Exodus 13. Exodus 13. The bulletin says
that we'll be looking at Ruth on Wednesday. Well, that's not
so. That'll be next Sunday because I didn't get past three verses
in John 21. Wednesday night we'll look at
John, the last part of John 21. But this is a vital subject,
sanctification. A very misunderstood and misapplied
subject, but very full of scriptures, full of it. Read with me verses
1 and 2. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among
the children of Israel, a man and a beast. It is mine. Go on down. He goes on to talk
about unleavened bread, which we have already dealt with. And
down in verse 11, it shall be, when the Lord shall bring thee
into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee, to thy
fathers, and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, that
thou shalt set apart unto the Lord. All that openeth the matrix,
the womb, every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou
hast, the males, shall be the Lord. Every firstling of an ass
that thou shalt redeem with a lamb, If thou will not redeem it, then
thou shalt break his neck. And all the firstborn of man
among thy children shalt thou redeem." The word sanctify, he
says, sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Turn to Genesis 2. This is the first time the word
sanctify is used. And it's used many times throughout
the Scripture. I didn't count the times, but
it's used many times. The word sanctify means this. It means to pronounce or observe
as being clean, holy, pure. It means to pronounce or observe
and observe as being clean, holy. It also means to consecrate. To dedicate. To hallow. Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed.
To keep holy unto God. It's all about unto God. You
see? He said this about these children,
about the beast, whatever it is. It's mine. It's not yours. It's mine. So sanctify the Lord. Okay? Now the first use is in
Genesis 2. Look at verse 3. And this is
vital, this is so misunderstood. God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it. Because that in it, he had rested
from all his work which God created and made. Alright? Jesus Christ is our sanctification. The Sabbath day is a picture
of Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of what? Sabbath. Sabbath. That's what he's called.
I've told you time and again to memorize 1 Corinthians 1.30. Of him, of God, are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Tell me. Sanctification and
redemption. And as courted as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. None of those things
did we do. They're all in Christ. He did
it. He's made unto us wisdom. We're
fools. He became our wisdom. Righteousness. Ours is a filthy rag. His is
perfect. Sanctification. All right? Made holy, pure, clean. You know that, don't you? You
know how few people know that? You know how many people Paul
said are going about to establish their own righteousness? Make
themselves appear to be clean and pure. Well, God blessed the
seventh day. seventh day as a picture of Christ,
because in Christ the work was finished. Christ finished the
work. And he rested, God rested from his work of creation on
the seventh day. And when Christ was hanging on
the tree, he said, it is finished. The work of salvation was complete,
finished. How? By Jesus Christ alone. He is our Sabbath. We rest in
Him. That just makes you want to rest. That's relief in it. Yeah, so Christ is our sanctification. No work of salvation. We're not
saved by work, we're saved by Christ, his work. Alright? There is no sanctified holy day. There is no holy thing. You understand that? Holy water,
holy land. Holy land is dirt. Dirt over
there like there's dirt here. OK? Christ is our... John 17. Christ is our sanctification. John 17. If I don't get any further
than this, it's fine. Christ is what this is all about. John 17. Our Lord spoke of sanctification
in His prayer to the Father, didn't He? John 17. You know
these verses. Verse 19. He says, For their
sakes I sanctify myself. I consecrate, I dedicate, devote
myself, hallow myself unto God for them. That I might be their
sanctification. That they might be sanctified
through the truth. What's true? Christ is true. He said, I am the truth. He said
that in verse 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. Christ is the
truth. Christ is the word. And how we're
sanctified and made holy and clean and pure before God is
by Christ. And when God takes the Word,
the Gospel of Christ, and preaches unto us, and we believe, and
the Lord pronounces us holy, clean, without fault, blameless
in His sight. How? I didn't do anything. That's
right. By faith. And even that is not
of yourself. It's a gift of God. I'm so thankful. Hebrews 10,
I was going to go there, and it says, By one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. And both he that
is sanctified and they that are sanctified are all one in Christ,
and made one, reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, declared to
be holy and righteous in Jesus Christ. Is that clear? Also, the word means consecrated. The word means dedicated. The
word means devoted to God. Now, in the same sense, Christ
said, I devote myself. I sanctify myself. I dedicate. He came down here to dedicate
his life unto God. Why? Us. Us. We were a far off. Far off. So Christ as the second Adam,
the covenant head, came down here and he did this for his
people that God gave to him. He said, I'm going to... Adam,
you know, and Eve, and every son of Adam and Eve that came
along, all dead and far off. Lo, I come, he said. What? To do thy will. To give myself
wholly to God. To glorify and honor God. To magnify the law and live by
it. And he didn't do this for himself.
He was already with the Father. He came to do this for His people
in Him. He's the second Adam. In Adam
all die. In Christ made alive, made holy,
made righteous. It's a wonderful subject, isn't
it? Sanctification. And these legalists
and these reforms, so many of them, make a work out of it that
you do. And nothing could be clearer
in Scripture than that Christ is our Savior. Nothing could
be clearer. If there's anything you do, then
Christ didn't do it all to you. And that's blasphemy. All right. So, as said, the word means consecrated,
dedicated, devoted, all right? Now, for
a human being, and this is the work of God the Father, God chose,
God elected a people, set apart, Jacob have I left, Esau have
I left. If left to ourselves, we'll never
come to God. God set us apart. Christ, our
sanctification, is holy and righteous. The Holy Spirit sets us apart. How's it go? Bound to give thanks
to God for you, brethren, beloved Lord, because God has, from the
beginning, chosen you unto salvation through Sanctification of the
Spirit and belief in the truth. The only reason you hear the
truth and believe the truth is God sent the Holy Spirit to say,
make her believe the truth. Open her deaf ears, open his
blind eyes to see Christ and hear the truth. That's why. Sanctified
by the Spirit of God. So what God said to Moses right
here, sanctify unto me all the firstborn of Israel, he said
to Christ, long before Moses. Sanctify unto me thy children,
the children. Is that clear? And it's clear,
it's clear from Scripture. We just looked at several. It
couldn't be clearer that sanctification is not our work, it's God's work,
it's Christ's work, Holy Spirit. And it's clear from our own experience,
isn't it? Try as we may, we can't make
ourselves better. Do you try? Grit your teeth now. I'm going
to do better. I'm going to quit that. Our Lord said, without me, you
can do nothing. Now let me ask you again. What
does nothing mean? Nothing. And you know it so from your
experience, don't you? Scripture's teaching it, and
our experience does it. I'll never do that again. Simon Peter, I won't leave you.
Oh, Simon, you should have said it, by the grace of God. If you don't let me leave, I
won't leave you. That's what y'all said. That's what y'all
said. So we know it from our experience.
All right? In the Scriptures, many times
it says, sanctify the Lord. Doesn't it? Sanctify the Lord
God. Isaiah 8. Turn there. Isaiah 8. 1 Peter 3, he says
that. Sanctify the Lord God. Be ready
to give every man an answer that asks you a reason for the hope
that's in you. Isaiah 8. How in the world do
we sanctify the Lord? Huh? We don't make Him holy,
do we? We don't make Him pure. What
we do, though, is declare Him to be. Remember, I said that
sanctifies to declare. How does God make us justified? He declares us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. We're
justified when He says so. He tells us to pray, Our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And before this God blaspheming
world, has no fear of God, blaspheming his name from little children
on up, We must sanctify Him, declare Him to be holy, holy,
holy. That's what the seraphims do
all the time, day and night, give Him no rest. Holy, holy,
holy. This is what sets God apart from
anybody, anything. His chief characteristic. Every
other characteristic is found in His holiness. How do we sanctify? Just that. We declare Him. Tell
us about your God, David. He's holy. His throne is holy. His heaven is holy. His law is
holy. His Son is holy. And you must
be holy. You don't hear the world saying
that. To the contrary, people like
to talk about their holiness. What's your religion? Well, I'm
Pentecostal holiness. You're a vile wretch. It centers
what you are. God is holy. Isaiah 8, verse 12. Say not a
confederacy. Don't join with these rebels.
Confederacy is a rebel. Rebels, aren't they? To whom this people shall say
of confederacy, neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Let him be your what? Fear. And your what? Dread. You will never hear modern religion
say those things. Fear? Dread? God is dreadful? You've read these scriptures.
God is terrible? God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence among
all them that are about him? We know that, don't we? We sanctify
him. Does that make sense? If it doesn't, it's so. Sanctify,
we set him apart, we declare him to be who he really is. This
is the God of the Bible. He's first and foremost, and
above all things, holy. Holy, holy, three times. The
triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He's called the Holy Spirit. As I quoted to you our Lord's
prayer, he said, pray this, our Father which art in heaven, describe
your Father. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come. Whose kingdom is it? His. Thy
what? Will be done. Whose will is it? To thine be the glory. Thine
is the kingdom. Thine is the power. Thine is
the glory. That's how you sanctify the Lord. Everything belongs unto Him. All praise, all honor, all glory. Read Revelation 5 and 7, what
people are saying right now. Right now, as we meet unto the
Lord, to Him riches and honor and glory and power and strength
and salvation and everything, unto the Lord. That's how we
sanctify the Lord God. Okay, and several times, now
listen to this, and this should not be confusing, but We've already established that
Christ is our sanctification, and His Father, and Son, and
Spirit sanctify, but often in the scripture he says to tell
the people to sanctify themselves. Have you read that? Scriptures
is not confused. Brother Scott, I love that old
man. Scott Richardson had an eighth
grade education. And he was raised in his uncle's,
no, his father gave him away, traded him for a piece of furniture.
That's when he was a boy. And he lived in an attic of what
is now a funeral home. He got an eighth grade education
and finally quit school and went to work in a coal mine. And God made a preacher out of
him. Boy, did he ever make a preacher out of him. Was he a preacher,
John? Not John the Baptist, but Scott.
A man came to him one time and he said to him, he said, you're
confusing me. He said, I'm not confusing you. You were born
confused. Man's born confused. Nothing
confusing about God's Word. It's man that confuses it, contradicts
it. Like that young preacher said,
I'm going to confound the Scriptures today. You mean expound? No, that's what they're doing,
they're confounding, confusing. Sanctify yourselves, the Lord
said. Tell the people to sanctify themselves. What does that mean?
Well, devote, consecrate, dedicate. All right, David said, what's
the first part of the verse? He said, remember thy word unto
thy servant. You've caused me to fear. Psalm
119, I misquoted, but the last part says, who is devoted to
thy fear. He said, I'm devoted to thy fear. All God's people are. Right? That's what we're talking about
sanctifying the Lord, and He causes His people to be devoted
to Him. He causes His people to be consecrated
to Him. Why are we here this morning?
To be seen? To see each other? I'd love seeing
you. I'd love seeing you. I hope it shows. But we're to
see Christ's glory. We're devoted to His Spirit,
His worship. And how do we sanctify ourselves? Get yourself in that pew and
sit down. And worship the Lord. Sing of the Lord. Hear His Word. Call on the Lord. So from that sin, Paul said,
I'm separated under the gospel of Christ, isn't he? He said,
I'm a bond slave. I'm a servant of Jesus Christ,
isn't he? So is every child of God. Some
more than others. But don't you want to be more
than anything else completely given to take my life and we're
going to sing that first song. Take my life and let it be consecrated
Lord to this. Shouldn't we? He did. He's my
husband. Let me serve him all my day. So that's what that means, sanctify
yourself. You don't make yourself pure
and clean and holy unto God. Christ did that. All right, now
here, five minutes. Well, we started late. You know,
I'm a preacher, I can go as long as I want. But here it says,
sanctify your children. Doesn't it? Sanctify your children. And we cannot make our children
holy or righteous or clean or safe. We can't save them. We
can't even convince them. We can't do anything. Try as
we may. He says, sanctify the firstborn
and open up the womb of your children, firstfruits unto the
Lord. Man envies. We can't save our
children. We can't make them. But in this sense, 1 Samuel 1,
go to 1 Samuel 1, in this sense of consecrating and dedicating
and devoting to the Lord, your firstborn
and your lastborn, where did you get that child? The Lord. Job knew that, didn't
he? The Lord gave. And when the Lord
took him away, what did he say? See, Job was devoted to his fear,
wasn't he? Job knew the Lord and he was
devoted. He feared the Lord. He said,
Lord gave me that first child and my seventh child. Hallowed
be his name. Blessed be his name. He took
it away. He gave it. And you remember,
he kept offering sacrifices. They're not coming. So he went to the Lord with his
sacrifice. Would you please? Lord, would you please sanctify
them? 1 Samuel 1 is the story of Hannah. Don't you love this story? Hannah
was a barren woman, remember? Verse 10, she was in bitterness
of soul, and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore, and she vowed
a vow, said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the
affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget
thy handmaid, and wilt give thy handmaid a man-child, and I will
give him unto the Lord all the days of my life. She meant that, didn't she? She didn't have a child, she's
barren. If she has a child, the Lord is going to give it to her.
Like everybody else. And she said, if you do, by your
grace, I'm going to give him back. Like this Gabe, before they had
children, Gabe said, Lord, don't give me a child unless he's one
of your elect. It's just another sinner to rebel
against God, and we don't need any more. Well, verse 24, the
Lord gave her a child. And what? Oh, what a child. Samuel. Beloved, verse 24, she
weaned him and took him with her to the temple, three bullets,
sacrificed. Flour, bottle of wine, bread. She's bringing the right thing.
She's bringing her boy with bread and wine to the house of God
and going to beg him, take him. That's how you sanctify your
children. You know, Mary and Joseph did
that to the Lord Jesus Christ. all his youth. They took him
to that yearly sacrifice, the Passover. They took the Passover
to Passover. They weren't aware of it. They
took the lamb to the temple. Lord God had them do that. This
one is sanctified unto me. This child is mine, God said. You bring him to me. This is
the one God gave. He said, now you bring him to
me. That's how we come before the
Lord. And we come before the Lord, our God, to dedicate, consecrate,
sanctify. Hopefully the Lord will take
our children. We do it in prayer. This is how
we psych the family. Come to the Lord and say like Hannah here, Lord, would you
please take this child? You gave him to me. I thank you
for him. We've enjoyed him so much. But let him be your child. Your child. The Lord heard her. The Lord heard her. We sanctify our children by bringing
them to God's house, where Christ is. Christ, our sanctification.
They're not going to be sanctified unless they hear the gospel of
Christ, their sanctification. The gospel is the power of God
and salvation. If you don't bring your children
to hear the gospel, they're not going to be sanctified. They're
not going to be saved. Period. So how do we sanctify? We bring them where the gospel
that is able to sanctify is heard through Christ. How do we sanctify? We teach them. Here in our text,
Exodus 13, he told them over and over again, tell your children,
tell them. Deuteronomy 4, Deuteronomy 32. Irene's one of her favorite passages.
Deuteronomy 32. Moses said, this is not vain. This is your life. This is your
children's life. He said, when you sit down, when
you eat, when you drink, when you walk, when you talk, when
you do anything, tell them. Their life depends upon it. Teach
them. Teach them. You know what he
said? If the child is not sanctified,
you know what he said to do to it? Break his neck. We need to be glad we're not
under the law. You know that? You know a rebellious child,
a parent comes to Moses and says, we can't do anything with him.
You know what he said? Stone him. Stone him. Verse 13 says, Every firstling
of an ass shall be redeemed with a lamb. You know what I am? I'm a wild ass's coach. Weren't you? I was. I will thank
God Christ said, go get him. Bring him to me. I'm going to
ride him. I'm going to break him. I'm going to break him or
I'll break his neck. He's going to bow his head. He's
going to bend his knee. He's going to confess that I'm
Lord now or I'm going to break him one day. He'll forever be
broken but not in a saving way. If they don't see the blood redemption
that's in Christ, their need to be redeemed by the blood of
Jesus Christ. This is the God of the Bible. This is true. Now, Lord, we'll
break every unbroken son of Adam one way or another. Salvation
or damnation. Every stiff-necked, proud son
of Adam, daughter of Adam will be broken. Count on it. Count on it. We'll bow. We'll
bend the knees. So we tell our children. And
I tell your children. I don't soft-soak anything, do
I? I don't tell your kids how sweet and kind they are to you.
I don't entertain your children, do I? I want to be their friend,
but more than anything, I want to be their preacher of the truth. I want them to like me, and I
want them to love Jesus Christ. And so we pray. That's all we
can do. We pray, we bring them. As long
as they're under our roof, I'm telling you now, I don't care
how old they are. It needs to be the stipulation
if you really care for them. You say, if you're going to live
with me, you're going to come with me to the house of God.
Do you hear me? If you really love your children,
that's what you do. That's what you do. So they'll
leave. Well, maybe you've got to put
them down in a pit like a prodigal son and bring them back like
you did me. They made me go to church. I
did not realize it. It's the most loving thing that
a parent could possibly do for their children. And I'm out of
here. I'm tired of this. I'm not going
to listen to this anymore. When I'm old enough, 17, backpack
on my back, I'm gone. Boy, I just about was gone. I
was gone. I ended up in the pit, but God
brought me back, sat me in the pew, sanctified me. And I'm so thankful that my parents They loved him. They really did. But they loved Christ more. They
loved Christ's honor and glory more. They loved him too much
to compromise the truth and allow a rebel to sit at home while
they go. That ain't going to happen. We're
going to feed you. You're going to come with us. It's reasonable. This is proof
of man's depravity. Isn't it? People would rather
go get a root canal and sit in a pew for an hour. And a child
would rather do anything. Anything. I'll do anything. But
come and sit and hear the Word of God. When it's the one thing
they do. How foolish. How stupid. You're not supposed to use the
word stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. People are stupid. Our children are stupid. That
means being a stupor. Deaf, dumb, foolish, wild. And we bring them, we've got
to bring them to the Lord so that the Lord might break them. He's the only one who can. We
can't do it at home. Nothing at home is going to break
them. Nothing. Nothing. Sanctify your children. Sanctify
them. Pray for them, bring them, teach
them.