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Sin, Salvation and Sanctification
Split sermon 1st Day of Unleavened Bread


God, through the Spring Holy Days called the Days of Unleavened Bread, wants us to focus on ONE specific thing... SIN!

The questions to ask then are, WHAT IS SIN, AND WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?

Even though we know the general elements of sin, it is always good to be reminded of the whole picture and maybe learn a bit more. . .

Let's turn to the book of 1st John where the answer to "WHAT is sin" is provided...

1 John 3:4 "Whoever commits sin transgress also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."

The word "Sin" in Greek means "offense" and, "to miss the mark."

Transgression means"illegality, violation of law, wickedness: - iniquity, unrighteousness.

So God tells us that sinning is involved with law. . . but what law?

Of course, the 10 commandments are certainly law. So by obeying the commandment to not commit the physical act of adultery, is this fulfilling this 7th commandment?

What did Christ tell us about this in Mt. 5?. . .

Matt 5:21. . . "You have heard that it was said by them of old time, you shall not murder; and whoever shall murder shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 But I say to you, That whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:"

Most people do not physically murder another human being, but what takes place in a mind that hates someone?

The same goes with the 7th commandment to not commit adultery.

Continuing in vs. 27 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

So, here we go from a written law telling us to not murder or commit adultery, which physically can be done, but where is the sin actually taking place? I mean... could someone's heart be pure and sinless and yet commit the PHYSICAL act of murder or adultery? NO!

Sin is transgression of the law, but we've seen that it goes beyond the letter of the law...

In Isa 42:21... referring to Christ... it says... "The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable."

Magnify means to "make large, as in body, mind, estate or honor."

So where is God going with all this? The law which existed, was "magnified" in some way and made "honorable." Was the law not honorable before. . . or is the law related to something else that affects the honor and magnification of it? Can the law be magnified or made honorable WITHOUT God's spirit involved?

How about Paul... in Phil 3: . . . what does He say about the law?

Beginning in vs:4 "Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has reason he might trust in the flesh, I more: 5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law... blameless."

Paul states that regarding the letter of the law, He was blameless... But He went on to compare THAT "righteousness" with that which comes through Christ...

Continuing in vs 9 "And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Paul's not saying obeying the law is useless, just that it won't accomplish anything without another dimension involved WITH it...

Now, hold that thought and let's go to the next phase:

Passover, God's first spring event, is just the FIRST step in the salvation process. Think back to your own baptism for a moment . . . and ask this question: "Would you want to be the "you," you were then... for the rest of eternity?"

We are asked to examine ourselves for Passover. Another word for this is to "judge" ourselves. This exam is basically to compare ourselves with God's word and see where we stand and where we need to repent and work on change.

Of course, this should be an ongoing process we do as a way of life. . . BUT WHY? Much of the Christian world believes God's laws have been done away with, or that Christ has done all that needs to be done in their life with His death at Passover.

God's laws are provided for us... but are they simply things that God decided to make up ... a list of "do's and dont's to give us something to constantly run into?

Are they here to cause us grief and to make us sinful and unrighteous, and depress us and kill us?

WHERE did these laws come from... meaning... is there a deeper source and purpose for these Holy Days and laws beyond the letter? Paul mentions in Collosians 2:17 that they are a "shadow" of things to come. But what things? We'll touch on that in a bit... but let's add another tangent...

The 10 commandments, the Holy Days... whatever is encompassed in "God's LAW," does our obeying them "save" us? NO! This we know.

Does continuing in the law, obeying them, remove sin?

Well, YES in a manner of speaking... And let me explain before you riot...

We touched on this at Passover, but let's broaden it a bit:

Hebrews 9: (which you'll remember I read twice at Passover...)

13) For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14) how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Christ's blood redeems us... removes the death penalty. No amount of law keeping can do that, HOWEVER, notice what else it says...

"how much more SHALL the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

In other words, we are saved by the blood of Christ... his death. . . and that blood is there to continually cleanse us from the penalty for sins we commit, which is death, but does that CHANGE our hearts, the CAUSE of sin . . . and what we ARE?

What did God tell us regarding this new covenant we are in with Him and which all humanity will have opportunity later on to have?

Turn to Jer 31:33...

"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Does Christ's death write anything in our hearts or change our carnal minds? The change we experience comes from LIVING the laws God gives us and using His spirit, to remove sin from our lives.

Think of it this way... Salvation by Christ's death and blood. . .yes, AND SANCTIFICATION, through Christ's life, spirit and laws... (which is the change we must undergo)!

What does sanctification even mean? It means being purified and made Holy. God is the master potter, the refiners fire as Isaiah and Malachi tell us. His laws reflect His nature and mind. They are physical TOOLS embodying spiritual forces and powers which His spirit is involved with... actually making a day Holy... spiritually empowering the laws we follow, and the actions we take, and He uses these tools, to do His shaping of our character and mind to be more like His.

This takes time, and the tools God is using for this sanctification process are... His Holy Spirit working in us, leading us... His laws... His commandments, His Holy Days, His weekly Sabbath... all of it.

Does keeping the law save us? NO. Does it gradually sanctify us? YES, but it is a process.

Now, Question: Can salvation be fulfilled in us without sanctification or being made Holy????

Turn to Eph 4:... Breaking into the thought regarding the various offices in the collective COG and the purpose for them... :vs 12 "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:"

THAT is the sanctification process... becoming Holy, Like Christ... made in His and the Father's exact character and mind image.

So. . . we have sin forgiven and the death penalty removed. THEN, we must go on to fulfill the rest of the covenant we made with God at baptism... Our part... We can't just accept the blood and think, "That was easy." There is MORE to the covenant we have accepted and are responsible for.

The covenant, (which is a huge topic in and of itself) . . . places demands on us. If we accept the covenant regarding Christ's cleansing blood, then we are bound to accept and fulfill the rest of the covenant...

In Matt 16:. . . vs 24... "Then said Jesus to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up HIS cross, and follow me."

As a side note, the example Christ gave us at Passover was of washing the feet... feet are agents of motion and direction, and after we enter this covenant relationship, Christ commands us to. . . FOLLOW HIM... the straight and narrow path we walk. . .

Continuing now in vs 25 "For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life, for my sake, shall find it."

What is it that we are to deny and lose? Of course, the old man, carnal nature, sin, corruption... and we are to be fighting against these things continually. . .

... and boiling it all down, sin, essentially, is WRONG THINKING AND ACTING. Thinking and acting which is NOT as God thinks and acts. Are we thinking like God yet? Denying the self and going against the very thing we want... that life we are to lose... is VERY difficult but unless we work against that very thing, and look to God to supply the eventual victory over whatever it is we fight, which He WILL do, we are spinning our wheels... (and God let's us do THAT, too, until we are humbled enough to seek Him more completely.)

Turn to Heb 12: This is following on Chapter 11, the faith chapter, describing all those before us who did their battle and carried their crosses... and we can certainly add all those who have died in the faith in our age as well...

Vs 1...Heb. 12 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (again, as part of that covenant and sanctification) 2 looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your minds. 4 You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does NOT chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward... it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not turn out of the way, but rather be made whole."

This is pretty clear... accepting the blood of Christ... being forgiven and having the death penalty removed... is followed by denying ourselves... our natures, our sins, our carnality... and taking that cross that is placed upon us through correction, chastisement, overcoming, enduring... the suffering we experience, the battles, the struggles, the fears. . .

And WHY these trials and struggles? To overcome and grow? Yes, but... I feel there's much more to it...

Turn to Col. 1:24 where Paul is speaking of himself...

"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ, in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church:"

We know Christ was tempted in all points as a human - Heb 4:15. However, did Christ suffer the things Paul did? Did He ever die of a slowly debilitating disease? Did He lose a child to sickness, or have a struggling marriage as a human? How about fighting in a war, or losing a limb from being shot, or going to jail? Did he ever have prostate cancer, or depression, or die of old age? Was He ever raped? How big is the list of human suffering?

My point is, as Paul states it... his suffering was "filling that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ... for the sake of the church."

This is telling me that your sufferings, battles, trials... ALL of our struggles, and the crosses we all carry. . . Is to complete the church in some way, and I feel it is to prepare us all to be rulers with Christ upon His return to Earth.

God will likely have every type of pain and suffering covered so that we will be able to comfort and lead humanity in the millennium. That helps me bear it when I'm being pounded with things...

We won't turn there but in Isa 64:8 it states ...But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we are all the work of your hand."

But, lets turn to Jer 18:, where this is discussed in a bit more detail...

Vs 3... "Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel."

Our carnal humanity is likened to this "marred" pot that God sets about to "remake" in His own image through our lives of submission and obedience. It seems abundantly clear that once we have been called, and accepted the blood of Christ, and entered into this covenant with God, which we renewed just a day ago at Passover... That we are to grow and develop, using God's tools for sanctification as He directs us... so sin can be eliminated from our nature... from our mind... And ultimately... to be born into the very family of the true living God.

What an awesome destiny we have been called to...

Concluding Brethren,

We have these 7 days of being PHYSICALLY unleavened to learn from and be reminded of sin and that we are to grow in becoming sinless.

Imagine an eternity of being spiritually unleavened and sinless? God Speed that day.

Let's be determined to go the distance with renewed strength and determination to work with God... working out our own salvation... with fear and trembling, using the tools God has provided us to understand and eliminate sin so that we will think and be like Christ, and can enjoy eternity with each other, and with Christ and the Father!


Grace alone?

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