Beacon Sunday Service: March 23, 2025

I'll be reading from Titus chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. And it reads, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that we he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. Let's pray together. Father, we avail ourselves this morning to the proclamations of your truth. Would you cleanse and purify your bride just a little bit more and sanctify us through your truth? Your word truly is truth. And I pray, Father, that you would feed our souls the hunger that is in our hearts that is only filable by you. We pray that you would completely satisfy and satiate your flock today.

And help us, Lord God, just to remember and chew and digest on all the things that we learn so that just by how we live our lives, people will know that Christ is Lord, that He is King, and that you are so good. And so I pray that you would take the center stage this morning. And would you help our hearts really to be ignited with the eagerness and joy of hearing your voice? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat. So in the summer of 1997, I was on a college ministry mission team to Mexico, and we spent a month in the province of Oaxaca. It's one of the southernmost parts of the country. And we were in an area that was pretty lush and mountainous, and it was very humid.

And at that time, much of that region was underdeveloped, and our month there was spent with very few modern conveniences. So we did our own laundry by hand at the river, and our team of eleven, we did the laundry together about two to three times a week. The ladies washed the clothes, and the men wrung the water out of the clothes, and then we hung them up. And the ringing of the clothes was okay, and no one complained. The towels, however, were a little tricky, especially if they were the big thick bath towels that we were told actually not to bring. But two of our ladies, and I'm going to name them, Susie and Monica, they had packed those for the month. And so we didn't grumble when we wrung out the shirts or even the jeans, but we grumbled every time we had to ring out Susie's and Monica's large bath towels.

And we openly disparaged these girls every time our team did the laundry. Because if we didn't ring them out well, if we left even a little water in those thick towels, they wouldn't dry properly in the humidity. And we would have to smell the mildewy smell everywhere we went. So it was imperative that we ring those towels out well. And it was actually a lot of work. Big towel.

And it was a source of actually some team strife. So the towel illustration is going to be an important one for this morning, not because I'm going to exhort our men to do all things without complaining or to be chivalrous or sacrificial toward our sisters, but rather because as it pertains to our growth in holiness, there's a lot of hard ringing involved. And also in a similar vein, our sin runs very deep and very thick. So we are in Titus chapter 2, verse 13 to 14, which we started last week. And we left off at the third point of the sermon for this section. And last week we learned that Christ purchased the church through the shedding of his own blood.

And we learned that the Bible describes a Christian life as kind of an engagement period in which the church busily and longingly looks forward to the return of Christ and prepares for the coming of the bridegroom. So today we will be looking solely at the third point there. Christ will present to himself a perfect bride.

And verse 14 reads, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. So how does Christ perfect his bride? We will become perfect. Okay, so how does he do this? And it just says, purify for himself here in Titus 2.14. And the process is later touched upon in Titus 3.5 as well. But this is a subject of very very great importance. So it's imperative that we go deeper. So in explore in it uh in order to explore this process in greater detail, we'll be launching off of Titus 2.14 and studying a very familiar section of the scriptures, Ephesians 5, 25 to 27. And it reads this husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

I'm sure that you found that Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25 to 27 is often read in wedding ceremonies, just in part, if not in full.

Ephesians 5 is about Christ's holy love and passion for his church. Marriage is used as a relatable illustration. It's not the main point. Okay, marriage is used as an application, it's not the primary theme or focus. And what we find in Ephesians chapter 5 are not marriage goals or guidelines, but rather how being filled with the Holy Spirit affects the Christian in the important spheres of his daily life. We get stuck on the word husbands, and then we see a to-do list, but but the marriage is not the main point.

So the exhortation in verse 25 for husbands to love their wives is the what of these verses, but in the rest of the section, we actually get a clearer understanding and of the more important, like why.

So verse 25 is more about Christ sanctifying and purifying his bride than it is about husbands loving their wives. But oftentimes our eyes and our minds focus so much on the marriage-related aspects of the verse that we gloss over the main point, right? We only really see these at weddings. Ephesians chapter 25 chapter 5, verse 25 to 27 has as a focus Christ's sanctifying love for the church. And this statement of his love is followed by three Hinnah clauses. The Greek word henna is a conjunction word denoting purpose. It's usually translated so that that, in order that, or sometimes even because. Okay. So it's almost answering a rhetorical question whenever it is used. You can mentally insert a why before every Hinnah.

So let me read this passage again for you, and I've arranged it visually so you can see the reasoning behind the outline I'm going to be providing for you in a little bit.

Sorry, ladies. So Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. Why? So that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. It's like a little toddler. Why? So that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and blameless. You see those three hinted clauses there. If you take a close look at the structure of these verses, you plainly see the purpose of Christ's sacrifice, the sanctification of his people. Christ didn't just die so that he could leave behind a good example for a husbands. Christ didn't just die so that you and I can avoid hell. Christ didn't just die so that we can have a birth better earthly life.

Christ didn't die so that our businesses would thrive and our children would be raised with good morals and become successful. That's not the purpose of his death. Okay. So Christ died to save and to sanctify his bride. And he left the Holy Spirit, remember the ring, not only as a pledge, but as the primary agent to purify his bride unto presentable perfection. So sanctification is going to be the important word for the day. It's both a one-time deal, as it says in Hebrews 10 14, we have been perfected once for all time, and it's an ongoing process as well. So sanctification is both a one-time deal and an ongoing purpose, like marriage. It is initiated once, but is also lived out in process.

We have been saved, but we're continuing to be saved. We have been sanctified, but we are continuing to be sanctified. So again, this subject is super important, so I felt the need to break this third point up into a sermon in itself. So this is going to be the outline of a third point of an outline. Alright? So you'll see right there. And I've worded the outline this way so it's easier for you to track and remember. Um, and it's gonna read a little bit jagged and edgy, but for each point, I wanted to emphasize sanctification, and I brought that to the front. And also just to think through what this means for the church, the bride of Christ. So we read in verse 25 that the purpose of Christ's sacrifice and love is sanctification.

And verse 26 describes for us, point number one, sanctification's process in the church. And in verse 27, we see sanctification's purge of the church. And also in verse 27, sanctification's presentation of the church. And I'll bring this back to Christ's presentation of the church. Um, and the text of Titus will converge here at this third point. Okay? So basically, we're gonna be spending the bulk of our morning thinking through our sanctification, how it happens, point one, what it looks like, point two, and why it delights the heart of God, and why we are to joyfully embrace it. Point three. And you can track along as we move from Hina clause to Hina clause. And hopefully you remember what Hina really meant, right?

So let me read the first two verses again. Just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, and here's our first and main henna, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word. So Christ loved the church, gave himself up for the church, so that he might sanctify the church. So for us who've been churched, this doesn't sound like anything new, right? We've heard this many times before. But take a moment to think with me, what is sanctification? And it's very important that we define it. Now, if I were to ask you all to give me a working definition, my guess is that very few of you would actually get it wrong. We can all punch out somewhat of a textbook definition, and I'm gonna supply one for you.

This is from Millard Ericsson's Christian theology, and this is the textbook definition. Sanctification is the continuing work of God in the life of the believer, making him her or her actually holy. Now, I don't have any problems with Ericsson's definition, but it doesn't really paint a picture for me as to what tangibly happens, right? What does that look like? What does sanctification emotionally feel like? Because a lot of times it's not pleasant. How do I know if it's happening to me? Or if it's just God is punishing me for something? How do I know if sanctification is actually happening to me? When I was a baby Christian, I thought of sanctification as kind of a spiritual self-improvement.

And you guys might have thought the same. I thought growth and holiness was primarily external. Serve a church, hang out with nice Christian people, listen only to Christian music. I broke all of my secular CDs, attach myself to a good mentor, go on a few missions, trips, buy a big study Bible because the bigger the study Bible, the holier you are, right? And voila. I've grown in holiness. And over time, then it's like, okay, I have to try harder to pray better, to be a better student of the word, to be more active at church. But I have since learned that and discovered that sanctification is not just modified behavior, it is not mere Christian self-improvement, because you can clean the outside of the cup, right?

And you can make the exterior of your tomb white. Non-Christians can clean the outside. But that does not mean you've grown in holiness. The spotless and wrinkle-free bride is the one who is spotless and wrinkle-free on the inside, and not just in packaging only. And we humans, we can't see the inside. Here in Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul writes that Christ cleansed the church by the washing of water with the word. And when we hear the word washing, our mind only processes it as something external because we don't really wash our innards, right? The word cleansed, katharizzo, from which we get the English word catharsis, is a very strong word. The understanding of the word cleansed is actually closer to purged or purified.

So I want to further illustrate.

Okay. I cleaned my room. That has a very different feel from I purged my room. Right. So this cleaning is a different kind of cleansing and washing. God's cleansing is a washing that alters, changes, and realigns the very core of our being. It's an inside out washing, never an outside in washing. I've been a believer for 31 years, and for the most part, I have become objectively better behaved. I'm choosing my words very carefully. But something I've also learned over the years is that all of my growth has actually been done to me. I've contributed nothing to it. Over the years, I've simply learned to resist less and less. Okay? Sanctification is 100% God. Now that's tricky for our minds that wrap ourselves around that, right?

Sanctification is 100% of God because towels do not wring themselves. Right. This is not about a bride's self-cleaning. It is the Holy Spirit supernaturally doing all the cleaning. And it's 100% an evidence of God's mercy. And we're going to get to Titus 3.5 in about a month or so. But he saved us, not by works which he did in righteousness, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. So the bridegroom cleanses the bride, and he does so inside out. So Christ initiates this cleansing.

No cleansing whatsoever can happen before coming to Christ. I want to repeat that. No cleansing can happen before coming to Christ. So it's folly for a youth group parent to send their youth group student on a missions trip to learn, to become holy. It doesn't work that way. Or like to tell somebody to stop drinking, stop like whatever vice that you have, clean yourself up so you can go to church.

I have no power to purify my own heart. No one can pre-sanctify himself before coming to God. So if you are sitting here, if a non-believer was sitting here thinking, I'm not worthy or good enough to come before the throne of God, 100% correct. But then if that person is thinking, well, I have to get my act together before I bank myself, I have to make myself more presentable or acceptable before I can sit in the uh church and worship God, that's absolutely wrong. Because he's not after our behavior or our religious works, he's after our heart. So it's like sometimes we worship, we worship better after we've had good quiet times over the week, right? If we've stayed away from certain sins or if we've prayed more certain weeks, we have extra like praise passion.

But when we've had a bad week, we've we've too much binge watch something too much, then we feel guilty when we come to church. So we don't pre-sanctify ourselves externally to make ourselves approach uh presentable to God. He's after our hearts, he's not after our behavior. Okay? So to put it simply, Christ's death was enough to pay for our sins, and to give us not just a clean, better slate, but a perfect, spotless internal one and a restored relationship to God. And sanctification begins and causes us to unite ourselves with Christ simply by receiving this faith. And as it says in Romans 6, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

We too might walk in newness of life. For he who has died has been justified from sin. And so this is the Christian's identity. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. So, what is sanctification? It's being made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ, and as I mentioned before, it's a one-time act with ongoing ramifications. So if you put your trust in the Son of God, you've been made new. Amen. You are a new creation. And now your spiritual DNA, your tender heart of flesh, will cause you to steadily walk in that newness of life. You can't help this. You can't not do this. Every believer continues to walk in this newness. Unfortunately, many people in churches today are under the assumption that putting on or putting that initial trust in Jesus is the end goal.

So now that they've once been saved, they'll continue always to be saved. Now that they have an irrevocable, like get out of hell free card, they can go on living and doing whatever they want, since it's all about grace. And that's really gross. There's something grossly wrong with that kind of theology. It's akin to two engaged people thinking that the end goal of their engagement is the party at the wedding, not the marriage. If a person wants only a wedding and not a marriage, you know that there is no real love relationship there. So point one, sanctification's process in the church. The church has been cleansed by the blood of Christ, will continue to be cleansed by the blood of Christ.

It is being made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ, and will continue to be made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ. And all of the residual effects of sin on the flesh have been purged, but are still being purged. I am dead to sin, but I am still dying to sin. Starts a one-time process with ongoing ramifications. That's sanctification. Okay? So that brings me to my second point. Sanctifications purge of the church. Remember, not I cleaned my room, it's I purge my room. Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, Hina, he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing with the word, Hina, he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having not one spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

So Christ's desire for the church is that she be spot wrinkle and blemish free. Paul could have just said sin free, but he actually gets down to the nitty-gritty here, the specifics, the minutiae. So what are those things? And first John 2 15 to 17 can give us some insight as to what these are, even though it's written by a different apostle. Okay. So pay attention to what we're gonna read. They're all internal. They're all sins of the heart before they are sins of the hands and the feet. Okay. Internal. 1 John 2 15 to 17. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

The world is passing away, and also its lusts. But the one who does the will of God abides forever. Remember, these are all internal things. So the lust of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, our pride, these stand in direct opposition to God. They separate us from God. Those who engage in such things stand in absolute rebellion against God. God hates and abores these things. Christ died to rid his people of these things. God's hatred toward these things is a perfect hatred. And he's going to rid the church and the believer of all of these things. Because how many wrinkles and spots and blemishes are acceptable? None. Right? So not one single spot or wrinkle or any such thing shall remain. God wants to obliterate every form of materialism in our hearts.

He wants you to wholeheartedly seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. He will do whatever is necessary to purge lust, deception out of our lives. He hates all forms of pride.

What have you been on doing with your life? He hates that. Our self-absorption, our man centeredness, our insecurity, because insecurity is actually just wounded pride, right? I should be better. I'm not as good. It's wounded pride. Our self-reliance.

So he cannot but declare an all-out war to get these things out of our hearts and our lives. So God will twist, ring, fold, twist, ring, and fold our hearts until the lusts of our flesh, the lusts of our eyes, the boasting of all that we have and that we do is 100% expunged from our lives. So not one wrinkle or spot shall remain. Like in the beginning, when we first become Christians, when we're new believers, it's almost like with every little mini twist, right? Tons of stuff pour out. Oh yes, I'm sorry, Lord. Spooch. All these vices just pour out when we first become a Christian. But he's not done. So just when we think we've matured a little, guess what he does? He ordains more folds and twists and squeezes.

But man, the spiritual bath towel is super thick. The material is so heavy. The stuff runs so deep. So in his love, he ordains even harder folds and twists and squeezes until every ounce of sin is eventually gone, until we are made holy, just as he is holy. Think of the blistering energy that is required to get the stuff on the inside, right? So what are the means for the purging of these things? What does Christ use in cleansing his bride? I've concluded that there are primarily three. Okay. First, he uses his holy word. He uses circumstances, and then he uses people.

So let's first look at a portion of Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17. Verses 15 to 17 reads, I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. So as a remnant of believers, we are left in this world, and we are assaulted by the world. And we are hated by the world. The prince of the power of the air, the ruler of the age, is constantly looking to steal, kill, and destroy us. But this is Jesus' prayer for us. Okay. Omniscient God had us in mind when he was praying this. And Jesus prays not for our rescue and our escape out of the world, but that we his saints would persevere.

One day the wedding of all weddings will happen. We will know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent eternally and perfectly. That's verse three of this chapter. But in preparation, while we are in this engagement period, there are guests who need to be invited. So he prays that we are sanctified by the word of truth. So Jesus is going to one day return to take us out of the world, but in the meantime, we both proclaim his truth and we cling to his truth. I mentioned this before. We don't grow closer to God through effort. Let me repeat this. We do not grow closer to God through effort. We grow closer to him through appropriately responding to his living and active word. He sanctifies a church by his truth, his word is truth.

So this is why it's absolutely imperative that we are regularly and constantly in his word. Amen. This is why we're supposed to study the Bible. This is why we're to regularly read the Bible cover to cover. This is why we need to memorize as much of it as we can. This is why we need to meditate on it day and night, because without memorization, you can't meditate. You're just thinking your thoughts. Okay? As holified as you're trying to make them be, it's not God's word. This is also why we need to listen to good, meaty sermons, even daily. We have so much access to sermons, right? Again and again, the word does the primary washing. He sanctifies his bride through the washing of water with the word.

That's what it says in Ephesians. Amen. That's his first major means. So we have to expose our hearts constantly to the word. Especially when it's not fun to listen to. Okay. The Lord also cleanses his people through circumstances. Passages like Romans 12 teach us that God's will is perfect, that he makes no mistakes, and that God is perfectly good. And I've said this multiple times before, but God has not made a single mistake in my life, and he hasn't made a single mistake in yours. Every success, every failure, every up and down has been on purpose for a purpose. And because he is a perfectly good father with a perfectly good will, he will orchestrate and ordain events in our lives for our growth and our holiness.

Our comfort is not his priority. Our holiness is God's priority. And he disciplines us, his children, through every divinely ordained circumstance. And he prays for us with groanings and then ordains the appropriate circumstances that will grow and sanctify us. And you know this, right? Romans 8 27 to 28. We memorize 28 a lot. But 27 is pretty important. Okay, so let's read this together. He's certain he who searches the hearts, knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the perfect will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. So if you're gonna memorize verse 28, memorize verse 27 as well.

Okay, because he's praying for us, and sometimes he praying the wreck and ball of God on our lives. Okay. So circumstances that correct us, that wean us off of this world, that attack and our offend our pride are all evidences that we are beloved of God. So that's why we see Romans 8 ending with such a powerful description of his love. You guys know that passage. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, right? Nothing can separate God's children from his love. No circumstance then befalls the life of the bride of Christ from outside of his love. You got you guys tracking with that, right? No circumstance that is in our lives falls from outside of his love. That is why the Christian can give thanks in any and every situation, any and every circumstance.

It's actually the Father's will in the bridegroom that we give thanks. First Thessalonians 5, 16 to 18, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I wrestle with my role as a father. I pray for daily wisdom to raise up my children well. And I am far from being a perfect father, but I do my best to discipline them, both in a positive way to train them up, or what they would call negative to correct. Okay. Sometimes when our children take on a defeatist attitude, I positively challenge them, encourage them to try their best to try something new, to do it even if they don't feel like it. And I'll coach and I'll teach and I'll goad, right?

I'll praise and I'll applaud. And that's part of discipline. And this is the kind of discipline we like from our father, right? Good job, right? Good job, Peter. Thank you, God. Right? So we do that. But when there are areas of their behavior or their attitude that needs correction, I'll discipline them appropriately in what uh in the way that I best see fit. Sometimes I'll refrain from giving them something that they really want, because I know that will cause them harm. Sometimes I'll take away things or privileges for their good because they need to pay attention or to listen. And even as an imperfect selfish father, I will never play games with their lives. I will never tease them or take things away from them just out of spite to see what they would do, or to punish them and leave them guessing why they're being punished.

God will always make it clear, just as a human father will always make it clear why they're getting a timeout. Everything that is in my power, I will do for their good or for good, even as a sinful dad, right? So to shepherd my kids' hearts, I will involve myself in their circumstances. I will ordain or even manipulate some of their circumstances, but always and ultimately for their good. So God will discipline us, he will sanctify us through circumstances, so that we may become more and more beautiful inside out, so that we may share in his holiness, so that we might have righteous fruit. Okay, so Hebrews 12, 9 to 11, as just as a way of reminder for us. We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them.

Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? For even our imperfect fathers, they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them. But God disciplines us for our benefit. Why? Hina, so that we may share in his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. But to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. So we can know with absolute certainty that every circumstance in the Christian's life has been ordained for our good or for good. God makes no mistakes. So every disease, even if it is terminal, every horrible situation, every idol or distraction that is taken away, every single thing is for good or for our good.

But what do we do when the circumstances start to ring, twist, squeeze, and purge our lives? We plead for change of circumstance, right? Sometimes we get upset at the Lord and demand that he explain himself. Why God? We think of bad circumstances not as trustable discipline, but as sometimes cruel punishment. And then we, in our arrogance, we justify disappointment with God. But hopefully, as we mature, we will submit ourselves to even the most painful and most sanctifying circumstances because we've grown to trust in him. And we trust that he is beautifying and perfecting us. Amen. So his word sanctifies us, ordained circumstances sanctify us. And so do people. So think with me for a second.

Every single person who is in our lives is there on purpose. Every single person who is in our lives, the good, the bad, and especially the ugly, is divinely placed there. So if you are a Christian, you love because you have first been loved. We don't love people because they deserve it. Right? We love because we've been unconditionally loved. We forgive because we've first been forgiven. So sometimes that can mean you love even an enemy as you would love yourself. We love even the persecutor, the one who wants our death, whose animosity toward our faith is likely satanic in nature.

If Christ calls us to love even the satanic persecutors in our lives, and he does do that in the gospels, right? Love your enemies. How in the world do we ever resent or hate brothers or sisters in the faith? There's no bitterness that is in your heart that you can never justify. God in his wisdom put us in community for good and for our good. We can't do God's will or build his church in isolation. God has put us together in a community of redeemed people, broken and faulty, okay? But he's put us in a community of redeemed people, surrounded by a sea of unredeemed people who desperately need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're a small church. I guarantee, in the event we get bigger, there's got to be people drama.

But why does God not just immediately fix the situation?

And he'll use people to do it. So we're looking at primarily Ephesians 5, 25-27 and thinking through sanctification, but just a few verses before this, we read that, or we'll read that in their imitation of God, spirit-filled people who correctly understand the will of God are to speak spirit-filled words to one another. On account of this, okay, Ephesians 5, 17, 21. Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with what? The Spirit. So we need to pray that God fills us with the Spirit of God, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things and all people, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Verse 22, wives be subject to your own husbands, and so on and so forth. So that's in context. I'm gonna summarize the passage that we just read. The fear of Christ will cause the members of the bride of Christ to heed the words of Christ brought to them by the spirit-filled people of Christ. Now repeat this.

That's how I would summarize the section that we just read before the exhortations to the wives and the husbands in chapter 5. You're you're gonna be both encouraged and sometimes hurt by the words of the people here at the beacon. Sooner and later it'll happen if it hasn't happened already. And I'm not referring to like playful banter or even like reckless, self-centered words. But as spirit-filled people of God, spiritual conversations, exhortations, and reproofs will happen here. They're supposed to happen here. They have happened here. God has pruned this church over the years, right? And there will be times when you don't like what someone says. But we're always called to speak the truth in love.

But I also believe that the saint is also to heed the truth in love. We're not only supposed to speak the truth in love, we're supposed to heed the truth in love. For by the truth of God, spoken by the people of God, we are sanctified and stimulated toward love and good deeds. Hebrews 1024. And even when words are spoken rashly or recklessly or thoughtlessly or cruelly, even if they don't come from a cool good place, I believe that wisdom trains us to listen and to heed. Okay, Proverbs chapter 27, verse 6 reads, Faithful are the words of a friend, wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. I would rather be kissed than wounded. But I trust that every wound that has been ordained by my Lord is again for good or for my good.

And when someone says something to me that really bothers me, you guys know what that feels like, right? It just lingers. Like think something that I can't shake out of my head. I pray and ask the Lord the following. Lord, is there something in what he said that you want me to hear? Is there any truth in what he said? Help me to pay more attention to what he said than how he said it. Give me humility to submit to all truth, no matter how painful the truth. Sometimes I actually have to pray that repeatedly again and again. Especially if my friend wounded me kind of deep. Now, after I pray and I have perfectly concluded and humbly concluded that there is very little truth in what the person said, then I can let it go, I can laugh it off and then reject it completely.

I say, dude, he's just crazy. And I don't need to pay attention to no crazy. But even hateful words from unbelievers and those hostile to our faith serve to sanctify us. Please remember that. As Charles Spurgeon once said, Christians are not so much in danger when they are persecuted as when they are admired. So how does our Lord sanctify his bride? By his word, by ordained circumstance, and by people.

Circumstances do not arouse compassion. People do. Circumstances never create reasons for forgiveness. People do. So in all of these things, God is sanctifying his bride so she will have no spot nor wrinkle nor any other thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So God will ring and squeeze and twist and fold and ring and squeeze, twist and fold until when we are holy, just as he is holy. Because as it says in Hebrews 12, 14, that the father's discipline part, just a few verses after that, without holiness, no one can see God. This brings me to the third and final point. This is the crux of the third and final point of Titus chapter 2, verses 13 to 14. Sanctification's presentation of the church.

And verse 27 reads, Hina, he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she would be holy and blameless. God desires that his people be holy just as he is holy. God desires that his people are holy, not just in external behavior, but also in the heart, in the motivation. Amen. And that was his desire from the very beginning. This was his desire and the calling and setting apart of the people of Israel in the Old Testament, Leviticus 19, 2. This was his desire for people, both Jew and Gentile in the early church, 1 Peter 1.16. And this is his desire for his people today.

And he died so that his people could be holy. Spots, blemishes, wrinkles, or stains keep you separated from God. And you cannot remove them. You can try to cover them up or divert people's attention away from them, but you cannot remove those things. But it is by grace that you have been saved and not of yourselves. This is a gift of God. You can't boast. But once God has saved you, he will not leave you alone. Repeat after me, he will not leave us alone. He will finish what he started.

He will not leave us alone. His love for his bride is holy, holy, holy. It is a purifying, fierce, sacrificial love. It is in his character to wipe you clean. He will not leave one wrinkle, one spot, one blemish in your heart. So when you feel the twists and the squeezes from his word, from the pressures of life circumstances, from the family of God around you, don't resist. And that's the only application I can leave you with today. Because it's not about trying harder. Don't resist. Hebrews 3 7, it reads, Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Do not pray for the removal of those things. But sometimes the pain is so bad that you will pray for the removal of these things.

And you know what he said to Paul when Paul prayed like that? My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. So don't pray for the removal of those things, but don't harden your heart. Let yourself be sanctified, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, as the song says, right. So worship through your feeding on the word, worship through humiliating circumstances, worship with and despite people that have been strategically placed around you, the good, the bad, and especially the ugly. And it says in 2 Peter 3 14, be diligent to be found by him at peace, spotless and blameless. I want you to think about the logic here. Be zealous, be diligent to be found.

How do you apply that? Basically, work hard at being washed. Are you guys do you guys have an image?

You're working hard and not resisting. Every blot, every blemish, every satanic wrinkle, every stain of rebellion will be perfectly and permanently purged out of the church in his time. Hallelujah. And one day in our perfect righteousness, do you know what awaits us? Here comes the groom. And we get to see God, second, or 1 John chapter 3, verse 2, face to face. 100% sin free. We will not tire of seeing his God. We will actually not feel ashamed. Because shame is a result of sin. In the Garden of Eden, first thing that he tried to cover up was their shame. We will see God unashamed, bold, sin-free, regret-free, pain-free. I want to close with one short but powerful verse. Psalm 11 7. Yahweh is righteous, and he loves righteousness.

And this is how the Psalm closes the upright will see his face. May the Lord sanctify his bride inside out. And when he calls some of us to weep because of that process. May the Lord grant us wisdom to weep with the weepers. And when the Lord grants a reason for great encouragement and celebration, we we know how to rejoice with those who rejoice. Let the Lord do his work. Because his process is making us perfect. Amen.

Being purged by the word, sometimes it's a little easier. Being purged through circumstance and people somehow elicit so much pain. And we have a temptation to be bitter. But help us to trust in your perfect will. Help our trust to be perfected. And Lord, would you grant us great faith to know that behind everything that seems to be twisting and turning and purging in our lives, that you're orchestrating it for our good. And we thank you, God, for the work you've already done. We thank you for bringing us to a point of faith. And we pray that we will grow less and less resistant as the seasons and the years go by for your glory and for our joy. We pray this in Jesus' name.