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Colin Smith: There are another Christians who have grasped that salvation is about forgiveness and it's about heaven, it's about the past and it's about the future, but they have never really grasped that it is also about the power of Jesus Christ in your life now by the Holy Spirit. And so here's what's happened. They they said that they believed that they made a decision that they're going to heaven. They never change.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and Colin. Today we're going to be talking about one of those great big Bible words, sanctification.

Colin Smith: Well, and perhaps even two Bible words because we're going to talk about justification as well. So here's the issue. Justification speaks about how we are made right with God by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and how by grace we are saved and it comes all from him and none of it is from us. The sanctification speaks about how we grow in the likeness of Christ, how we pursue a holy life. And you know, when we're plunged into Christ by the Holy Spirit, these two things come together. But understanding them and grasping how they relate together is something that I think is often a source of confusion for Christians.

So we're going to focus in the program today about what justification is and how we're right with God and what sanctification is and how we grow in the life of the Holy Spirit.

Steve Hiller: Well, we're going to look at that in the book of first Thessalonians. So open your Bible, join us there. We're in chapter four as we begin the message, the urgency of personal purity. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: As we continue through Thessalonians, you'll remember that our aim in this series is to recover a sense of urgency about God's call to us in the Christian life and his commission for us as a Christian church. And that theme runs throughout the letter four times. Paul uses the word urge in first Thessalonians. You have it right here in chapter four and verse one. Brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord to do this more and more. And so our theme today is this whole matter of the urgency of living a life that is pleasing to God.

That is the urgency of personal purity or of sexual purity. Now Paul had already taught these believers about this. You'll see in verse two, he says, you know what instructions we gave to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. And these Thessalonians had made a good start. Paul had and I think this is very significant taught them about sexual purity as part of his foundational discipling. He was only in Thessalonica a very short time, but he established Christian ethics, a Christian way of living, a Christian way of relating as part of his foundational teaching to these new believers.

And he acknowledges in verse one that they have indeed responded to that. We instructed you how to live in order to please the Lord as you are in fact living. Now by the way, quick sidebar for parents and folks in an accountability group. It's always a good thing to affirm what God is doing in the life of another person. Because sometimes we're so focused on what God is still to do and the battles still to be fought and won that we go on about that all the time and neglect simply to recognize that God's grace is at work and that progress is being made.

And Paul does not fall into that trap. He clearly affirms what God has done. We're going to speak, he says now about living in order to please God as in fact you are living. And so he acknowledges that as these believers have turned to God from idols, there is a significant work of God's grace that is already going on, but it does need to continue. There is more that God has to do in their lives as in ours. And so he lays out the continuing path of the Christian life in verse three where he says, and this is the central phrase for us to get hold of today.

It is God's will that you should be sanctified. Verse three, it is God's will that you should be sanctified. Now I want to take just a moment to explain what that means. Sanctified. What is sanctified or what is sanctification? And I promise you I wouldn't bother with this if it wasn't for the fact that these are Bible words. If a word's not in the Bible, then you probably don't need to know too much about it. But if it is in the Bible and we're Bible Christians, we want to know what Bible words mean and what they refer to and how they differ.

So let's take a moment on this together so that you can better understand your own Bible. When Jesus Christ lays hold of a person's life, he brings two primary blessings to your life in this world. These are justification and sanctification. Now these Bible words are very important. They're central to what it means to be a Christian. And it's important not only to understand what they mean, but also how they differ. Let me distinguish them in this way. Justification is about Christ's work for us on the cross. Sanctification is about Christ's work in us by the Holy Spirit.

In other words, justification is Christ's completed work. He said on the cross, it's finished. There's nothing more that needs to be added for you to have peace with God. But sanctification is different. It is his continuing work, God's continuing work, which is why Paul talks here about living to please God more and more. It's continuing, progressive, developing, growing. He talks in verse four about learning to live with your body in control. That's progressive. In justification, Christ deals with the effect of your sin before God. He cleanses. He lifts and removes the condemnation before God. But in sanctification, Christ deals with the effects of sin in your life.

And we're going to see how important that is this morning. Justification is about removing the guilt of sin. Sanctification is about breaking the power of sin. Justification involves the righteousness of Jesus Christ, his own unique righteousness being given to us. Sometimes that's called an alien righteousness or an imputed righteousness. That is the perfect righteousness of Jesus by which we are counted to be right with God is given to us in justification by Jesus Christ. But sanctification is about the righteousness that Christ works in us. In other words, it is the purpose of the gospel that you should become good, that you should reflect the goodness of God because his spirit lives within you.

And that is what sanctification is all about. Justification is about forgiveness so that you may come to God. Sanctification is about holiness so that you may become like God. Now here's an important distinction. In justification, you are called to believe. That's God's calling to you in justification. We are justified by faith. Okay, so you believe. Now in sanctification, God speaks different words to us. In sanctification, the words that God speaks to us in the scripture are words like these. Watch, fight, pray, put on the whole armor of God and so forth and so on. And so the calling of God to us in relation to justification and sanctification, our responsibilities are quite distinct.

Here's the last distinction. Justification is Christ's hidden work. You can't tell if another person has been forgiven by God because it's a gift given in secret when a person comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But sanctification is God's visible work. You certainly can tell if someone else is becoming like Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said, by their fruits you shall know them. A good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. But um here's the practical relevance. You see justification and sanctification are quite distinct. And when we get them confused, we get into difficulties.

So there are some Christians, for example, who think all the time that their acceptance with God depends on the degree of their success in the battle with sin. And if you think your acceptance with God depends on the degree of your success in the battle with sin, you will never have peace and you will never have a joyful knowledge of the love of God surrounding you. Because you're basing your acceptance with God, your justification on your sanctification. You've confused them, you see. There are many, many Christians who are precisely there and therefore they never have joy and they never have assurance.

Then there's another kind of error. You see, there are other Christians who have grasped that salvation is about forgiveness and it's about heaven, it's about the past and it 's about the future, but they have never really grasped that it is also about the power of Jesus Christ in your life now by the Holy Spirit. And so here's what's happened. They they say that they believe that they made a decision that they're going to heaven. They never change. And they deceive themselves by thinking that they are truly Christian. Now the point to grasp here then is that justification and sanctification are found together in Jesus Christ.

They are different blessings and they should not be confused, but they are found together in Christ and therefore they should not be separated. And I find it very helpful to think of justification and sanctification being together and yet distinct using the picture, if you like, of the sun, the sun's heat and its light. It was John Calvin who first suggested this image and I think it's helpful. You see, the sun's heat and its light are two distinguishable things. They are not the same, but they are always found together. They flow from the very nature of what the sun is.

And you cannot have the sun's heat without the sun's light. In the same way, you cannot have justification without sanctification. The two belong together because though they are distinct, they are the twin blessings of the gospel and they are always joined together in Jesus Christ and you cannot receive the one without the other because they are both contained in him. So to put this in one Bible text, though it runs throughout the whole of the New Testament, one Corinthians chapter one and verse 30, Paul says that Christ has become for us our righteousness. That's their justification.

And he's also become our holiness. That is our sanctification. And when you embrace Jesus Christ as your savior who forgives and justifies you, you are at the same time embracing the Lord who sanctifies you. And you can't tear Christ into pieces. He is who he is. He is the Lord who sanctifies, the savior who justifies. Like the sun's heat and light, these are two distinct things, but they are found together in him and never the one without the other. Now that is why the Bible says without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Not because you're saved by your holiness, because you're not, but because the pursuit of holiness in your life is evidence that you are in Jesus Christ who is the one who justifies you.

And without him, you have no other hope of justification. Now let me give you a quote here from Bishop Ryle who I think writes helpfully on this whole subject of the place of holiness in the Christian life. He says this. Most men hope to go to heaven when they die, but few take the trouble to consider whether they would enjoy heaven if they got there. Heaven, he says, is essentially a holy place. Its inhabitants are all holy and its occupations are all holy. What would an unsanctified man do in heaven if by chance he got there?

To be really happy in heaven, it is clear and plain that we must be somewhat trained and made ready for heaven while we are here on earth. Now I hope then that you see the importance of the verse that we're coming to in first Thessalonians chapter four and verse three. It is God's will that you should be sanctified. And this is not some kind of add on to the Christian life. This is the very essence of the gospel. If you are in Christ, you have embraced him as the savior who justifies and the Lord who sanctifies, never the one without the other.

It is in this way that we are made ready for heaven. It is in this way that we show evidence that we indeed bear the marks of authentic Christian men and women. It's God's will for your life.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called the Urgency of Personal Purity. Now we've been looking at the difference between sanctification and justification, two big Bible words. But when we come back, we're going to see a calling to personal purity. So stay with us. We'll open the Bible is a listener supported ministry. That's exactly what it sounds like. It's your generosity that keeps Pastor Colin's teaching available each day. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Tim Keller's book called What is Wrong with the World?

And Colin, who's this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, I'll give a very broad answer to that question, Steve. I mean, first in the broadest category, I think this is a book for any thinking Christian. I mean, any thinking person actually needs to grapple with some fundamental questions. And what is wrong with the world is clearly one of them. The Bible addresses this very clearly and very directly. And this book by Tim Keller really gives us, I think, wonderful light not only on what is wrong with the world, but in God's mercy, how things can actually be put right. Then I think if you can drill it down, I'd say anyone who wants to understand themselves better because you know, sin actually indwells our hearts.

And if you want to understand why you keep going on repeating things that you regret having done the last time, you know, there's an answer to that. What's wrong with you? Well, sin is actually in us. And this book really gets to the heart of the truth that sin is not simply bad things that we do. It's actually a power that's at work within us that explains the bad things that we do. And then one more thing. If you have experienced real evil in your life, you are not going to be impressed with being told that the source of evil is some kind of sociological deprivation or some economic explanation.

What you're going to need to deal with what has happened to you is the Bible's explanation of the reality of evil and sin in this world and the wonderful hope that there is healing and grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. So I think that many people are going to benefit from this and that's one of the reasons that we've chosen this book to make available this month.

Steve Hiller: Again, it is called What is Wrong with the World? And it's our thank you for your financial support this month. You can give when you call 1 877 open 365 or at our website openthebible.org. Again, the phone number is 1 877 673 6365 and our website is openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now I want to approach this really from three angles. And we're going to look first at your calling to purity, second your battle for purity, and thirdly our hope of purity. First then our calling. And I want us to look at verse seven. Really the section runs from verse three through to verse seven. And Paul summarizes all that he's been saying in these verses in these words. Verse seven, God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Speaking to Christian believers and he says, God, when God laid hold of you in Christ, when Christ died on the cross for you, when your sins were forgiven, when you came to be a new person in Christ, it wasn't so that you would just carry on being impure or so that you would drift into being impure.

It was so that you would live a holy life. Now what specifically does that mean? Well, two things Paul identifies. The first negative and then the second positive. The negative is in verse three. It is God's will that you should be sanctified that you should avoid sexual immorality. There's the negative that you avoid sexual immorality. Now the word that Paul uses here that is translated sexual immorality is the word porneia from which of course we get our English word pornography. And it was a word that was used porneia in in New Testament times really to describe any kind of sexual sin.

And what Paul is stating quite clearly here is he says it is God's will that you should be sanctified. And then applying it, he says, here's a first step in what that means, that you should avoid porneia, that you should distance yourself from all form of sexual sin, that you should cut yourself off from this, that it should find no place in your life as a Christian believer. It is God's will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid porneia. Any form of sexual sin. And that's the negative. Here's the positive, verse four. It is God's will, verse four, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable.

Now what does this mean? Well, it could be that Paul is making a general statement about the importance of self-control. But it seems to me, the more I've looked at this and read commentators on this passage, it seems to me much more likely that Paul is speaking specifically to Christian believers who are married and that he is speaking about the intimate relationship of a Christian husband and a Christian wife. Now if you look at the bottom of the page and if you have the new international version, I think you'll see a little footnote there that's if you have very sharp eyesight, you will see a very little footnote relating to verse four giving an alternative translation which would be each one of you should learn to live with his own wife.

And the reason that the new international version puts that uh in there is that there is some quite clear evidence that the context of Paul's statement about control and so forth and relating is the context of Christian marriage that is evidence from the language in the original text itself. Now I'm convinced that Paul is speaking here about the issues relating to intimacy in a Christian marriage. And I think that is a very wonderful thing. Just pause with me for a moment to think about this. What we're learning here is that the purpose of God includes the transforming power of the gospel touching even the most intimate areas of private life that the change that the gospel and bringing God brings in the life of a Christian husband or a Christian wife is actually going to extend even into the private world of your bedroom.

Wow. Now what is Paul saying specifically here? Just this. That sanctification involves putting an end to sexual selfishness in marriage, either the sexual selfishness that expresses itself in imposing or the sexual selfishness that expresses itself in withholding. What Paul is saying is that every Christian husband should learn to relate to his wife in a way that is holy and honorable. Do you see these two words in verse four? These are the key words. Holy and honorable. And that every wife should learn to relate to her husband in a way that is holy and honorable and that this is part of living to please God.

This is part of God's will for you in Christ Jesus. This is part of growth in the Christian life. It is not outside of God's purpose for you. It is very much a part of it. Now these are deeply sensitive issues. But the way that a Christian husband and a Christian wife relate together is crucial for the harmony of our homes and it is crucial for the holiness of our lives.

Steve Hiller: A sensitive place to have to hit the pause button on today's teaching, but we'll continue this message, the urgency of personal purity next time. So hope you'll join us. If you ever miss a broadcast, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. There you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen for free through the Open the Bible app which you'll find at your app store. But our message is part of a larger series on the book of first Thessalonians called Living Like There's No Tomorrow. And you can order a copy of this entire series on CD.

Ask about that when you call us at 1 877 open 365 or you'll find ordering information at our website openthebible.org. Well, Colin, it's Friday and the weekend's coming.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and I want to encourage you to get to church on Sunday. You know, across the country, people who love Jesus will be gathering to praise him. And if you love Jesus, that's something you'll want to be part of. So find a church where the Bible is opened. And if you live in the Chicago area and you don't have a church home, I'd love for you to join us at the Orchard. There are six locations in the northwest suburbs. For more information, go to the orchard.church. That's the orchard.church.

Steve Hiller: Well, thank you, Colin, and thanks for listening. I'm Steve Hiller and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. God's word is the food that will nourish your soul. You need it every day. And open the Bible daily is a daily devotional that will open the word of God and lead you to Jesus. It's available for free on our website openthebible.org. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.