I want you to first listen to
the words found in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. It says, follow
peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see
God. Before you and I can see God,
we're going to have to be made holy. We're going to have to
be made perfect. That's all that God will accept.
We talk about that all the time. So true. So I want you to turn
with me one more time, if you would, to Exodus chapter 22,
and I'll tell you in the beginning that our subject tonight, our
lesson tonight, is about sanctification. About being made perfect. About
being made holy. That's a subject that I'm very
interested in. How about you? Now last time
we left off in verse 27, so let me first deal with verse 28 so
we don't miss the important lesson found in this single verse. Verse
28 says, Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler
of thy people. Now the word gods here is as
you see a little g, small g. It's simply talking about the
judges, and the magistrates and the rulers who God put in charge.
People today, I know, are very sensitive and zealous about politics. That's why it's to be left out
of the church. But the child of God, the believer,
does not revile, and that word simply means despise or make
light of, those God has put in office. Now whether our favorite
candidate is elected or not, we must simply trust that God
knows what's best. He does. But we have to trust
that He does. And for no reason outside of
Himself, He brought forth the results that are. And you cannot
believe that God is sovereign and then pick and choose what
you think God is sovereign over. He's sovereign over everything.
All things. All things are predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. God is in control. God is in
charge. And we bow and we accept God's
divine and sovereign providence. We trust and believe that God
knows what's best and He's doing what's best. And that's simply
all that verse 28 means. Don't revile, don't criticize,
don't condemn, don't attack, don't slander those in authority
over us because it was God that put them there and to slander
them is to slander God. And that's why Paul wrote, let
every soul be subject unto higher power. For there is no power
but of God. God's behind it all anyway. The
powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation. Romans 13, verses 1 and 2. God's
people bow to God's prophet. We bow to His will, we bow to
His purpose as it's revealed in and by and through His providence. Remember, providence is simply
God bringing to pass in time what He purposed in eternity.
And we bow to it and we say, it's good, it's all good. It's
working together for our good and working together for His
glory. We should like it if it's what God purposed. Even if it
goes against what we might think is best at first ourselves. When
I used to complain and pout about, my mother used to tell me to
get glad in the same pants I got mad in. That's what we need to
do if we get upset about what God does. Just get glad. Just
get glad. May God enable us to bow and
accept His divine purpose and providence in all things. Now,
the last three verses here in this chapter deal with sanctification. That's a subject that is very
misunderstood in our day. It deals with the setting apart
of man for God, which very well represents how our sanctification
is accomplished in Christ. Look at verse 29. It says, thou
shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits and
of thy liquors. The firstborn of thy sons shalt
thou give unto me. And likewise shalt thou do with
thine oxen and with thy sheep. Seven days it shall be with his
dam, and on the eighth day thou shalt give it me. Now they were
to offer unto the Lord their first fruits. They were to offer
unto the Lord the firstborn of their sons, or dedicate them
unto the Lord. Everything that they received
of the Lord was to be first set apart for Him. This is teaching
us something of our sanctification. The law not only teaches us the
responsibilities and the provisions that God has for us concerning
each other. That's what we've seen a lot
in these past studies. How if one man mistreats another
man, God makes provision for that in His law. But here we
see something about our responsibility and our worship that's due God. God's law required Israel to
give what was His first. And I said that deliberately
that way. It is said to be their firstfruits
and their firstborn that were to be set aside for the use and
service of God. But really, it's all God's. It
all belongs to Him. It's just on loan to us. The
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It all belongs to Him
and He's the one that gave it to them. What do any of us have
that we did not receive? And if we received it, why do
we glory as if we did not receive it? It's the Lord that makes
the difference. It's the Lord that gives. It all belongs to
Him. Truly, we have only what God gives us to give back to
Him. God gave His people His best
when He gave them His Son. And according to 1 Corinthians
15 verse 23, Jesus Christ is our firstfruits. Christ is the firstborn. Romans
8.29 says that He's the firstborn of many brethren. So we see here
that Christ is very well pictured in these firstfruits and in this
firstborn. Christ is the head of the body
of the church. He's the Word that was in the
beginning with God. He is the image of the living
God, the firstborn of every creature. He's the firstborn from the dead.
And it says that in all things He might have the preeminence.
And it's Christ that is pictured in these firstfruits. These firstborn
sons and the firstborn of oxen and sheep, they show us something
about being set apart in Christ and for Christ. Now, did you
notice that in verse 29 it says, thou shalt not delay to offer?
There's an urgency here. This is an urgent matter. It's
our nature to delay to give God or the Lord what is His due. God requires perfection. God
requires perfect holiness. There's a danger to delay to
give God what He requires of. What do we give Him? Well, we
don't dare offer Him our hearts. I hear people say that all the
time. Well, offer God your heart. No, that won't do it. No sir,
it's deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. It thinks
on evil and only evil continually. God doesn't want it. We dare
not offer Him any works of our own righteousness done by us. They're filthy rags. It only
shows us our ignorance when we offer God our own righteousness. The only thing that God will
accept is that which He gave us, and that's His Son. No doubt
the teaching of the doctrine of sanctification, as I said,
is so misunderstood, more so than probably any of the subjects
of the Bible among religion today. And the word sanctification actually
means holiness. It means one who is purified. To be sanctified is to be made
holy. It means to be set apart unto
holiness. It means to be perfected. And
that's exactly what we need in order to be accepted. We've got
to be perfect to be accepted. Perfected to be accepted. God made it a law for Israel
to offer Him their first fruits. The first of their ripe fruits,
the first of their vegetables, the first of their children,
the first of their oxen and sheep. All these things were to be set
apart unto the Lord. And remember, it was God who
gave them these things. Their giving first to God was
because He first gave to them. Let's never forget that. Just
as we love Him because He first loved us. Same principle. You
know, all our dealings with God are initiated by Him. Every one
of them. The people of Israel were slaves
in Egypt. When their children were born,
they belonged to Pharaoh, and they too became slaves. That's
what you and I and everyone else is by nature. We're slaves. We're
sold under sin, trying to make bricks out of straw. Our daddy
was a slave to sin, our mother was a slave to sin, and we're
chips off the old block. Israel owed God everything, so
does every child of God. We owe Him everything. We've
sinned and we've come short of God's glory. We've been found
delinquent of God's holiness. That should be our first clue
that sanctification, the act of being made holy, is not something
that we and God do together. God here in Exodus chapter 22,
He made a law for His people to set apart, to offer unto God
that which belonged to Him already. Now follow me on this. Sanctification
is not something that can be obtained by the Old Testament
covenant of works. You see, the problem lies within
that word, if. If we could keep the law, then
we would be holy. And you know, those two words
pretty well describe the covenant of works. Matter of fact, turn
back a few pages to Exodus 19 with me. Look at verse 5 and
pay close attention to the wording here. Verse 5, chapter 19. The Lord says, now therefore,
if See that little word? If you will obey my voice indeed
and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. If you
obey, if you keep, then you shall be. That's the covenant of works. That's how it works. It's conditional.
And what the Lord said here is a true statement. If you can
obey His voice, and if you can keep His covenant, then you would
be a peculiar treasure unto the Lord above all people. That's
a true statement. The problem is not the law's
ability to justly accomplish our sanctification. The problem
is with us keeping it. The problem is with us obeying
it. We can't do it. We're incapable
of obeying His voice. We're unwilling. We're unable
to keep His covenant. And God's Word and God's Law
must be obeyed and kept perfectly. We can't do it. Only someone
perfect and holy can do that. Do you know anyone perfect and
holy? It's Jesus Christ. He's the perfect one. And if
you obey Him, if you keep His commandments, then it'll all
be good. There's no good news for the one who is incapable
of doing the if, though. There's just not. I can't find
any good news there in the if, because I can't do it. Salvation's
not doing. Salvation is done, what He's
already done. Now, back in Exodus 22, verse
31 says this. It says, and ye shall be holy
men unto me. That's sanctification. I thought
about this today. This was such an encouragement
to me. Because when the Lord here says in His law, you shall
be holy men unto me, that's a promise of God. Not like the law, if
you do, then you receive. This is the promise and gift
of God to His elect. He says, and you shall be holy
men unto me. You can write it down. It's as
sure as done. This is a promise. It's not in
our doing, it's in His doing. God being just and righteous,
He will by no means clear the guilty. So guess what? If you
and I are wholly just and righteous, then He will by no means condemn
the innocent. His justice won't allow that
either. It works both ways. Christ is the only one who fits
that bill of holy and perfect. So, I've got to find a way that
I can be in Him. I'm going to have to be made
one with Him. How am I going to do that? How are we going
to be found in Him? I'd like to show you something
in Ephesians chapter 3 that you've probably seen a thousand times.
Well, maybe not a thousand, maybe a hundred and never thought about. Maybe you have, but I want you
to turn there with me. You can hold your place and Exodus,
we'll come back to it. But look at Ephesians chapter
3 verse 12 with me. A very short verse says a whole
lot. Ephesians 3 verse 12. In whom? Well, we know who that is. That's
in Christ. We. Who? The people of God. That's
who this is written to. The elect of God. In whom? In Christ. We. The people of
God. The elect of God. Have boldness. But that's not all. And access. But that's not all. It says access
with confidence. And then it says by the faith
of Him. Now do you see anything in that
short verse that says we do anything to make ourselves holy? Not anything
in there about that. It's in Christ that I have boldness
to come to God for mercy, grace, and help. That's what Paul said,
or the writer of Hebrews said. He said, let us therefore come
boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. Do you have a need? Do
you need mercy and grace? Well, you can have boldness to
come. It's in Christ that we have that boldness. And it's
in Christ that we have that accent. You know, I never once in my
life had to call ahead when I went to visit my parents. Now there
were times that I did because I wanted to let them know I was
coming, but it wasn't at all required. Do you know why? Because
I was their son. I never had to knock on the door
of my parents' house. I had a key. I had access. I had boldness and confidence
that my key would open that door. Now if I'd have gone up there
and my key didn't fit, and I looked in the window and saw Mom and
Dad hiding, I may have been a little concerned, but that never was
the case. In Christ, friends, we've got
boldness. And we've got access with confidence. And do you see the cause of it?
Again, verse 11, it's all by the faith of Him. Not faith in Him, but faith in
what Christ, by His faithfulness and through His faithfulness
to God, did for me. Isn't that what we trust in? Him and His work. Believer, you've
got access into the throne of God's grace because you're God's
son. Listen closely to this verse
in Hebrews 2.11. For both he that sanctify God
and they who are sanctified, God's people, are all of one. One. For which cause he's not
ashamed to call them brethren. When you're sanctified by Christ
Jesus, the firstborn, why, you become part of the family of
God. I mean, that's literal. By our union with Christ, who
is the firstborn among many brethren, we are His brethren. And that
includes you believing ladies, too. You're brethren. Jesus Christ,
oh, He's the only one that can make us holy before God. God's
been saying it ever since the garden. Christ is our covering
and our righteousness. He represented those skins, those
lambs that were slain that covered Adam and Eve. Christ was Abel's
blood sacrifice. You better believe He was. Christ
was Isaac's provided lamb. He's the lamb that God provided
for Isaac. God would provide Himself a sacrifice. For Himself and Himself as the
sacrifice. He's the sanctifier and He's
our sanctification. God told Moses and the people
of Israel and He told Egypt. Egypt didn't listen. I wonder
sometimes if we're listening. God said, for I'll pass through
the land of Egypt this night and I'm going to smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against
all the gods of Egypt, I'll execute judgment. I am the Lord. He has the right to execute judgment. Why? Because He is the Lord.
But that isn't all God said. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you when I
smite the land of Egypt. And you know the rest of the
story. God killed all the firstborn of Egypt and Israel and any who
didn't have the blood of the Passover lamb, Christ, upon their
houses. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. There's no judgment, no wrath,
no justice that you'll see. God's looking for sin-atoning
blood, but if He don't find it, there's nothing but death. Oh,
that's the only thing God will accept. I'm interested in the
blood of Christ that Passover laid. And it's here that we see
something of the justice of God. God killed His own firstborn
that He might make His elect perfect. I've got three sons. I don't know that I'd kill any
of them for some unworthy scoundrel that deserved death. That's exactly
what Christ did for me and for you. And because of that, all
the elect of God can say this with David. Oh, I love this.
He said, Preserve my soul, for I am holy. How can one like me
say, for I am holy? Only one way. In Christ. In Christ. Those who are holy
are simply servants that trust in the Lord. He said, preserve
my soul, for I am holy. O thou, my God, save thy servant
that trusteth in me. Oh, here's what I want you to
see. I can, without presumption, without arrogance, and without
reservation, say, I am holy. I hear people talking today and
singing about learning to love yourself. That's the problem.
Men and women are lovers of self and lovers of pleasure more than
they're lovers of God. That's the problem. By nature,
we love ourselves too much. God had caused a believer to,
in many ways, hate themselves. That's what he did to Job. Job
said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my
eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor, I hate, I
despise, I loathe myself. And I repent in dust and ashes. Sometimes I just hate myself.
And all I can do is repent. You see, believers hate their
sin. Don't you hate your sin? Believers hate their unbelief.
Lord, I believe, but help thou my unbelief. I hate my unbelief. Oh, I want to believe. Believers
hate their self-righteousness. But that's the beauty of sanctification. That's the beauty of being holy.
It's the very God that we offended that makes us so. Every believer
is a saint of God. Did you know that? To call me
a saint just don't seem to fit. But it's exactly what a child
of God is. Every believer is. A saint means
sanctified ones. Holy ones. If you're not a saint,
you're not a saint. The saints at Madisonville. I
can go somewhere else and say, hey, the saints at Madisonville
said hello, and they know what I mean. The sanctified ones,
the ones that believe, the ones that trust in Christ. It's going
to take some getting used to being called that. I sure don't
feel like a saint, but we've been chosen in Him. We've been
set apart in election that we should be holy and without blame
before Him in love. That's sanctification. That's
being made holy. Jude 1.1 says we are sanctified
by God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus and called. Now listen, if God sets you apart,
He preserves you. If God makes you holy, He preserves
your holiness. In other words, that means you'll
be forever holy. There are many today who think
that our sanctification is progressive. That somehow, someway, we're
gradually becoming more holy. Just to say it doesn't sound
right. Becoming more holy? How can you do that? How can
you be more set apart? You're either set apart or you're
not. You know, a teacher says, boys, if you don't quit misbehaving,
I'm going to separate you. And then they keep doing it.
And then she says, OK, Timmy, I want you to move over and sit
behind that imaginary wall. Well, that's not being set apart. You're either holy or you're
unholy. You either set apart or you're not. There's no go-between
stages here in holiness. I remember when I was 18, I thought
I knew everything. And I often voiced my proudful
arrogance. And my mom would say to me, I
remember a lot of what she said. She said, well, look at him there,
Leo. That's what my dad's name was. She said, look at him, Mr. Holier-than-thou. You know, I found out later that's
actually scriptural. There's only one time the word
holier is used in all the Bible, and that's in Isaiah chapter
65 verse 5, and I'm going to read it to you. But it's speaking
of lost men, people that the Lord said provoked Him to anger
continually. And this is what they said. These
self-righteous men and women, they said, stand by thyself and
come not near to me, for I am holier than thou. Isaiah 65 verse
5. Do you know what God said to
those that felt that way? He said, there are smoke in my
nose and a fire that burns all the day. Am I holier? No, sir. I'm either holy or I'm
not. I'm either holy or unholy. And
I've got to be made holy. And I've got to be made holy
by the only one who was ever holy, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn with me to Romans 12, and
I'll finish. Romans chapter 12. In verse 2, Paul writes, and
be not conformed to this world. Romans 12, I didn't give you
enough time. Romans 12 verse 2. and be not
conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God." Now Paul is saying here, don't conform
yourself, don't fashion yourself according to the world, but be
transformed, be changed by the renewing of your mind. That word
transformed there actually means metamorphous. You've heard that
word. It means to gradually change
from one thing to another. Like a caterpillar gradually
turns into a butterfly, or even more unpleasantly, like a maggot
turns into a fly. That would be a good illustration
of us endeavoring to sanctify ourselves. A maggot transforming
into a fly. But being transformed here is
not talking about sanctification. The definition of metamorphosis
is a change of the form or nature of something to a different stage. Sanctification is not a gradual
change from something that it used to be, but it's a new stage
altogether. It's a new state altogether,
and that's a spiritual state and an eternal state. Our nature
is not being reformed. We're not getting more holy. Our nature is not being renovated.
Our nature's not improved. Our nature has to be killed.
It has to be crucified with Christ. We have to be made a new creature
in Christ. We have to be made a new creation.
We have to be born again. In Christ, I can't be any more
set apart than I am. I can't be any more holy than
I am. I can't be more sanctified. For
I'm holy as He's holy. And the problem is, is we get
our eyes on ourselves and off Him and we start looking within
and we say, well, I'm everything but holy. No, you're holy in
Christ. One day very soon, not so very
far away, this corruptible flesh that we battle with day in and
day out. There's a war going on, you know
that, right? And our members. But one day,
this corruptible flesh is going to put on incorruption and this
mortal body is going to put on immortality. And the scripture
says there will be no more tears. God's going to wipe them away.
There will be no more death, no more sorrow. There'll be no
more crying. And that's not talking about
shedding tears. That means no more outcries for
help. No more grief. No more confusion. There's a lot of confusion today,
isn't there? Why are all these things going to be gone? Because
there won't be any more sin. All the elect of God are going
to be as holy as God Himself is holy. That's what God's promise
is to His elect. That's what He said in Exodus
22. And you shall be holy men unto Me. But it's only in Christ. And it's only God's elect that
are. Whom God predestinated, the scripture says He also called
and whom He called them He also justified and whom He justified
them He also glorified. And that little word also means
so that. So we could read that He predestinated
His elect so that He might call them. And He called them so that
He might justify them. And He justified them so that
He might glorify them. And then it just seems to me,
I don't know, but it seems to me anyway, that Paul just can't
constrain himself any longer. And with great joy, he asked
someone, anyone that'll listen, he said, what shall we say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Well, we ought to ask ourselves
that question a little more often. Maybe it had caused us to consider
who God is, and that no one can be against us if He's for us. I just imagine some of those
who passed through the Red Sea when God parted it probably thought,
wow, if God be for us, who can be against us? Can Pharaoh? No, he's dead in the sea. Can
Egypt's mighty army? No, they're dead on the shore.
Can the two kings, Sion and Og? No, God utterly destroyed them.
Rahab told those spies of Israel, she said, when we heard about
your God, she said, our hearts melted within us. And no man
had any courage. No courage remained in any man
in Jericho. She said, it was because of you.
For the Lord your God, He's God in heaven above. In other words,
if God be for you, who can be against you? Has God shown you
that? Well, we don't have anything
to offer God that God will accept. but the perfect righteousness
and holiness that Christ provided for us. That's all we have to
offer God. That's our only fruit. Christ is the first fruit and
the only begotten. That's why we've come, isn't
it, to hear about Him? We've come to be reminded that
Christ sanctified us and made us holy. And when God will one
day say to some, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I
never knew thee. But to the child of God, the
elect of God, God says, well, enter in into the joy of thy
Lord. You see, He's your Lord. That's
why there's such joy. He's my Lord. He did for me what
I couldn't do for myself. He made me holy.