Sanctification

Pastor Martin expounds the second essential ingredient of the fear of God: a pervasive sense of the presence of God. He distinguishes mere intellectual knowledge of God's omnipresence from the experiential awareness that God is here, using the Grand Canyon analogy to show how facts become transforming only in the presence of their object. He traces this theme through Abraham's walk before God Almighty, Joseph's refusal of Potiphar's wife, and David's meditation in Psalm 139, applying it to the ethical and moral implications for daily Christian living.

Pastor Martin expounds the third essential ingredient of the fear of God: a constraining awareness of one's obligations to God. The essence of that obligation is threefold — to love God supremely, obey Him implicitly, and trust Him completely. He illustrates this powerfully through Abraham's offering of Isaac (where God singled out fear as the virtue tested) and through Christ in Gethsemane and at Calvary, showing how the fear of God operates in supreme love, implicit obedience, and complete trust even unto death.

Pastor Martin demonstrates from Scripture that the fear of God is the holy soil which produces a godly life. He examines seven Old Testament and two New Testament passages showing how practical godliness in every circumstance — from Abraham's dealings with Abimelech to Nehemiah's refusal of personal gain, from treatment of the deaf and blind to workplace conduct — is rooted in the fear of God. He applies this to the folly of seeking moral reform apart from true religion, the need for revival, and the responsibility of parents, schools, and churches to instill the fear of God.

Pastor Martin opens a new section on sanctification by considering it in three lights. He first relates sanctification to the human problem of sin, using the illustration of a drunk driver who needs both a lawyer and a physician to show that sin creates both legal and personal problems — justification and adoption address the legal, sanctification the personal. He then traces sanctification as central to the divine plan of salvation in its initial design, actual procurement, powerful application, prolonged interval, and final consummation. He closes by pressing the personal necessity of holiness from Hebrews 12:14, warning against two fatal errors: a salvation that makes sanctification optional, and a sanctification sought apart from union with Christ.

Pastor Martin devotes a full message to the lexical groundwork of sanctification, showing that the Hebrew and Greek word families translated 'sanctify/holy' primarily mean to set apart from common use for God. He illustrates this from Exodus (holy ground, firstborn, people, priestly garments), Matthew 23 and 1 Timothy 4 (temple sanctifying the gold, food sanctified by the word and prayer), then traces three streams from this 'mountain pool' of meaning: the sanctification of God (by himself and by his people), the sanctification of man (as responsibility, as privilege of position in mixed marriages, as divine promise), and the sanctification of the Redeemer (John 10:36, John 17:17-19). The pastoral aim is to equip the congregation to read Scripture without being deceived by sleight-of-hand teachers.

Using the illustration of a wide-angle lens on a three-peaked mountain, Pastor Martin surveys the biblical doctrine of sanctification in its three great dimensions. Peak one — definitive sanctification — is the radical, once-for-all cleavage with the dominion of sin (1 Corinthians 1:2, 6:11; Acts 20:32; Romans 6). Peak two — progressive sanctification — is the continuous process of mortifying sin and being conformed to Christ (Romans 6:22, 8:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 7:1; 1 John 3:3). Peak three — climactic sanctification — is the final deliverance from all sin at death and in the resurrection (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Philippians 3:20-21; Hebrews 12:23). He closes by insisting that no biblical salvation exists without all three dimensions, and no sanctification occurs outside union with Christ received by repentance and faith.

Drawing especially from Hebrews 2 and 4, Pastor Martin shows that because Christ is truly man he is fully qualified to be a sympathetic high priest who, having suffered being tempted, can succor his tempted people. He then expounds 1 Peter 2 and 1 John 2 to show that Christ as true man is also the perfect pattern and example for believers in the use of body, soul, mind, will, and emotions, as well as in love to God and neighbor. The closing application from 2 Corinthians 3:18 urges Christians to behold the glory of the perfect human Christ in Scripture so that they may be progressively transformed into his image.

Pastor Martin examines three biblical examples of Christ's intercession. In John 17 he unfolds Christ's four-fold concern for His people: preservation, sanctification, unification, and glorification. In Luke 22:31-32 he shows Christ praying that Peter's faith would not fail, demonstrating that the continued existence of grace in the believer is a standing miracle secured by Christ's intercession. In John 14:16 he shows Christ praying the Father to send the Spirit, teaching that every redemptive blessing comes through the living mediatorial work of the high priest.

After a digression of several Lord's Days, Pastor Martin returns to the Here We Stand series with a lengthy review of the ground covered — the book we believe and obey, the God we worship and confess, and the salvation we receive and proclaim, including Christ in the mystery of His person and the majesty of His offices. He then transitions to the next major division: the cardinal blessings of salvation — calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. Using the analogy of a multi-course banquet, he argues these are not synonyms for 'saved' but distinct courses of one gospel feast. He closes with two framing truths — the orbit of these blessings (union with Christ, outside of which there is not a crumb) and the order of these blessings (those that bring us into union, those that are present fruits, those that are future benefits).

Pastor Martin examines the continuous, ongoing effects of regeneration as distinct from the immediate effects of repentance and faith. Following an outline drawn from Robert Law on 1 John, he sets forth three inevitable, abiding marks of the regenerate: a doctrinal or theological confession of Jesus as true God, true man, and Messiah; a moral or ethical practice of righteousness and obedience; and a social love for the brethren. Where these three are absent, claims to the new birth are exposed as empty.

Continuing the exposition of 'walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,' Pastor Martin identifies the mass media of communication -- television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and advertising -- as a primary channel through which ungodly counsel reaches believers. He exposes four philosophies permeating the mass media: materialism, sensualism, moral relativism, and anti-God intellectualism, and offers practical counsel for guarding oneself and one's family against their subtle influence.

Transitioning from the negative to the positive description of the blessed man, Pastor Martin expounds 'his delight is in the law of the Lord.' He defines delight as a spontaneous affinity rooted in one's nature, demonstrating that only the new birth can produce genuine delight in God's law. He explains four reasons why the regenerate man delights in Scripture: it reveals the Lord Himself, it is the truth by which he was born again, it reveals his duty, and it is the instrument of his sanctification. He closes with pastoral counsel on recovering lost delight.