Our Father, we're grateful for this conference. We're grateful for the exciting theme that Brother Chamberlain has chosen. And we pray that you'd help us to see, as we've seen already, the relevancy of this in this wicked age in which we live. Our Father, we pray that you would guide our thoughts in this time that's to come here this morning. May your Holy Spirit use this somehow how thankful we are for the life and the literature of Arthur W. Pink, and what a blessing and what an influence he's been to our lives, many of us who are preachers especially. We pray that you'd lead and guide in this service this morning. In Christ Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen. I want to read a verse of Scripture to start with today, 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. It's already been referred to, but I believe this is one of the key scriptures concerning sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, where the Apostle Paul says, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Arthur Walkington Pink is one of the bright stars in the Baptist universe. He was born in England in 1866, moved to America to attend the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, pastored Baptist churches in Kentucky, Colorado, and South Carolina, had the privilege of knowing Dr. W.R. Cruz, who was pastor of the East Gaffney Baptist Church in Gaffney, South Carolina, and he gave me some very interesting books by A.W. Pink. He also pastored in Colorado, as I said. He moved to Australia, where he pastored in Sydney, before finally moving to Scotland in 1944, where he died in 1952. Now to give you an idea of where he was in history, his life, 1886 to 1952, it was almost exactly contemporary to the life of my grandfather, Turner. He was born at almost the same time and died almost the same time. And I was an 11-year-old boy when Pink passed away. Arthur Pink was an ardent Calvinist. who fairly early in his ministry abandoned the error of dispensationalism. In both his preaching and writing, Pink focused on the great doctrines of God's Word, something from which today's preachers could learn to the profit of their people. Pink's thinking was highly influenced by the writings of the Puritans, which he read and thoroughly assimilated. Most of Pink's widespread influence came through his writings, and it came in the 50 years following his death. Some men are influential during their lifetimes, but most of Pink's influence came in the 50 years after his death. He wrote voluminously. publishing books, booklets, and tracts. And during my own ministry, I have collected Pink's printed works, and at last count, I had 49 different books and booklets by Pink, plus almost every edition of his paper, Studies in the Scriptures. There were two volumes that I didn't get, and I won't tell you his name, but his initials are Johnny Parrish, and he was a member at Victory, and he had those three volumes, and he never would give them up. I've been assigned the topic, A.W. Pink, Sanctification in Life and Literature. This topic is extremely relevant in this worldly, unsanctified, antinomian era of modern Christianity in which we live. What a blessing, Brother Chamberlain, what a blessing it's been to read and research A.W. Pink's view of sanctification. And I'm convinced, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Pink's view of sanctification is the biblical view. In this message, or paper, I shall approach this great subject by considering five topics that it is my hope will give some understanding of Pink's view of the doctrine of sanctification. Now throughout this paper I'm going to read quotes from various works by Pink in order to state in Pink's own words what he believed on this essential subject. As far as I can make it possible. This will not be an interpretation of Arthur W. Pink. It will be a quotation as much as I can on this subject. I'm going to try to read these quotations with clarity and feeling in hopes of avoiding boredom on the part of my hearers. In other words, I want you to stay awake in this last hour before lunch. So let's consider first here the Pink's definition of sanctification. Pink's definition of sanctification. On page 25 of his great book, The Doctrine of Sanctification, he gives us his working definition of this doctrine. Quote, that sanctification or personal holiness which we here desire to show the absolute necessity of lies in or consists of three things. First, that internal change or renovation of our souls, whereby our minds, affections, and wills are brought into harmony with God. Second, that impartial compliance with the revealed will of God. Did you notice the word impartial? That impartial compliance with the revealed will of God in all duties of obedience and abstinence from evil, issuing from a principle of faith and love. Third, that directing of all our actions unto the glory of God by Jesus Christ according to the gospel. This and nothing short of this is evangelical and saving sanctification." Note here that Pink says sanctification involves personal holiness. On page 10 of the Doctrine of Sanctification, Pink says, in Scripture, the words holy, sanctified, etc. occur therein hundreds of times. In Exodus 15-11, we read that the Lord God is glorious in holiness. That is His crowning excellency. He elected His people that they should be holy. Ephesians 1.4. Christ died that He might sanctify His people. Hebrews 13.12. Chastisements are sent that we might be partakers of God's holiness. On page 23, He says, Our God is glorious in holiness. Exodus 15.11. And therefore, Those whom He separates unto Himself must be suited to Himself and be made partakers of His holiness. Hebrews 12.10. Over in 1 Peter 1.15 and 16 we read, But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy. am holy. On page 37, Pink says, To be under God's command to be holy, and then not to sincerely and earnestly endeavor always, and in all things so to be, is to reject His sovereign authority over us, and to live in defiance of Him. Back on page 28, Pink says, Holiness in this is such a part of our salvation that it is a necessary means to make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in heavenly light and glory. For without holiness we can never see God. Hebrews 12, 14. And are as unfit for His glorious presence as swine for the presence chamber of an earthly king. People ruin their souls forever by trusting on Christ for such an imaginary salvation as consisteth not at all in holiness, but only in forgiveness of sin and deliverance from everlasting torments." On page 105 of Pink's book, The Holy Spirit, he says, unless the Christian devotes all his powers to a definite, uncompromising, earnest, constant warfare upon indwelling sin, unless he diligently seeks to weaken its roots, suppress its motions, restrain its outward eruptions and actions, and seeks to put to death the enemy within his soul, he is guilty of the basest ingratitude to Christ. Unless he does so, He is a complete failure in the Christian life, for it is impossible that both sin and grace should be healthy and vigorous in the soul at the same time. If the mind be filled with worldly or filthy things, then meditation on holy things is crowded out. Occupation with sin deadens the mind for holy duties. On page 135 of another book, Practical Christianity, Pink says, The doctrine which is according to godliness at once defines the nature of divine doctrine, intimating as it does that its design or end is to inculcate a right temper of mind and deportment of life Godwards. It is pure and purifying. The objects which are revealed to faith are not bare abstractions which are to be accepted as true, nor even sublime and lofty concepts to be admired. They are to have a powerful effect upon our daily walk. There is no doctrine revealed in Scripture for a merely speculative knowledge, but all is to exert a powerful influence upon conduct. God's design in all that He has revealed to us is to the purifying of our affections and the transforming of our characters. The doctrine of grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Titus 1, 11, and 12. Everything in Scripture has in view the promotion of holiness. Well, the second topic that I'd like us to consider is this. Pink believed that sanctification is a progressive thing. He believed that sanctification is a progressive thing. Yes, he did believe in progressive sanctification. Now the reason I emphasize this is because many today, even in the churches in our circles, do not believe That sanctification is an ongoing process in the life of the Christian that begins at regeneration and continues and progresses until it climaxes in glorification at last. I attended a conference some years ago in the state of Oklahoma where a man preached on sanctification and he said there's nothing that we have to do in connection with sanctification. We get everything the moment we're saved. including sanctification. Pink said on page 86 of the Doctrine of Sanctification that, quote, our sanctification is not now perfect in its degrees. As the newborn babe possesses a soul and body endowed with all their members, yet they are undeveloped and far from a state of maturity, so it is with the Christian. who in comparison with the life to come remains throughout this life but a babe in Christ. 1 Peter 2. We know but in part. 1 Corinthians 13. And we are sanctified but in part, but for there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. Joshua 13. In the most gracious there remains a double principle. the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new man. On page 8, Pink says, at regeneration, a principle of holiness is communicated to us. Practical sanctification is the exercise of that principle in living unto God. In regeneration, the spirit imparts saving grace. In his work of sanctification, he strengthens and develops the same. On page 89, Pink quotes the Puritan George Swinnock as saying, Sanctification is a constant, progressive renewing of the whole man, whereby the new creature doth daily more and more die unto sin and live unto God. Regeneration is the birth. Sanctification is the growth of this babe of grace. The former is a specific change from nature to grace. Ephesians 5.8, the latter is a gradual change from one degree of grace to another. Psalm 84.7, whereby the Christian goeth from strength to strength till he appeared before God in Zion. On pages 89 and 90 of the Doctrine of Sanctification, Pink says, one of the chief defects of modern teaching on this subject has been in regarding the new birth as the summum bonum of the spiritual life of the believer. Instead of its being the goal, it is but the starting point. Instead of its being the end, it is only a means to the end. Regeneration must be supplemented by sanctification, or otherwise the soul would remain at a standstill, if such a thing were possible. For it seems to be an unchanging law in every realm, that where there is no progression, there must be retrogression. That spiritual growth, which is so essential, lies in progressive sanctification. Next, let's consider Pink's view of the norm of sanctification. This is a raging issue in this day, and I suppose it's been in every age. Pink's view of the norm of sanctification, the standard or norm of our sanctification, Pink believed, is the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments. On page 179 of the Doctrine of Sanctification, Pink says, the unchanging moral law of God, and he has the word unchanging in all caps. The unchanging moral law of God, which requires us to love Him with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, is the believer's rule of life. The standard of holiness to which his character and conduct must be conformed. The line and plummet by which his internal desires and thoughts, as well as outward deeds, are measured. We are conformed to that law by the sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit. And you know, a growing number of Calvinistic Baptists today believe that God's moral law has no relation to the people of God living today. I hope you're aware of that. Whether they know it or not, these people are classic antinomians. That's what it means to be an antinomian. These people are fond of quoting Romans 6.14 as the main proof text in support of their error, at least the latter part of that verse. They quote, ye are not under the law, but under grace. See there? We have nothing to do with the Ten Commandments. On pages 26 and 27 of the Doctrine of Sanctification, Pink says this about this view. They begin to disregard all obedience to the law as not at all necessary to salvation, and do account themselves obliged to it only in point of gratitude. If it be wholly neglected, they doubt not, but free grace will save them nevertheless. Some are given up to such strong antinomian delusions that they account it a part of the liberty from bondage of the law purchased by the blood of Christ to make no conscience of breaking the law in their conduct." Pink believed and taught that the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, is the norm of sanctification. on page 12 of his little booklet, The Law and the Saint. I hope you can pick that up sometime. It's just a pamphlet, The Law and the Saint. He says, What then is the relation between the Christian living today and the Ten Commandments formally proclaimed in the time of Moses? It is indeed sad that such a question needs to be raised. and that the divine answer requires to be pressed upon the people of God. There was a time when it would not have been easy to find a Christian who was ignorant upon this subject. A time when the first thing committed to memory by the children of Christian parents was the Ten Commandments." On page 13 of that same booklet, Pink says, the law is the rule of life for the believer. And on page 16, he comments on Romans 6.14 in answer to the antinomian use of that verse. He says, quote, Romans 6.14 was just as true of the Old Testament saints as of New Testament believers. Caleb, Joshua, David, Elijah, Daniel were no more under law in the sense that these words bear in Romans 6.14 than Christians are today. Instead, they were under grace in the matter of their justification just as truly as we are. Not under law signifies not keeping the law in order to be saved. The apostle asserts in this verse that Christians are not under the law as an actual, effectual, adequate means of justification or sanctification. And if they are so, their case is utterly hopeless. Then he goes on to say on page 17, what is the divine law but a transcript of the divine will. And are not Christians to be conformed to this? Is not all the law summed up in these two declarations? Thou shalt love the Lord with all thine heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. And are Christians absolved from loving God and their neighbor? If we are not under the law as the ground of our justification, then are we to be lawless? The inspired answer is, God forbid. In what follows to the end of this chapter, the apostle shows that though the believer is not under law as the ground of his justification, nevertheless he is under the law as a rule of his Christian life. That is, he is under obligations to obey its moral principles. In verse 18, which contains the positive answer to the question in verse 15, the apostle declares, being then made free from sin, Ye became the servants, in quotes, I mean in parentheses, bond slaves of righteousness. Let's turn together and read here Romans 6.22. Romans 6.22. This in relation to what I've just read here. but now being made free from sin and become servants to God. Ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. So Pink says in response to this verse, servants of God, in verse 22, enforces the believer's responsibility to the lawgiver. That this is the meaning of Romans 6, 18 and 22 is clear from Romans 7.25 where the apostle says, So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. Now that's the apostle Paul. He said, I serve the law of God. Now let's read Romans 3.31. Romans chapter 3 and verse 31. This really gets down to the meat of the issue here. I'd like to ask some of these people sometime What part of Romans 3.31 do you not understand? Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law. In commenting on Romans 3.31, Pink says on page 28 of the Law and the Saint, what did the apostle mean when he said, we establish the law? He meant that As saved men, Christians are under additional obligations to obey the law, for they are now furnished with new and more powerful motives to serve God. Our moral obligation to God and our neighbor has not been weakened, but strengthened." On page 179 of the Doctrine of Sanctification, Pink says, One who has really surrendered to the claims of God approves of His law. I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. Therefore, I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. Psalm 119, 127, and 128. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. All thy commandments are faithful. Psalm 119, 72, and 86. Believers loving a holy God in Christ must love the law also since in it the image of His holiness is displayed. On page 187. We read, unless we know what the rule of sanctification is and seek to conform thereto, all our efforts after holiness will and must be wide of the mark. Nothing is more honoring to God and nothing makes more for our own true happiness than for His law to be revered, loved, and obeyed by us. Then on page 180 of that same book, Pink says, Paul described his own experience in identically the same terms. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. With the mind I myself serve the law of God. Romans 7, 22 and 26. Thus Christ conforms his people to the law by causing His Spirit to work in them an inclination toward it, a love for it, and an obedience to it. And he goes on to say on page 182, the Christian approves of the law and owns it to be holy and just and good. Pink wrote a little booklet called The Christian in Romans 7. And he says on the first page of that book, in this chapter, the apostle shows what is not and what is the law's relation to the believer. Judicially, the believer is emancipated from the curse or penalty of the law. Romans 7, 1 through 6. Morally, the believer is under bonds to obey the law. Verses 22 and 25. Then on pages 3 and 4. The controversy which has raged over Romans 7 is largely the fruitage of the perfectionism of Wesley and his followers. To talk, and I used to go to a church where the preacher talked like this, to talk of getting out of Romans 7 into Romans 8 is excuseless folly. Romans 7 and 8 both apply with undiminished force and pertinence to every believer on earth today." Lastly, under this heading, Pink says on page 27 of the Doctrine of Sanctification that the conformity of our hearts to the law of God and the fruits of righteousness with which we are filled by Jesus Christ in this life are a necessary part of our salvation, are a necessary part of our salvation. Well, let's look in the fourth place at Pink's view of the relationship of sanctification to justification. There are those today who virtually ignore sanctification in talking about salvation. Of these people, Pink says, there is a class of professing Christians who wish to regard the justification of the believer as constituting almost the whole of his salvation, instead of its being only one aspect thereof. Such people delight to dwell on the imputed righteousness of Christ, but they evince little or no concern about personal holiness." And that's on page 26 of the Doctrine of Sanctification. On page 31, He says, Christ is set forth as a fire escape from hell, but not as the great physician to deal with the malady of indwelling sin and fit it for heaven. The salvation which Christ purchased for his people includes both justification and sanctification. The Lord Jesus saves not only from the guilt and penalty of sin, but from the power and pollution of it. He says on page 30. Then he goes on to say on pages 31 and 32, it is not only true that without faith it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11.6, but it is equally true that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Hebrews 12.14. Alas, how many there are today who imagine that if they have faith, it is sure to be well with them at the end, even though they are not holy. It is a powerless, lifeless, and fruitless thing. It is nothing better than that faith which the demons have. James 2.19. The faith of God's elect is unto the acknowledgement of the truth which is after godliness. Titus 1.1. Saving faith is a most holy faith. Jude 20. It is a faith which purifyeth the heart. Acts 15, 9. It is a faith which worketh by love. Galatians 5, 6. It is a faith which overcometh the world. 1 John 5, 4. It is a faith which bringeth forth all manner of good works. Hebrews 11. On page 34 he says to be sanctified is just as requisite as to be justified. He that thinks to come to enjoyment of God without holiness makes him an unholy God and puts the highest indignity imaginable upon him. There is no other alternative. We must either leave our sins or our God." Now Pink does a masterful job of showing the relationship of sanctification and justification. by comparing and contrasting the two on page 90 of the doctrine of sanctification. Speaking of the book of Romans, he says, justification is treated of in Romans 3 to 5, and sanctification in 6 to 8. The one passage supplements the other. They are two halves of one whole. Having been judicially reconciled to God, The way is now open for an experimental fellowship with Him, and that is manifested as the Spirit carries forward His work of sanctification. On page 91, Pink quotes Abraham Booth approvingly on this subject. �Justification respects the person in a legal sense. It is a single act of grace. and terminates in a relative change, that is, a freedom from punishment and a right to life. Sanctification, regards him in an experimental sense, is a continued work of grace and terminates in a real change as to the quality both of habits and actions. The former is by a righteousness without us or outside of us. The latter is by holiness wrought in us. Justification is by Christ as a priest and has regard to the guilt of sin. Sanctification is by Him as a king and refers to its dominion. Justification is instantaneous and complete in all its real subjects, but sanctification is progressive." On page 16 of the Law and the Saints. Pink quoted Griffith Thomas approvingly, ìYe are not under the law, but under grace. The contrast is not between the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ as two economies or dispensations. Rather, it is a contrast between law and grace as principles of two methods of justification, the one false, the other true, the one of human devising, the other of divine vision." Finally, let's look briefly at sanctification in the life of A.W. Pink. Several biographers of Pink have left the impression that Pink could not get along with people at all. And he was negative, he was depressed, even morose much of the time. If you've read anything about Pink, you've come across those fellas. I believe this is a misrepresentation of the man. Much as the Puritans are so often misrepresented as being a totally serious bunch of fuddy-duddies and killjoys, Pink's writings reveal a far different view of his life and attitude. And you know, he was a man that never said much about himself. And during his lifetime, I don't know that anybody really wrote about him very much. And so we draw most of what we know about him from his writings. But his writings give a far different view of his attitude than that that some of these biographers have given him. Yes, he did undergo great trials and sufferings and disappointments in this life. And these are well documented, especially by his critics. But how could a man with such gifted spiritual insight possibly be the kind of person that these biographers say that he was? How could that be? You read his writings. How could he possibly be morose, depressed, and so forth? On pages 125 and 126 of Ian Murray's book, The Life of Arthur W. Pink, Murray says this, even in his worst fainting fit, quotes there, of the 1930s, in December 1934 at Cheltenham, he not only maintains the magazine that studies in the scriptures at a level which leaves his readers oblivious to his inner conflict, but launches the next year into two of his most elevated series, Union and Communion with Christ, and the doctrine of sanctification. In the magazine, there is only on the rarest occasions a direct reference to his own experience. And yet, it is often evident that experience lies behind the power and feeling with which he writes. The articles were no mechanical output. They frequently came from the pen of a man evidently fresh with new supplies of light. and grace without so much as hinting at it. Pink's own pathway clearly lies behind the kind of paragraphs which we read in Union and Communion." So in conclusion, I want to give a summary statement by Pink on the place of sanctification in our salvation. And this statement is found in another book by Pink, The Doctrine of Salvation. not the doctrine of sanctification, but the doctrine of salvation. It's found on page 129. Quote, salvation from the pleasure or love of sin takes place at our regeneration. Salvation from the penalty or punishment of sin occurs at our justification. Salvation from the power or dominion of sin is accomplished during our practical sanctification. Salvation from the presence or in being of sin is consummated at our glorification. Whom He justified, them He also glorified.