Practical Sanctification

Temple Baptist Church - 2-24-2016

Jude 1

Introduction: 

A.  In our verse for tonight, we find Positional Sanctification and Preservation which are acts of God. 

1.  Salvation and security are works of God and God alone.  We bring a bankrupt sinner to Christ by faith and are saved and eternally sealed.  Positional Sanctification establishes Relationship, which is eternal!  One day just like today and it may be today, our Lord will come for His Church and will take us home.  This will be Perpetual Sanctification as we shall ever be with the Lord. 

2.  In between our salvation and the Lord’s coming for His Church, is our life lived for Christ. 

a)  As Position and Perpetual Sanctification are acts of God, Practical Sanctification is something that the believer does.  Practical Sanctification establishes Fellowship, which is temporal! 

b)  As on a cemetery monument with a date of birth and a date of death separated with a dash, so is our lives.  There is a date that we are born again, a date that we will one day be forever with the Lord, and a dash that represents the years of our lives between the two.

B.  Practical Sanctification is a very little preached on subject in these latter days.  

1.  People who do not want to live for the Lord do not want to hear it and hireling prophets that fill the pulpits do not want to preach it. 

2.  Lukewarm people do not want to want to be either warmed up or awakened.  They are in a comfort zone that requires nothing of them.  This is not the will of God for the believer.

C.  Practical Sanctification is an all important part of living for the Lord.  (1 John 1:1-7)

1.  Practical Sanctification is essential to having fellowship with the Lord!  Vs. 3-6

2.  Practical Sanctification is essential to having fellowship with the body of Christ! Vs. 7

D.  The wickedness of our unsaved flesh:

1.   The pull of the world is strong and our flesh is weak.   because of the strong pull that the world has upon us.  Romans 7:18-21  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  (19)  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  (20)  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  (21)  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

2.  Living for the Lord requires our dying to self by crucifying our flesh. Galatians 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

E.  Practical Sanctification is much more than separation from the world.  It is separation unto the Lord.  Practical sanctification is not separation from the world. 

1.  It is conformity to God!  Each of us who are save have an obligation to be personally conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible says that we are a peculiar people.  We are not trying to be a peculiar people, we are peculiar.  We are to be peculiar in our actions; we are to be peculiar in our deportment; we are to be peculiar in our following; we are to be peculiar in our thinking; we are not to be conformed to this world but we are to renew our minds through the Word of God. 

2.  We are special and we are different!  We are saved and we are His!  The world hates Jesus Christ and, if we are right with Jesus Christ, the world will hate us!

Titus 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

1 Peter 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

1.  Practical Sanctification is Acting Right - 2 Corinthians 7:1  Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

2.  Practical Sanctification is Conforming Right - Romans 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

3.  Practical Sanctification is Loving Right - 1 John 2:15-17  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  (16)  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  (17)  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

4.  Practical Sanctification is Associating Right - James 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

                                                                                                                                                                          5.  Practical Sanctification is Thinking Right - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.