ALONE WITH GOD     

Entire Sanctification

Incompleteness of the Regenerated

   When one first enters into the state of regeneration, that experience usually seems, not only to satisfy the soul, but also to reach beyond one's highest expectations. It fills his whole horizon; he sees and can see nothing beyond it. In course of time, however, as he begins to understand himself more perfectly, he becomes conscious of a certain incompleteness. He sees a spiritual standard lifted up in the Scriptures to which he has not yet attained. He reads such texts as the following: "T hat ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (James 1:4). "That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19). "That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:17). "In him verily i s the love of God perfected" (I John 2:5). "His love is perfected in us" (I John 4:12). He realizes that these scriptures do not describe his experience, or at least do so only in a limited way.

As time passes, he becomes more and more conscious of this fact. Not only so, but he feels more and more a longing and yearning in his soul for something higher - a reaching out, a calling for something he has not attained. He may not understand this longing nor feel able to express it by words, unless he has been taught sufficiently to recognize his need. This yearning of his soul is for a something that is real. It is for that heart-satisfying fullness of God. This yearning followed out has led into the experience of entire sanctification many souls who had never heard a sermon or teaching of any kind upon the subject and did not even know that the Scriptures teach that we may enter in to such a state. I have personally known of a number of such instances. One brother told me that he received the experience two years before he ever heard a word said upon the subject. No stronger proof of two works of grace can be produced from any source than this heart-hunger that leads one on and on into God and to the full fulfillment of his purpose.

It is a self-evident truth that the testimony of one witness who can speak from knowledge gained through his own experience is of more value than that of ten thousand who know nothing by experience upon the subject. There are tens of thousands w ho have been sanctified, who know what the fullness of experience means because of the work that has been done in their own hearts. To spend time arguing with them against its reality is to waste words. They know what they are talking about; they know what God has done for them; they have applied to the doctrine the acid test and found it true metal. Once while I was holding a meeting for a church that believed in entire sanctification, an interesting incident occurred. There was a business man of that community who had violently opposed the doctrine. He had said a great many bitter and hard things against its professors. But during my stay there, he became very ill. The physician told him that he could only live a short time. In hi s distress he desired prayer, and he sent for a neighbor who professed the experience of entire sanctification, and whom he had violently opposed. Others who did not believe in sanctification came in and offered to pray for him, but he refused to permit anyone to do so except the sanctified man whom he had before affected to despise. When facing death, he wanted the prayers of a man whom he believed God would hear, and so he sent for this sanctified man.

The people who have been and who are mighty to accomplish things in this world for God, have been and are people of pure lives and hearts. When not in need of prayer, sinners and evil professors may laugh and jeer at them; but when the time comes that they desire to draw nigh to God, they know to whom to turn, they know whose prayers will be heard and answered. In the days gone by the men who turned many to righteousness were men who believed in holiness. Their theology was sometimes at fault; but their hearts were right, and it was because of this that God could work through them so mightily in the uprooting of wickedness. Holiness of heart and holiness of life go together. There can be no holiness of life unless there is first holiness of heart. One is the complement of the other, and having the one, we naturally live the other. And nothing can be more real to the consciousness than the assurance of the heart that is thus cleansed. There is a satisfying reality in the experience that gives a person a real knowledge of the work wrought and of the state into which he is brought. He has a quiet, definite assurance, and in this he rests and is satisfied. He knows for himself. All the testimony that may be offered contrary to it, affects him not. He knows, and he trusts, and he is at peace.

We are sometimes asked to direct people over a road which they have never traveled. We may do this to the very best of our ability, telling them about all the general characteristics of the way; but notwithstanding our best efforts, they are sometimes perplexed and do not know just which way to turn, or which way to go; they do not and can not understand our explanations and directions, and sometimes, even after we have done our best to point out the way, they must needs inquire of others. The same is true concerning our explanations of how to obtain the experience of entire sanctification. Make it as plain as we can, there will be some things that we can not explain to the satisfaction of the seeker. He can only partly understand the things that we tell him. When he comes to some place in the road where he would put our directions into practice, he may find himself perplexed, not knowing what to do; our directions fail of being plain to him.

I used to wonder why the Bible did not make the way plainer. I could not understand why the way should not be marked out step by step even as others and I tried to mark it out for seeking souls. I tried to make the way still plainer, but failed to obtain better results. I was much troubled and prayed over the matter long and earnestly. When at last the answer came, I marveled that I had not understood it before. I saw that, if the way should thus be marked out step by step with what the teacher supposed to be great clearness, souls would often follow it out in a mechanical and formal way and would fail to obtain the experience; they would not get their hearts into the seeking enough to enable them to find. But I saw also that, if the way could not be seen as clearly as the seekers would wish, their hearts would longingly turn to God, and they would seek for him instead of an experience. They would seek for him instead of seeking anything else, and in seeking him, their hearts would seek aright and find.

I saw then the wisdom of God's silence. I saw that, if the footsteps were sometimes uncertain, it would more fully arouse the desire, and that that pent-up desire would burst through all obstacles to God. Whatever increases the heart's hunger for God, whatever draws us out more earnestly to him, is a step upon the way, even though it be a step taken "in the dark." God is not hard to find. He places no difficulties in the way of the one seeking him; but what he desires is that he be sought so earnestly that the soul will reach that depth of consecration which will make it all his own. Though I cannot tell all the details as to just how one should seek the experience, I can point out a few way-marks that may be of benefit to the seeker.

There are some things that a person must needs know. Whether this knowledge be obtained through preaching or through his own heart's yearnings, it matters not; but first of all he must know his need. He must have an internal consciousness that there is something more, a deeper experience, for him. His heart must hunger and reach out after God for higher attainments of grace and spirituality. The more conscious he becomes of his need, the more certain will he be to seek so as to obtain. Also he must believe that there is such an experience as he craves obtainable. If he believes teachers who say that these heart-longings can never be satisfied in this world, he may be discouraged and not seek for satisfaction, or at least he may seek only in a half-hearted, discouraged way without really hoping to find. There are those who would tell him that life is a time of long drawn-out dissatisfactions, of lifelong conflicts with the internal corruption. They will tell him that there is n o remedy for it, no way of having his heart cleansed. If he believes this, he will have hard work getting beyond his present experience; that false idea will stand as a barrier in his way. Therefore it is necessary that he have knowledge that he can obtain a higher state of grace. Having this knowledge, he can go forward.

Desire must follow knowledge. I have seen many persons seek in a half-hearted, uncertain sort of way, not feeling in their hearts that fervency of desire which made them earnest in their seeking. Desire is the foundation of all true seeking. The more intense that desire becomes, the more likely the soul is soon to find the thing he seeks.

There must be a consecration or dedication of ourselves to God. When we came to him for pardon, we sought him with all the ardor of our souls and yielded to him so far as we could understand. But now we know him better, and we know ourselves better; and we are, therefore, able to dedicate ourselves to him in a higher and better and fuller and deeper sense than we could then. Some tell us that we must consecrate our houses and land, our relatives and friends, and everything that we possess to him. This is useless. They belong to him already. What he wants us to consecrate is ourselves. If we ourselves, with every power and resource of our being, are his, then everything that belongs to us, or everything that has to do with our life, belongs to him. All is in his hands to use as he sees fit. The secret of consecration is but the yielding of self. Everything else may be given up to God, and yet self be held back. If such is the case, there is no real consecration; forth at means that I myself am laid upon the altar of his will in a complete and unreserved sacrifice. God must have full control. There must be a "yes" in our hearts to all his will. We must empty ourselves of everything else before we can be filled with God; but when the heart is once truly empty, God will come in and fill it to the utmost.

We sometimes hear a great deal about meeting conditions in order to get sanctified. Let us remember this one fact: Nothing that we can do puts God under any obligation to sanctify us. We may meet all the conditions we ever heard of, but that does not put God under obligation to us. When he does sanctify us, he does so by the act of his free grace. We cannot purchase sanctification, we cannot earn it, we cannot do anything to bring ourselves into the experience. The whole work is God's work. All our desire and consecration and seeking merely serve to remove the barriers that are in the way of God's working. When all the barriers are removed, then faith reaches forth and opens the channel of grace; and when this channel is thrown wide open, God's grace runs in as naturally as water runs downhill. In Acts 15:9 we are told that the purification of our heart is by faith. In Acts 28:18 we are told that we are sanctified by faith in God. Remember God is to do the work, but we are t o do the believing.

We cannot, however, believe over any obstacles. If there is something yet unconsecrated, faith cannot act. It can overcome all obstructions without, but it can not surmount obstructions within ourselves. These must be overcome by our own wills, by definite heart surrender to God. Faith is simply trusting, just relying on God to carry forward his plan in us when we give him the opportunity. It is just believing that his Word is true, true for us, and true for us right now. God will not fail us . He has placed himself under the most sacred obligations to do his part, and he will not come short. When the soul has poured out itself before God until it is conscious that it has reached the full depth of its measure, when it realizes that it has done all within its power to do, it may then rest and wait. Now has come faith's opportunity. Let her reach forth her hand and take hold upon God, and declare "it is done." Faith is not trying to believe' it is not a staining and struggling ; it is a confident relying upon God's promises. Never mind what the emotions are; they have nothing to do with the case. God does not want our faith to stand in emotions, but in his unchangeable Word. When we reach the point where our faith does take hold on God, there is an immediate result. There comes into our hearts a consciousness that God hears and accepts our offering. Faith always brings assurance. This assurance cannot come so long as the heart is full of doubts; but when faith really takes hold upon God, assurance comes.

We must carefully distinguish between this assurance and the emotions that sometimes come along with it. Assurance is that inner knowledge by which we know that we are wholly the Lord's. It is also the testimony of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Its voice can never be heard when faith dies; but so long as faith is quick and vigorous, its voice is never silenced. When we have reached the place to believe, we may confidently believe and trust regardless of emotions. We may have no emotion or feeling at all, or we may have a variety of emotions, one following another. But no matter what emotions may come, or what emotions may go, it is our privilege to believe. Emotions are superficial; faith goes to the very foundation of things, and produces satisfactory results. The emotions, no matter how great they are, they will soon subside; but the assurance stays so long as faith holds true. If we believe, we need not trouble ourselves about the outcome - God will take care of that. God wants us to rest calmly, to wait on him, to trust him in full assurance. He will see that our hearts are fully satisfied.

Sanctification is often as being a state to which we gradually attain. It is said that we grow in grace and become more and more holy as time goes on until finally somehow, someway, sometime, we reach the experience of entire sanctification. I have yet to find among those who hold this theory the first person who claims to have reached the fullness of the experience. They are all still growing, still going toward it but never getting there, or never knowing when they do get there if they do. The fact is, this is not the method at all. Sanctification is not a thing of growth; it is the work of God. Growth there is and must be in the Christian life; but growth does not change the nature. Only the work of God can do that. In every case in the Bible where people received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit "fell upon them," or "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." This baptism was not a gradual thing, a thing that came by degrees; it came suddenly. It was a definite something at a definite time and in a definite manner, and so it always is. Sanctification is received by faith; and being the result of an act of faith, it must of necessity be an instantaneous work. A man may be sick and be dying by inches, and he may be a long time in this condition, coming nearer and nearer to death; but there comes a time when he dies. One moment he is alive; the next moment he is dead. Death is invariably instantaneous. The same is true of sanctification. We may draw nearer and nearer to God. We may become more and more like him. We may yield ourselves more and more to him. We may receive more and more of his grace. But we cannot say that we are wholly sanctified until we have fully surrendered self and have received the baptism of his Holy Spirit and have been filled with all the fullness of God. When this is done, an instantaneous work of God ahs been wrought. One man under the influence of the Spirit may yield in a few minutes what it has taken others years to yield; but in either case the outcome is the same, the work of God is the same.

There are two things necessary to the retention of the experience of entire sanctification. One is faith. The other is a life of obedience to God. If we rebel against God, we become sinners. If we fail to believe in God, we open the door to doubts of all kinds, to fears, troubles, trials, distress, uncertainties, and perhaps despair. A mere weakening of our faith under trial will not destroy the grace out of our hearts, it will not render our hearts impure, neither will it bring us into sin. It will, however, destroy that assurance God gives us, and it cannot be restored until our faith is restored.

Doubts do not contaminate the soul We may get bothered and feel uncertain, having various sorts of fears about our experience, but this will not render us impure. When our faith mounts up to God again, the assurance will be restored to our souls, and we may go on our way rejoicing. Only sin can destroy the experience from our hearts. Only sin can drive away the Holy Spirit. So long, therefore, as our hearts do not turn away from God, we can rely in him. No matter what our emotions are, no matter how dark some days may seem, no matter how we may be tested, we are still sanctified. This subject will be further considered in the chapter on Faith.