Sanctified by Faith
Grace is the power to not quit the journey of becoming sanctified. Grace allows me to keep getting back on the narrow road when I wander off in my mind. Paul said that the only way to get an inheritance in God is to let my belief in Him cause me to keep following Him.
The road of following Him, as seen clearly in Paul's life, is costly. Grace provided by Jesus' sacrifice paid the price that I would stay on the road. The Holy Spirit provided by Jesus' payment for sin is the one who brought the power of God to the insides of my being. He has all the power I need to finish my course if I will keep moving forward.
Acts 26:18 ‘to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
"Sanctified by faith in Me."
This is the story of a life following Jesus: over time I become more and more set apart by choosing to keep following Him, even as those I am walking with reject the idea of me moving forward.
This is how a person lives out the normal Christian life. They keep moving forward with God. This, if done correctly, is the only way to get an actual cross. The cross isn't the hard parts of normal human living everyone experiences. The cross is the rejection, separation, humility, and freedom from a fear of death that comes from simply following Jesus the best that you can.
No cross=no rejection from other people around you, no reviling for your faith, no persecution = no real life following Jesus. Why? Because it means no sanctification. Sanctification means "to be set apart in holiness.". If you aren't being set apart, then you simply aren't.
Matthew 10:36-39 NKJV — 36 “and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
Holiness is required to be with God:
1 Peter 1:13-16 NKJV — 13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
You can't make yourself holy. You can only choose to want to be holy. You can really only keep drawing near to God and let Him make you Holy. If you choose to want to be holy, you are signing up for a journey to be set apart. That journey is costly... On purpose. You go as far as you want to before the cost causes you to chill out and blend in. The goal is to never chill out and blend in.
Luke 14:26-30 NKJV — 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
The sanctification, or being set apart is painful. The cross is real...not always physically real, but ALWAYS emotionally real. It is the reality of the pain of sanctification that changes the way we relate to people. In the pain of false accusations, rejection for serving the cause of Jesus, and reviling because of the condemnation a life laid down naturally implies to those picking up their own lives, we still must follow Jesus. Following Jesus means learning to say from the depth of my heart in truth "Father forgive them, they don't realize what they are doing." This is the path Jesus is leading every believer down.
The vast majority quit this road somewhere in the narrowness of it. The road grows more difficult as we press on. The more I conform to Jesus' life today, the more Jesus sees I am ready to move on with Him. This is great, but it's also a situation that requires I get more of Jesus' heart. The more capacity I have for a cross, the more of a cross I am given!
This is impossible for men. It is only a miracle of salvation that could pay the cost for a selfish, arrogant, and prone to comfort person like me to choose this change of direction and then not quit.
Most quit.
Philippians 3:17-21 NKJV — 17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
I believe one of the main reasons people quit is because it is tiring to feel alone in your pursuit of God. The reviling comes in the form of accusing those simply hearing God and doing what He says of working against God! Where this is going is that people that don't know God and have no confidence in what he is saying to them will become more and more enraged at those who DO hear God and are confident enough of what He is saying to them to actually break from the crowd and go higher towards God in their life choices. Every day we are given choices to further on the narrow road or wander off to find a little comfort.
Wandering off the road is death the higher up the mountain you climb. To whom much is given, much is required. Once you've tasted the glorious gift of proximity and the power of the Holy Spirit, to then wander away is worse than having never tasted it at all.
Hebrews 6:1-12 NKJV — 1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. 7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8 but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. 9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. 10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
So what does all this add up to? You cannot choose your own adventure with Jesus. You can only decide you want to follow Him. Once you decide that, then you need to grow in your ability to hear Him and BELIEVE Him. Jesus has MANY different ways to bring people down the same narrow road. No one else's way is your way, but there will be no excuse for not hearing Him and choosing the hard life of being rejected by those who have wandered off and rationalized it by continuing to claim they are following Him. The people who revile believers for their faith mostly aren't unbelievers, they are those who got offended with the narrow road and want everyone else to chill out like they did, so they don't feel like they failed.
John 15:20-27 NKJV — 20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 “But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ 26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. John 16:1-4 NKJV — 1 “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 “They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 “And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4 “But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
This reviling will crescendo in the last days and will result in a fallen-away church who leaves the Lord for harlotry, called the "end time Babylon."
If you search it out, you will find Babylon is symbolic of the people God is always taking a people out of. God took Abram out of Babylon, and in the last days He will take His Bride out of Babylon. There is always a remnant moving forward with God, and there is always a crowd who quit. That crowd becomes the religion of antichrist...or Babylon:
1 John 2:15-20 NKJV — 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
This is how we move forward together, while still walking our individual path to the cross:. We learn to love. This is what it means to be sanctified. We don't revile back for reviling. We forgive, we believe the best, we keep the bond of fellowship. We don't consume, we look for ways to give, we don't assert our rights, we look for ways to uphold others rights. We want one another to succeed, not fail. We trust God to vindicate our choices....
...we do the sermon on the mount (Mat 5,6, and 7). If we will do this, then in the end our house will stand. If we refuse to learn the road of sanctification. The narrow trail up that hill of holiness, then our house will fall.
All those who learn love at cost will find themselves unified with Jesus on His Holy Hill in the end, and the testimony will be the same for every one of them:. I counted the cost, did not love my own life, embraced the cross and followed Him until the end.
Many walk, but few follow.
Matthew 7:12-29 NKJV — 12 “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” 28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
This is the only life in Jesus there is:
Matthew 13:26-30 NKJV — 26 “But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 “So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 “But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 ‘Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
The road of following Him, as seen clearly in Paul's life, is costly. Grace provided by Jesus' sacrifice paid the price that I would stay on the road. The Holy Spirit provided by Jesus' payment for sin is the one who brought the power of God to the insides of my being. He has all the power I need to finish my course if I will keep moving forward.
Acts 26:18 ‘to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
"Sanctified by faith in Me."
This is the story of a life following Jesus: over time I become more and more set apart by choosing to keep following Him, even as those I am walking with reject the idea of me moving forward.
This is how a person lives out the normal Christian life. They keep moving forward with God. This, if done correctly, is the only way to get an actual cross. The cross isn't the hard parts of normal human living everyone experiences. The cross is the rejection, separation, humility, and freedom from a fear of death that comes from simply following Jesus the best that you can.
No cross=no rejection from other people around you, no reviling for your faith, no persecution = no real life following Jesus. Why? Because it means no sanctification. Sanctification means "to be set apart in holiness.". If you aren't being set apart, then you simply aren't.
Matthew 10:36-39 NKJV — 36 “and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
Holiness is required to be with God:
1 Peter 1:13-16 NKJV — 13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
You can't make yourself holy. You can only choose to want to be holy. You can really only keep drawing near to God and let Him make you Holy. If you choose to want to be holy, you are signing up for a journey to be set apart. That journey is costly... On purpose. You go as far as you want to before the cost causes you to chill out and blend in. The goal is to never chill out and blend in.
Luke 14:26-30 NKJV — 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
The sanctification, or being set apart is painful. The cross is real...not always physically real, but ALWAYS emotionally real. It is the reality of the pain of sanctification that changes the way we relate to people. In the pain of false accusations, rejection for serving the cause of Jesus, and reviling because of the condemnation a life laid down naturally implies to those picking up their own lives, we still must follow Jesus. Following Jesus means learning to say from the depth of my heart in truth "Father forgive them, they don't realize what they are doing." This is the path Jesus is leading every believer down.
The vast majority quit this road somewhere in the narrowness of it. The road grows more difficult as we press on. The more I conform to Jesus' life today, the more Jesus sees I am ready to move on with Him. This is great, but it's also a situation that requires I get more of Jesus' heart. The more capacity I have for a cross, the more of a cross I am given!
This is impossible for men. It is only a miracle of salvation that could pay the cost for a selfish, arrogant, and prone to comfort person like me to choose this change of direction and then not quit.
Most quit.
Philippians 3:17-21 NKJV — 17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
I believe one of the main reasons people quit is because it is tiring to feel alone in your pursuit of God. The reviling comes in the form of accusing those simply hearing God and doing what He says of working against God! Where this is going is that people that don't know God and have no confidence in what he is saying to them will become more and more enraged at those who DO hear God and are confident enough of what He is saying to them to actually break from the crowd and go higher towards God in their life choices. Every day we are given choices to further on the narrow road or wander off to find a little comfort.
Wandering off the road is death the higher up the mountain you climb. To whom much is given, much is required. Once you've tasted the glorious gift of proximity and the power of the Holy Spirit, to then wander away is worse than having never tasted it at all.
Hebrews 6:1-12 NKJV — 1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. 7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8 but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. 9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. 10 For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
So what does all this add up to? You cannot choose your own adventure with Jesus. You can only decide you want to follow Him. Once you decide that, then you need to grow in your ability to hear Him and BELIEVE Him. Jesus has MANY different ways to bring people down the same narrow road. No one else's way is your way, but there will be no excuse for not hearing Him and choosing the hard life of being rejected by those who have wandered off and rationalized it by continuing to claim they are following Him. The people who revile believers for their faith mostly aren't unbelievers, they are those who got offended with the narrow road and want everyone else to chill out like they did, so they don't feel like they failed.
John 15:20-27 NKJV — 20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 “But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ 26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. John 16:1-4 NKJV — 1 “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 “They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 “And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4 “But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
This reviling will crescendo in the last days and will result in a fallen-away church who leaves the Lord for harlotry, called the "end time Babylon."
If you search it out, you will find Babylon is symbolic of the people God is always taking a people out of. God took Abram out of Babylon, and in the last days He will take His Bride out of Babylon. There is always a remnant moving forward with God, and there is always a crowd who quit. That crowd becomes the religion of antichrist...or Babylon:
1 John 2:15-20 NKJV — 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
This is how we move forward together, while still walking our individual path to the cross:. We learn to love. This is what it means to be sanctified. We don't revile back for reviling. We forgive, we believe the best, we keep the bond of fellowship. We don't consume, we look for ways to give, we don't assert our rights, we look for ways to uphold others rights. We want one another to succeed, not fail. We trust God to vindicate our choices....
...we do the sermon on the mount (Mat 5,6, and 7). If we will do this, then in the end our house will stand. If we refuse to learn the road of sanctification. The narrow trail up that hill of holiness, then our house will fall.
All those who learn love at cost will find themselves unified with Jesus on His Holy Hill in the end, and the testimony will be the same for every one of them:. I counted the cost, did not love my own life, embraced the cross and followed Him until the end.
Many walk, but few follow.
Matthew 7:12-29 NKJV — 12 “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” 28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
This is the only life in Jesus there is:
Matthew 13:26-30 NKJV — 26 “But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 “So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 “But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 ‘Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
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