you'd be turning, if you will,
to John chapter 17. I can't tell you how I have missed
your presence in this house, our presence here together these
past seven days. I think it's been, this is the
only time since I was 21 years old I have gone seven days, now
eight days, without preaching somewhere. unless I was flat
on my back in the hospital bed. And I miss it. I don't know how
on earth folks get along, meeting together once a week or twice
a week. I just, no criticism. I just think I don't understand
it. I have a great appreciation for my friend, Brother Sid Buggins
in England. He met, he's an older man, much
older man. He's told me many times how met
together just a few folks in the meeting chapel for many,
many, many years. They didn't have a pastor, didn't
have a preacher, couldn't get one, and they just met different
men reading scripture, make a brief comment, pray together, and sing
hymns together and seek to worship God best they could. Let us never,
never, never take for granted the blessing and benefit God's
given us meeting together to worship Him. meeting together
with his saints in his house to worship him. Before the service
last Sunday night, Brother Lindsey was here a little early, and
he and I were chatting about his studies in John 17, and they've
been outstanding studies. He was already preparing his
next study. After some brief conversation,
he asked me, I think I got it exactly right, why have you never
preached from John 17, 17? And I opened the Bible and looked
at the text, and I said, well, surely I have. He said, I haven't
been able to find anything. I didn't think you've preached
or written or anything anyone else has preached or written
in any detail that is really of great value on the text. And
then I started looking and realized I hadn't preached from John 17,
17 since I was 20. one or twenty two years old and
then the notes that I have are just very, very brief. So tonight,
today, I want to go to this text of scripture. I told Lindsay,
I said, I'll remedy that soon, the Lord willing, if God will
give me a message. And I believe he's done that. I've been studying
this passage all week long. John 17 and verse 17. This is a very significant text
of scripture. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Sanctify them through thy truth. That's my subject this afternoon.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Now let's
go back up to verse 9 and begin there. this portion of Scripture,
our Lord Jesus, our Great High Priest, our Advocate, our Intercessor,
our Mediator, our Redeemer, is praying specifically for his
disciples. He's making intercession specifically
for those who were present with him on the earth. And then in
verse 20, He tells us that this blessing that he sought for those
disciples, he sought for all who in time would believe on
him through the word that he gave them. That is, he says,
I'm asking these things for my disciples, for these present
here, and for all those who in time shall be born again by the
word of your grace. So this is our Savior's prayer
for us, for God's elect. for every redeemed sinner, chosen
of God, called by His grace, and given faith in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Verse 9, I pray for them. I pray for them. All that He
does, He does specifically for His elect. I pray not for the
world. In my opinion, that's the clearest
declaration with assurance that our Lord Jesus did not in any
way make any sacrifice for, or any atonement for, or provide
any grace for the world. If he would not pray for the
world, he did not die for the world. His priestly work cannot
be divided. His sacrifice and his intercession
are for his elect specifically. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. All of these for whom I pray,
my people, my redeemed ones, They're gods. They're gods from
everlasting. Before they know Him, they're
gods. After they know Him, they're gods. And all are mine, and all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. What a statement. He doesn't
say, I want to be glorified in them. He says, I am glorified
in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. Over and over and over in
this prayer, he says, this is the reason I'm asking this, that
all my people may be one, even as we are one. He says, Father,
keep them, keep them, preserve them. Hold them in your hand.
Hold them in the grip of your grace. Ever keep them in life
and faith, in grace, that they may be one as we are. While I
was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that
thou gavest me, I've kept, and none of them is lost but the
son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. He said,
Judas is reprobate, but that's exactly what the scripture said
would happen with Judas. I've kept your people. None of
them's lost. And now come I to thee, and these things I speak
in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. That they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. What is he talking about? That
they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. He was a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. Is He asking that we be people
of sorrow and acquainted with grief? He says that they may
have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I can find only one place in
Scripture that speaks of His joy. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
2, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame? Our Lord Jesus had great joy. He has great joy. and his great
joy is the salvation of his people by his blood, his righteousness,
and his grace. He says, Father, I'm asking these
things for my people that they may have this which I've come
to perform for them, my joy, my salvation fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world." He put enmity between the woman's
seed and the serpent's seed, and he's never ceased that. They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Because
they're not of the world, the world hates them, he says. Verse
15, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. Again, that seems to be a strange
request, doesn't it? I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of this evil world where they're hated. Out of this evil
world where they're relentlessly defamed. Out of this evil world
where they relentlessly suffer heartache and trouble and struggle
with sin. I pray not that thou wouldest
take them out of this world. But, but, that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. That thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. He's saying, keep them from the
evil of the world. But the statement really would
be better translated that thou shouldest keep them from the
evil one. Keep them from Satan, who desires
to have them. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. He said, don't take them out
of the world. I send them into the world. You remember when
the Gadarene was saved by our Lord, he wanted to go with the
Lord Jesus. And the master said, no, you
go home and tell your family and your friends, your neighbors
and all around what wonderful things the Lord has done for
you. Why has God left you and me in this world? What's our purpose for living?
What's our reason for living in this world? Why are we still
here? We're redeemed, we're justified,
we're sanctified, we're accepted in Christ the Lord, we're righteous
in Him, we're holy. There's nothing that's going
to be done for us in the future that He hasn't done for us now
except that we will cease this struggle with sin. Why has He
left us here? He says, I've sent them just
like you sent me for the saving of my people, to call out my
elect. to proclaim my word, my grace,
my righteousness, my redemption. The only reason for our existence
now in this world is that we might go forth as missionaries
proclaiming the gospel of God's free grace. Read on. And for
their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone.
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word
that they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee
that they also may be one in us that the world may believe
so that everybody will finally be convinced that thou hast sent
me and in the last day As God Almighty shows the wonders of
His grace, presenting us faultless before the presence of His glory,
He will cause wandering worlds to behold what He's done for
us in His Son, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Now, let's look at verse 17, line by line. This is what our
Savior asks for every sinner, chosen in eternal love, redeemed
by his sin-atoning blood upon the cursed tree. Sanctify them
through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Brother M.B. Magruder used to
preach, and he'd carry one of those yellow legal pads in the
pulpit with him, and it was a little bit of a strange way of doing
things, but most of us have our strange way of doing things.
He always had that yellow legal pad with him. I guess maybe he
made notes while he was getting ready to preach or maybe even
while he was preaching. I don't know. But he only had
one statement on the paper. Just one thing. His notes consisted
of one statement. He had one thing he wanted folks
to get in the message. I've got one thing I want you
to get. This text clearly teaches that sinners are sanctified by
God through his truth, and his word is his truth. Sinners are
sanctified by God through his truth, and his word is his truth. Now let's look at our Lord's
Petition in verse 17, line by line. Sanctify them. That's the first point, and that's
where I'll spend the bulk of the time. Sanctify them. These
are three great privileges of grace enjoyed by every saved
sinner. If you and I do not enjoy these
three great boons of grace, we do not know God. These three
great privileges of grace given to sinners, without them we cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. Listen to them. But ye are washed,
but ye are sanctified, but you're justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. If you're not washed
in the blood of Christ, sanctified by the Spirit of God, and justified
by the righteousness of Christ, in the last day you shall not
be numbered among those whose names are written in the book
of life of the Lamb. We must be washed, redeemed by
Christ's precious blood, This redemption, this atonement for
sin, was accomplished for God's elect when Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law when He, who knew no sin, was made
sin and made a curse for us that we might receive the promise
of God, the blessing of God's Spirit. We must be sanctified. Sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. There is no salvation without
sanctification. Listen carefully, follow peace
with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. That word holiness, the word
that's translated holiness in Hebrews 12, 14 is exactly the
same word that is translated throughout the scriptures, sanctification. Follow peace with all men and
sanctification. perfect holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. This sanctification is accomplished
for us and in us experimentally in regeneration by the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost when we are
made partakers of the divine nature, when we're made new creatures
in Christ Jesus by the imparting of His grace and righteousness
to us. and we must be justified before
God. Just before God. Equal to all
God's righteousness. Equal to all God's demands. He says, walk before me and be
ye perfect for I the Lord your God am perfect. Be ye holy for
I the Lord your God am holy. Without this redemption this
sanctification, and this justification. We cannot enter into heaven's
glory. These three great privileges
are works of grace, all three of them. Works of the triune
God. Works of grace given to every
believer without exception. If you get nothing more from
this message, I want you to get this. If your gods If you trust
the Lord Jesus, your Savior, your Advocate, your High Priest,
your Intercessor, your Mediator, makes this prayer to God for
you, sanctify them. Now this is what that means,
you're sanctified. If He asks it, He gets it. He's
God, our Savior. If you trust Christ, God the
Holy Ghost declares, ye are sanctified in 1 Corinthians 6, 11. That
means you're sanctified whether you feel like it or not, even
when you don't act like it. Our Savior prays, sanctify them. God's people are sanctified.
Our Savior says, ye are sanctified. That means you're sanctified.
But what does that mean? What does it mean to be sanctified?
What is our Savior asking for when He asked the Father to sanctify
His disciples? Now, I'll get to this in a little
bit. I'm headed in that direction, but I've got several things to
say. These disciples were already sanctified. They were already born again.
They already had faith in Christ. They were already redeemed. They
were already justified. But He prays, sanctify them.
What do you think of when you hear the word sanctified, or
saints sanctified, sanctification? As they're used in the scriptures,
very few people understand what those words mean. There are three
great eras that are very common among people about sanctification.
Pentecostals tell us that sanctification is a second work of grace. You're
saved, you're justified, and then You have this work of the
Holy Spirit in your second work of grace that gives you perfect
sanctification, eradicating from you that old nature of sin. Now,
we know that's not true for two reasons. First, God says it's
not true. In 1 John, we're told if we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. Anybody that says they're without
sin is a liar. He's deceived and he's a liar.
Second, we know that it's not true. because it's contrary to
our everyday experience all the time. We struggle with sin all
the time. Sin is what we are by nature.
Sin mars everything we do. Sin corrupts everything we do.
Sin's in us. If a person says he's without
sin, that man doesn't know God. The self-righteous legalist Takes
it another way. He says sanctification is an
outward legal morality He imagines that sanctification is accomplished
by the things he does by reading the Bible a lot and praying a
lot and Changing the way he lives and walks and talks and where
he goes and what he eats what he drinks His creed is touch
not taste not handle not That's basically the creed of the whole
religious world That's the creed that came directly out of Babylon,
that's the creed that comes directly out of Rome, and that creed is
maintained in Protestant religion and Baptist religion all over
the world and has been through the ages. Touch not, taste not,
handle not, and you'll be holy. If you just quit Quit being so
mean. If you'll just quit talking so
nasty. If you'll just quit drinking so much. If you'll quit smoking
or quit going to the movies or quit watching television or quit
eating pork or just quit something and you'll be holy. What foolishness. What foolishness. Most of those
who are regarded as orthodox evangelical Christians teach
that sanctification is a progressive increase of the believer. in personal holiness. I read a lot of stuff that I
don't share with other folks. I read a lot of things in sermons
and books and things I get, especially in this present day, by folks
who call themselves Reformed and they follow the traditions
of the Puritans and they talk a great deal about personal holiness. Personal holiness. Oh, how holy
he is. what a holy Christian he is,
as if there was some other kind of Christian. They talk about
personal holiness and they have the idea that somehow we grow
in holiness. We're told that a child of God
attains higher and higher degrees of holiness by his own works
in sanctification until at last he's ripe for heaven and sanctification
ultimately buds forth in glorification. When you're finally right for
heaven, God takes you home. They'll tell you God takes you
home two ways, two ways. Either if you're disobedient
and he just can't get you to correct your ways, then he'll
kill you and take you home. That doesn't sound much like
grace to me. Or if you just get too holy and too good to live
in this world, like Enoch, walk with God. You'll be translated. Well, they have a difficulty.
That's not what the Bible says about Enoch. The scripture speaks
of Enoch who walked with God. And before he was translated,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. A testimony from
God. And the very next word given
to us in Hebrews 11, 6, following Enoch's translation is this,
but without faith, it's impossible to please God. Our pleasing God,
our pleasing God, our pleasing God is in Christ and only in
Christ. by Christ and only by Christ. That which we do is acceptable
and well-pleasing to God only because it with us is washed
in His blood and robed in His righteousness and we are one
with Him and God accepts our lives and the totality of our
lives in Christ in whom we're well-pleasing to God. Some years
ago I thought I took his pen and I'd written an article in
Grace for a Day, this was a long time ago, this was back, what,
1987? And I'd written on the matter of sanctification, and
he said, he said, Brother Fortner has vomited on the gospel. Brother
Fortner has vomited on the gospel. Sanctification, he wrote, is
progressive righteousness. Well, what absurdity. What absurdity. Progressive righteousness implies
the possibility of perfect righteousness. To progress in righteousness
until you're right for heaven sounds like, to me, sinless perfection. And that's just not taught in
this book. I want us to simply open our Bibles then and find
out what the book of God means by the word sanctify. What does
God speak of when he speaks of sanctification? Now, I appreciate
what men have written. I appreciate the writings of
the Puritans and things I've learned from them. But when men
vary from the Word of God, I vary from those men, God helping them. I have no creed to defend, no
confession to defend, no denomination to defend, no word to defend
except this, thus saith the Lord. That's all. Nothing else matters. When it comes to what we believe,
when it comes to what we believe, Nothing matters. It doesn't matter
what mama or daddy or grandpa or grandma believe. It doesn't
matter what your husband or wife believes, your son or daughter
believes. What does God say? That's the only thing that matters.
Now let me show you what Scripture teaches with regard to sanctification. The first meaning of the word,
the essential root meaning, the primary meaning of the word is
to separate, to set apart. When our Lord Jesus prayed, sanctify
them, He is saying, Father, set them apart. Separate them. Now we know this because when
our Lord Jesus separated the seventh day, He sanctified the
seventh day. He didn't make any changes the
seventh day. He just sanctified it. He set it apart from all
other days. That's the first time the word
is used in the book of God in Genesis chapter 2. When our Lord
spoke his word of commandment in Exodus 13. He said, sanctify
the firstborn unto me. The firstborn of every creature
sanctified to God. Now, God did not make the seventh
day any holier than the fifth day. Saturday is no more holy
than Monday. It's not a holy day. It's not
a holy day. It is just sanctified, set apart
for the worship of God, dedicated to God. The firstborn, the firstborn
of the womb, whether it's of man or a beast. Of man or a beast. He said, sanctify it to me. Now, he didn't make the cow a
holy cow. The cow was just sanctified to
God for holy service, for God's glory, for God's use. The tabernacle,
we read earlier in the book of Exodus. with the altar, and the
priesthood, and all the utensils of the tabernacle, all were sanctified
ceremonially. Now those things didn't change
character. They were just set apart for
God. Set apart for God. It is in this sense that our
Savior said in John 10, 36, that He's sanctified by the Father.
It is in this sense, He says in John 17, 19, that He sanctified
Himself. For their sakes I sanctify myself. That is, he set himself apart
to God. Set himself apart to do the will
of God. Set himself apart to serve the
cause of God. Set himself apart for the people
of God. He didn't make himself more holy.
He didn't make himself more righteous, he's the perfect son of God.
But rather he set himself apart unto the Lord God. That's the
principle meaning of the word sanctify. Second, the word sanctify
is used in the scripture to mean that something is treated as
holy, regarded as holy, declared to be holy, whether it's a person
or a thing. This is what God himself tells
us. Moses, when he smoked the rock
the second time, did not sanctify the Lord God. He said, you didn't
sanctify me. You didn't set me apart. Nadab
and Abihu were slain in the holy place because they burned strange
fire and did not sanctify the Lord God. A more familiar passage
of scripture to us all is in Matthew chapter 6. Our Savior
said, as he taught us to pray, Pray like this, our Father which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Sanctify the Lord God. In all your thoughts of God,
set him apart from everybody and everything. In all your thoughts
of God, set him apart from everybody and everything. He's not like
anybody. He's not like anything. Sanctify me. I will be sanctified
by them that fear me. Let us then honor our God, ascribing
reverence to Him, ascribing holiness to Him, ascribing Him alone as
the distinct holy Lord God. First, the word means to set
apart, to separate. Second, the word means to ascribe
holiness, to declare that something is holy, to treat something as
holy. And then the word, thirdly, means
to purify, to make something holy, to make a person holy. When the Lord God was about to
come down to give the law at Mount Sinai, he said to Moses,
he said, tell the people to sanctify themselves. They're fixing to
meet with me. That was a ceremonial sanctification. But the ceremonial
sanctification was a picture of a work of grace, a work of
grace in sanctification. In the law, men were required
to make atonement. Well, man can't make atonement
for sin, but he made a ceremonial atonement which was a picture
of Christ's blood atonement, our sacrifice, our Passover sacrifice
for us. These men were commanded to purify
themselves because they were about to meet with God. When
the children of Israel were about to cross the Red Sea, God told
Joshua, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord God will do
wonders among you. I hope you understand the basic
meaning of sanctification. It means to set apart or separate
for God. To regard, treat, and declare
something or someone as holy and to purify and make holy.
Well, how are God's people sanctified? How are we sanctified? Let me
give it to you just as briefly as I possibly can. We were sanctified
by the decree of God in sovereign election, set apart from all
others. God said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. This is God's work of grace. He separates the precious from
the vile. He puts a distinction between
Israel and Egypt. He causes the seed of the woman
to be made manifest and the seed of the devil by his sanctification. In his sovereign election, the
Lord God sanctified us, Jude verse 1. We were declared to
be sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and
called exactly in that order, sanctified by God everlasting
and preserved. When Adam fell, we were preserved. When we came forth from our mother's
womb, speaking lies, we were preserved. Preserved in Christ,
in whom we were chosen, to whom we were given before the world
was, and preserved through all the days of our rebellion until
the day he called us by his grace. There are some people in this
world who cannot die and cannot be
killed by any means or any hand. Not yet. Because they're preserved
unto the day of their calling. Some of you can look back over
your lives and you can see incidences in which God starkly made known
to you, He kept you alive. He preserved you because you
hadn't yet been called. Preserved in Jesus Christ and
called. We are sanctified by the blood
atonement of the Lord Jesus. When He died at Calvary, you
and I, who were chosen of God and sanctified in eternity, were
legally sanctified, washed in His blood. Declared to be righteous
Declared to be holy because Christ had washed away our sins Christ
had put away our sins He would we were declared by God to be
holy having his righteousness made ours even as our sin was
made his Sanctified Hebrews chapter 10 verses 10 and 14 by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified sanctified
by the blood of Christ and then were sanctified by God the Holy
Spirit. Sanctified in the new birth.
Set apart by God in eternity. Separated to God in eternity.
Declared holy by God in redemption. And in the new birth, actually
made holy. Actually made holy. Merle, he
came to us at the appointed time of love. and made us partakers
of the divine nature. Now having said that, I've said
a huge mouthful more than I understand. Made partakers of the divine
nature. Made new creatures in Christ. So that the believer, those who
are born of God, are people chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, and
made holy by God the Holy Spirit. given a new nature, so that in
us is that holy seed born of God that cannot sin. And we war
with our flesh day and night, as Celeste sang just a little
bit ago, and she had no idea what I was
about to preach, but this warfare, oh my soul, what a struggle. I'll stick my neck out a little
bit. I'll stick it out a long ways. I ain't sticking it out
at all. If you feel you're holy, you're not. I promise you. I
promise you. I promise you. But the believer knows he is. And he wars with his flesh all
the time. All the time. With his sin. With his corruption. But understand
this, this is God's promise to those who are sanctified, set
apart by God for Himself, redeemed by Christ's precious blood, called
by His Spirit. There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. That which
God sanctified for Himself was under God's special care, God's
special protection. Why on earth do you suppose when
the Ark of God was taken captive by the Philistines, it brought
misery upon them? Why do you reckon? Because this
is sanctified by God. God said, this is mine. This
is for me. This is for my worship. Why do
you suppose when Uzzah put his hand to the ark to steady it,
to keep him from falling to the ground, God killed him? Because
God said, you're not to touch it. This is my salvation. This is my work. This is for
me. This is for my glory. And so the Lord says to all the
universe, touch not mine anointed. Touch not mine anointed. Satan
is challenged by God concerning his servant, Joe. And God said,
don't touch his life. Don't touch his life. And if
you can't touch his life, you can't hurt him. If you can't touch his life,
you can't hurt him. You'll do him no harm. But Joe's stricken
with horrible sickness, poverty, pain, and desolation, and emptiness,
and bereavement, and sorrow, one on top of another, and miserable
friends. You call that not hurting? Satan
never touched him. Never touched him. God said,
touch not my anointed. No evil shall come upon you. God's elect then are sanctified
in Christ Jesus. Let's rejoice in God's great
goodness and mercy. And understand this, there is
absolutely no such thing as progressive sanctification. Not as the term
is used in this day that you get more and more holy, you get
more and more righteous until at last you're just too good
to live on the earth and you're right before heaven and God takes
you home. Oh no. Flesh is flesh and it
won't be sanctified. It won't be sanctified. The old
man is not sent to the hospital for a cure. He's sent to the
cross to be crucified. The Bible never teaches that
by sanctification we who believe progressively get more and more
holy, more and more righteous, just gooder and gooder and gooder
till we get near as good as God. But the scriptures do clearly
teach that sanctification is a present,
continual work of grace. Our Lord Jesus did not grow in
holiness. He did not grow in righteousness,
but he did grow as a man in that holiness and in that righteousness. We're told that plainly in Luke
chapter 2 and verse 52. And every believer, every child
of God grows in grace, grows in faith, grows in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every living thing grows. If it's alive, it grows. That's
true in the natural world, and that's true in the spiritual
world. Being born of God, we see more, feel more, do more,
know more, repent more, and love more than we did in the beginning.
And no question about that. In sanctification, there's an
ever-increasing faith, hope, and love in the hearts of God's
elect. while at the same time there's
ever increasing unbelief, hopelessness, and indifference
in our nature. Talk about a conflict. Talk about
a paradox. Somebody said, it's not that
we get worse as we get older, we just see it more. We get worse. We get worse. Some of you have been believers
for a long time. Some since you were young. And I don't have any question
that you behave a good bit better than you did when you were younger.
I don't have any question about that. But Larry, we haven't done
anything but just get worse. That's just honest. That's just
honest. Thank God for growth in grace
so that in the depth of our corruption, we look to Christ. In the depth
of our despair, we look to Christ. In the depth of our unbelief,
yet we look to our Redeemer. But don't ever imagine, don't
ever imagine that you get more holy as you live in this world
by faith in Christ. Either you're holy or you're
unholy, there's nothing in between. Some of you were present some
years ago preaching up in Louisville and the fellow pastor of Redeemer
Church, they were mixed up with the Presbyterian Church up there,
had asked me to come up and help him arrange a Bible conference.
I went up with Tim James, Donny Bell, some others went up and
then some other fellows. And one of them After I got done
preaching, I'm sorry, before I preached, he stepped out in
front of the pulpit and he said, living the Christian life is
like walking a tightrope. He said, if you walk a tightrope,
you've got to have a balance beam. You were there. He said,
and in this balance beam we hold on this tightrope. And he's trying
to balance himself, you know. He said, on one side you have
the righteousness of Christ, And on the other side, you have
your personal righteousness. And if you get too much of your
personal righteousness or too much of the righteousness of
Christ, you'll fall off the tightrope. And then the nut was foolish
enough to stay there and listen to what I preached. And I had
already planned to preach 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And I got to verse
30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.
who of God has made unto us righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And I stepped out on the front
of the pulpit where he was and I stuck my finger as close to
his nose as I could get it from that position and I said, living
the Christian life ain't walking a tightrope. It's standing on
a rock and this is the rock. Christ is our righteousness and
Christ is our sanctification. We're sanctified by God's grace. Now look at what our Savior said,
and we'll come back to this in a minute. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Through thy truth. Christ is the truth. I am the
way, the truth, and the life. There are many truths taught
in Scripture. Christ is the truth. He is the
embodiment of truth. The revealer of truth. But more,
Christ is himself the truth. So he's praying, Father, sanctify
my people, these people you've given me. Sanctify them, everyone,
through their union with me, through the merit of my blood
and righteousness, through the grace they receive from me, through
their faith in me. And then he says, thy word is
truth. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. Christ is the truth and Christ
is the Word. He is the Word revealed in the
Word. And there's no knowledge of this
book, the written Word of God, apart from the knowledge of Him
who is the living Word of God, Jesus Christ the Lord. He is
the revelation of God. He is the truth. He is the Word. But he speaks here concerning
this book. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. This is how God saves his elect. And this is how God edifies his
elect. And this is how God strengthens
his elect. And this is how God grows his
elect. This is how God guides his elect.
This is how God teaches his elect. This is how God corrects his
elect through the preaching of the gospel. Through the word
of God you read and study and you hear proclaimed to you. We're
bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation, listen now, through sanctification of the
Spirit. You've got to be born again.
And belief of the truth. You've got to trust Christ. Through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth by God's
sovereign election, every sinner he's chosen is saved. But here
in our text, there's got to be something more to it than being
separated under God, declared holy by God, treated as holy
by God, even made holy by God. None of those terms. None of
those terms, except the first, could really be applied to our
Savior. He wasn't treated as holy. He wasn't made holy. He
was separated unto God. But none of the other terms in
understandings of sanctification could apply to Him. What's He
talking about? Read verse 19. You'll learn exactly what He
means. He says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is
truth. And then He says, for their sakes, I sanctify myself,
and I do it for this purpose, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth." How did Christ sanctify himself? He said, I set my face like a
flint to honor God And to do what God
put me here for, to do God's will, Lindsay, he said, I set
my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed. He was
tempted in the wilderness to turn back. He was tempted by
his disciples to turn back. He was tempted in Gethsemane
to turn back. But he set his face like a flint. He said, I won't turn back. I won't turn back. He was utterly,
totally, completely, in the entirety of his being, consecrated to
God. Now this is what he prays for
Mark Daniels and Don Fortner. God sanctify them. Utterly, completely,
totally, consecrate them to me. To God. to the glory of God,
to the will of God, to the purpose of God for my sake. God's priest,
we read about in Leviticus, had the holy oil of anointing and
the blood taken by Moses, God's law, and put it on the tip of
the right ear, and on the thumb of the right hand, and on the
great toe of the right foot. and said, now you stay right
here in the tabernacle for seven days, day and night, keeping
the charge of the Lord. The full age of manhood in the
complete totality of life represented in those seven days. You who
are God's royal priesthood, the Savior says, Father, consecrate
them to me. Consecrate them to me. This consecration
Yes, it involves personal, deliberate determination. Paul said, I'm separated unto
the gospel. It involves personal, deliberate
determination. But Frank Hall, you can't do
it. You can't do it. When you called the other day
and said you were planning to be here, yesterday I guess it was, I thought
it could be a better time for Frank to hear his pastor one
more time than hearing this message. You're about to go embark on
a work of ministry indescribably great, indescribably
honorable, and you're going to be tempted all the days of your
life to give it up for something else. You'll be tempted all the
days you're, oh, not to quit preaching, not to quit pastoring,
oh, no, not many folks are ever tempted to quit that, but tempted
to give up the work, tempted to give up and go spend your
time and energy doing something else, tempted to be engulfed
with other things, tangled with the things of this world. And
I've been praying since I talked to you yesterday, God, sanctify
him to this work. Graciously, compel him to give
himself utterly to the cause of Christ. And this I pray for
myself. Lord God, give me grace utterly
to give myself to God. Everything. Lock, stock, and
barrel. Everything. And I know I shall not be ashamed. I remember years ago, Brother
Scott Richardson coming over from the house during one of
our conferences in the wintertime. And he went to West Virginia,
he was, where it gets cold. But the wind on this hill can
be bad. And he walked in, and I saw him walking over, but he
got to the pulpit, and he said, it's so cold here. He said, all
you can do is just bow your back and get against it. God give me grace to bow my back
and get against the chilly winds of adversity and give myself
to this cause until my dying breath. And what I pray for me,
I pray for Don Lanier. And I pray for you. I beseech
you, therefore, my brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, that you present your lives,
the totality of your lives, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
unto God. Oh, Brother Dodd, what a challenge. What a challenge. It ain't much. It's just your
reasonable service. Because you're not your own.
You've been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body and
in your spirits, which are God's. Amen.