Christ Is His People's Sanctification

[KenH]

We must needs die. We, some of us, soon shall die; we shall launch into worlds unknown. There are things we do not know, cannot know here fully. Now unbelief may work and will work strongly some times on some things we have. For instance, you meditate on eternity sometimes. You think about what it will be to stand in the presence of God, what it will be to have no earthly covering, no services to help you; just to go and launch into eternity and bear your own burden, and you say, "I am not fit for it." And if one should say, "Why do you come to that conclusion?" you might say, "Look at my life; I look at it, a life of sin, not blessed by God before man or as to be condemned by man, but before God; a heart full of sin, a nature wholly depraved, that is unutterably conscious of guilt. I am not fit to die." Now this unbelief cuts you, wounds you, makes you feel a very poor helpless creature. If faith is drawn out by the word of Christ, who says in this Gospel, "Let not your heart be troubled; I know you will soon deny Me; all of you My disciples, you will deny Me; but let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me; in My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself;" (John 14:1-3) then if the Lord should say, "I am your righteousness, I am your sanctification, I am your redemption," what then? Why, faith will go out, leap up, so to speak, and go beyond all the sinking fears and troubles you have been suffering, and say, "O I shall get through!" On what ground is this blessed expression founded? Why, on the ground of Christ's Person and work, His abiding righteousness, His exhaustless fullness, His saving grace, His cleansing blood, His word of promise. This covers all, this covers my rebellions, this washes away my guilt and pollution, this clothes my naked soul, this brings me to a fitness that I could never attain to of myself, a confidence that has no relation whatever to any effort of my own, but altogether is the gift and the work of the eternal Spirit.

- from a sermon preached by J.K. Popham, entitled "Sanctification", preached at Galeed Chapel, Brighton, on September 17, 1922.

 

[JonC]

To quote Paul, "it is not I but Christ who lives in me."

Fight the good fight of faith" when nature tempts you to neglect the throne of grace. Nature craves a little ease. Fight my friends, struggle to get to God; labour to enter that house where satisfaction is. "Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple." (Psalm 65:4) This turning from the throne of God's heavenly grace is like going away from the market, a market where everything is sold and no money is asked; it is going away from food into famine, from cleanness to uncleanness, and from godliness to lust. It is yielding to the old man, and to our wicked nature. I appeal to your experience, O people of God. When has it been well with you? When has your armour been bright? When have your feelings been godly? When has your trust been simple and direct as placed upon God? Has it been when you have turned your back upon the throne of God's heavenly grace and you have been indulging in old natures delightful sleep? No. Every gracious person will say we have brought guilt on our consciences and leanness to our souls and deadness to our affections when we have so lived; but whenever we have been lively, whenever we have been tender, whenever we have walked before the Lord, whenever we have had a little dew on our branches, it has been when, through the Spirit's power, we have sought the Lord and waited upon Him.

- from a sermon preached by J.K. Popham, entitled "The Good Fight of Faith", preached at Galeed Chapel, Brighton, on June 24, 1923.