The Progressive Work of Sanctification
JOHN 17:14-19
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (Notice how that the elect of God are given the word of God. That is the evidence that you are the elected of God – when the word for you day has been given to you, and you have received it. There is no greater proof.)
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (Notice - it is truth that is the cause for a person to become sanctified. But you don’t start out knowing all of the truth from the beginning, you are guided into truth by the leadership and teaching of the Holy Spirit as you progress along your life’s journey, and so because of this, sanctification is an ongoing work of the spirit of God in your life that will keep continuing throughout your life as more truth is revealed to you)
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
The Progressive Work of Sanctification
Sanctification comes by the ongoing process of the truth of God being revealed to you – and that can look very different for different people, because God is sovereign in the way that he deals with each person individually.
*And this is the reason that we simply cannot know how God is working in a person’s life, and that why it is so easy to misinterpret what other people are going through. Look at how Job’s three friends misinterpreted of how God was dealing with Job. Not even Job himself understood the way that God was dealing with his life – and we are the same, so how in the world are we supposed to know how God is dealing with others when we don’t even understand ourselves.
And so we want to dig down and study this subject of sanctification as full as we are able to in the light of the scriptures and the message that God has sent to us for this end time hour.
It is truth that sets us free – and so I believe that these truths will bring a greater understanding to us that will set the captive free.
This word “Sanctification” it is to do with the thought of Holiness – of living a clean life that is separated from the standard worldly norm of the life of a person that acts from out of a base worldly and sinful nature.
Holiness in the bible is basically the same word as sanctification.
In the Old Testament, it means to be set apart – to be separate.
*It is to do with the act of purification of your outward behavior that is a result of an inward change, of a journey of growth in holiness, moving from a place of sinful living to being set apart from sin and of a state of conformity to God's character.
HEBREWS 10:14 (King James Version)
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
New King James Version HEBREWS 10:14
For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Berean Standard Bible HEBREWS 10:14
because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.
*As believers we are already positionally sanctified through the finished work of Christ, but then we are also being progressively sanctified in our daily lives as we go on through our Christian walk of life.
*And so the first thing that we must understand, is that sanctification has a dual aspect to it - first there is the “finished work” of our positional state in that we are sanctified by the finished work of the blood of Christ, but then there is also the continuous process of the transforming power of the word in our lives of where we are being made more like Christ, and this transformation is an ongoing thing that continues throughout our lives. Paul talks about having to die daily.
**And if we fail to see both of these aspects of sanctification clearly, then it can create a lot of confusion within our minds, because this is what can be the cause of many people falling into the unscriptural trap of judging the statis of their salvation by looking at how good they live their lives instead of judging themselves firstly by the finished work of Christ)
Berean Standard Bible HEBREWS 10:14
because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.
**Your sanctification is a finished work in the mind of God, but then there is an ongoing outworking of that that takes place in your life.
HEBREWS 12:10
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Sanctification is the process of by which God separates us from unclean things that we might be partakers of his holiness – and so this is why we will often go through times of chastisement. We have to learn obedience by the things that we suffer.
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Like a father that directs and disciplines his child, so does our heavenly father discipline us throughout our lives for the purpose of sanctification.
And so this act (or outworking) of sanctification in your life is actually a continuous process of transformation that begins with the new birth and continues throughout your life by the help and discipline of the Lord, so that you are constantly being made more like Christ.
I PETER 2:2
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: After the new birth, you have to grow into responsible adulthood.
*We must understand that we will never reach a state of sinless perfection in this life on earth, because that will never be totally achievable while we are still living in a fallen flesh body and in a fallen world with a sticky carnal nature (as the prophet puts it) that is still residing in our members. Paul said that “when I want to do good, evil is present in my members.”
*And so if we could attain sinless perfection in our everyday lives, then we wouldn’t need the grace of God anymore – that is why His grace is sufficient for us for all of our weaknesses, because our sanctification is already a finished work in the mind of God, but then there is the outworking of it that begins to take place in our lives.
CONTENDING.FOR.THE.FAITH_ GEORGETOWN.IN 56-0200
E-6 …All of us are tempted. All of us sin. There's none without sin. Every day you sin. Paul said he had to die daily. And if we say we sin--and have no sin, then the Bible says we make God to lie. And we could not do that. So we sin daily. And it's grace, God's grace, that saves us.
And as we confess our wrongs, God's just to forgive them. And your--your confession, as long as it holds good, your salvation is perfect, same is it was Divine healing. It's your personal faith in a resurrected Lord Jesus.
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.SIX.2_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0908E
262 Now listen close as we read. Now he said:
... leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection;...
263 Now, we got that this morning, how that we are perfected. Perfected, absolutely spotless and blameless, not one sin on us. Are you above temptation? Never. Do you sin every day? Yes, sir. But, yet, we are perfected because we are in Him. And God could no more judge us than nothing (couldn't be righteous), He's already judged us in Him. When He judged Christ: He judged me, He judged you. And He can't judge me again, because He took my judgment if I've been redeemed.
*We have been made legally and positionally sinless by the sacrifice of Christ, yet we are called to live a life of holiness – and so this is to be manifested in our lives by a continual striving for a greater life of holiness – “make me more like thee, Jesus”, and often that is a battle – you have to strive and die daily.
I THESSALONIANS 4:7
7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
CONVINCED.AND.THEN.CONCERNED_ CHICAGO.IL MONDAY_ 62-0521
E-61 Like a colored sister said one time in a meeting. She said, "I want you all to know one thing." Said, "I'm not what I want to be, and I'm not what I ought to be. But there's one thing sure; I'm not what I used to be."
I tell you. That's a good thing. You know when you're passed from death unto Life, when God takes a hold of you and shakes you till your life changes; and changes everything there is in you, and makes you a new creature. Amen.
*There is a saying that is often quoted around Christian circles, that “God is not finished with me yet”. And even though this statement could be used as an excuse for some to hide behind when they are caught in sin, it is on the most part scripturally true.
PHILIPPIANS 1:6
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Notice, a good “work” – sanctification is a work that God performs in your life after that you have believed and then received the new birth.
It is the new birth of the word in your soul that starts you on the journey of growth and maturity, because nobody is born an adult, you are born a baby that has to first drink the milk of the word and then grow up into adulthood – and that is a process that goes on throughout your lifetime.
There is the old song we sing:
“From glory to glory He’s changing me,
His likeness and image to perfect in me…”
*And so when we look at certain scriptures, (as we said last week) we tend to see things the way that our minds have been wired to think - of how we are.
“We don’t see things the way they are; we see things the way that WE are.” In other words, we understand scriptures the way that our traditional backgrounds have taught us or simply by our own private understanding.
*And this also applies to the quotes in the message in the same way. We see the statements of the Prophet in the same way – often through the eyes of our traditional religious background.
Let’s look at a scriptural example:
I THESSALONIANS 1:1
1 ¶ Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
If your background is Catholic or mainstream Protestant, as a trinitarian you would be certain that this scripture is speaking of the first two of the three separate persons of the trinity of the person of the Father, and the person of the Son, because you see things the way you are and not necessarily the way they actually are of the same person with 3 different offices.
II JOHN 1:3
3 Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
If you are a twoness, then you will see this the way that you are of there being two separate persons that make up the one God. There are still a few message believers that struggle with this one.
*And if you are oneness, then your will see that Jesus is one - but that is not the entire truth either. The truth lays in the fact that they are three offices or three different manifestations of attributes of the very same person.
And so it took the message of the hour to straighten this out for us.
*Brother Branham never actually taught three separate works of grace of Justification, and Sanctification, and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as being three separate works – some may imply that he did, but he didn’t.
GOD'S.PROVIDED.WAY.OF.HEALING_ CHICAGO.IL MONDAY_ 54-0719A
E-48 ... Now look, so is it in the spiritual birth. The first thing, the things that come out of Jesus' body wa--the elements that came from His body is what makes up the spiritual body. When Jesus died what came from Him--what did come out of His body? Water, Blood, and Spirit. Is that right. Now, that's the things that makes up the supernatural birth. (notice what he is saying – a birth is made up of three elements – Water, Blood and Spirit – one single birth is made up of these three things) The... When a man is borned again, he's--three elements that he has to go through: Water, Blood, Spirit: justification by faith, believing on the Lord; sanctification, that life being cleansed up; And the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Not three works of grace, one grace...
HE.SWORE.BY.HIMSELF_ JEFF.IN V-26 N-11 SUNDAY_ 54-1212
140 He said, "Go get me a heifer of three years old." Watch, three. Everything in the Bible is a three. Three blends to a one. See? Father, Son, Holy Spirit, not three Gods: One. Faith, hope, and charity, not three different things, but all the essence of one: love.
Now, then there was justification, sanctification, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, not three different dispensations, not three works of grace, but one work in three different manifestations.
So he was teaching different to what the Pentecostal Holiness doctrine had been teaching among the holiness Pentecostals for many years.
Pentecostal Holiness Doctrine – history
The fathers of Holiness Pentecostalism, Charles Parham (who established Bethel Bible College) and William Seymour (who organized the Azusa Street Revival) taught that in addition to the first work of the New Birth and the second work of entire sanctification, there was a third work of grace evidenced by speaking in tongues.[1] With this, "Parham regarded justification as removing committed sins, sanctification as dealing with the inbred propensity to commit sin, while the baptism of the Holy Ghost was empowerment."[1] Parham taught that Methodism had erred in "erred in regarding sanctification as synonymous with the baptism of the Holy Ghost."[1] In the Parhamian-Seymourian view, it was not the second work of grace of entire sanctification, but a third work of grace that "empowered the Christian for service.
**And so according to the message of the hour – this teaching is incorrect – but it is surprising of how many ministers in the message still teach this doctrine among their people, even though it is not a message teaching but a Pentecostal denominational teaching. And this explains why so many can become bound up by these things that are not the truth of the scriptures.
And so where Brother Branham was not so clear with his understanding in the earlier days, was in the area of that he thought that the new birth and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost were two separate events in a believer’s life.
*And so we want to see how that the Holy Spirit actually corrected him on this point very clearly in 1965, because mostly up to this time he had always thought that you were first born again (when you first believed and accepted Christ), and then at a later stage you were filled with the Holy Ghost for service , and that this was two separate events – but we want to see how that the Holy Spirit straightened him out on this in that you go on to a maturity of adoption and not to a baptism of the Holy Spirit, because the genuine New Birth is the genuine Baptism of the Holy Spirit of what quickens the seed of God to the word for their age after that you have first believed.
*You are birth by the revelation of the word for your day after you have first believed it – the new birth is when the Holy Spirit makes the word for your day clear to you by the inner teacher, and that is the new birth.
CHRIST.IS.THE.MYSTERY.OF.GOD.REVEALED_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0728
234 What is the new Birth then? You'd say, "Well, Brother Branham, what is the new Birth?" It is the revelation of Jesus Christ personally to you. (we always used to think that we were to look for some sort of an experience of having an emotion or a sensation or by some outward proof of speaking in tongues or something so that we could prove by that “evidence” that we had it, but when the truth was finally made known through a prophetic ministry in these last days, we come to find out that it is an experience of a revelation of the word. The evidence is the revelation of the word for this age dwelling in you, because it is only by the spirit of God that is in you that you have been able to accept it and understand it. There is a stimulation of the revelation, it’s not just a simulation by itself - you can get stimulated and emotional at a baseball game, so emotion is not the evidence, the real evidence is the revelation) Amen! See? Not you joined a church, you shook a hand, you done something different, you said a creed, you promised to live by a--a code of rules. But Christ, the Bible, He is the Word that was revealed to you. And no matter what anybody says, what takes place, it's Christ; pastor, priest, whatever it might be. It's Christ in you, that is the revelation that the Church was built upon.
*And this is completely scriptural – because we read in 1st Corinthians 2…
I CORINTHIANS 2:11-14
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So let’s briefly show this from a quote in the message “Countdown” preached on the 9th of September 1962
COUNTDOWN_ JEFF.IN V-11 N-3 SUNDAY_ 62-0909M
… And the new birth, as people talks that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is the new birth. Now, that's wrong. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is different from the new birth. The new birth is when you're born again. But the Holy Ghost is when power comes into that birth for service.
And so this is naturally confusing in the light of what he was saying about the three elements that make up the new birth, because he is saying that first you are born again by faith in the word of God, and then you go on at a separate time to receive power for service by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Look at this quote from 1957
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.HEBREWS.2_ JEFF.IN COD WEDNESDAY_ 57-1002
271-373
The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a different act from the new birth. One is a birth; one is a baptism. One brings you Eternal Life; the other one gives you power.
He taught it this way for years, but now we want to see how that by 1965 that the Holy Spirit his corrected his understanding of this, and this clears up the confusion of the three elements that make up the new birth of Justification, Sanctification, and the Baptism with the Holy Spirit of which these three consist of the new birth.
147-1 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.4
To understand what I have just said is to clear up why students have never ever found Paul saying at any time, "Be born again and THEN be Spirit-filled." They have inferred it is there, and they have put their own meanings to make it say it, BUT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY THAT. Jesus never said it either.
144-2 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.4
… I mean for the sinner to come forward and be born again, which is to be baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Ghost which is exactly what took place at Pentecost when the church was launched. In other words, to be born of the Spirit is to be truly baptized with the Holy Ghost. It is one and the same.
And so it is very clear that the Holy Spirit corrected this portion of his understanding at the end, because back in 1962 he was clearly teaching that they were two separate experiences in a person’s life.
**In the countdown message – he said that:
“The baptism of the Holy Ghost is different from the new birth.”
Then in 1965, he said that) …to be born of the Spirit is to be truly baptized with the Holy Ghost. It is one and the same.
***And so then in the Smyrnaean church age (Church Age book) he begins to deal with what is the evidence of the New Birth (Baptism of the Holy Ghost) of what that looks like in a person’s life, and then he also begins to take us much deeper into the truth of this subject of how that it is only the elect that is able to truly be reborn because they have the seed in them that can hear what the voice of God is saying for their age – “my sheep hear my voice” said Jesus.
The evidence is not speaking in tongues or sensations, but that you are able to hear His voice of the revelation of the word of what He has sent for your day.
This is why it is in the soul realm that the quickening take place, and this is why it does not come with a sensation of the same level of emotion as when the Holy Spirit can simply fall on a person in the way of an anointing on their spirit.
That is a baptism of the Holy Ghost, but that is the one that we are told that you could receive that every day of your life and still be lost because your soul rejects the word of God.
AND.KNOWETH.IT.NOT_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-10 SUNDAY_ 65-0815
127 Now, people can live in this spirit, and they dance in the spirit. They shout in the spirit. They go to church in the spirit, and they can absolutely have the real Spirit of God anointed on that spirit, but still be lost and just as devil-possessed as they can be, with that spirit.
MODERN.EVENTS.ARE.MADE.CLEAR.BY.PROPHECY_ SBD.CA V-7 N-6 MONDAY_ 65-1206
100 Notice, we find today that people... There's many people just can't believe It, even Spirit-filled people. I'm going to give you one that'll choke you. The baptism of the Holy Ghost don't mean you're going in, not at all, not on that, don't have anything to do with your soul. That's the baptism, see. Here's the inside soul, in here, that has to come from God. But then on the outside you have five senses, and five out... inlets to your... contact your earthly home. The inside, you have a spirit, and in there you have five outlets: your conscience, and love, and so forth, five outlets to that spirit. Remember, in that spirit you can be baptized with the genuine Spirit of God and still be lost. It's the soul that lives, that was ordained of God.
So what does the genuine Holy Ghost Baptism on the soul look like?
CHRIST.IS.THE.MYSTERY.OF.GOD.REVEALED_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0728
26 That old man (speaking of Brother Dauch), of nearly a hundred years old, not a churchman at all; but just the first time that Light flashed across his path, he received It. See that predestinated seed laying there? Uh-huh. Yes, sir. See, as soon as the Light strikes it, it comes to Life right quick.
To Be continued - the Lord willing...