past don't define you only christ gets to define you some of them are physical things like you can't be the person god has called you to be because you're addicted to some kind of substance or you can't get off the couch some of them are relational things and there are there are relationships that are holding you back because there is there is, there's unforgiveness there. And that unforgiveness is holding your relationship with Jesus back because you and I are

supposed to be conduits of the forgiveness of Jesus, not cul-de-sacs, just holding it up for ourselves. And the reason that we can forgive the inexcusable in other people is because Christ forgave the inexcusable in us. So a part of a serious, significant part of what it does. means to be sanctified is identify those things that need to be in your past that you need to get your eyes off of that you need to get away from. Some of it's a busy schedule. Some of it's bad relationships. Some of its crazy debt, whatever it is. You need to address those things. And then turn and

fix your eyes on Jesus. What are the things in your life that stir your affections for him? what are the things in your life that you are pressing on towards the goal? What are the things in your life that are drawing you deeper and deeper and deeper in your relationship with Jesus and do those things? Cut out the things that are killing you and double down on the things that are deepening your relationship with Jesus. Over time, not overnight, this is called sanctification. So again, there are some attitudes and actions in your life that need to go away.

You should spend some time right now and pray and say, Holy Spirit, reveal these things to me. My guess is, is you don't need some kind of spiritual breakthrough for God to reveal what those things are. And then it is not enough to just forget what is behind you, but you've also got to press on towards the goal. Again, you're not pressing on so that you will be. saved. He says, only let us hold true to what we have attained. What you have attained is salvation. Now, act like it. Act like it. Pursue Jesus. I would highly encourage you to spend lots of time in

His Word, spend lots of time with His people, spend lots of time with Him, and watch what happens to you being transformed to be more and more and more like Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I thank you for the process of sanctification. God, we thank you for the trials that we go through, God. We thank you for the suffering, for the pain. God, we thank you for the discipline it requires. But God, ultimately, all of it's worth it when you are our treasure. Spirit of God, I pray that you would make clear to us the things that are hindering our walk with you.

And we would cut those things out of our life. and Lord, I know it sounds so easy to just say it, but God, by the power of the spirit in us, would you help us to remove those things, cast those things off? And God, would you help us to fix our eyes on you and to press on towards the goal of you? We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.