WHAT WE BELIEVE AND TEACH ABOUT GOD'S METHOD OF DELIVERANCE FROM INDWELLING SIN

"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Matt. 3:11.

We, the Holiness People, believe that deliverance from indwelling sin is promised to the believing soul. It is to be realized subsequent to regeneration and is to be experienced in this life. This crisis is to be accomplished within the believer by the work of the Holy Spirit as He comes in Pentecostal measure, purging out the carnal mind and filling the soul with the fullness of God.

The basis for such a position is considered by the Holiness People to be both broad and clear, namely, the plain teaching of the Word of God and the testimonies of those who have trusted God to make real that teaching in their lives.

The Scriptures clearly teach that Indwelling Sin is to be destroyed from within the believing soul by a Second Work of Grace. There are personal examples of this. Of these we shall quote only three; others will readily be found by those who are interested enough to seek them.

The case of David the King. Psalm 51.

"Have mercy on me..." vv. 1-13. Here is the pathway trodden by a backslidden soul, back to the place of restoration and communion with God. By reason of his dark and daring sin this man had lost all consciousness of Divine relationship and had known only spiritual blackness for an entire year. Nathan, the God-sent messenger, had stung him into the realization of the heinousness of his sin and had started him on his way back as a seeker after God.

His first cry is a call for mercy. Verse 1. That is where a penitent must always begin. The reasonable assumption is that his cry was heard and answered. Isaiah 55:6, 7.

His further cry is a claim for cleansing, as the rest of the Psalm will show. Now being consciously reconciled, his awareness of inward corruption becomes overwhelmingly acute, while the Divine demand for inward purity is seen to be imperative. This consciousness drives him to make a further claim, the creation within him of a clean heart

If we are correct in assuming that the prayer for pardon was heard and answered, may we not also assume that the cry for purity was answered, too? God delivered this man, David, from his sin, and that by two distinct and successive steps, forgiveness and cleansing, both of which were consciously received.

The case of Isaiah the prophet Isa. 6.

"In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." Ver. 1-8.

Here is a prophet, a servant of the Lord, a man whom God has already called into His service and honored in His work. Hitherto his concern has been for others; now it is very definitely for himself. He is shown the deep inner recesses of his own sinful nature and God's remedy to meet his needs purging as by fire. The performance of this drastic work was certified by God Himself. Isaiah was cleansed and knew it.

The case of the waiting Disciples. Acts 2:1-4; 15:8, 9.

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Ch. 2:1-4.

"And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Ch. 15:8, 9.

As is clearly set forth in the Gospel records, these men and women now waiting in that Upper Room were already vitally related to Jesus Christ. Among many other definite proofs of this, the Saviour's statements concerning them in John 17 will suffice.

"I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." Ver. 6-9.

"I have given them thy word: and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." Ver. 14-23.

These men, given to Jesus by the Father out of the world, and declared to be not of the world even as He is not of the world, waited for the promise of the Father. Upon these waiting disciples the Holy Spirit came, purifying their hearts. As Peter in the assembly at Jerusalem afterward declared, that Pentecostal fire was a purifying flame. It destroyed carnality in those on whom it came.

These are but selected incidents supported by a wide range of general Scripture statements which any can verify. The message of the entire Bible is a message of complete deliverance from indwelling sin and this experience is offered to every believing child of God.

Nor are the Scriptures our only ground of assurance, for reliable witnesses through the centuries declare that they have put God's Word to the test and have found it to be true. Outstanding among these are the early Methodists; the founders of the Salvation Army, the numerous Holiness Churches, and many others since their day.

Putting the claim for the experience into verse for his followers, Wesley wrote:

"Refining fire, go through my heart,
Illuminate my soul;
Scatter thy life through every part
And sanctify the whole."

William Booth penned the expectancy thus:

"God of Elijah, hear our cry,
Send the fire!
He'll make us fit to live or die;
Send the fire!
To burn up every trace of sin,
To bring the light and glory in,
The revolution now begin,
Send the fire."

As to whether these petitions were answered, the old-fashioned Methodist class meeting and the early Salvation Army Holiness meeting are their own witnesses. That line of spiritual witnesses extends to our own day. ^[2]

2. For reliable witnesses to the possession of this experience, see the author's larger work Foundations of Doctrine in Scripture and Experience, especially the chapter, Personal Testimonies of Recognized Authority.