Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2660
“Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.” Hebrews 13:12.
IN one sense, sanctification is wholly the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but there is another meaning which is more usually affixed to the term, in which sanctification is rightly described as the work of God the Holy Spirit. Many disputes have arisen concerning this Doctrine of God, because all men do not distinguish between the two meanings of the same word. There is one kind of sanctification which signifies setting apart and, in that sense, God’s people were sanctified from all eternity. They were sanctified in election, before they had a being, for they were even then set apart from the impure mass, to be vessels of honor meet for the Master’s use. Further, as redemption has in it much of peculiarity and specialty, God’s people were sanctified, or set apart, by the blood of Christ, when, on Mount Calvary He offered up Himself, an offering without spot or blemish, for the sins of His people. So it is true that Jesus is not only made unto us wisdom and righteousness, but also sanctification.
You will remember that in one of my recent sermons, [Sermon #2634, Volume 45—“Jesus Only”—A Communion Meditation the text of which was, “Jesus only,” I made the remark that it was “Jesus only” for sanctification. And I have not had any reason to retract that expression, for there is a sense in which sanctification, as far as it means setting apart, is an eternal work and is a work wholly completed for us by the election of the Father and the blood of Jesus Christ. Still, sanctification sometimes, and most generally, signifies another thing—it means the work of the Spirit within us. There is a work which God the Holy Spirit carries on, from the first moment of our spiritual birth, to the last moment when we are taken to Heaven—a work by which corruptions are overcome, lusts restrained, faith increased, love inflamed, hope brightened and the spirit made fit to dwell with the glorified above. That is the work of God’s Holy Spirit, yet we must remember that even though it is the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, even in this, still sanctifies His people! For with what does the Holy Spirit sanctify them?
Beloved, He sanctifies them with the precious blood of Jesus! We know that when our Savior died, His Sacrifice had a double objective—one objective was pardon, the other was cleansing—and both the blood and the water flowed from the same source to show us that justification and sanctification both spring from the same Divine Fountain and, though sanctification is the work of the Spirit in us, yet, to accomplish this purposes, the Holy Spirit uses the sacrificial blood of Jesus and the sacred water of His Atonement applied to our heart, sprinkling us from dead works and purging us from an evil conscience, that we may serve God without let or hindrance. So, then, Christian, in your sanctification, look to Jesus! Remember that the Spirit sanctifies you, but that He sanctifies you through Jesus. He does not sanctify you through the works of the Law, but through the Atonement of Christ! And will you therefore remember that the nearer you live to the Cross of Jesus, the more of sanctification, growth and increase in all spiritual blessings will His Spirit give to you? So, then, we see that whatever sanctification may mean, the text is still true—“Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”
Let us pause here a minute and let each of us, as we begin a new year, ask this question—How far has Christ’s purpose of sanctifying me been answered in my own case? I know that in one sense I am completely sanctified, but, in another sense, I still feel my imperfections and infirmities. How far have I progressed in sanctification during the past year? How
much has my faith increased during the year? How many of my corruptions have I overcome? How much nearer am I living to Christ, now, than on the first Sabbath of last year? How much do I know of the Savior? How much closer do I approach in my likeness to Him? Have I more power in prayer? Am I more careful in my life? Is my spirit more loving than it used to be? Am I more decisive for that which is right? At the same time, am I more meek in standing up for it? Am I, in all respects, more like my Master than I was a year ago? Or, on the other hand, have I been going backward? Stand still, I cannot—I must either go forward in Grace or go backward! Which have I been doing during the past year? And I charge you, O my Heart, whatever answer you have to give to these questions, to remember that if you are ever so much sanctified, you have not yet attained perfection! I beseech you, forget that which is behind, and press forward toward that which is before, looking still unto Jesus, who is both the Author and the Finisher of faith! The Lord give you so plente-ously of His Grace that you may be sanctified wholly, by soul and spirit! And I pray God to preserve you all unto His coming and glory.