which turn back to Genesis chapter
2. Lord willing, tonight I'm going to be preaching from the
second psalm on the Messiah King. That psalm is quoted ten different
times in the New Testament, and that gives us some idea of the
importance of that psalm. Psalm 2. I want to preach this morning
on the subject sanctification. Sanctification. And my goal in this message is
just not for everyone to have a proper understanding of what
the word means. I want us to be sanctified by
and to know and to worship the sanctifier. Now this is an unusual
word. It's not a word that we use in
everyday language. Matter of fact, I'm not sure
of the word being used outside of the Bible. But this is the
first time we read the word in verse three of Genesis chapter
two. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Now the seventh day was not intrinsically
or inherently holy. It was no different than Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday. But God sanctified
it. God blessed it. God declared
it to be holy. The seventh day is Saturday,
and it would be later called the Sabbath day. Turn to Exodus
chapter 20 for just a moment. Exodus chapter 20, verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day, Saturday, nowhere in the Bible is the Sabbath
changed to Sunday. People talk about the Christian
Sabbath. That's not in the Bible. The Sabbath is Saturday. Verse
eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt
thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God, and if thou shalt not do any work, Thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that's within thy gates, for
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all
that in them is, and rested on the seventh day, wherefore the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Now to sanctify, what the word
means, to sanctify, is to take something common and ordinary
and set it apart for holy purposes, consecrated to the Lord God. And if the Lord sets something
apart, it is set apart. It's now consecrated to him who
is holy. Now God is holy. Pray for me as I try to talk
about this subject. God is holy. What did the seraphims cry in
Isaiah's vision? Holy, holy, holy. It's the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of His glory. God is holy. God the Father is holy. God the
Son is holy. God the Holy Spirit is holy. Holy, holy, holy. Now this holiness speaks of His
otherness, His uniqueness. There is no one or no thing that
can be compared or likened to God. You can't say this is like
God or he's like God or that's like God. God is utterly unique. If we were asked the question,
what's most like God, a grasshopper or an angel? The answer is neither. God cannot be compared with anything. Look at the, you're in Exodus
20. Look at the commandment against
idolatry. In verse four. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven
above or that's in the earth beneath or that's in the water
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. That's what God calls himself,
a jealous God, intolerant of false idols. Let's go on reading. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and to the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me. Now, when someone makes a false
concept of God. It doesn't have to be a physical
idol. It's just a false concept of God. The reason is they hate
God as he is and they would change him and make him into a God they
feel comfortable with. That's what idolatry is. Verse
six, and showing mercy unto the thousands of them that love me
and keep my commandments. Now the Lord is other. I like that. He's other. He's utterly unique. He's of two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. When Christ said, And there's
no more horrible cry in all the word of God than this. When Christ
said from the cross, and it's quoted in Psalm 22, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? He wasn't saying this because
he didn't know. He gives the reason in verse
three of Psalm 22, but thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest
the praise of Israel. is holy. God is light. In him is no darkness
at all. He's holy and all of his attributes
are holy. Now, when we speak of God, we
must think of the sovereign God. Only he is sovereign. That means
his will is always done. And his will is a holy will. He's got a holy justice. He's
got a holy wrath. He is holy in his independence. He's holy in his immutability,
the fact that he cannot change. He's holy in his love. He's holy
in his grace. God is holy. And when he sanctified the seventh
day, he's demonstrating his authority as the Holy One of Israel. If he says the seventh day is
holy, you know what? The seventh day is holy, isn't
it? It's set apart unto God. And he is to be regarded as such
by his people. This thing of holiness, otherness,
absolute purity. When the Lord teaches us to pray,
What does he teach us to pray? Our father, which art in heaven,
hallowed, holy, reverend is thy name. That is how he is to be
regarded by his people. I remember reading a commentary
once on that statement and the man said, Let your name be glorified. And I thought, that's not what
that means. Led is not in the word. Let us let this know, holy
and reverend is his name. Our father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. We regard his name, all of his
attributes as holy. Peter said, quoting from Isaiah,
sanctify the Lord God in your heart. Now, we can't make him
holy, obviously, he is who he is, but we can regard him to
be holy. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and always be ready to give an answer to him that asks
you a reason for the hope that's in you. Now, I wanna look at
a couple of it. four or five examples out of
the Old Testament. Would you turn with me to Leviticus chapter
10? Leviticus chapter 10, verse one. And Nadab and Amayu, the sons
of Aaron, who was the great high priest, took either of them his
censer. That is what you burn incense
on, that represents the prayers of the saints, but most especially
the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ, making the prayers of
the saints acceptable. That's what that censer is all
about. And he put fire therein, and
put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord,
which he commanded them not. Now, what did he do wrong? He
didn't take fire from off the altar. He took fire from somewhere
else. You see, the altar is the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they presumed, although they
were commanded to only take fire from off the altar, they presumed,
well, this fire's all right, it's good enough. I mean, fire's
fire. And it wasn't fire from off the
altar of sacrifice, which represents the atonement of Christ. The
only way those prayers can be heard, the only way that incense
can be accepted is because of the atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is what the altar typifies. Now look what happened. And there went out fire from
the Lord and devoured them. Fire came down from out of heaven
and devoured them. I guess there was nothing but
ashes left. They were gone. And they died before the Lord.
Then Moses said unto Aaron, he didn't apologize for the Lord.
He didn't say, oh Aaron, I'm sorry this took place. Look at
his response. Then Moses said unto Aaron, this
is that that the Lord spake saying, I will be sanctified. And then come nigh unto me. And
before all the people I'll be glorified. And Aaron held his
peace. He didn't object to this. You
see, God is only glorified. God is only sanctified in our
hearts when the only way we can approach him is through the bloody
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I come any other way,
all I prove by that is I don't really believe he's all that
holy. I think I can come into his presence on my own. And I
don't need the atonement, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
to enter into his presence. If I can even think of God, Now
listen to this statement. If I can even think of God by
way of him accepting me apart from the person and work of Christ,
all I do is say, I don't really believe you're that holy. I believe
you can accept me as I am. This comes from a high view of
yourself and a low view of God. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter six. Now this is when the ark has
been brought back to Israel from the land of the Philistines.
And we read in verse 19, the men, when it had been brought
back, some men opened it up and looked inside of it. Now look
in verse 19, and he smote the men of Bethshemesh because they
had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he smote of the people
50,000, three score and 10 men, and the
people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people
with a great slaughter, and the men of Bethshemes said, who is
able to stand before this holy Lord God? Now they presumed without
a priest, without the blood sacrifice, let's just look up into the ark
and see what's in there. And what did God do? He killed
over 50,000 of them. Was God too severe? No, God is
holy, whatever he does is right. Now just take that, somebody
says that seems severe, no it doesn't. Whatever God does is
right, whether you and I see it or not. And these people presumed
to open up and look at who God is apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ, apart from the blood sacrifice. And we have so many
examples of this in the scripture. Remember that man Uzzah? The
ark is being carried on a cart, and it hits a rut in the ground,
and he puts forth his hand to steady it to keep it from falling
off the cart. God kills him. God kills him. Why? Uzzah did
not regard the God, God as holy. That's why. He thought, well,
I can touch that ark. I can help God out. And God killed him. What about Uzziah? Uzziah, the
great king, all of a sudden he decides, I'm gonna offer up a
sacrifice, or I can burn incense. Now, only the priest could do
that. The priest represents the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way
I can come into God's presence is through the priest. Uzziah
said, well, I can come on my own. He lights the incense, it
starts coming in, and what does God do? He turns him into a leper,
and he dies a leper. And that's what Isaiah is talking
about when he says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
also the Lord. When God made him a leper because
he presumed to come into God's presence without a priest. What
about Saul, King Saul? He decided not to wait on Samuel,
and he went ahead and offered up a sacrifice without a priest.
He lost the kingdom. God said, I've rejected him.
We have so many examples of things like this in the scripture. What
about when David numbered the people, all he did was take a
census and numbered the people of Israel. And God killed 70,000
people as a result of him doing that. Why? He numbered the people
without the atonement money. They were considered people,
God's people, God's Israel, without the atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, God is holy. He's of two pure eyes to behold
iniquity. God is holy, and he's to be regarded
as such by his people, even Moses. Moses, the people said, we're
thirsty. So he smote the rock twice. God didn't say, smite the rock
again. He said, speak to the rock. The
rock had already been smitten. Moses gets mad at everybody because
they're complaining for water and murmuring. He said, must
we fetch water out of the rock, you rebels? And he smote him
twice. You know what God said? Because you failed to sanctify
me before the people, you're not entering the promised land.
God is holy. His holiness is his beauty. His
holiness is his glory. His holiness is his being. He
sanctified. He declared to be holy the seventh
day. Now somewhere in fallen religious
man's thinking, he has changed the meaning of sanctification. And you will find this in just
about every gathering going on under the name of Christianity.
Men have changed the meaning of sanctification because they
really don't regard God as holy. Sanctification is viewed as how
you live. Justification is your legal standing
before God, and sanctification is how you live. It's your character,
it's your conduct, it's your actions in this world. Now let me give you this definition
I got at a Vines Greek Dictionary on what sanctification means. And this is pretty much the standard
view, and I'm quoting this from Vines Greek Dictionary. The holy character, at sanctification,
The holy character is not vicarious. It cannot be transferred or imputed. It is an individual possession
built up little by little as a result of obedience to the
word of God and following the example of Christ. And that's
the dictionary. Where's that in the Bible? There's
one big problem with that definition. It's totally wrong. And there's
nothing in the scriptures to support such wicked foolishness. And that is precisely what it
is. Now this is what men call progressive
sanctification. You've heard that term, progressive
sanctification. sanctification. Now, I believe
in growth and grace. I sure do. Every believer does. But that's not growth, what I
just quoted. Progressive sanctification is
little by little, through personal obedience to the word and following
Christ's example, by grace, you become more and more holy and
less and less sinful. Now the Bible does not teach
this. I sure am glad because I know
this is not my experience. And this was not Paul the Apostle's
experience. He didn't say, oh, progressively
sanctified man that I am. I'm so thankful for deliverance
from the body of this death that I get more and more holy and
less and less sinful. He didn't say that, did he? He said, oh, wretched man that
I am. Not that I was before I started
becoming progressively better. that I am right now, present
tense. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Now, does that mean that we're
indifferent to obedience to the word and following Christ's example?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But inherent
in this progressive sanctification thinking, is a denial of total
depravity. That's what it is. It's denial
of total depravity. It's saying by grace, your flesh
can become better and better and better. That's a denial of
total depravity. And the implication is perfectionism. If you can get better and better,
you can end up being sinless in this life. Now, somebody says,
well, I don't believe that. Well, I don't either. But still,
that is an implication. If you can get better and better,
you can end up being without sin and stand before God without
sin. Now, that's the danger of this
teaching. And it's a denial of what holiness
is in the first place. Hebrews 2.11. Understand this,
you cannot become more holy or less holy. God does not become
more holy or less holy. Now listen to this scripture,
Hebrews chapter two, verse 11. Both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one. He that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one. Now, if you're one with
Christ, is that progressive or are you one with Christ? Can
you become more one with Christ or less one with Christ? When
God says, and he says this to all of his people, Be ye holy,
for I am holy. He doesn't say do things to become
holy or avoid things to become holy. He says be ye holy, for
I am holy. You can only be holy if you are
holy. You can't become holy You can
only be holy if you are holy. Every believer is, as the writer
to the Hebrews called, holy brethren. A saint, you know what a saint
means? Saint means a sanctified one.
That's all it means. Someone got us sanctified. A
sanctified one. And believers are called believers
twice, Christians three times, and saints 61 times in the New
Testament. Now, that lets you know this
is what a believer is, a sanctified one. And sanctification is actually
the most descriptive word in the Bible with regard to salvation. You know, when the scripture
says salvation is of the Lord, to say sanctification is of the
Lord is to say the same thing. Sanctification, this big word
that we don't hear in common language every day. You're not
gonna hear anybody speak of it at work, I don't suppose, tomorrow. But this word, sanctification,
is the most descriptive word in the Bible with regard to God's
salvation. Now, all three persons of the
Godhead, the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit,
have their work in this thing of sanctification. Now, would
you turn with me to the book of Jude, right before Revelation? The book of Jude. Verse one, Jude. the servant of Jesus Christ and
brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father. Now in the original, that is
written in the perfect passive tense. Perfect means perfectly
completed, never to be repeated. It can't be bigger or smaller. It can't be added on to or taken
from. Passive, this is what God has
done for you. Sanctified by God the Father. And isn't that precisely what
election is? When God chose me before the
foundation of the world to be holy. Ephesians 1, 4, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. I am the Lord
that sanctifieth the world. Thee, Exodus 31.3, Jeremiah 1.5,
before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou
camest forth out of thy mother's womb, I sanctified thee. God set me apart to be his. What an indescribable blessing. If you're a believer, God set
you apart before the foundation of the world to be His. 1 Corinthians 1.30, of Him are
you in Christ Jesus, of God the Father are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. holiness. He is my holiness before
God. And that's a holiness that knows
nothing of progression or digression. Holy. The writer to the Hebrew said,
by the witch will, by God's will, we are sanctified once for all. perfect, completed action that
can't be added to or taken from. We are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. I turn to 1 Corinthians 1. Verse one, Paul, called to be
an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes
our brother, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth,
to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. And once again, that's in the
perfect That's what sanctification generally is. Perfectly completed,
something that does not become progressively better. Perfectly
completed, sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now, I think this is very
interesting that in the Old Testament, if someone came into contact
with the altar, they were called most holy. Holy. I think of the, and this
is where a part of the error with regard to sanctification
came from. When you went into the tabernacle,
there are two things you had to pass through. You had to pass
first the altar of sacrifice. This was in the outside court,
the altar of sacrifice. And then you had to come to a
laver and have your hands washed in water. And people have taken
that and they've separated the atonement of Christ and they
say, this is where sanctification is. You have the atonement of
Christ, then you have to get your hands washed and get your
body cleaned up and you need to be good in order to get into
the holy of holies. And they're saying there's two
things. There's both justification and sanctification. Now, wait
a minute. Wait a minute. You mean to get into the holy
of holies You've washed your hands enough and now you're fit
to go in. What that washing represents is the continual washing of the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what came out of our Lord's
side when that soldier stabbed him? Blood and water. Everything comes from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Blood and water. Justification,
sanctification, which cannot be separated. They come from
the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ died, listen to this
scripture, Hebrews 10, 14, wherefore, by one offering he hath, that
means he did it, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. You see, when Christ died, the
declaration of the Father for everybody he died for was he
or she is holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in my sight. Now, if God sees you as holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable, well, there's only one reason.
You are, in fact, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.
Look in Jeremiah chapter 50 for just a moment. Jeremiah chapter
50. This is a scripture I'd like
you to look at. Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 20. Jeremiah chapter 50,
verse 20. In those days and at that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. and there shall be none. How's that? Because that's what
the blood of Christ accomplished. He made my sin to not be. The iniquity, my sin, is gonna
be sought for. God never overlooks anything. He's gonna be looking for it.
And you know what there will be? None, none. Christ Jesus loved the church,
the scripture says, and gave himself for it that he might
sanctify and cleanse it. That is sanctification, what
Christ has done for you. You see, God declared everybody
that Christ died for to be holy. Now, we've seen sanctified by
the Father, sanctified in Christ Jesus. Look at this scripture
in 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 13, but we are bound, we're
obligated to give thanks always to God for you. Brethren, beloved
of the Lord. I never will forget, before I
go on reading, I never will forget hearing Jack Shanks quote this
scripture. And he said, I'm not thanking
you for being here. I'm thanking God for you being
here. We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Now here we've seen sanctification
by God the Father, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and now we read
of the sanctification of the spirit that all of God's elect
possess. You know what that is? That's
being given a holy nature. That's talking about the new
birth. That's talking about regeneration. and every believer is given a
holy nature. He that's born of God, 1 John
chapter three, verse nine, listen to this. He that's born of God
doth not commit sin, for he cannot sin. He lacks the ability to
sin, for his seed, the seed of God, remaineth in him. Somebody
says, well, that means he doesn't practice sin. How about you? You practice sin? If you say you don't, you're
a liar. It's that simple. All you gotta do is breathe and
you sin. This is talking about the new
nature, the holy nature, the nature given in the new birth.
It's holy. Birthed by the spirit of God. Paul said, I commend you to God
and the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, there's
growth, and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified. Sanctified. Sanctified by God
the Father, sanctified by God the Spirit, sanctified by God
the Son. The fear of the Lord is this
holy nature. And when Peter says, sanctify,
now we've talked about how God sanctifies us. Peter says, you
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. How you go about doing that?
We can't make him holy. He is holy. Holy and reverend
is thy name. Now, how do I sanctify God in
my heart? Now, I regard God as holy in
my heart when I look only to Christ. When I do that, anything
more or anything less, I'm failing to regard God as holy. The only
way I regard God as holy is when I look to Christ alone. When
I see Him as all that God requires and I can rest in who He is and
what He did as all that's needed to satisfy a holy God. I see God's satisfaction with
Christ. Is God satisfied with Jesus Christ,
His Son, and who He is and what He did? and that you really don't
need anything else, you wouldn't dare add anything to His work,
that's called regarding God as holy in your heart. You look
to Christ only. You find satisfaction in what
God finds satisfaction in, His Son. And only then do you really
regard God as holy. Anything apart from that is bringing
God down to a level of man, that he can accept this. I would accept
it. You could accept me. I'd accept
me. That's a failure to regard God as holy. Now holiness, listen to this.
Somebody says, explain this to me. I don't think I can, but
I can certainly state it. Holiness is to be pursued. Follow, pursue is what the word
means. Peace with all men and holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. Now let me say this
in closing. The Bible teaches growth. Grow in grace. and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If somebody calls that
progressive sanctification, I'm okay with it, although I hate
that term, but what the Bible does teach growth. I'm to grow
in faith. I'm to grow in love to him, to
you, to grow in the Beatitudes. I'm to grow in poverty of spirit. I'm to grow in mourning over
my sin. I'm to grow in meekness. I'm
to grow in hungering and thirsting after righteousness. I'm to grow
in being merciful. I'm to grow in being a peacemaker.
I'm to grow in being persecuted for righteousness' sake, His
righteousness' sake. I'm to grow in the fruit of the
Spirit. I'm to grow in love and joy and
peace and longsuffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness
and temperance. I'm to grow in these things.
Because growth is by grace. But let me say this, I don't
grow in holiness. As a matter of fact, I won't
be any more holy in heaven than I am right now as I speak to
you. Because Christ Jesus is my sanctification. Just as God sanctified the seventh
day, He has sanctified every believer. And if God has sanctified
you, you know what? You're sanctified. You're a saint. Don't anybody call me Saint Todd,
but believe that that's who I am. Saint Todd, Saint Todd. That's
true of every single believer. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
glorious character. How we thank you for your holiness.
We give thanks at the remembrance of your holiness. Lord, enable
us to regard you as holy by looking only to your son as our holiness
before you. We thank you for your gospel.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Rich, come lead us in that
closing hymn.