In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of obedience to the teachings of God. He refers to Romans 6:3-4, where baptism is seen as a symbolic representation of being buried with Christ and rising to new life. The speaker also discusses the pivotal role of the incarnate Son, Jesus, in the accomplishment of redemption. He mentions the concept of sanctification and how it is connected to the actions of God the Father and the working of regeneration and renewal. The sermon concludes by highlighting the need to be subjected to the actions of God in order to serve Him and obey His teachings.

Let us pray. Yes, we are from our own facility, own facility. If we view the events, deaths, from the standpoint of the Finnish historical, the past historical, it needs no argument. Our activity was not enlisted in the death, nor in the virtue which accrued from our own death. The people were united to Christ in these events, in the mysterious weakening of God, but they contributed nothing to the accomplishment or efficacy of these events. On the other hand, if we view these events in the death and resurrection of Christ, as they actually and practically take effect in the person's concern, here again, human agency cannot be conceived of as enlisted in that which effects the definitive breach of the power and defilement of sin. We cannot think of human agency as enlisted in that which effects our death. It is true that when we become actual partakers of what Christ has wrought, we are not passive because we are not the actual partakers apart from repentance and faith, which are activities on our part. But even here, faith cannot be construed as the agency of death to sin and life unto holiness. It cannot be construed as the agency effecting this death to sin. For this radical change is something that accrues from union with Christ. And union with Christ is effected in God's effectual call. And in that effectual call, God the Father is specifically the agent. He calls effectually into the fellowship of His Son, 1 Corinthians 1.9. And this call cannot be defined in terms of our agency, not even in terms of our response in faith and repentance. Furthermore, the very language that is used in connection with this subject as it pertains to death, the very language that is used in reference to death is the language of Tate Romans 7, wherefore brethren, ye also have been put to death to the Lord through the body of Christ. Or as referring to that subject which is paramount in this war, wherefore my brethren, ye also have been put to death. Authorized persons misleading at that point, ye are to death. But sin to be put to death to the law is to be put to death to sin because the strength of sin is the law. 17 and 18, Paul says, Thanks be to God that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching unto which ye were committed, and having been delivered from sin, ye were bowed over to the house. The very language that Paul points to, ye were bowed over to righteousness. Three clauses, three and four, As many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Baptized into his death. Now the significance of baptism is used to say, Therefore we were buried with him. Baptism does not denote an action of our own. That is, it doesn't denote an action of those who are the beneficiaries of it. We may consent to be baptized, but we don't baptize ourselves. And we are working on that. Paul says, Romans 6, 6, Our old man has been crucified. The very same emphasis. In other persons, initiated and developed by the apostles. Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, God who is with the Colossians. So plainly in this teaching, we are represented as subjected to some action. And it is as a result of these actions, we do not serve sin. We come to obey from the heart, the form of teaching and subjected to action. Now there is other evidence. Paul and Peter must refer to the initial definitive sanctification, because it is what Paul calls, there again it is bearing upon the same. At the inception, there is not only the factual call, but also regeneration. 1 John 1, 13, John 3, 3-8, 1 John 3, 9, 4, 7, verses 1, 4, and 18. In coordination with regeneration and justification, coordination, regeneration, as referring to the decisive purification. This sanctification is called the circumcision of the heart. And it is by the spirit, newness of the service to God. In principle, we are free from the law of sin and death. The spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Romans 8, 2, authoritative criticism, altogether in accord with the emphasis placed upon definitive sanctification. The agency, continuous indwelling of the Holy Spirit, should occupy so much prominence in connection with it. It is no doubt this that accounts for the name by which believers are identified, namely, saints. The conclusions derived from the agency of all three persons of the Godhead, so much conclusions derived from the agency of all three persons of the Godhead, is brought to bear upon that decisive breach to which the New Testament applies the term, which the New Testament attaches the term, sanctification. Each person performs that which is appropriate to his distinct agency in the economy of redemption. I represent it as dying to sin, as rising to newness of life. It is as we should expect the action of the incarnate Son, that is specifically imbued with the action of the incarnate Son. Significance that does the action of the incarnate Son is pivotal in the accomplishment of redemption in general. The action of the incarnate Son is pivotal in the accomplishment of redemption. More comprehensively, the incarnate Son should also be pivotal with the very subject to which we are now dealing. It is God the Father who calls you factually, with Juhanine terminology, who donates man to the Son in the factual operations of his grace, and of course, that action of God the Father is representative, bringing those called into that relationship with God, which will ensure the efficacy of Christ's death, and the washing of regeneration and renewal All that is by way of eminence the action of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration and renewal. Thus there is cooperation of all the persons in that radical kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's love. But even in those actions, in those actions, which are preeminently and specifically those of one person, eminently and specifically, there is no explosion of the agency of the other person. These considerations, therefore, all point that in initial sense, that while in this, the people of God underwent a newness of life, a change itself was brought, brought by the actions of God alone. Emphasis falls on the human perseverance of the actions, so that there is a convergence of human perseverance. Every angle, the Jew, the Asian, converges upon that beast, the God. Now, that is the conflict. If we take that into account, a great deal of erroneous sense of the traditional nature of the action has come to be. Now, first of all then, the standpoint of the agency. And I shall start, this is the first in the order of our New Testament books. John 17, 17. In Jesus' intercessory prayer, you remember, he said, sanctify them in the truth, thy words in the truth, or by the truth, thy words. Now, of course, we would quite naturally think of that as referring to progressive sanctification. We demonstrate that, because we might naturally, we might easily hesitate to apply this in view of what Jesus said, For their sakes I sanctify myself, in order that they also, by the truth. John 17, 19. Sanctify them in thy truth, thy words in truth. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified by the truth. Jesus said himself, he is referring to or dedicates the doing of the Father. However, that does not appear to be his need. He says, for this he is of the purpose for which the Father sent him in the eve of Calvary. And if he were referring to his once for all consecration, once for all consecration to the doing of the Father's will, when he came into the world, or at least, I think we shall have to, that he is referring to the continuous consecrating of himself, the continuous consecration to the Father's will. And since Jesus had learned obedience, there was progression, progression in the intensity and the resolution of commitment to the Father's will, as the demand of his commitment became more expecting. His undersanctification was continuously sanctified. It doesn't have precisely the same meaning as it applies to him. And sanctification doesn't have precisely the same as it applies to him. But there was continuous action in Jesus' consecration of himself. Continuous action. There is every reason to apply the same kind of progression for the disciples, the same kind of progressions in that sanctification of which the faith has taken us, referring to progressive sanctification. Their confirmation of that is John 15.3. Or in John 15.3, the disciples, that is more definitive, when he said, when he said that they were clean, were clean through the word which he had spoken. But now he is praying for something that must be added to that initial purification, lamented. Now, what is the main point of this prayer? To the Father. To God the Father. And consequently, according to the witness of Jesus himself, according to the witness of Jesus himself, the Father is the agent of sanctification in the realm of the truth or by the mediacy of the truth. But again, in this very same gospel, in truth, appears in the teaching of Jesus with reference to the figure of the vine and the branches. In John 15, it is with reference to the Father that Jesus said, every branch that encourages it, that it may bring forth more. More. Now, the progression is obvious for more truth. Because the Father is the vine. Again, we have this because of what is the preponderance, the preponderance of teaching of the truth. God the Father is the specific agent in calling. He is the specific agent in justification. He is the specific agent in... But His agency is not with that which is. It is therefore continuously active in that which has conformity to the image of His Son born among many brethren. Now, this is not only witnessed to by God, by Jesus. You find it also elsewhere in the Testament. I must stop at that point. I would like to be able to give you a test on definitive sanctification. I hate to sacrifice a whole hour. I lost an hour at the beginning of the year, you know.