Identification Truths

What I wanted to try and do to begin with is just for, kind of, did everybody get these Greek things? The Greek cheat sheets? Let me pass these around. There's one that should fit in your Bible, which I like to carry. There's also a big one. I just want to go, if we can get those around and then just take a look at them. I wanted to go over it real quick and just go over verse and kind of show you. how we use the tenses and how, you know, just a quick look at... Excuse me. I'm going to have to get the halls here. I've had the croaky voice this week, so... So if you get around, we'll look at those and just kind of go over the sheet real quick. Once they get around, we will do that. The tenses, and it's really kind of cool if you can get the...

We're looking at, like, Donna's Bible. I think, the Word Study Bible. If you have one like that, or I have programs, Bible Soft, the PC Study Bible, they have, I forget the other one I have on here, the one that Hal uses. Anyway, you can pull up in the Greek and it will parse the word for you, all the words, and it will give you the tense mood and voice of all the verbs.

And that really helps out when you start studying these things. You'll hear Mike and I a lot of times talk about, you know, the heiress tense, the perfect tense, you know, those different tenses. And really, if there's sometimes a real, if there's kind of a troubling passage you don't understand, sometimes it really is helpful to look at how the Greek verbs are parsed. Because you can see if you're involved, you know, if we look, well, let's look at the tenses first, just kind of go through that.

That's a continuous, incomplete action. That means it's still happening. It's still going on, and that's represented. This, I'll go back to so I'm not plagiarizing. This actually was Winnie in our Greek class put together this, and I just retyped it. It's a great little cheat sheet. If you want a quick explanation of how the Greek is parsed, here it is. So present tense, it's a continuous, incomplete action. It keeps on going. That's important if it's still happening.

Is it something that happened in the past or is it still happening right now? The aorist tense, past completed action. That means it was done in the past and it's not happening now. It was an action that was done in the past and it's complete. The perfect tense, it's a past completed action but it has continuing results, present results. Something that happened but it still affects or impacts us. the as perfect tense, the future tense, something that will happen to happen in the future, the imperfect tense.

There wasn't an exact start or finish to a continuous action that's going on. So if you kind of look at the lines on the right right side, you can kind of get a kind of get a visual picture of what that means. Either it's continuous and a continuous action by the line or the box is a is a completed action. When you look at the Greek voice, who is doing the action? So, active.

This becomes real critical in a lot of things because is God doing it or are we doing it? And that's real important because a lot of times a lot of believers struggle trying to do something that the Lord is doing. We're not supposed to be doing it. It's the Lord. He's done it. He's doing it. He's the one who did it. And so the voice is real critical, I think, in a lot of different things because we'll look at it and we're struggling, we're struggling. The Lord's doing that action, not us. Rest. Peace. So an active voice, I am hitting, is the example. So we give examples of each one of them.

The subject produces the action. So if God is the one doing it, He's the subject, He's the one doing it, not us. The middle voice is the one where both the subject and the person are involved in the action. It's kind of the middle voice. Both are part of the action. The passive one, the subject receives the action. And a lot of times that's what is happening. We as the subject in the scripture, we're being acted upon by God. God is working on us. We're not doing anything passive. We're not doing anything. The Lord is doing everything.

And then in the mood, these are real important too, which I think kind of adds that good housekeeping seal, you know, indicative. Statement of fact or reality. It's a fact. No questions asked. 100%. Subjunctive. Statement of uncertainty. Maybe, maybe so, maybe not. Imperative. Statement of command. So again, if he tells us something, it's a command, not a law, but if you're a believer, you should X. A lot of times it's the imperative. It's a statement of purpose or a statement of result.

So, I just want to go through a couple of them. Let me pull this up. I want to look at just a quick couple of verses. Can somebody... Great. Can you read Romans 6, 4 through 8? And I'll just pull a couple of these out to show you what it means. So Romans 6, 4 through 8. If you can all turn there and just look at it.

Got it? Therefore, we have been buried with them to the baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we, too, might walk in the new life. For if we have become united with him in our likeness of death, for him we shall also be in the likeness of the living. Knowing this, that our old self is crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be put away, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is free from sin. So if we have died with Christ, for him we shall also be All right, we'll just look at a couple of them. The we have been buried. That verb is aorist, passive, indicative. Okay?

Because I have the software that tells me that. That's what I saw. Look over Donna's shoulder. She's got it in hers. She's got it actually written. I know. And this is just to help. When we tell you it's an heiress or something like that, you'll know at least what we're talking about. And this is just one that I pulled out. We have been buried. So, it's heiress tense, which what?

It's a past completed action. It's done. We have been buried. Past completed. Passive, okay? Were we involved? No. Passive means we, okay, the subject we, passively, We were acted upon. So God is the one doing the action. And then the indicative. It's a statement of fact. Not a question. We have been buried. So that one group is all three? Yes.

It's a different tense of voice and mood. And sometimes you get the weird part, which always drove me nuts in the Greek, was the participle, which is a verbal noun. So, anyway, it's kind of a weird day. And you're asking an engineer to explain English. That is really tough. English is easy. Oh, man.

No, well, it's really hard to say. That was my biggest fear going into Greek was my lack of English grammatical abilities, you know, because, I mean, you're talking all these things. I have no clue. I mean, you know, pronoun, noun, I mean, yeah, I think I know what those are and the definitions of them are, you know.

Actually, there was. I got a book, and if you ever do that, it really helps you go through that. It's kind of a self-guided thing, so even an engineer can do it, so that helped. The other one, in verse 6, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, knowing this, that the present active, so present tense, what does that mean?

Continuous. You're supposed to keep knowing this. It's not like I knew it in the past and I knew that little fact and that's it. Keep on knowing this. And it's active. So, who's doing that? We are. Knowing this. We are to continually know this. That our old self was crucified. So, again, it's going over, you know, it kind of helps. Knowing. It's not like we knew a fact and then we kind of just know that little fact and we leave it back here. Knowing this, it's continually knowing this. It's a continuous action, and we're the ones doing it. Was crucified with him is an eris passive indicative. Again, past completed action, we have been crucified, past. Passive, it was done on us. Passive, we received the action. An indicative, it's a statement of fact.

No questions asked, no uncertainty. And then the last one is, let me see, the thing I did was, is freed. And verse 7, for he who has died is freed from sin. Again, the is freed is a perfect tense. So what does that mean? So, for he who has died is free from sin.

Okay, it's a perfect tense. Huh? Right. We were freed by the crucifixion and we're continually being freed. So it's a past action that has now continued on. It's the perfect tense. So you know that we're freed from the past action throughout all eternity. We're free. So, and then in passive, who's freeing us? God is. We don't have to work at it. We're being acted upon.

And the indicative is, it's a fact. Don't worry about it. It's a fact. So if you ever get just kind of a quickie review of the tenses and show how you can do it, I mean, it's just real good to look through some of these in Ephesians and a lot of the, in Romans. It's really, really kind of cool to look at some of these parsings Because it gives you a lot better feel for it.

Is God doing it to me or am I supposed to be active? Is it me who is supposed to be doing it or is God working on me? Is it continuing or is it something that happened in the past? It's a fact that it's done. So there are a lot of these things when you look through it. So either get a Bible like Donna's or if you get some of these software programs, it really helps if you want to just increase some of your ability to evaluate some of these verses and how it applies. It's a good tool to have. If Mike and I start spouting off all these tenses, moods, and verses that are tenses, voice, and mood, you'll know what we're talking about. Mike, don't spout them off. Okay, when I spout them off. All right.

Well, what is a good program? I like PC Study Bible. It's from Bible Soft, and they have a ton of different things. You can get the interlinear, the Greek. I mean, I was telling Mike I almost wish If you look around, this is how it comes off. I don't know if you in the back can see. It basically gives you the Greek word. It gives you the parsing, which is the second one. And what you can do is, if I can find this here. Boy, this is really weird. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm sorry. Find my mouse here. Where am I? There we are. So, we're raised up like this. If you get on this, that shows you the parsing.

Third person, singular, heiress, passive, indicative. So, and then if you really get crazy, you can actually, which I, it's beyond my intellectual ability, you can actually, it'll tell you and expand on the tenth. So, it'll tell you 18 different things about the heiress tenth that you, that I, Much simpler.

So it really is good to, you know, it gives you the Greek word and then it actually gives you the English translation and then the, I think it's the, whatever, the Nelson or whatever, the Greek word. So you can actually go in and get what the Greek word is. That's why it takes six months to do three groups.

Yes, it will give you the... Oh, strong's word, that's what it is, the strong's word, yeah. So, it will give you the Greek word and then the definition of it. So, it's a really strong program. If you want to get in depth in some of this, it really helps you out as far as, you know, looking at the Greek, looking at the verses, looking at things. It will tell you everything you want to know and more. So, that program and then... I think I have... Well, I'll figure it out.

Hal uses. He likes it because that actually has the same parsing as we used in the Greek class. This has different symbols, and I think Zodiaty has a different symbol set for the different parsing. So you can, the one that Hal uses is the one that we learned in the Greek class. So that's one he uses. But there are several programs out there. This one's a very good one, and it has just all sorts of stuff.

You can get all the different translations. You know, King James, New American Standard, NIV. You can put them all up. You can do a whole bunch of stuff. So, if you really start to get into the study, these kind of programs are just invaluable. You know, if you're searching for a word, it has concordances. It has everything in it. You know, I was doing some of these topics, and I just pull in a topic, or as we get into High Priest, you just type in the word High Priest. There they all are. It has verse with it, and you can, yeah, it's great. Great program. So, let's go on. I need, Erica in the back, read the verses on the paper, 1 Peter 2, 3, and 5, and then Caroline, 1 Peter 2, 9, and 10. Okay, who is the high priest? And give a verse. And it's not one of these two. Other verses.

Do you know Hebrews 3.1? There you go. Asked and answered.

Hebrews 3.1. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. If you look in Hebrews, there are a bunch of them.

Hebrews 4.14 and 15. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things, as we are, yet without sin. Isn't that, I love that one. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness.

Or 14 and 15. Another one, Hebrews 8, 1 and 2. Now the main point in what has been said is this, we have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man. Hebrews 9, 11 and 14.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood. He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of heifer sprinklings, those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through His eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Again, Christ appeared as the High Priest.

And then the last one, which is the one that always kind of brings up questions. I thought about bringing this up so I wouldn't dodge the question, but Hebrews 5, 7 through 10, or 8 through 10, excuse me, 8 through 10. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered, and having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Alright, now the big question.

What does it mean to be according to the order of Melchizedek? Well, Melchizedek had a mother and a father. So that was like, I knew I wasn't going to bring this one up, but I thought I had to because somebody was going to bring it up. So I decided to be on the offensive rather than the defensive here. Does anybody know about Melchizedek, what that was?

What that represents? Yeah. Got that one. No, it's representing the person. Title. It's basically the title. Yeah, there is, I think, a mention of him in that one. Yeah, you're getting closer. Bingo! He was a king and a priest. That was the only one that was a king and a priest. He was the type of Christ who was a king and a priest. And Melchizedek is the only one that held those two titles. So out of the Order of Melchizedek, it's basically a king and a priest.

So that's where, you know, it says according to the Order of Melchizedek, yeah, and this is out of, I think, Foster. One, it may be applied to the ranks of soldiers, and this is after the Order of Melchizedek, it may be applied to ranks of soldiers to the gradations of office or any rank which men sustain in society. that he was of the same order with Melchizedek was to say that he was of the same rank or stations.

He was like him in the designation to the office. In what respects he was like him, the apostle shows more fully in Hebrews 7. One particular in which there was a striking resemblance which did not exist between Christ and any other high priest was that Melchizedek was both a priest and a king. None of the kings of the Jews were priests, nor were any of the priests ever elevated to the office of king. So that's where Basically, when you see order according to Melchizedek, it's really showing that he is a king and a priest, and that was the only one.

And you read about that in Genesis 14, 18 through 20. There are only two places. He gets mentioned in the New Testament in a few different places, but where it explains it, it's only in two different places, and it's very sparse. In Genesis 14, 17 through 18, Then, after his, and this is Abram's, return from the defeat of Chedorlabor, and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet with him at the valley of Sheba, that is, the king's valley. And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Now, he was a priest of God Most High.

That and Psalms 110.4 are the only references to Melchizedek. But again, in the New Testament, you say, according to, because you can see that in a few different places. That's all we know about him, that he was a king and a priest. Anybody bring that up? You now know, king and a priest. Number two, the believer derives all his or her position and possessions from who?

These are easy now. Christ. What is true about Christ is true about us. If we are identified with Christ, what are we then? Christ a priest. We just said he was a high priest. Therefore, what are we? Priests. You're getting this association, identification down. We got it. All right. So we're priests because we're identified with Christ, and Christ is a priest. What's true about him is true about us. What does it mean that we are a holy priesthood? Now it was in Romans. You were without excuse. That's a command. Yeah, so what does it mean that we're a holy priesthood?

If you look back about three weeks or four weeks ago, I had this identical question, and we answered it. In fact, Craig or Mike asked ahead of time what the priesthood, and we got to it finally. Madly looking through his notes to see which week it was. It was either 22 or 28. I think it was 22, week 22.

So what is a holy priesthood? Well, no, what does it mean to be that we are a holy priesthood? Holy, right? Right. So what do we, yeah. Not really a relationship, it's we are a holy priesthood. We'll get, question five we'll get a little bit more. We'll break it down, so to speak. Set apart, sanctified, set apart. Yeah, we, one, we're unique.

From the verses from 1 Peter 2, all Christians are a holy priesthood. The Apostle speaks here of the generality of Christians and tells them that they are a holy priesthood. They are all select persons, sacred to God, serviceable to others, well endowed with heavenly gifts and graces, and well employed. We don't say that's not a priesthood. Not made for man. Exactly. All Christians are of the holy priesthood. A holy priest. We are a priesthood.

We'll get down to that in a little bit. It's different from the Jewish priest. The Levitical line, it's different. That was a type of the priest to come, which is us. Let's look at number five. What do holy priests do? They enter into the fellowship of each other. What does that mean? So we're transformed, but what do we do as a priest?

Rest, believe. We represent God. Conform to Him. Enter into His sufferings. We become identified by Him. So, we represent Him. We are His ambassador. Exactly. And that's what priests did. They were the liaison between God and man. We are the same. We represent two men, God. We are to represent, we are to be conformed to him. All these things you're saying, but what we do is we represent him. Again, back to Peter.

The holy priesthood must and will offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. The spiritual sacrifices which Christians are to offer are their bodies, souls, affection, prayers, praises, alms, and other duties. were to offer that, the most spiritual sacrifices of the best man are not acceptable to God. But through Jesus Christ, He is the only Great High Priest through whom we and our services can be accepted. Therefore, bring all your oblations to Him, and by Him, present them to Him." So, we bring to God, and we represent God. Oh, the last one? Yeah. What does it mean to be a holy person? They are a select person, sacred to God, serviceable to others, well-endowed with heavenly gifts and graces and well-employed. Yeah.

I mean, how did we get to this position? What did it cost him to get us there? Christ, his son, God's son. We are so important to God, and the plan between God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that he was willing to have his son take on the form of man, die for us. I mean, you know, I keep thinking, if you look in the dictionary, I wish they would have the definition of love is Christ. I mean, we are sacred to him.

We are special. And we'll get into this as we get in, and what that means to us as a royal priesthood, what that means to us in the millennial kingdom and beyond. We are different. This is something that Mike and I have battled a bunch. Where we are in relationship to God, to all other creation, angels, Jews, they were chosen people, but we are Different.

We are identified equal with God minus the deity. We have a position that is unrivaled. It's called grace. It's grace. We have a position that nobody else has. The angels don't even understand it. They don't understand grace. They haven't received grace. They don't understand grace. We're the only ones who have that.

And we battle about that, you know, if they're going to be like, you know, second class citizens in heaven or something, you know, it's like, man. But we hold a position that is unrivaled, what Christ did. And He loved us. And then to have all of our sins put on Him, and the judgment fall upon Christ, so we wouldn't have to.

How special is that? You know, where do we rank? Highest of the highest. It's unbelievable when you think about it. So, sacred. Yeah? I had a question outside when you were talking about faith and representing God and doing a great job. But as believers, you may not be able to do that. Yes. Right. Two man. Yeah, I mean, we're ambassadors for him. That's how, you know, how does God's word get out through us. We're ambassadors for Christ. We represent Him to the world.

Yes, non-believing, right. So, yeah, as opposed to, I mean, we have fellowship, believer to believer. Yeah. Yeah, with hierarchy and, yeah, no. No, we're all equal as priests. There isn't, there's only one high priest. All the rest of us are co-equal. We are a royal priesthood. a priesthood that we'll see as royal. We'll get into the definition of that. And we're all the same.

So there isn't like you have a hierarchy, I don't know, with the Catholics, the Archbishop, and the Bishop, and the sub-bishops. That's because some are more spiritual than others. They pay their dues. Yeah. Which ones do you prefer? I don't know. It's a man-made system. I have no idea. I haven't read the rule book, so I don't know. I don't know. I think you do, the priest. It's probably a wise idea. But it is actually. It's fascinating when you do that.

You know, we now have a direct access, which, you know, from the Catholic perspective and others, where you have to go through a priest, a bishop, a pope, whatever. You know, we have direct access to God now. Remember when we were talking about the veil is rent, you know, and remember one of the things, I mean, we can go before God and say Abba, Father, Papa, Daddy. That's the kind of access we have. We don't have to worry about going through X, Y, Z. Think if you had to go to your own dad and you had to talk to cousin Phil or whatever to get to dad. How personal is that? We go right to God. We have that. The veil is rent. We don't have that hierarchy. In our priesthood, We're all equal. We're all co-equal as priests. Oh, you're getting ahead.

How about we'll read in six, I think we're up to six, we'll read Revelation 5.10.

Did I put spell something wrong? OK. I didn't do a kingdom. Oh, oh, I changed that on my copy. I saw that. But I did this before I printed it. Oopsie. Kingdom. I blew that one. Missing a G there. Kingdom. Kingdom. I thought it changed it before I printed it. Sorry about that. Well, we are kin. Yeah, it's probably it's probably the same kingdom or kin. So we'll get going, we've got only a few more minutes.

Revelation 5, 9, and 10, and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seal, for thou was slain, and it purchased for God with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. So, when the Lord returns during the Millennial Kingdom, we shall reign with Him as kings and priests. So when we return, because it says, and he's made them to be kings and priests or God, and they will reign where? Upon the earth. That's in the millennial kingdom, a thousand years.

Who else has this position? Jews? Gentiles? Believing Jews. But Jews, yeah. Yeah, Jews, no. Gentiles? Angels? Animals? I swear, we had some, there was some dog thing on the other day and it was like... Yeah, dog goes to heaven. I just wanted to erase that from anybody if you're a dog lover.

Okay, so we're the only ones who have that position. And again, kind of going to where we are and how special we are. We're the only ones who have that position. In the Millennial Kingdom, we will reign we will reign royal and priest. So, for that time, we are a royal priesthood.

Revelation 1.6, read that.

And what does that mean for eternity? Somebody got that or you want me? Yes. Forever and ever. Every child of God is therefore a priest because of his relationship to Christ, the high priest, and he will yet reign with Christ for a thousand years when Christ takes his earthly throne, and then throughout eternity we shall be priests. Forever and ever. Priests to him.

Which is, again, just that representation, that sacred position, that love that only we can, that only we have. And that's an amazing thought when you get down to, I mean, again, just how special we are throughout all eternity. Not just now, not just during the millennial kingdom, but forever and ever and ever. We have that position that the angels long to know about. You know, you think of the angels, man, wow, cool. Man, they long to know what we know. They long for that.

They don't understand grace. They don't know it. They've never had grace. We do. That's the principle that we operate under right now. Angels have no clue. They long for what we have. I think we're climbing. That's the spiritual maturity and growth, is to understand what that principle is, what grace is. Each one of these little things, these 34 possessions that we're going, all those grace-based, what we have, I go through that list every once in a while and just look at it.

It's in disbelief, but it's true. It's indicative. It's a statement of fact. That's what's true about us. Really start looking about that and thinking. All those things, our ability, just what we were talking about, that floors me when I think about it. Go to God and say, Daddy, Daddy, I'm hurting today. Daddy, explain this. Papa, man. I'm going through it. Strengthen me. Comfort me. Show me what you want me to learn. That's my prayer. Show me what you want to learn. Really quick. Really quick. I'm tired of this. And usually I get thrown out about eight times as long.

But I mean, you have that ability to do that. Mike, in the meetings that are coming up. Family, you know. Dad, what's... Man, show me. Help me. Strengthen me. Wisdom. You know, we have to learn to work. Oh! Consider it all joy, my brethren. So, you know, we're asking, oh, dear Lord, please show me what to do so I don't fail. Oh, he may...

And, you know, a lot of times you just don't stay working. You just go for it, right? You know, it's what I... You know, he's always working for you're good. Even if we don't understand it, when we walk into the cement wall face first, you know, wow, what was that? Well, did you learn something? Oh, you had to walk into the concrete wall, whatever, you know. I think I've said that song, it's a great verse.

Sometimes he calms the storm and sometimes he calms his son in the storm. So when you say, get me out of this, it may, no, I'll give you peace through that. And that, a lot of times, is more of a lesson than getting us out. Sometimes it calms the storm. Sometimes it calms his son. Or his daughter. He's finding out he's doing the action. Mike and I beat each other up on this. Not beat each other, we agree.

It's the peace and the rest that you have. If you truly start realizing all these things we're talking about, the identification, all these possessions that we have, it doesn't matter what you go through. You can have peace and rest. He's in control. You've been blessed with all spiritual blessings. Do you believe that? In the heavenlies. You're identified with Christ. You're identified with Him. What can the world do to you? We went through that. Can you ever lose that? Can you ever lose that identity? No. Never. So I don't care what the world does to you.

You know one of those verses, who can separate you from the love of God? You know, Prince Pauly's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah You're identified. I'm sorry. After you become a Christian or a believer, no going back. I'm sorry.

You're dead. You're dead in the old man. You're now a new person. Eternal. In Christ. Identified with him. Can't rub it off. Can't wash it off. Can't change it. But that gives us great peace and rest. Through all situations. All times. Everywhere. Anytime. Anywhere.

In the trials, he may remove the trial, but he may not. But you still have the peace. Yet his love hasn't changed. Your dad hasn't stopped loving you in the trials. He hasn't changed. He hasn't done anything different. He's just working on you. And things don't always go well. Well, it goes well for him, not for us. In our eyes. There are a lot of things. I can't wait to see him face to face and figure out what was going on. It may get worse.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, as I told you, Lord, show me what you want quickly and get me out of this. Okay. You know. Yeah, yesterday would have been nice. Exactly. It goes to what you hear a lot in the prayers, in the circumstances. It may be Hal with the leukemia. Maybe it was that he took him home. God knew what was going on. We selfishly help him out and bring him back. We don't want him to go home yet. And he's answering that prayer that way. He could have done it the other way and guess what? loved Hal the same way. Still loved us the same way. Didn't change. Wouldn't change. So... It was not punishment. No, it's not punishment.

You know, there are some things I think the Lord is, you know, work on you. I mean, if you're doing something, you know, continuing in sin and some things, I think, you know, it's like what we're talking about sometimes. And this is a very, very thin line that you have to deal with is, you know, sometimes, you know, when your work is done, you're gone. Sometimes if somebody's just been in sin for a long time, your work is done, you haven't, you know, whenever and the Lord will take you home.

But, you know, there's times when it's child training. You know, that's, I mean, you're, you know, you've told your kid, don't touch that. Okay. Ow! You know, and he'll train you to get you out of that, to make you more conformed to his image. So you have to take those things, the trials and tribulations, is it because it's something I've done in child training or is he just working on some aspect of my life to have a deeper understanding of who he is. So there's lots of things in that that you can get off and you have to just trust that he's in control. I'm not going to get through this. Yes, we will. Okay, quickly, let's go. I'm pretty much out of time now, but we'll get through this real quick.

What is the difference between a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood? First, what is the definition of holy? And they all said... What? Holy. The actual word, when I looked up several of them, hegeos, is sacred, physically, pure, morally, blameless, religiously, ceremonially, consecrated, holy. So we're set apart. Because we're identified with him, we're holy as he is holy. So what is the definition of royal? Kingship, kingly. Basililios is the actual word when I went for royal in some of these verses, and it's kingly.

Okay, so what do priests do? We answer that. What do we do? What? Represent God. So, what's the difference between a holy and a royal priesthood? Bingo. Royal is kingly, reign. What are we going to do through the Millennial Kingdom? Reign. We are kings. We are ruling, reigning with Christ. Holy, we are holy as He is holy. Two different aspects, reigning and our holiness through Him. So two different aspects of the priesthood. It's just like Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a king and a priest, and this was from Lewis Barry Chafer, and I think this is real good. Priesthood is passed through certain well-defined stages or aspects.

The patriarchs were priests over their households. Later to Israel was offered the privilege of becoming a kingdom of priests, Exodus 19, 6. But it was conditional, and Israel failed in its realization of this blessing, and the priesthood was restricted to one tribe or family, the Levites. On a grace basis in which God undertakes through the merit of His Son in the New Testament is introduced the true and final realization of a kingdom of priests. Every saved person in the present age is a priest unto God.

The Old Testament priest is a type of the New Testament priest. This is the key. Israel had a priesthood. The Church is a priesthood. Israel had a priesthood. The Church, us, is a priesthood. to be a priest unto God with the certainty of a kingly reign is a position to which the one who believes on Christ is brought to through the saving grace of God." Again, we are a priesthood. We don't have a priesthood. We are the priesthood.

Okay, and quickly, the last one, easiest question of the day. Are any of the possessions attributed to us when we receive the Lord discussed today or in the past based on our merits or behavior? There's always one in the class. All right, let's close the prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for just this time. In your word, we thank you for who you are. Father, we are so thankful that we are identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are so thankful that we have this intimacy, that we can come to you at any time, any place, anywhere, and just bring up anything that we want. We understand that your answer is not always what we want. Sometimes we don't understand it, but we just rest in the fact that you know the circumstances, and you're doing all things in our lives for our good, so we can behold you more, behold your glory, and just to have that intimate relationship with you. Father, we are so thankful that most of these, it's a passive test where we are being acted upon by you, and it's nothing that we have to do other than believe. So Father, we just give you thanks for your word, which just gives us a great insight into who the Lord Jesus Christ is and our relationship with him. We just commit the rest of our day to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.