Sanctification, What Is It?

by Quinton J. Everest

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17.

Dr. Quinton J. Everest,  was the speaker for Your Worship Hour which was heard around the world for over fifty years.  He and Seth Rohrer were two of the founders of Bethel College, Mishawaka, Indiana and the Everest-Rohrer Chapel pictured above is named in their honor.  

For the next five Sundays I want to speak on the subject of Sanctification. I realize, however, it is a subject of much discussion and much disagreement. I am not speaking on it for the sake of controversy, but for the sake of helping men into the fullness of God's provided salvation. 

I am sure you agree with me that everything God has provided for us through the death of Christ is necessary. God would not, and has not, provided something we do not need. Man needs forgiveness, and God provided it. He needs heart-cleansing, and God has provided it. He needs power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and God has provided it. Paul said to the Corinthians, "All are yours," I Corinthians 3:22.

  Everyone who believes the Bible will agree that there is such a thing as Sanctification, and that it is provided for sin-contaminated humanity. Someone has said that the words, "Sanctify," "Sanctified," and "Sanctification," appear 164 times in the Bible. This being true, no one can pass over the subject without proper consideration.

  Going back to the Old Testament, we note that not only people, but things are said to be sanctified. We read that God sanctified the seventh day. It was to be a day made holy by worship and rest. Mt. Sinai was said to be sanctified, for it was there God in a peculiar way revealed Himself to Israel. The temple and its furniture were said to be sanctified which meant that it was set apart for holy purposes. God commanded Israel to sanctify themselves, which meant that they were to submit to certain bodily washings and cleansings. Within Israel there was the Sanctified tribe of Levi or the tribe especially set apart by God to minister those things which were holy. 

In our text Jesus prays for the Sanctification of the disciples, and then in verse 20 He says:

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word."

In I Thessalonians 5:23 Paul says: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Again in Chapter 4, verse 3, he says, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." I would like for you to note carefully what Jude has to say in his introduction: "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called."

He writes to "them that are sanctified"; not to those who are being sanctified or to those who will be sanctified, but to those who are sanctified. These references and scriptures are ample proof that the Bible teaches Sanctification and that it is something to be experienced here in this world. 

It is also interesting to read the definition of the word "Sanctify" in the Standard Dictionary, which reads: "To make holy; render sacred; morally or spiritually pure, cleansed from sin... sanctification, especially in theology, the gracious work of the Holy Spirit whereby the believer is freed from sin and exalted to holiness of heart." 

Someone may be saying, "If you have confessed your sins and God has forgiven you, and Christ has come into your heart, isn't that sufficient?" My answer would be that to be born of the Spirit is not sufficient, for God also commands that we should "be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:18. 

Going over to Acts 15:8, 9, we read that when the people on the day of Pentecost and those of the house of Cornelius were filled with the Spirit, "their hearts were purified." Since their hearts were purified, we must conclude that, prior to the purifying, there was impurity in their hearts. 

Now let us go back to Luke 24:49 and read the instructions which Jesus gave to the disciples. "Behold; I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." Again in Acts 1:4 Jesus said: "And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me." 

The promise of the Father is, as revealed, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, notice again what Jesus has to say in Acts 1:8: "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 

Now putting all, these scriptures and definitions together, we have.the following: first, the prayer of Jesus for the Sanctification of His disciples and all those who should believe on Him through their word; second, the purifying of the hearts of believers; and third, the infilling of the Holy Spirit. These are not three separate operations, but three phases of one work of God in the heart of man. We must then conclude that after a man becomes a child of God, he needs to consecrate (Romans 12:1) himself to God in order to be sanctified -- or to be inwardly cleansed and filled with the Spirit. But someone says, "Aren't we filled with God's Spirit when we are saved?" I am sure my answer to this question would be insufficient, so we will call on Paul and Jesus to answer it for us. Jesus said to the disciples in John 14:16, 17: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." 

Here Jesus definitely states that only the child of God can receive and experience the Holy Spirit in his heart. The worm knows nothing about spiritual things nor the Holy Spirit; therefore, they cannot receive the Holy Spirit. 

Paul not only asks the Ephesians in Acts 19:2 whether they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed, but in Ephesians 5:18 he commanded that they "be filled with the Spirit." 

The Two-Fold Need

  When we have a proper conception of sin, then we can understand what Sanctification is and why it is necessary. The man who has felt his guilt most deeply appreciates the redeeming work of Christ. The man who is made to realize the condition of his heart and who is conscious of the need of power, appreciates the redeeming work of Christ in Sanctification.  

Sin has many aspects, but there two primary forms in which it exists. We cannot form a right conception of sin, nor of the remedy God has provided, unless we look at it from these two points of view. There must be a discrimination between guilt and depravity. There are the sinful acts of a man's life, but there is also the depraved condition of the heart. The one demands pardon and forgiveness, but the other demands cleansing. John clearly reveals this when he says: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:9. Here we have both the forgiveness and the cleansing. 

Dr. John Church, General Evangelist of the Methodist Church, portrays this truth vividly in Old Testament type. He says: "In the provision made for the Great Day of Atonement, God recognized the twofold nature of sin. The people were commanded to bring two offerings. The priest cast lots over them, and the one upon whom the lot fell was known as the scapegoat. The priest placed his hand upon this one's head and confessed all the sins of the people upon it. In other words, the sins of the people were placed upon this scapegoat. It was then led away into the wilderness to be let loose and never was seen again. This was a type of Jesus, who became our scapegoat and took all our sins in his own body and bore them away to Calvary. They are never seen again, thank God? The Other offering was known as The Sin Offering. It was taken outside the camp and slain. Its blood was caught, and with it the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies and presented it upon the mercy seat in the sight of God. The carcass of the sin offering was wholly burned outside the camp and the ashes were buried. This is just what the writer of Hebrews is speaking of when he says "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." In other words, Jesus not only became our scapegoat, who bore our sins (the acts) away, but He also became our sin offering and made provision whereby we may be cleansed from inbred sin and may be sanctified wholly. He provided a double cure for sin. 

There are many people who have been born again-their sins are forgiven, but they need to pray and ask God to give them clean hearts and the Holy Spirit. Real victory would come if they would really say with the song writers:

"Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole, 

I want Thee forever to dwell in my soul,

Break down every idol, cast out every foe, 

Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

 

"Breathe, O breathe, thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast,

Let us all in Thee inherit, let us find that second rest.

Take away our bent to sinning, Alpha and Omega be,

End of faith as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty." 

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it: prone to leave the God I love,

Here's my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.

  John the Baptist was a preacher of this two-fold need and cure. To the people of his day he said: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Matthew 3:11. 

With genuine, scriptural repentance, there comes the forgiveness of sins, but it takes the Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire to really cleanse and sanctify the heart.  

As already stated, remember that sin is deeper than the outward act. Jesus teaches this in the Sermon on the Mount. There the emphasis is shifted from the outward act to the inward desire. Thank God, there is provided not only forgiveness and the washing of regeneration (which are but two phases of initial salvation) but also a remedy whereby the heart can be cleansed from all sinful desires and passions.  

It is therefore clear, then, that in justification our sins are forgiven, and we become sons of God; but there is a sinful condition of heart remaining which needs the cleansing fire of the Holy Ghost.  

The Two-Fold Cure 

When a sinner comes to God, he is primarily interested in forgiveness. He is guilty and desires pardon. Every other thought is swallowed up in the thought that he needs God's mercy in forgiveness. His prayer is, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Luke 18:13. It is such a prayer that God hears and answers. All his sins are fully forgiven through the blood of Christ. The man has received according to his faith. But as yet this man knows little of the deep depravity of his heart. However, as he now walks in the light of God and in the light of God's Word, his further need will be revealed. God will be faithful in revealing the need of heart-cleansing as soon as the individual can receive such a revelation. God saw that Israel would go down in defeat if He took them into Canaan immediately after they had crossed the Red Sea. They would have given up in despair in view of the difficulties. It would paralyze the faith and extinguish the hope of many if they had revealed to them their inward defilement when they first see and feel guilt and danger. When God reveals to the born-again believer the need of cleansing and infilling, He has a definite sense of need until the work is accomplished.  

Many of you listening to me know by experience what I am talking about. Your conversion was indeed a miracle of Divine Power, but if you have been saved very long, you have also realized the need of a further work of God in your heart. My friend, what you need is to be sanctified, to have your heart cleansed and be filled with the Holy Spirit.  

In the New Birth you received a new nature. Condemnation was removed; a great change was wrought by the Holy Spirit, creating within your soul a new spiritual life. The love of sin was destroyed; the power of sin was broken, and there was begotten a desire for the things of God. This is sanctification begun, but there is further need of an inward cleansing. Practically all, if not all, church creeds agree on this point; however there are different opinions as to the time and method of heart cleansing, which we will take up further in a future message. We must conclude, however, from the Word of God and from experience that subsequent to conversion, there is need of a further work in the heart. This need, as I have stated, is an inner sanctifying. It is a cleansing. co-instantaneous with cleansing there is the infilling with the Holy Spirit.  

John Wesley said, "We do not know of a single instance, in any place, of a person's receiving at one and the same moment, remission of sins, the abiding witness of the Spirit, and a new and clean heart." 

Adam Clarke said, "I have been twenty-three years a traveling preacher and have been acquainted with some thousands of Christians during that time, who were in different states of grace; and I never, to my knowledge, met with a single instance where God both justified and sanctified at the same time." 

We conclude then by saying that Sanctification as Jesus speaks of it in our text is the cleansing of the believer's heart. It is a work subsequent to regeneration. It includes the negative and positive; namely, cleansing and filling. "Regeneration is for a perishing world. Entire Sanctification is for a polluted church." The second work is not to patch up the first. Each experience is complete and perfect within its own limits. The first experience is referred to in terms such as "Justified," "Forgiven," "Born Again," "Adopted," etc, The second is designated by terms such as "Sanctification," "Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire," "Pure in heart," etc.  

My dear listener, if you have this need, if you have never been sanctified, if you have never been filled with the Spirit -- won't you kneel by your radio, consecrate yourself to God, ask Him to cleanse your heart and fill you with His Holy Spirit? 

In Romans seven, Paul is clear in stating that the law could reveal this inward condition of heart and that this inward condition was also a hindrance, but the law could not remove the depravity. Therefore, he cries out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" v. 24.  

Then he answers the heart-rending question by saying, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Going on into the eighth chapter, you no longer see a man and he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will seal this truth to your heart and help you receive all that God has in store for you. Jesus, the First and Last, On Thee my soul is cast: Thou didst Thy work begin By blotting out my sin; Thou wilt the root remove, And perfect me in love. Yet when the work is done, The work is but begun: 

Partaker of Thy grace,

I long to see Thy face;

The first I prove below,

The last I die to know.

Note: This is the first of a five series radio broadcast originally aired from June 15 - August 3, 1947.  Let God Lead Us will be posting all the sermons in the series as follows: 1) Sanctification, what is it? 2) Sanctification, whom is it for? 3) Sanctification, when obtained? 4) Sanctification, why necessary. 5) Sanctification, what it will not do.