[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Line Upon Line Ministries Podcast. I am your host, Mark Williams. Light Upon Line is committed to the expository ministry of the Word for the life of the local church. On today's episode we're going to talk about another important element, expository ministry, and that is speaking the truth in love.
We also have another wonderful classic sermon from Brother David Miller, this time on the topic of the doctrine of sanctification. Before we jump into the content today, I want to inform you that we've been doing some more work on the website recently. Over this summer we've added quite a few new sermons from Brother David Miller. So head over to lineuponlineministries.com under the David Miller Resource section under the Sermon Archive and enjoy many new sermons there.
And along with the sermon outlines we've been trying to add to those as well, I'd also continue to ask you if you have any resources from Brother David Miller. Maybe he preached at your church, you have a recording of that sermon, you have pictures or even if you just have a story about Brother David that you'd like to share, we'd love for you to send those our way.
You can email me at lineuponlineministriesmail.com and we would love to receive those. And of course continue to check out our social media and YouTube and other pages for new content that we put out every week.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15 Paul says this rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.
In chapter four of Ephesians, Paul has been explaining the ministry of the Church that God has given the Church, evangelists, apostles, preachers, teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry and in doing ministry, whether preaching or teaching, counseling, one on one discipleship, whatever that might look like.
One of the main elements we need is to speak the truth in love in order that we would reach that goal of growing people into maturity into Christ likeness.
Speaking the truth is clearly referencing the scriptures that we should be teaching the truth of God, that what he has given us in His Word is truth. As John 17:17 says, Sanctify them in the truth. Your Word is truth.
We should be speaking the truth. We should be preaching the Bible, we should be teaching the Bible, we should be counseling the Bible, we should be discipling with the Bible one on one guidance and counseling and and accountability and one on one one anothering.
All of that should be Bible centered which would make it Christ centered When we are speaking the truth, we are speaking God's truth to people. Truth is not, as the world tells us today, a subjective thing.
My truth, your truth, is really meaningless.
It's subjective. It changes. It's wishy washy.
What we need is an objective standard of truth, which is God's Word.
So when we are teaching, when we are preaching, when we are ministering to others, we need God's Word for life.
What people need to hear, what we need to hear for ourselves and what we need to be sharing with others is not our best opinions, our best ideas, or the worlds we need God's Word. Now, as expository preachers and ministers, those who are already committed to this idea, we do a pretty good job of that. We think about that. We think that we need to be sharing God's Word with this person in front of us.
But what Paul does here is provides for us or shows us there is a delicate balance in how we share this truth. He says speaking the truth in love.
And that one's a little more difficult sometimes. What does love, love even mean? Love has become something that is based on how I feel rather than on any concept of truth. But of course, Scripture tells us a different definition of love. Love is an action. It's an act of the will. It's something we do. It's an action verb.
It is first of all rooted in the truth of God's word because we need to understand what love is based on what God's Word says. Love is, in a simple definition, is seeking the godly best for someone else. It is speaking to and, and actions towards them that brings about God's best in their life. It's selfless.
It's considering them, as Philippians 2 tells us, more important than yourself.
So when we speak the truth, we should do so with care and compassion for the people in front of us. There, there has to be that element of love in order to maintain this balance that Paul is calling us to. Here you may have heard something like the most loving thing you can do is speak the truth to somebody. And that's absolutely true.
But how you do it is also important.
Does this person see love now? Sometimes they might not accept it that way.
And that's okay. Especially if you're speaking to an unbeliever who you're, you're trying to share the good news with and you're, you're sharing about sin and salvation. They may not receive that as love, but if you do that from a loving heart that you care for them, that you are that you desire for them, God's good, then that's what Paul is telling us we need to be doing. Some people fall onto the other side. They end up trying to be so loving that they end up not speaking the truth at all.
And we all know these kinds of situations where someone may be in a life dominating sin, something like a homosexual or transgender lifestyle, and, and are just so accepting of them that they don't call out sin for what it is. They think they're being loving by being accepting in that way.
And yet without truth, it's not really love either.
So in order to really be speaking and ministering to people the way that God has called us to, we must hold both of those elements together.
We must be speaking the truth, and it must be done so in love.
Only then will we see God's people grow up into him who is the head into Christ, because that's who Christ is. He is truth and love.
He spoke truth in love. He loved in truth. He maintained that delicate balance perfectly in this life.
And we should aspire to do the very same thing in our ministry towards others. So today, let me encourage you.
If you have been speaking truth, but you've been doing it in an unloving way, repent.
If you've been loving people, accepting people, been compassionate to people, but you haven't been speaking the truth, repent.
Let's be people who are committed to speaking truth in love and loving in truth for the glory of God.
Today's classic sermon from Brother David Miller is on the doctrine of sanctification. In the last episode, we did a sermon from Brother David on the doctrine of justification. And so this is his next sermon in that series talking about not how we have been saved, which was justification, but how we are being saved in sanctification. Enjoy this classic sermon from Brother David and stick around at the end for some closing remarks.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Would you turn please to the New Testament, Book of Romans, chapter 7 and verse 14.
Last night I talked to you about salvation in the past tense.
I have been saved.
Have you been been saved?
I have been justified, full and free as a gift of grace.
I have been cleared of guilt, cleared.
And I have been declared innocent.
And I have been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Glory, glory.
I've been saved.
Tonight I want to talk to you about salvation in the present tense.
I have been delivered from the penalty of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
I've been delivered from the penalty.
But there is a sense in which I Am presently being saved.
I am in the process of being delivered from the power of indwelling sin, Christian life.
Are you being saved, present tense.
Right now, right here.
Being saved, gaining the victory.
Being delivered from the power of indwelling sin.
That is my assignment tonight.
Now, the passage that is before us is my testimony.
It's interesting how you receive these assignments in conferences.
And often you have to depart from your normal pattern of exposition in order to cover the theme that you have been assigned.
Yet nevertheless, I am going to read this passage not so much for the purpose of exposition, but as my personal testimony, beginning at verse 14.
For I know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
For that which I do, I allow not.
For what I would, I do not, but what I hate, that do I.
If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
For I know that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me.
But how to perform that which is good, I find not for the good which I would, I do not, but the evil which I hate, that I do.
If then I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the law of God after the inner man.
But I find 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.
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God.
But with the flesh, the law of sin.
Does that text speak for any of you in this room tonight?
Now I want to do two things.
First, I want you to see the meaning ascribed to sanctification.
And secondly, I want you to see the means for achieving sanctification.
Some have said that sanctification is the pursuit of holiness.
Others have said that sanctification is the outworking of the indwelling spirit of God.
Properly put, sanctification means to set apart unto and for the Lord.
It means to holy fat to be made holy.
Tonight I want us to discuss the theme around two categories.
First, there is what we shall call positional holiness.
Tonight this sinner stands in a position of total, complete holiness in the sight of a just God.
That's my position.
That's who I are.
I'm a saint, and I am looking out across a congregation of saints.
When the Spirit of the living God quickened me, imparted the principle of spiritual life into me, when he granted me repentance with godly sorrow and gave me faith in Christ, his person and his work, when he justified me, he also gave me the absolute holiness of Jesus Christ, His Son.
You remember him, don't you?
Absolutely impeccable, incapable of sin intrinsically and practically.
Holy.
Thrice holy, the angel said. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
God imputed to me not only the righteousness of Christ, but His holiness.
Isn't that an humbling contemplation?
You're not going to have to wait until you die and a hundred years has passed by for us to examine your works to see whether or not you might qualify as a saint.
If you've been justified, you stand in a position of holiness.
It's been given you by grace.
Glory, glory.
But now I want you to see a second category.
I want you to see that salvation in this aspect which we call sanctification, is personal and practical and progressive.
It is something that takes place in you.
It is the mind discerning who God is, who Christ is, what doctrine and duty is.
It is the affections desiring God, desiring Christ, desiring to do the duty which the doctrine implies.
Sanctification is the volition determining to do what the mind has discerned and what the affections desire.
It's personal.
It is what you do in your inward man.
It happens in the heart.
It happens in the soul.
It's what you do in the dark in the chambers of your imagery.
To quote Ezekiel, this is a process.
It is never fully achieved in this lifetime.
It's incomplete.
Eradication of sin.
Mortification of sin can never be perfectly done in this lifetime.
And yet, while it is true that sinless perfection is a heresy, it is also true that sinful imperfection is a heresy as well.
We seek to make progress.
We seek to go onward and upward with the Lord.
But now, having given you this definition of sanctification, I want to share with you a difficulty in achieving this process.
Have you noticed that it's not easy being like Jesus?
Have you noticed that the injunction, be ye perfect, for I am perfect, is not easily accomplished?
Why is it tonight that some of us have been saved for over 40 years, and yet we have made so little progress?
Why is it that our passions do not burn more fervently for the Lord, why is it that we do not know more of his precepts?
Why is it that on our best day, in our finest hour, in our most noble moment, we yet look at the holy law of God and in comparison have to say, I am carnal, sold under sin.
I didn't want to sin.
I had sober spiritual moments when I knew better and I resolved to do better.
And yet, at the end of the day, I had need to repent, to confess my sins.
Why is it that as I address the cream of the crop tonight, I'm preaching to the choir here, My soul, you paid money to come here, make many of you drove for hours to get here. Many of you are from states hundreds of miles from here.
Brothers and sisters from other countries have come to this conference.
I'm addressing the cream of the crop.
And yet you have need to exclaim, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing to will is present with me.
But how to perform that which is good, I find not.
I'll tell you what our problem is.
Our problem is we have an enemy to our spiritual souls.
And that enemy is in us.
That enemy is part and parcel of whom we are.
It's the flesh.
It's the old man, and it's the law of sin.
Not just sin as a principle, but sin as a living, abiding law that is in us.
So that when we would do good, evil is present with us.
Is that not your experience?
You want to see how your flesh will raise itself up in opposition to God, in and to your spiritual sanctification? You just resolve tonight that you're going to get into the Word and you're going to quit piddling.
That you're going to begin to pray more earnestly and fervently. That you're going to seek aggressively to witness the gospel to your friends.
That you're going to learn how to intercede to God. You just resolve to do that, and you start to do that. And you will discover that your flesh will raise itself up and shake its fist in your face and dare you to do it.
He will look you in the eye and say, bring it away.
And you know what?
He's better.
He's more astute. He's more disciplined. And he's more determined often than you and I are.
That makes sanctification difficult.
But while it may be difficult, it is within our grasp.
It is within our reach.
It is not impossible.
So then, do you want us just to sing a song now and go home?
Or are you interested in some means whereby we can overcome the world and the devil and the flesh.
Are you interested?
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Brother David has done a wonderful job of explaining what sanctification is, that it is a progressive work of the Lord in our lives to bring about holiness and Christlikeness.
What he's going to come to next is a list of means by which we can continue to progress, to grow in our sanctification. So I would encourage you have that pen and paper ready to write these things down and begin to practice some of these things in your life.
If this idea of sanctification is new or you just simply want to dig in more, let me encourage you with two books today. Two recommended resources.
The first one is a classic work by Jerry Bridges called the Pursuit of Holiness. If you've not read this book, I recommend it for every Christian. It's so good. It helps us to put in perspective this idea of sanctification and what it looks like in the Christian life to pursue this type of holiness.
And then the second one is related to ministry specifically. It's called Sanctification and Counseling by by Jay Adams.
This is a good book about growing in grace and what sanctification looks like in our life. It's very theological, doctrinally rich, but it also connects us practically not only to how we understand sanctification in ourselves, but how we can help others to grow in sanctification as well.
Now let's get back to Brother David's sermon and the rest of the doctrine of sanctification.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Number one, the Savior.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, I can gain the victory.
I can make spiritual progress.
You know how your justification leads to your sanctification and not vice versa.
Sanctification does not lead to justification, but your justification will lead to your sanctification because you can begin to move meditate on what Christ the Savior has done for you.
You can begin to think, how in this world did he, the spotless, sinless one, be made sin for me?
How was it that he took my sins on himself, and where did he take them?
How is it that they're gone forevermore?
You can begin to think of his sufferings when you are weary and worn.
Think of the Calvary road that Jesus trod and you begin to learn the doctrines of the Cross and the atonement.
And I want to tell you, my friends, that will help you so that if you ever got thrown into the lions den, you could come out unscathed.
If you ever were thrown into the fiery furnace, you wouldn't even have the smell of Smoke on your garments.
And if you ever happen to be in jail at Philippi at midnight, you'll be able to pray and sing praises to him who suffered and died in your stead.
Learn how to think on Jesus.
Gird up the loins of your mind.
Focus your thoughts upon him.
When the enemy comes against you, flee to the cross.
Are y' all getting any of this?
Number two.
The Scriptures.
Sanctify them by thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
Now, a person may know very little about the Scriptures.
A person can be saved and not be able to recite the major historical epochs of the Old Testament Scriptures.
A person might not be able to tell who the 12 Patriarchs of the Old Testament were.
He may have elementary knowledge about the Lord and about salvation.
And yet, if he has some basic knowledge of the Scriptures and the Word of God, the Logos has become the rhema.
If the word on the page has leaped out and found lodging in his intellect and has affected his emotions and his determination has been directed toward these grand truths. And he said, yes, Lord, yes.
Well, that person can make some spiritual progress.
But listen to me.
If you would gain the victory day by day, week by week, month by month, you must saturate your soul with the Word of God.
Sanctification often takes place there.
When you are sitting before an open Bible, reading the precepts and the promises and the principles of Holy Scripture, and they begin to apply themselves to your heart and mind.
And even though the text is not speaking to you directly, yet the Spirit of God makes a secondary application to to you in your circumstances.
That's where sanctification occurs.
Now, listen to me.
I don't mean to be unkind, and I don't mean to be abrasive, but reading a sentence or two, reading a paragraph or so, even on a daily basis, ain't going to get it.
I was saved when I was 16 years old. I lived alone a few weeks later.
From January 1963 until June of that year, I began to be affected by muscular atrophy. Charcot, Marie, tooth type. I went from being the captain on the varsity football team as a sophomore to hardly being able to get up the steps at the school.
I faced the greatest difficulty, the greatest periods of depression that I've ever known even in my adult life.
But I resolved to read the Word of God.
And I read and I read. And ere long the promises became real to me. Ere long the principles and the precepts began to be more clearly understood.
And I began to grow and gain the victory and to experience joy and great gladness in the Lord. If you would make progress, you must avail yourself of of the means of Holy Scripture. There was a period in my life of 10 years when I read the entire Bible through every three months. 16 chapters a day will get you through every three months and give you Sundays off, about an hour a day. I'm all always telling young preachers, they want you to give them some little three step formula for becoming knowledgeable and being an effective preacher. I tell them to read the Bible.
Folks often ask me to suggest a program for Bible reading. I say Genesis chapter one, verse one.
That's an excellent program, place to begin.
That's probably why it's at the front of the book.
And read as far as you can.
And when you come back the next day, well, my suggestion is take up where you left off and read as far as you can and make that a part of your daily regimen. Make that a part of the the wool and warp of your being until your soul has been saturated with the word of God. I tell you, it amazes me that Baptists who speak so often about inerrancy and infallibility never get around to reading the Bible.
Avail yourself of this means the Savior. The Scriptures, now the Spirit first, or pardon me, Second Peter chapter one, verse three says, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, you and I have one in us who is greater than he that is in the world.
He is greater than the flesh.
Learn how to walk in the Spirit, how to yield to the Spirit.
Pray often that the Spirit will carry on the warfare even when you are exhausted.
Is there a struggle in your life tonight?
Does the flesh war against the Spirit?
Does it well, glory.
That's strong evidence that you're among the elect.
I didn't have much struggle before I got saved.
I reveled in my sin.
I enjoyed my sin.
It was when I got saved that the struggle began.
But listen to me.
We've got one who comes to our aid. We're not in this thing on our own. The the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are strong to the pulling down of strongholds in our lives. It's the Spirit of the Living God.
Number four.
Songs, spiritual songs.
How he is grieved and how. How sorrowful God's own heart is when I who know better turn aside and sin against him.
The God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory. By Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
How badly do you want to be sanctified?
Are you willing to know pain?
Are you willing to know disappointment?
Are you willing to go outside the camp and suffer with Christ?
Number next for want of a better word to fit in this alliterative scheme, the supernatural providence.
Now here is a theological question for you. Raise yourself up to your best height and look me right in the eye.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when the temptation to sin is strong, that the opportunity is not present?
Have you?
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when the opportunity to sin is present, that the temptation is not present?
Why is that?
Is that the common course of nature that befalls the sons of men? Or is that our God coming to our aid?
Is that our God in restraining grace, hedging up our way with thorns and making a wall that we cannot find our path and sin against him?
When we have applied all of these means and so many others, we are still shut up to dependent upon the grace of God for sanctification.
For it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
And so we say tonight, oh to grace.
How great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.
Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love say it with me here's my heart O take and seal it, seal it for thy corpse above. Thank you.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: Thank you so much for joining us in this episode of Line Upon Line Ministries Podcast. Be sure to check out our website www. Lineuponlineministries.com for more resources and check out our social media to stay connected with more expository media content.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, or again, if you have any resources from Brother David Miller, please reach out to
[email protected] Also, if you have any prayer requests, we'd love to hear from you and be praying along with you. Thanks again for joining us. God bless you as you continue to study and to minister His Word.
