“ACHIEVING SANTIFICATION” Part 1

Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661

Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org

OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”

Nobleton Community Church
date June 2, 2024
Text: I Thessalonians 5: 23-24
Pastor Paul Lehmann

Listen to live audio here

These final two verses tell us how our striving actually becomes a reality
(4 things)

1 THE PROVIDER OF SANCTIFICATION

1 Thessalonians 5:23a “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you”
“sanctify” translates HAGIAZO.It literally means to set apart.
It carries the idea of being set apart from sin and thus to be holy.And this is
of course what we are looking for,
And that is what makes this statement so great!
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you”
We fail miserably at ridding ourselves of sin,
And Paul here reveals that God “Himself” will do it. And don’t you love the
fact that Paul adds the word “Himself”.
It reminds us that God isn’t Delegating out your sanctification to someone
else.“If you want something done right, you better do it yourself.”
God wants your sanctification done right.
He “Himself” will do it.
GOD HAS ALWAYS TAKEN SALVATION AND SANCTIFICATION
AS A PERSONAL OBLIGATION.
1 John 2:25 “This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.”

With something as important as salvation and eternal life,
God did not delegate it out to one of His subordinates.
God took care of it Himself.
1 Peter 2:24 “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you
were healed.”
As John also said:
1 John 2:2 “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours
only, but also for those of the whole world.”
Furthermore, when we face temptations in this life
That threaten our progress as we seek to be holy,
We can rest assured that God had nothing to do with it.
James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by
God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt
anyone.”
And even when we face trials or hardships we can be confident
That it is God who will fashion it for our good.
1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace,
who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm,
strengthen and establish you.”
And so you get the picture.
While God has certainly delegated out some aspects of His kingdom…
Angels certainly made announcements
We preach the gospel
He takes care of sanctification personally.
That is also why Paul refers to Him as “the God of peace”
That doesn’t mean that He is a peaceful God.
Scripture says that He is angry at the wicked every day.

Rather, “God of peace” means that He is the God who provides peace.
He is the God who makes peace.
It was God who sent His Son to make peace between Himself and sinners.
It is God Himself who sanctifies men.
BECAUSE HE IS THE GOD OF PEACE,
HE TAKES SANCTIFICATION PERSONALLY
One of His 8 covenantal names is:
(Jehovah) YAWEH Mekadesh (The Lord who Sanctifies you)
Leviticus 22:32 “You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified
among the sons of Israel; I am the LORD who sanctifies you,”
AND WE KNOW GOD AS A SANCTIFIER.
WHAT DID HE DO TO THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK?
He sanctified it as holy.
WHAT DID HE DO TO THE TENT OF MEETING?
He sanctified it for Himself.
WHAT DID HE DO TO THE TEMPLE?
He sanctified it.
WHAT DID HE DO TO THE FIRSTBORN?
He sanctified them for Himself
AND WHAT DID HE DO WITH ISRAEL?
He sanctified them as a people for His own possession.
God is a sanctifier.
He does it “Himself”
Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work
for His good pleasure.”
HOW DOES HE DO IT?
Have you ever faced a trial or a hardship?
Hebrews 12:10-11 “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best
to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His

holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but
sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the
peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
Have you ever read the Scripture and had your sin exposed?
John 16:8-11 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning
sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not
believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father
and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of
this world has been judged.”
Jesus Himself likened to a washing, when He washed Peter’s feet saying:
John 13:10 “Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his
feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
And so whether it is discipline from the Father…
Conviction from the Spirit…
Or washing from Jesus…
We know that God does indeed do the work of sanctification.
Then, He is the Provider of Sanctification

2 THE PICTURE OF SANCTIFICATION

1 Thessalonians 5:23b
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your
spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame”
And I hope you notice what God’s sanctification looks like.
“sanctify you entirely”
“entirely” translates HOLOTELES
It is a compound word used only here in Scripture.
HOLO means “whole” (holistic)
TELES means “the end”
When you put it together it means
“all the way through” or “through and through”
God sanctifies every single part of you.
God leaves nothing untouched.
God leaves nothing unchanged.
This is spelled out even more as you read on in the verse.
“and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without
blame”
Over the years there has been debate as to whether man is
A trichotomy of spirit, soul, and body.
Or if “spirit and soul” refer to the same thing and man is just a dichotomy.
And if you want to hammer that out, that is fine,
But either way we can understand what Paul means.
God is not interested on cleaning up your outside apart from your inside.
We call that hypocrisy, and that has never pleased God.
Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of
robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of
the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
All you have to do is read the Sermon on the Mount
What about heart murder?
What about heart adultery?
What about a lack of integrity?
What about giving or praying or fasting for show?
God has no interest in just cleaning up the body and not the soul.
His sanctification is penetrating.
He does it “entirely” through and through.

One of the best illustrations of this would be the woman at the well.
A woman that Jesus fully confronted,
Even bringing up her promiscuous past.
Some would have resented His speech as meddling or judgmental.
In reality: Jesus was unwilling to leave any sin alone.
And that is how God sanctifies.
He has no interest in a clean outside with a dirty inside.
However, God also has no interest in a clean inside with a dirty outside.
This was what many of the Greeks believed.
It was part of the Gnostic religion.
It was the idea that since the body was dying anyway, that all that really
mattered was the soul. Therefore live however you want in the body, just
make sure your soul is clean.
Paul sort of shot that down when he wrote to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits
is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have
been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
The reality is that if God makes you clean on the inside,
Then He expects it to affect your outside.
Philippians 2:12 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your
salvation with fear and trembling;”
I like the term “work out your salvation”.
It carries the picture of moving what is inside to the outside.

If your heart is made righteous, then let that filter to your tongue.
If your mind has been redeemed then let that filter to your hands.
This is what God has in mind with sanctification.
He wants a clean inside.
He wants a clean outside.
He will “sanctify you entirely”
He will make sure that you are “preserved complete, without blame”
“complete” translates HOLOKLEROS
James 1:4 “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
God is working to complete His work in you.
He is not stopping short.
In one sense He works on all of you
And in another sense He finishes the work.
The end result is that all of you will be completely sanctified.
That is why Paul calls it “without blame”
And this is an interesting picture.
The Greek word for “without blame” is AMEMPTOS
Literally meaning “blameless” or “without fault”
Archaeologists who have excavated the site of Thessalonica
Have found it easy to identify the graves of the believers in that city.
For the graves of the believers all had the same word: AMEMPTOS
Obviously they loved what Paul had to say and did cling to that hope.