Who are the Sanctified?
Who
are the Sanctified?
“God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth.” {ST February 28, 1895, par. 1}
Sanctification is not a happy flight of
feeling, not the work of an instant, but the work of a lifetime. If any one claims that the Lord has sanctified him, and made
him holy, the proof of his claim to the blessing will be seen in the fruits of
meekness, patience, long-suffering, truthfulness, and love. If the blessing
that those who claim to be sanctified have received, leads them to rely upon
some particular emotion, and they declare there is no need of searching the
Scriptures that they may know God’s revealed will, then the supposed blessing
is a counterfeit, for it leads its possessors to place value on their own
unsanctified emotions and fancies, and to close their ears to the voice of God
in his word. Why need those who claim they have had special manifestations of
the Spirit, and the witness that their sins are all forgiven, conclude that
they can lay the Bible aside, and from henceforth walk alone? When we ask those
who claim to have been instantaneously sanctified, if they are searching the
Scriptures as Jesus told them to do, to see if there is not additional truth
for them to accept, they answer, “God makes known his will to us directly in
special signs and revelations, and we can afford to lay the Bible aside. {ST February 28, 1895, par. 2}
There are thousands who are being deceived by
trusting to some special emotion, and discarding the word of God. They are not
building upon the only safe and sure foundation,—the word of God. A religion
that is addressed to intelligent creatures will produce reasonable evidences of
its genuineness, for there will be marked results in heart and character. The
grace of Christ will be made manifest in their daily conduct. We may safely ask
those who profess to be sanctified, Do the fruits of the Spirit appear in your
life? Do you manifest the meekness and lowliness of Christ, and reveal the fact
that you are learning daily in the school of Christ, shaping your life after
the pattern of his unselfish life? The best evidence that any of us can have of
our connection with the God of heaven is that we keep his commandments. The
best proof of faith in Christ is distrust of self and dependence upon God. The
only reliable proof of our abiding in Christ is to reflect his image. Just so
far as we do this we give evidence that we are sanctified through the truth,
for the truth is exemplified in our daily life. {ST February 28, 1895, par. 3}
There are thousands, yes, millions, who are
making a mistake in their religious life. They make religion a thing
independent of their life, of their thoughts and words, and daily actions.
Their religion is a delusion of the senses. Their ideas and principles
presented as sanctification are deceitful workings. Some speak of hearing
voices and of seeing sights of a supernatural character; but there is no sign
in their daily course of action that the Spirit of God has wrought a change in
the natural heart, for they are carnal, at enmity with God’s law, and neither
love God nor obey his commandments.{ST February 28, 1895, par. 4}
Nervous excitement in religious matters is no
evidence that the Spirit of God is working upon the heart. We read of frenzied
contortions of the body, of shrieking and screaming in the work of Satan upon
the minds and bodies of men; but the word of God affords us no example of any
such manifestations in connection with those upon whom he pours out his Spirit.
It is clear that distempered fancies, wild outbursts, and contorted bodily
exercises are the workings of the enemy. Yet many think that the disorder of
the mind, which is intensified by the power of Satan, is a warrant that God is
causing these deceived souls to act in so uncomely a manner. The whole spirit
and tone of the Bible condemns men in acting without reason or intelligence.
When the Spirit of God moves upon the heart, it causes the faithful, obedient
child of God to act in a manner that will commend religion to the good judgment
of sensible-minded men and women. The Spirit of God illuminates the mind with
the word of God, and does not come as a substitute for the word. The Holy
Spirit ever directs the believer to the word, and presents its passages to the
mind, to reprove, correct, counsel, and comfort. It never leads its possessor
to act in an unbecoming way, or to manifest extravagant and uncalled-for
developments that bear not the least resemblance to that which is heavenly, and
lower the standard of what is pure and undefiled religion in the minds of men. {ST February 28, 1895, par. 5}
There was nothing of this character found in
the life or teachings of Jesus. All that is of heaven is pure, peaceable,
refined, and ennobling, free from everything that is extravagant or fanatical
in thought, word, or action. The religion of Christ bears the heavenly
credentials, and when the heart has been impressed with the divine image, the
soul is in harmony with all God’s commandments. But the sanctification that
leads its possessors to refuse to study the Scriptures, and persuades them to
believe they know it all, and that there is no advanced truth for them to
accept, is of a spurious order. They are yet carnal, for it is the carnal mind
that is “enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be.” They are deluded by the adversary of God and man. They have
illusions, and a bewitching power is upon them as they cry out: “I am saved, I
am saved. I cannot sin.” We only can distinguish the true from the false by the
manifestation of the graces of the Spirit, which Christ has promised to implant
in the heart. {ST February 28, 1895, par. 6}
Many who claim to be sanctified, who are yet
breaking the commandments of God, and filled with enmity against God, are
boldly presumptuous, and, while disobeying the words of Christ, yet dare to
appropriate the promises given to the loyal and obedient. They have no right to
one of the promises of God, because they do not fulfill the conditions upon
which the promises are to be fulfilled. They will talk of faith and holiness
when their foundation is built up of rotten timbers, and they are depending on
their own self-righteousness. But their presumptuous assurance is not faith.
They do not know what constitutes faith. {ST February 28, 1895, par. 7}
While there are many who lay claim to the
promises of God while they are not fulfilling their conditions, there is
another class who are humble and conscientious, but faint hearted, and they
overlook the precious promises of God that are for their appropriation. They
are continually in fear that Jesus does not love them. They walk in fear and
trembling, and the hand of faith seems too feeble to reach up and grasp and
hold the promises of God. They continually look to themselves to find an
assurance that they are good enough to become the children of God. But to look
to self is to look in the wrong direction. The parable of the Pharisee and the
publican has forcible lessons for both these classes. The Pharisee is full of
self-sufficiency, and rests in carnal security that he is saved, while the
publican has a deep sense of his unworthiness, and stands afar off. He does not
feel worthy to draw nigh to God, but smites upon his breast in
self-condemnation, and will not so much as lift up his
eyes unto heaven to meet the eyes of the heart-searching God. His cry is one of
soul agony, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Yet this was the one that Jesus
himself declares went down to his house justified. But the Pharisee had no such
divine favor. The publican looked away from himself, for he could see nothing
there in which to trust for salvation. He felt the need of a physician, and his
humble prayer was heard, while the prayer of the boasting Pharisee was an
offense to God. {ST February 28, 1895, par. 8}
The promises contained in the seven beatitudes
are not to be fulfilled to the one who feels self-sufficient, who turns from
the Scriptures of revealed truth to a false theory, crying: “I am saved, I am
saved. I cannot sin.” The precious promises of the beatitudes are for those who
feel their poverty of spirit, to the true mourners, to the meek, to the
peacemakers, to the pure in heart, to those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness. It is the weary and the heavy laden that Christ invites to come
unto him, and to them his promise is sure, “Ye shall find rest unto your
souls.” But the rest comes in wearing Christ’s yoke, in bearing Christ’s burden. {ST February 28, 1895, par. 9}