"Incarnation and Sanctification"

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Isaiah 61:10-11
• Hymn — O Come All Ye Faithful
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Romans 4:4-5
• Scripture Reading — Isaiah 12
• Hymn — While by the Sheep We Watched at Night
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
• Sermon
• Hymn — As with Gladness Men of Old
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: Incarnation and Sanctification

Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-10

I. The Humble Origins of Sanctification

A. The "stump" language of Isaiah 11:1 signals near-total devastation — the Assyrian and Babylonian judgments on Israel and Judah have left only a remnant

1. The last Davidic king before exile, Jeconiah (Jehoiachin), is carried off by Nebuchadnezzar; the Davidic line appears crushed
2. Yet at the end of 2 Kings 25, Jehoiachin is released from prison and honored at the king's table — a sign that the stump's root remains alive (echoing Joseph's story)
3. Matthew 1 traces the line of Jehoiachin through the exile all the way to Joseph, the husband of Mary — the seemingly insignificant stump produces a shoot when Jesus is born in Bethlehem

B. The shoot comes from Jesse, not David — pointing to a king of humble origins on a wholly different plane of righteousness from all previous sons of David

1. Jesse was a poor peasant farmer; David and his sons were royalty
2. Every son of David ultimately stumbled (David himself, Bathsheba, etc.); this new King will not
3. 2 Corinthians 8:9 — "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich"

C. Holiness begins as a small, insignificant shoot and grows — those united to Christ likewise count themselves lowly, growing into the maturity and holiness of the Son

II. The Divine Origins of Sanctification

A. In Isaiah 11:1 Jesus is the shoot from the stump of Jesse (Son of David), but in Isaiah 11:10 he is the root of Jesse (eternal Son of God)

1. This answers the question Jesus poses to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:45 — if David calls him Lord, how is he his son?
2. The eternal Son has always been the life-giving root of God's redemptive purposes: root of Noah, of Abraham (Galatians 3), of Moses, of David, and of the New Covenant

B. Sanctification is not about mechanics — it is about organic union with the root, Jesus Christ

1. A disciplined moral life outside of Christ is like a beautiful fake Christmas tree — no life in it; whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23)
2. To try to live a holy life outside of the Son is like trying to breathe without oxygen, or a plant growing without its roots
3. Of all the elements of the order of salvation, sanctification is where we are most prone to sidestep Christ and reduce it to personal discipline alone — this is Pharisaism

C. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 — Christ Jesus "became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption"; Paul does not say Jesus is the means to sanctification — Jesus Christ is our sanctification

1. In heaven we will be surprised: unimpressive people who knew Christ will be there; impressive, disciplined people who never knew him will not
2. "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord"

III. The Spiritual Origins of Sanctification

A. The Spirit's role in the Old Testament was primarily to rest on specific individuals for specific offices (e.g., Numbers 11 — the Spirit on Moses distributed to the 70 elders; the Spirit coming upon Saul and David for kingship)

B. The Spirit's role in this King is unique — Isaiah 11:3 — he shall not judge by what his eyes see or his ears hear, but with omniscient knowledge

1. John 2 — Jesus "knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man"
2. Righteousness is the belt of his waist — closest to him, almost part of who he is
3. Faithfulness is the belt of his loins — his strength is his trustworthiness; he never takes back what he has promised

C. Our sanctification is not measured under the microscope of fallible, mortal judges but before the judgment seat of the infallible God-man

1. This is the heart of the Reformation: no pope, cardinal, or judge may bind the conscience outside of the Word of God, where Christ's judgments are found
2. Two common errors in striving after holiness: (a) thinking we are better than we are (the more commonly discussed error in Reformed circles), and (b) thinking we are worse than we are — both flow from judging ourselves by fallen, mortal standards
3. Some will hear "well done, good and faithful servant" who were told all their lives they were worthless; our judge is the gentle, lowly, meek Spirit-anointed God-man who pursues sinners to the depths

D. Christ wore the Belt of Righteousness not only for himself but for us — freed from the law's condemnation, we see the loveliness of holiness in the face of Christ and pursue it until he comes again