Salvation Army Doctrine #10

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. Welcome to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Welcome back to Words of Life. I'm Cheryl Gillum.

And I'm Bernie Dake. Welcome. We are nearing the end of our series, We Believe, with Col. Dan Starrett. And in this 11-week series, Dan has been studying the 11 doctrines of the Salvation Army. This week, Dan discusses the belief that it's the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This topic specifically is covered by a great deal in another show of ours, The Holiness Podcast with Vern Jewett. It's a monthly Bible study. It's usually about 40 minutes or so, and that's where Vern teaches on Wesleyan holiness.

The episode that came out this past December is a perfect study to check out if you did have more questions on this topic. Oh, walking down this lonely road. Sometimes I wonder, but you always call me back with your great love. I want a love like you do.

You are grace and love and life and truth. Jesus, all I want is to be close to you. I want to live right, that God may use me at any time and anywhere. Oh, you pick me up when I fall down.

You hold me in your arms oh Jesus. Be my eyes when I am blind. Be my hands and feet oh please just let me always take your will so I can show others the joy that's found in you. I want to live right, that God may use me at any time and anywhere. I want to live right, that God may use me at any time and anywhere.

Lord your love makes me want to closer. Walk with you I want to be real and not a poster. Loving my God and loving my neighbor like I'm supposed to. Telling the story, giving the glory like I love to. Taking my woes and taking my blows I know you chose to. Cover my doom and go to my tomb and then you rose to. Save my life and give me silence. So I can live right.

Oh God won't you use me at any time. Welcome again to our continuing study of Salvation Army doctrine and its application to our daily life. Let's look at doctrine number ten. We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This doctrine with its emphasis on holiness or sanctification really began in doctrine number one where we are reminded that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God and that they only constitute the divine rule of Christian faith and practice. We don't take our relationships with people or teachings or philosophy or anything in society today from earthly leaders but God's Word. A key to developing a life of Christian faith and practice is to be obedient to the Word of God. There's a significant trend and acceptance today of teaching, ideology, philosophy, heresy and academic papers and others that promote three-letter organizations, godless philosophies and other trends that have no biblical basis and often are not only unbiblical but anti-biblical. The only way the believer can accept and develop a life of sanctification that is being set apart from the world and what's around it is to be completely grounded, sustained, instructed and corrected by the Word of God, not man. To accept and develop a life of holiness or sanctification is to know who, what, where, when and how to be separated from the things, teaching, teachers and philosophies and godless movements that represent the things of man and not the things of God. Jesus took Peter aside one day and said get away from me, Satan.

You are a dangerous trap to me. Listen to this. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's. This happens to us when we look around in the world today and begin to adopt, accept, believe, promote and support man's views concerning how we live, work, obey, in our relationships with each other and as a believer in the world.

You can't start with ideas and attitudes, lifestyles and actions or man's philosophy and then try to add them or jam them into the Word of God to justify, depend or promote your own Christian idea or practices. We are called apart from the world. We cannot be a friend of the world and be a friend of God. We are to be in the world but not of it. It is our privilege to be wholly sanctified. That means completely, not partially, set apart from the world. If you're starting to look more like the world than you are Christ, you're not separated.

You're becoming them. If we're not completely set apart and are daily seeking to be more like Jesus and not the world, we'll never receive the blessing of our whole spirit, soul and body being preserved blameless. We believe the Holy Spirit working within us will empower us to live according to God's holy standard and never by the ways of Satan in this world. Again, sanctification means set apart from the world to the plan and purposes and will of God. Holiness does not mean that there is no further spiritual progress in this world.

It does not mean that we are sinlessly perfect. But it indicates an increased spiritual sensitivity to the praise, glory, adoration and obedience to the Lord. Holiness will allow what started as a deep internal spiritual crisis, Lord, I know there's more, to become a lifelong growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has marked our life by the signature and seal of Christ written on our hearts. We continually to seek a relationship that is open, dedicated to Christ.

For example, in John 15.7, the Salvation Army has a course penned by one of our generals, John Gallens, that speaks to this. It says, To be like Jesus, this hope possesses me. In every thought and deed, this is my aim, my creed.

To be like Jesus, his Spirit helping me, like him I'll be. Our lost relationship from the Garden of Eden is restored. We begin to be aware of the presence of Christ working in us, forgiving us, loving us and transforming us. Holiness affects our eternal life, our relationships at work, our fellowship with other people.

But it's to be turned that light has no fellowship with darkness or questionable activities and attitudes. We are daily minute by minute being confronted and transformed and filled by the Holy Spirit and leading a Spirit filled life or being we are being conformed and transformed and being conformed to the world. When we receive Christ as our Savior and Lord, we receive all there is of the Holy Spirit. When I was a young officer, we always used to share that when we got saved we had all of the Holy Spirit, but he did not have all of us.

Remember, none of this is possible without repentance, faith and regeneration. God requires that we be holy and he does so through salvation and sanctification. Being made and conformed to his image, the infilling of the Holy Spirit affects every single area where sin could possibly have found a place in our life. He can cleanse every single part of us, all of our mind, all of our body, all of our soul, all of our spirit. The cleansing and filling and living the Holy Spirit wants is provided by the power he places within us so that we can be preserved blameless.

Why do we need to be preserved blameless? That takes us to the end of the verse where it talks about unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So first, we seek to honor the Lord. Second, we want our life to be filled and led by the Holy Spirit. And third, so that when Jesus comes again, we are being preserved blameless to be received by him as blood-washed lambs of God to the Great Shepherd. Whether we meet Jesus at his second coming or go to be with the Lord in death, we want to be saved, filled, and set apart people in every imaginable way. We believe that Jesus is coming soon, and we want our body, mind, soul, and spirit to be set apart in worship, service, and adoration to Christ.

Our goal is clearly expressed in a verse of a song penned by Lieutenant Colonel Colin Fairclough. Gracious Lord, the grace apply, both to save and sanctify. All my life will thou control, calmly ordering with the whole, that the world may ever see Christ and only Christ in me.

So what's our pick and choose for doctrine 10? Many believers seem to understand being saved from sin and sin's penalty, but have never moved on. They've never matured in Christ. They're still holding on to the milk and not the meat of the Word of God.

I think it's like purchasing your cruise ship ticket and bringing your lunch or your meals and eating them all along the way until you finally learn that your ticket provided all the food and other benefits, and they were included. If you look in the mirror of your spiritual life and only see that you're saved, but you don't see God's sanctifying power in the Holy Spirit, choose today. God bless you. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support, and we'd love to hear from you. Email us at radio at uss.salvationarmy.org. Call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at P.O.

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