John 17:17 — What separates people from God and what keeps them from knowing Him on their own? The answer is found in understanding the sin that is within oneself. In this sermon on John 17:17 titled “The Doctrine of Sin,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that believers are sanctified in the truth, and sanctified from the ugliness of sin that keeps one in a wrong relationship to God. Sin is what separates people from God. It is not intellect or a cognitive problem. Disobedience to God places a person in a wrong relationship to Him because sin is centered on self and causes the pagan to be focused on themselves and not God. The sinner is not God-centered. How does he or she know this? The law is that which exposes one’s sin and the holiness of God. Therefore, the sinner must be converted from sin. They must receive a new nature and become a new person, a new creature in Christ. But conversion is only the beginning. Through ongoing sanctification, the believer is not cleansed from sin and made like Christ. The believer must consider if they have glossed over sin and crowded it out, or have dealt with their sin through repentance and belief and continue to deal with it in their sanctification.

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