I have often heard it questioned: Can we live in a sanctified state? I ask first, is not Christ able to keep us in a sanctified state? Did God ever break a covenant that He has made? Every covenant He has made with man has been sealed with blood; and the Apostle says, without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins. When God made His promises to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, He made Abraham take an heifer of three years old, a she-goat of three years old, a ram, a turtle dove and a young pigeon, and divide them asunder, that the flowing blood might, as it were, cleanse the passage between the parts; and the Lord passing between the parts in the form of a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, swore unto Abraham that to him and his seed He would give that land forever. Having sealed the covenant with blood, and with an oath, God was bound to keep it; and He did keep it. Although He permitted them to be severely tried and carried away from their own land into cruel bondage, and to serve under hard task-masters for many years, yet did they become a great nation, for God had said: "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven," and "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
When God is about bringing them out of bondage, He renews His covenant and again requires blood; but this time the blood of a perfect lamb, and the blood must be sprinkled upon the door-posts and lintels of every door, setting the inmates apart to God, or showing that God's people dwelt there; and the destroying angel passed over the land but destroyed them not, because God knew and kept them. He brought them safely out of bondage into a wilderness, and conducted them through the wilderness safely to the promised rest. He did not at once let then enter into that rest; but kept them in the wilderness to try them, and prove them. They were His people, sanctified to Him by the blood of the perfect lamb, and He could keep them just as well in the wilderness as in the land of Canaan. He could spread their table in the sight of their foes. When they wanted meat, He gave them quails in abundance; when they wanted bread, He sent them manna from heaven—angels food; when they wanted water the rock contained a full supply, but must be smitten to produce it; and it sent forth a stream that followed them through all their journey, typifying the spirit of grace that accompanies the child of God through all his journey. Although they wandered forty years in the wilderness, their garments did not grow old, nor their sandals wear out. So we see that God provided for them through all their wandering and brought them to that promised rest, and according to his promise they became a great nation.
Once more, God renews the covenant He made with Abraham, or in other words fulfilled it. Here it requires again the shedding of blood, and this time it must be the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, the only begotten son of God which cleanses from all sin. If the typical blood of Abraham's heifer and Moses' lamb, could prevail with God, to the temporal salvation of man, how much more shall the precious blood of Christ prevail to the purifying and washing away of all our sins. As God gave the promise of the "seed" to Abraham, and set it apart in Israel, he has perfected it in Christ. As He kept them (His people) in the temporal wilderness through which they had to pass to get to their promised rest, so will He keep us in Christ through this wilderness of sin through which we must all pass. It is not His will to take us at once from the world; but to keep us in the world; to help build up His kingdom in the world; for it must take perfect workmen to do perfect work.
Christ when praying for his Apostles, prayed not the Father to take them out of the world; but that He should keep them from the evil of the world. Nor need we ever look to be freed from temptation; but He will not suffer more to come upon us than He will give us grace to bear, and with every temptation will provide a way for our escape. Christ at one time said to Peter "Satan desireth to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat;" but what follows? The wrath of God hangs over Peter, but Christ our mediator intercedes, and his soothing words are, "I have prayed the Father for thee, that thy faith fail thee not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Thus we must be kept for mutual aid and for mutual comfort.
If God were to remove each one as soon as he becomes perfect in Christ, who would be left to tell transgressors the way? Or how could the kingdom of Christ flourish in the world? For the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and the sanctified Christian is the salt of the earth. Take him away, and what becomes of the world? God has use for all His perfect men and women in the world; they must be in the world, but not of the world.
It is a mistaken idea that we can be Christians and not sanctified Christians; and, as God has use for us in the world, it is very plain that He is not only able to keep us, but He will keep us, until He has finished all His righteous will concerning us; until everything is done that we can do; until we have withstood temptation at every point even as our Saviour did; until the last battle is fought and the victory won! Oh! I wish that every Christian would feel that he is a sanctified Christian, and go to work as such. Oh! that every one could feel that to-day I am a pillar in the temple of our God; a living stone in the building; instead of sitting still and dreaming: "Can I be sanctified, or when can I be sanctified." Oh! that Christians would awake, and look around, and see what they can do for the Master. The fields are all white for harvest. The Lord calls for laborers. Christian brothers and sisters will you not awake; will you not have faith in Christ; seeing that God hath perfected in him all that He promised in Abraham, and all that He "set apart in Israel." The Lord which made heaven and earth is thy keeper. "He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in from this time forth, and even forever." (Psalms cxxi., 3-8). This God, O Christian, is thy God. He that spreadeth out the heavens as a curtain; who keepeth the stars in their courses; who causes the sun to show forth his light at morning, and the moon at evening. He that keeps all nature in its proper course year after year for so many ages, will He not keep thee through thy life's short day and bring thee to heaven at last?
As a father pitieth His children so the Lord pitieth them that love Him. The father will labor hard night and day, will make any sacrifice, will deny himself any pleasure, will travel East, West, North or South, and endure any hardships for his children's sake; and should he have a dozen or more, yet his care over them will not diminish, nor will he grow weary of his labors. "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give His holy spirit to them that ask Him." Let us then trust a Father's love, and dwell safely under the shadow of his wing and we need not fear!
"Though friends should all fail and foes all unite," we may go on firmly trusting "The Lord will provide" trusting in His everlasting arms, we shall pass safely through the wilderness of sin, and at last get safely into our Father's house, where we shall rest from all care and sing our sufferings o'er; where sin, and sorrow, pain and death, never can enter. Being washed and cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, we shall join our voices with one accord in singing blessing and honor and wisdom and thanksgiving be unto the Lamb forever and forever.