I have been dealing with what and who a Saint is, that I over looked the one most important requirement of them all, our Sanctification. So today I want to look at just how it is secured as the prerequisite for all that is Promised to be secured. But first Pastor Hoekstra'a writing on Grace and then I will look into our Sanctification. And as has become my habit I will make use of the ESV translation and also any inspiration will be added where and when the LORD speaks to me.
"God Enlightening Us about Our Spiritual Resources"
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ... the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling." (Ephesians 1:3, 18)
"We have seen that all the Grace resources GOD has for us to live by here on earth are already ours "in Christ." Now, our need is to have these comprehensive Spiritual Treasures Revealed to us by the LORD Himself: "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling." In order to draw upon these heavenly divine provisions, we need the LORD to enlighten our understanding concerning what is ours in Christ Jesus. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of (natural, worldly, earthy) man the things which GOD has prepared for those who love Him. But GOD has revealed them to us through His Spirit" (1Corinthians 2:9-10). As the Holy Spirit uses the word of GOD to reveal these matters to us, our faith develops so we might access them by faith. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
The scriptures teach us to pray for such spiritual enlightenment. "Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law" (Psalms 119:18). In the word of GOD, we are told of the wonderful things that GOD has for His people. This things are in open language but remain hidden from sight until we have received of Him our Sanctification (a circumcised heart), at which point all things become New, even our sight and hearing. If we prayerfully seek the LORD concerning His insight into these blessings, the LORD Will Enlighten us. His willingness to respond is evident in His word. "Call to Me, and I Will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3).
The LORD GOD delights to give heavenly Spiritual Insight to the humble of heart, a Sanctified (circumcised) heart, not to those who trust in their own wisdom and prudence or even worldly piety. "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, 'I praise You, Father, LORD of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes'" (Luke 10:21). This picture of a little one humbly trusting in the Heavenly Father to reveal His ways fits perfectly GOD's pattern for living by Grace: humility and faith. What GOD has given us in Christ are His Grace resources. It takes Grace at work through faith's reveiving for us to even see what is ours in Him. Therefore GOD gives Grace to the humble (James 4:6), and faith accesses Grace (Romans 5:2)."
Sanctification,
How it is Secured,
John 17:6-19 and Romans 15:16 (Jesus is speaking His LORD's prayer) "I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept (received inwardly, as in absorbed) Your word. Now they know that everything that You have given Me is from You. For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know in Truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine (Deuteronomy 6:4), and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are One (Deuteronomy 6:4 again stressing it's importance for clarity and understanding). While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me (the Living Word, the law, the Messiah that is Christ, the anointed One). I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the Truth; Your word is Truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in Truth."
Romans 15:14-21 "I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the Grace given me by GOD to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the Gospel of GOD, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, Sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of GOD—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the Gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, "Those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand."
1Corinthians 1:26-31 and 6:11 "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But GOD chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; GOD chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; GOD chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of GOD. And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us Wisdom from GOD, Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the LORD."
1Corinthians 6:9-11 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of GOD? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of GOD. And such were some of you. But you were Washed, you were Sanctified, you were Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our GOD."
Ephesians 5:25-33 "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved His Church (the assembly of those having One mind, One LORD, One Head, One GOD and Father as seen in Genesis 2:1-3) and gave Himself up for her, that HE might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that HE might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does His Church, because we are members of His Body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and His Church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
2Timothy 2:20-26 and Hebrews 10:10 "Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as Holy, useful to the Master of His House, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the LORD from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the LORD's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. GOD may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a Knowledge of the Truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will."
Hebrews 10:1-10 "For since the Law (as seen in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy as given to a rebellious people therefore keeping them corralled) has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near (under the penalty of this Law). Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, "Sacrifices and offerings YOU have not desired, but a Body have YOU prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings YOU have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your Will, O GOD, as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book.'" When He said above, "YOU have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the Law), then He added, "Behold, I have come to do Your Will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that Will we have been Sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
Hebrews 13:7-16 "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange (pious religious sounding) teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by Grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent (old Temple) have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to Sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach HE endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come (the true Zion). Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to GOD, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge HIS name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to GOD."
1Peter 1:1-2, 13-16 "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of GOD the Father, in the Sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood: May Grace and Peace be multiplied to you........Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the Grace that will be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as HE Who called you is Holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be Holy, for I am Holy."
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