The Progressive Work of Sanctification Pt.3
I PETER 2:2
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
The new birth in every church age was always the same – it is when the word and light for the age was revealed (made clear) to the individual by the Holy Spirit.
*And so it is the revelation of the word that births you into a new world of a new kingdom of understanding – a new journey of discovery, just like your first birth ushered you into a world of human life on earth, so the new birth separates you to a new life of growth in the revelation of the word of God that is being unfolded for your day - and so then your purpose is to grow in that revelation through all the ups and downs of life toward a maturity.
II PETER 1:3-8
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers (you may become a partaker – it is not an instant thing) of the divine nature (notice – becoming a partaker of the divine nature is a journey and a process), having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 ¶ And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue (Add to your new birth of your faith in the revealed word of the hour, virtue); and to virtue knowledge; (the knowledge of the word for your day)
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. (Notice – add this, add this, add this, and adding is a process that causes you to grow – because we are to grow from a new born babe into a mature adult – it’s the same as growing up like a natural baby – little by little, and year after year)
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
JOHN 6:45
45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
ISAIAH 54:13a
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD;
It is the teaching of the word that washes you. Ephesians5:26 – you are washed by the water of the word.
**The evidence that you are a child of God is that you are continually being taught the word of which the Holy Spirit is revealing for the age that you are living in – the message for your day.
The Progressive Work of Sanctification Pt.3
When we think of sanctification, the first thing that usually comes to our minds is of a person that is living a clean Christian life – a life of holiness as we would term it.
But as we know with most words, that there is usually more to their meanings.
Sanctification actually means to be separated, to dedicate, or consecrate, to be set apart for God’s use.
**And so sanctification is firstly the act of God setting His people apart from the world by first drawing them unto Himself by revealing Himself, and then causing them (by the revealing of the word for their age) to act in accordance with the destiny to which they were predestinated to for the age that they lived in – because we have all been placed on earth in our designated season in order to serve our purpose to God by being a contributing part of the fulfilment of prophecy concerning the end time bride of this hour.
PROVING.HIS.WORD_ JEFF.IN V-9 N-6 SUNDAY_ 64-0816
61 Now, it is possible that staunch Christians, fine people, hold sometimes, hold to the wrong thing, thinking it is right. But then these things should be proven, whether they are "right" or "wrong." And it's the duty of all of us, as we are expecting to go to Heaven when Jesus comes. And it's the minister's duty, when any question is brought up, that he solves this out, and then proves it before the people, that they might understand, because no one wants to be found "wrong," holding to the wrong thing.
*Over the years we have witnessed many true and sincere believers and even ministers of the end time message that have held on to wrong ideas and things they have unwittingly brought over from their past denominational teachings – and that’s not because they are wanting to be wrong, because nobody wants to be wrong, but it’s just that so much has been taught over the past years by men who have had different opinions and then have gone on to influence many others by their teachings of the best of what they understood before the opening of the seven seals.
*But in these last days, it has been prophesied that we would come to a place of a full and clear understanding of the truth, and that is because of an end time prophetic ministry that God has sent in this day of what He promised that He would send.
John 8:43
43 Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My Word.
Brother Branham comments on this scripture in the Pergamean Church Age (Church Age Book)
Did you notice that Jesus said that the world could not receive the Holy Ghost? Well, in this verse I just read, neither could they receive the Word. Why? Because the Spirit and the Word are one, and if you have the Holy Spirit as the prophets, the Word would come to you. You would receive it.
And then he goes on to say;
If you want Deity in your midst, then welcome and receive the Word. Don't ever let anyone or anything get between you and that Word. This which I am giving you (the Word) is a revelation of Myself. I AM THE WORD. Remember that!"
Remember that he said that the New Birth is the Revelation of Himself to you personally – and that personal revelation can only come to you by the light of the word for your age because that is who He truly is.
*In the Smyrnaean Church age he says”
154-3 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.4
If you are true seed, you will hear that Word; the Spirit will baptize you into the body of Christ, filling you and empowering you, and you will receive the Word for your day and age. See how clear the true evidence becomes when the Word is revealed to you?
…Now we have been constantly saying that the true evidence of being baptized with the Holy Ghost is for the believer to receive the Word for the age in which he lives.
*And so the message of the hour has made this subject very clear to us of what has been the cause of a lot of confusion in the past.
***And so we can now know for sure that the new birth of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is when the Spirit of God initiates you into a new world of a clear understanding of the revelation of the word for your day, just like how your natural birth ushered you into a new world of a journey of discovery of human life.
Last week we spoke of the scripture - I CORINTHIANS 2:11
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
*You need the indwelling spirit of God to be in you first, or you could never receive the word for your age by a clear understand.
143-2 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.4
In every age, (and every age is the age of the Holy Ghost for the true believer)--I say, in every age the evidence was the same. Those who had the Spirit, the Teacher, heard the Word, and that Spirit in them took the Word and taught it (revealed it) to them; and they were of the group that heard the messenger and his message and took it and lived it.
It is nothing less than the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that has caused each and every one of us (by whatever means) to come into contact with the source of the truth for this hour.
And so if you are a believer in the things that God has sent in this generation by the voice of His seventh angel, then it is impossible for you to have received that without the Holy Spirit ordaining you to that place and position – because He doesn’t make mistakes with his elect.
**And so it is not just about having some sort of an experience of stimulation as many have been taught to look for as an evidence in their lives, but the new birth is a quickening of truth in you that causes you to be able to receive the word allotted for your day, and that is because of the seed gene of God that is already dwelling within you, and so it is a stimulation of the revelation, and it is then that you become separated to that truth for the rest of your life – you become set aside by God for His purpose, and you begin to growth up in that new world of the revelation of the hour from an infant to an adult.
***And so firstly, you have already been sanctified by being separated and set aside by being birth into a new world of the revelation of the word, but then there is also an ongoing progressive work of sanctification and cleansing and maturing as you go along like a child growing up – and so you progress along in this new world from a child to an adult.
HEBREWS 10:14 New King James Version
For by one offering He has perfected forever (it is already a finished work by the blood of Christ) those who are being sanctified. Sanctification also applies as an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit as He tutors his child.
**And so it is important that we see how that both of these aspects of truth concerning sanctification apply to our own personal experience and growth in life – and this is why the evidence of our new birth is never in any way connected to our struggles, because we will always have different struggles along our journey of our growth, and all of our life pathways will look a little different, because God will use the many different struggles that we go through as tools in our lives to train us like a father trains his child.
*There was a doctrine propagated by William H. Durham around the 1910’s called the “Doctrine of Sanctification” of which he debates the idea against that sanctification is a once and for all definite work as some of the Pentecostal Holiness were debating that it was… (You can look the entire article up online).
Durham writes:
If one who is taught that the inbred corruption is completely removed is bewildered when sin reappears (in other words, if all the desire of sin is supernaturally removed by God from your complete being at the new birth – then what then happens if you go on latter to fail with some mistake in your life). If the root is eradicated, whence the fruit? Did it somehow return to its former soil? Must it be eradicated again? How many definite works must be wrought until deliverance is "definite"? Durham inquired: Would it not be much simpler and much more scriptural to observe that, whatever the inward condition, the definite fact of the Cross remained, and the inward condition can be rectified when the Christian begins to reckon again? By accepting sanctification as a work which is based on the finished work of Calvary, the believer starts on a high plane of holy living, and can maintain it by abiding in Christ. In this manner, the object of our faith is not in an experience of sanctification (he is speaking in the sense of the ones who believe that Sanctification is a definite one-off work that the believer experiences) but in the Lord Jesus Christ 'who of God is made unto us... sanctification.'"
Although he hasn’t quite got the full understanding of this subject as we understand by the message of this hour – but he was certianly on the right track.
HEBREWS 12:6-7
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (if you never made a mistake, then you would never need correction from the father – and this is why that sanctification is not living in a state of sinless perfection as some have thought, but it’s a journey of growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord)
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
ROMANS 7:21-23
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: (The new birth of the revelation of the word in Paul’s soul was what his inner man delighted in)
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
*And so even though his inner man was reborn into a new world of the revelation of the word for his day, there was still this pressure of what he would struggle with because of this different law residing in his flesh. The bible says that we have the same temptation as to what is common to all men (1st Corinthians 10:13) but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able – and so God is ultimately in control of all that you go through.
140-1 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.4
To further bring out what we have just said, and to also use a Scripture that should be borne in mind as we talk about who it is that is baptized with the Holy Ghost, see what Jesus says in John 6:45,
"It is written in the prophets, And they shall All be taught of God." (This was our opening scripture)
But turn to Isaiah 54:13 whence this is taken and it reads,
"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord."
The ALL of God are the CHILDREN of God. Thus it is that the evidence of being a true child of God, (he whom the Spirit has come upon and in-dwells) is again set forth as one taught the Word by the Holy Ghost.
Now you can begin to see why tongues is not the evidence of being baptized with the Holy Ghost. It doesn't say in any age that "he that hath a tongue let him say what the Spirit is saying." That puts tongues, interpretation thereof, and prophecy, etc. aside as an evidence. The evidence is HEARING what the Spirit says. The Spirit is talking. Yes, the Spirit is teaching. That is exactly what Jesus said He would do when He came.
John 14:26,
"He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you."
So we have just gone through a refresh of what the real genuine evidence of the New Birth (the Baptism of the Holy Ghost) is according to the truth that has been restored to us by the message of this hour.
**If we have received the light of the revelation of the word and continue to walk in agreement with it as it keeps unfolding in this hour (and we do), then it is impossible for you to do that without first having the genuine baptism of the Holy Spirit, because it is only the “Children” who are taught by God.
Last week we read a little history of the Pentecostal Holiness Doctrine and showed how the message teaches different to that.
Pentecostal Holiness Doctrine – history
The testimony of those who attended the Azusa Street Revival was "I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost" in reference to the three (separate) works of grace taught by Holiness Pentecostals, the oldest branch of Pentecostalism. These three (separate) works of grace are explained by Holiness Pentecostals with the teaching that the "Holy Spirit cannot fill an unclean vessel", so the cleansing of the heart that takes place in entire sanctification (like sinless perfection) is necessary before a person can be filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit. (This is what William Durham taught against)
But we know that it is the blood that cleanses us and not our clean living, because the message of the hour does not teach three separated works, but one work that consists of three elements – just like a natural birth.
THE.FUTURE.HOME.OF.THE.HEAVENLY.BRIDEGROOM.AND.THE.EARTHLY.BRIDE_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-5 SUNDAY_ 64-0802
78 How He led us to Himself, to a tabernacle in us, by three stages of grace; just like He's led the world in three stages, to come to the world. As God will come to the world after it's gone through three different stages of purification, that's exactly how He comes to us through three stages of grace. I taught that at the beginning; I've never changed, since. It's God's Word.
So let’s look at what he actually taught about this from the beginning… Because many may think that he is teaching Pentecostal Holiness doctrine of 3 separate works, but he isn’t.
GOD'S.PROVIDED.WAY.OF.HEALING_ CHICAGO.IL MONDAY_ 54-0719A
E-48 ... Now look, so is it in the spiritual birth. The first thing, the things that come out of Jesus' body wa--the elements that came from His body is what makes up the spiritual body. When Jesus died what came from Him--what did come out of His body? Water, Blood, and Spirit. Is that right. Now, that's the things that makes up the supernatural birth. (Notice what he is saying – a natural birth is made up of three elements – Water, Blood and Spirit. If a birth is not made up of these three things, then it is not a full birth – and you cannot spread these things of a birth out over several months or even years of three separate works, they must all be together as three elements of one birth) The... When a man is borned again, he's--three elements that he has to go through: Water, Blood, Spirit: justification by faith, believing on the Lord; sanctification, that life being cleansed up; And the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Not three works of grace, one grace...
**But then we found out that Brother Branham was against the idea that the new birth and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost was one and the same thing, because he had taught for many years that they were two separate experiences – and so this is what had brought confusion to us of whom were students of the message, but then we find out that the Holy Spirit corrected him at the end of his ministry.
This nest quote is where he is teaching that they are two separated experiences of which later on he corrects what he teaches here.
COUNTDOWN_ JEFF.IN V-11 N-3 SUNDAY_ 62-0909M
… And the new birth, as people talks that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is the new birth. Now, that's wrong. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is different from the new birth. The new birth is when you're born again. But the Holy Ghost is when power comes into that birth for service.
And so this is naturally confusing in the light of what he was saying about the three elements that make up the new birth, because he is saying that first you are born again by faith in the word of God, and then you go on at a separate time to receive power for service by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but then the Holy Spirit corrects Him on this after the opening of the seven seals - and he goes on to make that very clear in 1965.
And so if we notice the date that he made this statement here in Countdown, it was on the 9th of September 1962, and then we find that he then carries this idea of the new birth and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as being two separate events on into his teaching of the message of “The Stature of a Perfect Man” of which he preaches on the morning of the 14th of October 1962.
**And so that is why this message used to be so confusing to us for many years – because in this message, he places the Baptism of the Holy Spirit at the end of your growth and maturity, but now we know that that is actually the adoption of a mature son, because you need the Holy Ghost right from the beginning or you would never be able to come grow in the revelation of the word to begin with – and so His concept is right, but he has got his terminology wrong.
THE.STATURE.OF.A.PERFECT.MAN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-18 SUNDAY_ 62-1014M
48-1 See, these fellows wasn't required, what these fellows was. This wasn't required what this was. See, but He brought His church up the same way. He brought His--His church up the same way he's bringing His people up. Then Peter here says first (seven things) faith, virtue (See, coming up), knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love, and brotherly kindness and then the love of God, the Holy Ghost. Christ in the Person of the Holy Ghost comes upon you in the true baptism of the Holy Ghost, and you got all these virtues sealed in you, then God lives in a tabernacle called the building, the living Tabernacle of the living God's dwelling place.
48-2 When a man possesses these kind of things, then the Holy Ghost comes upon him. (Notice how that he is teaching the same things of what he just spoke of in Countdown that you are first born again and then go on at a later stage to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit – and this is what we find that he corrected later and said that they are not separate but the same event)
THE.STATURE.OF.A.PERFECT.MAN_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-18 SUNDAY_ 62-1014M
51-5 …When a man or woman possess this, then the Capstone comes down and seals them into the Kingdom of God which is the Holy Ghost.
**So here he has the same understanding of the new birth and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as being two separate things.
But then at the end of his ministry, the Lord finally corrects him with this, and then he begins to teach us very clearly that.
144-2 SMYRNAEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.4
… to be born of the Spirit is to be truly baptized with the Holy Ghost. It is one and the same.
And so the point we are trying to make with all of this is – that the new birth (by the act of Holy Spirit that quickens us to the word for our age) is what sets us aside and on a journey as new born babes for the purpose that we will grow progressively into the stature of a perfect (a mature) man – a temple for God’s eternal dwelling place. God and man in oneness again.
Like Rebecca’s journey on the road to meet Isaac (on the camel train). It was under the guidance of Eliezer that she was being made ready for her physical meeting with Isaac.
**She had already been set aside as Isaac’s wife, but then there was also a journey that she had to go through.