Part One: Contents
1. Scriptural Separation2. Sanctification and Holiness
3. A Neglected Doctrine
4. The Source of Holiness
5. The Holy Temple
6. The Fundamentals in All the Compartments of Life
7. Holding the Fort; Heeding the Faith
8. The Complete Definition of Sanctification
Part Two: Contents
9. The Meaning of Sanctification10. The Total Holy Picture
11. The Distinctives of Sanctification
12. The Roman Catholic Error
13. The Fundamentals Distinguished
14. The Book of Romans
Part Three: Contents
15. Seven Steps to Sanctification16. Separation: Ecclesiastical and Personal
17. The Nobility of Holiness
18. Sin and Defilement
19. The Mitre: "The Iniquity of the Holy Things"
Seven Steps of Sanctification
The spiritual and theological path from the dead sinner to the walking saint, and on into heaven, is marked by at least seven progressive steps in the doctrine of sanctification. They are: potential sanctification (John 17:17); positional sanctification (I Corinthians 1:2); experiential (crisis) sanctification (Romans 6:1-14); expansional (growth) sanctification (Romans 8:1-5); perfectional (maturity) sanctification (I Thessalonians 5:23); glorificational (in heaven) sanctification (Revelation 22:11); and eternal sanctification throughout the Eternal Golden Age (Revelation 4:8).
The three dangers remain: to neglect the biblical teaching of sanctification, entirely; to legalize the biblical teaching of sanctification, self-righteously; or to avoid the biblical teaching of sanctification, licentiously. But to live the hope of the Christian life without the holiness of God would lead to a wretched wallowing and in the despair of Romans, chapter seven.
Two truths stand before us. We must reckon, obey, and yield to the crisis experience of sanctification and deal with the flesh. This commences holiness in our experience.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.32
We must also reckon, obey, yield, and walk in the Spirit in the process life of sanctification. This continues holiness in our entire Christian life.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.33
Creation was given in six solar days by a crisis (fiat) act plus process (made, formed, planted); history has been manifested by crisis plus process; and holiness is administered by grace through crisis plus process as given to the newborn Christian and throughout the Christian's life. Evangelism brings the sinner to Christ; revival brings the Christian back to the holiness of God.
Separation: Ecclesiastical and Personal
Across all the definitions given for the subject of holiness, separation, as a part of sanctification, is the guardian principle. This is true both in the message of the Cross and the practice of the Christian. Rightly understood, through redemption, separation leads to cleansing, to enablement, to consecration, to maturity, and to Holy Ghost anointing upon our lives. This is the complete "walk" of holiness. If there is no separation, there is no line of demarcation between good and evil, right or wrong, apostle or apostate, and holiness or sinfulness.
This guardian principle must be made manifest, mainly in the two areas of ecclesiastical separation and personal separation. The message and the man are at stake. In the former, our Lord Jesus and His word are attacked or shamed by apostates and enemies of the Cross. In the latter, the Gospel is demeaned before others by our own personal sins. The generation in which we currently live has been sadly harmed by both, and as a result of this, the preaching and believing of cheap grace and easy-believism have been popularized before the masses of men. The message and the man have the greater and holy priority over the methods, the means, the monies, the missions, and the movements. The holiness of God must be made manifest in all of the compartments of the Christian life.
The frontline battlefields are marked by the liberals, the neo-orthodox, the neo-evangelicals, the neo-pentecostalists, and the charismatics; and the return of a fellowship through the ecumenical movements is leading us back to Roman Catholicism. Because of the increasing artistry of error and deception, men are compromising with apostates directly or through unseparated brethren indirectly. More and more former fundamental soldiers are leaving the battlefield from fright and fatigue, while others are leaving their former separated walk for doubtful platforms and unseparated pulpits. Ecclesiastical separation remains urgently needed as was practiced by our forebears to historic Fundamentalism. Scriptural sanctification demands this separation.
The companion need to ecclesiastical separation is personal separation.
Unless Almighty God gives us a mighty revival, a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our personal lives, we will see and hear of more fornicators in our pulpits, as well as more divorces among the leaderships of our churches. The lack of personal sanctification and the reverence and worship involving the holiness of God is evident to a wholesale proportion. Another evidence is marked by our love for and mishandling of the Lord's monies. Stewardship is waning among us; integrity and ethics are rarely seen. Sanctification includes these, too.
More and more ministers believe that personal failure, in morals and ethics, does not mean the failure of their ministry. There is no ministry without a sanctified messenger. There is a false, unsanctified assumption that the sins of fornication and embezzlement are natural instead of sinful, and that the Lord expects our ministries to survive no matter what the Pastoral Epistles say about the character, principles, and sanctification of the leadership. The Holy Bible, revealed by our Holy God, still retains the same principles of godliness and sanctification, and the sanctification of church leaders is more exacting for them than any other persons involved in the Christian life. We look for the least grace in the least saint, but the most grace in the Christian leader.
Some argue that King David was allowed to continue as king after his adultery with Bathsheba and the bloodguiltiness of Uriah the Hittite. But the fact of the matter remains that what a king did do, a New Testament prophet and church leader may not do. How often have we heard it said in the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "If God calls you to be a prophet and preacher, do not stoop to be a king." So, being a king is not our only model.
The charismatics have falsely emphasized that the gifts and callings of their leaderships are without repentance and discontinuance even if they fornicate or embezzle the so-called Lord's monies. Of course, this assumption presumes to abandon the holiness of God in personal separation and sanctification.
There is a singular commandment that comes from the Old Testament into the New Testament exactly the same. It is written:
...be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God.34
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.35
The Nobility of Holiness
Our fundamental view of sanctification must reach its conclusion in the nobility of our view of holiness. We believe it was correctly rendered in the resolutions of our World Congresses of Fundamentalism to include the separatist position. It is biblical; it is needed. Whether or not every historical fundamentalist since the end of the nineteenth century actually formulated a written statement of separation or not, does not change the fact that they did indeed practice separation. The separation of their sanctification remains on record. It has been our testimony. Some were "defrocked" from the Princetonian Presbyterian Seminary.36 That was a forced separation set forth by the apostate system. Others suffered a voluntary separation, such as many of the Baptists. Both of these groups suffered separation as puritans in growing apostate systems. Still others, as pilgrims to the growing apostasy, simply commenced independent churches and Bible colleges and seminaries, and suffered historic separation as children of those who witnessed the sorrow of their parents who had been puritans in the decaying apostate condition in the earlier part of the generation. But all were separatists, practicing separatists; and thus, the doctrine of separation was established. And that practice and proclamation must still remain among us. Some have defected, but the practice and proclamation still remain among us. May God preserve this noble truth among us until the end.
Sanctification includes this noble view of the Holiness of God. We must also acquiesce to our Noble God. This involves a spiritual art form which adorns the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.37
In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.38
The Christian life is like a sacred art, always dedicated to law, order, design, purpose, beauty, and spiritual decor; constantly setting forth a heart desiring godliness, piety, dignity, character, and ethics. It is measured not from the gutter of the world, and contemporary mood, but rather from the top of heaven and the glory of Christ.
As Christians, we are always salt to the world's system, as well as light to the Savior's Gospel. Yet, as pearls, also, we do not cast them before swine; as holy, we do not give that to dogs.
As prophets, we do not merely wear "sheep's clothing"; we are really sheep, not inwardly, ravening wolves.
As fruit, we are not "grapes of thorns" or "figs of thistles."
As a good tree we bring forth "good fruit." We are only to be known to others by our "good fruit."
There is no art without nobility. We must measure our orthodoxy from the bottom foundation of the Rock of Ages; but we must measure our ethics from the top of the glory of Christ. Unfortunately, we live in a time of slob-culture, slob-conversations, slob-art forms, and even some slob-conversions to Christ. Unfortunately, this has been seen among both practicing sinners and professing saints.
All of us have at some time in our experience seen some professing fundamentalists who hold most literally and dogmatically to strict fundamental beliefs, but do not see or practice a basic nobility in their tactics or ethics with their brethren. They do not seem to see or understand the biblical nobility of Christ and manner, spirit and wisdom, in dealing with their brethren. By their lack of this spiritual nobility, they become suspicious of their brethren and with evil surmisings, distort the words and testimony of their brethren into a compromise or lie. This reveals a lack of sanctification, too.
On the other hand, thank God, there are those who live nobly with their brethren, setting forth respect, dignity, and encouragement through the years.
We must never measure all individuals in the Body of Christ according to our own limited understanding of a certain manner, method, or dogmatism of stand for fundamentalism. The Body of Christ is too versatile; the capacity of our own individual vessel, too small. Otherwise holiness is violated and self survives in the pride of place, face, and estranged grace, misplaced by too great a personal confidence in self.
Sin and Defilement
There are two Old Testament ceremonies which are unusual types of Christ: One is the Cleansing of the Leper;39 the other is the Cleansing of Defilement.40 There is a difference between sin and defilement; there is a provision in the atonement for both. In the former, there is the direct implementation of the blood of one bird being placed upon the second bird, which is then loosed in the open field. In the latter, there is the direct implementation of the ashes of a Red Heifer which had been laid up in a clean place to be brought forth in only the remembrance of the blood. Also, in the former, we are noting a type of the cleansing of sin; in the latter, a cleansing from defilement.
Leprosy is viewed in its total development from a rising, a scab, and a bright spot (Leviticus 13:2). Before the priest will declare these symptoms as leprosy, he will carefully inspect the spread and color and surrounding hair for three sets of seven-day periods. This reveals that the priest will not allow the individual to stay in the congregation of the camp if indeed the individual does have leprosy, but neither will the priest keep him outside the congregation of the camp too long if he does not have leprosy. In the former, we view God's holiness; in the latter, we view His grace. If spreading, discoloration, and confirmation did indeed reveal leprosy (a type of personal sin), then it could be clearly noted in the head, hair, and/or beard (Leviticus 13:29 & 40-42), or in the garment (Leviticus 13:47 & 57-59), or in the house (Leviticus 14:34-44). It is not revealed how leprosy was healed, but we assume the leper is healed when all of it has come out of him. Then cleansed, and restoration to the congregation of the camp is given. After the two birds were implemented (Leviticus 14:4-5), along with the implementation of the cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, with "two he lambs" and "one ewe lamb" (Leviticus 14:10), then the blood of "one he lamb" would be put upon the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the big toe of the right foot. Then oil would be placed upon the blood on each of the three parts of the body: first, the blood, then the oil; first the cleansing from sin, then the anointing of the life. Thus, the sanctifying work of the atonement is made manifest for the leper.
The cleansing from defilement is presented in a different way in the sanctifying work of the atonement of Christ. When the Ordinance of the Red Heifer is set forth, then we are able to see the work of Christ in the provision of sanctification in a different way.
The occasion was brought about by a man plowing in a field when his plowing instrument would hang up on a dead bone buried there. We must keep in mind that many Israelites died in the Wilderness; 603,550 men alone are enumerated. Or, if a person was visiting a neighbor's tent and someone died there, the visitor would be defiled. In this ordinance there is no willful intent on the part of the individual, but there was defilement anyway. Volitional sin would undoubtedly be involved in the leper, but only the environmental influence of that which had died around him was emphasized in the Ordinance of the Red Heifer. Once again cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet were implemented. These three elements represented the individual gifts a person might have. Cedar wood was one of the greatest trees in Palestine, the hyssop represented the little things in our lives. Solomon wrote upon subjects from the large cedars to the little hyssop which did spring out of the wall (I Kings 4:33). The scarlet represented all our desires (cf. II Samuel 1:24 & Daniel 5:7,16,29). These three elements must be given up. Contacts with anything dead defiles the person.
The beautiful doctrine of sanctification deals with the seed and the deed of sin; the root and fruit of sin; and the nature and choice of sin. But as we live in this defiled world, we must also remember that our Lord Jesus Christ provides for our safekeeping through the earth. As Christians, we do not think and pray enough about our sins and defilements, and especially the daily defilements. If we will go to Christ's atonement to deal with the daily defilements, we could often avoid many of the sins that finally manifest themselves in our lives and cause serious fall and backsliding in the life.
Sanctification is a provision, by the grace of God, which we may draw upon through all our days. Christ died for our sins (I Corinthians 15:3); and in that He died, He died unto sin (Romans 6:10); and, also, He died for our sanctified safekeeping as we walk through the world (cf. I John 5:4 & Hebrews 9:13-14). Of course, He is our everlasting security as well as our safekeeping.
The Mitre: "The Iniquity of the Holy Things"
The "mitre" (mitsnepheth), also called the "plate of pure gold" or "the holy crown" (Leviticus 8:9), has been characterized as a turban of fine linen, and blue lace, to cover the head, bearing upon the front a gold plate engraved, "Holiness to the Lord" (Exodus 28:36-38).41 This was a provision for the head of the High Priest.
The purpose of the mitre is clear:
And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.
This particular aspect of the priestly work of the Lord deals with the safekeeping of holy things against iniquity.
Christ must provide not only a remedy for sin, but He must provide a remedy against sin. The priestly work of Christ deals not only with sinful things, but also with creaturely things. Christ died for our sins (I Corinthians 15:3); Christ died unto the sin nature (Romans 6:10); and, Christ died for our human weaknesses (cf. II Corinthians 13:4-5 & Hebrews 5:12 & 12:1-2).
In the mitre, as a type of Christ, we see Him fulfilling all that is needed in making provision for our failures and creaturely weaknesses even in our service and worship to God in the "holy things." There are so very many failures and fallings that are away from the Cross; we must live in such a manner that our failures and fallings are toward the Cross. In our service in the church, our worship at the altar, our preaching in the pulpit, our winning souls and building saints, it is a most wonderful truth to realize that Christ died, and Christ was priest for us, including a provision for the "iniquity" of the "holy things." This is also His work of sanctification for us. Man can sin in the prayer room as well as in the bar room; we need Christ in the work of the church as well as in the way of the world. Holy ground marks holy feet.42
Just serving God in the midst of holy things is not a guarantee of being holy. It would be hard to measure how much spiritual damage has been made directly in the holy place of the church. We must avail ourselves of this gracious provision: Christ, our Mitre, bears "the iniquity of the holy things." Christ makes up for all that we might lose in the very presence of God. The mitre goes before us, to make sure that neither sin nor saintliness will bar us from the acceptability we need, in Christ, before God. No one of us has the right to stand or serve in the presence of God on our own merit. Even our personal and practical holiness, received from Christ, may only stand because Christ bears the mitre in the holy place in heaven for us.
Endnotes
32 Hebrews 13:12-13.
33 Hebrews 12:14-15.
34 Leviticus 20:7b.
35 I Peter 1:6.
36 Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen, Biographical Memoir, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1754), pp. 439-445.
37 Cf. Psalm 29:2 & 96:9 & 110:3.
38 Titus 2:7-10.
39 O. Talmadge Spence, Foundations Bible Commentary, (Dunn: Foundry Press; Foundations Press, 1977), pp. 407-420.
40 O. Talmadge Spence, The Quest for Christian Purity, (Shoals, Old Paths Tract Society, Inc., 1988), pp. 280-281.
41 O. Talmadge Spence, Foundations Bible Commentary, Volume I, The Pentateuch; p. 323.
42 Bob Jones, Jr., Old Testament Sermons: The Pentateuch, Volume 1, (Greenville: BJU Press, 1973), pp. 58-59.