908. Sanctification

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series entitled Our Great Salvation, which is a study of the doctrine of salvation or soteriology. Today's speaker is seminary professor Dr. Kevin Oberlin, preaching on sanctification from 2 Peter 1.

BGU President Steve Pettit will introduce him. We are thankful this morning and excited to have with us Dr. Kevin Oberlin, who will be continuing our series on our great salvation. I'm thankful for the wonderful messages that have come. I think both helpful, instructional, informational, and I think inspirational. So would you listen as Dr. Oberlin comes and speaks on the theme sanctification.

Good morning. If you take your Bibles and turn to the second book of Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1, we've been going through on Wednesdays our great salvation has been the theme, and we've seen grace and mercy, atonement and propitiation, election and divine calling, conversion, regeneration, union with Christ, justification, and today's message is about you, all of us who are redeemed and justified. And perhaps there are many of us who have come in today to the FMA with heavy burdens, maybe burdens of actual sin in your life. My desire is pastoral, and that you would see Christ, and that he would be your encouragement today. I'd like us to begin by looking at 2 Peter 1, and let's go ahead and just look at verse 1.

First of all, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now the next two verses, verses 3 and 4, are packed full of rich truth regarding our sanctification. And the difficulty is to understand how all these phrases within verse 3 and verse 4 fit together and ultimately how life and godliness is produced. And there are five phrases found in these two verses, so let's read and number them together. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Then phrase 2, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Phrase 3, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. And number 4, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.

And then finally, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now look at that first phrase. Verse 3, how does life and godliness happen? What happens through his divine power?

Do you see it there? Okay, now how is that connected with the next phrase? This divine power comes through what? Comes through knowledge.

What kind of knowledge is that? Well this is the knowledge of God who calls us to his own glory and virtue. Your translation might say called us to glory and virtue or it might actually say his own glory and virtue. And how does God call us to his own glory and virtue or his excellence? Well if you look at the next phrase, verse 4, it says whereby or maybe your translation says by which.

And this is plural, most likely referring back to glory and excellence. God has granted exceeding great and precious promises. And these promises are great and they're precious because they're based on God's own glory and excellence. So now we're at the fourth phrase, you can see it there in verse 4 in the middle, that or maybe your text reads so that by these, by these what? Well by these promises ye might be partakers of the divine nature.

Now how does that come about? Well look back at the verse 3, at the first phrase we looked at, it's by his divine power that he gives us life and godliness. So it's divine power that allows us to actually partake in the divine nature. And it's not that we become God, rather it's becoming like God in a life of godliness. But there's a major impediment and that's actually the obstacles found in the very final phrase that we have. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through or because of lust or you could say sinful desires. Okay well that's a lot to put together and I just kind of just gave it to us really quickly, we've gone through it twice, but there's a lot of information there that I realized.

It's actually densely packed in various phrases. But my question for us today is this, how can we become more godly? How can we actually become more like Jesus Christ? How does sanctification work? How do I combat my sin?

Even sins that I continually struggle with time and time again. Well let me first acknowledge that the word sanctification in Scripture actually has three aspects to it, right? You're familiar with this I assume if you've had doctrines there's positional sanctification which is you know we're sanctified in Christ positionally like 1st Corinthians 1-2 might talk about. Or there's perfected sanctification which is our ultimate glorification. Well Lord willing we'll hear a message about that and Ephesians 5 states that Christ will ultimately sanctify his bride. But the third use refers to progressive sanctification which is the experience of separation from sins powered daily through our life. In question 35 of the shorter catechism states that quote, sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. The question then is how do we combat sinful desire? Well what is the connection in 2nd Peter 1-4 between escaping sinful desires and sharing in divine godliness? Well God has given to us great and precious promises. These promises are actually the way that we combat sinful desire. Promises are so powerful. This past weekend I had the opportunity of being a groomsman at a friend's wedding and there's so much that goes into planning a wedding.

Many of you know this first hand. And what do we usually remember about the wedding? Maybe we remember some blooper that happens, you know, maybe someone about to fall over or pass out who's a groomsman.

Thankfully that didn't happen this last weekend. Or you might see some of these reels on YouTube, all these bloopers that happen, you know, the plants falling over on top of people or candles like starting fire on the veil or something like this. Well while decorations and settings may be beautiful and the euphoria of being surrounded by close family and friends is wonderful, the real core of the entire day is that short moment when promises are made and a covenant of companionship is established.

Words are exchanged and two people from different families and sometimes from different places on the planet become a new family. And this happens because of a promise. Promises are very powerful and Peter states that these promises are exceeding great and precious because they are founded on Jesus Christ's own virtue and glory. Verse 3. Look at verse 3. Christ's own divine power. That same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Romans chapter 1 verse 4.

And that saves everyone who believes. Romans chapter 1 16. That same power is given unto me even as Christ himself exemplified perfect and complete glory and virtue or goodness. So what do promises though have to do with my sanctification?

Well the first phrase of verse 5 reads, and besides this or you could translate it for this very reason or now for this very reason also, make every effort to supplement, to add, give all diligence, to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity. So after laying the groundwork in verses 3 and 4, Peter's now strongly exhorting you to live a godly life. Because you have these precious promises, give all diligence, make every effort to live godly. But why is Peter connecting promises to a believer sanctification?

Well it's because the promises are our hope. Romans chapter 4 verses 20-21 says Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform. So is there some sin in your life today that you've been struggling with again and again? Have you ever considered the promises of God as your hope for victory? Well 2 Peter 1 is not an isolated passage in the New Testament nor are the promises of God and the connection of God's promises and sanctification is throughout the New Testament. For example, you could go to 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 through 7-1 and in here Paul provides teaching regarding the doctrine of separation from any form of idolatry and at the same time God gives us promises that actually motivate and tell us God's love for us, that he will dwell with us, that he will receive us, that he'll be a father unto us. And so Paul states that these promises should be our motivation to cleanse ourselves from all uncleanness.

Have you ever thought of the promises of God actually wedded right into this doctrine? Verse 14 says be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with Belial?

Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them and be separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty. And then you have chapter 7 verse 1, having therefore these promises dearly beloved. What promises?

Well God's gonna be a father, he's gonna take care of you, he's gonna actually dwell in you as you are a temple of the Spirit of God. Having these promises let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And so Paul calls on the Corinthians to remember their identity and he calls it a promise.

They are the temple, God's gonna dwell with them, he's gonna receive them. So because we have this profound promise, throw off anything that would corrupt or obstruct your relationship with God. And it's not just simply promises that seem to be directly related to salvation, rather Paul argues even in earlier chapters in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 1-20 for example, that all the promises of God are in that are in Christ are yea and amen and unto the glory of God. All the promises of God in Christ are yes. We can count on every promise that come to pass because of Christ. One man put it this way, all God's Old Testament and New Testament promises of peace, of joy, of love, of goodness, of forgiveness, of sanctification, of salvation, of fellowship and hope and glorification and heaven.

They're all made possible and they're all fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Probably what we would think of regarding the doctrine of sanctification, the classic passage might be Romans chapter 6 and I'll ask you actually to go there. I'd like to read some of these verses with you and this will be our final passage really we look at, we turn to this morning.

But Romans chapter 6, Paul provides a powerful picture regarding our identity. And it says here in verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Then verse 3, he wants you to know something. Know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? And then go up to verse 6.

There's something else he wants you to know. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we should also live with him.

And then look at verse 9, again he wants you to know something. Knowing this, that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And so our old man is actually crucified with Christ, that the body of sin is destroyed. So we don't have to serve sin, we're not shackled any longer. When you were justified, volume 1 of your life, the old man ended.

And there was nothing else to be written on that pages. And then came volume 2, this new life in Christ has begun by resurrection. Now I know you might not always feel like this, right? You might not always feel like, well I've got this new life, I mean in fact we're burdened by sins. And many times the reason is that although the old man was crucified, we still have our flesh, and we're fighting with that flesh. So Paul explains that we need to believe, and we need to do in order to fight sin. Let's look at verse 11 and see what he means. Likewise reckon, consider, think this way, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. You need to believe it's true.

You need to consider that it's a done deal, even when it doesn't even feel like it. And since Paul himself actually uses the imagery of the slave, we may use the analogy of a newly freed slave after the Civil War in America, and that slave would of course know in a certain sense that he or she was liberated, right? But it might take some time for the truth of this to actually penetrate their consciousness in a way that actually leads to change of behavior. Or sometimes illustrates in Jews of a POW, a prisoner of war, who when they were freed, they actually did not want to leave their prison.

They had been there so long it's just hard to believe that we're actually free, that you actually can go home. Are you a believer today and yet you're still living in bondage? You're free but you're still living as if you're in the old man. You're still living in volume one.

How do you view yourself? Many times we live like we're chained and under bondage of darkness and we do so because we were believing empty promises. We're believing that, okay, this is going to satisfy me when it's actually simply an empty promise.

But Christ has freed us and all the promises of God are yes in Jesus Christ. John Stott said that the secret of holy living is in the mind. It is knowing, like you see in Romans chapter 6, knowing something. It's believing something or reckoning something.

And then it's acting as well. It's acting upon what you know and actually you believe. And we have to let our minds play upon these truths. We have to meditate upon them until we firmly grasp and believe them that I can really get out of this prison. I don't have to be shackled by my sin. We ought to believe these things so strongly that a return to empty promises would actually be unthinkable. A born-again Christian should no more think of going back to the old life than an adult would think of going back to childhood.

Or a married man to his bachelorhood or a discharged prisoner to his prison cell. Many years ago, as I was growing up in Chicago, I remember going up and down highways. They have these interstates that cut through the city there and they have these huge billboards. And I remember driving down a highway and seeing these billboards on either side of the road, they're advertising various company products. And these billboards were really promises, really. I mean, most if not all of them were actually promising me something. You know, for example, they would say something like, if I drank this particular drink, I could be happy like the people in the picture. You've seen these, right?

If I bought this particular product, I would be like the guy pictured in the yacht, you know, with this attractive girl enjoying the breeze from the ocean waters. And billboards must work. They're doing something because corporations are paying thousands upon thousands of dollars each year for you to believe their promises. And as I thought about this, I realized how much driving down that highway was actually similar to the Christian life itself. You see these promises, and many times they're empty promises, but you actually need to learn to believe the right promises. You actually need to learn to believe God's promises. And so I need to know God's promises, and this is actually what the Christian life looks like, right? I mean, this is what Christian growth looks like. Christian growth looks like going down a highway, if you will, and actually choosing, learning to believe the right promises. And I know I'm maturing in my Christian faith to the degree that I'm doing this, that I'm believing God every time.

So this was very helpful for me. And many times the promises are masked because we're actually involved in good things. I mean, there's a lot of good things that we're doing, even on a campus like this.

Let me just try out a few of these with you. Let me just try a few promises that I would think would be empty promises and other promises that could actually be God's promises. Perhaps you realize that you haven't really spent a lot of time with the Lord.

So here's one billboard you could be reading or playing in your mind. You know, I haven't really spent time with the Lord, but I could accomplish so much more for Jesus today if I would just use my time to serve Him. I mean, you know, I could serve Him through society or discipleship or relationships.

I mean, I'll benefit by that and most by working hard in my school and all my classes. And you could believe that promise or you could come over here and corresponding just directly to the opposite of that road is another promise that says, Luke 10, but the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Or maybe for you today, it has to do with witnessing. I mean, you can't witness to every single person on the planet. So you know what? You actually don't need to witness to this person, even though the Lord's giving you this opportunity.

I mean, besides it's useless. Many times you talk to people and they don't accept Christ anyways, and you're busy, they're busy. Or you could believe this, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

So give it out. Or maybe you're believing these promises. You know, you've been praying for things so long. And it doesn't really matter if you pray. I mean, prayer doesn't really do anything.

I can live without prayer. Or maybe there's another promise over here that you need to be believing. Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open. For everyone who asks and seeks or receives and he who seeks finds and him who knocks it will be open. Or what man is there among you who when his son asks for a loaf he will give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish you will give him a snake? If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? Claim the promises of God. God, you said this and believe it and act upon it.

Or maybe there's someone here today. You are able to make it better on your own than with God. I mean, after all, you tried that. You tried following God and where did it get you?

It just got you persecuted and maybe you even lost your job unjustly. Or maybe you could believe this promise over here. Psalm 84, the Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Oh Lord of armies, how blessed that is the man who trusts in you. Or maybe some today are coming in and the thoughts in your mind are playing, you deserve to indulge in these desires. I mean, you deserve a little bit of sinful desires. I mean, after all, when you try to follow God it doesn't really seem like he provides for me what I think I really need. Or you could believe this promise. You could believe delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. He'll do that. He promises it. Or maybe there's someone here today and you're saying, I can't get saved. Everybody already thinks I am and if they're gonna realize that all along I've been living a lie. And it's better to save face than to let people know I've been living a lie.

Or you could just believe this promise today. He gives more grace. Wherefore, he says, God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Or maybe you're saying this in your mind today, it's okay and it feels good for me to hold a bit of resentment against my brother in Christ. After all, I was right on the matter and I don't really need to show as much love to him or her.

Or as one person put it, you know, I've lost a lot of arguments but I've never lost a rerun in my mind. Or should you be believing this? God warns that this will destroy you. Hebrews 12, look diligently lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. It's gonna destroy you.

Believe it. Or perhaps there's someone here today and you said, you know what, God cannot use me at all. Look at how I've already messed up.

I've completely blown it. What can God do with my life? My friend, you need to look to God's promises even as they're found in passages like 1st John 1.9 that if you confess your sin, God is completely faithful and he's completely righteous to forgive you of your trespasses and to cleanse you from all that unrighteousness. The Christian life is a promise-led life. Follow the promises of God. Don't believe the wrong promises.

You need to know what they are. You need to be in your Bible finding out the promises of God. And as you find out the promises of God, you need to believe those promises. In fact, what you could do is you could actually take it, you could get a piece of paper, you could draw a line down the middle of the paper, and you could actually just write down what sins am I committing. I mean, write down what sins you've committed and what you were believing at the moment that you committed that sin. And I think if you actually journal this throughout a week, you'll actually see certain sins come up again and again and again and we call those sins that you're really struggling with. And what you can do on the opposite side of the paper is you can go over there and you can actually just write down what are the promises of God I need to believe in that very moment when I believe the wrong promises. Because our ability to sin is congruent to our ability to rationalize the sin. You rationalize your sin and you believe the wrong things. But there might be someone here today and you feel quite discouraged. You're thinking, wow, okay, yeah, I can do that, but you know, I'm just discouraged because I feel so behind.

I feel like this is so much I need to do. Well, let me just encourage you that God's promises of his sanctification are actually as good as his promises of righteousness. 1 Corinthians 1, 30 states, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Christ alone is our hope. Christ is our righteousness. You probably have no difficulty believing that, that Christ is our righteousness.

But Christ is also your sanctification. So look to Christ because he alone is our hope. All the promises of God in Christ are yes. Let's pray. Father, we want to walk the promise led life. Help us to do so. Help us to believe you. We pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Kevin Oberlin, a Bible professor at Bob Jones University. Thanks for listening to our program and join us again tomorrow as we continue the doctrinal study series called Our Great Salvation here on The Daily Platform.