Sanctification, Why Necessary?

by Dr. 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.

"And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."

Acts 15:8, 9.

All anyone needs to do to realize the necessity of the sanctified life is to take a look at the Pre-Pentecostal church and at any Christian or church today that ignores or rejects this important truth.

E. Stanley Jones in his book, "The Christ of Every Road," says: "The church is living between Easter and Pentecost. Easter stands for life wrought out, offered; Pentecost stands for life appropriated, lived to its full, unafraid and clearly and powerfully witnessing to an adequate way of human living.

"The church stands hesitant between the two. Hesitant, hence comparatively impotent. Something big has dawned on its thinking -- Christ has lived, taught, died, and risen again and has commissioned the church with the amazing Good News. But something big has yet to dawn in the very structure, make-up, and temper of the life of the church -- Pentecost. Easter has dawned; Pentecost has not. If the church would move up from that between-state to Pentecost, nothing could stop it -- nothing!"

There isn't any question but what this is true. We are confronted with great needs and find ourselves inadequate to meet them. If the Apostles and their associates would have failed to "wait for the promise of the Father," Acts 1:4.

The early church would have been utterly and completely defeated. The great business of the church is to present Christ to a lost world. The world needs to know of the virgin-born Son of God, of the miracles, of the cross, the blood, the resurrection, the ascension, and the ministry of intercession. The only organism, the only body, the only group that can make this great message known is the true church filled with the Holy Ghost. Peter and the rest of the Apostles were not filled with the Holy Ghost just to enjoy a personal experience or blessing, but to be a blessing. They were saved and sanctified to serve.

Samuel Chadwick says, "The church is the body of Christ, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He fills the body, directs its movements, controls its members, inspires its wisdom, supplies its strength. He guides into truth, sanctifies its agents, and empowers for witnessing. The church that is managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is college-trained, but not Spirit-filled, works no miracles. The church that multiplies committees and neglects prayer may be fussy, noisy, enterprising, but it labors in vain and spends its strength for naught."

What we need my friends, is purity of heart and power for service. We can run an organization without God the Holy Spirit, but if the church is to fulfill its God-given mission, she must experience the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost.

Purity

The negative phase of sanctification or purity of heart is necessary before there can be the impartation of power. Purity of heart is to meet my need.

Propagating Power is to meet the need of a lost world. Before the need of a lost world can be met, the individual needs of Christians must be supplied. Jesus was very clear in His command that the disciples were to wait for the promise of the Father before going into the world with the message of salvation. Examining the lives of the disciples before and after Pentecost, I am sure one of the great problems was not to get them to see the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit, but to get them to see the need of being cleansed of their self-seeking and carnal spirit. Perhaps the ten days were not so much for the purpose of infilling as emptying and cleansing. Many people today would have been filled with the Holy Spirit long ago had they been willing for God to cleanse and purify their hearts.

A minister heard a servant of God preach on entire sanctification. He told the speaker that he agreed that there was a baptism with the Holy Ghost and that he felt the need of it and was seeking it. "But," said he, "I do not care for your teaching on entire sanctification or heart cleansing." The speaker told this minister that if he ever got the gift of the Holy Ghost, he would have to take entire sanctification with it, for the first thing the baptism with the Holy Ghost does is to cleanse the heart from all sin. He later permitted God to sanctify him and was filled with the Holy Spirit and mightily empowered to work for God.

Many have looked at the results of Pentecost and the results of other Spirit-filled lives and desired to possess such power, but were unwilling to permit God to cleanse the heart. The great hindrance in the hearts of God's children is that dark, defiant, destructive, evil something that struggles for the mastery of the soul. It refuses to be meek, lowly, patient, forbearing, and holy.

In our text, Peter is reiterating the time when the people on the day of Pentecost and the people at the house of Cornelius were filled with the Holy Ghost. Evidently the purifying effect of that occasion made a deep and lasting impression upon him, for years afterward in the Council of Jerusalem he stood up and affirmed that when they were filled with the Holy Ghost, their hearts were purified.

When unsanctified men see themselves as God sees them, it is not so much the need of power, but the lack of purity that troubles them. This is illustrated in the life of the Prophet Isaiah. He had a vision of the Lord upon His throne, and he cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts," Isaiah 6:5.

The scene that follows is then one of purification.

Power

The natural consequence of purity is power. Even a man who lives a clean, moral, respectable life has a certain power which a vile, cursing, liquor-drinking man does not possess. Men are not influential because they are vile sinners, but many men, even though they may lack in ability and education, if they live good lives are admired and have a dignity and power about them which others do not possess. If a certain amount of outward correctness of conduct increases influence and has a certain power connected with it, how much more powerful will be the life that is cleansed by the power of God. It will not only be the power of good living, but it will also be the power of the Holy Ghost emanating from the life. Unquestionably this power is needed to live victorious over the world. We need to be,

"Dead to the world and all its toys,

Its idle pomp and fading joys."

The world has mastered many a church and professor of religion. The Laodicean church characteristics picture to us the church of the present day. This Laodicean church boasts that she is "Rich and increased with goods, and has need of nothing."

But God says, "Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Revelation 3:17. They were neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. Present-day conditions could not be more clearly depicted. Subtle and sneering influences are producing distrust and unbelief in the definite works wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit. The blood of Christ is underestimated. The miraculous is rejected. Repentance is replaced with reformation and good works. The witness of the Spirit is called "misguided emotion." Real, genuine, scriptural revivals are scarce. An increasing number of professors of religion dance, play cards, attend theaters, dress immodestly, and read the Sunday newspapers instead of the Bible. Only a fraction of one percent go to mid-week prayer meeting. Very few are found in Sunday evening services. In some instances, pulpit fads, sensational, programs, and extravagant methods are used to catch the masses, but they are many times sent away from such a service less susceptible to the real Gospel than when they came. Surely the world has invaded the church or perhaps I should say the church has invited the world. Many leaders are wondering what to do. They want to know how to get back the old-time power and how to get the world out of the church. My friends, when we are willing to let God in our lives and in our churches, the world will go out. The two never dwell together. Worldly power, position, and fame are ruled out when the Holy Ghost comes in. Paul said, "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galatians 6:14.

They whipped, stoned, and imprisoned his body and finally cut off his head, but his soul was free. The Apostle had the Holy Spirit in his life, and as a result had power over the world. This same power is for you; it is for the church, and it is the only power that will do for us what needs to be done.

There is also power over the flesh. God has given us desires for self-preservation and race propagation. These desires are normal and legitimate, but the devil perverts them to wrong uses. Every Christian needs the power of the Holy Ghost in his life to enable him to live victorious over the flesh. When the Holy Ghost enters a man's heart, He does not destroy these desires, but He purifies and regulates them. I know men, who for years, used tobacco and liquor and were given to other sinful habits. God saved and delivered them from these things in regeneration, but in some instances at least, it took the fullness of the Holy Ghost's power to enable them to overcome the temptations that came to them later on.

Again, let me say that we need the Holy Ghost in our lives to overcome the power of the devil. Some would have us believe that there is no personal devil, but I would like to ask, what is the source of all the present-day evil if there is no devil? Jesus knew all too well that there was a devil; the Apostles knew it, and I am sure you know it. He is constantly busy seeking to destroy the work of God and damn the souls of men. Through the power of the Holy Ghost, we can overcome and outwit Satan. Power over all evil and over Satan is God's promise to His children. If you do not have this power, I entreat you to yield yourself fully to Him and ask in faith, and you shall receive.

Unity

Sanctification is also necessary in order to unity. In John 17, Jesus said, "Sanctify them.. that they all may be one." Verses 17, 21

What we want is not some blessing that will make us independent of the Lord Jesus, but something that will make us one with Him -- one in desire, one in will, one in motive, and one in God's desire for the salvation of a lost world. If this is not what we are seeking, we will get little that is of any value. Religion does not consist alone of ecstasies, emotions, thrills, and talking in tongues. It is rather that which brings me into oneness with Christ, not only in a life of holiness, but also in a desire to help a lost world find Christ. Some people are always wanting something that will make them feel good -- something that will give them a thrill. What is needed far more than that is the Holy Spirit Who will help us to look at the world as He looks at it, feel as He feels, love and walk as He loved and walked in the person of Jesus.

This vital unity with Christ will also produce a unity in the church. The same Holy Spirit dwelling in all the hearts of the believers will enable them to love one another and work together with love and consideration. There would be fewer church feuds and factions if the Holy Ghost's sanctifying power would be experienced by each individual.

If time would permit, we could speak of Sanctification as necessary to bear reproach, to bring us to the place of perfect obedience, etc., but we will close by saying that it is necessary in order to be prepared for the Second coming of Christ. Paul says in I Thessalonians 5:23, "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." In Titus 2:13 and 14 Paul says: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Holiness of heart and the second coming of Christ are vitally connected. Surely it would be an embarrassing, disappointing thing if Jesus would come and find in our hearts envy, pride, malice, uncharitableness, unbelief, unconcern, the fear of man, and the shame of the cross. I don't know how much of these things you want in your heart, but as for me, I want to have everything taken out of my heart that is foreign to God's will. When God says, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord," Hebrews 12:14.

I believe He means just that. If He has made provisions for me to have a holy heart, then it is my business to accept those provisions. If I reject them, it will mean that I will have to take the consequences. Someone says, "Oh! we must have a little sin in our lives to keep us humble." Someone has said also that if we really believed that and if it were true, the devil would be the humblest creature in all God's creation. Any man with the smallest amount of judgment knows that such a thing is not true. It takes the grace of God to make and keep men humble.

The sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire is an important part of the preparedness and fitness for the second coming of Christ. My friend, God has revealed this need to you. He calls you to a life of heart purity and propagating power. He calls you to unity and love. With the Holy Spirit's revelation before you, only Christ as your sanctification, appropriated and put on, can make you ready for His appearing.

May God bless and help you to accept that which He has provided for you.

Note: This is the fourth 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.