Sanctify You Wholly

Driving home: There is no aspect of biblical truth more frequently or clearly emphasized than that the salvation of the gospel, the salvation set forth in the gospel of Christ, is a salvation from sin unto holiness.

Martin jokingly tells of telling someone he would preach 'good Alliance doctrine' or 'good Wesleyan holiness doctrine' on entire sanctification, highlighting that while these groups use the term, the concept is biblical.

I said I'm going to preach good alliance doctrine this morning, I'm going to preach on entire sanctification. Good Wesleyan holiness doctrine, for this is a term that the Wesleyan groups use quite frequently, they say, they speak of entire sanctification. Well, that's a biblical term. For the apostle sets it before us in this text, and the first thing I want to do this morning is to establish with you that this is indeed the subject of our text, entire or complete sanctification of the child of God.

3:33 - 4:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Therefore the longing to be entirely sanctified, to be fully sanctified is a biblical longing. In fact it's the natural longing of the renewed heart.

He compares the longing for entire sanctification to a child wishing for all A's in school, but knowing it's unattainable, to contrast with the certainty of God's promise.

For a moral renovation in these young believers that is intensive and extensive in making them like unto the Lord Jesus. And he does this in such a way that he indicates that this is not an unattainable ideal. Is he simply holding something out here as a longing that will never be realized, the same way some of you kids might wish you got all As? But you know it ain't never going to be so.

6:43 - 7:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No, not really. There's no conscious sin. There's no known sin. And they begin to lower the standard of perfection so that man can meet it.

The healing of the lame man in Acts 3, who received 'perfect soundness,' is used to illustrate the physical completeness that parallels the spiritual completeness of entire sanctification.

We must not press these terms as though he were speaking with some kind of scientific or psychological precision. What he is doing is enlarging upon the general statement the God of peace sanctify you wholly by that I mean may your entire being from all of your physical faculties to the faculties of the soul to the faculties of the spirit the entire outward and inward life the physical and the non-physical the material, the immaterial may the totality of your being this is what he is saying be preserved entire. Now he uses a different word. This word means to be completely whole having all of ...

15:13 - 16:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The author of this work is 'the God of peace himself,' emphasizing God's sovereign action in those justified by faith. The scope is 'wholly,' meaning completely and totally…

Sin is described as a 'great thief' that has stolen the body's appetites and faculties, making them servants of the devil, to emphasize the extent of sin's corruption.

He has all of his faculties in their full operation. Now Paul says this is the scope of entire sanctification. All the faculties with which God has endowed us as creatures made in his image shall be restored to their full and harmonious use in the service of God. You see sin has been a great thief.

16:57 - 17:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The accomplishment does not rest on our weak endeavors nor on the apostles fervent longings but on God's almighty and unfailing faithfulness.

God putting a 'tag' on believers on a 'production line' to be 'like the Lord Jesus' illustrates God's purpose and predestination for their conformity to Christ's image.

And he has purposed nothing less than your complete moral renovation into the likeness of his dear son. Romans 8 whom he foreknew he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. He's put a tag on us and said as he puts us if I may use the illustration of the production line that thing is marked to be like the Lord Jesus. And there is the process going on but we're so unlike him in so many ways.

24:25 - 24:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The accomplishment does not rest on our weak endeavors nor on the apostles fervent longings but on God's almighty and unfailing faithfulness.

Jesus' parable of the foolish man who begins to build but cannot finish is used to assert that God will never be accused of such folly, guaranteeing the completion of His work.

He has called you and he has marked you for complete conformity to his son and he is faithful that is he can be counted upon to perform the thing which he purposes. So the certainty of our entire sanctification rests in the purpose and power of the author of salvation. He has taken us in hand and he will not forsake his own work. Jesus said the man who begins to build and can't finish is called the foolish man.

25:31 - 26:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not mess up God's life or God's timing by trying to bring future glorification into the present.

The longing of a corn seed to become a stalk and multiply itself is used to illustrate how the seeds of divine life within believers long for the full expression of absolute likeness to Jesus Christ.

You see it's earnest Christians for the most part that get involved in false teachings on entire sanctification because in a real sense God has stamped them for perfection and put the seeds of what they're going to be in their hearts and just as that seed longs to be a stalk if it's a corn seed and that seed has not found its full expression until it's multiplied itself in many years of corn so the seeds of divine life within us are reaching up and out for that full expression of absolute likeness to Jesus Christ and that's what creates the problem in the conflict God has created it in us bles...

31:50 - 33:18 Read in full sermon