7 DAYS TO PENTECOST

7 DAYS TO PENTECOST

TEXT:  2 THESSALONIANS 2:13-17

¹³ But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

¹⁴ Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

¹⁶ Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,

¹⁷ Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

KEY TEXT: 2 Thessalonians 2:13 “…God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit…”

REFLECTION:  The blessings of the Holy Spirit are many.  The workings of the Holy Spirit are manifest.  The Scriptures reveal the Spirit to be a teacher (Mark 13:11), a Comforter or helper (John 14:16,17), a force of conviction (John 16:9), and a guide (John 16:13).  He gives gifts and imparts fruit.  He witnesses to our adoption (Romans 8:16) and helps us in our prayers (Romans 8:26).  He is resisted (Acts 5:3), grieved (Ephesians 4:30), and despited (Hebrews 10:29), by those who dishonor Him.

In today’s Key Text the Apostle reveals the Holy Spirit to be our “sanctifier.”  Peter testified that at both the Jewish and Gentile Pentecosts (Acts 2 and 10) the Holy Spirit purified the hearts of the faithful.  (Acts 15:9).  Peter did not say that God called them pure.  Peter said, “God made them pure.” 

Under the Old Covenant, things that were sanctified were “set apart for a holy use.”  Altars were sanctified. (Exodus 29:37) Offerings were sanctified.  (Exodus 29:33).  The tabernacle was sanctified. (Exodus 29:44).  Priests were sanctified. (Exodus 19:22).

But as in so many other instances, sanctification took on a deeper significance in the New Covenant. (For example: The Old Covenant prohibition of murder became an injunction against hatred in the New Covenant)  Instituted by Christ and sanctioned by the Spirit, sanctification under the New Covenant means more than “set apart for a holy purpose,” it means being factually and actually “made morally and ethically pure.”

From the beginning (2 Thessalonians 2:13) God’s great redemptive plan has been to save repentant believers by cleansing them from all unrighteousness. Christ suffered “that He might sanctify the people with His own blood.” (Hebrews 13:12) So “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)   This cleansing is wrought by “the sanctification of the Spirit” and is solely conditioned on our “belief of the truth.”

Sanctification begins the moment we are born of the Spirit. It is rarely, if ever completed at that moment. (We admit the possibility that God could save and entirely sanctify the heart of a believer in a single moment for “with God nothing shall be impossible,” (Luke 1:37) but like John Wesley we find that Scripture, reason, and experience imply otherwise.)

Indeed all those who experience “salvation through sanctification of the Spirit,” and enjoy the “witness of the Spirit,” and who are “walking in the Spirit,” are soon made aware and convicted by their impulses to pride, self-will, unholy attitudes, temper, and impure desires.

We have good reason and Scriptural evidence to believe that the same Spirit who brought “salvation through sanctification” continues to purify the hearts of the faithful.  Through Ezekiel the Lord promised, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. And I will put My Spirit within you, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses" (Ezek. 36:25ff). 

The Apostle Paul prayed that the first Christians would be “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man…that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith…that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God,” (Ephesians 3:14-21).  He exhorted believers to, “Quench not the Spirit,” and prayed “that the very God of peace” would “sanctify [them] wholly,” so that their “whole spirit, and soul, and body, would be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul guaranteed the Thessalonian Christians, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:18ff)

We conclude: Initial sanctification (salvation) initiates progressive sanctification which culminates in entire sanctification. This is wholly the work of the Spirit, made possible by the cleansing blood of Christ, and conditioned only on living faith.  Those who doubt this possibility should pray like the man who came to Christ and cried, “Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24).

Refining fire, go through my heart,

Illuminate my soul,

Scatter thy life through every part,

And sanctify the whole. (361)

            Charles Wesley

PRAYER: Our Father in Heaven: For the Love of God, we glorify Thee.  For the Love of God that gave himself to die for our salvation, we thank Thee.  For the Love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us, we praise Thee. We pray that the Spirit of Holiness would begin, continue, and complete His sanctifying work in us.  We pray that thy Spirit would so fill us with all the fullness of God, that we would be holy and wholly Thine.  May thy will be done, and only thy will be done, we pray in the name of Jesus, Amen. “Our Father, &c.”