Experiential Sanctification, Pt. 1 (09/10/2000)

Experiential Sanctification and the Difference Between David and Solomon

That's what the Sunday school lesson was about, wasn't it, Brother Bill? Appreciate. Brother Bill was asked by Brother Otis to take his class this morning and did a wonderful job. We appreciated that and we're enlightened by it.

One of the things that he taught about was the difference between David and Solomon. Right at the end of the class we discussed that and that little scripture song we just sang describes David, not Solomon.

That was the problem, wasn't it? That was the problem with Solomon. And Solomon recognized it, though it seemed like, at the end of his life. That's a sad place to recognize it, isn't it? I mean, that's better than not recognizing it.

But if you can recognize it when you're young, children and young people, if you can recognize those things now, you can have a life, a spiritual walk like David and be the apple of God's eye. Well, let's turn this morning to, first we're going to look at a couple of review verses first.

Let's look at Isaiah chapter 37 and verse 30. Still talking about fruit bearing and today we're going to get into the experiential part. We've been talking about positional sanctification, all that God has done for us.

And you see some of that here in verse 30. In fact, the first two thirds of verse 30 is what God does in our lives. And the last part of the verse, though, talks about some things he tells us we can do or we can choose not to do them.

So you can see right there how this study also brings into play the idea of the outside of time viewpoint, which is where the father is, and the inside of time viewpoint, which is where we and the Holy Spirit are and where Jesus was for his ministry.

Well, let's read Isaiah 37 verse 30. Follow along with me. And this shall be a sign unto thee. He shall eat this year such as groweth of itself and the second year that which springeth of the same. But in the third year, so ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.

Now, at the end of the message, we're going to come back to this very passage. So you might put a little bookmark there in Isaiah 37 and we're going to come down more towards the end of that passage to to to finish the message.

So mark that so you can come back to it quickly because I'm not going to give you time at the end the message is going to get there and be there. So mark that. But now let's look at Isaiah chapter five, verse two.

And let's remember this little part from an earlier message. We better start with verse one. Let's read one and two. Now I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. That's the Lord Jesus, isn't it?

My well-beloved. That's Jesus. And he's the one that's watching. He's the vine dresser watching over the vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. Now this begins to show everything God has done for us positionally to put us in the place where we can bear fruit.

He's put us on a very fruitful hill. He's planted us in fruitful soil. I mean, fertile soil. And verse two says, and he fenced it in. So there's protection there for us. And he gathered out the stone.

So God worked the soil and works the soil of our lives. And he planted it with the choice is vine. He used the good seed, not the bad seed. And he built a tower in the midst of it. That picture is the Lord Jesus Christ, right in the middle of your heart by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

And also made a wine press there in that pictures. There's the joy of the Christian life and the power of the word of God and the blood of Jesus Christ. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes.

This is what God expects because he's done everything that it takes to make us fruitful. And he looks at our lives. Now that word look is important. I mean, it's like brother Otis said, go ahead and go sin, but make sure you do it in a place where God can't see you.

Isn't that wonderful saying? But God is looking, God is looking at our life to see that we bear grapes, which means good fruit. But now look what happened to these people back some 2 ,800 years ago. But it brought forth wild grapes.

That's not what God was looking for. And now, oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you between me and my vineyard, what could I have done more? What could I have done more? Now we come down and we find God coming down in time and living in time by the spirit of God here and also by Jesus Christ, the vine dresser.

What could he have done more? What more than the finished work of Christ could have been done for us? What more than the continuing work of Christ at the throne of God right now on our behalf? What more could be done for us?

What more could we have than the future promises? The fact that the father sees us as glorified already, what more could be done? Just about all that's left for us to do after our study on positional sanctification last week is to reckon these things to be true.

What's that called? What's a little simple word that that's called when you reckon that what God says is true is true? Faith. That's about it. Now that's a little bit of review. Now we have to go into John 17 to finish our review because that was from last Sunday.

John chapter 17, remember this entire chapter is a prayer and remember that from this chapter we saw some things. We saw that in verse 13, we saw several things that we have that are identical to what Jesus has with respect to his relationship with the father or with respect to things that he in fact has that are part of himself.

The first one was found in verse 13 and that was joy and it doesn't say that God just makes us happy. What it says is we have the same joy Jesus has. In other words, we have Jesus's joy in our hearts.

The second thing that we saw was we have the same homeland, the same origin as Jesus. Jesus looked at the Pharisees and he said, you're of your father, the devil. He said, you are of beneath. I am from above.

Well, the Bible teaches us we're the same way because in verse 14 of John 17, it says, I have given them thy word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world even in the same manner as I am not of the world, exactly the same as Jesus is not of the world.

We're not of this world. We're from a different place. We're from above. We were in God, the father's heart and mind. When you go back to that place, it's outside of time and for time to the timeless place.

We were already there in his heart and mind. Jesus was already there, uh, with the father. And then, uh, we come down into time and we see some things happening, which we're going to talk about this morning.

The third thing that we saw in verse 17 and 18 was we have the same mission. And the fourth thing was that we are one with the father and with each other in the same exact manner as Jesus is one with the father and, uh, with us.

Now that's remarkable. That would bear some quiet time meditation, wouldn't it? And that's found in verse 21 of John 17. And the fifth thing we found was that we have the same glory that God, the father gave his son is given to us.

We find it in verse 22 and also in Colossians 1 27. And the sixth thing we saw was we have received the same love from the father as the son received from the father. And that is just unfathomable to us.

That's found in verse 23, I and them, and thou and me, that they may be perfect in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me and that thou has loved them as, which is Kothos, which means in the same manner as thou has loved me.

Now we all know the father loves Jesus Christ, don't we? But do you realize he loves you? If you're in Christ, he loves you the same in the same exact manner with the same love and the same degree of love that he loves his son, Jesus Christ, the only begotten one.

And the seventh thing we saw was we have the same position as Christ because we are in Christ and we see that in verse 24 and you can also refer to Colossians three chapter, I mean chapter three verses one through three.

So we have the same joy, the same homeland, the same mission, the same unity with the father, the same glory of the son, the same love from the father and the same position as the son. But you know what?

That's not all that was found in that chapter. And this will launch us into this morning's message. So I want you to turn to verse 19 of John chapter 17. Now we spoke, we've finished our lesson on the positional sanctification, our positional sanctification.

Remember there are two kinds, positional and experiential. Positional is what someone who is greater than us does to us and therefore we can't change it. Experiential is what we can live in our life in time.

Positional is both outside of time, it comes from there, it comes from where the father dwells in a place where it's the ever present now. He said, I am, my name is I am, he's the ever present God. He's in the present tense all the time and it comes from that place.

Our positional sanctification comes from there to us, but it's also in time because that's where we are. And then the experiential sanctification is what we're about to launch into and you have two forms of that, passive and active.

Passive means what God does to us in time, active means what he expects us to do. And that would relate to the third part of that verse where it says, now the first year you'll eat what comes up of itself.

You see that's passive. That's what God does to us. He makes the fruit to come. And then he says the second year you'll eat of the same. That's what God does to us. Most of it, the whole thing is what God does to us, obviously.

But then he said, but the third year, why don't you do some work? Why don't you, uh, do some, some, uh, tilling of the soil and preparation to make you be even more fruitful. And that's experiential active and we'll talk a little bit about that.

But now remember this, we saw some interesting things when we studied this positional sanctification. We saw in verses such as Acts chapter 20 and verse 32, where it says unto them that are sanctified that in the tense of the grammar in, in the Greek grammar, it is the perf, the present, I'm sorry, the perfect passive participle.

Perfect means something that is done in the past once and for all that never needs to be done again. And that's how we know it's positional because God did it before he started time. He knew us in his heart and mind, and we were his children already in his heart and his mind.

And when we came into time, he called us unto himself, he said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. He didn't say they might follow me. He said, they follow me. And so that was accomplished before time began.

That's why, uh, Ephesians chapter one talks about the fact that, uh, that he called us and elected us and chose us before anything was made that was made. And so it's perfect. Passive means that it's something God did to us, not something we can do to ourselves.

You see why it's important to study English children and, uh, uh, us other guys, if we missed it, when you go back and study a little bit of it, perhaps, and then, and then we saw something. So, so what's interesting, the perfect passive tense takes us to a place where there is no time because it's what God did to us, what the father did from that place, the heavenlies.

Now, if we go into second Thessalonians two 13, it even takes us deeper because that, uh, we find that that is in what we call the aorist middle indicative tense. And the middle means that one does this for his own benefit.

And so it talks about the fact that before time God, um, called us to himself and it says he did it for his own benefit, which means he did it because he wanted to do it. So you see what these things create is the fact that our positional sanctification is number one from a place that's outside of time.

Number two, it is a position that we have because we are in Christ. So there's nothing that can change that because we were baptized into him by the Holy spirit. We were placed into Christ by God. Salvation is of God.

Salvation is of the Lord. It's not something you did to yourself. There's not a child or an adult in here that birthed themselves. The parents gave birth. And that's why Jesus said, you must be born again.

He used physical birth to picture spiritual salvation. He said, it's just like being born. The baby has nothing to do with it is all the parents idea. And the parents didn't have the baby because, uh, for the baby's sake, they had the baby because they wanted a baby.

They did it for their own sake. And that's what it means when it says here in the, uh, middle voice, it means it was done for the father's benefit. He, he brought you into this world and gave you his salvation for himself because he loves you and me.

What a beautiful truth. But uh, so our sanctification is positionally in Christ. No one can change that. But thirdly, it's unconditional. It's not based on anything, any conditions on our part. So whether we be good or whether we be bad, we don't stop being his children.

Now, isn't that true of your children or do you live this way in your home? You got four or five kids and the ones that are good, stay your children. The bad ones, you kick them across the street and the neighbor raises them.

Is that how it works? Or do you love them all the same? You love them all the same. Now you may spend more time with one group than others. Ones that need the whoopings get a little extra time. The squeaking wheel effect, the squawking wheel, but you love them the same and God's the same way.

Our salvation is totally unconditional. Our sanctification is we're set apart under God. It's unconditional. The positional part of it, you can't change it by whether you're good or bad. And that doesn't mean run out and be bad.

Does it? The apostle Paul addressed that. He said, God forbid, God forbid. How could we do that if we're his? And then the fourth thing is it's immutable. Nothing can change it. You are sanctified. Your positional sanctification comes from a place that was before time and it's still the present tense.

It's still the same time it was before time started six or 8 ,000 years ago. It doesn't change. It's immutable. And then the fifth thing is it is totally having to do with the work that Christ did and not the work that you do.

It's his blood. It's his body. It's his life that he gave on our behalf that brings it to pass. Now that sort of summarizes our positional. Now we went into John 17 and we saw all these beautiful things that we have, the seven things that we have, uh, that Jesus has because positionally we're in Christ, but that's not all that was in that passage.

So now I want you to look at John 17 and verse 19 very carefully. It's going to just be glaring to you that all of a sudden this verse comes from that place that's outside of time and it comes down to the planet earth.

And now we are solidly placed in time in sequence in history on God's earth. And look what it says. We find Jesus walking on this earth in time and he says, and for their sakes, I sanctify myself. Now that's present tense.

That means it's in time on the earth, on the planet. I am sanctifying myself now and that they also might be sanctified through truth. Now we see this thing called experiential sanctification. There is a truth of positional, which means it's already done, it's finished and it's fact and you can't change it.

But there is also the teaching in the Bible of experiential sanctification, which means in time. So basically you've got an outside of time viewpoint and inside of time viewpoint. Now isn't it interesting that Jesus said, while I was in time, I sanctify myself.

Now don't you think that Jesus had positional sanctification? Doesn't the Bible say he was slain when before the foundation of the world, you can't change that. Can you, is there anything that could have changed where he would be born?

Is there anything that could change that his mother would be a virgin? It'd be a little hard for him to arrange that before he was born, wouldn't it? These people would say, well, Jesus just looked and saw what all they're supposed to be and he became that.

A little bit difficult to arrange what city you're born in before you're born and who your parents would be and what your name would be. And yet these things are positional because God had foreordained that Jesus would be born at a certain time in a certain place for a certain purpose.

And he was crucified. He was slain before the foundation of the world is positional. And yet in verse 19 we see him saying, but I sanctify myself. He means in time, in time. So you see this, this beautiful old Testament scripture we looked at to start with where the first year you eat off the land, that's what God provides.

Second year the same, the third year I want you to do some stuff. This is Jesus doing some stuff. Let me get you to refer to Hebrews chapter two in verse 10 and we're going to go to chapter five and verse seven, Hebrews two, 10 and Hebrews five, seven, let's do five, seven first.

How about that? Hebrews five, seven, who in the days of his flesh, you see days, that's a time word, isn't it? In the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers, supplications with strong crying and tears into him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared though he were a son yet learned he obedience.

Now this is in time. This is experiential. This is something that Jesus did as a man. Now I understand he was, had the Holy Spirit without measure and you don't have the Holy Spirit without measure, but you do have the Holy Spirit and we have the Holy Spirit in such a way that we'll spend the rest of our lives learning what that means to us and utilizing that truth and reckoning that truth to be true.

We're just like babes in that area. I mean, if we could utilize the power of God's given each one of us in that area, which is the Holy Spirit, the power of God himself in our own life, to the extent that God placed in there for our purpose, if we could just utilize that, it would change this world from Coors County, Texas.

This world is not that big, but anyway, Jesus has the Holy Spirit without measure, but he's acting as a man and it says, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. So he had to go through some things in time in this world on the planet earth to accomplish experiential.

Now that big word just comes from the word experience. It means in time and in time experience through the things which he suffered and being made perfect by these things. He became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Now look back at Hebrews chapter two and verse 10. Don't you think it's interesting that if the author of our salvation had to go through some in time experiential sanctification that it's very likely that we are going to do the same.

It's all based on our position, however, and reckoning that position to be true. Don't you think Jesus knew who he was? He certainly did at a very young age. He knew who he was to the point where he came right to the line of honoring his mother one day when he said, don't you know what I'm supposed to be doing?

Where have you been? You didn't follow us. You stayed back there on your own. You could have been killed. Somebody could have taken you away and we'd never see you again. He said, mom, don't you know what my work is?

I'm doing the work of my father. She's going, cool. You almost slapped me. She probably didn't like it. She had to think about that and get right about it probably, but he knew who he was from a very young age.

And I look at Hebrews two 10 for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things. I mean, that kind of sounds like something that has to do with like before time. I mean, you're talking creator here by whom and for whom are all things.

It behooved him in bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings for both he that sanctified and day who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

Now this brings us into this study on, um, positional, I'm sorry, on experiential sanctification by showing us that even in this great chapter of John chapter 17, which deals primarily with positional sanctification, all that we have because we're in Christ.

It has one key verse there that takes us to the place where we see Jesus in experience in time and says, well, we are like him in that sense. And we're going to go through those very same things. Now what I'd like you to do is turn to, um, second Peter chapter one, and we're just going to give a little introduction into this passage and we'll be through for this morning.

But this passage is a, a marvelous place to study experiential sanctification and, uh, what it was that Jesus meant when he, when he, or what that passage meant when it talked about, but the third year you will do some work in the soil yourselves.

While you're thinking about that, let me, let me remind you that the word of God has several places where we have some verses that talk about experiential sanctification. Uh, don't look these up please for, for sake of time, but you can jot them down if you want to.

But in Exodus chapter 32, um, verse 29, it says, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord or the, so the people were commanded to consecrate themselves. That's experiential. Uh, in numbers six and verse 12, another incidence of this, um, many, many of these Leviticus 11, 44, Joshua three, five, and Joshua said unto the people, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Um, second Chronicles 29 verse 34, second Chronicles 30 verse three, second Chronicles 30 verse 15. And now let's look at a couple of New Testament ones. Second Timothy two 21 says if a man therefore purge himself, you see that's something we're doing.

It's active. It's not passive. Something we're doing. He shall be a vessel of honor, sanctified, et cetera. So second Timothy two 21 and then, um, James four eight says, purify your hearts. You double minded.

And then first John three, three is probably my favorite one. Um, and every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. It doesn't say in that verse, it doesn't say God purifies you.

It says he purified himself. So that's experiential. That's the tilling of the soil that was done in the third year in our example in the old Testament, which would cause us to bear more fruit. Now what we see then is that, um, Oh, let me give you one more.

First Peter one 22, seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love. Even there we see the Holy Spirit working in it, but it says you have purified your souls.

Now, um, remember in our earlier study also that, um, we pointed out some of the modes by which God brings sanctification. One of the greatest ones was the word of God. And in that John chapter 17, Jesus said, I sanctify them by that truth.

Thy word is truth. So when thinking about experiential or experience in your lives, if it's true that the word of God sets us apart more and more, and there's a verse in, what is it, uh, is it Romans chapter 10, I think verse 11, perhaps that says that, uh, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Now if it's true then that the word of God has a direct, um, relationship or a direct effect on us in time, then wouldn't it be true that if you go into that third year of your life where you're supposed to be telling some of the soil so you can bear more fruit, that what that's picturing is, why don't I decide with my will more often to study and meditate on the word of God each day?

Uh, the Sunday school lesson fits this so well because it pictured two men, well, primarily pictured Solomon, which was the one that chose not to do this. He studied everything else there was to study in the whole world and had great wisdom.

He pretty well knew the world system time he died, didn't he? I mean, he, he knew how the thing worked. He knew how people worked. He knew how money worked. He knew about relationships. Solomon had the wisdom of the world, so to speak, but his father, David spent his time in chapter Psalm 119, which talks about the word of God and thy laws and how marvelous God's law is to David's heart and mind.

And he couldn't fathom the words of God and how he struggled and enjoyed getting into God's word and praying that God would teach him something from it. Teach me thy precepts, he would say. That's where David spent his time.

Now, wouldn't you agree that was a choice on David's part in time anyway? It certainly was. Was it not a choice in Solomon's life to study the other things of the world rather than spending the time? You only have so much time, would you agree?

You can spend it one place or the other or a little bit here or a certain percentage here, a certain percentage there, and you see the difference in those two men's lives. The same difference will be true of your life and mine.

The one in this room who spends the most time in the spirit-filled study of God's word will be the most sanctified when we're talking about experiential sanctification. And a lot of times that kind of sanctification has to do with the fact that they seem to be more set apart to the things of God.

That's the thing that really catches their interest. And so we see these things happening. Now, let's go into 2 Peter 1, and I want you to go down to verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding and great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, et cetera, et cetera. We don't have time to go into these things that are being added, and we'll do that though in this study.

But the point is, notice that it has the phrase, add to your faith. In other words, you add to your faith these things. Now would you agree that the faith was a gift from God? Well, you couldn't work that up to save your life or to save your soul.

It was a gift from God the Father, and it is in fact the very faith of Jesus. Just like the joy you have is the joy of Jesus, your faith is Jesus' faith because he's the only one that ever believed God 100 of the time.

He's the only one. He believed him every time. And so you have his faith because God gave it to you, and that's how you got saved. Now, what this verse is saying is, okay, now that's what we have. Now let's add something to that.

Let's add to that faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. Now it's interesting to look at the word add because the word add comes, it's the word epikoregio. Now, if I pronounced it a little bit better, you might hear the word choreograph in that word.

Do you know what choreograph means? I bet you do because you were in the filmmaking business. Tell me what to choreograph something is. In the Hebrew, it comes from the idea of a dance leader, the one who leads, the one who choreographs the whole thing.

It makes it be what it's supposed to be. And so this says to add to your faith, to take your faith that God gave you and choreograph a life around this faith. Isn't that amazing? Not around the things of the world, not around the world system, not around the thing that the flesh desires, not around the things that Satan whispers into your ear or his demons whisper into your ear, but around your faith that you have because God gave it to you and it's Jesus's faith.

Now you choreograph some things around that. Now we know God is the great choreographer. We know he's the one orchestrating your whole life. But in time, he's saying you need to choreograph some things too.

And so it's interesting because this word comes from two Greek words. One is epi, which means besides, and the other is choreago, which means choreograph. So he says, and besides the faith, choreograph these things.

Now it's in the active voice, which means it's something we're supposed to do. It's not something that's done to us, at least not in this verse. And it's imperative, which means it is an express command by the father to us.

It's not like he's asking us to do it. He's telling us to do it. Now let's go on into verse six and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity.

And if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. Now we're coming in for a landing here, so let me get your attention. Keep you for another hour if you don't pay attention now.

You go to the hospital, you need some sleep, you'll be calling me. Need to borrow one of those sermons. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that, they make you. Now, God has told you to choreograph these things in your life, but he said, there's a wonderful fruit that comes from it.

And look what it says, you'll make you, you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. Do you see how the third year we come in and we start to apply the soil and it makes you bear even more fruit than you had the first two years when God was working in your hearts as a very little baby, baby, baby Christian.

And now he's saying, grow, grow and start to work with me, God's saying. He says, let's toil together in this garden. It's your garden, it's your life. Let's work together in your life. And he says, you'll neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So apparently God is telling me anyway in this that if I don't add to my faith virtue, if I do not have a virtuous life, if I don't add knowledge, if I don't add temperance, which means self-control, if I don't add patience and godliness and brotherly kindness, then I am not going to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I can study the Bible all day long and God's not going to give me any new stuff because he wants me to go back and get this stuff first. Then he'll give me some new stuff. So all of a sudden we find that we cannot be as fruitful even in our knowledge of the Lord.

Now listen, if you can't know Jesus, you're not growing. If you can't know him more than you knew him last year, you are not growing. You will not bear fruit. And God says, if you don't choreograph your life around these things, I'm not going to give you the knowledge of Jesus.

I'm not going to give you added knowledge of him. You won't know him any better than you did 60 years ago, ladies and gentlemen. And that's what's wrong with most of our churches today. You've got lots of older people sitting around in the church that have been there a long, long time, and they're babes in the Lord still in the milk.

It's not because they're not reading the Bible either. That's the scary thing. They've heard more sermons than everybody combined. It's because they didn't choreograph their life around these things. So God did not make them fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They don't know him. They know nothing because he's the revelator of the Father. That's who he is. He's the word. He is the one who takes God's heart and mind, puts it on that truck called the word, brings it in, puts it in your mind where you can know it.

God's in control of that. He's absolutely in control of that. But God's looking to see if we bear good grapes or bad, isn't he? God is looking and he's saying, what more could I have done in your life?