Sanctification: The Mighty Process of the Holy Spirit
A Sermon on the Role of the Holy Spirit in Sanctification
Originally preached May 21, 1954
Scripture
Sermon Description
According to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God’s purpose for everything He does is the Christian’s sanctification. In this sermon titled “The Mighty Process of the Holy Spirit,” he outlines three dangers: Christians must not separate justification and sanctification; Christians cannot believe to both receive sanctification at the time of salvation and also at a point in the future; and Christians must be wary of preaching a false evangelism that stops at forgiveness and excludes holy living. The Christian should care about living a life that is pleasing to God because God is holy. Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains the Christian’s responsibility in sanctification. While the Holy Spirit is at work within them, they must not resist His work. Paul wrote about this in Romans 8 and other passages, teaching that Christians must actively seek to eliminate sin from their lives. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains how Christians can come alongside the Holy Spirit in His work of making them more like Jesus Christ.
Sermon Breakdown
- Sanctification is God's will for believers. It is the ultimate purpose behind everything God has done.
- There is a danger of isolating doctrines and separating them in a false way. Justification and sanctification must not be separated.
- There is a danger of only seeking pardon and forgiveness from Christ and imagining sanctification comes later. True belief in forgiveness necessarily includes sanctification.
- There is a danger of a false evangelism only concerned with temporary relief and not pressing the importance of sanctification. Sanctification is part of the message of evangelism.
- The trouble with sanctification arises from starting with ourselves instead of starting with God. We are to be holy because God is holy.
- The agent in sanctification is the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is attributed to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Scripture.
- While sanctification is primarily the work of God, we also have a role to play. We must "work out our salvation with fear and trembling."
- We must reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. We must not let sin reign in our bodies. We must yield ourselves to God.
- We must mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit. We must flee youthful lusts and seek after righteousness.
- We must put off the old self and put on the new self. We must cleanse ourselves from filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- If all we had to do was surrender and let God work, the New Testament epistles would not have been written. We must apply the teachings of Scripture.
Great Biblical Doctrines
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.