1035. The Foundation of Christian Sanctification pt. 2

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 the focus would be on Christ, 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'll hear a sermon preached at the Bob Jones University Bible Conference. This is a time when classes are dismissed and students concentrate on hearing the Word preached from several visiting pastors and evangelists throughout the week. Today's sermon is from the 2021 Bible Conference where the theme was Sanctify Them. As we'll learn through this short study, sanctification means to be set apart under God.

It's an attitude of treating or regarding something as holy. Today's sermon is the final sermon in this short series preached by Dr. Sam Horn. He'll be continuing the sermon from yesterday, teaching us the foundation of Christian sanctification. Sam's reading from Romans 12, 1 and 2, and also from Ephesians 4 where Paul is exhorting us to look at our lives and make sure that we are being spiritually helpful to others. So Paul says, this is what I'm exhorting you to do.

I'm exhorting you to look at your life, and I'm exhorting you to discern what you're doing in your life, and it needs to be like this. It needs to be spiritually beneficial and helpful to others. It needs to be morally right and spiritually proper in the sight of God, and it needs to be fully compliant.

It needs to be fully in line with whatever God has said in his word. And God has given you two things to help you do this. He's given you a new mind, a regenerated mind.

This is what we were talking about just a few moments ago. Our natural mind, when we were born in our sins, could never conform or grasp or embrace what Paul's talking about. I mean, this is how he describes what we were like in our mind as unbelievers. He says, now this I say and testify in the Lord, Ephesians 4 17, that you must no longer walk as Gentiles in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality.

They are greedy to practice every kind of impurity. This is the mind that you have and that I had before we came to the gospel. In fact, in Romans chapter 8 verses 7 through 9, Paul says the mind that was set to the flesh, the unsaved mind, not only didn't want to please God, it couldn't.

And then all of a sudden, Ephesians chapter 4, you as a new man got a regenerated mind. And then with that mind came divine enablement, grace. Grace is more than just favor that God has for us, unmerited favor. It's more than God's riches at Christ's expense. Just a wonderful definition as that might be. That isn't the only side of grace. Grace is actually an enablement that comes from the spirit of God. So Paul is saying to you, there is this penetrating appeal and the appeal is that you would go right to this piercing objective that you would in your life discern and do the will of God. Now there's a third thing in the text and that is this.

There is a personal requirement. Whatever discerning and doing God's will entails, Paul states that you are to do it with something that you bring to God. And what he's going to do is he's going to introduce this idea to you that he's been talking about for 11 chapters and it's the idea that when you were washed from your sins, when you were taken out of the kingdom of darkness and you were translated, you were transferred into the kingdom of his son, you came in as a son.

But you also came in in two other ways. You came in as a ruling king. You are going to rule in that kingdom. And that's all through the New Testament.

It's all in Revelation, particularly the Revelation 4 and 5. So here you are today and if you are in this kingdom, you aren't just a son or daughter of God. You actually have been given a status in that kingdom and your status is that of king. You are a royal king. But there's another way that you came into that kingdom. You came in as a son, you came in as a king, but you came in as a priest. And Peter's going to talk about it this way. You are a royal priesthood.

And you and I sit here at 10 after 2 on Wednesday afternoon and that doesn't really compute, but if you lived in Peter's day, that would have been an absolutely stunning statement to you. There was one nation of all the nations of the earth. Now think about, go back into your Old Testament, think about Egypt and Syria and Babylon and all of the nations. And there was one nation that God selected out of all of those nations to rule over those nations and that was his nation.

The king of kings himself was going to be the king of that nation and every one of the people in that nation that belonged to that king were in themselves kings and they were supposed to rule over all the nations. But that's not all they were. They were also priests. They had a mission with all of those other nations. Old Testament Israelite was supposed to be part of a kingdom that was going to rule all of the other kingdoms and that was going to mediate between that kingdom and God. They were priests.

Now, man, all of a sudden light bulbs all began, man, that's why God hated idolatry. That's why it was so big of a deal for them to go up to those high hills. That's why it was such a big deal for them to embrace the ways of the nations, all of this stuff. And so to help that kingdom understand what it meant to be a kingdom of priests, God took one of their tribes and he made that tribe a tribe of priests and he put that tribe right in the middle of that nation, right? You see the picture here, all the kings of the world. There's one kingdom. It's a kingdom of priests, ruling priests, and in order for them to know what it looked like, God took one of the 12 tribes and made that tribe a tribe of priests.

And that's what's behind this description. You are a priest and every priest had to bring a sacrifice to God. And so there is something God wants you to bring.

That's the idea of present. There is that sacrificial language. There is something that God wants you to present and whatever it is that he wants you to present, it is to be a certain kind of sacrifice. It is a, a certain kind of presentation.

So here's, here's what it is. It is a living presentation in the old Testament. If you brought your sacrifice to the altar, by the time you were done, it was no longer living. Paul says, whatever you're bringing when you get done is still going to be living. It is a living sacrifice. And, and whatever you're bringing is Holy. It is to be set aside. It is to be devoted completely to the use of the one to whom it is being offered.

And then it has to be acceptable. It can't be morally or spiritually defiled, which is why in old Testament times in ancient Israel, if you are journeying from way up at the top of the country down to the temple and you needed to offer a sacrifice, the temple had shepherds and they would raise richly pure sheep because you didn't want to bring your sheet from way up at the top of the country and take a chance that it would would be injured or would somehow be defiled or would come in contact with something that would make it richly un-pure. So you would come and you would bring money that was cleansed and then you would buy a richly purified sheep. And those shepherds would raise those sheep in fields just outside of Jerusalem in a little town called Bethlehem. And when those sheep were born, they would be wrapped in richly purified pieces of cloth, swaddling cloth. And all of a sudden, angels come to shepherds who are doing that and they say, God's lamb has come to make peace. And you have been made a priest in that order. And now you bring something that is morally pure. It has been made righteous, declared righteous. But now when you bring that, it can't be corrupted by all of the things that are corrupting and defiling. That's what Paul is saying.

That's why it's such a strong exhortation at the front end. I beseech you to discern to do the will of God. In order to do that, you are going to have to daily come as a priest to God with a sacrifice that you present to him.

And what it is that you are presenting is your body. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. This is the instrument that you possess, that God is created by which you will do the will of God that you have discerned.

That's the instrument. Now, by the way, if you go back to Romans six, you used to show up and present this same body to a very different master for very different ends and very different purposes. You used to show up every day and present this body to sin.

And by the time you were done with that body for that day, it had spent its day doing deeds of unrighteousness. But when you came out of that kingdom and you were translated and transformed and transplanted into this new kingdom and you became a priest, you are now bringing that same body, but you're bringing it to a very different master for a very different purpose. You are bringing your body that used to be what you used for sinning, and now you are bringing your body for righteousness. And when you get done with your body at the end of the day, you have spent it doing with your body things that please the Lord. That's what's going on here in Romans chapter 12. Now, in order for that to happen, the fourth thing that Paul talks about here is the means. There is a very prescribed means that has to happen. If I've got a renewed mind and I have now divine enablement, and now I'm beginning to understand that as a ruling priest in God's kingdom, I need to bring my body every day to God as a living sacrifice that is totally dedicated exclusively for his use. And I need to spend the day doing with my body things that are acceptable to God, then how in the world am I going to do that? And Paul says, well, there's two things that have to happen. You have to remove your heart from the influences of the fallen culture around you. Look at verse two, do not be conformed. Stop being pressured. That's the idea. It's the idea of something coming along on the outside that just sort of weighs down on you and it sort of shapes you into whatever it is.

I mean, think of what happens to a car and you take that car and you put it in a big metal press and that press begins to just crunch down on that car. And Paul says, now you've got to stop putting yourself in a place where you are allowing the culture of the world around you, this, this fallen world, this, this kingdom of darkness to just shape you externally so that by the end of the day, you have spent your day using your body to do things that are completely contrary to the will of God for your life. You know, when you think about the world, it has a value system. It has a way of thinking. It has a thinking pattern.

It has a value system. It has certain responses to life and to people and Paul says, now you've got to intentionally remove yourself from that pressure. He's not talking about isolating yourself.

John 17, Jesus made that very clear. I'm not asking you to take them out of that context. Paul is saying, don't let that context affect the way you think. Don't let that context effect and shape what you value and don't let that context be what determines your responses to life and to circumstance. Remove your heart from the shaping influences of the world around you and I mean all of us have been there right? I'm not trying to be weird, but sometimes it's even as simple as the commercials that you watch on TV and by the time you get done watching that 30 second clip, you are absolutely convinced in your soul that the will of God for you at that moment is a lime flavored Dorito and if you don't have it, not that I know this by experience, but you know, I do know of a person who has done this. If you don't have it in your pantry, you are so convinced that it is the will of God for your life that you will get dressed, get in your car, you know, getting dressed might, might, you know, might be debatable, but you get in your car and you go down to target and just by the spirit of God, you walk into the land of plenty and you make your way to this chip aisle and you buy chips and you know what? You weren't even thinking about that before you saw the commercial. They didn't even register and then you saw 30 second visual and the next thing you know, you're doing all of that and that's really dumb, but think about that for a minute. That is how the world works and it's all pervasive.

So what's the antidote to that? Well, Paul said, you're, you're going to have to transform your life by the constant renewing of something. You're going to have to transform your life by the constant renewing of your thinking. That's the idea behind minds. The Psalmist in Psalm 119 said, let the thoughts or Psalm 19 rather, let the thoughts of my heart, let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my mind, the thinking patterns, you are going to have to stop thinking the way that you think and in order for that to happen, you are going to have to go somewhere that has transformative power and the only thing that can take you from where you are to where God wants you to be, which is looking like the image of his son is to go to the word.

That's the whole point. The second Corinthians three 18 when God says, when you peer, when you look into God's word and you see the glory that is in Christ, that word, that looking changes you. So Paul says, that's what it's going to take. If you're going to discern and do the will of God with your body, you're going to have to take your heart out of that world that is shaping it and you're going to have to renew your thinking by coming to the word of God that can make you look like Jesus. Now that brings us to the very final thing and we'll close and that is this.

You know, when we think about this, this is immense. What will give us the kind of motivation to do this? I mean, seriously, what will, what will motivate you and what will motivate me every day to come to God with our body and say to God, whatever you have to do today for your glory, I want you to use my body to do it and I don't care what it costs.

I don't care where you take this body. I don't care what you do with it, but today I want you to use this body for your glory and God, I don't just want you to use it for your glory. I want you to stop it from doing things that don't glorify you. Now that's a pretty scary thing to pray and there's only one thing that is big enough to motivate you to do that. And Paul says it this way, whatever this is, it is your reasonable worship. Like when you get it, it's like, Oh yeah, God, there's, there's nothing else I want to do with my body. It's, it's, it's the natural outflow of recognizing this and it is the mercies, plural of God.

It is the immense mercies of God. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. You were under the full unmitigated wrath of God.

And I know you and I don't like this term, but you weren't just a sinner. You were a criminal. You were a cosmic criminal. You were under the sentence, the righteous sentence of death. You were reveled in your rebellion. You fully engaged in wicked thinking and unrighteous doing. And even when you knew about God, righteous decrees, you chose to do them and you celebrated those who were doing them.

And that was true of every one of us. But in an amazing, spectacular display of righteous mercy, God changed everything. He forgave us. He justified us. He established an unbreakable peace with us. He removed us from the realm of sin and death. He placed us into the realm of grace. He Rick, he released us from our old master. He did a whole of this.

And then on top of that, we have this immense future ahead of us. He is using everything for our good and for his glory and nothing will separate us from the love of God. Nothing. And Paul says, now when you grasp that, here's what you want to do. God, thank you.

You want to do this with my body? Yeah. It's like reading about the grand canyon. You know, for years I grew up, I grew up in South Texas and the highest thing in South Texas is the overpass where I grew up on highway 85.

The deepest thing is, you know, the irrigation pitch. So when I would read about the grand canyon or I'd see some documentary on the grand canyon, I'm like, okay, that, that's cool. And one day I was traveling with a group of guys from Bob's university and we were going out West and we went to the grand canyon. Now, how many of you have been to the grand canyon?

Anybody? All right. So I was like, okay, let's go there. And it was like a four hour drive out of our way. So there I go to the grand canyon and we get out and we get up and we start walking up and it's, I'm like, what's the big deal about this grand canyon? And then you get to the South rim and you look down and your jaw drops. How many of you have ever stood there on the South rim?

So you know exactly what I'm talking about. Your jaw drops. And then you look over and there's this guy and he's grousing about the paint chip on the rail.

You're going, what? He didn't even look up. It's like, look at, they haven't painted this in months. I mean, this is crazy. This is the national monument and he's missing the whole thing. You know what I think happens to a lot of us.

We get so frustrated by whatever we think is wrong with the railing that we lose the immense city of the grand canyon. I want to close with this illustration and then I want to pray. What if God came to you today? You heard this message. You said to God, I'm all in, man, God use my body.

I'm, I'm good wherever, whatever, however. And God says to you, okay, well, here's, here's, I got an assignment for you and it's, it's going to be about maybe a year long assignment. It's going to be a little tough, but you know, there's a, there's a family that has completely rejected the gospel.

They, they not only do they reject it, they're, they're hostile to it. And, uh, and I intend to reach them and the means that I'm going to use to open their eyes and draw them to the gospel is you. You're like, wow, that's awesome.

Wouldn't that be great if God was going to do that? A whole family. And then God says, let me tell you a little bit about the assignment. The assignment is this, this family right now is, um, they're downtown Greenville and they're in the cancer ward because there is a nine year old or a son and a 13 year old daughter and a, a 35 year old wife and the husband has cancer. And I'm just gonna tell you upfront, he's not gonna make it.

I'm omniscient in the sovereignty. This is part of my plan or how I'm going to reach them. He's not going to make it. It's, it's stage four.

It's metastasized. He's got chemotherapy and that family desperately needs to hear the gospel. They desperately need to understand the gospel and they desperately need somebody to come alongside them and minister the gospel of them.

That's the means I'm going to use to draw them into the kingdom and the whole family's going to come. And you're like, man, this sounds like a great assignment. Man, here I am a student of Bob Jones.

Man, I got, you know, I got every Tuesday afternoon free. I can go up there, man. I, you know, I can go down and you know, I can, I can find Dr. Benson and he gave me some resources. I can read up. I can, I can go over to the nursing department, get off.

I mean, I'm in, I'm like all the way in. And so God, you know, let me just, let me just work my schedule a bit and I'll get some visiting hours. And God says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's not what I had in mind. I'm actually going to put you in that same cancer ward, not as a visitor. Fact is, I'm going to put you in the bed next to that person. And here's what's going to happen next week, you're going to come out of the dining hall and I'm letting you know up front, it's going to hurt a little bit. You're, you're going to have this pain and it's just going to be incredibly difficult. And you're going to go to the ER and they're going to immediately send you for radiology. And you're going to get the news and I want you to hear it.

I'm going to be with you all the way through this. You're going to get the news that you have stage four pancreatic cancer. And you're going to go through the same treatments. And you're going to go through the same radiology that the person in that bed is going through. And I'm just going to tell you up front, you're going to have the same end.

What's going to happen to his body is also going to happen to your body. But when it's all said and done, that whole family, because they watched you and they saw you and they heard you is going to embrace the gospel. Now I'm going to make a promise to you.

This is God. I'm going to make a promise to you. I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you every moment. And when it comes time for you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be there. My rod and my staff will go before you. I will feed your soul. I will prepare a table in that desert place. And when it's all said and done, you will dwell in the house of my father forever. And oh, by the way, that body that was so ravaged, I'm going to take care of it. When everybody sees you the next time, they're going to go, wow, that was awesome.

Now let me ask you a question. Are you willing to embrace that assignment if that is what God has for you? And there's only one thing in this universe big enough and strong enough to motivate the kind of response that says, God, yes, anything, anywhere. And it is the mercies that you have received from God.

And by the way, they're fresh every morning. Lord, we desire as Christians to be sanctified. And the whole point of Christian sanctification is that we would discern and do your will with our bodies. That we would bring our bodies every day as a living sacrifice to you. That we would devote our bodies completely to your use. That we would never do anything with our bodies that would defile them or that would render them unacceptable or unacceptable to you.

That they would always be morally cleansed. And we're thankful, Lord, that when we do sin, we can come and repent. And Lord, you are faithful and just to cleanse us, to forgive us from any sin. And so, Lord, I pray that you would help us to receive this truth and to do it in our lives. And we'll pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to the conclusion of a sermon by Dr. Sam Horn from the 2021 Bible Conference series on sanctification. Thanks for listening and join us again next week as we'll hear more soul-stirring sermons from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.