Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2418
“For both He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Your name unto My brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto You. And again, I will put My trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children whom God has given Me.” Hebrews 2:11-13.
What is meant by the expression, “being sanctified”? The essential part of sanctification means being set apart for holy uses. That which was meant to be used for God, alone, was sanctified, set apart, regarded as holy. The vessels of the sanctuary were sanctified when they were used only by the priests in the service of God. Of course there arose out of this fact, which is the essence of sanctification, the further quality of purity, for that which is dedicated to God must be pure, that which is reserved for His service must not be defiled, it must be clean. We cannot imagine the Holy God using unholy vessels in His sanctuary—so that sanctification comes to mean purification—the making of that to be holy which was, first of all, set apart for holy uses. Holiness of character follows upon holiness of design. First we are set apart for God’s use and then, afterwards, we are made pure that we may be fit for God’s use.
Well, then, dear Friends, are you sanctified? I have heard some make a jest of that word and jeer at certain persons as, “saints.” They might as well call them kings and princes, and then mock them, for there is nothing mean or despicable in the name, “saint.” It is one of the most glorious titles that a man can ever wear! “He was a sanctified sort of person,” says one, meaning, thereby, I suppose, sanctimonious, hypocritical and pretentious. Yes, but that is not the true meaning of the word and I fear lest the jest at the word, “sanctified,” only proves that there are many who, so far from claiming to be sanctified, do not even wish to be! It is the last thing that they would desire, to be made holy, and set apart for Divine purposes.
But, Beloved, all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ aspire to be dedicated and consecrated to God! “You are not your own, for you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” You hear a voice which says to you, “Come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” You understand that the Lord’s children are expected to be a peculiar people, zealous for good works—
Only reserved for Christ that died, Surrendered to the Crucified.”
Are you, then, a member of that blessed society? Do you desire to live to God? Are you anxious to be so pure in character that God can accept your service and use you for His work? Well, then, it is for you that the words of our text are written. May you drink the encouragement out of them and be, thereby, refreshed!
No man is truly sanctified unless he is sanctified by Christ. The Holy Spirit is made the Agent of our purification, but it is in Christ that we are, first of all, set apart unto God, and it is by His most precious blood, applied to us by the Spirit of God, that we are made clean and pure so as to be used in the Divine service. Believers are the sanctified and Jesus Christ is the Sanctifier. I am not going to say more about that glorious Truth at this time, but I am going to dwell upon the very important statement made here, “He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one.” This is a truly wonderful expression—they are “all of one.” Note, therefore, first, the remarkable unity of Christ and His people. And then notice the Lord Jesus Christ’s expressions which prove this wonderful unity.
I. First, then, consider THE REMARKABLE UNITY BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE. They are “all of one.”
They are, first, “all of one” in the Divine design in the great mind of God. It is not Christ, alone. and His people. alone, but Christ and His Church who are regarded as “all of one.” They are fitted, constituted, designed for each other. They are the complement of each other. In the Divine mind it was not the Christ, the Anointed, as the Head apart from the whole body adown which the holy anointing oil should flow—it was the Head with all the members of His mystical body that the great Father saw. When the Divine Mind—and we have to speak here after the manner of men, for God is not known to us so that we can speak of Him otherwise than after the fashion of our poor ideas—when the Divine Mind conceived the plan of man’s redemption, purification and setting apart for His service, God had this one thought. We make it two, but it was only one to Him—Christ, the First-Born, and the many brethren as succeeding Him in their heavenly birth—being brothers unto him and being made like He. The Eternal Father thought not of Christ without the Church, nor of the Church without Christ!