Let us then return to 1 Peter chapter 1 and we'll choose our text at verse 15. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 15. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. So be ye holy in all manner of conversation. We have chosen that text tonight because the subject of our catechism question is the one of sanctification, and we do feel that this text is appropriate So be ye holy in all manner of conversation. We've reached question 35 in our brief study of the Shorter Catechism, and that question is a question that asks this, what is sanctification? And the answer that's given Sanctification is a work of God's free grace wherein we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. So the topic for our meditation this evening is this subject of sanctification. We have been looking at previous things that follow from our effectual calling. We noticed two weeks ago justification, and then last time we looked at that glorious subject of adoption. As one said, justification changes our standing. It's a legal matter. It declares a person righteous. One who was condemned is now righteous in the sight of God because of our being justified by faith, justified believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness being imputed unto us. Adoption changes our family. We are by nature children of wrath. But when we are justified, we are brought in to God's family. The highest possible blessing that mankind can know is to be taken from the thralldom and the domain of Satan, and into the glorious family and liberty and blessings of the family of God. But sanctification changes our nature. Justification, if you like, gives us a title to heaven. But sanctification changes us so that we are fit, so that we are meet, so that we are appropriate to go into heaven. This may be a very simple thing to say, but it is very, very true that the natural man might talk about heaven and he might want to go to heaven, but the natural man would find the heaven of the Bible a terrible place for him to be in. As one person said to me on the street, one person maybe who didn't realize how profound a thing he said, that he didn't want to go to heaven. Why not? Because he knew it wouldn't be a place that he would enjoy, because he knew that he didn't want holiness, he didn't like holiness, he didn't love God, he didn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, he didn't want to be with the holy angels or with the church triumphant. He wanted no part in that. He knew that he was utterly unprepared for it, and should it be a possibility that he would find himself in heaven, it would be an absolute hell to him. Well, sanctification is something that changes us. Again, we might simplify things, not to make them without substance, but to help us. Justification is what we might say is what Christ has done for us. whereas sanctification is what Christ, by his Spirit, does in us. It's an inward work and obviously that inward work will manifest itself in what we call here our conversation. What it really means here in modern parlance is our lifestyle. That's what it means. And of course that does include our very conversation but when it says here be ye holy in all manner of conversation, it's talking about the life we lead. Well, if there's holiness within us, if we are being changed within us, if the Holy Spirit is truly working in us, that work will be evidenced by a life that has changed and continues to change. And when we look at, or when we have looked at justification and adoption and sanctification, we have separated them out. We distinguish them. But remember, they're all one in one sense. They're never without the other. If you're justified, you are adopted. And if you're justified and adopted, you will be sanctified. We simply separate them out to help us understand, but you cannot really separate them. If you have one, you have the three of them. Now, we're looking here at sanctification or to sanctify. That verb, to sanctify, it can mean two things in the Bible. It can mean, firstly, to consecrate or set apart for a sacred or holy use. And we notice that, for instance, when the tabernacle was prepared, and the temple was prepared, there was various vessels that had been set apart, they were sanctified for special and holy use. Well the Christian too, when he is joined to Christ in that glorious union, he is in some sense set apart. He is set apart. He is sanctified. He belongs now to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it can also mean to purify or to make holy. And we would put it to you, this is really what this question is addressing here. It is that sense of sanctification where it begins that work of purification to make a person holy. So that's sanctification. We would notice, too, I really want to draw one or two things from the text and from the scripture. And we would first of all realize and know the Christian was chosen to be holy. This, if you like, is one of the end points of our salvation. In 2 Thessalonians, and we could quote many texts to support this, but we'll just highlight two. In 2 Thessalonians chapter two and verse 13, we read, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. There, the Apostle Paul is reminding this young church in Thessalonica that God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit. And this would remind us, friends, that if we have the honor and the privilege of professing Christ as Lord and Savior, there should be some evidence of practical holiness in the life of every believer. For without holiness, as we will come to in the book of Hebrews, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Again, in Ephesians chapter one, the apostle Paul says in verse four, to the young church there in Ephesus, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. notice there in love he's talking about election and very often people do not associate the doctrine of election with love they look upon it as a hard and harsh doctrine they look upon it sometimes as being an unfair thing but the bible makes it abundantly clear that god has chosen us in christ without blame before him in love that we should be holy therefore there is no excuse. None whatsoever. We might notice too as far as sanctification is concerned, there are two aspects of our sanctification in Christ by the Spirit. Two aspects. The one is definitive. and the other is progressive. What do we mean? Well, we won't take long to explain this. One is definitive and the other is progressive regarding our salvation. The Bible would teach us, and I will quote a couple of texts to support this, the Bible would teach us that we have been definitively, perfectly set apart and cleansed in Christ when we believed upon him. And when we say, when we believed upon him, when we believed upon him in the biblical sense of believing, when we were united to him by faith, something glorious and wonderful happened. We were justified, we were adopted, but also we were sanctified. A very definite act of sanctification happened there the moment we closed in with Christ. Where's the evidence? Well, the evidence we find in the Word of God. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. I'll quote it. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. But before I do, let's just remember the Christians at Corinth. and Corinth itself and the church there if you know anything about your bibles at all if you know anything about Corinth it was a church with lots of problems it had spiritual life it had spiritual gifts it had many wonderful things but there were problems there and many of them were young Christians and they had come out of paganism they had come out of idolatry and they had come out of sexual immorality much of what is like in our society today. If you want to know what our society is like today in biblical terms, go to the book of Corinth, read it, and there you'll find that Glasgow, Edinburgh, Scotland, the UK is mirrored there in what we find in Corinth 2,000 years ago. but this is what the apostle Paul says to them. And he's listing a lot of sins beforehand, a lot of sins, he's highlighting them, and he says, such were some of you. In other words, you were just like these people that I've outlined. You were no different. And some of them were involved in terrible, heinous sins, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified. not you are being but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So friends when they believed they were definitively sanctified, set apart, separated. Again there's another verse we quote to support this We find it in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14. We obviously read it when we went through that chapter in Hebrews. But Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14, talking about the Lord Jesus, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are. sanctified. Them that are sanctified. So that's definitive sanctification. Granted here our catechism and our text is really talking about progressive sanctification. That's where when we believe God begins this great work of sanctification, making an individual wholly fit, meet, proper for heaven itself. And it's where the Spirit is progressively working in us, more and more conforming us to Christ, giving us victory over sin and growth in holiness. Paul again in First Thessalonians chapter five, verse 23, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. W-H-O-L-L-Y. Completely, wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what the catechism here would remind us. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace. God's free grace. It's a work. It's an ongoing work. We have noticed that justification was an act, it was an instantaneous act, and so was adoption. But this progressive sanctification is something that continues to go on throughout the whole life of the believer. It never stops. It terminates that moment when we close our eyes in death and we enter into the world that is to come. And of course, the Lord Jesus Christ plays a pivotal role in this. Ultimately, sanctification is the work of God. And we know it's the work of the Lord Jesus. the work of the Father, the work of the Lord Jesus, but they all tend to work through the Spirit. It's the Spirit that gets priority, if you like, regarding our sanctification. But it's the Father and it's the Son working through the Spirit. And Jesus, in that great high priestly prayer, says in John chapter 17 and verse 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Here is one of the instruments that the Lord Jesus uses. It is his word. And we need to be under his word. On occasions like this, and private, our own private meditations, we read the word of God. And what the word of God will do, it will reveal unto us our sin. The Word of God is not inclined to pat us on the back and to tell us how good we are. It's inclined to show up our faults and our failings and our shortcomings. And that's what happens. And when the Spirit of God, as we read it, read His Word that has been authored by the Holy Spirit, it reveals unto us sin. And that's part of our sanctification because when the sin has been revealed to us, we are to fight against that sin. We are to confess it, we are to forsake it, we are to pray for grace that we might overcome it, that we would have victory over it. But it's by reading the word of God and becoming under its power and influence that we become more and more aware. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world. And for thy sakes I sanctify myself. that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Therefore, if we abandon the word of God, if we forsake it, if we do not read it and do not apply it, we will really know nothing about progressive sanctification. It's there. It's there. It's there for that purpose, in order that we might be prepared for glory. Now as we said here, sanctification is a work of God's free grace. It's ongoing. It will be incomplete. Certainly the believer when he begins he will begin to notice, or maybe more accurately to say, other people will see a change in that individual's life. Very often the individual Christian himself doesn't see an awful lot of difference, but others will see it. And as they go through life, more and more things will be revealed. They'll get the victory over more and more sin, but it will not be complete. It's only a death. Then are they made perfectly holy. But the point is, from the moment when they first join with Christ to the time when they depart into this world, there will be a change. There will be a growth in holiness. That will happen. How much? It depends on each individual. It's not the same in every person. Every person is equally justified. Every person is equally adopted into the family of God. But every person is not sanctified to the same extent. These are things that are only experienced between the believer and his God. And sometimes that work, there will be progress. There will be progress. But sometimes they'll be regressing, they'll be going backwards. It's a fight, it's a battle. You only have to read, for instance, Romans chapter seven, where we do believe that the apostle Paul is talking and outlining the life of a believer and his struggle or her struggle with sin. And ask yourself this, when you were an unbeliever, Did sin really bother you? It didn't really bother you. But now you're a believer, well, your conscience troubles you like it never troubled you before. Why? Well, you have the spirit of God in you now. He's working in you. He is revealing more and more of your own sin. And by the grace of God, Sanctification is going on in your life. Now it's obvious that to truly know sanctification, you need to abide in Christ. John chapter 15 would tell us this. I am the vine, ye are the branches. Without me, you can do nothing. In other words, the Christian must maintain communion and fellowship with the Savior. Everything comes to us through the Savior. We cannot sanctify ourselves. It's only as we have union with Christ and a fertile union with him. He is the one who gives life. It's an organic thing. We draw all our resources, spiritual resources, from Jesus Christ himself. This question or this answer here would tell us it's a renewing work. whereby we are renewed in the whole man. We need to go back to the beginning to grasp what's being said here. God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, we are told. This is what the Bible teaches us, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Well, when Adam sinned, we lost that. To some extent, we lost it. Well, In sanctification, we are being renewed in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. That's what it is. It's not a patch-up job. It's not trying to refurbish what's there. It's being renewed, absolutely renewed in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And ultimately, obviously, we will be like Jesus Christ. at the end. It's a complete renewal. And this answer tells us, too, made after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die and to sin. What does that mean? Well, it tells us that we will have, to some extent, victory over sin. victory over it, not complete victory in this life, no, but nevertheless we will know something of putting our sins to death. The old man is being crucified and sanctification gives us victory day by day, more and more, little by little, as we fight the good fight of faith, we will be enabled to fight our sins. Sin shall not have dominion over you. I believe we'll find that in Romans chapter 6. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Once it did, you didn't know it, you didn't realize it, but it had a grip and a fraud over you. Well when you are converted, when you are changed, when you are regenerated, that power that sin had is broken, completely and utterly broken. Not that it doesn't have any power, but it doesn't have the complete dominion that it once knew and once enjoyed. And as our sanctification progresses, we are enabled. Ask yourself, do you know anything of this? Was there a sin that you might describe as your besetting sin, and you have victory over it? Well, I hope you have, but you cannot be complacent. You cannot just think you've got the victory over it altogether. It could come back. This is the point. We have to be aware of it, and we have to be on our guard. day after day, but this is what sanctification is. It does enable us to have that victory over sin in our lives. Well, we would also notice that we need to be active in this. We're not passive. Justification is something that God does. You cannot justify yourself. Adoption is something that God has done. You can't adopt yourself into the family of God. But sanctification is something that you must cooperate with. We're not passive. We're active. Does not the Bible paint a picture of a Christian as a soldier, or the Christian as an athlete, or the Christian as a farmer, Now, whatever we derive from these pictures, they all tell us of people who are active. A soldier, he's active. he's active maybe watching out for instance he may be on watch he's there with his gun or he's there with his shield or there with his sword he's watching out or he's fighting he's always on on alert he's on enemy territory he's not sleeping he's not lying down he is engaged in warfare so an athlete An athlete, even in biblical times, an athlete would devote himself to whatever task he was taking on. If he was a runner, he would watch his diet. He would make sure he had exercise. He would make sure that he ate properly and he prepared. He would be in training. And what about a farmer? Well, he would be active also. Up in the morning, late to bed at night, he would be active around his crops and his field, his animals. it wasn't a a job when he put his feet up and if the weather was suitable he would work all day and if the weather wasn't suitable he'd be inside working he always had to work well this is the thing we need to be active we need to take on this matter it's something that God does work in us but he doesn't work without us We have quoted this text on another occasion in another context but in Philippians chapter 2 verse 12, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's what we do. We work out. And then we notice a very important lesson. possibly the most important lesson for all of us. It is when we are holy that we are useful. Very often we think that If someone's going to be a preacher or someone's going to be a missionary, well, get them theologically trained. Get them to learn the language. Good things in their place. but nothing beats a holy person. Nothing speaks like a holy person. You can have someone who's got all their theology, they can tick all the boxes, they know their Bibles, they know their confessions, they know their languages, they know their apologetics, but if their life is not holy, it will do no good whatsoever, none whatsoever. Paul says to Timothy in this context, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. A holy person is a fearful weapon in the hands of God. I'm not quoting accurately, but I'm giving you the gist of what Robert Murray McShane would say to his congregation. What they need most of all is my holiness. And he wasn't boasting. That's what they need. They need to be like him. He was known as a holy individual, and that's what his congregation needed most of all. It was to be like him, to have a lifestyle like him. Because then, friends, they would have a great impact in their homes and in their communities and in their locality. And so it is with the Christian, all of us. Minister, office bearer, member, adherent, whatever. Holiness. And sometimes there's, because the world has a distaste for that word, and sometimes it can rub off into Christian circles, holier than thou type of thing, and we look upon it as a negative thing, but it's not. In a biblical sense, in the sense that we're talking about it, it is a very positive thing, because God says here in his word, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Well, that is sanctification. It's ultimately to make us holy. And it's ultimately to make us, in this life at least, to be useful vessels, to be productive, to be not barren, but to have fruitful Christian lives, and then obviously, ultimately, to make us to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. And may the Lord be pleased to bless his word to us.