St. Paul's United Methodist Church

“Understanding Sanctification”

Rev. Richard W. Gray

1 Thessalonians 4:1-3

July 31, 2005

    The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has a test to determine the strength of windshields on airplanes. Because flying birds are a hazard to airplanes, the FAA has a launcher that shoots a dead chicken at a plane's windshield at approximately the speed the plane flies. If the windshield does not crack when the dead chicken carcass hits it, the belief is the plane's windshield will survive a real collision with a bird in flight.

    The British were very interested in this experiment and wanted to test a windshield on a high powered locomotive they were developing. They borrowed the FAA's chicken launcher, loaded in a chicken and fired. The chicken shattered the windshield, went right through the engineer's chair, and smashed the instrument panel behind the engineer's chair, imbedding itself in the back wall of the engine cab.

    The British were very surprised and asked the FAA to check their test to see if they had done everything correctly.

    The FAA checked the British test thoroughly and had only one recommendation…thaw the frozen chicken first.

    There is a right way to do things, and that is what we will look at this morning. God calls for us to live what is called a sanctified life. We will look at the word sanctification this morning. Do not let this word throw you. We have been looking at key words in the Christian faith. So far, we have looked at the words faith and grace. As we look at the doctrine of sanctification, I will try to make this as interesting

interesting and helpful as I can.

    The average church-goer does not know a lot about God. Ask average church-goers to talk for five minutes about the character of God, and they probably could not do it. Ask them to talk about the Christian life for five minutes and they would probably have a difficult time filling up the time. Jesus said that we are to make disciples of all nations and teach them the things He taught. We cannot neglect to teach doctrine.

    A lot of churches do not teach sound Biblical doctrine. It is no wonder that people in the pews become confused when exposed to things that may sound Christian but are not. It is no wonder many church people fall prey to the cults because they do not know sound Biblical doctrine. It is no wonder that things creep into the church that have no place in the church.

    When Charles Colson had a dry spell in his life, one of his friends recommended he listen to some taped lectures by R. C. Sproul on the holiness of God. He said, “All I knew about Sproul was that he was a theologian, so I wasn't enthusiastic. After all, I reasoned, theology was for people who had time to study, locked in ivory towers far from the battlefields of human need. However, at my friend's urging I finally agreed…By the end of the sixth lecture I was on my knees, deep in prayer, in awe of God's absolute holiness. It was a life-changing experience as I gained a completely new understanding of the holy God I believe in and worship.” We need to know more about God and what He wants for our lives. It has always been my purpose as a pastor to teach people the things of God.

    Sanctification is a work of God through which God sets us apart for Himself and for His work in the world. Through Christ, we have been set apart to belong to God and to serve Him. This is called positional sanctification. Our position

position is we belong to God forever. That will never change.

    Then there is practical sanctification. That is the everyday living of a godly life. Our daily lives are to be well-pleasing to God. That is practical sanctification.

    Let us unwrap this a little more so it will become clearer. What does God want for our lives? 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “It is God's will that you should be sanctified.” Then this passage goes on to say to stay away from immorality.

    God's will for us is that we be sanctified, set apart for Him and for His use. This is one of the greatest acts of love and a wonderful privilege that God has bestowed upon us. Never think that you and your life are unimportant, that you do not matter.

    God has called us and sanctified us. For example, when we place our offerings in the offering plates and place them on the altar, we are taking that money and sanctifying it. It is to be used for God's purposes. That money may have been used in the past in very secular ways, perhaps even immoral and illegal ways. But now it is sanctified, set apart to be used for God's purpose.

    Some of us may have a less than perfect past. In fact, we all do. There is sin in all of our lives. Yet God has chosen us to be His and to serve Him. That is sanctification. In no way does sanctification mean that we are sinless. We are set apart for God and for His use.

    This church is constructed out of brick, mortar, concrete, and wood. These things are common ordinary items. They are now sanctified because they are being used in this building where God's work is being done.

    A very close brother to sanctification is holiness. Holiness is also being set apart for God and for His purpose, and living for God and carrying

carrying out His purpose in our lives. It is living a godly life.

    Sanctification is a process. It is spending our lives growing in our faith and growing in our service to our Lord. It is an up and down process. It looks like a stock market report, up and down, yet always climbing.

    We are called to live genuine Christian lives. Once a person has trusted Christ as his or her Savior, a daily life that is well-pleasing to God is to follow.

    The Scottish preacher, Alexander MacLaren, wrote, “The world takes its notion of God most of all from the people who say that they belong to God's family. They read us a great deal more than they read the Bible. In fact, they see us, they only hear about Jesus Christ.”

    There are a lot of people who are critical of Christianity, the Christianity they see in people. The way to silence the critics is through living a genuine Christian life. People have seen enough of the counterfeit. They need to see the genuine.

    Ghandi, a past leader of India, wrote in his diary, “There came a day when I considered the claims of Jesus Christ and rejected them.” Why did he reject the claims of Christ? Because he had gone to a church in South Africa during the days of apartheid, extreme racial bigotry, and was barred from that church because of the color of his skin.

    That church did not present an accurate representation of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus. People today are rejecting the claims of Jesus because they are seeing the counterfeit, not the genuine.

    Bringing it into our own time, a lawyer who was a member of John MacArthur's church in California invited another lawyer to attend his church as his guest.

    The man asked him what church he attended. He told the name of the church. The man hesitated

hesitated for a moment, then looked a bit shocked, and said he would never go to that church under any circumstances.

    The church member asked him if he had ever been to that church. The man said he had never been and would never go. The reason he gave was the most crooked attorney he knew goes to that church.

    The church member told John MacArthur this and MacArthur told that story from the pulpit the next Sunday and said, “I don't know which one of you attorneys is that one, but I wish you'd get your act together or quit saying you belong to this church because the character of your life is making evangelism impossible.”

    We show the validity of the Christian faith when we do what is right, living a godly Christian life. This is one of the ways we may silence the attacks of the critics on Christianity. We may do more good by living as Christians should live than by all of the debating we may do to prove the validity of Christianity. There must be purity, honesty, and integrity in our lives.

    The way we live our lives makes our evangelism efforts believable. People must see a genuinely different and transformed life. Such a life becomes an attraction to Christ.

    Years ago in one of the churches I pastored, we printed bumper stickers advertising our church for the church people to place on their cars. When I offered a bumper sticker to one of our church people, he replied, “The way I drive, you would not want me to advertise the church.” He was right. He needed to have a sanctified foot on the gas pedal, and not break the speed laws.

   It has been said that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. No, but we can make him thirsty. Living a godly life makes other people thirsty for the real thing in their

their own lives.

    Look at 1 Peter 2:12, “Live such good lives among the pagans, that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Verse 15 says, “For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”

    In the Apostle Peter's day, as in our own day, there were critics of Christianity and of Christians. The way to silence the critics is to know how to live right and then do it.

    We see today that people are ignorantly attacking Christianity. The way to silence the critics is to live right, to live sanctified, set apart for God lives.

    The un-Christ-like conduct of Christians fuels the fire of the critics. Let us remove the fuel for the fire. It is the Christ-like love, purity, godliness, and integrity of Christians that silences the critics. It is one of our best tools of evangelism, and it pleases God.

    Let us immerse ourselves in the Scriptures to know God better and let us encourage one another to live sanctified lives. God has put us here to show Christ everywhere to everyone.

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

335 Smyth Road

Manchester, NH 03104

Sunday School: 9:00 a.m.

Sunday Worship: 8:00 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.

www.stpaulsumc.homestead.com

603-647-7322