Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

Over the past few weeks we have been in a series called Faith Foundations where we have been looking at a few fundamentals of faith.

‌In week 1 we looked at a core message of the bible which is Salvation. I shared with you that separation through sin reveals the fundamental need for salvation. God in His abundant mercy made provision for salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

‌His very name prophetically declared His purpose. That Jehovah is Salvation. Jesus has come to bring deliverance, victory, and help to all who call upon His name.

Last week Pastor Josh shared with you about justification. Justification is the understanding of the manner in which God communicates Christ’s righteousness to believers so that they may stand as righteous before him and gain eternal salvation.

‌When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive salvation we become justified before the Father. This right standing comes solely through the finished work of Christ. We have not and can not earn it. God the father looks at us through the life of His son and declares that His blood shed wipes away our sin.

‌This is the precious gift of salvation and justification.

‌Today I want to look at one last area called sanctification.

Sanctification defined means being made holy, or purified. Another word closely associated with sanctification is the word consecration. The origination of these terms are seen initially in the story of the Exodus and the Levitical priesthood.

Israel was called to come out from among the nations and to be separate. They were to be consecrated or set apart for God’s use. In both the tent of meeting in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem there were tools and instruments built specifically for ministering to the Lord. They were not to be used for unclean acts.

‌The levitical priest before ministering had to be ritually cleansed and purified before they served in the temple. These elements were a type and shadow of what was to come. God is a Holy. He had very strict instructions on how he was to be approached. Although the instructions were right there was still separation between God and man.

‌The very presence of God in the temple was blocked by a large vail (curtain). The high priest was limited to entering once a year on the day of atonement to offer sacrifice for the sins committed by the people. When this offering was accepted the sins of the nation were covered again for another year, but never removed.

‌The good news of the gospel is that through Christ our sins are removed and we have received imputed righteousness. Essentially God has deposited Christ’s righteousness into our account because of this we are justified in the sight of God.

‌This gift of salvation and justification has closely tied with it sanctification. Those who say yes to Jesus have received a heavenly inheritance, but there is more to it.

Sanctification is the process of becoming holy because God is holy. The grace of God leads us to holiness. For many years there has been a false grace preached that we can essentially do what we want and just ask for forgiveness and we are good. This message does not require sanctification or consecration to God. It has not required that we come out from among the world to be separate unto God.

‌I must submit to you today that this concept of grace is deception.

When we receive Christ we are called to walk in newness of life. We are to put on the character of the new man (Colossians 3:12-17).

The old man was crucified that the body of sin might be done away with. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is two letter word there that is significant. It is the word IN. Sanctification is not about our best efforts. Its about becoming alive to God IN Christ. What does John 1:1-4 tell us about Christ ?

Sanctification and becoming alive to God begins and ends with the Word.

We are either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. There is nothing in-between. Remember that our righteousness is as filthy rags on its own. Being a good person is admirable but apart from Christ you are still a slave to sin.

Do not let the verbiage of slave lead your mind astray. Becoming a slave of God leads to the fruit of holiness and the end, everlasting life.

Sanctification is not a drudgery to life. It actually brings the fullness of God to life.

‌So my final question is this.

‌How then do we become sanctified and set apart?

‌Through the washing of the water of the word.

The washing of the water of the word is where we fill our hearts and minds with the word of God. This word convicts, instructs, and encourages us. When we respond in obedience to the word we are set apart by it (sanctified). Our conduct will look different, our attitude will look different, our words will be different. How we treat people, our desires, etc. will be different.

‌This is the process of sanctification. Holiness does not cause us to stick our nose up in the air at people. It does not give us right to be judgmental or critical of people. On the contrary the revelation of the kingdom of God and holiness should cause us to have compassion on people. Seeing the brokenness and needs of others should provoke our lives to action.

‌Because we know the transforming power of the love of God we demonstrate it towards others, not pointing out their flaws. Instead we demonstrate through action the goodness of God that leads us to repentance Romans 2:4.