“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth,” verse 17.
We continue our study of the Lord Jesus praying for His people.
Few recognise that God is active in the affairs of mankind and that to a marvellous degree. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father,” Matthew 10:29. In response to the Saviour’s prayers, God the Father intervenes in the lives of Christians for their good in a most wonderful way. Notice in our verse:
1 THE DESIRE OF CHRIST IS THAT WE BE HOLY
The word ‘sanctify’ has a two-fold meaning.
(1) To ‘separate’ from all that is sinful’.
(2) To devote or dedicate to God and his service. It was specifically prayed here for the apostles but it applies to all Christians. That is what the Lord would see in us!
The whole purpose of God is summed up for us in Ephesians 1:4 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” The whole reason for Christ coming into this world and dying at the cross and praying now in heaven is that His people may be made holy. “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish,” Ephesians 5:25-27.
II. THE AUTHOR OF OUR HOLINESS IS THE FATHER
It is to Him that the Saviour makes this request on our behalf.
1. The Father is the author of every holy inclination within the Christian’s heart. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures,” James 1:17-18.
2. We should pray for the Father to advance holiness in us. The Saviour taught us so to pray. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” Matthew 6:13.
III. THE MEANS OF HOLINESS IS THE BIBLE
Girls and boys, that book you are holding is a book of transforming power. It is God’s means of making us holy. That is why the devil and the world hate it!
1. Sanctification is a Progressive process. Shorter Catechism. Q35 : What is sanctification? Answer. Sanctification is (A) the work of Gods free grace, whereby we are (B) renewed in the whole man after the image of God, (C) and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Notes these features which I have emphasised.
2. Having been born again through the word, feeding on it we grow in our likeness to God. 2 Peter 3:18. The Bible is the book of knowledge and growth.