Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and this episode is all about sanctification. I want to walk you through three types of sanctification because of a recent question asked here at our ministry is sanctification instant or progressive? In other words, are you sanctified and cleansed and sin is fading from your life along the way as you are a Christian? Or when you get saved, is there's this instant or entire sanctification? Some people teach what is called entire sanctification, which is that you know, subsequent to your salvation, there is this moment in which you're brought into a place of total devotion to God. A better way of saying it is one experience you have is salvation, and another is a type of baptism or filling with the Spirit that turns your heart completely to God. You become totally obedient and holy. And this theological position does lead some to teach that you can reach a state of holiness in which you stop sinning completely on this side of heaven. And that's why entire sanctification is sometimes called Christian perfection. This is a topic that you, as an everyday Christian, need to know about. If you're a church leader or you're involved in leading a Bible study, small group at any level, you should understand the topic of sanctification so that people don't get confused and that you have a good grasp and you can help them when someone thinks, well, why am I still sinning? I should be perfect by now. Isn't Jesus going to take all my sin away? You can help walk them off the ledge, if you will, of thinking they need to be perfect. Whereas maybe somebody else thinks they are and that they're reaching a place where they never sin anymore. They could be humbled by the reality of sanctification and that they are going to sin and you are going to go through various struggles, and you should look forward to heaven as ultimate perfection, but you're never going to be perfect here on earth. To understand sanctification, it's best not to come up with a clever type of second blessing experience and make a theology out of it. I think we just let scripture shape our doctrine. There are three types of sanctification we see in the Bible. And only one leads to a place of total sinless perfection. Here's the three. There is positional sanctification, I'll explain that. There's progressive sanctification, I'll explain that. And then finally, I'll explain what's called perfect sanctification or ultimate sanctification. And spoiler alert, that's heaven, but we'll get there. Let me break the first two down biblically so you can understand God's work here on earth and look forward to what he will complete in heaven in your life. And if you're a believer and you've been struggling with sin, or if you're a believer and you see that some things just instantly went away. You didn't have a desire for certain sins, whereas other things are slowly fading. This is going to be a really helpful episode to quantify theologically what is happening in your life. First, positional sanctification. This is the spiritual position you now have as a regenerate believer. It happened the second you were converted, it never changes. Your position is now that you belong to God. Once you were far off, now you've been brought near. That's Ephesians 2.13. You've been set free from being a slave to sin, Romans 6.18. Positionally, you've changed. You're no longer an enemy of God. You you didn't receive a spirit of slavery, but a spirit of adoption, and now you're sons and daughters, Romans 8.15. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5.17. The old is gone, the new is come. You were once lost in darkness, and now you walk in light, Ephesians 5.8. Positional sanctification is something that takes place once and for all. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit, who the Bible calls a pledge. And when Paul uses that word seal in Ephesians 1 13, he uses a word that they would have known well. A seal in those days was the waxing seal on an authorized letter. It was the final authority on a deed. It was the branding on cattle and even on slaves, so that all would know that this decision or this property was owned. It wasn't to be touched. And it verified that the full authority of someone was behind it. That's the kind of seal you have on you when you're a believer. Positional sanctification is the setting apart of believers for God's own special purposes and calling. So that is one of those things you can have confidence in. Not that you're going to be perfect, but that God is perfect in keeping you saved. Not that you're never going to sin, but that even when you struggle with sin, your position is secure. That is the most sure thing for a believer. That positionally, because you have faith in Christ, you are sealed, you're saved, you're secure. So that's positional sanctification. The second type of sanctification is a little more messy. It's progressive sanctification. It's the ongoing process of spiritual growth and holiness while we're still in this fallen world. It's the, well, I'm not who I used to be, but I'm not yet who I'm going to be. I still wrestle with sin, or I still get impatient, or I'm still insensitive, or I still get spouts where I'm just angry, or I have that thought, or I this or I that. You fill in the blank of what the wrestling matches with. Well, progressive sanctification is all over the New Testament because Paul was encouraging the church as they wrestled with sin and urged them to walk in righteousness. Progressive would be a word that just describes what Paul says in Philippians 3 12, where he says, I haven't obtained any kind of perfection yet, but I press on towards the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He knew he hadn't laid hold of any type of super spiritual status, no perfection yet, but he was pressing towards the goal, the call of God in Christ Jesus. And it's an upward call. He's heading towards heaven. He told the church to repeatedly confess their sin. This implies they still sinned. Of course they did. They weren't perfectly sanctified yet. They were being progressively sanctified. You think of the church at Corinth and how sinful they still were. And yet what did he call them? He still called them saints, which is a word you could say holy ones, set apart ones. And because we are called saints and we are called holy, well then we are to be called to a standard that is from God. You're to be called to holiness, called to flee from sin. And sometimes that's a process where you have a period of time in which you feel like you're you're nailing it, quote unquote, spiritually, and then you lose your temper and you think, ah, well, that's not going to stop until heaven. But you confess that sin, you take it to the cross, you get accountability in your life, the word washes your heart, and before you know it, well, your sins are fading or getting more spread out. You're not wrestling with anger as often. It's something that's not as quick to manifest in your life. The truth is, don't we all still sin, though, from time to time? In Philippians 1 6, there's encouragement for us while we're being progressively sanctified, where Paul says, He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. That word perfect, mature, it means that God's going to keep doing a work in you and maturing you. And I'm sure, again, you have experiences with this like I do, where you're not who you used to be, but you're not yet who you're going to be. I look back on times in my own life and I see specific patterns of sin. They were more frequent than they are now. Sins that were prevalent in the beginning of my conversion, and even before, of course, constantly there, now non-existent. And yet there's no perfection in my life. You just sin in different ways, if you will. Your pride, instead of it coming out one way, it comes out another way. Your frustration or anger or impatience or your lusts of the flesh or your drives and ambitions, they don't come out maybe the way they used to, but they come out in different ways. I think of one example, maybe you can relate to this. If you used to look at pornography as an outlet for your stress because you didn't know how to properly deal with your lusts and you went to pornography, or if perhaps it's drinking, these vices that people go to to satisfy the longings of their flesh instead of going to Christ. Well, let's say you're a person who does not struggle with pornography anymore, you do not use pornography, let's say you're a person who does not struggle with alcohol use anymore, you don't go to alcohol, but how many Christians go to food for their comfort? We need to do an episode on that, by the way, and we will in the weeks ahead. What's happening when we go to comfort food? What's happening when we eat uh excessive amounts of food in moments of stress? Well, maybe you weren't looking at pornography as an outlet for that. Maybe you weren't going to alcohol as an outlet for that. Maybe you didn't uh use strong language, maybe you didn't lose your temper, but you went to food. Sin finds a way to come out. God, in those moments, is still faithful. And Philippians 1 6 is the encouragement. He's doing a work in you. You begin to identify all the different ways that our hearts deceive us. We confess that sin. We bring it to the cross, and instead of just saying, Well, at least I don't do that anymore, we say, Lord, it used to manifest through this behavior, now it's this. Would you help my heart? Because at the root of that is pride, at the root of that is lust, at the root of that is selfishness, or you just fill in the blank and you take it to the Lord, and He's peeling back the layers of your heart. This is why I would say the mind is the last great battleground for sin. A lot of Christians don't sin outwardly like they used to. But how many of you could relate to this? Your mind is a battleground with sin. Well, that's never going to change until heaven, and that's why Paul says spiritual warfare is a battle for the mind. He says, take every thought captive. Why? Well, because there's going to be stuff going on up there that no one ever knows about. You can look real good on the outside, you can act real good on the outside, but inside the mind, there is a spiritual war waging. And so sanctification is progressive. We're constantly growing and taking sin before the Lord as he cleanses us of unrighteousness, not in a salvific way, but in a way that we are being sanctified in our life. You are saved. Instantaneously you are his, and you are sanctified progressively over time. This is why Paul in Romans 7, Paul the Apostle himself, Romans 7, 15 to 20 says, I don't understand what I do. For what I want to do, I don't do. But I hate what I do. He's doing the sins that he doesn't want to do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree then the law is good. As it is, it no longer uh it is no longer I myself who do it, but it's sin living in me, for I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but I do the evil I don't want to do. This I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it's no longer I who do it, but it's sin living in me that does it. Paul just lays it all out there. He does the things he doesn't want to do. That means that Paul still sinned. He hated it. That's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. A believer hates their sin, they know they're doing it, and then they take it to the Lord. An unbeliever doesn't care. But thankfully, because of progressive sanctification, we're changed from glory to glory, and the work of the Spirit continues in our lives. And one of the ways that progressive sanctification works is through the washing and renewal of the word. It's why the psalmist so often says things like, Thy word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee. And in the New Testament, Paul says things like, put on the new self and walk worthy of the manner in which you are called. We need the word. We need reminders. And the Spirit uses the word to bring about a work in us. Sometimes people ask, you know, two people get saved at the same time, and yet a year later one person has grown more than the other. What accounts for that? Well, keep two biblical ideas in mind. Number one, God is sovereign in salvation and sanctification, meaning he was powerful enough to save us, not of ourselves, and he'll finish the work he began regardless of our weaknesses, and so be encouraged. God is still working in the person who isn't growing as fast. There is an aspect though of holiness and sanctification that we need to keep in mind, and that is we are still yet responsible to respond to God. Just like when we are responsible for responding to God in faith in the gospel, we are responding to God constantly with our actions in sanctification. For example, two people can be saved, one is eager to read the word, and one lets it collect dust. You can't say God is sovereign, he'll read it for me. No, spiritual disciplines are a part of our sanctification process. This is like when Paul the Apostle tells the church, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works within you. So you're going, well, okay, so I need to work it out with fear and trembling, but it's God who's working. Yes, God is sovereign. He's going to do a great work in you, and yet work out your salvation with fear and trembling. He can work through weakness. We hear that from Paul the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 12 7. That's actually God who says in response to Paul crying out in prayer to take away his thorn in the flesh, My power is made perfect in weakness. And so we can be encouraged. God can work through your weakness. If you say, Well, I haven't been a Christian a long time, or well, I don't really know a lot. Hey, that's okay. God will work through that weakness. You know what's available to you though? The Word. The Word is available to you. That's why Peter, in his letters, he says, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust lusts, which were yours in ignorance. But like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior, because it's written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. That's in first Peter one fourteen to sixteen. The idea is that we all have the opportunity and the availability, since we're believers, before us to be separate in our thinking and conduct. That's available to you through the power of Christ. Your lifestyle should be different. You should long for the pure milk of the word, like first Peter 2 1-2 says, and he says, For by it you will grow in respect to your salvation. What's he saying? Well, you're saved, and now if you want to grow, you want to be sanctified all the more. Long for the spiritual milk of the word. In 2 Peter 1 3 through 9, he's explaining to the church the resources they have in Christ. He says, God's divine power has been granted to us, it's and it's given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Then he goes on to say, you know, once we're saved, we ought to supply some things to our life of faith with all diligence. He says moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love. The bottom line is two people can be saved at the same time, but one person is more diligent in seeking out teaching, discipleship, prayer, knowledge, and nurturing their growth, while someone else may be more laxadaisical in their effort. Both are saved, but one is more diligent, so they grow all the more. If you are frustrated right now with your level of sanctification because you got saved later in life, or because you are a slow reader, or because you hate sin and it's not fading as fast as you like, I gotta tell you, stop. Okay? I say that in love, stop. That is in God's sovereign hands. He is the one who does the work in you. You're a slow reader, it's okay, keep reading. You hate your sin, you're mad that things aren't fading as fast, keep giving it to the Lord and confessing it and being honest about your sin. You're wrestling with things in your mind, welcome to the club. We all do. The mind is the last great battleground. Give it to God's hands. You got a late start, late convert, me too. You just stay focused on running your race. Stop with the comparison. God is sovereign in sanctification, he'll do it. Now, if you are frustrated with your growth though, and you have been lazy with reading the word, you think prayer is sort of whatever, you know, that's for the pastors to do, and I don't really have time, and and you think church is sort of just a Sunday option that you might do if you feel like waking up, and you think that community and discipleship in that small group is kind of an inconvenience because you know you've got this, that, or the other in your calendar. Well, now, let me tell you, not stop, start. You are a slow grower because you're being an undisciplined believer. And I want you to pray and go to the Lord and ask him to give you a hunger and ask him to help you desire those things all the more. For you, I wouldn't necessarily worry about comparison and looking at how others are growing. I would just look at the areas you're being lazy with, and God has made these things available to you. Don't see them as optional, see them as imperatives, don't see them as just something that might be a good suggestion. See them as essential and watch God work in your life. If you do have a church that you attend, would you go talk to the pastors this weekend and just get honest with them or one of their team leaders there, get in a small group, plug in, start going to church regularly, sit under good teaching, ask what books to read, and take your growth seriously. Most of all, start reading the word every day. I'm sure your pastors would love to hear that from you. Now the last type of sanctification I want to explain is perfect sanctification or what some call ultimate sanctification. That's heaven. When God brings us into glory, then and only then will we be free of sin and completely sanctified. It's a work he promises to complete, and in glory it's been done. There's no special place in heaven you gotta first go to kind of finish up. There's no like mud room where you gotta walk in and kind of kick everything off your shoes before you can get in. There's no kind of purgatory or some place where you gotta go do a bunch of works and kind of pay off the last bit of your sin to get clean for glory. No, in heaven, the Bible says there's no more sin, no more sickness, no more pain, no more death. You ain't even getting in unless you have the righteousness of Christ. So you are and will be washed clean by the blood of the Lamb as you walk through those pearly gates. The reason death came into the picture was because of sin. Well, in heaven there's no death, so there's no sin. There's only perfect harmony between God and man, and infinite eternity is what we will spend fellowshipping together and worshiping Him. To close, I want to offer one final layer of encouragement. It's important to understand how God's work will vary in our lives. From person to person, sanctification is progressive, but it'll be different. Some people will battle temptation with things that someone else doesn't. One person may feel more urges towards certain fleshly impulses than someone else. I know of a man who was addicted to pornography, he was an alcoholic and he was on drugs when he got saved. He lost the taste for all of those things immediately, totally set free, no relapses for years and years to this day, still sober, on fire for the Lord, and yet he still experienced temptation to sin. At times his anger got the best of him, sometimes he was impatient, he had wayward thoughts, and his words at times came out in a less appropriate way as he worked out his salvation with fear and trembling. Over time, he grew in those areas too, but like all people still battled and battles sin. Yet those immediate results were very final for him. You know, you may be thinking about some things that changed very quickly when you got saved, and you grow frustrated or discouraged as other sins fade more slowly. Trust the Lord with that process. Do all you can to grow in the Word, get around Christians who encourage you, devour biblical resources, confess sin regularly, and like Jesus said, if something's causing you to sin, cut it off. Cut it off every chance you get. God will finish his work in you. Lastly, maybe you're a Christian who's been in church for years, even decades, and you weren't under really deep or doctrinal teaching. And now later in life you're hearing things or you're even listening to an episode like this, and you think, Oh, it's so simple. Why why didn't I just know more? Or you start getting frustrated, feeling like you've wasted your life. No, you haven't. It's not over yet. We are all learning and growing. We're all being changed from glory to glory. Today is the best day of your life because you know more than you did before. God has opened your eyes and illuminated you to truths that are now being sharpened and shaped. And at the same time, you've been saved. You've been set free from the bondage of sin. The gospel is yours. And yet how wonderful that God would see fit not to leave you the way you were, but to keep growing you. That should give you great assurance of your salvation, and it should excite you that God's not done with you yet. When he is, you'll be in glory. Until then, he's gonna keep on growing you. I hope this episode has helped you better understand the full scope of sanctification. I think I could go ten straight episodes on it and still not exhaust the topic, but that should do for now. Thanks for listening. For loads of free digital resources from our team, go to forthegospel.org for daily videos and spiritual encouragement. Be sure to follow us on all social media platforms TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and subscribe on YouTube. And lastly, if this podcast has been a blessing to you, drop us a review on Apple or if the ministry is starting to serve you or your church faithfully each and every week and above and beyond your local church commitment, you want to partner with us, you can go to forthegospel.org, click give, and sign up to be a gospel patron. We would love to have your partnership so we can keep putting out free resources, growing our team and reaching people through digital media with sound doctrine. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.