Gradual Process

Recap: Sanctification Begun, the Radical Cleavage

0:03 Now, again, this morning, for the benefit of any who may have come in since our meeting yesterday, and in order to set very clearly before your minds the overall framework of our study, I will give just the main thrust of what we've covered in the previous two studies together. The first morning, you'll remember, we sought to come to grips with something of the importance of the doctrine of sanctification. We saw that sanctification was central in the saving purpose of God, that it was indispensable in the saving activity of God, and that it was absolutely necessary for the people of God, both for their safety, their comfort, and their usefulness. Then we defined sanctification in terms of the Westminster Standards, a work of God's free grace, which has to do with our...

1:01 our being renewed after the image of God. In terms of a practical, moral, ethical renewal, we're enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. And then we closed our consideration by looking at the relationship of sanctification to justification, which basically can be described under the concept of the relationship of foundation to superstructure. And the...

1:30 the... the...

1:31 the... The superstructure of sanctification cannot be erected upon any other foundation than that of justification.

1:40 Then, yesterday, we began to study the subject of sanctification proper. And I indicated that, in a very real sense, Scripture allows us to think of sanctification, or forces us to think of sanctification, under three aspects. Sanctification begun, the radical cleavage, Sanctification continued, the gradual process, and sanctification completed, the glorious, or final, crisis. And so we focused yesterday upon this first aspect.

2:16 Sanctification begun, the radical cleavage. This aspect of sanctification that is definitive, that is once for all, which occurs at the very threshold, of entering upon the Christian life. And the key thought of Scripture, particularly Romans 6, is that this radical cleavage comes in the figure of death to sin. We who died to sin, Romans 6 and verse 2.

2:52 And we saw that in this aspect of sanctification, we are passive. That is, we are acted upon by the...

3:00 by the power of the triune God. The Father calling us into union with Christ, the Spirit regenerating us. And the Son, by virtue of our identification with Him, releases, as it were, these redemptive powers, which bring us out of that sphere of sin's dominion into the sphere of the dominion of grace and of righteousness. And the best way I know to summarize all that we covered yesterday, simply to read a page or page and a half or so from Professor Murray's book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, the section on sanctification.

3:38 An all-important consideration derived from the priority of effectual calling and regeneration is that sin is dethroned in every person who is effectually called and regenerated. Calling unites us to Christ, and if the person called is united to Christ, he is united to him in the virtue of his death and in the power of his resurrection. He is therefore dead to sin. The old man has been crucified.

4:12 The body of sin has been destroyed. Sin does not have the dominion. Romans 6, 2-6, verse 14. In Romans 6, 14, Paul is not simply, giving an exhortation.

4:26 He is making a statement to the effect that sin will not have dominion over the person who is under grace. He gives exhortation in very similar language in the context, but here he's making an emphatic negation. Sin will not have the dominion. If we view the question from the standpoint of regeneration, we reach the same conclusion.

4:50 The Holy Spirit is the controlling answer, and directing agent in every regenerate person. Romans 8, verses 5-9 make this so clear that only a man who's out to destroy himself can miss it. He says, They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8, 8.

5:12 But verse 9 says, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. And if any man have not the Spirit of God, he is none of his. Wherever the soul, the Spirit regenerates, that person is brought basically out of the realm of flesh and into the realm of Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit is the controlling and directing agent in every regenerate person. Hence, the fundamental principle, the governing disposition, the prevailing character of every regenerate person is holiness.

5:52 We must appreciate the teaching of Scripture at this point. Everyone called effectually by God and regenerated by the Spirit has secured the victory in terms of Romans 6, 14. And this victory is actual or it is nothing. It's a reflection upon and a deflection from the pervasive New Testament witness to speak of this victory as merely potential or positional.

6:21 It is actual and practical as much as anything, comprised in the application of redemption is actual and practical.

6:33 So much, Professor Murray. And that's the concept that we sought to bring into focus yesterday by virtue of union with Christ and the virtue that flows from his identification with his people and his people's identification with him. There is this beginning of sanctification in the radical cleavage. Now, we come this morning to the second aspect of sanctification.

Introduction to Sanctification Continued, the Gradual Process

7:01 Sanctification continued the gradual process. And as we think our way through this aspect of biblical truth, we shall do so along these lines. First of all, we will consider some of the biblical evidence for the concept of progressive sanctification. Secondly, we will try to answer the question, what are the factors which necessitate a process?

7:29 Why does it have to be this way? Thirdly, we will consider the goal of that process. Is it just a process going on with no clearly defined goal? Or does it have a biblically oriented and delineated goal?

7:45 And then, if there is a goal, what are the powers, the agents by which that goal is attained? So we'll look at the agents in this process. And then, having considered the agents, what are the means of this process? And that will come, the Lord willing, tomorrow.

Biblical Evidence for Progressive Sanctification

8:04 All right then, first of all, the biblical evidence for the concept of a gradual process. And I want to break down the biblical evidence under two categories. First of all, some of the specific words which are used concerning sanctification, which can only speak of process. And then we will look at some of the figures which Scripture employs, which are meaningless unless put in the context of process.

8:33 So we're going to look at specific words and then specific figures, both of which point to the fact that sanctification continued is a gradual process. All right then, the specific words. The first one is Hebrews 2 and verse 11. Hebrews 2, and verse 11.

8:55 Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he did by his death, the writer to the Hebrews says, for both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified, and you have a present tense verb, which could be literally translated, for both he that sanctifieth and they who are being sanctified are all of one. So you have here the concept of process. There is a people who are being sanctified. They are not only the sanctified, as we saw yesterday, in which he uses that passive perfect concept, something has been done, the effects of which continue, but there is a real sense in which the people of God are being sanctified. And then the text we looked at yesterday at the close of our study, Romans 6, and verse 22. Being then made free from sin, that is, sin's dominion and lordship, the radical cleavage, ye are having, and you have a present tense verb here again, ye are having your fruit unto holiness. Here was the cleavage, sanctification begun,

10:20 which immediately issues upon the process. Ye are having your fruit, unto holiness. And then a passage like 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, promises of our acceptance as the sons and daughters of God Almighty, he says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, writing to the people of God, the adopted ones, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

11:03 Here again is the concept of the process of continual cleansing, wherever defilement of flesh and spirit are present, there is the call for cleansing. So there is this need then of the process of sanctification. Now briefly look at the figures which Scripture employs. There is the figure of constant transformation, 2 Corinthians 3.18, a pivotal text in this concept of progressive sanctification. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. Here is the concept of constant transformation into the image of Christ from one state of glory into another state of glory. So the first figure then that shows process, constant transformation.

12:12 Then you have a second figure, that of constant renewal, Romans 12.2. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You have that same thought in Ephesians 4.23, being renewed in the spirit of the mind. 2 Corinthians 4.16, though the outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day. Constant transformation, constant renewal, then the third figure is the figure of growth.

12:56 2 Peter 3.18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4.15, that ye may grow up into him in all things.

13:10 This is why in 1 John you find John addressing some as babes, some as young men, some as old men. And growth, if it is anything, it is process. How we wish at times we could hurry it up. Some of us wish we could arrest it when it goes in certain directions.

13:30 Not up but out. But growth is a gradual process. Too many trips up to that snack shop will be a constant reminder over the next few weeks of your sin of intemperance. And every time you see your belt one notch back from what it was when you came here, you're reminded that growth is a gradual process.

13:55 Alright? Then there is the concept of constant pruning in John 15. Our Lord using the analogy of the branches in their relationship to the vine says, My Father is the husbandman and every branch in me that bears fruit he continually purges it, he prunes it. The concept again of process.

14:19 And then there is the concept of constant washing in John 13.10. A beautiful analogy. To sanctification begun, the radical cleavage leading to sanctification continued the gradual process.

14:33 You remember when our Lord had girded himself with a towel and he had come to wash the disciples' feet. Peter said, Lord, this will never be. You're not going to wash my feet. And our Lord says, look, if I wash you not, you have no part nor lot with me.

14:48 Peter said, well if that's the case, Lord, give me a bath. If I need your washing and apart from that I have no part with you, well then if I have a bath, that'll really let me know that I have true saving involvement with you. And then Jesus said, he that is washed, he uses one word, he that is bathed, he that has had a shower needeth not save to wash his hands before supper. That's the difference of the analogy.

15:16 He says, unless I am continually washing you, you have no relationship to me. Part of my salvation, Peter, is the constant washing. Now, there need be no repetition of that initial washing. He that is bathed does not need to be rebathed, but he does need to wash his feet.

15:36 Peter, if you took a shower before you came to this place, you don't need to take a shower, but you have picked up some dirt on your feet along the way, and that ought to be washed. So he that has been bathed once for all in the labor of regeneration, he's experienced the washing of regeneration, needs not to go through that again, that sanctification begun, the radical cleavage, but there is the incurment of defilement day by day, and we need to have the Savior wash us. And then there is the beautiful picture, I'm sorry, not only this beautiful picture of constant washing, but that concept of constant mortification. Romans 8, the passage, from which I quoted earlier, which speaks of the radical cleavage. They that are in the flesh can't please God. You're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. In that same chapter he says in verse 13, if ye by the Spirit do mortify, a present, if ye by the Spirit are mortifying the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live.

16:49 And you have the same thing in Colossians 3 and verse 5, mortify therefore, continually mortify, continually put to death. Well, there are more figures, but these should suffice, I'm sure, to convince us that the concept of sanctification continued is stamped very obviously upon the face of Holy Scripture, not only by the specific words used, but by the figures employed. Well then, the second thing we want to consider is what are the factors which necessitate this process? Why should there be a process?

Factors Necessitating the Gradual Process: Remaining Sin

17:30 If God has power enough to dethrone sin in a moment by the definitive act of regeneration and union with Christ, why does he not purge it all at once? If he's able to do this, and if he's going to complete the work in a radical stroke, at glorification, why the process? Why should there be a process? May I say there is a twofold answer to this.

18:01 If you want a more detailed answer, again, you have to go to John Owen, who has some very helpful thoughts as to just why God may have chosen this path, but I can't go into that. But I want to be very practical in seeking to answer the question, what factors necessitate a process, and they are two. One, the presence of remaining sin, of remaining sin in believers, and secondly, the purpose of God to deal with it in this way. The presence of remaining sin in believers necessitates the process of sanctification.

18:35 In the light of what we have seen and what I have attempted to demonstrate of the Scriptures' teaching on definitive sanctification, some might ask, well, what's left? If sin shall not have dominion over you, if ye have died to sin, what is there left for a process to deal with? But it's interesting that the very passages which indicate this concept of the radical cleavage of sanctification begun also indicate that though every believer is truly and really sanctified at once, he is not perfectly and completely sanctified at once. Really and truly, but not perfectly at once. It is one thing to be sanctified truly. It is quite another to be sanctified completely.

19:35 I'll turn to Romans 6 for a moment as I seek to demonstrate this. This was the passage upon which we focused most of our attention yesterday. Romans 6, verses 1 to 11 are the clearest statement in Scripture on the radical cleavage. Sanctification begun.

19:55 And yet, having set out this truth, the Apostle Paul says in verse 12, let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey the lusts thereof. What's he saying? He's saying to these Romans, though there has been this radical cleavage, there has not been any eradication. As long as you are in the flesh, there will be remaining lust, which will cry out for gratification, which will come like a deposed king and seek once again to usurp the place of mastery.

20:36 Let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey the lusts. It comes commanding. And remaining corruption says, gratify me, satisfy me, pander me, indulge me. And we say, who are you?

20:53 And unless we know that when the answer comes, I'm your master, we can say, you're a liar, you're deposed. We'll find ourselves in areas of our lives crippled by allowing the reign of sin in specific areas. Or we will find ourselves obeying the lusts, to use Paul's term. Then he goes on.

21:18 Neither present your members unto sin. He says it's a possibility. As instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves unto God. The same thing with Romans 8.

21:31 Romans 8 verses 5 to 9 speak very clearly of this radical cleavage. They that are after the flesh, they pay attention to the flesh. They that are after the Spirit, they pay attention to the things of the Spirit. And there's no middle class.

21:48 God have mercy upon the so-called theologians and Bible teachers who've come up with a big third class. They're neither in the flesh nor in the Spirit. God knows only two spheres. And then he says the end of one of those spheres is death.

22:03 The end of the other is life. Those that are in that sphere of flesh can't please God. Those that are in the Spirit can. But it's in that concept or context of the radical cleavage that he says, verse 12, So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.

22:21 For if he live after the flesh, he must die. But if by the Spirit he put to death the deeds of the body, though you are in the Spirit, though you are no longer living after the flesh as the dominant characteristic of life, there are the remains of corruption within which must be mortified. And so in answer to the question, why must there be a process? Scripture says because of the presence of remaining sin in every believer.

22:52 Scripture teaches, according to Colossians 3, 9 and 10, that believers have, past tense, put off the old man and have put on the new. A Christian is not both old man and new man. There's no substantiation for this in Scripture. And if you have a question on the Ephesians 4 passage, I suggest you read Professor Murray's Principles of Christian Conduct, the section on the dynamic dealing with the exegesis of that passage.

23:22 The teaching of Scripture is that we have put off the old man. That's the totality of what we were in a state of sin, and we have become new men in Jesus Christ. But the Bible does not teach that we are perfect new men. The new man must grow in grace and in knowledge.

23:46 The new man must develop. And as new men in Christ Jesus, we must put to death the remains of the flesh and of sin. As Professor Murray has stated so clearly, the believer is a new man, a new creation, but he's a new man not yet made perfect. Sin dwells in him still, and he still commits sin.

24:10 He is necessarily the subject of progressive renewal. He must needs be transformed into the image of the Lord from glory to glory. It's interesting, isn't it, that Romans 6 is followed hard by Romans 7. But it's interesting that Romans 7 follows Romans 6.

24:32 And if you separate one from the other, you're going to end up in spiritual shipwreck. The person who simply has a few naggings of conscience, still under the dominion of sin, but says, Oh, well, you know, the Romans 7 struggle, not I to do it. Sin dwells in me in the good that I would. So you've got the false professor, and there may be some in this place, who comfort themselves from the latter part of Romans 7.

25:00 They say, Yeah, that's right, I don't do what I know I ought to, but you know, not I, but sin dwells in me. My friend, don't you take comfort from Romans 7 until you can face clearly Romans 6, 1 to 11. If you've not experienced that radical cleavage in which the love of, willful commitment to, and dominion of sin to take comfort from Romans 7, but blessed be God, the person who by God has experienced Romans 6, 1 to 11 and the rest of the chapter, he's been made free from sin, and he longs to be holy, and he sees the spirituality of the demands of the law, and he knows something of the holiness of God and of Christ, who are the pattern after which he presses, and he finds, as Paul says, when I would do good, evil, and he wants to seek the face of his Redeemer God. He wants, as it were, to break loose from every inhibition and praise Him with holy abandonment and distraction, fill his mind when he would pray, when he would worship, when he would set out upon holy tasks, he feels the opposing forces, and he at times would say, can grace fit in the likes of me? Wait a minute, the same Paul who says,

26:30 we die, and includes himself as a subject of radical cleavage says that when I would do good, evil is present in me, I delight after the law of God with my mind, but I find another law in my members, bringing me into bondage, and there's tension, there's conflict, and he cries out, oh wretched man that I am. Psalm 7 becomes a source of instruction to the child of God to recognize that even though he's experienced radical cleavage, he's not had every remnant of sin eradicated. He's not had every remnant of sin eradicated. He's not had every remnant of sin eradicated.

27:09 He's not had every remnant of sin eradicated. He's a new man, but not a perfect new man. And so, recognizing this order between Romans 6 and 7, he is kept from discouragement and the third thing that relationship will do, it should expose hypocrisy, should keep from discouragement, and it should also protect us, act like a preservative against the infectious doctrine of perfectionism. When anyone says if you lay hold of what's in Romans 6, you may as well just scratch out Romans 7 from your Bible.

27:48 He's gone beyond the apostle, and when anybody goes beyond the apostle and their experience, I'm scared to death of what they've got. Anybody who gets anything that makes it unable, makes it unable for them to pray through on their knees, what should man that I don't want? When anyone goes beyond praying many of the Psalms where this inner conflict is so obvious and so clear, if you've got something that goes beyond Paul and David, and Peter, I'm scared to death of it, and I hope you will be too. So the presence of remaining sin is a fact clearly revealed in every child of God.

28:29 And there is a world of difference between reigning sin and remaining sin, between the child of the devil complacent in his sin and the child of God in conflict with his corruptions. As one has said, it's quite one thing for the enemy to occupy the capital. It's another for his defeated host to harass the garrisons of the kingdom. Try to picture it this way.

29:00 The ships offshore have been pounding the shore of an enemy territory for days. They've done the softening upward. The troops have landed. There's been intense conflict, hand-to-hand battle, routing out people from trenches and pillboxes and out of homes, until finally the headquarters of the enemy is captured.

29:25 Every source of retreat is cut off. All the supply lines are cut off. The flag of the conquering army is planted. They're in control of the territory.

29:37 There has been a change of mastery, a change of ownership. There's been a radical change in the whole perspective. But now there must be what's called in the military the mopping-up operations. You've still got some enemy soldiers hiding out out in the woods, and you've got to go flush them out one by one.

29:55 There may be some defeats of individuals in the mopping-up operations. You may lose some more men. You may have to expend some more material. But as long as the enemy has his supply lines cut off, his headquarters are captured, his rule and domain is finished.

30:14 Though human illustrations have their weaknesses, this at least at one key point is a valid illustration of what God does. When by the spirit we're regenerated and by the force of the enemy we're restored and by the Father our conscience the virtue of our identification with Christ, now there must be the mopping-up operations, progressive sanctification. The Confession states it beautifully as it does with so many of these things with this terminology. Whence arises the imperfection of sanctification in believers? The answer, the imperfection of sanctification in believers arises from the remnants of sin hiding in every part of them and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the spirit. And then goes on to describe the conflict.

Factors Necessitating the Gradual Process: God's Purpose

31:23 Galatians 5 is another one of these passages. I'll only give it to you to read at your leisure. Galatians 5 17 to 25 where at the end of the passage the believer is described as one who has crucified the flesh with the affections and the lust thereof. But that very passage is introduced with the statement that flesh is the spirit the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other.

31:52 So then the factors which make the process necessary are on the one hand the presence of remaining sin and on the other hand the purpose of God to deal with it in terms of a process. The whole salvation in all of its purpose is in Him who works all things for the purpose of God. The fact that the radical cleavage leads to a gradual process is as much a part of the purpose of God in salvation in the manner in which God effectually calls us. Would we dare come to question God's wisdom in providing salvation based upon the death of His Son? No, we may stand back with bated breath and amazement but would a child of God ever call into question God's goodness or wisdom in enacting such a plan? The thought is tantamount to blasphemy.

33:11 May I say that it is bordering on blasphemy to question why God should deal with sin in believers in terms of progressive sanctification for that is as much of His purpose in grace as is the basis of objective and moral understanding in that it is easy for us to disprove sin by resorting to sin to sin rather than establishing God's own justice and to see Jesus in Him as God Himself so Consider with me briefly, what is the goal in the process of sanctification? May I state negatively what it is not, and then positively what it is. The goal in progressive sanctification is not church circle.

The Goal of Progressive Sanctification: Christlikeness

34:30 That is nothing but fact. They were...

34:48 He says you're like Baby Finkelstein's sepulcher. A whitewash and splashes it all over. As you go out for your morning constitutional, and the sun is rising and it strikes the side of that sepulcher with direct rays, it almost blinds your eyes, sun on new fall and snow on a clear day in the winter. It's whitewashed.

35:16 Go on over to A.B.'s sepulcher, where a lot of his relatives have been for a long time. Pull the door over.

35:22 Jesus said, that's you Pharisees. You're whitewashed on the outside, but within you're full of dead men's bones and all of them.

35:44 He says you're like somebody who'd invite you over to a meal and gets out the best china. And the wife is there and she takes her linen cloth and she polishes that china until as it's sitting there on the table, you come in through the front door and as you look into the dining room, you're almost blinded as the light shines off the rim of the cup and the plate and it's all beautiful. Then she says it's time to eat and you're ushered into the table and you sit down and as you bow your head to pray, you almost regurgitate because there on the inside of the cup you see the collection of the leftovers of six months.

36:21 Dried, that's exactly the figure our Lord used. He said, you may... Amidst eleven of Pharisees, the goal of sanctification is not having a...

37:15 a baby's whitewashed sepulcher, a baby's wife shining china. What is the goal? The process of sanctification. The goal is nothing less than the image of God's dear Son.

37:42 That's the goal.

37:56 As well as outward and...

37:59 Formation of the entire... The image of God.

38:07 That's the goal. The man who's...

38:11 And is now bringing forth fruit unto holiness. What is...

38:17 It's nothing less than the goal of 1 John 2... My little children and John...

38:53 Formed a young... That you may not fail to worship him spiritually.

39:07 That you may not fail to love him purely. That's what John's talking about. That's the goal. 1 Peter 1.15 But as he which hath called you is holy,

39:29 is it something external to him? Through the entire...

39:38 He says, be ye holy as I am holy. Romans 8.28 and 29 And we know that all things are working together for good to them that love...

39:47 God's purpose for whom he did foreknow. He did also be conformed to the image of his Son. 1 John 3.3 is the parallel passage.

40:02 Every man that hath his hope in him... Health and what is the standard of purity?

40:08 Even as... In the entirety of his birth.

40:25 Paul's longing for the people at Thessalonica. He can say 1 Thessalonians 5.23 And I saw unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what is all of that?

40:48 In short, you go to the first part of the verse. May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.

40:58 May I again... This process is nothing less than the elimination of all...

41:06 From the totality of life. And the complete conformation of the entire person to the image of God's dears.

41:18 Someone says, since this involves the possible to attain that now. Since there is not the final...

41:27 The completion of the remains of corruption in flesh until we're glorified. It's possible to have that. I never said this was possible. I said it's the biblical goal.

41:37 It's the biblical goal. And it's not attainable.

41:56 I'll prove to you that it's possible. And we do it in many areas of human life all the time. Do you have a husband here this morning? Who truly and seeks biblically to love your wife?

42:08 Reservation.

42:16 To my wife.

42:19 Can't you say that? With all my...

42:23 To my wife. I don't want to be nine-tenths of what a good husband ought to be. I want...

42:33 If you were content with something... Less than that is your goal.

42:36 I'd say there's some question about the genuineness of your love to your wife. Now let me ask you, husbands, who've been able to say in your heart with me, Yes, that's my goal. How many of you think you're going to attain it?

42:48 If you raised your hand, I'd then ask... When we love...

43:20 First loved us. And when through the revelation of the Holy Spirit and the application of His power, we've been brought out of darkness into marvelous light and our hearts run out to our Savior. We say, Lord Jesus, I want to be just like you. I want to be...

43:37 All that you would have me to be.

43:41 And then coupled with this, and I didn't know how to parallel it except to stick it on at this point, so you forgive me if it doesn't seem quite the fit. There is this matter of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every believer who pushes us onward to this goal of the purging of all sin and complete conformity to the image of Christ. Ephesians 4.30 says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed, unto the day of redemption.

44:11 Now, the Scripture says, The Spirit's presence is the earnest, the foretaste, the down payment of what we shall be. And may I state it this way, The Holy takes up His abode and makes us like the image of God's dear Son. And so,

44:57 for perfection, He has... How can there help tension?

45:31 Blessed tension. That's what makes you long for what you're going to be then and keeps you from settling down here now. That's why...

45:37 That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5,

45:42 Grown... Word grown in...

45:49 You're going to be happy, right? All the time.

46:01 And he puts in that very... Even we who have the earned...

46:06 Well, how does that phrase fit in? It fits in precisely as I've indicated. When the Holy...

46:26 We shall be like Him. Well, if you have that earnest, the down payment, pressing toward it, there's going to be conflict. The goal is nonetheless real. Perfect conformation to the image and to the likeness of our...

46:43 Blessed Lord and Savior.

46:48 To quote from Professor Murray again, the presence of sin in the believer involves conflict in his heart and life. If there is remaining indwelling...

47:00 It's futile to argue that this conflict is not normal. If there is sin to any degree in one who is indwelt by the Spirit, then there is tension. Yes, contradiction within the heart of that person. Indeed, the more sanctified a person is, the more conformed, the more he is to the image of the Savior, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity to the holiness of God.

47:29 The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the greater the intensity of his love to God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of Christ Jesus, the more conscious he will be of the gravity of the sin which remains and the more he will be of the sin which remains. And the more he will be of the sin which remains, the more poignant will be his detestation process,

48:03 will blush and groan over things that at the initial stages of his Christian life he never would have even recognized as sin. Standing back out of the compass of these lights this morning, I could have come here unshaven. It wouldn't be very obvious. But if I got up as close as possible and looked full into those lights, the nubs would show.

48:28 And the more we... Conscious communion, the more we see, the nubs of our own remaining corruption.

48:38 And the more we... To which we are...

48:45 It seems the more we cease to attain. And there is conflict and tension and groaning in the midst.

49:00 Someone said, Well, how in the world do you get such strange bedfellows together? I'd say, my friend, if that's your reaction, you're a stranger to grace. If you have but the beginnings of grace in your heart, you're sitting there this morning saying, Lord, how true.

The Agents in Progressive Sanctification: The Triune God

49:17 Well, what then are the agents in this? With the goal, the conformity to Christ, the eradication and removal of this remaining sin. Who is at work? This process.

49:35 And may I say, the agents are two,

49:45 but in sanctification continued, the agents are two.

49:58 Just as with the radical cleavage, we saw that it was the activity of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit beginning that process.

The Agency of God the Father

50:09 Activity of the Triune God. Look at the work of the Father in progressive sanctification. Jesus praying to His Father in John 17, 17 said, Sanctify His prayer to those who are to as many as Thou hast given. To go to the doctrine of sanctification, He said in John 15, verse 3, Ye are all through the Word spoken unto you.

50:51 They had radical cleavage, but now He says, Father, carry on the process by means of your truth. Paul directs his prayer to the Father in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23. May the God of peace, sanctify you wholly. Hebrews 13, 20 and 21.

The Agency of the Holy Spirit

51:11 Then there is the work of the Holy Spirit in the process. And in a special sense, He is the sanctifying agent. For in Romans 15, 16, this phrase occurs, sanctified by the glory of blessings of the new covenant is bound that it administers the life-giving Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3, 6.

51:40 The whole setting there, of the glory as a ministry of life-giving Spirit. It is He who is active in the transforming process. 2 Corinthians 3, 18. Where He says, With open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that same image.

52:02 Even their sin to be mortified. How is it to be done? If ye bond. 13.

52:14 Have virtues to be cultivated. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering. While they are called in Galatians, the fruit. Of the Spirit.

52:27 And so as we come through the Scriptures, we see that there is this personal, direct, powerful agency of the Spirit in the process of sanctification. Now why is it essential to keep this in mind? Well, several things in answer to that question.

52:50 It is this that will make us glory in the mystery of the Spirit's operation in us. If we are to the process is dependent upon the continual supply of Jesus into the room, the realm of mystery, John 3, the wind blows where it will, you can tell where it comes from, where it goes, comes where it goes, but you see its effect. So is everyone born of the Spirit. The realm of His operations is mysterious.

53:23 We will avoid the tragedy of so much deeper life teaching that the Spirit's work goes no further than our standing or our faith and surrender. If you want to see some of the terrible teaching that's abroad in our day and in the past, you get Warfield's book, Perfectionism, and it's a great book. And read the quotes from Trumbull and some of the other deeper life leaders where it's close to blasphemy, where they say in this, the whole justification is checked until the believer yeses for the next step. Oh, blessed be God, that when God took us in hand powerfully, when we were passing dead in us and brought the wrath of cleavage, that same Spirit, Spirit is constantly active in producing the fruits of holiness many times beneath the level of our consciousness and far transcending our own faith and surrender. How many times, dear child of God, when your thoughts have been farthest from God, as the hymn writer says, sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings. It is the Lord arising with healing in His wings. You came into that church service carnal as an old goat.

54:40 You had bitterness in your heart. You were dull and lifeless, and you were singing a hymn in glory, broke upon your soul. And the Savior drew near, and you had a sight of Christ that ravished your spirit, and you left broken. How did that happen?

54:54 Where was your faith in surrender? Blessed be God for the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Those times when some of us know we've yielded to areas of the flesh and we have felt its bondage, and the natural course would have been right down out into an apostate state. And God graciously arrested us, turned us up to pray, produced in us fresh for sin.

55:20 And we stand today and we say, Oh, God's Spirit's agency is a mystery, but it's grace, all of grace. Unless we recognize that, dear ones, we'll fail to grasp something of the glory of the mystery. And then secondly, this should cause us to seek to cultivate a deep sense of our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Though as we shall see, the process involves the full employment of all of our faculties, and we will not be able to do it, and we will not be able to do it, and we will not be able to do it.

55:50 We must not rely on our hearts or resolute holiness. The consciousness of our dependence upon the Spirit, the use of the means of sanctification will feed things of province, the very antithesis of holiness. The dependence upon the Holy Spirit is the focus. Consistence. The focus. It's easy to parrot the language of dependence, strutting in fleshly self-conceit. Test of how far you sense of dependence

57:10 upon the Holy Servancy of our prayer, for the Spirit's assistance. The most eloquent, confident language of supplication is in truth. Well then, the agency of our Lord and Savior. Not only is there the agency of the Father, the agency of the Spirit, but the agency of Christ.

The Agency of the Lord Jesus Christ

57:51 We looked at His agency in the right identification, but He is our sanctification in the total scope of its working. 1 Corinthians 1.30 He of God is made unto righteousness, sanctification and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1.30 In what sense is this true? Well, as we've seen in previous studies, He is the reservoir of all things which the people of God estimate. Without me, ye can do nothing. As ye abide in 1 Corinthians 1, the fruits of righteousness which are by 1 Corinthians 4.13, I can do all things which strengthens me. So our Lord Himself, not only in His name, is drawn in three distinct ways. As the advocate of His people, as the intercessor for His people. In the scripture says in Romans 8.10,

59:13 if the Spirit, Galatians 2.20, Galatians 3.17, that ye may dwell in your heart by faith, Galatians 1.27, the mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, ye must never, never wrench Him from His place at the right hand of the Father, as the triumphant, exalted Lord.

59:43 And think of the doctrine of the indwelling Christ, the way it's abused in many circles, as though His indwelling cancels out my humanity, I become, as it were, the empty carcass. He loves through me, lives through me, thinks through me, feels through me. I'm not speaking of that abuse of the doctrine, but the text of scripture is the explicit statement that Christ lives in us, is glorified, He ceases to be Christ, do not know the wonder of wonders. It's true, it strengthens. Which means, who's that fellow? Well, who is it?

60:58 He said, it's not I. I ask this not only as our in 1 John 2.1, I write unto you that if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. This advocacy of Christ has a direct bearing of the problem of sin in the sinning believer. Thus, in the process of sanctification, inspire us to the advocacy of Christ. You see the connection? The goal is for the needs of Christ.

62:17 And then there is intercession of Christ. Romans 8.34 It is Christ that doth, rather that is, maketh intercession for us. Hebrews 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save, not from the uttermost, but as there been the beginning of the world. Radical cleavage, sanctification begun. He is able to complete the work. He is able to save.

62:47 Now follow closely. I know you've been listening well, and I've given you gobs of material. Loins of your mind as I read this next statement. The function of Christ's intercession is to secure all that is necessary to complete the fullness of His people.

63:09 Is any of that necessary because of the full accomplishment of the saving purpose? Is sanctification and all that is related to this is needed? A separable reference to the intercession of Jesus Christ our Lord. As John Owen has so beautifully stated, nothing but sanctification, but what in the actual communication of it is a peculiar fruit of Christ's intercession. The sense of ability to sin. All that comes to us, comes to us as the fruit of the intercession of our blessed Lord. So when the scripture says, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save people from their sins, we must not limit that saving activity to the work of sacrifice and expiation alone.

64:31 No, in the totality of the saving process, it is Christ. It is Christ alone who is central. He says we should glorify Him, look up to Him, while one in sanctification passage laying us down. What's the floating o'er unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith?

65:05 In a way which transcends our understanding, it's the application of the virtue of His precious blood which goes on cleansing us from sin. 1 John 1.7 And Owen has a great section on this in Volume 3, beginning with page 436. The blood of Christ is not only there for pardon, He is faithful and just to forgive.

Conclusion and Transition to Believer's Agency

65:28 The application of the blood for sin and purgation of sin. And so the aegis, as with the beginning, is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now this is the first morning I've been faced with tension. I have the agency of the believer, and I think I've preached long enough, so I think maybe we better hold this off for tomorrow.

66:02 The agency of the believer, and then we'll move into the disciplines, and so maybe tomorrow morning's exposition will help set the scriptural framework for our dealing with the actual disciplines and means of the sanctifying process. Perhaps nothing could better come from this hour than our stopping here so that by the very break at this point, we'll be forced to see that whatever we take up tomorrow in terms of the believer's deliberate, determined, disciplined, conscious effort, and all of those things are involved, it must be couched in the context of our utter dependence upon the Spirit and the focus of our faith being our blessed Lord, in whom all the supplies of grace and mercy and power are found. Sanctification begun, the radical cleavage. Sanctification continued, clearly stated as a process, necessitated by the remains of sin and God's purpose to deal with it that way. Its goal, nothing less than complete conformity to Christ.

67:24 And tomorrow, God willing, we'll see the renewed man, the believer, and his conscious efforts in the process of sanctification. Let us pray.