Sanctification: God’s Grand Plan - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, August 8th. Sanctification is fundamental to God's plans for everyone. Today's podcast simplifies this concept to help you gain a practical understanding of sanctification as God's grand plan.

Do you feel special or do you feel rather insignificant? Do you feel like God takes a personal interest in you or do you just feel like you're one of those whole creation of souls out there somewhere that doesn't really make a lot of difference? Well, God has a very grand plan. I mean an awesome grand plan. He has a grand plan for every single person.

Most people are going to miss it, but He still has a grand plan. In fact, that whole entire grand plan could be summed up in one word, probably in a word that most people have never even heard a sermon on. They've read it in the Bible once in a while and they'll think, well, what does that mean?

Well, I'm not quite sure, and they skip over it and keep going. But there is one word that sums up God's great plan because of the different facets of that word and what it means. That word is sanctification. And the title of this message is Sanctification, God's Grand Plan. I want us to read only one verse, but we'll see lots of verses here. I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

And Paul, who had been answering some questions about Jesus' second coming and so forth, lots of questions he was answering. And he comes down toward the end of this epistle and here's what he says in verse 23 of chapter 5. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete and without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctify you, he says, entirely. Now, I want to clarify what we mean when the Bible says sanctification. The word sanctification means holy, or in a verb form it would mean to make holy or to separate. And so when we think in terms of sanctification, we're thinking in terms of something being separated. That is, the term really means to separate something from a common use to a sacred use. But there's also another word that comes from that root meaning. The root meaning in the Greek is hagios, holy.

And the Greek term, as we said, the verb term would be like to make holy, to separate, to sanctify. The next word that comes from that is the word saint. Because a saint is a person who is indeed holy in the eyes of God. They have been set apart for God's purposes and so the truth is, every single believer is a saint.

Now that, I want to say this and I'm going to say this two or three times so you won't miss this. A saint is not necessarily someone who lives a very, very saintly life. In fact, you may go to work tomorrow and somebody say, well, you start talking about spiritual things and they'll say, well, you must think you're a saint. And when they do, you say, well, I don't think so, I know I am.

They'll say, well, now I know you're the most egotistical, prideful person I've ever seen. Because their idea of a saint is totally unscriptural. Their idea of a saint is someone who is absolutely sinless or someone who has been venerated and recognized and acknowledged and praised by the church and they've been set apart and, you know, Saint Andrew and Saint Christopher and Saint John and Saint Charles and Saint, you know, I got that one in there. And so that's their idea of sainthood. None of that is scriptural. The truth is, every single believer is a saint.

Now, this is an accomplished fact. When you were saved, the moment you were saved, you became a saint in the eyes of God. He set you apart for Himself, unto Himself, for His honor and His glory. So, when you think about it, let's think about it in this way. God has set apart believers for Himself.

Listen, positionally, He set us apart at salvation. Progressively, this sanctification process goes on all the rest of our life. And ultimately, it is finished to death. So, the truth is that sanctification is a point in time. It is a progression in our life and another point in time. So, sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. Whereby, having brought about conviction of sin in our life, bringing us to saving faith, setting us apart unto God for God and then in the process of doing what?

Bringing us to victory after victory, even though there are times of great defeat, bringing us to the place in our life whereby our relationship to the Lord is getting stronger and stronger, sin is having less and less effect in our life, and we're becoming more like Jesus in character, conversation, and conduct, and it will be evident to those who are about us. Sanctification, listen, is God's grand plan for every single one of us. Now, there are stages to God's grand plan.

So, I hope you'll listen carefully and you'll get these down because I want you to find out where you are in this plan. God's grand plan is wrapped up in one word, sanctification. Set apart by God for God, listen, to radiate the character of God and the person of Jesus Christ. Now, here's the first stage in God's grand plan. The first stage is the sanctification stage of salvation. That is, God in one moment of time saves us from our sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and our trust in His shed blooded Calvary, and at that moment, at that moment, that's the first step, the first stage in our sanctifying process. Now, what happens at that moment? What happens at that moment is that we change positions.

We have a different position. The moment you were saved, you had a different position. Turn to Ephesians chapter two for a moment, just back a couple of books or so there, and what I want you to notice is what our position was before we were sanctified.

That is, before we were saved. What was your position? That is, in your, shall we say, spiritual, legal standing between you and Almighty God, what was your position?

Well, here's what your position was. Chapter two of Ephesians, he says, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among these, we to all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. That is, before you and I became sanctified, before we assumed the position of being sanctified by God, we were in a position of being, listen, dead in our trespasses and sins with no relationship to Him, and living daily under the threat of the wrath of God. So that was our position before we trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior, before we, listen, before we became in this first stage, the first stage of sanctification, is that moment when you not trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Now, what happened? What happened was when we took upon ourselves the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, something happened to that position. What happened to that position is the Bible says we were born again. When we were born again, our sins were forgiven, cleansed, we were then at that moment adopted into the family of God. So now we have a personal relationship with Him, we're not dead in trespasses and sins. Now we're living under the grace of God, not the wrath of God. Now we're no longer enemies, we're His children. And we have been called, we have been, listen, given the position of being a saint, having been removed from that position to a new position, listen, dead in trespasses and sins, under the wrath of God, enemies of God, now the children of the living God, living under the canopy of the grace of God and the goodness of God and the love of God and the mercy of God.

What an awesome change in our position. That's what sanctification does because the moment you were saved, God took you, listen, made you a holy possession of His, set you apart for Himself, under Himself to live for the purpose of living a godly life. Here's what I want you to see. I want you to go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 because here is an example of the kind of people that these Corinthians were before the Lord Jesus Christ came into their life and absolutely changed them.

Now watch this. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Now let me say what that does not mean and what it does mean. It does not mean that any person who has ever done any one of those things will never get to heaven. That's not what that means.

But what he's talking about is this. Those people whose lifestyle is any of these, if their lifestyle is what? Idolatry, fornication, adultery, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves. If that's their lifestyle, they'll never inherit the kingdom because if that's their lifestyle, they've never been saved.

But what I want you to notice is this. When he said that, then he said, verse 11, such were some of you, but something's happened. Now you've been washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in or by the Spirit of our God. He says, you know what your past conduct was about? Idolatry, fornication, adultery. He says, thieving, stealing, drunkenness, that was the lifestyle of your previous position.

Dead and trespasses and sinned under the wrath of God, enemies of God. Now, he said something has happened to you. Now I want you to watch the tense of these verbs. Look at this. He says, such were some of you.

Now watch this. That word were is an imperfect tense which means like a line. Something was going on. This is the kind of lifestyle you were living. You were that. That was your lifestyle.

Not that you committed an act. You were that. That's who you were. He says, you were those things. But now he says, look, you were washed.

Aristense, which means something done and completed. You were washed. You were sanctified.

You were justified. These are singular acts. Momentary acts as a result of a person's faith. So then what he says is this. Your previous position, you see what that is. Now this is your new position.

He says, that's what you used to be like. Look what he says. Because you're a saint doesn't mean you're always going to live a godly life.

Because we're talking about a position. Now, that's the first stage. That is the first stage of the sanctified life is certainly a position.

But there's a second stage. Now the first stage is something God does for us. Totally of God. He convicted you of your sins. He gave you the faith. He showed you that you needed to be saved and He's the one who saved you.

That act is an act of God. The second stage is a different stage. The second stage is a stage of progress. The first stage is a period He saved us. The second stage now is a line.

Something that goes on and on and on for the rest of our lives here on this earth. And that is that second stage is our progressive walk in growth toward the Lord Jesus Christ. So today every single believer, every single person who's a believer is in the second stage of sanctification. Stage one, an act. Stage two, a line. Progressive.

Something's going on. And the truth is all of us should be being progressive in our Christ-likeness, in our attitude and our conduct and our behavior. Now, it began at the moment of salvation and it continues, progressive sanctification continues throughout our lifetime. And so oftentimes somebody will say, well, I say, have you been saved? Well, I've been saved several times.

No, no, no, no. You've only been saved. Oh, no, I've been saved several times. Now, I'm not being critical because that's what they've been taught or that's what they believe.

Now, what they mean is this. I got saved. I blew it so bad.

I felt so guilty. I knew I couldn't be saved acting like that and so I got saved again. Well, later on in life I blew it again and I just got living in sin and it was, I got saved again.

Well, let me just relieve you of something. You only get saved once, just one time. You may act like the devil and you say, well, now, you mean to tell me that if I act like the devil, I'm still a saint? Notice that we're talking about position. Positionally, yes, you are. Conduct, you may be acting like the devil. Your conduct may be like the devil and everything else. You think you're going to get away with that?

No, you're not going to get away with it. But we're in the second stage and the second stage is progressiveness. That is, we're moving along in our Christian life. Now, this stage, we enter into the moment we're saved.

This stage, we're going to continue in until the moment you breathe your last breath, then you head into that third stage. So we're talking about growing in our Christian life, growing in our faith, growing in our understanding. If we are progressing, which is the will and purpose of God, what are we progressing toward? Well, let's just think about some of the things, for example, that He has said in His Word about how we ought to be walking and how we ought to be living. And you'll recall, for example, that He says in Romans, chapter 8, now watch this, He says, He has predestined, predetermined that you and I would be conformed to the likeness of His Son. That is, to be conformed to the likeness of His Son means that we would be shaped into His likeness and character, conversation, conduct.

And we'll never know as much as He's known. But that is, He says that we are being transformed, for example. And Romans, chapter 12, look at that for a moment. Look in Romans, chapter 12, and just that first verse, a familiar verse. He says, Therefore I plead with you, brethren, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, sanctified, acceptable to God.

Listen, sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service and worship. Do not be conformed. That is, that phrase really says, stop being conformed to the world.

Stop being conformed to the world's ways. He says, But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the will of God, that it's good and acceptable and perfect. He says that's the transformation that goes on. And so God does not want us being shaped like the world. Now think about this.

Watch this carefully. You can't make progress in your spiritual walk with God, that is, the sanctifying process that the Holy Spirit is working in your life. You're talking about something that will deter that and hinder that. You try acting like the world, dressing like the world, looking like the world, talking like the world, and what you've done, you put a dead stop on the sanctifying process in your life. And this is why a lot of people, their whole idea about the Christian life is so totally unscriptural. Listen, it isn't a matter of living up to rules and regulations. It is a matter of allowing Jesus Christ, His very character, to be lived out through us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, whose primary responsibility it is to live out through us the life of Christ.

Conduct, conversation, character. And so that's why He came. So when I understand that my purpose for being here, that listen, not only was I sanctified at salvation set apart, but the sanctifying, sanctification process goes on. Stage number two is a progressive stage.

Listen, this is the most difficult stage. There have been a few times in my life when I wish, God, I wish you to save me today and took me home that afternoon. I would have been much happier. Well, the truth is God knows better than that. His goal, second stage of sanctification is, listen, and God really must, I put this in human terms, if I were God I'd be so excited, I'd be despairing one time and excited the next.

When I would see one of my sons and daughters growing in the Christian life and desiring to pray and getting in the Word of God and loving to worship and sing praises and utilizing their talents, I'd be so excited. On the other hand, if I saw one of my other children for whom I have a fantastic plan, have gifted them, want the best for them, got all these blessings in store for them and they're wasting their life, just wasting it away, I'd be grieved in my spirit. The Bible says don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Listen, sin grieves the Holy Spirit. And listen, the only people who can be grieved about you are people who love you. If somebody doesn't care about you, they're not grieved about you, they don't care. God loves every single one of us. We're in stage number two.

Stage number two is that stage, listen, of being shaped and molded and conformed to the likeness of His Son. We don't like His tools. I don't. I don't mind telling God, God, I don't like that chiseling tool.

Mmm. I don't like the sub, zzz. I don't like the hammer, whop. I don't like those things you send into my life to shape me.

But you know what? He didn't ask me if I liked them. He's going to send us what He knows we need to shape us, mold us and make us into likenesses. Make us into the likeness of His Son.

Why? Because listen to what He said. He predestined, let me tell you something. Whatever God predestined to do is going to happen no matter what. Now He didn't say He predestined to save everybody.

He predestined to conform us to the likeness of His Son. Now think about living your entire life and missing out on the whole plan. All of us get mailed, somebody's got a plan. If you join this plan, that plan, the other plan, they got all kind of promises and some of it's probably true and some of it's not always true. They got all kind of plans.

You know what? Plans come and plans go. The plan I'm talking about, it's come and it will never go because it is God's divine plan for your best if you're wise enough to get in the plan. And so God's best is reserved and He's not going to give His best, the one who's denied Him the rightful place in their life. Thank you for listening to Sanctification, God's Grand Plan. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.