Sunday English Service – 04 JUL 21

Transcript

We’ve been talking about our great salvation. And specifically, now we’ve been talking about the blessings that we’ve received through salvation. There’s a reason I’m talking about this now because when — in times like this when everything seems to be changing and everything is affected, the whole world has changed, all that. We can’t adopt the attitude of the world and say everything has changed. No, some things haven’t changed. And one of that is your salvation. Yeah, everything may have been affected and everything may have been, shaken up a bit, but your salvation has not been shaken up a bit. Have you thought about that? Just the thought of that encourages me. All that has taken place in the last one year, and it has affected different people to different extent, some more, some less, but no matter how much you are affected, if you’re a believer in Christ, your salvation has not been affected one bit. That is an astounding thought to me. And that is why I choose to speak on that. And purposely I focus on spiritual blessings of salvation for several reasons. One is they’re foundational to everything else. There are every kind of blessing isn’t salvation in Christ. It comes through salvation in Christ, but the thing is spiritual blessings are foundation, but also again, in a time when this and that has been kind of affected, I think you have to first focus on what has not, what cannot be touched.

The great American theologian, preacher, Jonathan Edwards, who they say is the greatest theologian America ever produced. And probably one of the finest thinkers ever. In his first, they think it’s his first sermon, as a young man, he preached a sermon on why Christians should be happy at all times, no matter what, no matter what is happening in their lives, Christians can be happy and he gives a few reasons. Number one reason, he gives is, a Christian can be happy no matter what, because bad things in his life will be turned into good, isn’t that astounding? That’s a ridiculous hope that we have as Christians, every bad thing, God promises that He will ultimately turn it to good. Ultimately is the key word. Now it may seem bad and now you can see how it can be turned into good, but ultimately, and by the way, God has an eternity to prove it to you. Ultimately, he will work it out for your good. That is the first reason he gives. The second reason he gives is — First reason is bad things will be turned into good for the Christian. Second reason he says is your good things can never be taken away. Your good things can never be taken away. It can never be touched by anything, any power, any force, any disaster, nothing. And so I started to see what he’s talking about. What are these good things he’s talking about? And he’s talking only about the spiritual good things we get. No wonder he can say a statement like that. The spiritual blessings that the believer has cannot be touched. It cannot be affected, cannot be — It is rock solid. You know what I mean? 

You’re forgiven. You’re cleanse the things we’ve been talking about. You are justified. You made righteous in the sight of God. You are born again. No matter what happens in the world, it cannot change any one of those truths. So if your focus is all on the other good things. When we say good things, we immediately think the house, this, that. We tend to do think materially or the other stuff. And those are all good things as well. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, but there is a priority, the spiritual good things are so rock solid that they can never be touched. There’s something special about that. And in times like this, when you put your focus there, you will get greater faith and confidence and hope and peace. If you just put your focus on what is changing and what is being affected. And you’re just trying to change that, just and improved that, that is not the approach of the Christian, my friend. We start from the spiritual. We start from the rock-solid foundation, and then we move. And that’s why we focusing on spiritual blessings of salvation. 

And today also, I want to put before you another spiritual blessing of salvation. Already, we’ve seen how we’re forgiven, how we’re cleanse, how we are justified, how we are born again. And today we are sanctified. Let me put it like this. We have been sanctified. We have been made holy. This is yet another spiritual blessing that we receive as part of our salvation in Christ. We have already been made Holy. Now you may have never thought of holiness as a blessing, because the moment that we say holy people immediately think we have to live holy, we have to do holy things, or we have to grow in holiness. We have to do this. Are we living holy? The subject of holiness itself, people focus mainly on what you have to do, how you have to live holy, how you have to grow in holiness. Are you living holy? The entire focus is there. But if you look at the Bible, the way the subject of our holiness starts is, for the believer the Bible clearly teaches that you have already been made Holy, you have already been made Holy, you have already been sanctified. There’s an important repeated teaching in the Bible, but people ignore it. People are unaware of it many times. And so they’re only harping on, are you living Holy? You need to be more holy and all that is important. Yes, we do need to be more holy. We do need to grow in holiness. This is important. Holiness is about pleasing God. 

Holiness is not a bad word. Holiness is not a — what can I say? When some people when they hear holiness, it’s immediately a boring thing. Well, holiness is about pleasing God. And if you’re a true believer, you are interested in pleasing God. And so the way to grow in pleasing God is — Foundationally, you’ve got to understand that God has already in some sense made you holy. And this is one of the blessings you receive in the salvation package in Christ. Today, I’m not going to focus on we need to live holy and I’m not going to be growing in holiness. That’s not the focus today. The focus is we’ve been made Holy, let’s talk about that. This is a huge blessing. Only if we understand this, we will be able to better live Holy. So this has an effect on your holy living, an effect. But this is not about your holy living. Today, the message is about how you’ve already been made holy. And once you understand this, it will help you to live. It will help you to grow in holiness. 

Now, let me just say a couple of things before I begin. One is a sermon like this only believers will be pleased with it. Only believers will find any kind of joy and satisfaction in this. And if I go to unbelievers and talk about spiritual blessings of salvation, I don’t know. But believers somehow have this desire that they want to please God. And so believer will be — I think if you’re receiving some kind of peace, joy, comfort, hope, strength from the sermons in the last few weeks, we’re talking about spiritual blessings of salvation. If you are a person who says, my heart is being filled with joy as I hear these truths, that itself is a proof. One of the proofs that you are a true believer because only a true believer can rejoice in this kind of truths. But I think this, what we’re talking about this holiness matter. Actually, people don’t realize, people in the world sometimes think it is irrelevant, impractical, when you’re talking about holiness, tell something practical to life? Well, it’s very practical actually, because holiness is God’s answer to a very deep yearning inside of men, inside of every man, whether believer or an unbeliever, there is a yearning to be the best version of myself. There is a yearning. Believers are more pleased. They want to hear topics like this, but even unbelievers, they don’t realize that there is a deep yearning inside each man to be the best version of himself or herself. If you give a person everything, they need the money, the food, the house, the family, the work, the job, the status, you give them everything. But his character is bad is going to hate himself. He’s never going to find fulfillment in life. Every time he looks at the mirror, it’s going to hate him, can’t just live with himself. He can’t even tolerate himself. He can’t even accept himself. 

There is a deep yearning within men to be the best version of myself, to improve. As I’m improving the general quality of my life, I want to improve my character. I want to grow in my character. I want to live this character flaws behind, I want to leave these bad habits behind. And I want to grow in my character. There is a yearning inside every man and the Bible teaching on holiness answers that. It says it is possible only first God makes you holy. Only if God goes inside of you and does something major, major overhaul only then can you really change, really grow in your character, really develop. Real change, deep change comes only when God produces the change first inside of you. 

And that’s what this Christian teaching is about. That’s what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about how God has gone deep inside of us and done such a major change that now real change, you can live in a different way, in a better way. You can grow in your character, grow in your holiness. I’m not saying you can become perfect, in this life. One day we will be perfect actually. He will make us perfectly Holy even in conduct, even in nature, even character, perfectly, that’s the hope of the Christian one day. But even in this life, you can really be on the path of holiness growing in it, in your life. You can really be on the path of self-development. And so I think it applies to everybody, but let’s begin. You have already been made holy. God has already made believers Holy. Let me first show you this teaching from the Bible. And then we’ll talk about how this happened. And then what it means. This is the Bible’s teaching. This is not something we are saying. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 2, the Bible’s clear and repeated teaching. Paul is speaking about Corinthian believers. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2. I’m taking it to this verse because Corinthian church, the Corinthian believers are the most unholy people. The most unholy church in the new Testament is the Corinthian church. If you want to talk about holiness by way of conduct, by way of life, which is how Christians generally think about it. If you’re talking about believers holiness, they generally only think about conduct, life behavior, all this. If you talk about — if you think in those terms and you come to the Corinthians church, they are the worst. Worst conduct, worst behavior, worst character worst nature, whatever. But Paul speaking to them, look how he addresses them to the church of God that is in Corinthian, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. Some translations will say to those who have been made holy, some translations say to those sanctified, they mean the same. To those sanctified in Christ Jesus, later on is going to tell them that you need it to leave your old ways. You need to live these sinful practices. You need to change. He’s going to blast them. Paul really, sometimes he blasts the Corinthians. He gives them a good scolding at times, but thing is, he addresses them as sanctified in Christ Jesus. Who am I writing to? Not, these worst Corinthian believers. No, he says to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. They may be living unholy lives, but since they are — most of them are true believers. Paul says they are sanctified in Christ Jesus. I want you to say that sanctified in Christ Jesus. Made holy in Christ Jesus, by yourself, you are not holy. If God looks at you and you look at yourself by yourself, there’s no way you can say I’m holy, perfectly holy. But when God looks at you in Christ Jesus, you are sanctified. You are somehow holy. Because you’re in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 6:11, I’m going step-by-step because some people may not know and understand these things. For those of you who know, please bear with me. 

1 Corinthians 6:11, such were some of you who, 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. Such were some of you. This was Corinthian, a city which had a bad reputation. These people had come from the kind of the worst of Roman culture and they had this kind of bad moral backgrounds. And Paul says, such were some of, you guys came from this background, you came from that kind of a life. Actually, some of them have not left all of their old practices. They’re still dabbling in some of that. And he’s going to, after this verse, tell them you better get your act together. But before telling them live holy, he stops in the middle. And he says, you were, such were some of you, but something major has happened to you, a major change has happened. What has happened? You were washed, you were sanctified. You are justified in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and by the spirit of our God.

What is he talking about? He’s talking about — he’s saying you are saved. You were like this, but now you have been saved by Christ Jesus. That’s what he means by saying in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. People put their trust in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And that’s how they get saved. And by the spirit of our God, when a person puts their trust in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ in what the name stands for the person and all he has done. When a person puts their faith in Christ and what he has done, the spirit, the holy spirit washes them, sanctifies them, justifies them. What he’s saying is Corinthians, you used to be different, but now you’re saved. And if you’re saved something major has happened. What has happened? You were washed, you were sanctified. You were justified. Can we say those three words, washed, sanctified, justified. Notice everything is in the past tense. It’s actually perfect tense in the Greek, I think. But anyway, it’s past, it’s finished. Washed, sanctified, justified. Washed, sanctified, justified, and notice also that there are separate terms. Sometimes people will make a holy and righteous as equal, sanctified and justified, they will take it as the same meaning. No, it’s not. That’s why there are two separate words. You are washed. You are sanctified. You were justified. 

To be justified means to be accepted as righteous by God. To get his approval. He accepts you and approves you as he does his own son. He congratulates you as though you accomplished and lived a great life when you never did, based on Christ’s righteousness, he accepts you. That is justified. Sanctified is something else. We’ll talk about it. I’ll tell you what it means. But for now just notice it’s different. Peter calls the believers in 1 Peter, 2:9 as a Royal priesthood. You’ve seen that verse. 1 Peter 2:9, you should know these important verses is addressing all believers, and he says, you are a chosen race, a Royal priesthood, a holy nation. And he goes on, I want you to say those words, Royal priesthood. You may say, what does that even mean? It means kingly priests. It means Kings who are priests or priests who are Kings. Kings and priests basically, that’s what it means. Priests in the old Testament were people who could go into the tabernacle where ordinary people couldn’t. They had that extra worthiness, extra holiness to be in that extra holy place. But in the new Testament, the new Testament teaches that all believers are priests. The priesthood of all believers, there is a teaching called the priesthood. Basically it means all of us believers are priests. Even though, there may be differences between a pastor and a believer. There is no difference in terms of worthiness before God, we all are justified in Christ. We all are sanctified in Christ. We are a Royal priest. Just say it like that, Royal priest. 

A holy nation is looking at the people, and saying you’re a Royal priest and you’re a holy nation, and then two verses later, he’s going to tell them, now start living holy, start living these other things, because you’re a Royal priesthood, a holy nation. So the foundation for holy living is what God has already made you. He’s made you a Royal priest and a holy people, or nation Hebrews 10:10, another verse clear verse where this teaching is very clear that we have been made holy already. Hebrews 10:10. And by that, will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We have been sanctified. It’s the perfect tense in the Greek, which means it’s done and its consequences continue on. We have been sanctified, it’s over and the effects continue. We have been sanctified. If you want to get the full effect of it. Look at verse 14, verse 14, come down a few verses Hebrews 10:14, for by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Interestingly verse. 

By a single offering, Jesus died only once on the cross single offering, on the cross. By that single offering, he has means God has perfected for all time, perhaps Christ has. He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Notice that language that He has perfected for all time, saying believers are in some sense perfected for all time forever by one offering on the cross. Jesus for all time, forever perfected us already, finished. That’s mind blowing. We’re not perfect. Yeah, I know we’re not perfect. But the Bible says, in some sense, we have been perfected for all time and look in the verse, it also says, but we are still being sanctified, being sanctified. Grammar and the Bible. You thought grammar was only for school. You’re wrong. Look at the tense. Being sanctified is present. Present continuous tense. There us a present continuous action that God is doing. He is slowly making us more and more holy. We’re being sanctified, but at the same time, in one sense, we are already perfected for all time. The Bible teaches both. In one sense, we are already holy, for all time. Perfected once for all, finished, done. Just as Jesus died once for all, we are perfect for all time. But the Bible also teaches that there is something called a progressive sanctification. Slowly, but today we focus on this already been made holy, not the progressive part.

Now I just read these verses too, so that you’ll see that this is biblical teaching. And based on these few verses, you should have noticed some things. And let me point that out. You should have noticed that believers are in some real sense already made holy, real sense. Everybody say real. This is not fiction. This is not even saying, just think of yourself as holy. This is not just think of yourself like this, and you’ll be like. No. You notice the verses we read, it doesn’t say, think of yourself as sanctified. No, it says you have been sanctified. This is really something that has happened to believers. We’ll talk about what it means later. Secondly, you should have noticed that this is not something we have done. This is something God did. Did you notice every time I read that verse, everything is in the passive tense. We have been sanctified. We have been sanctified. We didn’t sanctify ourself. It was done to us. We did nothing. He did it. We have been sanctified. God did it. You should have noticed, thirdly, that this is not about holy living. Yeah. It’s connected. It leads to that. Yeah, it’s foundational for that, but it’s not about only living. If the Corinthians are sanctified already. Made holy, then it can’t be about holy living. It’s something about something else. We have to understand what it’s about. 

And fourthly, you should have noticed that this has happened once for all, and it’s a done deal never to be repeated again. That last verse we read. Perfected for all time. The sacrifices, the ones for all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross has a once for all effective in changing us in this way, making us holy for all time, already holy, finished, done deal. Never to be repeated and therefore never to be reversed either. You can’t reverse this. Once it’s done, it’s done. Every true believer, I’m talking about true believers. Every true believer was true salvation in the moment of their salvation, God has already made them holy in some way. You may say, how did this happen? Why did this happen? Well, let’s go to that question. How? The Bible gives several answers for how this happened. The first answer is through the finished work of Christ. Through what Jesus did on the cross, not through what you did, living holy or something like that, through what Jesus did, not even through your great surrender, no, through what Jesus did on the cross. Hebrews 10:10, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. We just read that. Finished work of Christ. Hebrews 10:29, says the blood of the covenant sanctified us. Hebrews 10:29. I don’t have time to read the verse, but the blood. So one versus the body that was sacrificed on the cross. Another verse says the blood, Jesus’ blood has the power to sanctify us, make us holy. So that’s one answer. The finished work of Christ. That’s how we’re sanctified already. 

Another answer, we can’t leave it there because just because Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood doesn’t mean everybody is made holy, no only believers receive this. Only the truly saved ones received this, only those who have real salvation. What happens in salvation? The most fundamental thing that happens in salvation is we are united with Christ. Everybody say united with Christ. I’m making you say it so that you’ll remember it, united with Christ. The most fundamental thing that happens when a person gets saved is they are united with Christ. So that salvation is not just through Christ, but it is also in Christ. It’s not just through what Christ did it for us on the cross. Like a person who comes and does it, sacrifice as much for us. And then we get the benefit and then we say bye-bye and go away. No, it’s through his work, but it’s also in him. Meaning it’s only in connection with him. When a person gets saved. The fundamental thing that happens is they’re connected with Christ. They’re connected with the living Christ. They’re united with Christ. They are put in Christ. Christ is in them. They’re in Christ. They’re forever united with Christ. When you get saved, the greatest blessing you get is Christ. In Christ, you get everything. In Christ, you get forgiveness and cleansing and justification and sanctification and everything. So how were you sanctified? You are sanctified in Christ. In Christ, you got this holiness.

Look at 1 Corinthians 1:30. 1 Corinthians 1:30, I’m trying to say how we were sanctified. Of him are in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us. Look at the language, of him, of God, God has put us in Christ Jesus. That’s what it means. When we got saved, of him, are he in Christ Jesus and Jesus was made unto us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Everything is in Christ. All the spiritual blessings are in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Jesus was made unto us righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Again, notice different words. Righteousness and holiness. There’s a difference, being made holy, being made righteous is different. So how are we made holy through the finished work of Christ? How are we made holy through — we actually receive it through union with Christ, by being united with Christ. How are we made holy? Who does this union and who actually on the ground does it? It’s the holy spirit. The holy spirit. God planned our salvation. The son finished the work of salvation on the cross. The holy spirit applies the finished work to the hearts of the believers.

The holy spirit, that’s why it’s called in 1 Peter 1 verse 2, as the sanctification of the spirit. This is the sanctification of the spirit. The spirit goes in there where nobody else can go into your heart and sanctifies you when you put your faith in Christ, how does this happen? Another answer, the Bible gives is it happens through the word, through the word. Jesus said in John 15, verse 3, already you are clean because of the word that I’ve spoken to you. Clean because of the word. John 17:17. Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth. Sanctify them by the truth, which is your word. We are sanctified in salvation by truth or by word. And that means it’s gospel truth, gospel word. That’s what it means. I don’t have time to go and show, but that’s what it fundamentally means. It all begins with the gospel word. When you hear the word of the gospel, the truth of the gospel about Jesus. And when you put your faith in Christ, that moment of salvation, what happens is something miraculous happens. You are just doing something very simple. You’re just saying, Jesus, I need you, come into my heart, I need you, be my Lord, be my savior. You’re just doing something very simple. But the holy spirit gets in there and he applies The finished work of Christ. You know how? By uniting you with Christ, unites You with Christ and in Christ, you get everything, you get righteousness, sanctification, redemption, you name it, all the blessings in Christ. So everything is involved. The word of the gospel, holy spirit finished work, union with Christ, all this is there. 

Let me move on. So I can go on trying to explain this, but really it’s a miracle. God has gone in there and done something and made you holy, the moment of your salvation, can you believe it? Can you accept it? Can you say, yeah, I think you need to accept it even before you understand it fully, yeah, God has done it. I can’t do it, but God has done it. Now let me actually talk about what it means. What does it mean? We’ve been made holy, we’ve been sanctified. What does it mean? We use that word holy, sometimes without even thinking about what it means. We’ve been made holy by God. What does that mean? Well, I already told you it does not mean something. Clearly, it does not mean living a holy life. We’ve been made holy does not mean we are living a holy life and therefore we have been made holy. No, it has nothing to do with that because — let me correct that, not nothing to do. But it’s not about that, the Corinthians were not living holy and yet they were — Paul says they were made holy. Something else, it does not mean is justified or made righteous. I already told you made holy is not the same as made righteous. Sanctified is not the same as justified, separate words for separate truths, connected, overlapping, but separate, separate meaning. We got to see what it is. 

Another thing it does not mean — we’ve been made holy does not just mean that we have been cleansed and purified, because people, when we say you’ve been made holy, they may just think I’ve been cleansed, I’ve been purified. No, it’s something more than that. Yes, cleansing is something — you may say it’s a part of sanctification. It’s a prerequisite for sanctification. In other words, you’ve got to be first clean before you can be made holy. In Tamil, for those of you understand Tamil, it comes out very clearly. But what [Tamil – 00:30:47] is inside [Tamil – 00:30:49] but [Tamil – 00:30:51] is still more than [Tamil – 00:30:53] In English, I can’t show it like that. But what I’m saying is you got dirty here, you got clean here. Holy is a higher step. You got holy over here. When we came to Jesus, we came dirty, we came as dirty sinners. So to make us holy, he has to cleanse us. So we spoke about two weeks back. But then cleansing, cleansing is not making us holy. This is another higher step, making us holy is something higher than that. A dirty thing can be made holy, a dirty thing will be cleansed and then made holy, quickly. Leviticus 16:19, you see that these are two separate things. God tells the high priest to sanctify the altar from the uncleanness of the people of Israel. The altar, and look at Leviticus 16:19, you will see that these are two separate things, cleansing and making holy. And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times and cleanse it and sanctify it, cleanse it and sanctify it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel. Another reason I say that cleansing is not equal to sanctification or making holy, just purifying, cleansing it, making it clean, washing away the sin. That’s not making holy, because if it was, then you can’t understand many passages in the Bible, which talk about things made holy.

For example, Genesis 2:3, that meaning will never apply to many passages. Genesis 2:3, look at this very strange passage. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. He made what holy? The seventh day, does that mean He cleansed it? No. Look at John 17:19. Jesus is speaking here. And for their sake, I make myself holy, or I sanctify myself. Jesus is saying for their sake, I sanctify myself. Jesus saying, I’m cleansing myself from sin. Is Jesus saying, I used to live a sinful life, but now I’m living all that, I’m going to live a holy life. No, the meaning is not cleansing. The meaning is not starting to live a holy life. No, making holy. Jesus never lived a sinful life. There was no sin in him. He knew no sin. What is he talking about? Why is the word used like this? It’s because the basic meaning, the essential central main meaning of holiness is something else. What is it? Let me give you the meaning. It is to set apart for God. To make something holy is to set it apart for special use. To set it apart for special use. If you take that meaning, you can understand all these passages. God made the Sabbath day holy means what? There are many days in the week, but he set apart this one day for special use for Himself. 

Jesus, when he says, I sanctify myself, He doesn’t need cleansing. He’s already living a holy life. What does He mean? He’s saying I set myself apart for you. What He means is the cross. It’s a prayer, He prays just before the cross. Jesus is praying a prayer of dedicating himself. He’s saying I set myself apart for you to fulfill your purpose on the cross. Nothing will stop me, for you, I will go to the cross. That’s what it means. I set myself apart. Now, what we’re saying is God has set you apart for himself. God has set you apart for Himself. God has set you apart for  His use, for His purposes to live for Him. Look at some examples here, Exodus 40 some examples, in the tabernacle, you can’t just take anything and start using it for God, in the old Testament tabernacle. You want to take a vessel. If somebody comes and gives a vessel, it keeps them, the temple will be useful here. You can’t just start using it like that. No, just like that, you can’t– no, it has to be consecrated or set apart for service to God. It was a formal thing was taken very seriously, done very seriously. 

For example, Exodus 40 verse 9, you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle. He is telling the priests, Moses and the priests and all that is in it and consecrated and all its furniture, all the furniture consecrated, anointed and consecrate all the furniture so that it may become holy. Verse 10, you shall anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all its utensils and consecrate the alter so that the altar may become most holy. Verse 11, you shall also anoint the basin and the stand and consecrate it. This was something very serious, very formal. You had to take the step before you can use it for God. Look at the next verse. Utensils used for God. But next verse is about a human being verse 12. Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of the meeting, shall wash them with water. You see what’s happening. Cleansing first symbolizes cleansing, washing with water and put on Aaron the holy garments. And you shall anoint him and consecrate him, cleansing and then consecration setting apart for God. And then only he can serve as pries. You can’t just say I surrender; I give. No, no, no. This whole thing has to be done symbolizing God, setting him apart to serve him. 

And the key is henceforth what is set apart for God is only for God. Once you set about that vessel, that utensil, you can’t then take that vessel and put some Curry in it and eat from it. You can’t take it back to the kitchen, I broke my vessel and let me just take it, and I’ll borrowed and give it back. No you can’t. Once it has been set apart for use for God’s use in the temple, you can never use it for anything else. It’s done finished only for God, Aaron. So far, he was just one among the Israelites. But now he’s set apart as a high priest unto God, and so were his sons. We have been set apart to serve God only. Listen to me, I’m not saying, you set apart yourself. I’m saying you have already been set apart to serve God who did this business setting apart. God did it. When the Bible says, God made you holy, we have been sanctified, it means we have already been set apart to serve. God has already done. I don’t know if you realize what an amazing thing this is. Let me split that setting apart. Think about that setting apart picture. When you’re setting apart something, you’re separating something from the old connection and establishing the new connection, these vessels, where there part of other vessels, but they were removed from them separated, and now they are placed in the tabernacle after dedication. Separation from the old dedication to the new. It involves these two steps, setting apart involves separation from the old and dedication to the new.

In the old Testament, everything that happens in old Testament is a picture of a greater reality. In the old Testament, the picture of salvation is what? The major picture of salvation is God bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt. After he brings them out, He tells them in Leviticus, 20 verse 26, I have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. I have separated you from the peoples. From all the other nations, I’ve separated you that you should be mine. That’s a picture of a greater reality. In the new Testament, Jesus says in John 15:19, I chose you out of the world. I did what? Chose you out of the world. In other places, he says, you are not of the world. He tells God in His high priestly prayer in John 17. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Last week, we said you’re born again. One of the meanings for born again is born from above. Born from above. Chosen out of the world. There is a separation from the world. There is a separation from your old connection. 

1 Peter, 2:11 puts it like this. Talking to believers, it says believers are foreigners and exiles or one translation, one scholar says resident alien and visiting foreigner. 1 Peter 2:11, we read a verse earlier, 1 Peter, 2:9, it says you’re a Royal priesthood, a holy nation, two verses later. He says, I urge you as foreigners and exiles as temporary residents to abstain from the passions of the flesh. What he’s saying is, don’t you know who you are, your identity. You have been separated from the world. You no longer belong to the world. You are like a foreigner. Now, when you say foreigner, we immediately think he’s a foreigner in this nation. He belongs to another nation. But what the Bible says is, you’re a foreigner to the entire world. You don’t belong anywhere. You are on a temporary visa. Think of it like that. You are here on a work visa or a student visa. This is not your home. You are born from above, your home is the new heavens and the new earth. You are just here temporarily for a purpose for a while, and then you’re going back to your home. He’s saying don’t you know who you are. You have been separated from the world. You’re no longer belonging to the world. That attachment has been cut. You are a foreigner. You are a temporary resident. You don’t belong here, and therefore don’t act like them. Don’t act like the world, because you don’t belong to the world. You are not of the world. You’re born from above. Your home is in a different place. You are here on a temporary visa kind of thing.

What I’m saying is this separation. There’s a real separation. Again, it’s something real, something that has happened deep inside. It’s not something happen outside, it’s something that’s happened so much that it’s affected your identity. It has changed your identity. It has made you a foreigner in this world. Separation, and then dedication is the next step. Dedication. I’m talking about what it means to be made holy. It means that God has separated us from the old connections, from our connection to the world, from all our connections to sin and the flesh and all these things, he has separated us and then dedicated us. Dedication. What does that mean? We have baby dedications, we have house dedications, Christians understand that. Very age-well Christian traditions. You want to name a child, have a dedication. Some people don’t kind of meaninglessly. And maybe after you name the child, we have to have the dedication. You want to go and live in a house. Well, let’s have a house dedication. Sometimes people are just wanting God to bless the child, God to bless the house, but the word dedication, what does it mean? We keep using the word dedication. I don’t know if we realize what it means. What does dedication mean? Dedication means if a person is really dedicating their child, meaningfully, what it means is they are saying, parents are saying, let this child live henceforth, not for me, not for itself, but for God, hence for this child first belongs not to me, not even to itself, but to God. 

Yeah, I may be the parent of the child, I may have given birth, but only because God gave the child, I gave birth, so actually the child belongs to God. And so I’m going to give it back to God, to be used for God’s purposes, let this child fulfill God’s plan. Let this child live for God alone. That’s the meaning. This house I may have built it. I may have purchased it. It may belong to me, but without God’s grace, I would be nothing. But God has helped me to build this house. And so I dedicate this house, even though I’m going to live here, I’m going to live and use it for God’s purposes alone. That’s what it means. A house dedication. When it is done with any kind of meaning, it has some kind of power, some kind of power I’ve seen this sometimes when sometimes there’ll be kids who are grow up. They seem to be walking as believers, but then they go off, wander off. You may think of it as back sliding or whatever. Wander off, they seemed to have wandered off from the faith. And sometimes these mothers have great confidence. They’ll say, yeah, he’s wandered off but I’ve dedicated him, he’ll come back? In Tamil they will say [Tamil – 00:44:19] they have such confidence in the fact that they have dedicated their child so that no matter how far he goes, he will come back because they’re dedicated him when he was a baby. My mother used to tell me when I was a child, we have dedicated you to the ministry. You have to do ministry only. I used to get irritated when I heard that.

I can’t do what I want to do. You have to do this only, have dedicated. She never asked me, they never asked me. So I tried to avoid ministry and kind of go on a different path, but then guess what happened? I came back right back. It’s not like I was forced, but am I going to say that dedication had nothing to do with it? No, I think that dedication had real power. Even an imperfect, yeah meaningful dedication of a human being has such power. What we’re talking about is when the Bible says we’ve been made holy, it means that God has cut off in some real way that old connection and dedicated us to himself, here is a dedication, not we are dedicating to God, I’m not talking about that. I’m saying God, in the moment of your salvation. Yeah, I know you didn’t ask for it. In the moment of your salvation, he didn’t ask you for it either in the moment of your salvation, he said, he dedicated you to himself. And he said, henceforth, you will live for me. That’s the meaning. I don’t know if you can accept it. I tell you that has power. If you’re a true believer. If you have really been saved, no matter how far you go, this has enough power to pull you back. What? Not your will, not your dedication. I’m talking about God’s dedication of you. 

God sanctified you, we have been sanctified in the name of Jesus Christ by the spirit of God, the holy spirit did this. Where is the power to live a holy life? With what assurance can be say we’ll keep going on the right path just because we’ll make sure to do everything right, and we’ll keep our priorities straight. No, my friend. There is a deeper assurance. There’s a deeper. There’s a deeper basis, a deeper foundation. The foundation is not, no, I am surrounding myself every day. Yes, I ought to. But the foundation for that surrender is he surrounded me or dedicated me. Only reason you keep surrendering is because he dedicated you. Without that we can stand upside down and we still can’t actually live holy and pleasing. It has real power. It has real power. God tells Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5. He says, before you were born, I sanctified you. I pointed you a prophet to the nations. So here He is setting apart this Jeremiah yet to be born. And He says, you will be a prophet to the nations. I’m not talking about your specific calling in life. We are talking about a dedication to holiness, dedication to serve God for the rest of your life. Ephesians 1:4. Ephesians 1:4, just as Jeremiah was dedicated even before he was born, God did something that was in many ways everything flowed from that, made him a prophet.

Ephesians 1 says that God did something before the foundation of the world. Look at that. He chose us in Him. Verse four. He chose us in Him. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. Before you were ever born, before the world was created before the foundation of the world, God thought about you. And he chose you for what to be holy and blameless. Now, think about that. Are you telling me that it has no power? Ae you telling me that has no effect. That’s what we’re talking about before the foundation of the world, He did this, but in the moment of your salvation, He kind of Formalized it sank, sanctified you. He sanctified you. Everybody say, God sanctified me, God consecrated me. He set me up for Himself. He separated — this is really happened. This is not just a nice imagination. You imagine yourself to be sanctified, separated from the old world and the flesh and the sin. And just imagine yourself to be dedicated. No, this is the Bible presents this as real truth. Yeah, you can see it with your eyes. It didn’t happen in an outward, external manner. It happened in an internal manner. It happened inside of you. It happened in your heart. Like what we were talking about last week, regeneration born again. What happens is in your heart, there is a deep change. There is a radical change, new heart, a new spirit. 

Last week what we spoke and this week, you have to take it together to get the full picture. It all happens at the moment of your salvation. Last week and this week is about how God goes deep inside you and changes your very nature, your very nature, your very nature. It happens very deep inside of you my friend. You are separated on the inside. You’re separated. God cut off. I’m not saying you got off. I’m saying, God cut off your old association with the world, with the flesh, with sin, with your lust and God established a new connection by dedicating you unto himself. Look at Hebrews 9, verse 13. I want to show you that this change happened deep inside of you. The spiritual change happened deep inside of you. This determinative change. This determines everything else. Without this I say, you can stand upside down. You can try all you want. You can never actually live a holy life pleasing to God. With this real change is possible. Real growth is possible. Hebrews 9:13 to 14, for if the blood of goats, and bulls, he’s going to compare the old Testament power of the blood sprinkling versus the new Testament power of Jesus’ blood sprinkled upon our hearts. Listen, Hebrews 9:13 for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh. 

He’s saying if in the old Testament, these animal’s blood are able to give some kind of external purification of the flesh. External sanctification, how much more verse 14, how much more will the blood Christ. We’re talking about the blood of Christ, not the blood of an animal. How much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Verse 14, you have to look at it carefully. How much more will the blood of Christ do what? Purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The blood of Christ purifies our conscience. Now immediately when we say conscience, we may be tempted to think the blood of Christ purifies my guilty conscience. My conscience is guilty because of my past sin and the blood of Christ purifies that, yes, it purifies that, but this verse is not talking about that. Look at the verse carefully. He does not say it purifies our conscience from our guilt so that we are no longer feeling guilty and we’re feeling peaceful and good. No, it does. He says He purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. What he means is He purifies our conscience from doing dead works in the future. He purifies our conscience in such a way that we are enabled not to do dead works in the future, but rather to serve the living God, he’s thinking about the conscience, not with a backward focus, but with a forward orientation.

Meaning sometimes we think conscience means only backward. I did something wrong. I’m feeling guilty in my conscience, backward. But conscience also has forward looking orientation. Meaning sometimes you can’t do something wrong. Have you ever had that experience. You feel like you can’t do it because your conscience won’t allow it. Maybe some others want you to do something and you tell them, no, I can’t do that, my conscience simply won’t allow me to do it. So your conscience not only makes you feel guilty when you go wrong, but sometimes it keeps you from going wrong. It pulls you back from going wrong. It does not permit certain things. Paul is the writer of Hebrews is talking about that. He’s saying basically the conscience as the part of the heart, which has a controlling effect on our future actions, on our future life. He is saying God, through the blood of Christ in salvation, what he does is God sprinkles the blood of Christ in your heart in such a manner that that part of your heart, your conscience, which has a controlling effect on your future actions is changed in such a drastic way that it will no longer allow you to do dead works. It’ll say, no, I can’t allow that. And it will make you do serve the living God. It’ll make you to do good works.

Your conscience, which previously justified these dead works. This sinful works. The conscience, which previously said, yeah, go ahead and do it. It’s okay. The gain you get from it is better than what you lose. Your conscience, which said, you know, anyway, you’re not as bad as that person. Your conscience which said all this is now saying no, we can’t do that. You can’t do that. you got to please God, you got to live for God. You went in there, effected a deep change in your conscience. Your conscience separated, dedicated on to God. It’s basically the same thing. like last week, just in a different way. It’s a deep change in your heart. You’re separated dedicated unto God forever. It’s a done deal. It’s finished. It’s done by God. What did you have to do with it? Not much. What does the baby have to do with its own dedication? Not much. In salvation, we believe, but believing is nothing we can take credit for. It’s just like opening your hand and receiving the glorious gift. We can say, I believed, no, you just received this glorious gift. You are smart enough to do that. And even that God helped you believe, the Bible says by grace, have you been saved through faith that not of your selves, it is the gift of God. Something glorious, something miraculous happens in salvation. You hear the word being preached the word of the gospel and you respond; the holy spirit helps you to respond and you just make a simple act of fate. You just believe in Jesus. You just say, he’s Lord. You confess him in that moment. The holy spirit goes in there. He does a radical rehaul overhaul in your heart, new heart, new spirit, new conscience, which will no longer excuse you, but pull you back. 

Have you had this deep change happen inside of you my friend? This is what it means to be already sanctified. It means more actually, but I’m going to stop there because I can’t do justice to what the other thing that I wanted to show. It means a lot more. I’m just scratching the surface what the point is, God has gone inside you and done something major radical, deep. Last week we said he is kind of blamed your heart towards Him. A heart that was inclined toward sin in the world, in the lust, in the flesh is now inclined towards God. And this week we’re saying this conscience, this heart that was previously attached with the world, with the flesh, with the sin, with all pleasing ourselves. This heart has been separated so that you in your heart no longer belong to the ways of this world, to the ways of sin. You just don’t belong. It’s not, we’re not saying just think of yourself as you don’t belong. No, actually you don’t belong. That’s what happens in salvation. God kind of turns you upside down inside so that you just can’t be at home with sin anymore. It just makes your life miserable. The most miserable person, one preacher said is a believer living in sin because an unbeliever sinning is very happy. He’s enjoying it. A believer living for God is very happy, but sometimes a believer is sinning. And that believer is the most miserable person if he is a true believer because you’ll see that person has no peace, no joy, can’t read the Bible, can’t pray, doesn’t even want to get out of the room. Has his head hung low? Just cries and just regrets and just thinks how could I have done this against God? You know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? If you had that experience?

No believer is perfect. No believer can claim to be perfect. If somebody claims to be perfect in their living and conduct don’t believe them. That’s what apostle John says. Every believer needs to continually repent of their sin and ask for forgiveness and cleansing and all that is there. So, but at the same time, the same John says a believer cannot keep on sinning because God’s seed abides in him. His conscience won’t allow it. It’s not whether you’re sinning or not, that’s not the question. Has your attitude toward sin changed? Has your attitude toward the world changed? Do you feel at home with the world and with the sin and with the flesh and with all that, like before? Or do you feel like I’m not at home? My home seems to be somewhere else. I’m happy when I serve God, when I live for God. That is what gives me the greatest satisfaction and joy. Has there been this real change in your heart? That is what real salvation is all about. If there is no real change, deep inside the heart. If there is no fundamental reorienting towards and in their attitude toward sin and things like that, that means real salvation is not there. Real salvation is not just, you come, you decide to follow Jesus and then you try your best. No, when you take Jesus, actually what happens is Jesus. Jesus said, unless the father draws me, you draws, you cannot even come to me. 

Real salvation is the father drawing you to Jesus and the holy spirit, helping you to believe in Him and the holy spirit, producing a miracle in your heart. Everything in your outward life may not change, but something deep has changed in your heart, which will begin to show something on the outside, make it self evident. If you’re a believer who has experienced real change, rejoice in it, you are saved. Nothing can reverse this. It’s done deal finished over. You’re sanctified, forever perfected. Yeah, you will continuously grow in holiness in practical, holy living, you will continuously grow and one day not in this life, but when Jesus returns you will be made actually perfect in conduct and character and nature and everything. Absolute perfection we’re talking about, that’s not in this life. That’s another era. There are so many eras started in sanctification. But what I’m saying is if you’ve not received this deep change and you want to change my friend, you can stand upside down, but you can’t change. The way to change is you need Jesus. The way to change is you need Jesus, you need to come to Jesus. You need to say, Jesus, I need you. I need you to go in and change me. I need you to save me. I need you to change me.