Sanctification

Now we have a question for our
topic today. I'm going to speak to you on
this subject. What does the Bible teach about
sanctification? I'm going to try to answer these
questions. How is a person sanctified? Who is sanctified? Are all believers saints, or
just a select few? Now, how is a person sanctified?
We have several beliefs about this. Somebody says it's the
most misunderstood, misappropriated, misrepresented, misused doctrine
in all the Word of God. Well, maybe so. But I ask you
some questions. Is sanctification something that
takes place after I'm dead? After I die, do the church fathers
meet together in a council and review my works? and then take
a vote on whether or not to sanctify me, and if they vote yea, then
I'm Saint Henry from then on. Of course, I'm dead. But I then
become, by their vote, Saint Henry. Now, there's certainly
no scripture anywhere in God's Word to warrant believing anything
like this. Well, secondly, is sanctification
to have a group of people, special, pious, religious people, lay
their hands on me And then, by laying their hands on me, declare
me to be sanctified? Holiness imparted by human hands? Do I kneel in that meeting, obeyed
in Christ, and do I rise a mature, perfect, full-grown elder in
the Son of God, and that's done by human hands? In just a moment
of time? Impossible. And everybody who
knows anything about God's Word knows that's impossible. All
right, is sanctification an experience? Is it an experience in life whereby
my old man, my old nature, is totally, at one given time, eradicated? I have an experience that makes
me from that moment on free from all impure thoughts, free from
all idle words, free from all sinful imagination, free from
all selfish motives, I am now perfect, and that means I'm as
good as God. In myself I am as holy as God
himself, while I'm still on this earth and in the flesh, not just
outwardly, but inwardly, not just in action, but in attitude,
not just in means, but in motive. I'm holy as God. Well, nonsense. And everybody, every truthful
person, every honest person, knows better than this. Any person
who knows what sin is, who knows who God is, and who knows his
own heart, and is honest enough to face his own heart and his
own nature, knows better than this. And he has to say with
Paul, I die daily. It's a daily crucifixion. It's
a daily submitting to the will of God. It's a daily surrender
to Christ. Well, it's sanctification, an
outward piety, an outward display of subjection to religious laws,
tradition, ceremonies, rules, regulations. This is what the
Pharisees thought. For Christ said to them, He said,
you appear beautiful unto men. You're like a grave, you're like
a tombstone, you're like a sepulcher. On the outside you look good.
Down at the meeting house, you look good. Down at the altar,
you look good. Down at the church, you look
good to men. But on the inside, you're full
of extortion and excess and dead men's bones. Sanctification is
not an outward display of religious subjection to rules and regulations. That's not what it is at all.
And anybody who knows anything about the Bible knows that's
not what it is. Well, what is it? What is sanctification? What is it to be sanctified?
Who is sanctified? Well, there are three scriptures.
Now, if you jot these down, it will help you. There are three
scriptures that will help us understand the doctrine of sanctification. Number one, in Jude, verse one,
just one chapter in Jude, first verse, we are sanctified by God
the Father. That's what it says. We are sanctified
by God the Father. All right, 1 Corinthians 1, verse
2 says this. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus,
by God the Father, in Christ Jesus. And then 1 Peter 1, 2
says, through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Now remember
those three verses. Sanctified by the Father, sanctified
in Christ the Son, through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Now you'll never understand scriptural
sanctification until you see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
working together to produce a church, a people, a body, a bride of
Christ without spot or wrinkle, a holy nation, a royal priesthood,
a peculiar people, holy unto the Lord. If you take your Bible
and study Ephesians chapter 1, you'll see the work of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit there. In redemption. In redemption. If we want to understand sanctification,
we're going to have to see we're sanctified by the Father, in
Christ the Son, through the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, we must
go to the Old Testament and to the New Testament. We don't have
two Bibles, we've got one Bible. made up of Old Testament and
New Testament. The Old Testament people were
saved, just like you are, by looking to Christ. They look
to the coming Redeemer, you look back to the Redeemer who has
come. They look to the one who will die on the cross, you look
back to the one who has died on the cross. The Old Testament
is the New Testament concealed Our Lord Jesus Christ quoted
the Old Testament, Peter quoted the Old Testament, Paul quoted
the Old Testament, and Luke wrote in the book of Acts, to him give
all the prophets witness. The Old Testament is the New
Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament
revealed. It comes right out. What these
words meant in the Old Testament revealed right here in the New
Testament. The Old Testament gives us the gospel of redemption
in picture and illustration, and the New Testament gives us
the gospel of redemption in person. And those who know the scriptures
best know this, that the Bible is best interpreted in the light
of the Bible. If you want to find out what
sanctification means, you go back to God's Word and find out
what it means. Not to some book written by a
man. not to some creed or catechism put out by some denomination,
turn to the Word of God. Cut a diamond with a diamond,
the jeweler knows that. Interpret Scripture with Scripture. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
instruction, and righteousness. And no Scripture is of any private
interpretation. It's got to fit in with the rest
of the Word of God. So in the Old Testament scriptures, the
word sanctified is used many, many, many times. It has three
basic meanings. Now get this. First of all, in
the Old Testament, the word sanctified means to set apart, to set apart. In other words, it means this,
that God takes something common something ordinary and sets it
apart from the rest for himself. He takes something common, God
in his sovereign purpose, God in his infinite wisdom, takes
something that is common, something that is ordinary, and sets it
apart from the rest, and he says, that's mine, that's wholly unto
the Lord. Now, I'd make good on that. You
turn with me to Genesis 2, verse 3. Listen to it. Genesis 2 verse
3, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, and sanctified
it. Under the Mosaic law, under the
Mosaic economy, God took one day out of the seven. Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, the seventh
day, and God sanctified that day. It was a common, ordinary
day, but God set it apart, and God said, it's holy unto the
Lord. That's my day. And under this Jewish economy,
under this Mosaic law, you shall observe that seventh day. He
sanctified it. Now, that seventh day didn't
need a second work of grace. That seventh day didn't need
an old nature eradicated. So that's not what sanctifying
means there. It means to set it apart. something
ordinary and common. God sanctified it. All right,
Exodus 13, 1 and 2, listen. And the Lord spake to Moses,
saying, Sanctify unto me the firstborn. The firstborn. Whosoever openeth the womb, both
man and beast, it's mine, God said. It's mine. The firstborn son, the firstborn
cow, the firstborn sheep. the firstborn ox, it's mine."
God sanctified, he said, sanctify, set apart, it's mine, the firstborn. Notice Exodus 29, verse 44, he
said, "...and I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation,
I will sanctify the altar, I will sanctify Aaron and his sons to
the office of priest." So you see what I'm saying is this,
that many times in the Old Testament, the word sanctified means this. It means to take that which is
common and ordinary and set it apart from all the rest and write
on it, Holy unto the Lord. It is His. It belongs to the
Lord. It's set apart for His glory
and for His holy use. We can also understand the words
of our Lord in John 10.36. You know what he said in John
10.36? He said the Father sanctified the Son. Jesus Christ himself
was set apart by the Father to be the substitute, to be the
Lamb of God, to be the sin offering, to bear our sins. He was set
apart. He didn't have an old nature
to eradicate. He didn't need a second blessing.
He was the blessing. But he was sanctified by the
Father. That is, he was set apart from
the rest of this race to be our sin offering. He said also in
John 17, 19, I sanctify myself. No man takes my life from me,
I lay it down. A body thou hast prepared me,
set me apart for your holy purpose and your holy redemption. That's
the first meaning of sanctified. It means by an act of God, by
the power of God, according to the purpose of God, he takes
from among days, animals and people, offices, buildings, and
he sets them apart, these are mine. So when Jude writes this
verse to the believer, in Jude verse 1, to the people of God,
you know what he calls them? Sanctified by God the Father. God the Father hath before the
world ever began in his all-wise and holy purpose from the beginning
set apart a people. He calls them my sheep, he calls
them my bride, he calls them my own, he calls them my jewels,
he says they're mine. And Christ said all that my Father
giveth me shall come to me. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but raise it up at the last day." Sanctified by God the Father.
In Jeremiah 1, verse 5, listen to this verse. God says, Jeremiah
1, 5, "...before I formed thee in the belly," I knew thee, "...before
you came out of your mother's womb, I sanctified thee." I set
thee apart, I separated you, I said you're mine. Paul wrote
in Galatians 1.15, but when it pleased God, who separated me,
who set me apart, who sanctified me from my mother's womb, to
reveal his Son in me. And then Paul wrote in Romans
8.29, whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son. and whom he did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, he justified, and
whom he justified he called, and whom he called he glorified."
What shall we say to these things? Well, the only thing we can say
is this, if God be for us, who can be against us? So when you're
talking about being sanctified, the first act in sanctification
is that of the Heavenly Father, who puts his name on whatever
he chooses, and he says, it's mine. It's mine. All right, secondly
now, sanctified in the scripture means not only to set apart,
but it means to regard or to treat or declare to be holy. Now let me illustrate. Now go
with me. First of all, in Isaiah chapter 8, verse 13, this is
the word of God. Sanctify, talking to you and
me, talking to Israel, sanctify the Lord God himself. Let him
be your dread, let him be your fear. The Bible is telling me
to sanctify God. Now what does that mean? Well it means this, for me to
sanctify God is for me to regard God as holy. to revere him. He is holy. He's to be held in
awe. He's to be held in reverence.
The Lord's in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence.
I'm afraid there are not many people today that really sanctify
the Lord God. They conduct their churches like
three-ringed circuses. Do they really hold God in reverence
and in awe and in dread and in holy fear? Sanctify the Lord
God, regard him as holy, treat him as holy, declare him to be
holy. The Lord's in his holy temple.
Listen to Leviticus 10 verse 3. The Lord said, this is after
he'd killed some fellows for offering strange fire, desecrating
the temple of God. Then the Lord said, I will be
sanctified in them that come now unto me. You're going to
approach my throne, you're going to approach my presence, God
said. I will be sanctified before all the people. I will be glorified. Holy and reverent is his name. My friends, in Numbers chapter
20, God said to Moses, Moses said to the people, thirsty,
they had no water. God said, well, I supplied water to you
from the rock. You smote the rock and it gave forth water.
Now you go speak to the rock. And when you speak to it, it'll
give forth water. Moses got angry. So he went out
there, and he was angry with the people. And so he stood before
them, and he called them a bunch of rebels. He got real ugly.
He said, you rebels, must I bring water from the rock? And he smote
the rock. Well, water came out, and the
people drank, and they were satisfied. But God called Moses aside, and
he said, Moses, you didn't sanctify me in the eyes of the people.
Moses, you projected yourself. You called attention to yourself.
You got glory to yourself. And for that, you're not going
to enter the promised land. Joshua will take the people in,
not you. You go up on the mountain now,
and I'll take you home. You didn't sanctify me. In these
scriptures, the word sanctify means to treat as holy, to declare
to be holy, to regard to be holy. Now, with this in mind, You'll
understand 1 Corinthians 1-2, which says, we, the believers,
are sanctified in Christ Jesus. In Christ. If I'm outside of
Christ, I'm under the wrath of God. But in Christ, who is my
representative, my substitute, my refuge, in him I'm holy. In him I am pure. In him, listen to the scripture,
in Christ Jesus, you are complete, complete, for he is made unto
you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, chosen in Christ,
in Christ, that we should be holy. With his spotless garments
on, I am as holy as the Holy One in him. In Christ, the scripture
says in Colossians 1.22, you are holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in his sight. In Jude, verse 24, the scripture
says, he in him will present you holy without blemish in his
presence. That's how you can understand
Hebrews 10, 19, which tells you and me. Brethren, come boldly
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You and I can go boldly
into the very presence of God, into the holy presence of God. Now you know, you know that God
Almighty cannot commune with that which is unholy. You know
that God cannot have fellowship with that which is unclean. And
in our flesh dwelleth no good thing, in the flesh no man can
please God. So when we come into the holiest
of all, we don't come in our flesh, we come in the person
of Christ. And in Christ we are spotless
and holy. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever. them that are sanctified. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. So that's what sanctification
means, secondly. First, sanctified by the Father,
set apart, he's mine. Secondly, sanctified in Christ. In Christ, our guilt put away.
In Christ, we have a complete redemption. In Christ we have
a perfect holiness. When God looks upon us, he looks
upon us in Christ. Outside of Christ, God would
be a consuming fire, but in Christ we are holy, covered by the blood.
Our sins are blotted out, separated from us as far as the east is
from the west, cast into the depths of the sea, remembered
no more. I am holy in Christ. Well, now here's the third meaning.
We come to the third meaning of sanctification. And that is,
it means this, it means to actually purify, not just set apart, not
just treat as holy, but actually to make holy. This is not only
to set apart or separate for God's use, and not only to declare
to be holy as we are in Christ, but this is actually to perform
a work by impartation and by divine regeneration. to make
a man holy and righteous and honest and pure. Listen to Exodus
19, 10 through 12. And the Lord said, Go to the
people, Moses, and sanctify them today and tomorrow. Have them
wash their clothes. Have them wash their bodies.
For the Lord is coming down the third day in the sight of the
people upon Mount Sinai. God's going to visit the people
in person. Tell them to wash their clothes.
Tell them to wash their body. Tell them to prepare to do business
with God. And this sanctification is a
preparation of heart, and a preparation of life, and a preparation of
conduct in holiness, righteousness, purity, and honesty for the presence
of the Lord. Now this is what Peter's writing
about in 1 Peter 1-2, when he says, according to the foreknowledge
of God through sanctification of the Holy Spirit. The believer
is not only set apart by God's purpose and God's grace and God's
providence, the believer is not only accepted as holy in Christ,
that's an imputed righteousness, but the believer also has going
on within him a divine work. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus on two good works. that we should walk in them.
We have a divine work going on within us, in our hearts, and
in our lives, whereby we're made holy, whereby we're made righteous,
whereby we're being made like Christ in our attitude, in our
conversation, in our conduct, in our behavior. And this is
the work of the Spirit of God. It's a divine work. It's an inward
work. It's something that God does
in you and for you and to you. Now, when we talk about righteousness
imputed, we mean that Christ's work is legally for us before
the Father and justified. When we talk about righteousness
imparted, we talk about the Spirit of God dwelling in us. We talk
about the power of God dwelling in us. We talk about receiving
in the new birth a new nature, a nature that hates sin and loves
holiness. A nature that hates evil and
loves righteousness. A nature that not only makes
me holy in the church building, but makes me holy in my business
dealings. And this is done by the word
of God. The scripture says, sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is
truth. The more the Holy Spirit takes
the word of God and teaches you, the more you'll grow in grace,
the more you'll grow in holiness, the more you'll grow in the knowledge
of Christ. desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking
heed to the word of God. So it's a work, sanctification
is a work the Holy Spirit does in us. It's a work the Holy Spirit
does using the word of God. And it's a progressive work.
We grow in grace. The Bible talks about infants
in Christ. The Bible talks about young men
in Christ. And the Bible talks about elders
in Christ. Those infants in Christ are newborn
babes. It tells us not to ordain a man
to the ministry or to the eldership or the deaconship who's an infant,
who's a novice, who's a new person. He's not grown enough. He's not
sanctified enough. He has not progressed enough
in Christ. He doesn't know enough. He's
got to be taught. And just as you don't expect
your children to mature overnight, to become full-grown, mature
adults overnight, don't expect a believer to. I'll tell you
this, the more he becomes acquainted with God's Word, the faster he'll
grow, the more he'll be sanctified. It's a progressive work, and
it's a work that produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We
need to go to Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22. I do this myself. I hope you do. and read for myself
over and over again the fruits of the Holy Spirit. These fruits
are evidences of sanctification. And the more mature these fruits
are, the more beautiful these fruits are, the more obvious
these fruits are, the better health that tree is in. Sanctification. Love, joy, peace, meekness, long-suffering,
faith, gentleness, kindness, these are the fruits of sanctification.
Now these messages are available on cassette tape recording. We'd
like you to have it. Small charge, write to me. The
address will be given to you at the close of the broadcast.
I hope you'll join us next week on this station for this broadcast. Henry Mahan bidding you a very
pleasant good day.

Sanctification

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Sanctification

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