Word of Salvation – February 2025

 

Sanctification

 

Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on W.C.F. ch.13 & Isaiah 1:16 &25

Reading: Isaiah 1:1-20; Westminster Confession – ch.13

 

Singing:        BoW.092       It is good to sing Your praises
–                       BoW.214       May the  mind of Christ my Saviour
–                       BoW.437       God works His purposes in us
–                       BoW.089b     All glory unto God we yield

Theme: Sanctification defined, illustrated from Isaiah 1:16,25 and its struggles for perfection outlined.

 

Introd:  I read recently that in The Netherlands multiculturalism is in deep trouble.

Dutch society has been one of the most tolerant in Europe… but it seems that is changing.
People are questioning whether you can live in a Dutch society as a separate ethnic group.
This nation of 16 million residents has 2 million who were foreign born.
And of that two million it is estimated that one quarter do not speak Dutch.

 

Sociologists say that for a nation to have genuine social cohesion it must share three things.
There must be a shared language… a shared history… and shared laws.
But there are now half a million who do not speak the shared language.
They do not share the history… and the language barrier prevents them from learning it.
And then on top of that there is especially the problem of a loss of shared laws.
Extremist Muslims in Holland are pushing for Islamic law – called Sharia.
That greatly affects behaviour patterns and puts immense strain on Dutch society.

 

I suspect that this is also going to be an increasing problem in Australia in the years to come.
How do we keep our various ethnic groups together in the one Australian society?
How do you get everyone’s behaviour to line up so that you have a unified people?
How do we get newcomers to fit in with the Australian way of life?

 

When I read that I thought of the church.
We have a shared language… the language of God… and the cross… and our salvation.
We have a shared history… the story of God’s saving deeds among His people.
And we have shared laws… God’s revealed will and His commandments.
But how do we get everyone living the Christian life the way they ought?
How do we get newcomers to not only ‘talk the talk’ but ‘walk the walk’?
Our topic helps us get a handle on this problem – as far as the church is concerned.

 

A]        SANCTIFICATION DEFINED.

 

1. It is not too difficult to sum up what should mark the Christian life and the Christian church.

It is holiness.    And that holiness is based on God being a holy God.
That is something Scripture affirms over and over.
God is the Holy One!  Holiness is one of His attributes.

And because God is a holy God He wants a holy people.
So the church is often referred to as a holy nation.
And each believer is a saint… a holy person.

 

There is a sense in which us being like God happened instantaneously when we became Christians.
We became holy people looking like a holy God.
When were born again we were born again to be like our Father in heaven.
We were transformed by the power of Christ’s death & resurrection as we entered His Kingdom.

However becoming like God is also an ongoing process.
It began with that life-changing transformation at the instant we came to faith.
But you and I haven’t arrived yet… our behaviour so often still doesn’t measure up.

Too often we are still like foreigners who don’t quite fit into the national culture.
So we need to go on being changed bit by bit – until the day we die.
And that life-long process of growth and change is what Christians call sanctification.

 

2. Sanctification is another one of those ‘God words’ that we’re told to avoid.

The fear is that if we use words like this then people won’t understand what we are talking about.

We’re told that it turns people off when we talk this kind of theological jargon.

 

But that’s not the answer.
Because then people will have trouble reading their Bibles too.
The NT uses the word sanctification a number of times (6x in the ESV).
For example:  Paul says in 1Thess.4:3 “This is the will of God: your sanctification!”
Here is a call for us to be sanctified.
But how do you know if you are doing what Paul calls you to do?
Are you doing the will of God by being sanctified?
Obviously, to answer that, you need to understand what sanctification means.

 

So we need to define the word and define it from Scripture.
I’ve already made clear that the word has to do with holiness.
Our word ‘sanctify’ comes from a Latin word, sanctus – meaning holy.
And that word holy in the Bible had a twofold meaning.

First of all it especially had the idea of being set apart and different.
God is Holy in the sense of being set apart from us and different from us.
But it also had the idea of moral purity… ethical righteousness.
There is no sin or unrighteousness in God because He is holy.

These two things also apply to us as Christians.
Christians are set apart from the rest of the world… we are different.
And Christians are to show in their life something of the moral purity of their holy God.
‘Problem is that too often we are still in a state of multicultural crisis about our holiness.
All sorts of foreign behaviour is still seen in our life.  We don’t quite measure up.

 

3. Westminster Confession, chap.13 brings together a whole lot of Bible teaching.

And it paints for us a more complete picture of what sanctification is.

Let me pick out just a few key ideas.

 

First of all it shows us that sanctification only applies to Christians… not to unbelievers.
In sanctification we’re not talking about some moral improvement in non-Christians.
And we’re not talking about building a better and more just society.

 

Sanctification is a process that takes place in those who are called and regenerated by God.
We’re talking about people who have been dramatically changed.
It’s what the Bible calls: being born again.
When God as it were, puts a new heart and new Spirit within them.

 

So these are people who have already been brought into the Kingdom of Christ.
They were foreigners… but they aren’t foreigners any longer.
The problem is that they are still set in their old multicultural ways.
Our old habits die hard and some of those habits aren’t appropriate in Christ’s Kingdom.
We are still struggling with that shared law that we need to obey.

 

So in sanctification the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ works in us.
And by the power of Christ’s death and resurrection he continues the process of transformation.
He destroys the power of sin that rules over us.
The desires of the old-self are gradually weakened and killed.
And in this way we practice more and more true holiness.
Our behaviour becomes more and more appropriate for what we are:
God’s holy people…!  Citizens of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ…!

 

B]        SANCTIFICATION ILLUSTRATED.

 

1. Again I want to illustrate some aspects of this teaching from Isaiah.

I do that because the OT is foundational to understanding this subject.

 

I mentioned for example that our starting point is God’s absolute holiness.
Holiness in God’s people is necessary because we serve a holy God.
Our need for holiness is based on God’s holiness.
And we see that holiness of God in so many ways especially in the O.T.

 

We also see it very clearly in Isaiah.
Here is a writer who is very conscious that Israel’s God is a holy God.
Isaiah was familiar with the rituals and sacrifices of the temple highlighting holiness.
It all pointed to the fact that God is different… set apart… holy.

 

But his sense of God’s holiness was probably especially shaped by the events of chapter 6.
There Isaiah has that awesome vision of God in the temple.
And that spoke to Him of difference… of set apartness… of holiness.
He sees God on a throne… high and exalted.
He sees that the angels around the throne cover their faces.
And he hears them calling out to each other: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.

 

That must have affected Isaiah deeply throughout his lengthy ministry.
The words ‘holy’ and ‘holiness’ occur more than 60 times in Isaiah.
On average, that’s about once a chapter.
On top of that there are related words such as purity.
And words like ‘righteous’ and ‘just’ also highlight God’s moral holiness.
So this is foundational for Isaiah – the God we worship is a holy God.

 

2. That helps us to understand the strong language in chapter 1.

Isaiah knows that Israel are God’s holy people.

 

He also knows that Israel, as the holy people of God were called to be holy like God.
Isaiah knows Leviticus 19:1 – Be holy because I the Lord your God am holy.
And that holiness was to be seen especially in Israel’s behaviour… so he lays it on the line:
Learn to do right… seek justice… encourage the oppressed… defend the cause of the fatherless.

 

These people were God’s holy people but the problem was that they were not living like holy people.
They were following the multicultural behaviour of their neighbours.
It’s their language that they were speaking… their history they were endorsing…
… their moral laws (or lack of them) that they were following.

 

And so – essentially – what Isaiah does is call for their sanctification.
These are God’s people that Isaiah is addressing… not the Syrians or Egyptians.
He is calling the people of God’s Kingdom to live and behave like citizens of the kingdom.
And he does that in the strongest possible language.

 

That highlights an important lesson about sanctification.
Israel was responsible for its sanctification.  You are responsible for yours.
Isaiah calls them here to be accountable to God.
God – through Isaiah – lays this responsibility on them.  This is a demand for change.

 

Notice especially in verse 16 the language of repentance… pictured in terms of cleansing.
But it is something they needed to do… they need to work at their sanctification.
Wash and make yourself clean…!   Get rid of that garbage in your life.  Work at it!

 

3. However sanctification is also a close working together of us and of God.

OTOH you cannot and may not be complacent about your sanctification.
God calls you to grow spiritually… you must deal with ungodliness in your life.
This is the will of God: Your sanctification!  You need to work at it.

 

OTOH we cannot do it alone… we cannot change ourselves.
Changing ourselves is not just difficult… it is impossible.
So sanctification is also a work of God.
God does it in us and through us by the working of the Holy Spirit.
So there is a close interaction between our activity and God’s activity.

 

We see this truth also in this first chapter of Isaiah.
Israel’s sanctification was not something they were left to do alone.
We do it… but we do it in cooperation and dependence on God.
And at times… on occasions… God works in special ways with us for our sanctification.

 

We notice that especially a few verses later in vs.25.
There God threatens to bring them through difficult times.
But it is for their sanctification.
Hard times… times of trial and testing… can be meaningful times of sanctification.
Through them our relationship with God is enriched.
Our spiritual life is built up… our love for the Lord grows.

 

In vs.25 Isaiah uses the language of purification.
But think about it and you will realise it is their sanctification that is the issue.
God says: I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove your impurities.
Through the tough times of the exile in Babylon, God would refine His people.
He was causing them to grow in holiness.
And so God calls on them to work at it… but God Himself also works at their sanctification.

 

C]        SANCTIFICATION’S STRUGGLES.

 

1. This is wonderfully comforting and encouraging.

Because we have this problem.

The reading of the Today booklet (May 8^th 2005) put the problem very well.

Maybe you know from experience that trying to change yourself doesn’t work.
You’ve read self-help books to no avail.  To be more Christlike is an impossible goal.
Trying hard to be good by gritting your moral teeth and upping our ethical will power –
all this sounds sensible.  But all it really amounts to is an exercise in “will worship”.

 

This is our problem… we struggle daily to live as citizens of the Kingdom.
And that struggle makes the teaching about sanctification so important.
I don’t see in the Bible anywhere the idea that we can achieve sinless perfection in this life.
I certainly don’t see that at any point in the life of Israel… nor in the book of Isaiah.

 

Sanctification will always be needed because we are “not completely or perfectly sinless in this life.”
We will always need to keep working at putting away the garbage.
We need to strive constantly for that holiness without which no one will see God.
And we need God’s Spirit to keep working in us the whole of our life.
Because only at death… will we be freed from our last remaining sins.

 

The point is that sanctification is necessary because we are caught up in a lifelong battle.
A battle between what Paul calls “the flesh” (meaning: our old nature) and the Spirit.
And that is an irreconcilable war that is happening daily in the life of every believer.

 

2. But now the encouragement is that we do work at it… and more importantly… God works at it too.

We do grow spiritually… our love for the Lord does increase.
And I have seen that happen often in the lives of church people.  Two examples:
Years ago some of you were Christian who lacked assurance of your salvation.
The best you could say was that you hoped you would get to heaven.
Today you are joyfully confident of that.
That has happened because God and you have been busy with your sanctification.

I have seen people here who – a decade ago – refused any kind of active involvement.
They were on the roll and they attended when they felt like it – which wasn’t often.
But today they’re serving this community in all sorts of ways.
It’s because you and God have been busy with your sanctification.

 

Here the Westminster Confession is very encouraging.
It realistically admits that in our daily battle there are setbacks.
Sometimes we see periods of growth in the life of believers.
But there are also times of backsliding.

And then the confession says that our losses are only temporary setbacks.
Sometimes our old nature temporarily wins some battles in our spiritual warfare.
But because of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to overcome.

 

So OTOH Sanctification is an ongoing work of the Spirit of Christ.
He will never give up on us… He keeps working in us and with us to grow in holiness.

 

OTOH don’t ever overlook your own responsibility.
The Spirit of Jesus uses certain means for your spiritual growth.
We call them “the means of grace”.
He sanctifies us through our reading of the Word.
And He sanctifies us through our gathering for worship.
So you need to use those means of grace.

 

3. This teaching means that we need never despair in our struggle for holy living.

The saints do grow in grace.

Believers do live lives that please God.

Christians can live in such a way that their lives are a powerful witness to others.

We do grow to the point where our good works reassure us of our faith.

 

Spiritual progress is wonderfully possible.
But it’s possible only as we work on it in reliance on the Spirit of Jesus.

 

Some Christians speak of victorious Christian living.
And by that they mean that they reach a point of sinless perfection.

Well, I also believe in victorious Christian living.
But for me that is only achieved when I remember that Jesus has already won the victory.
I can’t win the battle but Christ has won it for me by His death and resurrection.
And now it in the power of His victory I must be busy every day again with my sanctification.

 

You need to work at your sanctification the whole of your life,
But do it in the knowledge that as you work at it God’s Spirit works in you.
And His goal is that in this way the likeness of Jesus will be seen more and more in your life.
Let’s be holy people serving a holy God.

Amen