You don't have to burn out trying to achieve holiness through your own strength alone. Instead, trust the same God who justified you to be the one who transforms you every day. If you feel the urge to control your spiritual growth, come and release that burden to Him today.
Movement. Now, I wanna invite a dear friend, 1 of our elders of our church to come out, mister Daniel Mannix. Would you guys give him a "big old hand"? You honor well. Look at this thing.
It's massive. And it's appropriate. We we have ordained a few people in our church.
We have pastors we've ordained, teachers.
We have evangelists. We have a prophet. Well, is this is a teacher. The Bible says he's a gift to the church. And, anointed and ordained as a gift in the area of teaching well.
Don't ever get in a theological argument with this this man. But he doesn't just teach, he also demonstrates, which is beautiful. And I know the word he's gonna preach today, and I'm excited for you to receive this gift from the Lord.
*Amen*. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, guys.
Can we honor the pastor too? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Thank you, David.
Pastor David has maybe believed in me before I believed in myself. 5 years ago, he gave me the opportunity to preach, not on this stage, at this church, a different location. And it's very similar to the message I'm gonna preach today, so we've kinda come "full circle" in 5 years. So, it's an honor to be here, and it's an honor to get to share with you all. I love this church, I love this church body.
We got to celebrate this church body yesterday. Some people were cutting a rug. Said, Gabe, you made it. It's up a little late dancing, we had a wedding, 2 members of the church here. We got to celebrate the beautiful matrimony, the covenant that God has created.
*Amen*? Amen. My wife and I just got to celebrate 2 years of wedding bliss. We've we've been married for 2 years as of last week. Yeah, Esther.
I see her standing back there with our baby boy who's now almost 3 months old, so we've welcomed a child as well, which is such a blessing. I probably have some drool on my shirt actually, as I was holding him back there. But, man, what a blessing. Todd and Diane Harrison, they prophesied, what was that, 3 years ago maybe, that there would be marriages and there would be babies in this church, and they were not lying. It has exploded, and we are a testimony of that beautiful prophecy.
So, wife gave birth to our son. I don't know what it is to be pregnant. I know it's 2025, and society might tell you that men can give birth, it's still not true. But, I do know what it is to be pregnant with a word from God, and I have been ready to I am bursting at the seams. I'm ready to share this word that God has been marinating inside of me, and I can't wait to see what God does with this.
Because, it's not gonna be what I do with it, it's gonna be what God does with it. Amen? Amen. I believe that people are gonna be set free from **false religious mindset** today. Amen.
So let's pray. Let's pray for that. Yeah. Lord, thank you for what you are going to do today, Lord God. You are mighty.
You are enthroned on high, you are holy, you are majestic, Lord God. You are why we came here. You are the reason. God, we worship you. God, as we move into this season of of Thanksgiving next week, and we got Christmas at the end of the year here, Lord, let us not forget the reasons for our joy, for our Thanksgiving, for the season, the new birth coming, Lord God, that we get to celebrate at the end of this year.
Let us celebrate new birth in us every single day, in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. So, the title of this message is *Sanctification* by Grace Through Faith.
*Sanctification*, I know it sounds like a long difficult word. I'm not I'm not gonna get all nerdy on you here. We're gonna be We're gonna break this down. We're gonna make it very simple. We're gonna make it very relatable.
So, to start with, there are really 4 main stages in a Christian's life, really 4 events, and those are separation, *justification*, *sanctification*, which we'll talk about today, and glorification. Yeah. So, is really condemnation, right? John-3, Jesus said, for the 1 who doesn't believe you stand condemned already. Like, there's no neutrality in the kingdom of heaven.
When you were born, you were born separated from God, you were born an enemy of God, and that was not because God wanted you to be his enemy, it's because we all chose rebellion. We all chose to be separated from a holy God. And so, there's this open rebellion where we are weaponizing our words and our thoughts and our actions against a holy God, and we are eternally separated from him. People that don't know Jesus and say, well, why can't I get into heaven? You won't wanna be in heaven because heaven is all about God.
Okay? So, you didn't wanna be with him here, you won't be with him for eternity. So, that's separation that we're all born into, and it's this ugly place of selfishness and and just divulging in your sin. And, when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.
Okay? That was the moment that we all received, that moment of justification. It happened in an instant. And the bible tells us that this happened while we were still sinners, that we weren't running toward him, we were running away from him. We This is the this is the lie that that people believe about church, or people in other religions believe, that you have to clean yourself up to get to God.
No, the bible says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And we as believers, we as Christians understand this. Right? We understand that God imputed or credited his *righteousness* to us. Amen?
It's it's normal for us, but it's not normal for the rest of the world, and it wasn't normal in Jesus' time. I mean, the the Israelites understood **clean and unclean**. They understood that you couldn't get to God if you were unclean, if you ate something that was unclean. If you were a priest and you walked over a grave that had bones in it, a dead body, you were considered unclean. There were all these things that disallowed you from getting to God because you couldn't be in the presence of God being unclean, but God gave us a little Easter egg in the old testament.
It's in Isaiah-6, and I would definitely recommend that you read Isaiah-6, it's this amazing vision that the prophet Isaiah gets. It's after King Uzziah died, who Isaiah was close with, and so he's somewhat mourning and he gets this vision of God, he's in the temple, the holy of holies, the holy place that God dwells with his people, and the the train of of God's robe and the smoke from the glory of God fills the whole temple, and the first thing that Isaiah says is, oh crap. Oh crap. He doesn't jump for joy, oh, I'm meeting God. I mean, in common day language he says, crap.
The bible says that he says, "woe is me". Woe is me, for I am a person of unclean lips and I dwell in the land of a people of unclean lips, and my eyes are seeing a holy God. I am not clean, he is clean. But we get a picture of the gospel right here, because God takes a coal from the altar of God, 1 of the angels, the Seraphim, grabs that coal and he puts it on Isaiah's mouth, and this is what the angel says, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. That something that was clean made the unclean clean.
Not the other way around that they would know that the unclean makes the clean unclean. And Jesus exemplified this, right? He would go out and touch the lepers and heal them. They were afraid for him to touch the leper, not only because he could contract leprosy, but because he was touching something that was unclean. But the glory of God is that he changes us.
He is unchangeable. *Amen*? Amen. So, this is the relationship that we now stand in. We're we're in this moment of justification, we're past that.
*Glorification* is eternity with God, first in heaven and then in the new earth. Amen. The in between of those 2 is sanctification. And that's where we are right now. Those of you that actually are believers, you are in this event of your Christian walk of sanctification.
And this is, John tells us, the apostle John tells us that in this world, we are like Jesus, that we are to be like Jesus. But that's not always the case, is it? Why is the church struggling at large? Why do people fall away from the faith? Why are people still addicted to not only drugs, but just sin in general?
Why is there backsliding? If we're all being sanctified, if we're to be like Jesus in this world, why is why is there so much that doesn't line up with what God's word says? Why are we not looking like we're being sanctified sometimes? If we're all to be really honest, right? Why does something happen to us, some kind of circumstance and pastor David says that like when when you get squeezed, Jesus should come out.
Why does Jesus not come out sometimes? Why why are there 4 letter words that come out sometimes? How are we to be like Jesus in this world? Jesus is perfect. He doesn't sin.
He is perfect. How do we do this in and of our own strength? Are there any religious rights that we are to do? Are we to sacrifice something? Do we have to read the bible a certain amount?
Do we have to tithe a certain amount? Is there anything that we can do? It's easy for us to say no, but we live our lives in a different way. The Bible makes it very simple for us and yet we try to take control of situations and do it ourselves. I wanna start with Colossians-2:6.
We're gonna go through a lot of scripture today. I hope you guys don't mind. The word of God is gonna be much more entertaining than anything I have to say, so we'll we'll spend a lot of time in here. I'm glad you all didn't say amen really loud there, that would have been a little hurtful. But understood, amen.
*Colossians-2* verse 6, I mean, this is really simple guys, we're gonna boil this down very simply. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. That's right. Yeah. Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Just as you came to him, walk in him. Just as you were justified, justified meaning just as if you'd never sinned, that God's righteousness was imputed to you, so walk in him, so be sanctified. How did you come to him? Ephesians-2:8, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of yourselves, but as a gift of God, not by works, lest anyone should boast. Nobody has room to boast about anything, there's no pride in the kingdom of heaven, because the only 1 that can boast is God.
Let the 1 who boast, boast in the Lord. By grace, through faith is how you came to him. How do you stay in him? By grace. By grace through faith.
By grace through faith. But, how do we do that? Like like what does that look like? Do we live our lives in a way that says, I am being sanctified by grace through faith? Do I live my life that lines up with 2 Corinthians-5:17?
I know it tells me that I am a "new creation" now, that the old has passed away, the old is gone, the new has come. But why do I look like my old self sometimes? Why does it rear its ugly head up? Why do things come out of me that don't seem to be in line with his word? The answer is that the gospel is really, really, really simple to understand.
God made it very simple. He didn't make like some complex algorithm or some long mathematical problem that only the smartest people could achieve and in this mental ascension to get to God. No, he made it very simple so that anybody could understand it. The problem is that the gospel is hard to accept. The gospel is very easy to understand, but it's very difficult to accept.
It's the exact opposite of everything else in our lives. Everything is about working towards something. Everything is about self improvement, making yourself better, smarter, faster, all these different things. The gospel is very difficult to accept. *Jesus has a conversation with this religious leader, his name's Nicodemus in John-3*, and I mean, this guy is known as the teacher of Israel, he's very smart, he knows the word in and out, and he sees something different about Jesus, he hears about miracles.
And so, he goes to meet him under the cover of night because he's embarrassed, ashamed to be around this man who didn't come up through the ranks of, you know, the classic training and and being a rabbi, and yet, here he is doing these incredible things apart from the religious institution and he says, I know that you do these amazing things, you have to come from God like, what's going on here? Who are you? And Jesus explains the gospel to him. Very simply, he says, you can't even see the kingdom unless you are born again. And Nicodemus just can't wrap his mind around it.
*Jesus explains the simple gospel* to him, very similar to what we would say when we go out and evangelize at Walmart or Circle K or whatever it is, where we're sharing the gospel in a very simple way with people. And this teacher of Israel, his response in John-3:9 is, "how can these things be"? It's not, I don't understand this. Can you can you repeat that again? I'm I'm trying to wrap my mind around it.
It's, how can these things be? How can I believe this? How can I accept this? I've been taught all this other stuff, my life is all about doing all these rites and rituals and sacrifices and living this way and not that way. How can these things be?
We don't have any record of Nicodemus being born again there. He couldn't accept it, he couldn't believe it. How can these things be? Yes, he he helps with Jesus' body after Jesus is crucified. I I pray that he was born again, but in this moment when he hears it, he cannot accept it.
And I know this all too well because this was me for a long time in my Christian walk. I was I totally understood and believed in by grace through faith for my justification, that Jesus died on the cross, that I didn't do that, that that wasn't me. That that was a free gift, that I received it, that I could not boast. But I believed that my sanctification was **earning by works**. That I had to do it.
That I had to stop doing this, and stop thinking that, and stop hanging out with that person, and I had to force myself to do this and do that. And like Nicodemus, I could not believe, I could not accept that the same God who justified me is the God who sanctifies me. That's what I wanna break today. That mentality that there's something that you have to do with your sanctification. There's nothing that you can do to get to God.
There's nothing that you can do to stay in God. As you came to him, walk in him. How did you come to him? By grace through faith. We stay in him by grace through faith.
If you don't believe that Jesus, if you don't have faith in his power to sanctify you, then you don't have faith. Let that sit. If you don't believe in Jesus as your sanctification, then you don't have faith and you don't believe in the bible. Go to go to *1 Corinthians-1*. Don't just take my word for it.
It's probably gonna be another 6 months before I preach, right? First Corinthians *1 Corinthians-1*, look at verse 30. It says, because of him, that's God. Because of God, not because of you, not because of me, because of him, you are in Christ *Jesus* who became to us. Who's us?
Believers. Wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, let the 1 who boast, "boast in the Lord". Again, we have nothing to boast about. It says it right there that Jesus is our sanctification.
When you get to a point, you know how we talk about Jesus not only being your savior, but being Lord? When you get to the point that you declare Jesus as Lord over your sanctification, you'll be amazed what happens, what the spirit does in and through you. And we got a great example of it from the apostle Paul in Romans-7. Let's go to Romans-7. *Romans-7* starting in verse 15.
I'm gonna go through verse 24 and it's a little bit of a tongue twister. For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.
For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So, I find it to be a law that when I wanna do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God that is in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this **"body of death"**? Wretched man that I am. Those are the moments I'm talking about when something comes out of you and you're squeezing it's not Jesus. The spirit convicts you, doesn't he? Wretched man that I am.
Here's the apostle Paul. He wrote 2 thirds of the new testament, wretched man that I am. There's 10 verses that I just read there guys, 7 15 through 24. In those 10 verses, Paul uses the words I, me or my 34 times. His entire focus is on himself, what he can do, what he can't do.
I wanna do good, but I can't do it. I don't wanna do bad, but that's exactly what I'm doing. He is Lord over his sanctification, until verse 25. Look at what it says in verse 25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, exclamation point.
That's right. Notice
that nothing was removed, the sin wasn't removed, the temptation wasn't removed, nothing changed in his circumstances. What changed? His focus. He changed his focus from himself to God. That God is his sanctification, that the *Lord* is his sanctification, and the same goes for you and I.
That's what it takes. It takes a shift in our mindset to say, God, you are Lord over my sanctification, that this isn't by my works, that this is by *grace* through faith. This is the only way. Pastor David says all the time, faith comes by hearing, hearing by Oh, I'm sorry. Faith comes by hearing, requires believing, and is completed by obedience.
Right? I'll double down on that and say, without obedience, there is no faith. Yeah. Obedience and faith are the same thing. They're exactly the same.
James tells us in James-2 that, you know, he he asks the reader, show me your faith without works. This isn't a real question, this is rhetorical, he's saying this is impossible. You can't have faith and no works. You can't, they're the same exact thing. You can't have true faith without true obedience, not doing it out of your own strength, doing it by the power of God.
You can't have true obedience without true faith. The 2 are delicately and and purposefully intertwined. Obedience is not what the gospel requires. Obedience is what the gospel produces. Obedience is not what the gospel requires.
Obedience is what the gospel produces. For if obedience was required outside of the gospel, outside of the work and person of Jesus Christ, then Christ died for no purpose. Does everybody hear that? Then Christ died for no purpose. If you had to be required to get yourself clean, to to be obedient, to come to God.
That's not how it works. It wasn't, alright, I'm gonna go to this mark, and then you have to come this far. God comes all the way. Have you read the prodigal son? The father goes chasing after the son the entire way to meet him.
That's what God did with us. The only thing that we commit to this whole equation is our sin. That's it. Not only in your justification, but in your sanctification. God goes all the way.
*Obedience* comes from the gospel. Obedience and faith are the same thing, and they're rooted in love. Everything is rooted in love. How? Well, I get the revelation of God's love for me, and it sparks something, it opens something up in my life.
All of you know exactly what I'm talking about, you've had this moment of then, you are able to love God, and you love God in the form of obedience. *Jesus says it in John-14:15*, he says, if you love me, you'll obey my commands. This isn't, if you love me, prove it, prove it by obeying me. No, Jesus is saying, if you love me, literally, you will obey my commands. My love for you being reflected in your love for me will empower you to obey my commands.
That's how this thing works. You do it out of obedience that comes rooted in love, not about self performance. I love Galatians-2:20. I'm sure most Christians have heard it before, for by not for by grace, that's Ephesians-2. I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Isn't that beautiful? Do not neglect Galatians-2:21. The next sentence says, I do not nullify the grace of God.
The word nullify means to make legally void, or to declare ineffective. I do not declare God's grace ineffective. For if righteousness came through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Do you see how important this is? That we can't we can't combine *faith* and dead works, works in and of our self.
That's right. That God doesn't accept this as a pleasing sacrifice to him. The the churches in Galatia, so the the book of Galatians is written to a collection of churches in Galatia, which is modern day Turkey. This church was really struggling with this, the whole dead works thing, and Paul was just hammering them chapter after chapter in this letter. I love it.
If if there's any struggle for you with this, if you feel like you are trying so hard, and you're feeling burnt out, and you're feeling like you're backsliding, that's because you can't do this. God is the only 1 that can do this. You need to read Galatians. *Galatians-5:1* through 6, Paul says that, those of you that are trying to be justified by the law works, you have fallen away from grace. Yeah.
*Amen*. *Christ has become of no advantage to you. He's no effect to you anymore. His sacrifice* is not for you. You have fallen away from grace.
He says back in chapter 1, he says, those of you that are teaching this twisted gospel of faith and works, you have become anathema to God. Anathema means that you have been devoted to destruction or wrath. That's harsh, isn't it? No, it's not. Here's why, because you were devoted to destruction because what you do when you try to perform with your dead works is you say Christ's sacrifice wasn't good enough, so I need to add to his sacrifice.
And essentially what you end up doing is you take his perfect pleasing sacrifice on the *cross* off of the altar of God, and you put your own dead works up there. And let me tell you, you have been judged guilty of your sin.
Oh. That's right.
Even your filthy rags that you call good deeds have been judged guilty. And so, you are devoted for destruction. I don't know about you guys, I don't wanna be there. I I don't want anything that I've ever done to be what's on the altar of *sacrifice* on my day of judgment. I want Christ's perfect sacrifice.
I wanna be "hidden with God" in Christ Jesus. That's what I want. Not me, I want it to be him. *Amen*? And, also when you do that, like we talk about blaspheming God or taking the Lord's name in vain.
You are taking the Lord's name in vain when you are trying to perform with your dead works. Let me explain why. So, the name Jesus means he who saves. *Matthew-1:21, the angel of the Lord says to Joseph, he says, your betrothed is gonna give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus because he will save his people from his sin*. You're saying that God isn't who he says he is.
That's a dangerous place to be, guys. I believe that God is who he says he is. I believe that he doesn't need my help. I believe that his *sacrifice* is pure, perfect, holy, not only for my justification, but for my sanctification. *Amen*.
*Amen*? Amen. Look at what Jesus says in Matthew-7:21. We also talk about this 1 a lot in this church, which I love because a lot of churches don't wanna talk about this, But we don't shy away from the truth of God's word, all of it. Amen?
*Matthew-7:21*, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, capital l, Lord, a name reserved for God. These people are calling Jesus God. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the 1 who does the "will of my father" who is in heaven. On that day, on judgment, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, do we not prophecy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? They seem really focused on works.
Then, I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness. Workers of lawlessness. Why? Well, James says that those of you that are trying to be justified by the law, if you fail in 1 part of the law, you are guilty of the entire law.
You are lawless. You workers of lawlessness. Look at the audacity of these people. They face a holy God and they say, I did this, I did this, I did that, look at me. Are you kidding me?
That is not the right response on the day of judgment. It's not in the first person, it's you did this. God, you went to the cross, your sacrifice was perfect, I am hidden in you God. You have set me free, you have washed me clean. Those are the correct responses when you get asked what you're doing there.
It's what he did. How did they let you in? No. Ezra. Because of him?
Not because of me. You workers of lawlessness. Yeah, you did all these mighty things, but you did them in and of yourself. These are dead works. Paul talks about these in 1 Corinthians-3.
These are the works on judgment day that are the wood, hay, and stubble. They're gonna be burnt up. They don't matter. They're not making it to the kingdom. You're getting no reward for them.
Anything that you're trying to do in and of yourself, you're getting no reward for this in the kingdom of heaven. This is doing nothing but separating you from the call that God actually has for your life. So, he tells us who's actually gonna enter the kingdom, doesn't he? He says, the 1 who does the will of my father. What's the will of the father?
Oh, I'm glad you asked. Let's go there. *John-6*. Again, Jesus doesn't make it some big secret or some very difficult thing for us to mentally ascend to. He tells us straight up, remember, the gospel is simple to understand.
It is difficult to accept, to believe. Speaking of belief, John-6:40, for this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. This is the 1 who enters the kingdom, the 1 who looks to the son and believes in him. That's the will of God for your life. Compare this with what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians-4:3, he says, for this is the will of God, your sanctification.
Are those at odds with each other? No, absolutely not. Believing in the sun is what is going to bring about your sanctification. It's sanctification in you, not that it's your sanctification. You understand?
The hardest part, can this God who saved me actually transform me? Can he actually transform me? Can he with all of these filthy rags that I have, can can he actually make this something new? Can he do what 2 Corinthians-5:17 is saying? Can he, as the writer of Hebrews so eloquently says *Hebrews-10:14* that for by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Can I be both perfect in the form of *justification* and also being perfected? Yeah. The answer is yeah. Yeah. All by him.
Any time I try to get my hands on this thing, I screw it up. You know? Anytime I take the reins, anytime I take control, I'm saying, you're not lord over this, I got this. It's Romans-5:20, right, that the law was brought about so that the trespass would increase. Like, the law just If I try to keep the law, it's just going to increase my sin.
I mean, I'm just gonna fail horribly. This is how burnout happens in the church. But where sin abounds, *grace* abounds all the more. Now, some people look at that and they say, I hear you, I mean, I see how you're reading these verses, but you're just giving people a license to sin, man. You're just leading them down this path, they're just gonna do whatever they want.
It's funny because that's the same kind of things that the Pharisees and the Sadducees would say to Jesus, and what the Judaizers would say to Paul, that, oh, why aren't your disciples keeping the Sabbath, or why aren't they following this rule and that rule? That's a false religious mindset, that's works based religion, that's every false religion in the world. Every false religion is man trying to get to God, I'm trying to do just enough to outweigh my bad deeds. I'm trying to to come before this holy God and say, will you please forgive me, look at all this good stuff that I did. Christianity is the opposite.
It's God came to man, lived a perfect life, a sinless life, died in our place, and he actually also rose in our place. We always talk about being born again. The new life that you live as being born again is not your life, it's Christ's life. So, it's not your sanctification, it's not your works, it's Christ's works, it's Christ's sanctification, amen? It's the only way.
That person with that false religious mindset, it's either they are not born again, or they are such a baby, an infant in Christ that they can't hear the truth of his word over the sound of their own whining. Okay? I mean, let's get real. This is basic stuff. This is elementary stuff.
Look at what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews-6. Hebrews-6:1. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of *Christ* and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. Dead works and faith, faith and works. Let us not lay again this foundation, let us not have to go back to these basics.
Ultimately, the root of this problem is according to Hebrews-5, is a misunderstanding or no understanding of the word of righteousness. It's not understanding that right standing leads to right living. It's not right living leads to right standing. That's false religion. That's every religion in the world that's false.
I whenever I I look at that *Hebrews-6:1*, I'm reminded of a college professor that I had, he taught business calculus, and really smart guy, but he would talk really fast and just blow by people, and there'd be so many questions. 90% of his answers were, you don't understand this because you don't understand algebra, go back to the basics. Go back to algebra, go back to the basics. Because when you understand algebra, you will understand this calculus, and you will grow in maturity in your understanding of mathematics. Some of us Christians need to go back to algebra, and we need to go back to the basics, back to the understanding of righteousness, that righteousness does not come through the law.
That *righteousness* is by grace through faith. *Amen*? Amen. Amen. There are some who actually do look at this teaching as cheap grace.
They say, yes, this is my get out of jail free card, I can I can just go do whatever I want, like, I don't have to do anything? That's an unrepentant heart. An unrepentant heart. That that person is not a believer. There's no obedience because there's no faith.
There's no obedience because there's no faith. If your sin does not grieve you, when you grieve the Holy Spirit, if that does not grieve you, there's nothing there. It all goes back to the cross. Yeah. It all just goes back to the cross.
I mean, you have to have a full understanding of the cross. You wanna go deep in the word with the teacher, let's go back to the cross. Like, that's that's as deep as this thing's going to get. That's not basic. That's the deep things of God.
It's the cross. Like, that is the poignant moment in history where everything changes, and and all of your working with God, and and the way that you relate to him, and the way that you understand the world, and what your propensity is to achieve things, and what the calling on your life could be, everything changes with the cross. And, this is not like, I want you to get an understanding of the cross, but understand when I say get an understanding that you stand under the revelation of God of the cross. That God gives you a clear revelation of the cross. Why?
Because 1 Corinthians-1:18 says that the word of the cross is folly, it's stupid, it's foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. This is the power of God, this is the power of your sanctification. It's the power of God, not the power of you, it's the power of God. It all comes from the cross, and you fully getting a better I'm not gonna say you fully understand, I don't think we'll ever fully understand the cross, man.
It is so good, it's so deep, it's so central to everything that we believe, and everything that shapes our actions in the way that we think. And so, I choose to believe what the bible says. I choose to believe that Jesus Christ is my sanctification. I choose to believe that he has transformed me. I choose to believe that I am a new creation.
I choose to believe that God is Lord over my sanctification. And when I do that, the craziest thing happens. All of a sudden, my desires start to change, my passions start to change, my thought processes start to change. When I do things that are outside of the the will of God, it grieves me, it doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel natural. All of a sudden, the supernatural becomes natural, and the natural becomes foreign.
And, as the the old writer says, the the cares of this world grow faintly dim. And people start to say, wow, I can't believe you responded to that like that. I saw you last year blow up on that person for the same thing, man, you are getting so much better, you're awesome, and you say, no, I'm not awesome. There's nothing in and of myself, wretched man that I am, but Christ *Jesus* saved me from this body of death. Yeah.
*Christ Jesus*. *Amen*. And there's your opportunity to share Jesus. Boom. You're showing the glory of God.
It's on display for all to see. I love the apostle John, and I love the way that he related to Jesus, and I love how he kind of frames how we are to follow Jesus. I think John got it more than most of the other disciples did, if not all of them did. Now, don't get me wrong, he When Jesus was arrested, he also fled. He left Jesus aside, didn't he?
All of the disciples left Jesus aside. They all said they were gonna die for him and then they just disappeared. Fear was stronger than their faith. But John is the only disciple that showed up to the crucifixion. Have you ever wondered why?
Why was John the only 1 that had the guts to show up after he made all these promises that he was gonna be with him? He couldn't even stay awake when Jesus asked him to do so when he was praying, and then he runs whenever trouble comes. He has the audacity to show up when Jesus is being crucified. Because John understood that his relationship with Jesus had nothing to do with what he could do for Jesus. John understood that the only reason why Jesus chose John to follow him was because Jesus loved John.
*Amen*. This is the reason why he writes, the 1 whom Jesus loved, when he's talking about himself. He didn't identify as him loving Jesus or anything he could do for Jesus or the fishermen or whatever. His identity was in Christ, and so the fact that he fled, he knew that Jesus' love was more powerful than his fear. And he tells us in in 1 John-3:6, how this *sanctification* thing is supposed to be worked out in us.
*1 John-3:6*, no 1 who abides in him keeps on sinning. No 1 who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Go down to verse 9. No 1 born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. But he can't really mean that, right?
Like, that we're not gonna sin, like, that can't really be what he means. I mean, go read the original translation, that's what he means.
That's right.
If that freaks you out, you're probably focusing on yourself and whether or not you can stop sinning. Come on. The 1 who is in Christ that has declared Jesus as Lord over his *sanctification* says, praise the Lord. I don't have to sin. Wow.
Look at what God is gonna work out in me. This is amazing. I can't wait to be there. This is what I have to look forward to. This is my inheritance.
This is a word over me. Wow. Praise the Lord. This is my future. You're not discouraged by it, you're actually encouraged by it.
I can't wait to see God do this. You remember as a kid, like, not being able to sleep on Christmas Eve because Santa was coming the next day? That's how the believer should be when reading this. Like, I can't even sleep. I'm so excited to see what God's gonna do tomorrow.
Am I am I not gonna sin tomorrow? Amazing. And then, let's marry that with 1 chapter back, 1 John-2. Verse 1, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
He is the *propitiation* for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Those that live with a cheap grace mindset look at this and say, there's my get out of jail free card. I have an advocate with the father, *Jesus* is the propitiation for my sin, I can do whatever I want. The true believer looks at that and humbly gets on their knees before God and says, thank you Jesus for what you did, that I can live this life knowing that anytime I fall short, if I do, notice that it says, if they sin, if. Yeah.
If. If. Don't forget 1 John-3, if they sin, they have an advocate. Thank you God that I don't have to be burdened with this works based mentality, oh, I just have to be so perfect. No, it's I have this grace propelling me forward, and anytime I'm falling back, it's just propelling me forward again, because of what he's done, because he is the propitiation that I can fall into the arms of a loving father who says, get up son, that's not who you are.
I know you're better than that. Let's go. Let's go. I know you have faith. I know you can obey.
I know you love me. Let's go prove this thing out. This is the radical middle that we live in, guys. It's it's between 1 John-2 and 1 John-3. We're not afraid of 1 John-3.
We are fired up about it. We're encouraged about it. We can't sleep because of it. And we don't take for granted or take advantage of 1 John-2, it wouldn't even cross our mind, it's not even possible. Why would we want to continue on in sin?
*Romans-6:1*, right? What shall we say then, that if grace abounds, we should continue on sinning? By no means. There is no means of execution to continue on sinning, it's not possible. How can you who have died to sin continue on sinning?
This is not your mindset, because you've reckoned yourself dead to sin. *Romans-6:11*, I have reckoned myself dead to sin, and that mental transformation is what Paul goes on to talk about in Romans-12, that we are renewing our minds, we are transformed by that renewal. To what? To our works? No.
To the cross. To his works. To his finished work on the cross that we cannot add to. It's the radical middle between *justification* and glorification. *Sanctification*.
I'm I'm pretty much done here. I just wanna I just wanna give anybody the opportunity if you have not had that moment of justification that we spoke about, That moment where you stopped running from God, you saw that he was literally right behind you and he chose to reveal himself to you. He chose to show you his love and it sparked something in you today. If that's you, I'm not gonna give you some emotional speech here, I'll just ask you to raise your hand right now. If that's you, that you're willing to make that decision, if you're willing to stand before God and men, and declare him as Lord and Savior over your life, we'll have pastor Robbie pray for you, lead you in that prayer, that will be the start of your beautiful resurrection in Christ.
Is there anyone? Raise your hand now. Amen. I'm glad we're all believers because I really felt like this word today was for people who need to declare Jesus as Lord over their sanctification. That you've been trying to do this thing on your own, you've been trying to put on the church face, you've been trying to do all the right things, check all the right boxes, show up to all the events, do everything that you're supposed to do, and you are dying on the inside.
You're burning out. You need to declare Jesus as Lord over your sanctification. The same God that saved you is the God that can transform you and wants to transform you. So, I'm gonna ask the altar ministry team to come up here, and I want anybody who's of that mindset, who is struggling with, man, this is so hard, I can't do it. I have so many ups and downs in my walk with God.
Well, guess what? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There are no ups and downs. It's straight. It's straight up.
That's what it should be. That's Christ. So, if you are experiencing this desire for control bubbling up in your spirit, is saying you need to release control, you need to give it to God. I want you to come up and get prayer for these, for yourself, from these people that are gonna lead you in declaring Jesus as Lord over your sanctification. But let me pray for you real quick before pastor David comes back out here.
*Lord*, thank you Jesus for what you did today. Thank you Holy *Spirit* for speaking to people's hearts. Thank you for moving on people's spirits, Lord God, that you are speaking in everyone's ears exactly the way that they need to hear. And it's not my voice, it is the voice of God. Thank you Jesus for the desire in this room of people to want to know you more, to lay down their lives for you God, to to become more intimate, to have a closer relationship with you, God, to give up all control, to say you are Lord, not only at the moment when I received you, but every day.
I trust you as not only my justifier, but my sanctifier. In Jesus name, *amen*. Amen. Amen.
What a gift to the "body of Christ".