Sermon Illustrations on Sanctification

Doctrine: Sanctification A Parable From Nature

Sanctified believers renew spiritually like a water spider preserving life in a hostile environment.

A person who is "sanctified in Christ" is like the water spider which is a very peculiar insect. We are peculiar, also, to the environment in which we live. The water spider lives at the bottom of muddy pools and has the distinctive power of ascending to the surface of the pool and there surrounding itself with a tiny globule of air. Thus enveloped it descends to the sludge and ooze at the bottom of the pool and remains there unsullied by its environment until the air is exhausted. Then it rises again to the surface and the process is repeated. So those "sanctified in Christ" find spiritual rejuvenation in daily Bible reading and Christian fellowship, unsullied and undirtied by the hostile environment around them.

God's Model

God patiently perfects imperfect believers like a shipbuilder completing a ship from a blueprint.

A shipbuilder steps out into his yard and looks around him. There are the vast skeletons of ships just commenced; there are others advancing to completion. But there is nothing in the scene to satisfy. The big hulls are at present good for nothing. A thousand hammers are tapping in vexatious discord. The miry ground is strewn with wood and metal. Yet the owner stands content amid the imperfection. He never thinks of even doubting the process he beholds. In his mind he carries the ideal of a perfect ship, and he justifies the imperfect ships by imputing to them that ideal. God is like that great shipbuilder. The ideal man exists in His mind. He has the blueprint; man is like the ship being built. When God looks at it He does not despair, because He knows what He can do with the imperfect man.

The Two Natures

Galatians 5:17

Believers experience an ongoing battle between flesh and Spirit, won by yielding to the Spirit.

“The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.” Galatians 5:17

An American Indian was giving his testimony in a gathering of Christian members of his tribe. He told of his conversion and of how in the beginning he felt as though he would never sin again; he was so happy in knowing His Saviour. But, he explained, as time went on he became conscious of an inward conflict, which he described somewhat as follows: “It seems, my brothers, that I have two dogs fighting in my heart: one is a very good dog, a beautiful white dog, and he is always watching out for my best interests. The other is a very bad dog, a black dog, who is always trying to destroy the things that I want to see built up. These dogs give me a lot of trouble because they are always quarreling and fighting with each other.”

One of his hearers looked up and asked laconically, “Which one wins?” The other instantly replied, “Whichever one I say ‘Sic ‘im’ to.”

Surely there could not be a more apt illustration of the two natures in the believer. “If we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” But if we pander to the flesh, we will be certain to go down in defeat.

The Cleansing Word

Ephesians 5:26

The Word of God cleanses and purifies believers for effective service.

“That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” Ephesians 5:26

The Word is for cleansing as well as for instruction, and if it keeps going through you it will have a marvelous effect upon your mind and heart and life. It will cleanse and purify you and fit you to be a real worker for the Lord Jesus Christ.

You remember the story of the Scotch laddie who was one of those persnickety youngsters who always wanted a reason for everything he was told to do. He was working for a farmer and when the old man told him to do anything, the lad generally asked, “Why?” This disturbed his employer.

On one occasion he said to the boy as he handed him a market basket, “Take this basket down to the creek and fill it with water.” When the laddie asked, “Why?” and started to explain that it would not hold water, the old man replied, “None o’ yer ‘whys.’ I’m paying for your time; you do as I tell you.”

So the boy started for the creek with the basket in his hand. Wading into the water, he dipped the basket into the creek and lifted it up. Of course, the water all ran out.

Disgusted, he said, “It will no’ hold the water.”

The old farmer replied, “Fill it up again.”

Again the lad obeyed, and once more the water all ran through.

His master said, “Fill it again.”

This time the boy answered, “I’ll fill it up once more, but if it does no’ hold this time, you will no make me a fool again.”

So he dipped it into the creek the third time, but as he held it up, the water all ran out. Angry, he flung the basket over into the grass, saying, “Take your auld kreel; no be a fool fer ye or anybody else.”

The old man picked it up good naturedly and then held it between him and the sun. As he examined it carefully, he explained, “It’s a guid deal cleaner than it was, and that’s what it needed.” The water running through it had cleansed away the dirt, and this is how the Word of God affects our lives.

Our Lord Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” We are sanctified by the washing of the water by the Word. We cannot give too much time to the study of this blessed Book. I do not mean merely studying it in order to get sermons out of it, but what we need is a daily, thoughtful, prayerful study of the Word for the nourishment of our own souls, for building ourselves up in our most holy faith.

Gibeonites

Natural affections should be sanctified and subordinated to serve God's purposes.

"Make your sorrows to draw water for the sanctuary. Our natural affections, like the Gibeonites, must not be exterminated, but kept for temple service." The Stoic slays his emotions, the Christian sanctifies them to noblest ends. It is like a brute not to feel, it is like a man to feel tenderly, and it is like a Christian to feel in a chastened manner. We may weep, and we may rejoice, and when our weeping is in sympathy with the afflicted, and our rejoicing is in brotherly fellowship with the joyful, the Gibeonites are indeed made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the sanctuary. Business, marriage, travelling, recreation, literature, music, art, should all be placed in the same subordinate condition. They are not distinctly spiritual, and as mere human matters they may be either right or wrong; but it is ours to lay the yoke upon them, and make them serve our spiritual designs. They will make admirable servants; we can never allow them to be our masters. The Gibeonites might not be killed, but they were to be placed under the yoke, and made to be useful, and the same must be done with the matters which we have mentioned. It would be foolish to endeavour to put these things down, for they are incidental to human existence; it is wise therefore to subdue them to do servile work for the Lord. O Lord, give me ever so to use worldly things as never to be worldly myself: rather may I sanctify them by the word of God and prayer!

New Leaves Pushing Off The Old

New spiritual life naturally pushes out old sinful habits and corruptions.

"Old leaves, if they remain upon the trees through the autumn and the winter, fall off in the spring." We have seen a hedge all thick with dry leaves throughout the winter, and neither frost nor wind has removed the withered foliage, but the spring has soon made a clearance. The new life dislodges the old, pushing it away as unsuitable to it. So our old corruptions are best removed by the growth of new graces. "Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." It is as the new life buds and opens that the old worn-out things of our former state are compelled to quit their hold of us. Our wisdom lies in living near to God, that by the power of his Holy Spirit all our graces may be vigorous, and may exercise a sin-expelling power over our lives: the new leaves of grace pushing off our old sere affections and habits of sin. With converts from the world it is often better not to lay down stringent rules as to worldly amusements, but leave the new life and its holier joys to push off the old pleasures. Thus it will be done more naturally and more effectively. Lord, let thy life in me push off the relics of my former death, that I may put on the new man, and manifest the energy of thy grace.

The River Swollen By Being Dammed

Opposing sin often intensifies its struggle, revealing deeper sanctification at work.

"Corruption, the more it is opposed the more it stormeth and groweth outrageous; as a river swelleth by reason of dams and banks, which are raised against it. Corruptions rage against restraints till the floods break loose." This figure is a good one. Corrupt desires will often lie quiet till they are earnestly opposed, and then they swell and rage. The gracious man sets himself with resolution to overcome a habit, and, like a beast at bay, it fights tooth and nail as if for dear life. The more he prays, the more he mortifies himself; the more he avoids the sin, the more does it appear to force itself upon him. The water flows easily enough down the unimpeded bed of the river, and it will readily enough overflow and cover the meadows; but once put up an embankment, or attempt to stem the torrent, and it chafes and rages, and displays all its force. So sin may be quiet; but when grace enters the heart it revives, resists, and raises rebellion, setting the soul into a horrible tumult. We must not think that the work of sanctification has ceased because impetuous passions are more clearly perceived, and the power of the flesh is more deeply deplored. It is possible that the energy of inbred sin may become all the more apparent because through divine grace it is more strenuously resisted.

When the vital energy is great, it throws out upon the surface diseases which, with a feebler vitality, would have lain smouldering within: when spiritual life is forceful, it hunts to the surface evils which else would have festered in the heart. There are times with the ungodly man when all goes smoothly, and the current of his life flows placidly; but, nevertheless, the whole stream is polluted from the fountain-head to the outfall, though he knows it not. With the godly man life's inward stream is seldom thus deceitfully smooth. The Christian's old nature is opposed at every turn by his faith, repentance, prayers, and other dams and embankments of grace; and hence the dashing of the waves, and the roaring and the swelling of the evil torrent. Even the pure stream of the river of the water of life, which flows into him from the throne of God, for a while only creates a greater tumult. The waters will not blend, and hence they contend one with another till the man is placed in the position of Paul's ship when it fell into a place where two seas met. Truly, the entrance of Christ into the heart, though it ends in ultimate rest, yet for a while brings not peace, but a sword. When a man dreams that he is perfect, and therefore ceases to fight against his secret sins, all seems well; but let him look into the depths of his heart, and behold the corruptions which slumber there, and let him seek to expel them; and a battle will begin, compared with which the strife of the warrior and the garments rolled in blood are as nothing. The heart is rent in pieces by the opposing parties, neither does it seem possible to live because of the conflict. Let us not despair while this fierce contest is going on: we are but suffering with the universe of which we form a part, for "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." These groans, and pangs are bringing on that glorious birth out of which shall come the new heavens and the new earth. Even so it is with us: our inward travail and sore conflict will work out an immortal perfection, which is the consummation of the work of the Spirit in the soul. When the waves rage terribly, let us remember that "the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." He will quell the opposition, and in due time dry up the rivers of inbred sin, destroying the very fountains thereof, and giving to his people ineffable rest and unutterable delight. O, my Lord, give me grace to curb every evil tendency within myself, and the more I perceive that these evil affections chafe and rebel, the more determined may I be that I will dam them up, and that they shall not have their way. Only help thou me, and as the struggle grows more arduous, let thy grace become more plenteous. Surely in this conflict all power must come from thee, for thou alone canst impart the strength that I need. Hast thou not said, "Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness"? Arise, O Lord, let not sin prevail, but get to thyself the victory in me.

Perfection, Attaining

Believers progressively grow in Christlikeness until perfected at death.

At present the believer is like the marble in the hand of the sculptor; but though, day by day, he may give fresh touches, and work the marble into greater emulation of the original, the resemblance will be far from complete until death. Each fresh degree of likeness is a fresh advance towards perfection. It must then be, the when every feature is moulded into similitude; when all traces of feebleness and depravity are swept away forever, the statute breathes, and the picture burns with Deity, — it must be that then we "shall be filled." We shall look on the descending Mediator, and, as though the ardent gaze drew down celestial fire, we shall seem instantly to pass through the re-liner's furnace, and leaving behind all the dishonor of the grave, and all the dross of corruptible humanity, spring upward, an ethereal, rapid, glowing thing, Christ's image, extracted by Christ's lustre. Melvill.

Sanctification, Internal

External cleanliness without internal holiness profits nothing, as with Pilate and Judas.

Many have clean hands, but unclean hearts. They wash the outside of the cup and platter, when all is filthy within. Now, the former without the latter profits a man no more than it profited Pilate, who condemned Christ, to wash his hands in the presence of the people: he washed his hands of the blood of Christ, and yet had a hand in the death of Christ. The Egyptian temples were beautiful on the outside; but within you shall find nothing but some serpent or crocodile. "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly." Judas was a saint without, but a sinner within; openly a disciple, but secretly a devil. Mead.

Sanctification, Nature of

Sanctification is total surrender of will to God, living as a burnt offering to Christ.

I must tell you we do not well understand what sanctification and the new creature are. It is no less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his own will to the will of God, and to live in the offering-up of his soul continually in the flames of love, as a whole burnt-offering to Christ; and, oh! how many who profess Christianity are unacquainted experimentally with his work upon their souls!

— Abp. Usher

Sanctification, Process of

Sanctification is a gradual, skillful process often unnoticed until nearly complete.

It is wonderful to see how the little events of our daily life tend to our sanctification, though we know it not at the time. Every week seems so like the other! But you know when the sculptor begins his work, he strikes great pieces off the block. Every stroke tells visibly. But, when the statue is nearly finished, he takes the fine chisel, and strikes off but a little dust at a time. You scarcely see the effects of the blow; yet then it is directed with most art and skill,—then the work is nearly done.

Doing and Suffering.

Scoffer, Panished

A scoffer claiming sanctification suddenly dies, showing false profession's danger.

One evening, a young girl, mocking religious people, proceeded to speak of her "experience," and, in conclusion, shouted, "Glory to God! I have found peace, I am sanctified, I am now fit to die." As the words passed her lips, she fell senseless to the floor, and was taken up a corpse.

— S. S. Times

Eternal Life, Making Room For

God cleanses selfishness from believers so eternal life can flow fully within them.

Have you ever noticed what happens when from one cause or another the water-mains in any street have become choked or polluted by the intrusion of some foreign body? You will see some one come along with an iron instrument and turn on the stopcock at some point in the roadway. Immediately there comes an up-rush, a mighty volume of water--swirling, heaving, rolling, hurtling out of the pipes beneath. And you will observe, too, that for a time it seems to be charged with filth; whatever it is that has been blocking the flow of the life-giving element is being stirred up and flung out with immense force. But after a time the jet clears, the evil is gone, the water becomes sweet and pure, and the flow full and steady. Then the covering is replaced; the cleansing process is at an end. And so it is with you and me. God has to get rid of our selfishness somehow that the life eternal may possess us through and through. The cleansing may seem to be a stern matter, but it is best to let Him have his way to the uttermost. We must be crucified with Christ in order to live with Him, but no man would ever repine at what it costs if he could foresee what is to be gained.--R. J. CAMPBELL, _The Christian Commonwealth_.

Imperfections Corrected

God replaces our character’s imperfections with Christ-like qualities as we grow in Him.

Some years ago I visited Albany, N. Y., when the Capitol was not finished. I saw men at work, apparently, removing stones from the wall on one side. When I asked about it, a workman said: “When that wall was erected they were unable to get granite of the right quality and color to complete the architect’s design. In order that the work might not be delayed, some blocks of wood were used temporarily. Now they have the quality and color of granite required, and are taking out those wooden blocks and replacing them with granite.” The Capitol was being built up, after the fashion of the architect’s ideal.

So it is to-day with us. In the temple, our character, which is His dwelling-place, there are faulty stones. As we come to a clearer knowledge of the person of Jesus we perceive these imperfections and replace them with alabaster hewn from the Rock of Ages, “carved as the angels carved their crowns in the fadeless days of June.” If we are living up to the requirements of our profession, we are thus being built up in Him, continually approaching the ideal of the Master architect. (Text.)

— H. G. FURBAY

A Weak Attitude Toward Sin

Rev. Jack Hyles exposed. One problem is his weak attitude toward sin. He thinks all Christians have good and bad (wheat & tares) in them and should not try to root out the weeds. Christian workers can sin as long as they repent. [P. 22] - Backsliding is a normal part of Christian life - if you don't backslide you don't grow. All sins are equally bad in God's sight.

Torn In Two!

Romans 7

Analysis of passage in Romans 7-8.

1. Christians can sin.

2. Paul's struggle with the law.

a. Period it relates to.

b. Normal Christian experience.

3. The power of sin to control.

4. Victory through Jesus.

5. Walking in the Spirit.

Christian Counseling: Putting On the Lord Jesus

John 16:33

I want to share with you a perspective that I have come to understand that I think is very, very important. There is afoot today, basically fostered by the psychological movement within the Church, an effort to cause people to believe that the path to sanctification is backwards and not forward; that the process to spirituality and Christian growth and Christian development isn’t putting on the Lord Jesus Christ now, putting off sin, and living in the light of the future return of Christ: but the real key to sanctification is going backwards.

I was involved in a pastor’s conference — I’ve been involved in, I think, three or four of them in the last three or four weeks. In one of them, some pastors posed the issue to me that sanctification couldn’t begin unless people could get under the care of some counselor who could dig up the traumatic hidden things of the past; and only when a person was freed from these matters in the past could they get on with the present and the future.

My response to that was, “What verse does it say that in? Show me where. I will be more than happy to ascribe to that if you can show me in the Scripture.” And of course there is nothing in the Scripture, other than the statement by Paul, that says, “forgetting those things that are behind, I press forward.” There is nothing on the pages of Scripture anywhere that tells anyone that their spiritual future is dependent upon their past. It is dependent upon their present action with a view to the future, not their present action with a view to the past. Psychology may deal with the “old man” but it can’t deal with the “new man.” There is nothing to be benefited by going backwards and trying to uncover something in the past as somehow the key to unlocking the future. The key to unlocking the future for you is to act in the present, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to make no provision for the flesh.

I hear people say, “But I come from a dysfunctional family.” Join the human race! I come from a dysfunctional family, I conduct a dysfunctional family, I am a dysfunctional human being, and so are you. I cannot function the way God made me to function. I cannot do what I am supposed to do. I do what I don’t want to do, and I don’t do what I want to do – I am dysfunctional! I was raised with dysfunctional people. I still live with dysfunctional people, and they live with a dysfunctional person. That’s the way it is if you are fallen.

You say, “But you don’t understand, I have hidden repressed trauma.” Let me talk about that for a moment. This is a major wave in Evangelical Christianity, to tell people that the present and the future is dependent upon uncovering repressed trauma from the past. This has come to me like a flood. Yesterday morning I was in Denver, Colorado, at a pastor’s conference, and I was having breakfast with a graduate of the Master’s Seminary. He said to me, “John, I have to ask you a question. I have been acquainted with a girl and she needs some help and I’m wondering how I can help her. She has just been going through counseling, and she just found out that her father molested her when she was a child. She doesn’t remember it, but it all came out in counseling.” This was yesterday.

Before I left for Denver, Pastor Arnold Ruby came into my office to say that we just got a phone call from someone in our church who is very concerned and wants to come in and talk to a pastor immediately, his wife’s been in counseling and she’s just found out she was molested by her father when she was a child. She doesn’t remember it but he needs to come in and learn how to deal with it Biblically.

That was a few days after I was, last Sunday, dedicating a church in Long Beach, in the afternoon, after I preached here. After that, a man came up to me, whom I have known for many years. I have known his family. I have known them to be godly people. He’s a man of about 70 years of age. His wife is a godly woman, highly esteemed and respected for years in the Christian community. [They are] wonderful, precious people, and he told me with a broken and shattered heart, his wife now in glory for 12 years, he said to me, “My daughter has just come and accused me of committing incest with her when she was young and they have destroyed our family.” I said, “Whatever brought that up? Why did they do that?” And he said, “She went to counseling and it all supposedly came out in counseling. It has destroyed our family. It is nothing but lies.” So that’s about three times in one week.

To add to that I picked up a newspaper which fascinates me no end. It was an article out of the Dallas newspaper in their “D Magazine”, which is sent out to a million people and they do some “cutting edge” journalism. And I only want you to focus on this to see the epidemic level of this kind of thinking. It’s a story of a girl who, in her early twenties, in the area of Dallas, tried to bring an indictment against her parents. She wanted to indict her parents. She said that her parents had abused her and she wanted something brought against them by the courts. Her father is a Baptist pastor, has been faithfully serving the Lord with his wife and she and her brother: two children. And they were raised in a very normal happy, positive, joyful family, and he served the Lord in pastoring Baptist churches for many, many years.

Now she had come into court and she was accusing him of some quite shocking things. Accusing the mother of abuse; accusing the brother of incest and molestation, accusing the father of molestation from the age of ten on. Said that her father got her pregnant at the age of fourteen. She bore a baby which the father offered on an altar to Satan. They had a Satanic altar in the home and they worshiped Satan. And she went on beyond that, to talk about cannibalism and other kinds of things that were going on supposedly in the home in the life of this Baptist pastor and this family which had so traumatized her life. The parents were absolutely devastated, absolutely shattered. Of course, he was thrust out of the ministry. Chaos reigned supreme in their lives from every possible direction.

According to “D Magazine” they brought the case into court, into a hearing. And in the process of trying to develop this thing and find out whether some charges should be brought against the family, they put the girl through all kinds of tests, all kinds of witnesses were brought. The upshot of it was, the court decided that at the end, that not one single word she said had any relationship to reality. Nothing she said was true. Medical tests on her indicated that she had never had a relationship with a man. Furthermore, people knew the family, lived in the home, intersected in that home because he was a small church pastor, and there was no such thing as a Satanic altar in the memory of anybody who had ever known them in all the years of their ministry. All the accusations turned out to be untrue.

Well, obviously, when this hit the public, down in Texas, it became a curiosity as to where in the world this girl got all this information if it really didn’t happen. Where did it all come from? Those are some pretty frightening things and it became apparent in the process that she seemed to believe they were really true. She wouldn’t speak to her parents. They are totally alienated to this very day. She is still dependent on a particular counselor. She will not look at her parents, cannot see her parents. That relationship has permanently been destroyed.

The people at “D Magazine” decided to look a little more deeply into this, and this is what they uncovered, according to the newspaper (I read the article and I may have a few of the details wrong from memory, but its going to be pretty close). This girl had a little bit of a weight problem, which is not uncommon in our day, in our society, and was feeling a little bit like she wouldn’t be able to find the right young man for marriage if she didn’t deal with it, and so someone suggested (apparently) that if she was feeling badly about this problem [she should] go to the Christian Counseling Clinic in Dallas and get some help. She went there and was assigned to a particular counselor. And this particular counselor began to counsel her and within about a few months, maybe six months, all of this came out, in this process of counseling. She didn’t remember any of it, but he brought it all out and the theory is (and this is Freudian Theory) that somehow if you have severe trauma in your past, you push it below the level of memory, and it becomes repressed. You don’t remember it consciously, you don’t think about it consciously, but somehow it’s down there in your “id” (as Freud liked to call it) and it’s messing up your whole life, even though you don’t consciously remember it. And if you are going to get on with life, it has to be regurgitated and you have to deal with it and so forth. And of course this is a wonderful ploy for people who don’t want any responsibility for being the way they are.

I remember flying on an airplane, and a stewardess sitting next to me “deadheading” somewhere, and she saw me reading the Bible, she said, “Are you a pastor?” And I said, “Yes.” She said, “Do you counsel?” And I said, “Sometimes.” She said, “I am in counseling now (she was not a Christian).” She said, “I just got the best news.” I said, “What?” She said, “I just found out my father molested me and abused me.” I said, “That’s good news?” She said, “Yes, because now I know why I am the way I am.”

If you want to dispossess yourself of any responsibility for being the way you are, which of course, is contrary to Biblical truth, then you can find somebody in your past that you can blame for the things that are in your life that you don’t like. And so this is a convenient kind of thing. Well, anyway, the girl went in and she got the counseling and within six months she brought this entire barrage of accusations involving Satan worship, cannibalism, molestation, pregnancy, just a horrendous list, and I haven’t even given you all of the list.

How did this happen? It turned out in court to be absolutely unsubstantiated and not true. But where did it come from? That was the curiosity. Well, they started in the investigation, went back and looked at the records of this particular counselor and found that this was the pattern in the majority of all the people he counseled, that they had Satanic involvement, occult involvement, molestation, and these kinds of things. In other words, if you go to that counselor, he’s going to find that in your background. Eventually the clinic became embarrassed by this and he was terminated. They went back further into his record with the Texas State Health Commission (he worked for the Mental Health Department of Texas), they found the very same pattern in the people he counseled there. And what you saw in this situation was a man creating false memories. And this is what is happening. You get vulnerable people, and I don’t say this in any way to slight women, but I have never heard of a man having this situation happen. It is vulnerable women, Paul even says, “In the latter times there will be women with weak will who will be led astray,” and one of the characteristics of last time days is going to be the loss of normal family love, and so we kind of expect to see this.

But anyway, they take this kind of a person, who is susceptible to suggestion from an authority figure and they begin, through a process, to create memories which displace responsibility for iniquity and sin and struggles in life, put it off on somebody else, [which] develops a hate pattern for other people, and alienates, and destroys, and devastates, and wipes out whole families. It’s a frightening, frightening thing. Absolutely frightening, and it is at an epidemic level today. It’s a frightening thing because of the power of suggestion.

“D Magazine” went a little further in the investigation and they decided to find out whether it is true that people can repress that kind of trauma. And so they contacted people with the psychological tests, those who can assess what people remember and what they don’t. And all the statistics they got indicated that every one of those kinds of experiences is precisely the kind of experience you could never forget no matter how you tried. You couldn’t repress it. You could never repress those things. If your father molested you and if incest went on from the age of ten to twenty one–you’re telling me you could forget that and think you were happy? And if you were involved in cannibalism with your own child–you could forget that?

Listen, you and I well know that we have all kinds of things in our minds that we would give anything if we could forget, but we can’t! And God has given us a memory for the purpose of reminding us how painful that was so we don’t do it anymore. What kind of restraint would we have if we could only remember good things? So it doesn’t even flesh out in terms of psychological testing. This is a very, very, serious matter.

I saw a book in the Christian bookstore, where I was recently, that said, “How to Heal Yourself From Your Birthmarks,” your psychological birthmarks. You’re born into the world and you’re all warped and wiped out because of what happened to you in your birth, and in your early childhood, and in your family, and this tears families to shreds. It is a frightening, frightening thing. It is not Biblical but it is rampant, absolutely rampant in Christian counseling today. What grieves me about this is the fact that I keep running into this all the time–all the time. I was asked that question this week in Denver, “Don’t you think that psychology is important in going back and digging up the past and getting those things healed, those hidden hurts and traumas, so that somebody can move on to be sanctified?” I said, “Are you saying basically that the Holy Spirit can sanctify you if you can find a good psychologist to get you ‘Jump Started’? Are you saying that somehow the Holy Spirit can’t deal with the present and the future until somebody else deals with the past?”

This is foreign to Scripture. It is destructive, because the only way you’ll ever be honestly dealing with your own sin is not to go in the past and have somebody create false memories, not to go into the past and find somebody to blame for your problem, but take responsibility for where you are and begin to act on the principles of what this text [Romans 13:11-14] says. It’s amazing how we can create memories. In that kind of a situation with people reinforcing, you can literally create something into a reality that isn’t real at all. This is devastating, because it doesn’t deal with a person’s life where they are, and it tears up families. It’s another false path to sanctification that ends up in pain and confusion and hurt, and accomplishes absolutely nothing.

If you want to get your Christian life together, don’t go back, leave that alone. You can’t fix it. Right? And don’t let somebody create phony memories of what you can’t remember. You start where you are.

A Clean Break With Bad Habits

Habits are a form of learned, automatic behavior that provide pleasure and comfort. A bad habit has long-term negative consequences, but it still gives immediate comfort, and under stress the automatic tendency is to revert to it. Bad habits must be unlearned and replaced.

1. Plan ahead.

2. Adopt new habits.

3. Enlist your family and friends.

4. Avoid high-risk situations.

5. Set realistic goals.

6. Give yourself rewards.

7. Be honest with yourself.

8. Don't let a lapse become a relapse.

How Does Holiness Come?

John 15:5

Does holiness come by striving after it or by resting in God?

1. The Mystery of Sanctification.

No Christian who treats the Word of God with casual indifference or

approaches it only sporadically and haphazardly will progress much in

holiness.

2. Renewing Our Minds.

3. Watching Against Temptation.

4. Choosing Obedience.

5. Praying for Holiness.

6. Final Dependence.

Distinguishing Between What Is Really Needed, and What Is Not

In Jules Verne’s novel The Mysterious Island he tells of five men who escape a Civil War prison camp by hijacking a hot-air balloon. As they rise into the air, they realize the wind is carrying them over the ocean. Watching their homeland disappear on the horizon, they wonder how much longer the balloon can stay aloft.

As the hours pass and the surface of the ocean draws closer, the men decide they must cast overboard some of the weight, for they had no way to heat the air in the balloon. Shoes, overcoats and weapons are reluctantly discarded, and the uncomfortable aviators feel their balloon rise. But only temporarily. Soon they find themselves dangerously close to the waves again, so they toss their food. Better to be high and hungry than drown on a full belly!

Unfortunately, this, too, is only a temporary solution, and the craft again threatens to lower the men into the sea. One man has an idea: they can tie the ropes that hold the passenger car and sit on those ropes. Then they can cut away the basket beneath them, As they sever the very thing they had been standing on, it drops into the ocean, and the balloon rises.

Not a minute too soon, they spot land. Eager to stand on terra firma again, the five jump into the water and swim to the island. They live, spared because they were able to discern the difference between what really was needed and what was not. The “necessities” they once thought they couldn’t live without were the very weights that almost cost them their lives.

The writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles."

"Holiness: Now and To Eternity"

Will I ever be Holy? Is it possible that someday in this life I will be

holy or pure in everything that I do?

A. Our Positional Holiness: What We Are.

1) Believers are made holy by God. Heb 10:10

a) Meaning behind "justification."

b) We are holy in our standing before God.

2) Even the weakest Christian is a "saint."

B. Our Progressive Holiness: Being What We Are.

1) Holiness requires effort. Heb 12:14

a) We can train ourselves to be holy. 1 Tim 4:7

b) We progress in being holy in our thinking...

2) Half of the New Testament is encouragement to live holy lives.

a) Example of John Wesley

b) Burden for me - challenge congregation on holy living.

C. Our Prospective Holiness: What We Will Become.

1) Our struggle with sin will be a lifelong battle.

a) We are living in a "body of sin." Rom 6:6

2) Someday we will exchange it for a perfect body.

a) Our practice and position will be in harmony.

#1374

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His Request For Money Led To Life-Changing Faith

Acts 3:1

When Kevin approached a group of Southern Baptist missionaries-in-training at a bus stop, all he wanted was a few dollars to pay for gasoline. Seminary student Katherine Waters* agreed to help if Kevin would allow her to share a story with him.

Kevin consented. So Waters proceeded to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The ensuing discussion filled the next hour, with Waters and her teammates explaining the Gospel and clarifying the truths of Scripture. Having forgotten his original intent, Kevin listened with an open mind, repeatedly saying such things as “That makes sense” and “Oh, now I get it.”

“It was truly beautiful to see his eyes being opened to the truth of the Word,” said Waters, a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

At the end of that first hour, Kevin placed his faith in Christ and, as Waters put it, “it was amazing to see the Holy Spirit instantly start convicting him.”

Kevin began asking questions. Reflecting on all the sins in his life that he would have to give up -- including drugs, alcohol and worldly music -- Kevin inquired, “So can I still do this? ... Can I still do that?”

“You could see his fleshly desires being confronted with the Word and Spirit of the Lord,” Waters recounted.

Kevin then asked what living for God should look like. In response, Waters and her teammates spoke with him for another hour, discipling him regarding how to live as a follower of Christ.

Waters and another team member met with Kevin again the following Sunday to encourage him and disciple him further. They spoke about such matters as church, baptism, the Lord’s Supper and the importance of sharing his faith with others.

“It was a great time of encouragement,” Waters said. “He actually asked us if you were allowed to baptize yourself, because he knew he was supposed to be baptized, and so he had gone home and tried to baptize himself in his kitchen sink! How sweet to see God working in a life that would be so fervent to follow Christ in obedience. ... Of course, we told him the point of baptism is to be a public display of one’s faith, so he is going to find a church to baptize him.”

Reflecting on the overall experience, Waters said it was “pretty incredible to see my Savior work in Kevin’s heart. I was so blessed to be able to experience that and glorify God through God’s saving power in Kevin.

“Isn’t our God so good,” she said, “that He chooses to allow us to witness and participate in His incredible work of changing lives?”

________

*Name changed to protect future mission work.

"Quality Control"

Ezekiel 36:25

Sermon in 12 Step series. Removing defects. Ezekiel 36:25-27

===============

QUALITY CONTROL

===============

Step 6: "We are entirely ready to have God remove all our defects

of character."

Step 7: "We humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings."

I. How much of us does God want?

A. We are often willing to turn over our worst problems.

B. A dramatic victory in one area can make us smug elsewhere.

C. God wants all of us, not just a part.

II. Victory over moral defects is a life-long challenge.

A. It's all in the timing.

B. Genuine change involves human / Divine cooperation.

III. The goal is nothing short of perfection.

A. God's heart becomes our heart.

B. When can it happen?

C. Make a beginning, keep trying.

IV. Humility is the key.

A. Not a favorite topic in our society.

B. Confusing "means" and "ends."

C. Humility can be learned.

V. Humility changes our attitude about God.

A. Many view God as a pinch-hitter for emergencies.

B. Genuinea humility submits all of us to God.

#2601

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"Shaped By the Master"

John 21:22

Story of a Chinese Christian who learned from adversity.

We cannot dispute God’s decisions. He alone knows who requires rougher treatment in his quarry. After Jesus’ resurrection, he told Peter that his death would involve persecution. Looking at John, Peter pouted, “Lord, what about him?” In other words, “If I have to suffer, shouldn’t he, too?” Jesus answered him bluntly: “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me” (Jn 21:22).

Harry Lee painfully re-lived that truth. Born into a well-to-do, well-educated Chinese family, Harry seemed to have a comfortable future assured. Then his father died when Harry was still a boy. As the family’s wealth evaporated, Harry, the oldest son, was left with the responsibility for his mother and siblings.

From his teenage years Harry had loved and served the Lord. He felt called to the ministry and for 12 frustrating years sought to leave China to attend seminary. His close friends got out and established themselves in free lands. The woman he wanted to marry also left China. But Harry stayed while the government brought increasing pressure to close the church he led.

Then his brother, whom he’d led to Christ, died in prison. Harry was arrested while trying to escape China and was given 11 years imprisonment on trumped-up charges. Finally on his way to seminary at the age of 56, he wondered, “Did I require chastisement? Why did I have to suffer all that?” Then, considering the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God, he concluded, “Maybe God wanted me in another school first, before seminary. Maybe because I began as such a sheltered, privileged person, he had to get me ready for something more...to teach me faith, trust, peace, unaffected by circumstances.”

What Is Baptism In the Holy Spirit?

John 1:33

“Baptism in the Spirit” is used with different meanings by various groups. Key passages are examined. In NT usage, the reception of the Spirit at conversion is our baptism in the Spirit.

Often overlooked is the fact that Paul uses a second metaphor in 1 Cor 12:13. When we enter into a relationship with Christ we are not only baptized in the Spirit, but also given the one Spirit to drink. This means that we can now draw on the Spirit’s power and guidance to help us in our daily lives and to assist us in our ministry to other people. This is a perfect metaphor to describe our need to depend on the Spirit day by day and even hour by hour.

Secondary experiences with the Spirit are better described as filling or drinking rather than baptism.

Let Us Beware of Apostasy: A Look At Hebrews 10:26-31

Mark 9

The following is from the Way of Life Advanced Bible Studies Series title on Hebrews. This important book of the Bible opens the veil and invites us to gaze upon the throne in the holy of holiness on high more plainly than any other book of the New Testament. Hebrews “presents the only full discussion in the New Testament of Christ as the believer’s High Priest.”

We show that the blood was not merely symbolic for death but was itself a crucial part of the atonement. The book of Hebrews teaches us anew that the Bible is a self-interpreting Book. In the book of Hebrews we have a divinely-given interpretation of the Old Testament tabernacle and priesthood. These were types of Christ and prophecies of the future and we are not left to imagine what they might mean. We are given a definite key to their interpretation.

Hebrews, of course, is not only for Jews. It is for all of God’s people throughout the church age, and it is a very practical book. Scattered throughout are exhortations to everyday Christian living based on the doctrine that is taught. Hebrews contains essential instruction about sanctification, backsliding and apostasy, Bible study, prayer, the exercise of faith, chastisement, the ministry of exhortation, church attendance, church leadership, hospitality, and worship.

________________________________

“For if we sin willfully after that we have received the

knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for

sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery

indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that

despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three

witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be

thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and

hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was

sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the

Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance

belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again,

The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall

into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:26-31

1. The key to understanding this passage is to understand what the willful sin of Hebrews 10:26 refers to.

It does not refer to willful sin in general. If it did, every believer would be in perpetual danger of losing his salvation, but it cannot refer to this for elsewhere in Scripture we find that that sin remains in the Christian life in this present world and Christ remains the propitiation for sin at all times.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the

truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and

just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him

a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these

things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we

have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And

he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but

also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 1:8 - 2:2).

The Bible plainly teaches that Christians do sin after they are saved. There is no sinless perfection in the Christian life in this present world. Paul testified, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). The believer’s righteousness is in Jesus Christ positionally (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21).

The willful sin of Hebrews 10:26 is defined in the immediate context. The first rule of Bible interpretation is context, context, context, and if we examine the context of this passage carefully, we see that this particular sin is defined in verse 29: “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”

The willful sin in verse 26, therefore, refers not to sin in general but to one particular sin, that of “counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace.” This is to deny that salvation is by Christ’s blood and grace alone. In the immediate context to which the book of Hebrews was addressed, it refers to the Jews who professed confidence in Christ but because of persecution returned to their dead religion and thus gave up confidence in Christ.

False religion, both then and now, attempts to replace Christ’s grace with a manmade system. Catholicism is an example. It preaches Christ, but it intermingles its own sacraments and priesthood and sainthood with the grace of Christ. This is a false gospel that robs Christ of His glory as the sole Saviour and Mediator. If Christ is not the Saviour wholly and exclusively, He is not Saviour at all. If grace is intermingled in any sense with works, the Gospel is perverted, and there is no salvation in a perverted gospel (Rom. 11:6; Gal. 1:6-9).

To “trod under foot the Son of God and count His blood an unholy thing” is not an ordinary sin. It is akin to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that Christ warned about in Matthew 12:31 (where the Jewish leaders renounced Jesus in the most final manner by attributing His miracles to the devil). The willful sin of Hebrews 10 is to reject Christ as Lord and Saviour. It is to renounce Him and His atonement. There can be no salvation when one commits such a sin because in doing so one has rejected the only means that God has provided for salvation. No true believer can commit such a sin, for “the just shall live by faith” (Heb. 10:38). We see in Hebrews 10:26-29 that the writer is not speaking of true believers when he warns of apostasy, because in 10:39 he concludes the passage with these words: “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

To do “despite unto the Spirit of grace” is the same as to “fall from grace” (Gal. 5:4). The word “despite” means to “insult” (Strong). To do despite unto the Spirit of grace means to turn from salvation by grace and to attempt to be saved by works or by a mixture of grace plus works. It means to reject the Holy Spirit’s testimony about the grace of Christ. “The Holy Spirit delights to magnify Christ and to exalt His work. To refuse His testimony is to do despite unto the Spirit of grace” (Ironside). This was the error of the Judaizers who were trying to corrupt the churches in Galatia. They were attempting to replace the grace alone gospel that Paul had preached with a false one of “grace” intermingled with works.

The Jews of that day who had professed Christ and to whom the book of Hebrews is addressed were in danger of returning to the Mosaic system and thus turning their backs to the gospel of the grace of Christ. To do this is to demonstrate that one is not saved, because salvation is to trust oneself wholly to the grace of Christ. Those who turn back to works religion demonstrate that they have never understood nor believed in grace in a saving sense.

Consider the following important statement on this passage by Harry Ironside: “It is not mere failure in the life that is here contemplated. The willful sin in this passage is the definite rejection of His atoning sacrifice. Nor is this simply the foolish and wicked determination of a moment, of which many have been guilty, but have afterwards been brought to sincere repentance. The verb [‘sin willfully’] is the present participle. It is what has become habitual. If, after fully examining what the Old Testament Scriptures teach concerning Christ and His work and comparing it with the New Testament presentation, thus having obtained the knowledge of the truth, one deliberately and persistently rejects it, God has nothing more to say to him. ... Satan has used this passage to trouble and perplex honest souls whose sensitive consciences accuse them of failure to walk with God as they should. Such have often been made to fear that they were guilty of the willful sin here contemplated. But it is not the question of what is commonly called ‘backsliding’ that is before us. Of this any real believer may often be guilty; but even when overwhelmed with failure, he clings more tenaciously than ever to the fact that Jesus is the only Saviour and His sacrifice the only means of deliverance from sin’s judgment. The apostate of this chapter has no such hope or consciousness. He has spurned utterly both the Christ and the cross. He holds the blood of Jesus in contempt, and hence for him, there is nothing but doom ahead” (Ironside).

Consider another important statement on this passage by Matthew Henry: “This text has been the occasion of great distress to some gracious souls; they have been ready to conclude that every willful sin, after conviction and against knowledge, is the unpardonable sin: but this has been their infirmity and error. The sin here mentioned is a total and final apostasy, when men with a full and fixed will and resolution despise and reject Christ, the only Saviour, -- despise and resist the Spirit, the only sanctifier, -- and despise and renounce the gospel, the only way of salvation, and the words of eternal life; and all this after they have known, owned, and professed, the Christian religion, and continue to do so obstinately and maliciously.”

2. To “receive the knowledge of the truth” is not the same as committing oneself to the truth in a saving fashion (Heb. 10:26). Many receive the knowledge of the truth in the sense of knowing in their hearts that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, but for whatever reason do not repent and trust Christ as their Lord and Saviour and eventually draw back to the world. We have seen this countless times in our missionary work. One Hindu lawyer faithfully attended our church services for a full year and professed an appreciation for the things we preached. He bought a Bible and even attended the mid-week prayer services, but he refused to repent and to commit himself to Christ and finally fell away entirely. There was something in his life that he was holding on to and that kept him from receiving Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. The rich young ruler is an example of this in the Bible. He came to Jesus and asked what he had to do to have eternal life, but because of his great riches he went away sorrowful.

3. What about the statement in Heb. 10:29 that says the individual “was sanctified”? Some claim that this describes someone who is saved and then loses his salvation when he turns from Christ, but Bible words must be defined by their context. The method of false teachers is to give one definition to a Bible word and then to force that definition into all passages, but the correct method is to allow the context itself to define the word. When we do this we see that Bible words have different meanings in different contexts. That is how we define words in daily life. The word “run” can mean to run literally or it can mean to walk or even to drive depending on the context in which it is used. If I say, “I have to run downtown for a few minutes,” that probably means that I will be driving my car or motorcycle and not actually running. Likewise, the Bible term “sanctify” does not always refer to salvation. The basic meaning of the word is “to set apart” and it usually refers to something that is set apart for divine service.

Consider some examples of how the word “sanctify” does not always refer to salvation in the Bible:

Mt. Sinai was sanctified (Exod. 19:23), meaning it was set apart because of God’s holy presence and the people were not allowed to approach it.

The priests were sanctified (Exod. 28:41), meaning they were set apart for the ministry God had assigned to them.

The offerings were sanctified (Exod. 29:27), meaning they were set apart to be eaten only by the priests.

The tabernacle and its altar were sanctified (Exod. 29:36), meaning they were set apart for the divine use that had been proscribed to Moses.

In 1 Pet. 3:15 the child of God is commanded to “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you...” This means to set the Lord and the things of the Lord apart in one’s thoughts so that they are not crowded out by the things of the world.

1 Cor. 7:14 says “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband...” This does not mean that the unbelieving husband or wife is saved. It means that they are set apart from other unbelievers in certain ways. If an unbeliever is married to a believer, that unbeliever hears the gospel more often and sees it lived out more clearly than other unbelievers. An unbelieving husband who is married to a believing wife also participates in the blessings that God pours out on that believer. In that sense, the unbelieving husband or wife is “sanctified.” Thus the word “sanctify” does not always refer to salvation.

Likewise, in Heb. 10:29 “sanctify” is not describing a person who is saved but a person who has come close to being saved, who has been sanctified in the sense of having come apart from the things of the world and having looked closely upon the things of Christ and having become a member of a church. A person can do all of this without being born again. We see a similar thing in 2 Pet. 2:20, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” The people described in this verse escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ, but they aren’t saved and in 2 Pet. 2:21-22 we see that they never were saved. The reason that they turn back to the world is because they were not born again and their nature was not changed (2 Cor. 5:17). A pig goes back to the mire and a dog to its vomit because it is still a pig and still a dog. If the pig or dog could receive a new nature it would no longer have such desires.

When a person is born again through repentance and faith, his desires are changed and though he is still a sinner he no longer wants to live in sin as he did before he was saved and is not longer content in his sin.

The following statement on this passage by Harry Ironside is helpful. As a young Christian, Ironside was involved with the Salvation Army and was taught that he could experience “entire sanctification” so that he would no longer have indwelling sin. He sought this experience earnestly and even felt at one point that he had experienced it, but when he learned that the sin nature was still present he became so discouraged that he had to be hospitalized. He feared that he had committed the sin of Hebrews 10 and that he was lost. It was during his hospitalization that he learned the truth of biblical sanctification and came to understand and appreciate the difference between his unchanging and eternal position in Christ and his daily practice, between his permanent relationship with God as an adopted son and his temporal fellowship with God.

“There is an expression used in these verses that may still perplex and bewilder those who have not apprehended that profession is one thing, and possession another. ... He who is sanctified by the one offering of Christ upon the cross, that is, by His precious blood, is perfected forever (Heb. 10:10, 14-19). But in this passage it is equally plain that one who counts the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, shall be forever lost. In order not to miss the true force of this for our souls, it is necessary that we give some attention to what we have already designated ‘positional sanctification.’ Of old all the people of Israel, and all who were associated with them, were set apart to God both on the night of the Passover and afterwards in the wilderness. But this did not necessarily imply a work of the Spirit in their souls. Many were doubtless in the blood-sprinkled houses that solemn night, when the destroying angel passed through to smite the unsheltered first-born, who had no real faith in God. Yet they were by the blood of the Lamb put in a place of blessing, a position where they shared in many hallowed privileges. So afterward with those who were under the cloud and passed through the sea, being baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All were in the same position. All shared the same outward blessings. But the wilderness was the place of testing, and soon proved who were real and who were not. At the present time God has no special nation, to be allied to which is to come into a position of outward nearness to Him. But He has a people who have been redeemed to Himself out of all kindreds and tongues and peoples and nations, by the precious blood of the Lamb of God. All who ally themselves by profession with that company are outwardly among the blood-sheltered: in this sense they are sanctified by the blood of the covenant. That blood stands for Christianity, which in its very essence is the proclamation of salvation through Christ’s atoning death. To take the Christian place therefore is like entering the blood-sprinkled house. ALL WHO ARE REAL, WHO HAVE JUDGED THEMSELVES BEFORE GOD, AND TRULY CONFIDED IN HIS GRACE, WILL REMAIN IN THAT HOUSE. IF THEY GO OUT, IT PROVES THEIR UNREALITY, and such can find no other sacrifice for sins; for all the typical offerings are done away in Christ. These are they of whom the apostle John speaks so solemnly: ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us’ (1 John 2:19). As they were ever bereft of faith in the soul, they ‘went out,’ and thus did despite to the Spirit of grace, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing. These sin willfully, not in the sense of failing to walk uprightly merely, but as utterly abjuring, or apostatizing from, Christianity, after having become conversant with the glorious message it brings to lost men” (H.A. Ironside, Holiness: The False and the True, pp. 63-65).

4. The unsaved face a most frightful future (Heb. 10:27). The Bible frequently describes God’s judgment in terms of fire. Here it is “fiery indignation.” Hell is described as a place of eternal suffering in fire. See Mt. 13:42, 50; Mk. 9:44-48; Lk. 16:24; Rev. 14:10; 20:10, 15. Consider some of the Bible’s descriptions of Hell:

“wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 13:42, 50)

“cast into a furnace of fire” (Mt. 13:42, 50)

“depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire” (Mt. 25:41)

“hell fire” (Mk. 9:47)

“the fire is not quenched” (Mk. 9:44, 46, 48)

“tormented in this flame” (Lk. 16:24)

“flaming fire taking vengeance” (2 Th. 1:8)

“fiery indignation” (Heb. 10:27)

“tormented with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 14:10)

“tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10)

5. What about the warning of Heb. 10:30-31? Believers are to serve God “with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. 12:28), but no true believer has to fear God’s vengeance and the judgment of hell. “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). The quotation, “Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense” is from Ps. 94:1, and “The Lord will judge his people,” is from Deut. 32:36; Ps. 50:4; and Ps. 135:14. This judgment refers to Israel, which was a mixture of saved and lost.

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[Original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]

Christianity Is Like Soap

"If Christianity is valid, why is there so much evil in the world?”

To this the famous preacher replied, “With so much soap, why are there so many dirty people in the world? Christianity, like soap, must be personally applied if it is to make a difference in our lives.

________

Billy Graham

The Things You Are Living For

Jude 1:12

During a tour of a large manufacturing plant, a visitor noticed a man using a fiery torch of high intensity to work on huge slabs of steel. There were times, however, when the flame would not make any impression. When this happened, a chemical substance was applied to the resisting patch, and immediately the cutting could be resumed. The worker explained that although the torch was able to go through clean steel 8 inches thick, if it encountered the slightest film of rust on the surface, the flame would not penetrate it.

It strikes me forcefully that this is a picture of the Christian. The Holy Ghost is seeking to produce in us God's perfect design. If the life is unblemished, He is able to continue His efforts; but if we become carnal or backslidden, His work of shaping us is hindered until the area in question has been thoroughly cleansed.

Leonard Ravenhill asked, "ARE THE THINGS YOU ARE LIVING FOR WORTH CHRIST DYING FOR?"

Be God's Toothbrush, Or His Underwear

A college intern who attended my church in Texas once preached and gave a humorous but insightful analogy for what it means to be holy:

Holy, as you may be aware, means to be set apart. In most biblical contexts, this means to be set apart for exclusive use by God. There are two items that we all own that are "holy" to us, that is, set apart for exclusive use by us. That is our toothbrushes and our underwear. You wouldn't want your underwear to volunteer to be worn by someone else, yet we who call ourselves Christian will allow someone else besides God to wear us. We wouldn't want our toothbrush to be used by someone else to scrub a toilet, but some of us allow ourselves to be involved with all sorts of filth.

So, be God's toothbrush, or his underwear. Be holy!

Mowing God's Lawn

I pushed my little plastic mower around the yard of my universe trying to

help God mow. God didn't need my help, but he let me tag along anyway and

let me feel important. Back and forth I labored in neat little rows wasting

the years, oblivious to the absence of any real motor or cutting blade in

my toy machine. I made rumbling sounds to heighten the sense of my

importance and occasionally emptied my press clippings bag of imaginary

accomplishments.

Lawn finished, I attacked the hard edges of my life with my imaginary toy

weed eater, hacking at perceived problems that had sprouted on my

landscape. And, the Great I AM, softly chuckled, when I finally ceased

struggling, as at last I realized he had long ago installed astro-turf.

Gallatians 2:21

Gallatians 4:7

Gallatians 4:27

Sanctification is a dance, not a duty.

*

(untitled)

"All Spirit and no Word, you blow up. All Word and no Spirit

and you dry up. Word and Spirit - you grow up."

- Donald Gee

The Spider Killed -- No More Cobwebs

A Hallelujah lass, in White-Chapel Road, gave her experience in the

following parable: "After I was saved I found some things in my heart

not right. There seemed to be cobwebs in the corners. I used to sweep

them out by watchfulness and prayer; but they would come again. For

some time I kept on sweeping out the cobwebs, only to find them soon

appear. But one day the Lord came and killed the spider; and there

have been no cobwebs in my heart since.

Brainerd Taylor's Experience

Brainerd Taylor was converted at fifteen. Six years afterwards he

had a remarkable experience. He says: "The 23d of April, 1882, I was

on a visit to Haddain, Coun. Memorable day! The time and place will

never be forgotten. For a long time my desire had been that the Lord

would visit me, and fill me with the Holy Spirit -- my cry was, 'Seal

my soul forever thine.' I lifted my heart in prayer that the blessing

might descend. I needed something I did not possess. There was a void

within which must be filled. My earnest desire was that all love of

the world might be destroyed, all selfishness extirpated, pride

banished, unbelief removed, all idols dethroned, everything hostile to

holiness and opposed to the divine will crucified; that holiness to

the Lord might be engraved on my heart, and evermore characterize my

conversation. At this juncture I was most delightfully conscious of

giving up all to God. I was enabled in my heart to say, 'Here, Lord,

take me, take my whole soul, and seal me Thine, Thine n ow and Thine

forever. If Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean.' Then there ensued

such emotions as I never before experienced. All was calm and tranquil

and a haven of love pervaded my whole soul. I had a witness of God's

love to me and of mine to Him. Shortly after I was dissolved in tears

of love and gratitude to our blessed Lord. The name of Jesus was

precious to me; He came as King, and took full possession of my heart;

and I was enabled to say, 'I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I

live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' "

Seek the Baptism of Fire

R.A. Torrey tells of a young women who professed to be a Christian, though many had trouble getting along with her. She was stubborn, proud, loud and obstinate... everything a Christian should not be. In other words, she was what a lot of unsanctified Christians are but keep pretty well hidden. She just couldn't seem to hide her real self.

She was a member of R. A. Torrey's church Bible Institute, of which her uncle was president. Every Bible Institute member was required to go out among the poor, and help them to Christ. ...

One day this girl had been out, and was tired. She walked long the Lake Shore drive, and noted the beautiful homes along its course. “Ah!” she said to herself, “this is what I like; I have had enough of dirty old stairways and squalor!” She went home fighting against the Holy Spirit. ...

At the tea table, the fight went on within her until all in a moment she totally surrendered to the complete will of God... she totally consecrated herself to be used according to His purpose, and the Holy Ghost and fire fell upon her. In an instant she ran across the room, threw her arms around a girl friend who was staying with her, and exclaimed, “I'm a volunteer for South Africa.”

The fire of the Lord had burnt up everything evil in her heart and life. So transformed was she from that time in her views, purposes, ambitions, and in her very face, that her best and closest friends could hardly believe she was the same girl. Isn't that why you need? You have an unconverted husband... and unsaved wife perhaps; seek for this baptism of fire so as to cleans and transform you that he or she may be won, by the change, to accept your Master as his or hers.

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FIRE WARMS During the thanksgiving holiday we went to visit Micki's twin sister

in South Carolina. While there they took us to Old Salem which is a restored

town of the 18th Century. The people in the town were busy at their trades

and were dressed in the costume of that day. One place which captured the

attention of our whole group, however, was the smithy's forge. There he was out in

the open air pumping the bellows to get the coals to a white heat. When

it was hot enough he plunged the bar of iron into the coals. The bar of iron

had been cold, and dark. But when he plunged it into the fire you could

note the rapid change. It was cold and hard, but now it is malleable, red hot,

at a white heat! While we watched he began to pound the hot metal on the

anvil. Quickly it began to take shape as one end was flattened. Soon it

would be a large metal dipper. How cold and hard the church can be. It seems

that nothing will form it into something useful. It is just like a cold

hard bar of iron. But let God take us and plunge us in the fire of the Holy

Spirit, and we glow with love for Him and love for perishing souls. Yes, our

great need today is the baptism of fire. We need this fire at Kelley's

Chapel! When

we have this fire the church will be melted. Our Sunday School

classes will take on the appearance of revival meetings. Our services will be

jubilant with the praises to the glory of God... our altar will be lined

again and again with those who are hungry for a clean heart and life.

Fire Spreads

In 1871, an old woman, known as Mother O'Leary, was one day milking a cow in Chicago, with a lamp on the ground beside her. The cow kicked the lamp over, the grass ignited, the flames spread, and in 48 hours only two buildings were left standing in that part of Chicago.

Yes, fire spreads; but no fire spreads like the fire of the Holy Ghost. If we get a great baptism of fire on this church , it will sweep right through Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky. Jesus Christ baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

Faith Is the Means of Sanctification

Acts 15:9

Our hearts are purified "by faith," \reference{Ac. 15:9}{Acts

15:9}. Faith is the

instrumental, human means whereby we obtain an inheritance among them

which are sanctified. \reference{Ac. 26:18}{Acts 26:18}.

Fletcher said: "The same spirit of faith which initially purifies

our hearts when we believe the pardoning love of God, completely

cleanses them when we fully believe his sanctifying love."

Wesley said: "Exactly as we are justified by faith, we are

sanctified by faith."

It is the same faith, in the same God, for different experiences.

William Carvosso said: "I began to exercise faith, and a heavenly

influence filled the room; refining fire went through my heart,

illuminated my soul, scattered its life through every part and

sanctified the whole. I then received the full witness of the Spirit

that the blood of Jesus had cleansed me from all sin. I was emptied of

self and sin, and filled with God. I was nothing, and Christ was all

in all." \reference{Ga. 2:20}{Galatians 2:20}.

AN INWARD SOMETHING

"You'd just as well go ahead, Judge, and break my neck!"

The courtroom was hushed with deadly silence. Before the bench

stood a youthful prisoner, under twenty. He was about to be sentenced

for a terrible crime. Time and again he had been in the reformatory

and each time he got out he committed another crime and was shuttled

from freedom to stripes with the regularity of the tides. This time

the judge tried to reason with him about being good. But the prisoner

answered with a helpless look.

"If," the judge began, "if we let you go, will you be a good boy?"

"I'm tired of wearing stripes. I've tried to do better each time

but I just can't make it. There's something inside me that won't let

me do good. I'm helpless, Judge, you'd just as well go ahead and break

my neck."

There is in the human heart that something which inclines toward

evil, and man alone is unable to break the spell which it throws over

the mental inclinations. It pulls toward evil. It lures after lust. It

drags with unbreakable chains toward the pit. Bit by bit it wears away

all resistance until the soul is given over to evil doing. It knows no

inhibitory powers. It will not be ruled by law, nor bow to custom, nor

will it surrender to the claim of right doing.

It is the carnal nature in man; an inward something that bends and

warps the personality beyond human repair. The only hope for its

control is its complete removal by the sanctifying power of God.

By William Moses Tidwell, "Effective Illustrations."

WHAT PROVIDED FOR REQUIRED

A lady was going away to meet some friends and bring them home with

her. She had left her children at home with the understanding that

they were to be clean when she returned with the company. She said to

the children upon leaving, "Now here is plenty of soap and water and

here are your clothes and I will expect you to be clean and dressed up

when I return." What she had made provisions for and had demanded she

would require. So it is with the Lord. Provisions have been made, at

awful cost, for the cleansing of the heart. Holiness! God demands it.

"Be ye holy." And what he has provided for and demands He will

require. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

WOULD NOT FIT

A good lady who for a long time had sought the blessing of sanctification, had the following experience. She said, "If I could

just have an experience like Brother Stephen Merritt's I would be

sanctified." Brother Merritt was one of those happy, hilarious souls

who had had the blessing for years. Brother Merritt knew of her desire

to obtain an experience like his. One day he came to her home with a

little package very neatly tied up and gave it to her with the

exhortation, "Don't open It till tomorrow." Well, what do you suppose

she did? What would you have done? She opened it just as soon as he

was out of sight And what do you suppose it was? It was a set of

Brother Merritt's old, cast off false teeth! Can you imagine? She was

perplexed and vexed. She said, "Of all things. Brother Merritt has

been my ideal. I have even desired a blessing like he has. But he is

rude. I don't understand it." Soon Brother Merritt came by again and

she was ready for him and asked what in the world he meant by such

rude actions. She said, "Do you think I could wear your old teeth? Do

you think they would fit me?" Brother Merritt quietly answered, "I

think they would fit you about like my experience. Good-bye." He

passed on. Then she said, "I see. I will take it the way the Lord

wants to give it to me and just the kind of blessing he desires to

give." And she was soon rejoicing in her new-found experience. We must

be willing to make a complete and eternal consecration and trust the

Lord to come in His own way.

By William Moses Tidwell, "Effective Illustrations."

He Had It

Uncle Bud Robinson relates the following: A preacher came to me and

asked me if I had ever seen anyone who was sanctified, stating that he

did not believe anyone had it. I said, "Yes, Dr. Godbey has it." Then

said he, "How do you know he has it?" I answered, "By the way he

acts." "How does he act?" "Well," I said, "they cussed him on the

street, and he did not talk back; and they broke stale eggs all over

him, and he did not even wipe them off; and when he went to preach, he

did not even mention the way he had been treated; but he just preached

and shouted as if nothing had happened." Then said the preacher, "I

would say a man like that is crazy." My answer was, "No, he is not

crazy; he is sanctified."

William Moses Tidwell, "Pointed Illustrations."

When Uncle Bud Was Sanctified

Uncle Bud Robinson relates the following concerning when he was sanctified: The only way I can describe my feelings is that envy boiled up, and the Lord skimmed it off; anger boiled up, and the Lord skimmed it off; pride boiled up, and the Lord skimmed it off. Then I said, “Lord, there won't be anything left of me.” And the Lord said, “There will not be much left, but what is left will be clean.” Then waves of glory rolled over me and I got down on the ground and stretched myself out and said, “Lord, if you don't let up a bit there will be a dead man in the cornfield.” And from that day until this I have been convinced that the Lord can kill a man just as quickly with glory as with lightning.

William Moses Tidwell, “Pointed Illustrations.”

Not Where but What

Likely the largest piece of silver ever mined was taken from smuggler mine in Colorado. It weighed 1,840 pounds. It was so pure that it was put directly into the crucible. It was a little purer than

an ordinary silver dollar and about as bright as a new silver dollar.

If God could produce such a piece of silver and keep it so bright down in an earth of dirt, He can produce saints and keep them clean in a sinful world.

— Selected — William Moses Tidwell, “Pointed Illustrations.”

#10068

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The Hare and the Tortoise

A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the

Tortoise, who replied, laughing: "Though you be swift as the wind, I

will beat you in a race." The Hare, believing her assertion to be

simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the

Fox should choose the course and fix the goal. On the day appointed

for the race the two started together. The Tortoise never for a

moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to

the end of the course. The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast

asleep. At last waking up, and moving as fast as he could, he saw the

Tortoise had reached the goal, and was comfortably dozing after her

fatigue.

Better to grow steadily in the faith than to become spiritually

self-reliant, self-confident, and arrogant. Slow but steady wins the

race.

The Ass, the Cock, and the Lion

AN ASS and a Cock were in a straw-yard together when a Lion,

desperate from hunger, approached the spot. He was about to spring

upon the Ass, when the Cock (to the sound of whose voice the Lion, it

is said, has a singular aversion) crowed loudly, and the Lion fled

away as fast as he could. The Ass, observing his trepidation at the

mere crowing of a Cock summoned courage to attack him, and galloped

after him for that purpose. He had run no long distance, when the

Lion, turning about, seized him and tore him to pieces.

False confidence often leads into danger. For this reason, we need

the continual reliance of the Holy Spirit to help us defeat the evil

one.

The Hunter and the Woodman

A HUNTER, not very bold, was searching for the tracks of a Lion. He

asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of his

footsteps or knew where his lair was. "I will," said the man, "at

once show you the Lion himself." The Hunter, turning very pale and

chattering with his teeth from fear, replied, "No, thank you. I did

not ask that; it is his track only I am in search of, not the Lion

himself."

We have too many Christians who are more interested in following the

tracks of Jesus than following the Master Himself. In doing so, they

do not get to experience all the grandeur and benefits of being a

full-blown Christian.

Don't Flutter and Sputter

Allowing the encumbrances and sins of the world to clog your life affects your witness in the world in the same way water in the kerosene affects a camping stove. The flame will flutter and sputter, or maybe go out completely. It is useless for light or heat.

Likewise, when our lives are fouled with impurities in our spiritual fuel tank, our light will sputter - until the fuel is again clean.

Moral Elevation

Moral elevation is necessary if we would behold Christ's glory.

We can only discern the glory of Christ, so as to be kindled by it

into admiration and worship, as we ourselves rise above the ordinary

levels of our life. A mountain may be very magnificent, towering to a

sublime height, its sides covered with rugged grandeur, and its summit

crested with shinning snow, but much of its magnificence will be lost

to the beholder who simply looks at it from the depth of the valley,

or the level of the plain below. Mountain heights reveal their

massiveness and their splendor only in the degree in which they are

viewed from some proportionate elevation. We may read in the

scriptures of the glory of Christ, of the wondrous majesty that

belongs to his person, of the numerous and incomparable excellencies

that adorn his character but our hearts will never be stirred to

rapture or moved to adoration until we gaze upon ''the King in his

beauty'' from the lofty attitude of our own spiritual experience. It

is one of the grand characteristics of the Christian life that the

more we rise up towards Christ, the more we discern of him, and the

more we discern of him, the more do we rise up by the law of

attraction, towards him. -- B. Wilkinson, F. G. S.

By J. Wilbur Chapan, "Present Day Parables."

Fellowship With Christ

On the English seacoast there is a certain fountain which is within

the tide mark. Twice each day the tide spreads over it, and the pure

sweet waters are defiled and spoiled by the bitter wave. But the tide

goes down and the fountain washes itself clear from the defilement.

This is the emblem of a life that is in daily contact with the world

and its defilement. Again and again it is touched by the evil one, but

I bring you the cure today. Live close to Christ by faith, and in the

midst of trials most perplexing, great peace shall fill your soul.

What an influence we might have over others if we were thus taking

advantage of our privileges! I think one might be a Christian, that

is, just simply be saved, and not have much of a positive influence

over the world about him; but it would not be possible to live in

close communion with Christ without having the greatest possible power

for good over all with whom he might come into contact.

[Transcriber Note: True Christians, who remain Christians, neither

become outwardly, or inwardly, defiled by worldly influences, but many

have felt the need of a "mental bath" after hours amidst the people of

the world. Such "mental cleansing" is accomplished as long as the

Fountain of Life continues to flow.]

By J. Wilbur Chapan, "Present Day Parables."

In the Battle Like the Frazier Gun

It is said that the Frazier gun hurls a projectile of a thousand

pounds, using 500 pounds of powder at a blast, and that this

projectile may be sent through armor plate 17 inches thick; that it is

also possible with this same gun to throw a shell thirteen miles, and

when the gun is discharged it is automatically thrown back again for

reloading, and when it is thrown back it charges the air chamber,

which, when the gun is loaded and again released throws it back again

in position. So that the gun in use is always being fired and always

being charged. This is the picture for the Christian. He is always

giving forth of that which God has given him if he is really his

child, but he must ever be back again at the feet of the Master

receiving a fresh infilling, a new anointing, another vision of the

face of the risen Christ. This is the picture of continued blessing

always. -- J. W. C.

By J. Wilbur Chapan, "Present Day Parables."

128 Sermon Illustrations on Sanctification