And I'll use different ones as
we go through, but Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother
of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be
multiplied. Now, I want to talk about sanctification
tonight, the doctrine of sanctification. And we're continuing to deal
with the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And we need to see, by
God's grace, the relationship between these different truths,
and how we go from one doctrine to another doctrine, because
there's a relationship to them. One truth leads to another truth,
and how they connect. And we've come now to the doctrine
of sanctification. Well, here's where we started
at in the work of the Holy Spirit. We have a new nature. We've been
born again. God gave us a new nature, gave us a new spirit,
gave us a new heart, gave us a new birth. Have that new nature.
And because of that new nature and because of this new birth,
we are in union with Christ. We're actually joined to him.
By one spirit, we're all joined into one body. And we're united
with Christ, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, one with
him. And then because we're in union with Christ, we are declared
to be just. God declares us just. From the
courts of heaven, he justifies us, declares us to be without
sin, without guilt, without condemnation, and he declares it to be so.
And what God says is so, regardless of how we feel about it. We don't
feel sometimes like we're very just people, but God declared
us to be just. And then we were adopted into
God's family. We were dealt with adoption.
God only had one son. And so in order to have a multitude
of sons, many sons if you bring unto glory, he adopted us into
his family and brought us into his family so that we could be
legal heirs with his son and inherit what he has with his
son. And so all these blessed truths lead from one truth to
another truth. So when we come to this doctrine
of sanctification, and here's why we get here now, is what
about sin? We got a new nature. Yes, we're
born again. We're in union with Christ. Yes, we're one with Christ.
We are just. God justifies you. Who can condemn
you? And we're adopted. We're sons
of God, heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. But since all this, we're
still not perfect in this world, in ourselves, in our flesh. So
what about sin? Since we're not perfect, there's
still sin in the believer. Anybody would admit to that.
Is that not right? Anybody would admit that there's
still sin in us. And so the doctrine of sanctification
reveals what God does about this sin. that still dwells in the
believer. And that's what Dr. Sanctification
is about. And there's always been controversies
about sanctification, how a person is sanctified, and what sanctification
is. Well, I'm going to tell you right
off the bat that one thing I don't believe about it, is I don't
believe it's progressive. I don't believe we get more holy
and more holy and more holy and less sinful and less sinful as
we get older and get more righteous. But let me give you a few thoughts
and a few things that people teach about sanctification. John
Wesley taught that there was a sinless perfection. And once
he started teaching that, that's when the controversy started
happening. Because God's people did not believe that. They couldn't
believe that. You could not believe in sinless
perfection and be a born-again believer. Where is that war between
the flesh and the spirit? Where is that old wretched man
who shall save me from this body of death? Where is that, I would
do good, but I do evil, and when I would do evil, I end up, you
know, what I wouldn't do, I wouldn't do, and what I wouldn't do, I
don't do. There's a present with me, an evil sin is present with
me everywhere I go. And they taught sanctification,
and what their sinless, his sinless perfection was, is as long as
you didn't know you were sinning, you couldn't sin. If you sinned
in ignorance, you couldn't sin. And they had sanctity. In fact,
he's the one who started the Holy Club in college. A group of men got together,
and they called themselves the Holy Club. They lived such holy
lives, they called themselves the Holy Club. And then all about
all the holiness movements. You know how many holiness movements
have happened down through the centuries? And down through the
years? I've always been holiness movements. There was people in the scriptures
that started holiness movements. That's what the book of Galatians
was about. You fellas can be saved, but yet you've got to
go back to the law and be sanctified by the law and be made holy by
the law, or you can't be saved by Christ. And so these holiness
movements, they come along with this concept, you know, that
if you dress a certain way, quit going certain places, quit dealing
with certain people, and pray so much, and do so many things,
and watch how you dress, watch your kind of, you know, nothing
fancy, your glasses got to be a certain way, you can't wear
jewelry, all these different things that they come up with
over the years. And they call it holiness movements.
But if holiness, biblical holiness, was all in something you and
I could do by dress code, or an attitude that we had, then
beloved, holiness would be an easy thing to attain. And second, another thing they
had is they had what they called the second works people. These
are people that are saved, Then they get sanctified and filled
with the Holy Ghost in that second work. They talk about, you know,
that if you get dedicated enough and get filled with the Holy
Spirit enough, that sin would be eradicated. That the Holy
Spirit would eradicate sin by holy living. But the Scriptures
teach us, and I could go on and on and on with this, but sanctified.
The Scriptures teach us we're sanctified by God the Father,
sanctified by Christ the Son, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. All three of them have part in
our sanctification. And I want you to look in Acts
26 with me just a moment, and let me show you something. Here's a fellow that God sanctified,
set apart for Himself, and we'll deal with this in Acts 26. What God told Paul when He separated
him on the Damascus Road. Acts 26 and verse 16. And so we have sin, and how does
God deal with that? And if there was any one word,
one word that would express salvation, it would be this one word, sanctification. Sanctification. Because it started
in eternity, it manifests itself in time, and it will keep us
all the way to the end. It's God setting apart a person
to himself. Now look here. God told Paul
here in Acts 26 and verse 16, Rise and stand upon thy feet.
He said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom
you persecute. Rise, stand upon your feet, for I have appeared
unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness,
both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things
into which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the
people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to
open their eyes, Turn them from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by
faith in me." Sanctified. So what is this business of sanctification? What is it? Well, I'm going to
give you two or three things about it. To sanctify, the first
meaning of it means to set apart, to cut out. When you cut something
out, and God cuts something out, He cuts something out and sets
it apart. It means to set it apart and cause it to shine,
set it apart, cut it out. And what it means is that God
takes something that's common, and then that was ordinary and
useless before, and He sets it apart for Himself or for His
service. And that's things. You remember
in Exodus 13.2, After God slew all the firstborn of each, if
He says, He told Israel, He says, sanctify unto me. Sanctify. Exodus 13, 2. You don't have
to look at it, but sanctify unto me. The firstborn, every firstborn
that opens the womb, whether it's male or every beast, it
is mine. Set it apart for me. The firstborn
son is mine. The firstborn beast is mine.
And God said, set it apart for me. Now, what made that thing
sanctified? God said, it's mine. That's all
that's made it sanctified. Now, it didn't actually make
it holy. It didn't actually change its nature. It didn't change
its composition. But God said, it's mine. It's set apart for my service.
And like the tribe of Levi was set apart to represent. After
that, all the firstborn of Egypt to stand before the Lord and
minister in the tabernacle. day and night. And they were
set apart to be priests and Levites, and God says they're to be sanctified
because they're for My service. My service. And the tabernacle. Look with me in Exodus 29. Just
to show you. We'll deal with some Old Testament
things. You get your Exodus, you get your Concordance sometime
and go through the Scriptures and look at all the things that
sanctify says in the New Testament and Old Testament. And we'll
deal with what God does and says about it first, and how God sanctifies
something. Setting it apart. Setting it
apart, cutting it out. It's like Moses when he came
down off that mountain. He was set apart, cut out, sanctified
by God the Father. Exodus 29 and verse 43. Talking about the tabernacle.
He said, And there I will meet with the children of Israel,
and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. What? The tabernacle shall be sanctified
by my glory? Just because I dwell there, and
I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar.
I will sanctify also both Aaron's and his sons to minister unto
me in the priest's office. So there's three things that
are going to be sanctified. The tabernacle, because God said
this is where I'm going to stay. And He says the tabernacle of
the building, the tabernacle of the building that was there,
that tent that was there, and everything in it. How do you
sanctify? Badger skins. How do you sanctify
boards? This is mine. This is the place
I set apart for my glory. This is the place I set apart
for me to dwell. This is the place that I set
apart Aaron and his sons to minister unto me in this place. And I
set the altar apart for myself for sacrifices to be offered
on it. So the altar, the cisterns, the vessels, everything in that
tabernacle, down to the snuff dishes that put out the light,
beloved, every single one of them was anointed and sanctified
by God the Father. So all it means in the Old Testament
simply means setting apart for a holy use. Now look with me
in John chapter 10. I want you to see this, talking
about our Lord Jesus Christ. Now when something is sanctified,
set apart. Look what our Lord said here
in John 10, in verse 36. Say ye of him whom the Father
hath sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous,
because I said I am the Son of God. Our Lord here speaks of
himself as being sanctified by the Father. The Father sanctified
the firstborn, sanctified the firstborn of the beast, sanctified
the tabernacle, sanctified the altar, sanctified Aaron, sanctified
Levi's, and here it comes and it says, Our Lord Jesus Christ
said whom the Father has sanctified. Does that mean that Christ was
made holy? Does that mean that Christ was
needed cleansing? No, it just means that he was
set apart, God set him apart to a particular work, to a ministry. He says the My mean is to do
the will of him that sent me and finish the work which he
gave me to do. He sent him apart to a particular
work, to a particular ministry. And so Christ, he says, the Father
sanctified me and set me apart. Now look in John 17, 19. I love this verse of Scripture.
I just love this. I'm going to... They preach from in here pretty
soon. Look what our Lord said here in John 17, 19. Now watch
this. He's going to talk about sanctifying. People say, yeah, we need to
sanctify ourselves. Look what Christ says here about
Himself. He said, And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that
they also might be sanctified through the truth. Now what does
it mean here that He is sanctifying Himself? Does it mean he makes
himself more holy? Does it mean he makes himself
without sin? No, no, it means here that I
am saying I'm going to set myself apart to the cross as the sacrifice. I'm going to set myself apart
I'm going to sanctify myself that for their sakes I'm going
to do this. For their sakes. And this is his high priestly
prayer. This is benighted right before he goes into Gethsemane.
He's going to be set apart in Gethsemane. Going to be set apart
to be crucified, and I'm going to be that lamb. And he said,
I'm setting myself apart for their sake. And oh, beloved,
so you see when it says sanctified by God the Father there in Jude
1. It means that God the Father has specially, especially set
apart His people. He has sanctified them, Jew,
the servant of Jesus Christ, unto them that are sanctified
by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ in God. Here
it says that as God sanctified them there, He sanctifies us
here. He set apart His people and set them apart for Himself.
And when did He set us apart? He set us apart in election.
He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And He separated in election unto Himself a people who were
to be sanctified to Himself, set apart to Himself forever
and ever and ever. And then, beloved, because He
chose these people, elected these people, He gave His Son to redeem
them from among men, that they might be holy according as He
has chosen us in Christ that we should be holy and without
blame. And let me tell you something
about holiness. Holiness and being holy is a
state of being. It's not something you wear at
one time and not at another. It's not something you get better
in or more or less of. And He says we're holy in Christ.
And then, beloved, listen to me. He continually sends forth
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and in us He fulfills His purpose,
His divine purpose, sending the Holy Spirit working in us, that
we should be a separate people sanctified from the rest of mankind. God took you and took me and
separated us from the rest of mankind. Why did he do that? Because it was his purpose. How
did he do it? He sent the Holy Spirit. And
you think of yourself. You think of yourself. How many
people do you know that God has chosen before the foundation
of the world? How many people do you know that will bow down
to God's absolute Son? How many people do you know will
own their utter and absolute dependency upon the Lord Jesus
Christ? How many people do you know that
says, God loved me before the foundation of the world. And
because of that, He chose me and brought me to Himself. He
separated us from mankind. I mean, He didn't separate one
man. He separated Levi out of all the other tribes. Separated
Jacob from Esau, Abraham from all everybody in their account.
And that's what He does. He separates us from all the
rest of mankind. How can it be? How can it be? Oh, listen, beloved. Believers
have been sanctified by God the Father. They've been set apart
by He Himself. And they were set apart before
they were created. That's the thing about it. Before
you and I were ever born, God set us apart in the covenant
of His blessed grace in His Son. And then we were illegally set
apart when Christ shed His blood and purchased us. God says, now
they're Mine. He poured them. He says, Father,
they were Thine. God gave them to Me. And I've
kept every one of them that You gave to Me. And that means the
ones haven't even been born yet. Ain't that right? You know, when
I first read that, that was in the Bible hundreds of years before
I was ever born. I was preaching that. John Bunyan
preached that back in the 1500s. Martin Luther preached it. Calvin
preached it. Spurgeon preached it in the 1800s.
And here I am, beloved, I look at it myself and say, now that,
he's talking about me. He said, of all that you've given
me, I've lost none of them. So we legally set apart by the
purchase of Christ. That means that God, because
of Christ's purpose, He's guaranteed. Here's where the next thing comes
in. We're visibly set apart, visibly sanctified by the effectual
calling of the Holy Spirit. When Christ died for and purchased,
set us apart by His redemption, the Holy Spirit comes and calls
every single one of them to Himself and sets them apart to Christ. Isn't that what Paul says to
him? For whom he did forego, him he
also did predestinate, him he did predestinate, him he also
wanted. Come on! He told Zacchaeus, today I must
abide at your house. Today salvation must come to
your house. Why? Because he was set apart.
And it was time for his sanctification, being set apart, to be made manifest. So in this sense, there's not
any period in the purpose of God and concerning the will of
God and the Word of God the Father that we're not completely sanctified
forever. Because if God says it, it's
as good as done. I ain't been glorified yet, but
it's in the past tense, so it's going to happen. And then the
word sanctify. Let me give you this. Let me
see how much time I've got. Let me give you the word sanctify.
It's sometimes used in another sense in the Old Testament. And
it's not only means to be set apart, which God did. Sanctified
by God the Father. Set apart by God the Father.
It means to regard or treat or declare a thing to be holy. To
regard it as holy. Treat it as holy. And declare
it to be holy. Let me show you what I mean.
Isaiah 8. Isaiah 8. Isaiah 8. So it means to be regarded as
holy, to be treated as holy, and declared to be holy. Look
what it says here in Acts, I mean, excuse me, Isaiah 8, verse 13. Now listen to this. Isaiah 8,
13. sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." Now,
what in the world does it mean to sanctify the Lord? Peter says,
sanctify the Lord in your mind. Now, how in the world do you
sanctify God? How do you set God apart? He is holy. Is that not right? But what it
means here is, The Lord doesn't need to be set apart for a holy
use. He does not need to be purified. He is holiness itself. So what
it means, the answer is in the verse itself. Let Him be your
fear. Let Him be your dread. It means to fear Him, adore Him,
reverence Him, approach His throne, treat Him, regard Him, and declare
Him to be holy. Because He is. Don't take His
name in vain. When you speak His name, you're
talking about God, who is infinitely holy. You're talking about God,
who has the power of life and death. You're talking about God,
who can do what He will with who He wants to. And that's why
I said, let me be your fear. Don't let the world be. Let me
be your fear. Let me be your dread. And, O
Beloved, it's like Nadab in the bayou. They went and got a strange
fire, and they took it off, and God killed them. Boom! Just like
that. I mean, killed me, dabbled a
bite, and that's Aaron's two sons, two oldest sons. And you
know, he says, and Moses said, this is what the Lord said, and
I will be sanctified among them that approach me. And they did
not regard God or treat God or regard Him as holy. declared
him as holy because they did not do and treat him as he was
by doing, getting their own fire instead of the fire that God
said to use. And they did not regard him like, we'd get our
own fire. We don't have to go over there
to the altar and get that fire that God gave to us. We don't need
God's fire. Why do we need God's fire? We
can have our own fire. We'll make our own fire, start
our own altar over here. God had an altar that he sanctified.
He had the fire. Them fellas went over there and
got them some other fire, and went to build them a fire. God
killed them. You know why? Because God said, this altar's
mine, this fire's mine, and you're going to use what I say. And
if you don't do that, you know what you're doing? You're not
treating me. You're not regarding me. You're
not acting me, honoring me, glorifying me, that I'm worthy of. Now, God doesn't need purifying.
He doesn't need to be made holy by those who come near to Him.
But He's to be regarded as holy. He's to be treated and declared
to be holy. And, boy, we don't take liberties
with this God like Nadab and Abihu did. And you remember,
let's look at this together, Numbers chapter 20. I quote this
to you, but let's look at it together. Numbers chapter 20. You know, when Moses smoked the
rock, Milton dealt with this a little. Saturday night, last week, it
says here in verse 10, And Moses and Aaron
gathered before the congregation, and he said unto them, Here now,
ye rebels, Must we fetch you water out of
this rock? Acts 20. And Moses lifted up
his hand, and with his rod he smoked the rock twice. And the
water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank unto their
beast also. And look what God said to him.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, verse 12, Because you believed
Me not to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
Therefore, ye shall not bring this congregation into the land
which I have given thee." Now, what did he do? Why didn't he
sanctify God? Why did he not regard God as
holy? Two things here. First of all,
he says, you rebels, must we fetch you water out of the rock?
Me and Aaron are going to have to do this? We're going to have
to do it instead of Samuel? The Lord, you rebels, must God,
you're going to chide God all the time, but they just said,
must we? And then look what Moses lifted up his hand, and with
his rod, he smoked the rock twice. Twice. Christ only smitten once.
Smoked it twice. And so that tells us right then
and there that he did not regard God in this matter at all. He
was angry. He thought, I'm going to do it,
and I'll smite it twice to show you that power I've got. And
God said, because you never regarded me, treated me, and set me forth
before all of Israel as holy, and as righteous, and as glorious,
and honor me, you're going to die. I'm not even going to let
you go into the Promised Land. It's like when we say, Our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That word hallowed
means sanctified. Thy name is sanctified. Thy name
is holy. And God's name doesn't be purifying
or set apart. It says, let your name be reverenced. Let it be adored. Let it be regarded
by men as being a sacred and a holy thing. And that's why
you don't take the Lord's name in vain. And then let me show
you one real quick here. over in 1 Corinthians 1, verse
2. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2. Sanctified. God sanctified. Set apart to regard and treat
as holy. Sanctify the Lord God in your
mind. Regard Him in your mind as holy,
righteous, glorious, honoring in your thoughts, honoring when
you approach honoring. Never take his name in vain,
because his name is holy. And then Paul said here in verse
1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will
of God of Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which
is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. called to be saints with all
that in every place, called upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, both ours and ours." Sanctified in Christ Jesus. If sanctified
means to regard as holy and treated as such, now you can see how
God regards and treats those in Christ as holy. Sanctified
in Christ Jesus. God made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, and sanctification. So our sanctification is never
in us. It's always when God declares
us and sets us apart. And then Christ Himself sanctifies
us. And Hebrews 10, 14 says that
He hath sanctified forever, perfected forever, sanctified forever. Then He hath perfected. Now, beloved, it's a fact that
in and of ourselves, we are not perfectly or completely sanctified. But because of what our Lord
Jesus Christ did, God treats us as if we are holy and regards
us as holy. He treats us and regards us as
if we had no sin, that we're as holy as God's blessed Son.
Once an old hymn writer said, With God's spotless garments
on, I am as holy as the Holy One. You see, beloved, we have
an imputed righteousness, but there's no such thing as an imputed
holiness or imputed sanctification or imputed justification. No,
no. So how can a holy God have communion
with and walk with us? How can he do it? How can he
be satisfied with us? Because he doesn't look at us
as in ourselves, but in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our head.
And He views the deeds of Christ as our deeds. He views His obedience
as our obedience. His sinless life is our sinless
life. That's the way God regards us.
And, O beloved, that's why we can boldly, boldly enter into
the holiest of holies through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, oh beloved, let me show you something over here in 1
Corinthians 6.11. 1 Corinthians 6.11. Let's look at this a minute. And that's why we can boldly,
because we have been sanctified, because we have been set apart
by God, and been purchased by Christ, and been sanctified by
Christ, regarded as holy and treated as holy by God Himself.
But here in verse 11, talking about all the things
that we were. Adulterers, unrighteous, fornicators, adulterers, abusers,
thieves, covetous, drunkards, and such were some of you. Now
listen, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God. If you're justified, you're sanctified. If you're sanctified, you're
justified. You can't be justified without
being sanctified. And the reason we're justified
is because God set us apart to justification. Oh, beloved. And then, you know,
let me show you one more here. I won't take much longer. Look
in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Oh, and this here is a blessing,
a great blessing to me. I hope it will be to you. And then you take the meaning
of the word sanctification and the way it's used almost all
the time is to actually purify and to make holy, actually purify
and to make holy, not just to set apart nor a town holy, but
to actually and really make us so in nature. Make us so in nature. When God gave the law on Mount
Sinai, He told all them people, He said, down there below, He
said, now listen, you wash your clothes, wash your bodies, and
then you come so far, because the Lord God, you sanctify yourself,
you wash yourself, you cleanse yourself, you cleanse everything
about you. And then don't you come on this mountain because
this mountain is holy and I'm holy, but before you can even
come close to me, you've got to be holy. Sanctify the people.
So our sanctification here in 1 Peter 1.22, look at 1.2, 1
Peter 1.2. Elect. according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." So our sanctification
begins in regeneration. When we're regenerated and we're
made holy, and what makes us holy? The Spirit comes to us
and takes the blood of Christ and washes us in that blood.
And that blood, actually, as far as we are concerned, really
does make us pure and holy. And another thing, the Holy Spirit
does two things in us. When He elevates us and regenerates
us and makes us partakers of the divine nature, and God distinguishes
us and sets us apart to Himself. And the Holy Spirit in regeneration
carries this on in two ways. First, He gives us life. He comes
and gives us life. The Holy Spirit gives life and
works that which in us is good and well-pleasing in the sight
of God. It's God which worketh in us. The Holy Spirit works
what good in us that's good. Does He not do that? If anything
comes out of us, that's right, it's the Holy Spirit that does
it. And then He works in us by death. Now what do I mean by
that? He sends death to that which is evil in us. How I mean,
He smites us smites our conscience, weans us from this world, makes
things distasteful to us, makes us and rebukes us and chastens
us, until we, the Spirit mortifies the flesh that's in us and the
lust that's in us. And that's why, beloved, I don't
believe in progressive sanctification. The Holy Spirit is constantly
weaning us off of this world, constantly revealing sin to us,
constantly revealing this weakness of this flesh. and the uselessness
of the flesh, and causing us to believe ourselves really indeed
to be dead and have no confidence in the flesh. And He comes and
the very good thing in us is the Holy Spirit that works it
in us. And oh, beloved, He works in
us and springs up that well of water of everlasting life in
us. And we call this perseverance. This is God preserving us. His people in a state of grace,
and makes them abound in good works to His praise and glory.
To the praise of His glory and grace. And I tell you what, isn't
that what we say? Lord, everything about me that's
not right. Oh Lord, whittle me away, do
whatever's necessary. Whatever's necessary to make
me a committed, a dedicated, a person that loves you, needs
you, acknowledges you, please don't never leave me to myself.
And that's sanctification. That's the Holy Spirit in us
crying out for that. And every time, you know, when
we get out of the pocket, the Holy Spirit comes and says, that's
wrong, that's wrong. And then He works repentance
in you. And He comes to the place where you just Man, he just keeps
weaning us and weaning us and weaning us. And one of these
days, as the old head priest said, we'll be plucked and sanctified.
One of these days, if we can go to the other side, we won't
have this to deal with anymore.