A SANCTIFIED LIFE!

At conversion, the believer receives a justified life. God the Father makes him righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). 

This righteousness is a gift of God the Father to the believer (Rom. 5:17). This is followed by a consecrated life when the believer acknowledges the Lord’s total ownership of his life. It is only after this step that progressive sanctification can begin.

God is calling every Christian to a life of complete sanctification because without sanctification you cannot maintain the holiness that was imparted to you at regeneration. And without holiness you cannot enter Heaven (Heb. 12:14).

Is sanctification for everybody? No! Sanctification is for the church and not for the world (Eph. 5:25-27; Jn. 17:14-20; 1 Thess. 5:22-23; 2 Tim. 2:19-21).

Only believers are commanded, encouraged, and prayed for to be sanctified, in the Scripture.

What the sinner needs justification, but the believer needs sanctification.

Unregenerate sinners are never commanded to be sanctified. They are commanded to repent (Acts 3:19).

Acts 3:19 says, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

Look at a specific instruction given to the Born-Again believers who have turned away from all forms of evil.

“Abstain from all appearance(s) of evil. 23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thess. 5:22-24).

After you are saved, you are expected to turn away from all your idols to serve the living God.

“For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9).

Throughout the Bible you will find: 1) Your own responsibility in this matter, and 2) God’s response to you after you have obeyed His instruction. You will always see the part man is expected to play, and then God’s response when you have played your part.

Here is your responsibility: “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep My statutes, and do them” (Lev. 20:7-8a).

Here is God’s responsibility towards you as you obey His instructions: “…I am the Lord which sanctify you” (Lev. 20:8b).

Look at your part again after you have been saved:

Apostle Paul said, “Wherefore, my beloved, …. work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. How do you do this? Do everything possible not to go back to your vomit. Do not go back to drug addiction again. Do not go back to lying and gossiping again. Do not go back to immorality again. Do not go back to cunning craftiness and 419.

Now, look at God’s responsibility, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

What then is sanctification? Sanctification is the process by which, a believer is purified to the point of being totally free from sin.

Sanctification is the privilege of every believer to attain a state in which he is entirely free from sin.

That very moment you got Born-Again, there is no sin in your life anymore. All your past sins are forgiven and blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ.

At this moment, you are said to be positionally sanctified. This is then followed by a progressive sanctification (Jn. 15:3). Progressive sanctification goes on from the moment after consecration to the moment you see Jesus face to face.

Sanctification is a principle required to maintain holiness. Without sanctification, your garment of righteousness will never remain spotless as it was the very moment you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

When does sanctification begin? It begins in regeneration (that very moment you got Born-Again); and it is carried on in the heart (spirit man) of a believer by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, as he hears the undiluted Word of God.

Sanctification is the will of God for your life! It is the will of God that you be sanctified.

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication” (1 Thess. 4:3).

Jesus came into this world to reveal the very will of the Father. Everything He said, everything He did, all showed the will of God the Father.

The will of God the Father is very important, and it should be the center of our lives.

In Ephesians 5:17 the Bible says, “Wherefore be ye not unwise (be wise in the things you think, desire, do), but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

Even as a sinner, what’s the will of God for your life? Salvation! As a Child of God, the will of God for your life is consecration, sanctification and holiness.

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification….” (1 Thess. 4:3a).

Since sanctification is the will of God for every one of us, a true follower of Christ will delight in knowing and doing the will of God.

In Psalms 40:7-8 the Psalmist said, “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”

The Psalmist said, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Ps. 119:11).

The Word of God in your spirit man will help you to know what God wants you to do at any point in your life.

Psalms 143:10 says, “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.”

Doing the will of God will lead you to the land of uprightness (and that is Heaven).

Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven” (Matt.).

There is a warning for all those that run after signs and wonders: Jesus said, “Not everyone that calls the name of the Lord will enter Heaven, but they that do the will of My Father which is in Heaven” (Matt.).

“But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (Jam. 1:22).

“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (Jam. 1:25).

The very center of pleasing the Lord is doing His will. After you are Born Again and consecrated unto the Lord, sanctification is the very will of God for your life.

“Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4).

Deliverance from this present evil world is talking about salvation. Salvation is the will of God for everyone that has not received Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

1 Timothy 2:3-4 says, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

It is the will of God that you, as a Born-Again believer, should possess your vessel (body) in sanctification and honour.

“That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (1 Thess. 4:4).

In conclusion, if you are really Born Again, I plead with you to take the issue of sanctification very seriously because without it you can never remain holy, and without holiness you cannot enter Heaven.  

Let us pray! “Father, I am now Born-Again. I am Your child. You have forgiven my sins and given me a brand-new life. So, I now come to present myself as a living sacrifice to You.”

Lord, I present my eyes to You. From now on I will never look at anything that will defile my mind. I will not look at anything that will remind me of my old life. I will not look at anything that don’t line up with Your Word.

I am presenting my ears to You. From now on, I will not use these ears to listen to anything that contradict Your Word, IJN.”

Father, help me to be sanctified because this is Your will for my life, IJN.

Father, help me to possess my vessel in sanctification and honour, IJN.

Father, help me to work out my salvation with fear and trembling, IJN.

Father, help me to see Your wrath to come as it is, so that I may apply my heart unto wisdom, IJN.

Thank You for answering our prayers today, IJN.

Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor)                              June 23^rd, 2019!