Sanctification
Spiritual Building-Stone No. 129

Hebrews 10:10, "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

St. John 17:17-19, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."

What is it? Oh, God requires perfection. He requires your repentance. He requires your loyalty to Him. But He's looking tonight. No matter how much you've sinned, how little or how much, you are still a sinner, and cannot get in no other way but by Jesus Christ, God's all-sufficient Sacrifice. And in Him you are perfected forever. Think of it.

It's not nothing you do. It's not new pages you turn. It's not a new life you start. It's a confession of your wrong, and God's grace to you. That brings you to perfection, and then you are perfected in Jesus Christ.

You say, "Brother Branham, when I can get quit smoking, when I can quit drinking, when I can straighten this thing up, I'll do it." Oh, it will never be done right. You'll never be able to do it. Why don't you just come the way you are? And, by faith, go to that Stream, Thy flowing wounds supply, then redeeming love to be your theme, and shall be till you die.

Why take a substitute? Why try to get in by your church? Why try to come in because you quit drinking or quit lying? Come by the way of perfection. "For by one Sacrifice He has perfected forever those that are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14).

"How do I get sanctified?" Confess your sins in the Presence of the Blood of Jesus; and the Life that come from that Blood, comes back to the worshipper and sanctifies Him from the desires of the things of the world. For by that all-sufficient Sacrifice He has sanctified us; one Spirit, we are all baptized into one Body (I Cor. 12:13). "Now there's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, to them that walk not after the flesh, but the Spirit" (Rom. 8:1). If you're trying to walk by the Spirit, and still lusting for the flesh, the Sacrifice hasn't been sufficiently applied to you. But the worshipper once purged has no more desire of sin.

That was Calvary. It isn't a place to sell flowers, or a little place to do this or that. It was a place where God and man were reconciled. It was the place where peace and perfect safety was brought to mankind. Can you go with me tonight, my sinner friend, to Calvary, and by faith apply this Blood to your own soul, and let the Holy Ghost come and sanctify you by His great Sacrifice? (II Thess. 2:13).

If there is anything that I can do to make myself perfect in the Presence of God, then Christ did not have to die for me. If there's one thing that you can do that would merit anything in the Presence of God, then Christ died in vain. No law-keeping, no legalistic ideas of yours, none of your own holiness, no things that you could quit doing: quit lying, quit stealing, quit smoking tobacco, quit going to the picture shows, still you are lost. Nothing can do it. Joining churches, rituals, ceremonies, baptisms, orders of the church, reading of creeds, saying of prayers, all those things would count nothing. You are lost. Not one thing can you do in yourself, for you are a sinner under condemnation. And there's not no way within yourself, or any creed, or anything that you could do, or think of of yourself, that could merit one thing in the Presence of God, because you are a sinner to start with.

You can't, no matter what you do, you quit drinking, quit smoking, quit telling lies, go to church and try to do this and try to do that, you're still carnal. That's just law; the law makes nothing perfect. But what makes perfect? Christ. Glory. I might quit lying, quit stealing, quit committing adultery, quit chewing, and quit all my things, and I'm still carnal. God don't receive it, because I have nothing to offer Him in propitiation.
But the minute that I lay my hands upon the blessed head of the Lord Jesus, and say, "Lord, I am no good; will You take me as Your servant?" and God kisses away my sin, I stand perfect in the sight of God. That's right. Why? I'm not standing on my own merit; I'm standing on His, and He's perfected us through His suffering and His Blood (Heb. 10:14).

"For by one offer he has perfected... (Until the next revival? What'd I say?)... he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 6:1-2). (Do you get it? "Let us go on to perfection.")
Now, you holiness people say, "Oh, yes, we believe in holiness. Hallelujah, we believe in sanctification." But you're taking your own. You just quit this and quit that; you know you shouldn't do it. Unless Christ has opened the door, and quickened it to your heart, and you become a place where sin is dead, and desire, it's all gone... (Heb. 10:1-2). Then He taketh away your own self-righteous (Rom. 10:1-4), He may establish Himself in you (Col. 2:6-7). And it's Christ, the Son of God in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:26-27).

You are not converted until you've received the Holy Ghost (Luke 22:31-32). That's right. You are believing unto... The Holy Spirit has spoke to you, and you've publicly confessed Him. The devil has the same thing. "I believe Him to be the Son of God." So does the devil. But you're walking on towards Him. When Peter had been called and justified by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ... And in John 17:17, Jesus sanctified them through the Word, for the Word was the Truth, and He was the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us" (St.John 1:1-3,14).
He was the Word, so He sanctified them. He said, "Father (speaking to the Spirit in Him), I sanctify them through the Word." Himself, a-laying His hands upon them. "Thy Word is the Truth." Just merely spoke Him into existence in the womb of a woman. Oh, totally impossible for Him to be any other way than this Word of God to make Him manifest. "I sanctify them."

Now, there is also three in perfection of the steps of grace to the church: justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost. That consists of the new birth. Just like a natural birth is typed by it. Which a woman giving birth to a child, the first thing comes forth is water, blood, then life. The Bible said in I John 5:7-8, I believe it is--that said, "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word (which was the Son), and the Holy Ghost; these three are One. There are three that bear witness in the earth: the Word--the water, blood, and spirit--water, blood, and spirit; these three agree in one."

Now, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are One. You can't have the Father without having the Son; you can't have the Son without having the Holy Ghost. But you can be justified without being sanctified. You can be sanctified without being filled with the Holy Ghost. Or you can have the water without the Blood, and the Blood without the Spirit. We proved that in the order of nature.

And so is it in the spiritual realm. It's water: justification by faith, believing on God, receiving Him as your personal Saviour, and being baptized (John 1:12-13; Acts 2:37-41); second is sanctification of the Spirit, that God cleanses the spirit from all elements of the world and the desire of the world; and then the Holy Spirit comes in and gives new birth and fills up that sanctified vessel.

In other words, a man comes through justification; he goes, says "I believe I want to preach the Word." He gets saved; he said, "I'm tired of sin." All right. Then he goes out, and first he still smokes, and maybe he lusts or something. After while he says, "God, this is not becoming to a Christian, especially a minister, to look upon women in the wrong way, to smoke cigarettes," or; "I do take a sociable drink of beer with the fellows, but--and even my congregation, but it don't seem right. Sanctify me, Lord." And then the Lord sanctifies him, takes all that lust away from him, everything. Then he's a sanctified vessel. Then what God presents to him is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. To do that, he has to come out of that bunch he's with (II Cor. 6:14-18). There's where he shows his color; then he backs down. What does he do when he backs down? He tramps the Blood of Jesus Christ that sanctified him, as though it was an unholy thing, not able to take him over there. Then it's impossible for him to be saved. And then what does it was? But on to the fiery indignation and the judgment (Hebr. 10:26-29).

Notice how beautiful this is here. We was talking on it the other day. Watch here, here, "Therefore being justified, justified by faith..." (Rom. 5:1-2). All right, second place, after being washed (Eph. 5:25-27), sanctified, and then filled with the Holy Ghost. Justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost. You see it? How was his message? Justification by hearing; sanctification is what you do; and in regards to what you did in appreciation of that, God sealed you by the Holy Ghost (Eph. 1:13-14).

That's the way He takes you, through justification, sanctification, and die out to receive Life (Amen.), not to a denomination or some creed, but to death to your spirit, so you can be borned again (John 12:24-25).

Here's what it teaches us: that God can use every faculty of our being if it's surrendered to Him. He can use our mind, our dreams, our subconscious, our first conscience, our tongue, our songs, our eyes, our... Everything that we have can be used of God if it's committed to God. See? Everything that you are commit it to God. He'll use every outlet and every part of you, He'll use it. No matter what it is, He'll use it if it's sanctified to His purpose and calling.

You were baptized unto repentance or for the remission of your sins. You confessed your sins before God, and He forgive you for it. And you was baptized to show that you had been forgiven, confessing to the people and showing to the world that you believe that Jesus Christ died for you, and He took your place, and now you stand in His place. He become you that you might become Him. Then the sanctifying power of God cleansed all the habits out of your life. You used to smoke, drink, do things that wasn't right, tell lies, everything. Then the sanctifying power of the Blood of Jesus Christ comes into your life; it takes all the things away from you (Rom. 15:16). If you happen to say, something's got wrong, quickly you say, "Wait a minute; pardon me, I didn't mean to say it like that." See? The devil got a trap setting there, but you've got grace to come back if you're a real Christian, say, "I was wrong." Yes. So therefore...
Now, the next thing you receive was the baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire (I Cor. 12:13; Matt. 3:11-12).

This is my message to the church now. You are standing, if you're standing on God's Word and with God's Word, every amen, every jot, every tittle. Where you standing? I'm trying to tell you: Pull away from them shucks and get out here in the wheat where you can get ripe before the sun. I hear the coming of the combine. You're standing complete, justified like you never did it in the first place. Hallelujah. Talk about a Thanksgiving. I feel real good. I'm more thankful for that than anything I know of. You are the pure, virtuous, sinless Bride of the Son of the living God. Every man and woman that's born of the Spirit of God, and washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ, and believes every Word of God, stands as though you never sinned at the first place. You're perfect. The Blood of Jesus Christ...

When a fellow receives Christ as his Saviour, everything is on the housetop. Everything, the birds sang different, and everybody was sweet. And, oh, my, how everything just was dandy when you first got saved. Then come the trying time, the chastening, sanctifying time, sanctifying yourself from things of the world, "laying aside the weights that does so easily beset you" (Heb. 12:1-2). You, a man, had to stop your smoking, stop your drinking, stop your going to the pool room, your all night card parties. All those things, you had to sanctify yourself from them by the faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18): sanctifying yourself. You women had to let your hair grow out, lengthen your dresses, and act like different than what you was: sanctifying time. Many times they'd rebel and go back; well, that's not a child of God. See? A child of God looks straight to Calvary and knows that it's for his good.

But before this man can come into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, this person, he must first have a sanctifying process. He must have a testing time in his life. All of you had it. He had this testing time. "Every son that cometh to God, is first scourged, chastened, chastised. And if we cannot stand chastisement, then it shows we're not children of God; we are bastards, and not children of God," the Bible said (Heb. 12:4-11). But if we can stand the chastisement, knowing that "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28), then we are sons and daughters of God; then He seals us with the Holy Spirit until the day of our redemption (Eph. 4:30). See, that's the chastisement, the strain, the thing we go through.

Therefore, no other blood would sanctify people (Heb. 13:12). I couldn't sanctify you, and you couldn't sanctify me, 'cause we're both born after sex. But Jesus was born without sex. That's right. So His Blood was a Sanctifier. And God came down, made a body, lived in it, shed that Blood for the sanctifying of this, which absolutely expelled the guilt of sin and shame (Heb. 10:5-14).

Now, the first step is repentance towards God, and then follows after that, is water baptism. Water baptism: "Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:37-41). See? Water baptism follows, showing that repentance was genuine, or, to remit our past sins. Now, that has nothing to do with future sin (Gal. 6:1; I John 1:8-10; I John 2:1-2). It only remits. "Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ." What for? Remission, taking away of past sin: has nothing to do with the future. Just your sin has been chopped off, what you did.

You can't repent for what Adam done. You never done it; Adam did. You just get forgiveness for what you done. The old nature is still there. Let me take this board just a minute.

Now, here is a human heart. I'm a long ways from being an artist. See? Here is a human heart, and here is a human heart. Now, this one over here has a snake in it; that's sin. Here he has is life. This one over here has a Dove in it, which is the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17). Here he has a life. Well, this one here he has malice, hatred, envy. That's what's causing it: this fellow here. Well, this one over here has love, and joy, and long-suffering, and that's what does it down here.

Now, when you're asked--or you are forgiven of your sins, you've only done this, taken that away. But the thing that made you do it is still there. That's the old root of evil. It's still there.

Notice, then secondly comes sanctification, which sets our mind in order for holiness: to think right, taking away. "Sanctification" is a compound Greek word which means "cleaned and set aside for service" (Prov. 23:7; Ps. 51:10-12).

Now notice, sanctification, the second stage of it, cleanses the mind, sets the heart, the mind of the heart in order of holiness.

A man can repent of sin and he's still thinking of... Well, maybe he's a immoral man. Every immoral looking woman he finds; it's still there. Maybe he's a drunkard. Every time he smells a drink; it's still there. See? But then when he gets sanctified, that cleanses that desire out of him. See? It takes the want of it away (Heb. 10:1-2). He can still be tempted, but He takes the want of it away. Still he's not right yet. Then he is baptized with the Holy Ghost and Fire (Matt. 3:11), cleansed, burnt out, cleaned up, and then put into the service of God. Sanctification only sets him aside for service.
The baptism of the Fire and Holy Ghost that God might dwell in us, and the Fire of God cleanses our hearts from sin and puts the Holy Ghost inside (Acts 2:1-4; 4:31). Then we bring forth the same Life that this did, because that's in us.

Think, your garments washed by the Water of the bleeding Word (Eph. 5:25-27). The Word become Blood. The Word bled for you, and you're washed in bleeding Word (John 1:1-3,14). The Word bleeding, the Life of God in the Word, and the Word was bled for you, that you might be washed from the filth of these prostitutes and be cleaned and sanctified by the washing of the Water of the Word that makes your mind and heart stayed on God and on His Word.

God's Prophet in prayer:
Lord, in the Light of Your Word, I command every person that's not baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to hasten to the water quickly while you have a chance. You who have not been filled with the Holy Ghost, I command you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ; fall to your knees and don't get up until the Holy Spirit has sanctified you thoroughly and filled you with His love and goodness until your soul is so satisfied in the Presence of God that your whole desire is to serve Him and walk for Him and work with Him all the rest of your life. Grant it, I pray, that God will give you this charge, in Jesus Christ's Name.

II Corinthians 7:1, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

Our heavenly Father, we bow in Thy Presence in behalf of those at the altar. Let Thy grace rest upon each one of them, Father. Now, as they, Lord... I can't do it for them. They've got to do it themselves. No man can do it for them. They have to do it alone. Let their souls now say in theirself, "Oh God, this temper, I lay it down here Lord; I'll never pick it up. No matter what comes or goes, I'll let it go from now on. This tongue of mine has been easy to take sides with a bunch of gossip, Lord, I'm laying it down here. I'll never pick it up again. Sanctify my tongue, Lord. Let me feel the Angels coming through like Isaiah did when he said, 'I'm of unclean lips. Woe is me.' And the Angel come, took the tongs, and went to the altar, and got the coals of fire, and laid it on his lips, and sanctified it." God, sanctify every talker this morning that talks wrong and sows discord. Grant it, Lord.

Seeing the revival fires begin to dim, let us throw on wood of the Word, that it might kindle a new fire, that our hearts would be full of zeal. Sanctify us, Lord, through Thy precious Word, and Thy Blood, and Thy grace we plead; and all thanks and praise will be Thine. Take all prejudice from our hearts; cleanse us, oh Lord. Give us pure hearts, and clean hands, and clean minds, that we might come into Thy sanctuary night after night, rejoicing and filled with Your Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' Name and for His sake. Amen.

Reference:
"Perfection", par. 77-83, 30
"Hebrews Chapter 7 Part 2", par. 366
"Hebrews Chapter 5 and 6", par. 128
"What The Holy Ghost Was Given For", par. 54, 85
"The Seed Is Not Heir With The Shuck", par. 49-50
"Questions & Answers" (61-1015M), par. 79
"Revelations Chapter 4 Part 3 (Throne of Mercy)", par. 211
"God's Gifts Always Find Their Place", par. 41
"Things That Are To Be", par. 63-64
"Letting Off The Pressure", par. 124
"Invisible Union", pg. 37, 38
"Ever-Present Water From The Rock", par. 67-68
"Future Home", pg. 15-17
"Birth Pains", pg. 8
"The Second Seal", Seal's Book pg. 226
"Enticing Spirits", par. 147
"What Is The Holy Ghost", par. 17

Spiritual Building-Stone No. 129 from the Revealed Word of this hour, compiled by: Gerd Rodewald, Friedenstr. 69, D-75328 Schömberg, Germany
Phone: (+49) 72 35 76 13, Fax: (+49) 72 35 33 06

There's coming one with a Message that's straight on the Bible, and quick work will circle the earth. The seeds will go in newspapers, reading material, until every predestinated Seed of God has heard It.
[Bro. Branham in "Conduct-Order-Doctrine", pg. 724]