Principles of Position Finish Lesson 10
JD McCulley · Jun 6, 2016
Principles of Position, No. 22
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926534421413

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, good. We are on lesson 10, question 6. Lesson 10, question 6. So we've been covering this issue of sanctification. Let me ask you a question. On a scale of 1 to 10, how sanctified are you today? 100. 100? Well, that's not 10. On a scale of 1 to 10, how sanctified are you today? All ten. No one's a nine? No. Have you ever seen, there's a comedian named Brian Regan who goes into the, he does a little skit about going into the hospital and they ask him, what kind of pain are you in? And his joke is you never say like a 4 or a 5 because people over across the hall are saying 8 and they're going to get all the attention. So he's like, just say 8, say 8, no matter what, say 8. Well, it's good that you all agreed with 10 because sanctification is not a scale, is it?

It's a done deal. It's a positional truth that we can rest in. Are there conditional experiences of sanctification? Absolutely. There are. We call that spiritual growth, and that's what we've been talking about. So the question number six I think will be pretty easy for us at this point. We've nailed it down pretty good.

Why is it futile to work and struggle for ones that is a believer's justification and sanctification? Why is that futile? So when you believed, you were given the gift of sanctification. You were also given the gift of justification. I think that a lot of folks, including myself at an early understanding, we go through a process of justification being an effort, right? This is something that most believers will struggle with at some point in their early years of coming to know the Lord if they're not taught very clearly these positional truths about justification. They want to know what does it take for me to get completely justified that is declared righteous before the Lord. Their futile efforts are constantly creating fear and frustration in their lives.

Some of you probably dealt with that along the lines of justification. But for some reason, for those that have a clarity about, hey, I don't have to work for my justification, it seems to be that the next thing is, well, if I don't have to work for that, then I've got to work for my sanctification. And sanctification is a process, and so that not being the case, you end up having this work type of effort in a Christian's life, trying to produce sanctification, because that's the way it was taught, or that's the way that they understood it.

And we've learned that sanctification is actually a gift, isn't it? And it was given to you the moment you believed. You may not have learned about it until later on in your Christian life, but sanctification being set apart for what? God's possession and His use. That's right. God's possession and His use. That's a gift that you're given. Okay? And it's 100% given to you positionally the moment you believed. Right? Okay, what was that? God's possession? So, sanctification means that we are set apart for God's possession and use. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. So, if you find yourself struggling for sanctification, what's wrong? What's wrong? I forget. You forgot. If you don't understand the truth about it, it means you don't understand it or you don't have faith in the truth.

So if you find a fellow believer, maybe this is you too, but we'll use this example since you've already kind of been taught around these truths. If you find a fellow believer who is struggling with sanctification, I think both of you are right. It's one of two things probably.

Either they've forgotten a truth that they might have learned in the past. It's just kind of gotten mixed up with different teachers and different ways of saying things. Verbiage has kind of gotten confused in their mind. And they need to be reminded of what is true. Or they never taught or never had clarity on it. They never understood that.

So, this is an opportunity for us to recognize that as we walk alongside other believers, and we know that they desire spiritual growth, and they're saying, you know, this whole issue of spiritual growth and sanctification and all this, you can actually communicate to them these truths and bring about clarity and understanding that this isn't an effort-based thing.

I think that goes back to this class. It's a position. And I think it's a misunderstanding of the position that Christ is our sanctification. And that's the position we have. I think that's the misunderstanding. Is that once you know it's a position, there's no work required. That's right. Did you guys understand what he just said?

Sanctification, and we should probably add that to our definition, if you want to add to that. Being sanctified means to be set apart for God's possession and use. Christ is our sanctification. It's personal. It's not just a job title. Okay, so I wrote here, it's our sanctification. Christ is our sanctification, and then you started saying set apart, and then what? set apart for God's possession and use. And that's all in Christ.

Okay, thank you. So that was question number six. You've got the gift of sanctification. What do you do with that gift? Thank you. You're welcome. Or wait, are you saying thank you for sanctification? God, she says thank you. Just say thank you. What can you do? Okay, and so we often use the term rest, and that's right. A thankful rest is definitely the response there.

Let's look at Acts 26.18 real quick. This will fit as a reference for question number six. And so this is in reference to the fact that Paul was sent to the Gentiles and his responsibility in that light was to, and I'll just read here in verse 18, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me. So here you have forgiveness, inheritance, and sanctification all being the result of faith in the Lord Jesus.

Does that make sense? Alright. 2618. So here's an interesting question. This will be one that's right down Roy's alley. You ready? What is the Holy Spirit's main concern or mainly concerned about when it comes to our sanctification? and Christ is glorified. Okay. I mean that's a big picture. Yep. So let's go down from a 3,000 foot view to like a 2,500. That could be the answer to almost every question asked. But good response.

No, you're right. Definitely. What is the Holy Spirit concerned about when it comes to your sanctification? If this is a positional truth, then what What is he doing in your life with regards to sanctification? What's his role here? Well, that you know it isn't a struggle. It's a gift. So you don't have to work. And where did you know that from? Yes. You're like, I'm just going to wait until he says, yep, that's the one. You're exactly right. You're exactly right. It's not a struggle. And it's not a progressive effort that we have to be bound up in. You're exactly right.

He is concerned about you knowing something. And in this case, we talked about kind of this position to condition. I drew this up last week. With this truth, we start with position, which has conditional consequences to our life. And that produces a certain kind of experience.

Because we are sanctified, because we are set apart for God's possession and His use, that has a conditional consequence on me to rest in the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to produce in me what I cannot produce myself. Right? So we start with position, and yeah, every positional truth has conditional consequences or realities to them. But we don't start conditionally and work our way down. We start positionally, and that position is found by looking into the Word of God, and recognizing what is true of us that we could never know from our own experience. You would never know that you're set apart for God's possession and His use. You could never know that if all you had was your own ability to think this stuff through. That's not a truth that you would ever come to the conclusion of.

In fact, every single pagan perspective of moral betterment or growing has to do with self first. That will always be where it starts. It cannot start anywhere else. Even the religious efforts of Eastern mysticism, Buddhism, start with you having to do something. Empty yourself so that something else can be done to you, but you have to do that first. There is no other way of understanding sanctification without the scripture. It cannot be understood. It's foolishness to the world, right? They cannot understand it. That's what the natural man does with this. And so that brings us to question number eight. What is the basis upon which the Holy Spirit carries out His work? Glorification of Christ.

Let's look at John 16, 13. Someone read that one for me. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. Yeah, that's right. What did I say, John 16, 13? Yeah, we need 14 also. I've got the wrong reference. That's a good one. So here's the verse. We need to find it. God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. We'll find it.

2 Thessalonians 2.13 I should have checked it. That's my fault. Sorry guys. 2 Thessalonians 2. Could you read that one?

But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has chosen from the beginning you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of truth. So sanctification is by the Spirit and faith in the truth. That nails it pretty good, doesn't it? So the question is, what is the basis upon which the Holy Spirit carries out His work? Truth. It's one big word. And you know what it really kind of goes back to?

It parallels with 2 Corinthians 3.18. I tell you, if there's anything I've learned by being here for the last six years or so, it's this verse. Everything seems to take me back to that.

And that's personal to me. And that should be personal to you. That beholding is not you having a new fancy Bible, although you can if you want to get a new Bible. It's that time with Him and the Holy Spirit literally making you aware of what it means to be in Christ.

And that's what this class has been about from the beginning. All these words that we choose each week to try to nail down comes from that beholding Him as in a mirror. And as a result of that, the transforming and the conforming all take place. It has just set this whole Christian walk I don't want to say simple in that there's not a lot going on in our lives.

I'm saying when you're confused, when you're frustrated, when you're not understanding something positionally, you know where to go now. You know what it is that God desires of you. of us. It is to sit down, not literally, but to sit and behold Him through His Word. I say sit because I can't imagine standing and doing that, but I guess you can. Did you know sitting is like the new smoking? It is. Everybody stand up right now. We're dying here. Get a thought. Sorry about that.

You know, when you were talking a minute ago about all other religions in the world start with self, I think within Christianity, legalism starts with self too. And so if you're under any sort of mindset that you're obligated to do something in order to get God to respond, in that sense it's legalism and it starts with you. And that's a very tough mindset to be brought off of into this doctrine of position of truth, to look at it from the standpoint that God has already done everything necessary to accomplish his goal. And the Holy Spirit has been sent to implement all of those elements of what he's done so that we can enter into an experience that he's already accomplished by faith. And it starts and ends with him, it doesn't start with me and end with me. Does that make sense? I'm going to add to that a little bit. This is something I picked up from another teacher years ago.

Man, if you look through the scripture, you see man, whether we're reading the Old Testament about paganism or even those that are under law, but struggling and definitely not trusting the Lord with what he's revealed to them at the time. You see them struggling with legalism, and then there's this pendulum that swings.

Once you find out that legalism is not working, and you cannot perform to the degree that you're asked to be measured by, you swing over to licentiousness. You just let it all go. And that's what man does. He moves from legalism to licentiousness. And if one's not fitting, then the other's got to fit. And so you end up swinging, and it's this never-ending swinging back and forth between the two. But standing right between that is that positional understanding. And the focus on legalism and licentiousness is all about I, me, self. And that's where you'll swing your whole life back and forth. Position is all about him.

And it steadies you, it roots you, so that you can start to grow. Whereas in these, when you're swinging back and forth between these human responses, the natural man, you're adapting to something that is self-centered. And it will have one of two types of consequences. That's right.

My favorite verse, 2 Corinthians 3. I got one before that. I think the thing is the identification has to happen first. The Romans 6. Because if you don't understand that co-crucifixion, you're always trying, that old man is always trying to do something. And I think it's the understanding that you're separated, which puts it into that position of being placed into Christ, the baptism into his death. reckoning ourselves dead, alive unto God. I think that is the foundational part before we begin to behold and do some of that, is because the old man is still knocking on the door all the time. And until you understand that co-crucifixion, I think that's where the growth happens, is you realize you've been placed positionally into Christ.

And then I have this beholding of him that is different than the old man beholding him in a manner such and I can get better. And you've given me the power now to get better. And there's a lot of misunderstanding there. I think it's the identification is the bedrock, and then it's growing the grace and knowledge. And the beholding is once you understand you're positionally placed into Christ, then you're just finding out who you are by beholding. That's who you are. Does that make sense?

So, if we start with that, What happens to the I of licentiousness and legalism? I dies. And that's the beginning, that's the beginning of the biblical perspective of who we are. You die. That's where we start. It's not you get better, or, it's you die. Okay, you died to your old self. Because now you're reborn. Old self, meaning all that you were in Adam. Right. Has been separated, is what death... yeah. So without the scriptural facts, there'd be nothing upon which we could base our faith. Right? We're not getting anywhere without the scripture. Yeah, yeah. My daughter is going through... I mean, she's just been growing and growing.

I'm so proud of her. and especially Monique, I don't know your husband's name, Bruce, but okay Bruce, you gave me those CDs about Grace, and I sent them to her, and it meant so much to her. But then she went over to visit a friend whose husband is well, children are well, and her husband is sick, one of her children is sick, and she is really angry. So, how can, you know, I know this may not be the right time or place, but how can I help her? She says like, how can God do this? And then this friend says, God never gives us more than we can handle.

And that really made her angry. So, So let's use this question a little bit with the class. So let's get some perspectives. So we've got a situation. She's a believer, correct? Right. And she's been growing. Right. And then she encountered someone that was experiencing a type of blessing that she's not. Right. And it's caused her to get frustrated and angry. And now the word, when her friend shared the word with her, that made her angry too. So what's going on? How do we counsel this? I can tell you. She's comparing herself to other people.

God never promised a good marriage. God never promised great children. God never promised health. God never promised riches or all these things. And then when we take our eyes off of God, and if I look at other people to say, I don't have this, you know, I don't have some great husband and family and stuff like this. I'm looking at other people, you know, I'm not looking at Christ. So she's, she's not looking, she's comparing herself. She does have a great husband.

He just happened to have cancer. Oh, well, health. You know, we weren't guaranteed health, unfortunately. And God didn't give him cancer. He got it. Bingo. God is there for you to believe in Christ. He's not sending bad things to anybody. It just happens. Right. I know that. I think it's comparing yourself. You're taking your eyes off of Christ. I mean, that's all it can be, right? I have to agree. So, let's go a step further with that. There will be no rest when you look at yourself and your situation and your circumstances.

So, even if you're a multi-million dollar, you know, up on the hill with a nice lawn and yadda yadda yadda, I don't know, whatever you do when you have multi-million dollar life. I assume you have a nice lawn, right? Somebody else would mow that lawn for me. But it's empty. Money is really empty. It's nice to have, you can pay your bills.

That's my point, is that regardless of the perceptions of blessing or the perception of having or not having, health or not health, the moment you begin to look at those circumstances, those relationships, those situations in life, they will never produce what the Lord can produce by focusing on Him.

Right? So let's take that a step further. Let's look at question 9. Why is it critical that we distinguish between God's promises and His facts? Because this is where her eyes should be. Now, is she going to respond to you telling her that right away? Maybe not. But, if you gently just remind her of these things over time, she'll get fed up with looking at herself and her situation, and she'll peel back those old pages and start to think things through again, possibly. And that's our hope, that's our prayer, right? So, when she peels back those... yeah, go ahead. Well, just as an aside, I was thinking, you know, all men suffer.

And usually if you're comparing yourself with somebody, your view or your judgment of that person who's doing so much better than you is usually incorrect. There's just something going on there. That's right. Because all you have is the nature and the Lord, right? That's right.

If we put other people on a pedestal and desire to be on that pedestal, that is still a worldly place to be, even if they're believers. Another thing that comes to mind is I think when a person is in the trenches of pain and suffering, that is a hard place to be. But when you think of something like Paul and the list of things that shipwrecked and beaten over and over and all this stuff, I think if she could understand, like the guy who wrote the Bible, in the New Testament, you could look at his thrilling hardships and heartaches to realize some of that does get involved in our lives. The guy who wrote the book who God wrote a lot about.

Well, Christ. I remember that. Isn't that interesting that the scripture is written from a place where men, not in the case of Christ, but men are imperfect and dealing with great hardships and frustrations and physical challenges and you think about Job, you've got Joseph, I mean, goodness, there's just no end to the reality that these people are going through. Tell her to read Job. Read Job.

But here's where this question, I think, impacts your question. So why is it critical that we distinguish between God's promises and His facts? So what's the difference between a promise and a fact in the scripture? Help me understand that. a lot of facts for us.

Okay. What's one, as an example? We're studying one. Sanctification, reconciliation, redemption, whatever. Yep. And they're there, they're facts, and we're to reckon on them, and we'll lead them. That is true. Yep. But promises are something you look forward to, you might anticipate. Okay. That's a good word. I think that's a really great way of saying it. So promises are to be anticipated. Well, you know, Mike, I think you said something different. Oh no. I think you said that all the promises have been fulfilled and there are no more... You didn't say that? Okay. Then forget it. When did you become all millennial?

I didn't hear exactly what Manga said in regard to where her sister is, except that she's angry. She's angry. Yeah. And then it was said that when we compare ourselves with others, and I didn't hear if that's what your sister's doing, but I think a lot of times We may be comparing ourselves with others around us and saying, this isn't fair. Why me? That kind of thing. But I think a lot of times it's more, my kids are hurting. My sister is hurting. Her husband is hurting. Somebody is hurting somewhere. Maybe it's that they've got cancer, who knows what. But you see that, and then you suffer with that person.

And if we give him the verse that says that God never gives us what we can handle, I don't believe that. He gives us beyond what we can handle because it causes us to look to him, to depend on him. And it says at the latter part of the verse that he will make a way of escape. It doesn't say what that way of escape is. The way of escape is himself.

Now we have to go through this thing, and situations do not always change. We want them to turn around and go away. And a lot of them do not do that, and they can drag on for years. And how do we get through that? We go to him. And if we focus on him, that's a phrase we use, how do we focus on him? He carries us a lot. And sometimes we need to let him carry us right through it. But our attention is on the fact that we're being carried. And we're grateful that he does that for us. And we thank him. Because we know there's no other way to get through it.

I was riding around yesterday thinking about it. I've always been a fan of the Han Valley. Yeah, and we're both the same age. I'm not such a big fan of his today. Because he died. And I did. Maybe you could get smacked in the head a few times. If I'm looking at somebody else, like you're describing, I'm looking at somebody else's woes, I'm pretty excited I don't have what he has. But isn't his life a real sadness? He's emotional. Well, he, in some ways, sounded, I mean, it was not in the news, he sounds like Donald Trump.

Oh, Muhammad? Oh, sure. But he was young. Oh, yeah, he certainly was. He said, I'm the greatest, nobody can, and I'm thinking, ooh, that's sort of nice. But they make him out like he's God. I mean, the people that are Christians say, I just know that he's with God. No, he isn't. And so, you know, they don't even know their own faith. They go to church, they're holier than thou, and they think he's with God, when in fact he's a Muslim and he doesn't go through Christ. You know what I'm going to do for our next question? I'm going to look up my Facebook news feed and see what we can talk about. No, that's Mike's fault. Go ahead. I was going to say, it's your daughter, right?

I think a big part of it is, I don't know if she's with a body of believers, but that's what the body of believers is all about. you're in Sunday, she was in Sunday school and she's weeping and whatever talking about her husband. I mean that's what the body of Christ is all about and that 2 Corinthians 5-1 says about you know you've been through all these trials and God uses A lot of that is probably just her not having the nurturing of loving believers, just giving her hugs. Although, based on what you're saying, and to segue back to our class, the only thing that's going to help that woman is positional truth.

That's it. The Word of God that says to her, that proves to her without the shadow of a doubt, When God says something is so, it's so. And they can rest in those facts and they can trust him. The only reason you're mad at God is because you don't trust him.

And you look at the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians where he had the thorn in the flesh, you know, he typically as a human being, the first thing he does is he goes to God and says, We need to get rid of this. And he didn't three, three, went to him three times and all got his mind changed and understood. that this was really a blessing for him. He didn't know that at first. But he learned it as he went to the Lord three times about it. And then he joined in whatever was going in the flesh was. Based on what? On the truth. On God's truth about how he can become a conditional viewpoint, control circumstances that turn out to be a blessing every time. And it just seems like if she was like, I know I could have never figured this stuff out without being taught, you know, another reason to be in the right or she's learned.

And it's not having a need. There's me. And the need is not, oh gee, God was on vacation this week and something terrible happened. The Lord purposely has done this for the edification of the person angry and the granddaughter, both of them, everybody that's around.

Well, you know, you've all been very patient, and I'm sorry I brought this up. No, you're fine. But in the past, that is what you've helped me through. Because I remember one time when Courtney was giving the teaching, and he said something, and I kept saying, and long-suffering. And he said, no. And I said, and long-suffering. And then I made it. If I made it through, she made it. So is that a good thing or bad? You know, with all those things, again, the focus is off, and I go back to the two things I hold a lot.

In Him, all things hold together. He's the one who holds everything together. He's in control. And the others, we can't be separated from His love and His purposes. So no matter what He's taken us through, it's for His purpose. And that's the focus is on Him. and that he's in control. There's no accidents. God doesn't say oops. And, you know, back to the Romans 8, you know, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. All things. Does that mean just the good things? Or is that the trials? All things.

And I think we lose perspective of that in the trials. We want out. And in 2 Thessalonians it says that we are going to suffer afflictions. And the other thing is that the world rejected Christ. Who are we? We are in Christ. We will be rejected too. And we will suffer here.

So all those things go together in these when circumstances happen. It's not by accident. I just go back to that which gives me the peace and rest knowing that whatever I'm going through He knows about it, and he's allowed it. Even today's Hungry Heart, the bottom of it was about Satan is used by God. He's allowed him to, as an unintentional instrument, I think is what he called it. But it's only as far as he allows it, and it's only for his purposes.

And so in these afflictions and these circumstances, the peace is understanding that he still loves us, and it's all things. Because He loves us. And He's not forcing us, but He's showing us our dependency on Him through these things. So that's a promise. Good segue. Right? I hope. Not yet.

And aren't God's promises all facts? We hear promises every day from the news media or whatever about what's going on. are not necessarily facts, but God promises are facts. He promised Israel the land. That's a fact, because even though it's something to look forward to, Never leave you or forsake you.

That's a promise, but it's also a fact. So maybe we should say, we could say about promises, facts that are yet to be fulfilled in our time. It's a good way of maybe saying it. And one of them that I keep coming to is, I will be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. That's the promise, or the fact that it's future still, and has present implications for sure. But that's where things are going. And there's a lot of facts that explain where things are going. And it is a much better picture. Far better.

It's a perfect picture of how God will and is using all of these things according to his will, and according to his integrity, and according to his purpose. And so with those future facts, we rest in those, and we rest in the character of God to fulfill them, don't we? The passage in Philippians comes to my mind that says not to be anxious about anything, but instead to let your supplications be made known unto God, and the result of that is the revelation of God's character, that He wants us to be at peace, because that's what He promises He'll give us there. That's a fact. That's going to happen.

I don't know, Wanda, but counseling her to present her anger, present her frustration, present her husband's illness to the Lord. Oh gosh, she's been through that. I'm sorry I even brought it up. No, so here's the thing. It was just one instance to see Her friend whose children are healthy, husband is healthy, and then she says to her, God doesn't give you more than you can bear. And that... Right. She felt like saying, like, what do you know about it? Yeah. Right, but if you've gone through things, and I think we all have, where we've gone to God and said, why is it this way? That seems so unfair. and just laid our hearts before the Lord. What's he do? What's he promise? What's the fact? He's going to give us peace. That we don't understand is beyond understanding when he gives us that peace. That he's in charge. That it is, from his perspective, the best thing.

That's hard to understand. Well, there's three things that have come up as responses, and the reason we made it kind of an open forum is because we are a body, and we all have different circumstances. Some can relate to that circumstance more than even I can. But we know that regardless of whether or not she's ready to hear these things or not, it's going to be a responsibility, I think on your part, to share with her about the position of who she is.

And then, as Russ mentioned, having the body is God's will. It's being a part of the body. Because He placed Christ at the head of it. And so, we know that God is... He's all about the church right now. That's what He's about. I thought you were laughing at me, Mike. That's a weird laugh. And that's who Wanda is. That's right.

You may be the other part of the body that she has access to right now, but we recognize that that was a point that was brought up, and I think it's important. And then, going back to what Roy said, Let's get that verse for her. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. It's Philippians 2 and verse 3, 4. That whole passage is in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. And having that conversation takes her eyes off of herself and back to the Lord? No. Because she has that privilege to go before Him in prayer and lay that stuff out.

Right? So don't ever feel like you need to apologize for that because what you're asking about right now is about what 90% of this class is dealing with in a different way. Sure. Can we say amen? Amen! See? Alright, true or false, real quick. Everything of the first Adam is sometimes opposed to everything of the last Adam. Always. What's wrong? Always everything. Number two, or the second one.

The Holy Spirit gives us in our condition what we commit to Him from our position. False. That's tricky. The Holy Spirit gives us in our condition what we commit to Him. We don't have to commit it to Him. He has it. And it leads us to the last question. It is by means of the Spirit-ministered Word that we see and understand the facts concerning our position of sanctification in the Lord Jesus.

True. And that's what makes this second one clearer, right? Which is false. Which is false. So we have this. It's kind of a wrap up to this section. As we abide in our position of sanctification, there is growth in our condition of sanctification. Right? Right. Alright. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for the needs that you've placed in each of our lives and we know that no need is too big or too small regardless of our past and the things that all the different conditions and relationships that we all have and bring to you. Lord, we know that you desire that intimacy of trust, and so it's just our desire that each of us would reckon on the truths of sanctification that is being set apart for your possession and for your use, and that we would trust your Holy Spirit to bring about that conditionally in your perfect plan, in your perfect way, with the exact circumstances and needs that we face even today. And so, Lord, we simply trust You with these truths and we rest in them. In Your name we pray. Amen.