Florida Bible Institute

Basic Training

Lesson Four

Sanctification

 

Memory Verse:  1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

 

Intro:   Salvation is an event, in which one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as their Lord and Savior when they are Born Again. (John 3:7) Sanctification is a process by which one who has been Born Again becomes more like our Lord and Savior, which is Gods will for our lives.

 

Ro 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

Make no mistake about it, prior to being born again, you were a child of the devil, and had the nature of the devil in you.                                                                                 

 

As we discovered in Lesson One, we were all born with a sin nature, and as such, were children of Satan.

 

Speaking to those in His day, whom Jesus recognized to be children of the devil He said:

 

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 

 

Again, having been born again we have become new creatures or new creations and as such, are to now yield ourselves to the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God which comes to indwell each and every one who has been born again.

 

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 

As a New Creation as one who has been born again, and one as an act of their will yields themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, the process of sanctification begins. Old habits, practices and desires, start progressively losing their influence in the life of the believer, as the believer yields themselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit indwelling them.

 

1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,

 which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

 

God will not violate the free will of His children. We, as an act of our will, choose to freely submit and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. Thus He tells us in His Word:

 

Ro 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

 

You see, its volitional. We have to choose to submit to His Word, to the influence of His Holy Spirit and in so doing, the process of sanctification continues in our lives.

 

The battlefield is the mind. Satan attacks the mind with thoughts and suggestions as he did Jesus in Luke Chapter Four. If the believer receives the thoughts/suggestions Satan offers, they will hinder the process of sanctification and will always result in some loss to one degree or the other for the believer. Thus, the Word of God says to every believer:

 

Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

 

And again, the Word of God speaks to the believer about the thought life.

 

2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

 

The process of sanctification simply stated is this. It is that process by which the one who has been born again and who truly desires to obey God, and thus become more like the Lord Jesus Christ, as an act of their will, chooses to submit and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their lives. They choose to become disciples by studying Gods Word, obeying Gods Word, and permitting the Holy Spirit of God to lead them and guide them day by day.

 

 

1.         In your own words explain your understanding of Romans 12:2

 

2.         In your own words explain your understanding of 2 Cor 5:17