Sanctified in Christ — Neil T. Anderson

About the registrations this year from the other four times we've had this conference is that rather than just having everybody come individually seeing the need to be equipped for spiritual warfare and things like that we're getting a lot more registrations from churches that are sending people.

That means that the church has changed its view on these things and many people are understanding that this is important. We need to be able to talk about the spiritual battle without getting spooked and we need to be able to be equipped to deal with it and not have it be some big spooky haunted thing.

And one of the men responsible for that change probably more than any man in America as a tool in God's hand to help mainstream this message has been Neil Anderson. Neil has been able to express himself in books and in conferences and through freedom in Christ ministries in a way that has been brought into the church probably more so than any other man alive today.

And so it's our great privilege and honor to welcome to the podium dr. Neil Anderson. Thank you Dan I.

Like you too. Yeah and I like Mark Bubeck don't you. You know a lot of people don't know about Mark that he has basically developed a discipline of prayer walking an hour every morning. You can always tell that because it shows on his countenance.

And what's good about that is is that somebody who walks that close with God can tell the rest of us what he looks like. And Mark thank you for doing that this morning for all of us. Met a couple yesterday that said they were from Florida here had had never seen snow.

Well God gave us the month of March so that those of us who don't know what a hangover is who don't drink and know what a hangover is. And sometimes we kind of feel like is it ever going to end up here in the north.

But it does. I got to tell you about three pastors who died and went to hell and one was a Calvinist and the other one was an Arminian and the other one was a Pentecostal and they were a little bit surprised to see each other there.

And so they looked at the Calvinist because they're always the most erudite and said sir how do you account for the fact that you are here. He said well I've always believed in the sovereignty of God and divine election.

And guess I wasn't one of them. And look at the Arminian and said sir why are you here. He said well I've lived a perfect life almost until the day before I died and it really blew it. Guess that's why I'm here.

We looked at the Pentecostal and said sir why are you here. He said I declare by faith that I'm not here. And now chances are I just stepped on somebody's theological toes here. But I honestly believe when we get on the other side of eternity we're all going to go look back at our own theology and go oops in all honesty after serving God full-time for over 25 years I got to be honest with you folks and look back and tell you that my theology has changed.

What has not changed is the truth. I'm not even very much committed to my own theology anymore. What I'm committed to is true theology is man's attempt to systematize truth isn't it. That's what it is.

And I think we all have to be open to the fact that we have not arrived from God's perspective. You and I got one eye right now starting to slightly open. For now we see dimly. Someday we shall see completely.

Sanctification as God’s Will for the Believer

And saying all of that I want to do is the concept of sanctification which everybody happily is all unified in total agreement with in the body of Christ. I don't know one seminary that is in perfect agreement with each other on their faculty.

So this is with fear and trembling that I address this. Maybe one of the reasons that it rains such a confusion amongst us is because that's God's will for our life. That's an amazing statement. This is God's will for your life your sanctification.

1st Thessalonians 4 3. Is it not the whole process of beginning our walk with God and in conforming to his image. Is the doctrine of sanctification. Is there one more important. Well every doctrine is important obviously.

But this is where we're at right now. We're in the process of being conformed to the image of God and so understanding that is just paramount. And if I never sold another copy of the book common man holy just the process of writing that which is a nine-month process.

Gave birth to a baby. This one was an elephant and boy it came hard a lot of birth pains. But if I did it for no other reason than for my own edification it would have been worth the journey I did with Bob Soci who I think is one of the most gifted honest gracious theologians in our country.

And I I just want to say publicly I count that an unbelievable privilege. He's been on my board for years but surely the most respected man at Talbot School of Theology and I think around the country and we knew writing it that I was a pregnant as pragmatist and he was an idealist halfway through he said this is really interesting.

He said you think holistically. I think linearly which is true and but hopefully they gave us a well-rounded book. But I come to a conclusion I think we need a reformation again on sanctification. We've had a good one on justification but our people aren't growing.

They're sitting in churches for years. We're in a we're just glutted with Christian books radio programs television people proclaiming the truth and we're sliding backwards. Why in the world is that you know the paradox of that to me is I can go to the Philippines and I have several times and I can see a person who can't read absolutely fall in love with God bear fruit everywhere.

And then I go back to some of our esteemed professors and they've never led anybody to Christ and not bearing any fruit at all that I can visibly see now. That's kind of embarrassing to a guy who holds five seminary degrees.

I'm who believes in higher education. But somewhere there's a balance between these two issues. I want to kind of address that if I can two points you know what what essentially is sanctification. And why aren't we growing.

That's what I want to address. I used to tell seminary students at Talbot I said when you get out there in ministry I said the greatest asset you'll have in your church is mature Saints don't alienate them.

They've learned things you haven't learned yet. Are they able to be kind to you. They may take you off for lunch and suggest you make some changes in your life. Listen to them. They're probably right.

And I said on the other hand when you get out there in ministry the greatest liability that you will have our Saints that just got old and didn't mature because all they want to do is censor. You can't do that around here young man.

We've never done it that way before. They'll kill the church folks. But it isn't their fault. If it goes back anywhere goes back to people like me who've taught at seminaries for year who gave our people the wrong goal.

Love as the Goal of Christian Instruction

The number one problem today in Christian education is is right there we've got the wrong goal. We make doctrine or knowledge and end in itself. You do that you'll distort the very purpose for which it was intended.

What's the greatest commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind. The second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbors yourself. If you've done that how much have you done all the law and the prophets.

Paul's very clear the goal of our instruction this love is character transformation. Doesn't it bother you that our people could sit under your ministry for years and years on end read good books and not grow one bit.

No more mature now than they were 20 30 years ago. No more loving no more kind no more patient. Something's wrong. If our sanctification process is working then every year of my life I'll be able to look back and say I'm more loving now than it was last year more kind.

I have a greater degree of self-control in my life this year than I did last year. That ought to be a progressive process in every one of our lives. Let's look at think that whole issue of sanctification and the problem here it gets associated oftentimes with justification.

That's not true. There are two totally different doctrines. You have been justified by the grace of God as past tense. It's a point of time it's already happened for you. Therefore having been past justified we have peace with God.

It's a done deal in that regard. If you are born again child of God he died once for all your sins are forgiven. That's not sanctification. Sanctification has one very interesting parallel to salvation.

They occur in the New Testament past present and future tense. You have been saved. You are being saved. And someday you shall fully be saved from the wrath that is to come. You haven't experienced the ultimate of salvation yet.

Now we have been given the Holy Spirit as a seal a pledge on to the day of redemption. I'm sure you're aware that as you read your New Testament now we have the assurance of that I've written these things on to you that you may know that you have eternal life.

And so I have that assurance. I believe we all could and should have that in our present life. Sanctification as applied to the believer as our holiness or our righteousness is also past present and future tense now that has created some interesting problems in our understanding what sanctification is.

In my own research and studying of this I was really surprised as to how each tense occurs in frequency in our New Testament as applied to the believer past present and future. Just out of curiosity here.

How many would think that in terms of being sanctified or righteous or holy in the presence of God occurs more commonly in the past tense. How many would under would guess that. About three hands. How many would guess present tense.

Few more hands. How many would guess future tense. Quite a few hands. How many don't want to commit themselves in front of anybody right now and now I understand that I thought I would have been hesitant to actually is past tense.

That was a surprise to me. Well what what's happened is and I'm sure these are terms you're familiar with here. But but theologians then have really seen sanctification in two camps. One is the positional sanctification focusing on past tense sanctification.

And the other is progressive or sometimes called experiential sanctification looking at the progressive aspect in other words growth or maturity now I came from kind of a reformed background in terms of the theological understanding of this I have focused and been led to understand that that sanctification is progressive that essentially it is synonymous with growth or maturity.

I mean you could almost use those and interchange with each other. How many would identify with that. How many would. Yeah that's probably most of you. That would. That would be how I understood it going into this.

And that's how I left seminary. I really kind of heard that. Well that's positional truth is though it's not real truth you know that's how I kind of was postured to that. Well it's just positional. But here's your experience.

And so therefore it's almost like it isn't true. Imagine my shock and in helping people as I left the pastor went to seminary to teach and really trying to gain an understanding. What is the answer for these people's problems.

I knew in my heart Christ was the answer and truth would set people free. And I was dealing with people in my churches who I finally had my eyes opened up who are in some kind of a spiritual battle. But I didn't have an answer for that's why I start teaching the class.

Not because I had the answers I was trying to figure them out and and you know you've heard this story my classes grew and grew and mushroomed as a THM elective and ended up with 250 students one year which is a phenomena for a seminary.

The reason was as I was starting to see the lives of our students changed and part of the understanding in my own growth was was that I came at it backwards. I was looking at this thing from a spiritual warfare perspective.

But the one common denominator I found in every person that was struggling I didn't care if it was panic attacks eating disorders sexual addictions whatever the one common denominator was none of them knew who they were in Christ.

Positional Identity and Progressive Growth

Where was the Abba Father. If the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with my spirit why weren't they sensing that. Well I come to realize that most of our people are not firmly rooted in Christ. They have no idea what it means to be a child of God.

They really haven't come to understand the whole positional truth that we are in Christ. And yet I come to believe that that serves the entire basis for our process of growing and conforming to his image.

That progressive sanctification essentially is working out in my own experience who I already am not knowing that most of our people are desperately trying to become somebody. They already are now. Let me just illustrate this.

How many here as a believer when you came to Christ. You know maybe not now but looking back in your early years as a Christian I would clearly understand that as a Christian that you're a sinner saved by grace.

How many would most of you. How many were really taught and knew from the beginning that you were actually a saint. Who would sin now. Lot less hands. Why there's there. This isn't even a debate. Folks if you the King James Version the Bible for instance 240 times Christians have been identified as saints or righteous or holy ones.

Unbelievers. About 330 times have been identified as as not or or as sinners. As sinners. I mean you know that's unarguable. Just pick up your Bible. Just do good work studying. You'll find that that's true.

Now why is it. Have you ever seen a letter written to the sinners at Ephesus. It's written to the saints. You say well you're whitewashing sin. No I'm not. I'm giving you a possibility of overcoming it.

I'm alive in Christ. I'm dead to sin. And there's a position of truth here that serves as the entire foundation for my ability to be able to conform to the image of God. But our people are not firmly rooted in Christ.

They have no idea who they are or what it means to be a child of God. Well I came in at that from the back door to be honest with you because I discovered that in the people I was working with. Well here's another intriguing one just to just illustrate what I'm talking about.

How many understand that right now as you are presently here today understand that your heart is deceitful and desperately sick. Where'd you get that from Jeremiah 17. Now why. Why would your heart at that time even be deceitful desperately sick.

Because you didn't have the life of Christ within you. Your entire mind was programmed from the external world. That's why it's desperately sick. That's essentially what the flesh is. You find a similar statement about the heart concerning you in the New Testament.

Finally none that interesting. Interesting. Not only that but if you read in Ezekiel that one of the great prophecies from Ezekiel is that he would put a new heart and a new spirit within us. And I believe he clearly equates that to our particular time of life.

The New Heart and the Conflict Between Old and New

And so we're dealing with the issue here of the heart is not the teaching on the Sermon of the Mount that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you have no hope for eternal life. In other words no matter how hard you try yourself to live that Christian life you are not.

Your righteousness will be like a dirty rape. And I can't do anything about that. There's the Mount Calvin side. I suppose I I it requires the grace of God to deal with my sin. I can't change my heart.

No kind of external behavior can change my heart. That has to be changed by God. And now the tension is even in Ezekiel. There's another one that says so put on a new heart and put on a new spirit. You kind of go.

Well here's the issue. See here's the tension. Even in the New Testament it says the old man is dead. The new man is here. You're no longer in Adam. You are in Christ. You were in the kingdom of darkness.

But now you're in the kingdom of God's beloved son. All of that is wonderfully true. Then another verse will say put off the old man. You say well wait a minute. What are we talking about here. Well essentially what you're doing is you're putting off the effects of the old man.

I've never really liked the NIV's translating flesh as old nature. But if you understand that to me that was my nature that I learned live in my life independent of God then I can understand a little better where they're coming from.

In that regard I just don't care for the use of the word nature because in terms of that implies essence. And who am I. In essence I'm a child of God. But let me just illustrate this. When I moved out the farm in Minnesota to Arizona I'll never forget you know just driving down the street with my parents and seeing orange.

You know trees growing wild. It seemed like in the boulevards. And you know it's just amazing. I just look at that. Wow you know. And I went and picked one and peeled it and started to eat it. Because I spit it out immediately.

It was an ornamental orange. I thought sick is that stupid or what. Why would you plant an ornamental orange. Once you plant one we could at least eat the fruit from. I mean it looked good but it wasn't any good.

And then I kind of find out that the reason they plant an ornamental orange is because it's a much heartier stock. It would survive the freezes and frost. I suspect they do that in Florida too. But they surely do in Arizona.

What happens is they allow that rootstock to grow up and then they'll cut it off and graft in a navel orange or a Valencia let's say navel orange. Now actually when that happens what grows above that graph navel orange.

I mean totally what's the nature of it above the graph navel orange. How will you know. It's kind of fascinating. Because you drive out and you see all these orange growth or orchards. What. Apple orchard orange growth.

Orange growth. But anyway you look out there and you say well actually that's just that's just a bunch of rootstock. Nobody would down there would say that. Nobody would say that. They would say that's navel orange.

Why would they say that. Well they will know it because of its fruit. Are you follow with me folks. You will know them for their fruit. He says from now on I recognize no man according to the flesh. We knew Christ once that way but we know him that way.

No longer come on folks we do it all the time you stood identified yet your heart is deceitful and that you are a sinner. You just identified yourself according to who you were in Adam not who you are in Christ.

I can't over overstate how important and critical this is. See how great a love the Father's bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of God. Such we are now we still got that old rootstock because we long to be clothed and it grabs all nutrition so I can physically continue to exist on planet Earth.

But someday I'm gonna jettison this over suit and be absent from the body present with the Lord. And I'm not gonna junk up heaven folks with an old nature now realizing how foundational that is because nobody can consistently behave in a way that's inconsistent with how they perceive themselves.

And so when I work out my salvation I'm not working for it's already been worked in by the grace of God. I couldn't accomplish that myself. God accomplished that for me. And I'm in a journey right now becoming more and more like Christ.

The only hope that I had for that being possible is that I am right now firmly rooted in Christ. That's the only hope I got that righteousness can't come from me can't come from my works. It has to come from God.

That's why in first John he could actually say nothing born of God sins. Now we look at that. We say well I'm born of God. But she was I said you know and I say you just misunderstood that passage nothing born of God nothing that comes from God sins.

And so having a new heart within me a new spirit within me nothing comes from that sins can't can't come from God and sin. So I'm stuck here living in this physical body that's decaying but my inner man is being renewed day by day.

Abiding in Christ and Bearing Fruit

Now there's so much theology behind this. You know how do you talk in 45 minutes about a 400 page book. You know it's a well pick it up a little begin afterwards here. But if you want to look at a progressive of growth here then look at at Colossians chapter 2 with me and Colossians chapter 2.

Funny as you turn here. I don't want to you know stereotype but essentially the holiness movement has really focused on past tense sanctification positional. It's a done deal. And that can lead to caricatures like this.

Well I haven't seen in 20 years. Really could I ask your wife you know and she would agree with that. It's a you know me end up with a subtle denial. The other hand you can get on the other side of the teeter-totter and spend the rest of your life trying to become somebody already are not understanding you know the first half of Paul's epistles which essentially are designed to get it for me written in Christ.

I know who I am a child of God. Don't make light of this folks. You can just see evidences of this all over the world. And I'll come back and give you a classic illustration of that in a few moments or so.

But look at what he's saying here. Verse 6. Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk how in him having been firmly rooted and now being built up how in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflown with gratitude.

Now the opposite of that would be the next verse which I'm afraid it has an incredible inroads into our seminaries and Bible schools. And frankly Christian counseling. You know we picked up too much the philosophies of this world instead of that which is in Christ.

Verse 9 comes back. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells and bodily for me in him you have been made complete. He is the head over all rule and authority. Now when I say this if you look at first Corinthians for Paul says.

I submit to you my beloved brother Timothy who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ which I teach in all churches all the time. That's Paul's theology in Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free past tense from the law of sin and of death. Is the law of sin and of death still here. Oh sure it's a law. That's why points it up can't do away with the law.

So how do you deal with it. Then you overcome it by law greater than that which is the law of life in Christ Jesus. Paul's entire theology is based on the fact that we have to be firmly rooted in Christ.

You know it's like looking at John 15 8. By this is my father glorified that we bear much fruit. No we got to bear fruit. No you don't. You got to abide in Christ. If you abide in Christ you will bear fruit now.

That is so fundamental but so overlooked. We're out here trying to bear fruit without abiding in Christ. Can't do it apart from Christ. You're not handicapped or limited in what you could do apart from Christ.

You can do nothing. Do you believe it. I hope so. You can't set anybody free folks. I don't even think you can lead anybody to Christ. Nobody comes to the father least he calls them. I mean that's hard for us to get to that orientation.

But we have we look for a better method. And old Ian Bounds used to say God's looking for better men. He's not trying to help you do something better. He's trying to make you be better in his image. For that matter.

John puts another parallel to this thing and I'm gonna look at that in our session this afternoon. But he would say he would identify as maybe as little children young men. Old men. I'll just look at that for a moment.

I've written these things unto you little children because your sins are forgiven. In other words you've overcome the penalty of sin. I'm written to you old men because you've known him from the beginning.

I believe he's implying a deep experiential reverential walk with God like Mark. And then he said I'm writing to you young men. Why. Because you've overcome the evil one. I think you could safely say because you've overcome the power of sin.

Now from John's perspective here how are we going to help a person move to a full stature of all that God intended them to be if they haven't learned to overcome the evil one since half the world didn't even believe exists.

Nor do I have the responsibility given to us by God to overcome it. Right to be honest with the text and I don't say that lightly because study was done at Princeton University. Here's what they found out about five years ago.

Now it's crossed the country. They said 60 of the Catholics they poll believe that New Age teaching was compatible with Christianity. Compatible. It's the antithesis of it. 25 of the Protestants believe that 50 of the Catholics didn't believe in a personal double.

40 of the Protestants did my goodness. What Bible are you reading. The major issue in the Bible is is a contest between the kingdom of darkness in the kingdom of light between the Christ and the Antichrist.

We have a significant role to play in the process. But folks the battle in Genesis was it was a battle between God Satan. And it isn't in Revelation. And we're in the process of it. Jesus came down to the works of Satan.

That's why I came first on 38. It's really amazing how somehow or another we can somehow detach ourselves from the reality of the spiritual world we're living in and come up with some natural answer. That's not Christianity.

We're creating the image of God and God the Spirit. So what would that make you. Well that's what he's trying to make you I guess. So anyway why aren't we growing there man. We're glutted with material and books and Bibles everywhere when every home we got by four or five different versions or the same copy.

Repentance and Being Rooted in Christ

And let me just quickly say because I'll pick this up a lot more later. But number one I think the reason we are not firmly rooted in Christ is it's just simply a lack of repentance. I can see this easier sometimes when I get out of my culture.

We've got a guy over in the Ivory Coast right now and in had an incredible time in Liberia working out some corporate repentance on that level. But we can see it over there. We went over from a Western world and went over to Africa which is about the end of this century will be the largest populated Christian nation in the world.

There are more Christians supposedly in Africa than there are in the United States. It was 5 at the beginning of this century. It'll be almost 50 by the end. You know we ended up with though we ended up with the church a mile wide an inch deep.

And we look at Liberia what happened here. The national language is English. When it was slaves were brought back. That's where they were brought back to. It's almost essentially supposedly a Christian country.

Then why did it break down so bad. Why we see an incredible you know chaos of society Rwanda and other places when 50 would identify themselves as Christians. Well there may be another answer but here's mine.

I think what happened was we went over and said how'd you like to have all your sins forgiven to live forever you bet. And I. And so they made a commitment to Christ. Now I'm not belittling that you know they may have truly been born again at that time but when the pressures came they fell back to their tribal identities and their pagan practices all over Africa you can see that it's just tragic.

What happens. Why were they firmly rooted in Christ. Why does scripture say you're neither Jew nor Gentile bondsman nor Freeman barbarian or Scythian. For Christ is all in all it's no small thing to understand who we are in Christ.

What it means to be a child of God is meaning is received him to them. He gave the right to become children of God. I mean this is the core of our Christianity. How are we taught to pray our father who art in heaven.

What would that make you his child. Not a small thing. People going out trying to make a name for themselves. What name could you make for yourself. That's better than be called a child of God. Lack of repentance.

What happens is they not only were established in Christ so they understood who they were but they fell back to their tribal identities and their pagan practices. And you can see that all over the world.

And that's the lack of repentance without repentance. You see I come to Christ man my sins are forgiven and you say we got to care of all that at the cross. In one sense. That's really true. It's like looking at freedom.

Did you know biblically that freedom is a positional truth. All those who have died with Christ are freed from sin. That's positionally true. How many are living that way. See that's the tension between indicative what God has done in imperative what we need to do.

So we have a whole chapter in the book who is ultimately responsible for a sanctification. I think you'd have to conclude with us initially has to be gone. He must initiate the process. But we have a responsibility to play.

You don't study you don't grow. And so it's it's it's a critical part of understanding the balance that we have to God's sovereignty man's responsibility that that we work cooperatively with God to become the person that God created us to be.

But God has to be the initiator in that process. I do believe. Well tragically what happens is we come to Christ without repentance. We believe this but we still believe this and see true repentance won't allow that.

If this is true than that that's no longer true. That's why the early church would stand very publicly and say I renounce you Satan and all your works and all your ways. Because when you come to church you know you bring our baggage with us and we go to our home.

We take a baggage with us. I said is there some way to genuine repentance. I can set myself free from my past. Now positionally that is not only possible because of the presence of Christ and the truth that I'm a new creation of Christ.

But I have to appropriate that you cannot passively take your place in Christ even the armor of God. The most overlooked part of it is that put on take up it requires an active part. He's provided all we need for us to live a free victorious life.

But we have to assume our responsibility. I can't overstate that it isn't that I'm denying the sovereignty God. I'm resting in it. Thank God for all that he's done that I couldn't do for myself. But truth of the matter is now because I'm a new creation of Christ.

Now I can become the person God created me. And I don't believe. That's just a question of discipline. See how we didn't even include that in the book. Because our Western world would say well I get to do.

And you we would. Somehow I think we're going to make ourself righteous by just learning to discipline ourselves. Actually self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. I think the primary means is to abide in Christ and walk by the Spirit.