The subject this morning is sanctification, and I'm going to read two verses in the New Testament that may have been a difficulty to you. They have been to many others, and I think if you listen carefully during the message, The meaning of these verses will be quite clear to you by the time we get through. We are going to read, first of all, I'm going to read to you John chapter 10 and verse 36. Now the subject, as I've said, is sanctification. We're going to go back to the book of Exodus chapter 13 for our message. But I read verse 36 of John 10 where we hear our Lord saying, Say ye of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous because I said, I am the Son of God. So the Father sanctified the Son and have we read in John chapter 17 and verse 19 we would have read that Christ sanctified himself. Now another verse that has been a real problem to many is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 7th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, and I'm reading verses 13 and 14. And the woman which happened husband of believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were their children unclean, but now are they whole. So we have unbelievers sanctified. An unbelieving or an unbelieving wife. Now we're going to read the first 16 verses of Exodus chapter 13 for our study this morning. Exodus chapter 13 verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, and a beast, it is mine. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day in which he came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. Therefore shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came he out in the month Abeth, and it shall be when the Lord shall bring me into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which ye swear unto thy fathers to give thee a land flowing of milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee. Neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. And thou shalt show thy son in that day saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand and for a memorial between thine eyes that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. for with a strong hand that the Lord dropped thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year. And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the king-nights, as he swear unto thee, and to thy fathers, and shall give it to thee, that thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast, the male shall be the Lord. And every firstling of a mass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck, and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. And it shall be, when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this, that thou shalt say him that by strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the first born in the land of Egypt, both the first born of man and the first born of beast. Therefore I sacrificed the Lord all the dopen of the matrix, being males. But all the firstborn of my children I redeemed. And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontless between thine eyes. For by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt. Now you can see that we are really still studying the Passover, that great event in which God liberated his people, Israel, from the bondage of Egypt, and made it possible for them to travel through the wilderness and possess the land of Canaan as their homeland. Naturally, that was very important to the Israelites. And, of course, the Passover is a great celebration to this day amongst the Jewish people. It's important to us because, as I said in previous studies, we have here set forth a very simple language and how God saves men and women. And we shall see that again in our study this morning. But this was so important that God gave them two feasts in connection with this wonderful delivery. One of them, a feast of the Passover, when they fed upon the roast lamb that had died for them, whose blood had sheltered them, we have already studied. And there are many, many more important lessons that could be derived from it. But he also gave this feast of unleavened bread that I want to refer to this morning. Not only that, they were, as we've been reading here in these verses from Exodus 13, they were to redeem the firstborn in each generation. You can see this wasn't something that just pertained to the firstborn that was living at that time. But as each successive generation comes on in the nation of Israel, they are to be reminded of these great truths. Now that's important because, you see, it wasn't enough for people to be saved in the past. People need to be saved today. It wasn't enough for our grandfathers to trust Christ. For our fathers to trust Christ. We must trust Christ. And our children must trust Christ. And so the great lesson of redemption by blood must be learned by each generation. It's not enough to have godly saved forebears. Each one must be saved for him or herself. Now, this matter of sanctification is something that many people are confused about. And, sad to say, there is a lot of of teaching that just will not measure up to the Word of God. And it doesn't matter what any teacher teaches, what any book says, what any denomination believes, it's what the Bible teaches that everything must be tested by. No doubt you have heard preachers talk about sanctification, and you wonder to yourself, well, just what does that mean? Maybe you've asked, are you sanctified? And you wondered what you should reply. You know your thing. You have been born again. But when you were asked, have you been sanctified? Well, you were just a little hesitant because you weren't quite sure what that meant or what it entailed. Now, I hope after our message this morning, while we certainly will not be able to cover this tremendous truth of sanctification, I hope you'll be quite clear on the basic truth connected with it. First of all, let me say we are looking at two things in this chapter. One is the sanctifying of the firstborn. We read that. Sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Now keep that in mind, and we'll come back and talk about that. Then we were reading about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Keep that in mind. So there are two things in this chapter. And in connection with sanctification, there are two things that you must keep in mind. One is positional sanctification. The other is practical sanctification. Now, I don't know anything that illustrates these two phases of sanctification more simply and clearly than what we have read together this morning. And that's why we'll look at it now. You who have been here in previous messages that I've given to you on the Passover will remember this. Let's think about the first one. Let's think of it clearly and simply in certain steps. all the firstborn sentenced to death, didn't we? The firstborn was under the sentence of death. That's where we begin. And that reminded us that all of us, by birth and by practice, we are under the sentence of death. Spiritual death, physical death, eternal death. because of sin. So we all begin where the firstborn began, under the sentence of death. But we went on to learn and to see that the firstborn was sheltered by blood. No need to go into the details again, but you recall the blood was taken and was sprinkled on the lintel and the two side posts of the door, and the first form that had been under the sentence of death was now sheltered by the blood. Now that's salvation. A lot of other ways you can approach it, but that is basically salvation. You are saved when you come under the shelter of the blood of Christ By faith, and until you're under that shelter, you're exposed to the judgment of God. Now, if you're here this morning, and you have never taken shelter under the blood of Christ, you're under the sons of death, you're exposed to the judgment of God, if you were to die, you would be lost forever. The third thing we learned was that because they were sheltered, by the blood, then they were saved by their substitute. Because a lamb had died and shed its blood, they were saved. Now, you and I, this morning, we are saved because the lamb of God died on the cross. cross of Calvary as our substitute. He took our place for our judgment, received the death stroke that we deserved, and now we are saved and were spared from judgment because of that substitute that died in our place. I don't know any simpler way to put salvation, the back. Now look, the one that was sentenced to death, but had been sheltered by the blood and was now spared because of the substitute, is going to be sanctified. God says, sanctify unto me the firstborn. Why did he say that? Because he tells us, and the last three words of verse 2 in our chapter, Acts 13, it is mine. Why did the firstborn belong to God? Because it had been sentenced to death. It would have died if God hadn't stepped in. But God stepped in and said, I'll take a lamb instead of the firstborn. And the lamb is slain, it's blood sprinkled, the firstborn is spared. Now says, God, that's mine. That's mine. I purchased that with that blood. Now you see, that is what is true of everyone who is saved. God looks at us and says, he's mine. She's mine. Not by creation. all belong to God by creation. But we belong to God as our heavenly Father because we have been purchased by the blood of Christ. Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, and he comes to what in our Bible is chapter 6. And at the end of that chapter you have these words. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and you're not your own. You're not your own. Today we are living in an age of lawlessness. Everybody wants to do their own thing. Nobody's going to tell me what to do. do wait a minute if you're a Christian you are not your own now if you want to argue about that you just go home take your Bible heard the first Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19 and get down your knees and argue all you want were the Almighty and when you get through still be there you're not your own well why because you're bought with a price When I go downtown, uptown or somewhere else, in Greensboro, and buy something and pay the price, it's mine. It belonged to the company until I put the price down. It's mine. I'm going to be sure that I get the package that contains what is mine. said in writing to the Christians, you are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with a precious blood of Christ. So the price that you and I have been purchased by is the precious blood of Christ. Now you see why God had a perfect right to say regarding the firstborn, it is mine. And because he said that, he said, now sanctify Well, what does that mean? It means this. And I want you to grasp it so you'll not be led astray by any error. In the Bible, in the Old Testament there's only one Hebrew word that is used for sanctify. In the New Testament there's only one Greek word that's used for sanctify. And both of them mean to set apart. To set apart. All right, go back. sentenced to death we're talking about the first one sentenced to death sheltered by the blood spared because of substitution set apart of belonging to God that is sanctification in that sense it hasn't got a thing to do and mark this character in that sense it hasn't got a thing thing to do with the condition of what is sanctified. If we were to take time, we could go through both Old and New Testament, and we would prove that. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 3, you read of a day being sanctified. In Exodus 19, you read about a mountain being sanctified. In Exodus chapter 29, you have an altar, an altar that was made of wood and covered with copper and it's sanctified. In fact, in that chapter, the whole tabernacle was sanctified to God. You read in Leviticus chapter 27 of a house being sanctified, just an ordinary dwelling place being sanctified. and of a field being sanctified. And when you come over into the New Testament, I am only going to refer to those two that I read to you. You read of Christ being sanctified. Would you dare to tell me there was sin in Christ before he was sanctified? Would you dare to tell me that? He said, The Father sanctified me and sent me into the world. would you dare to say there was sin and the Son of God before he was sent into the world? Certainly not. This hasn't a thing to do with a condition. This, as I said, is positional. And we were reading in 1 Corinthians 7 about an unbeliever being sanctified, not saved. No, no, no. Sanctified. Can a person be sanctified and not saved? The Bible says they can. Why? Because sanctification, as you see here, is setting apart in a special way. I don't need to go to those four steps again. God had purchased that first boy. And so he said, now set it apart. It's mine. It's not just one of the rest, the firstborn not just one of the family, the firstborn not just one of the flock or the herd, but sent apart. It belongs to me. And if that firstborn that sent apart was a lamb or a goat or an ox, it's It's very interesting that we're told in the book of Deuteronomy that that animal, and this is referred to the ox, was not to be used for work, and that sheep or goat was not to be sheared. And what does that mean? Well, you can imagine a man, a farmer, would begin to use his young ox in his work. But God says of the first one, no, no, wait a minute, you can't take that ox out and use it to plow your field. It belongs to me. It belongs to me. The farmer would shear his sheep and his goat and would sell the goat's hair and the fleece. He would sell that. God says, oh, no, wait a minute. Not that first flock. You do that with the rest of the flock, but not that. That belongs to me. over here. It belongs to me. And later, and I'm just giving you these things because time will not permit us to turn to the pastures, but later we learn that God says now all the firstborn belong to me. He go out and number them. So they numbered all the firstborn in Israel. Now he says, I'm going to take the tribe of Levi of the firstborn. So you number the tribe of Levon. Well, they did. They numbered the firstborn. They numbered the tribe of Levon. Now God says, I'll take a Levite for a firstborn. Swap them over. And the Levites will be mocked. Well, when they did all that, they found that there were more firstborn Levites. They couldn't match them up, man for man, you see. Now God says, you've got to redeem these ones who don't have a Levite to match up with them. Now you've got to redeem them for five shekels of silver up for person. And so they had to pay five shekels of silver for every firstborn that didn't have a matching levite. That's undoubtedly what Peter was referring to when he said, you are not redeemed of corruptible things such as silver and gold. You can't give five shekels and redeem yourself either of silver or gold. Nor can anyone else. Now what did those Levites do? Here they are. They've been taken instead of the firstborn. which belonged to God. Now, says God, the God who has said to the firstborn, they're mine. Now he says, the Levites, you're mine. What do the Levites do? The Levites serve God in a special way in connection with the tabernacle. So you see what this sanctification was? It was setting it apart because it belonged to God, and now is to serve God. You see, you wouldn't find the firstborn of the ox outflowing the field. You wouldn't find the firstborn of the sheep being sheared and the fleece being sold, because that belonged to God. animals, they had to be redeemed with a lamb. The lamb had to be slain, and the lamb was sacrificed to God as blood was sprinkled, and they were permitted to eat the flesh of it as a feast to God. But if it was an unclean animal, as we were reading here, every first sling of an ass. Now an ass was an unclean animal. Every first sling of an ass, thou shalt redeem with a lamb, or else thou shalt break his neck. And every first sling of man thou shalt redeem. So you see, God wanted his people always to remember that they were under the sentence of death. They could only be redeemed by blood, and when they were redeemed by blood, they belonged to God. So they didn't look back to Israel, to Egypt rather, when they were in bondage in Egypt, and say, now our firstborn back there had to be redeemed. No, when that first boy appeared in the family, They had to say, this boy has to be redeemed. The firstborn was the representative of the whole family and the whole nation. And they'd say, he has to be redeemed. They'd go and get a lamb. And that lamb would be slain. And that would redeem the firstborn. But if a man had a man, an unclean animal, a little coat, that had been born, it's born on the sentence of death, and the farmer says, no, I'm not going to give a lamb for that. It's not worth it to me. I've got several other good, working ones, and I don't want that. I'm not going to sacrifice a lamb for that. What happened? His neck was broken. But if he wanted to spare it, He took a lamb and sacrificed it, and that unclean animal was stained. Can't you see a picture of us? Uncleaned by sin? Job said, same man would be one, though man be born like a wild ass was cold. Yes, we're all unclean by sin. are as filthy rags, we're told in Isaiah 64, 6. And the very best man, the very best woman in the whole world is unclean by sin. And like that acid coat, we were under the sentence of death. But thank you, Lord, God in infinite love, sent His only Son to be our life, and that land does, and we're redeemed. Now don't forget, in your rejoicing that you are redeemed, don't forget, God says, it's mine. Set it apart for me. You can't do what you want to with your life, believer in Christ. You can't do it. You say, I'm going All right, I shall see you at the judgment seat of Christ, losing your whole life because you held it on as belonging to you, and it will all be burnt out. Go out and make a million dollars, build the biggest house in North Carolina, amass the greatest fortune, go into politics, you're in the country, and the whole thing will be burnt out at the judgment seat of Christ if you live your life as though it belonged to you. They're mine. Set them apart. Well, you see, what will God do with me? That is God's business. He may send you right back to where you're working, right back to where you're living. Right back to what you're doing, but he'll send you back as one who belongs to him. And right there, he'll expect you to live as one who's been sanctified to God. That is why you read in the verse of Deuteronomy, but that's why you read in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 10, we are sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus. Christ once for all. What was sanctified the firstborn? The Lamb of God. What was the sanctified me? The offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Am I sanctified? I am. Traditionally, almost 50 years ago, I was set apart as belonging to God. But now, says God, and I just have a couple of men. Now, says God, because you belong to me, I want you to go through your house and take out every little scrap of leaven that you have and burn it. And I don't want you to be caught eating any leavened bread for seven days. That was the feast of unleavened bread. You see, that was the practical sign of God set you apart positionally because you've been purchased by blood but now he said not only are ye mine but be holy for I am holy and all through your Bible in both Old and New Testaments we have leavened as a picture and type of evil Orthodox Jew, before the Passover day comes, he goes through the house and searches out anything that would have an eleven in them, gets it out of the house. And for seven days during the feast of unleavened bread, there was not to be an eleven eat. God's giving us a practical picture of living a life of separation from evil. Because I have been set apart as belonging to God, I should not allow evil in my home. Let me take a look around, see if there's any light on that. If there is, it's a denial of your sanctification to God. What are you feeding on? Is there any evil in what you're feeding on? I'm not talking physically, you know that. Spiritual, mentally. Are you feeding on evil? If you are, you're breaking the feast of unleavened bread. And have we turned, and time is gone, we would turn to 1 Corinthians 5, and we would read there, Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. Isn't that lovely? Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. That's the Lamb, who sets us apart because we're sheltered by his blood and saved by his substitution. Therefore, let us keep the feast. not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Because I've been set apart by my Passover lamb, as belonging to God, I am to put away all malice. and all women and I am to feast on sincerity and truth that is a practical application of sanctity God in his infinite grace has made it possible that you and need to be saved and sanctified to the work of Christ. Well, you say, what does it mean that an unbelieving husband is sanctified? A unbelieving wife is sanctified. I'll just tell you this. If you're unsaved and you've got a saved partner in life, you've got one of the greatest blessings you could ever have done. Yes? unsaved men of unsaved wives. Their wives can't pray for them. Their wives don't desire their salvation. Their wives join right and with them in living a life of worldliness and sin. But a saved wife prays for her husband. I tell you there's going to be many a man in heaven because of the prayers of a wife when no one but God And the very fact that they're united in that marriage relationship sets that husband or wife, whichever the case may be, sets them apart for special dealings by God. Because there's a wife praying for her, there's a husband praying for her. is in heaven listening. And the Spirit of God begins to work on that husband, begins to work on that one. And eventually they'll come to Christ. And it sent him and said, Oh, I've seen that so often in these fifty years. What a wonderful thing it's been to see God come in and save a wife or save a husband. And then God goes to work on the other apartment and they get sick. And they unite with not only marriage but in Christ. Then they begin to rear the family for God and they get sick. Sometimes the other way around. We've had children come to our Sunday school and go to save them. And they've gone home and pastored mother until she came, she got sick. And she went and kept after her husband until he came, he got sick. Yes. But remember, It's all because the blood of that lamb. You are saved if you're under that blood. You're unsaved if you're under any other shelter in the whole wide world. Don't talk to me about religion or church or baptism or anything like that. Not one of them or all of them put together will shelter you from the judgment of God. But the blood of Jesus Christ will. shelter, you are sanctified. And because you're sanctified, you're to live a life of practical separation from sin. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, may thy Holy Spirit in this quiet moment take what has been said and search out every heart. May each one before God ask am I sheltered unto the blood of Christ? Or am I exposed to the judgment of God? And we pray that everyone that is sheltered and saved may hear thee speaking afresh to them, thou art mine. Help us to live, we pray, the our God, of those who have been redeemed at such a us. May thy blessing rest upon us as we separate in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.