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

That's what the Sunday school lesson was about, wasn't it, Brother Bill? Appreciate Brother Bill.

I was asked by Brother Otis to take his class this morning and did a wonderful job. We appreciated that and were 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. That little scripture song we just sang describes

David, not Solomon. That was the problem, wasn't it? That was the problem with Solomon.

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 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 the second year, that which springeth of the same.

But in the third year, sow 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 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 of the message. You're just going to have to get there and be there.

So mark that. But now let's look at Isaiah chapter 5, verse 2. And let's remember this little part from an earlier message.

We better start with verse 1. Let's read 1 and 2. Now will 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 2 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 choicest 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 therein.

That picture is 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 a 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,

O 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 that's outside of time and before time.

To the timeless place. We were already there in his heart and mind. Jesus was already there with the

Father. And then 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 with us. 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.

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 3 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 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 do some 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 the

Greek grammar, it is 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

Ephesians chapter one talks about the fact 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 us other guys if we missed it, when you go back and study a little bit of it, perhaps.

And then we saw something. 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 2 .13, it even takes us deeper because that, 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 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. It's all the parent's idea.

And the parents didn't have the baby because 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 middle voice, it means it was done for the father's benefit.

He brought you into this world and gave you his salvation for himself because he loves you and me.

What a beautiful truth. But 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.

The 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. We are set apart unto God. It's unconditional, the positional part of it.

You can't change it by whether you're good or bad. 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 eight thousand 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 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 an 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 would have been 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 and 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. So you see 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 2 and verse 10.

And we're going to go to chapter 5 and verse 7. Hebrews 2 .10 and Hebrews 5 .7

Let's do 5 .7 first. How about that? Hebrews 5 .7

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 unto 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

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

Him there for our purpose. If we could just utilize that it would change this world from Corsicana, 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 2 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 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 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 now look at Hebrews 2 .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 they 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 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 2 Peter chapter 1 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 marvelous place to study experiential sanctification and what it was that Jesus meant 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 remind you that the word of God has several places where we have some verses that talk about experiential sanctification don't look these up please for sake of time but you can jot them down if you want to but in Exodus chapter 32 verse 29 it says consecrate yourselves today to the

Lord so the people were commanded to consecrate themselves that's experiential in Numbers 6 and verse 12 another incidence of this um many many of these

Leviticus 11 44 Joshua 3 5 and Joshua said unto the people sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the

Lord will do wonders among you um 2

Chronicles 29 verse 34 2 Chronicles 30 verse 3 2

Chronicles 30 verse 15 and now let's look at a couple of New Testament ones 2

Timothy 2 21 says if a man therefore purge himself you see that's something we're doing it's active it's not passive it's something we're doing he shall be a vessel of honor sanctified etc so 2

Timothy 2 21 and then um James 4 8 says purify your hearts you double minded and then 1

John 3 3 is probably my favorite one um and every man that hath 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 purifies 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 let me give you one more 1

Peter 1 22 seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the

Spirit unto unfain 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 there's a verse that says that 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 tilling 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 primarily it 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 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 life 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 to 2

Peter chapter 1 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 etc etc 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 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 cause 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 cause

God gave it to you and that's how you got saved now what this verse is saying is okay now that's that's where we 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 and you know what choreograph means

I bet I bet you do because you were in the film making business tell me what to choreograph something is okay alright and in the

Hebrew it comes from the idea of a dance leader the one who leads the one who choreographs the whole thing and 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' faith choreograph 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 6 and um 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 alright 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 into your life but he said there's a wonderful fruit that comes from it and look what it says you 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 and it makes you bear even more fruit than you had the first two years when god was working in your heart as a very little baby baby baby christian and now he's saying grow and start to work with me god 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 cause he wants me to go back and get this stuff first then he'll give me some new stuff so all of the 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 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 cause they're not reading their 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 cause 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 and 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 it's all there why don't you work with me instead of against me and let's choreograph some things here and we'll get you where you know

Jesus even more than you thought you knew him yesterday and as you know him you know me the father says and so he says now if you abound in these things you'll not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord

Jesus Christ verse 9 says but he that lacketh these things is blind oh boy but the blind ones are the ones that know the word man they know how it's all supposed to be they know how everything should be in it's place and nothing's being done right and all that stuff cause they're not knowing

Jesus better than they did they're living off their past study of the word of god rather than their current relationship with god and this can tear up a church how many of you have seen a lot of little country churches like this where you got little families running that church and boy they know everything's supposed to be they'll run the preachers off these little young preachers from the seminary bring them in keep them a couple years and ruin them and they get out of the ministry because they're blind these people are blind it says they're blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged of his old sins wherefore the rather brethren give diligence now that's interesting give diligence aorist active imperative it's not regarding time so it means you know you're doing this all the time active means you're doing it and imperative means you flat are going to do this give diligence to make and the word make is interesting because it's in the middle voice

I know you're tired let me give you this middle voice means that God's telling you to do this to make this thing happen to make your election and calling sure but in the middle voice it means that the subject performing the action which is you in this case he performs this action upon himself is doing it for his own benefit

I give you an example in English the boy groomed himself that's in the middle voice he groomed himself it's something he did to himself but it helped himself and God is saying give diligence to make and the word to make is in the middle voice to make your calling and election sure doesn't mean you're going to save yourself what it means is

God gave you the faith he gave you the salvation now orchestrate and choreograph your life around this give diligence to do this and you know what it ends up with for if you do these things you shall never fall that's interesting because it's in the subjective mood which means there's a possibility there that you won't do these things jot that down where it says you shall never fall you shall never fall is in the subjective mood which means grammatically the possibility is there of you falling unless you do these things it obviously brings it into time it obviously brings it into the choice of us our responsibility it obviously brings us into that third year where we're supposed to be doing some things together with God in our lives and it destroys the hyper

Calvinist doesn't it so you don't have to worry don't let anybody tell you you go to a hyper Calvinistic church because you don't you may not even know what it means yet but you're not there you're not there now

I said that would take us back to this passage and I want to close with this in Isaiah chapter 37 you remember that's the part where it talked about first and the second year you will eat off the fruit of the land but the third year you'll do some work with me you'll bear even more fruit let me show you the result and we'll close with this because this is why this is important and I want the men in the room to think about this because you are responsible for your wives you are responsible for your little children and your big children the ones that are out of the nest not quite as much responsible they kind of come under God's umbrella but we are the leaders of our homes our families and our households look what happens if we orchestrate our life around the word of God and the things of God so that we know

Christ better so that we grow in these areas alright drop down to verse 33 there in Isaiah chapter 37 therefore thus saith the

Lord concerning the king of Assyria he shall not come into this city now these are the people that are bearing fruit now the third year they're starting to go out and do some work they're working with God together in their lives and in their nation and they are now a fruit bearing nation and look at the result verse 33 says that he shall not come into this city now the king of Assyria pictured the enemy himself we have three the world the flesh and the devil and if you don't think they can tear your wife apart gentlemen or destroy your children gentlemen you're prideful he can come in and totally rip what you thought was the best marriage in the world apart before your eyes in a matter of days and he can destroy what you thought was the best child you ever raised in a matter of weeks and months or days but if you choreograph your own life around the word of God and you get involved in your own experiential sanctification which is simply means working together with God in your life and the life of your family the first promise is that he cannot take possession of your nation he shall not come into this city and then it says in verse 33 nor shoot an arrow there second point we see is no lethal attacks there will be some attacks but they won't be lethal no darts that will kill and slay your little ones and your family from a spiritual perspective that's why

Ephesians 6 16 says above all taking the shield of faith wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and the third thing

I see is it says that therefore thus sayeth the Lord concerning the king of Assyria which pictures the devil the enemy as he tries to destroy he shall not come into the city he cannot he will not be able to possess you or your family he shall not shoot an arrow there he cannot do any lethal attacks thirdly nor come before it with shields nor cast a bank against it in other words he can't besiege your life he can't just surround your family or your church or your life and just sit out there and starve you out you see what

I'm saying he cannot use temptation to bring you out of that place out into his territory where he can slay you he cannot besiege you he says nor come before it with shields nor cast a bank against it no oppression no besieging by the way that he came by that same way shall the enemy return hallelujah sending him right back where he's gonna go someday

I guess it means and shall not come into this city sayeth the

Lord would you like that kind of protection and the fourth thing is in verse 35 and I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake the father said he's not doing it for us

I mean we get the great indirect benefit of it he's doing it for him you know why because we're his children he's doing it for him because he loves us so much he doesn't want to see these things happen to his babies you don't protect your children so much because you love them you love you you don't want anything to happen to your precious babies you love them so much you could not bear to see something happen and you protect them for you wouldn't you say that they gain the benefit of that though so you really are protecting them for them too because you love them so much and that's what

God says he says for I will defend this city what city the one that was already up there the third year kind of helping with the soil to bear more fruit the fruit bearing city

I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake that's a picture of Jesus David's a picture of Jesus for Jesus sake wow lastly verse 36 simply says the enemy is defeated

I want you to look at it and shout glory in your hearts anyway that's the way

Baptists know how to shout glory in our hearts then the angel of the

Lord went forth now this is the result the end result then the angel of the

Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five thousand people and I've always thought this is funny and when these dead people arose early the next morning behold they were all dead corpses is that grammatically what that means that's how

I read it the first time and he smote the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five thousand when they arose early the next morning behold they were all dead corpses figure that one out brothers and sisters so Sennacherib king of Assyria departed that's the enemy he's going away

I mean his army was destroyed what can he do he's going away he departed and went and returned and dwelt in his place where he came from in Nineveh now look at this and it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god that Adramelech and Shara 'izar his sons smote him with the sword and they escaped into the land of Arminia and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead the enemy was destroyed you know there's going to come a day when he is placed and chained in his place forever but until that time when he's still running around here and he's trying to encamp around your house he's trying to encamp around your church around your life he wants to besiege you he wants to dominate and oppress and possess you that if you will be a fruit bearing

Christian if you'll be a person who takes that blessed position that God's given you and reckon it to be true that you are a child of the king and you are in Jesus Christ seated at the right hand you're above everything that is and you walk that walk and you add to that you choreograph these things that he talks about that we need to bring in and help him with our lives the enemy has to leave the enemy has to go and ultimately he will be destroyed let's stand together this morning especially we as men let's think about our responsibility in this area what must we do in our own life to choreograph it in such a way that our family gains the benefit of this type of protection gentlemen what what should we do in our own lives and are we doing it are we taking the life of Solomon where we're looking at everything out there in the world trying to learn it all or are we taking the life of David where we get in the word and we say

Lord I just want to bear fruit I want to have joy in my life and I want to bear fruit let's pray together