Identification Truths

Okay, I'm going to talk about the first atom today. My first question was, why is it important to know something personal about our history in atom? What? Why? Is it important? Is everybody clear on the fact that Well, let's make it simple. How many Adams are there? How many? By Adam I mean how many representative men are there? Two. Who are they? Christ and Adam. So there's two men in history that are the two most important men. The first one is Adam and the second one is Christ.

And the reason is that they are the heads of races. And as we talked about in the first couple of weeks, there are certain principles that God instituted in Genesis that are easily identifiable. And the first principle that's identifiable is that like begets like. And whatever Adam is going to be, he's going to produce offspring that are just like him. Birds beget birds. Dogs beget dogs, right? Roses beget roses. You've never seen a cat bird. Even in Star Wars, those people are phony. There aren't creatures like that. So, God has given us the power to procreate ourselves, but it's limited to us procreating exactly after our own kind. Now that also holds true in the spiritual realm.

When Adam fell, the whole creation fell, and so when Adam produced an offspring, Cain, what was he like? He wasn't like the pre-fall Adam, he was just like his father, Adam. He had a sin nature, he was born dead to God, and he was physically going to die. and all the other attributes which we're going to study. So as I've concentrated the last three or four weeks on, we're focusing on this first atom, what he's like, what his characteristics are before we spend any time on the last atom. Because if you read the material for this week, one of the things that Miles Stanford said was it's really important to understand who Adam is so that you can begin to appreciate who Christ is when we get to him. As a matter of fact, the answer to this question is that we cannot become what we already are in Christ until we know who we were in Adam. To know who we were in Adam, we must discover what Adam was since he is the head of the human race into which we were born.

Now, it's interesting. was able to teach some really young believers this weekend. There's a guy in our Tuesday class, Charm Sherman. Some of you guys know him. Some of you know his wife, Kathy. And he's assembled this basketball team, and they're leaving tomorrow for China for a 17-day tour over there. Most of the guys on the team are Christians, or claim to be Christians.

But I had to really ratchet back my teaching because they wouldn't understand. I mean, they would sit in here and get lost. But this Adamic issue is an issue that's very little talked about in Christianity, but I think is incredibly important, because your identity with Adam, to understand the nature and the condition of life, you have to understand what's inherited from him. And one of the reasons, another reason that it's so important, As you enter into the doctrines of Christianity, the focus is not to try to improve this guy, because you can't change what's already there by nature. Do you see that?

I have a German Shepherd, or a Black Labrador at home. I can't make him a cat, no matter what I do. I can give him a haircut, I can do cosmetic surgery on him, I could put a voice box in him and make him meow. He's still a dog by nature. We're from Adam by nature, and Adam does not change. You know what the proof of that is? The whole Old Testament. All of it. If there's anything the Old Testament proves, it's that Adam won't change. Even if God sets aside most of the Gentile nations works and concentrates solely on the Jewish nation. Just because they were Jews, they were still from Adam. It didn't change.

So if you know your facts concerning your position or condition of the old life in Adam is to possess a vital key to spiritual growth. Understanding who you are in Adam is position. Positionally you are in Adam, is that right? Before you're saved. And so, as we talked about last week, your condition is based solely on your position, right? If you're positioned in Adam, then your condition is going to show forth exactly what you are in your position. Simple enough? Okay. What are the three aspects of our relationship to Adam? Anybody?

Position of sin, our nature of sin, and our personal sins. So we have a position of sin. What does that mean? Remember when we talked about what position is? What's the one word that describes position? Remember? No? Source. Position is source. See that? So we have a source. or a position in sin, sin nature, not sins, the sin nature. Okay with that? That's your position before you're saved. Then, along with that, you get what? You get a nature of sin. So, I'm hoping that this is, it's really pretty simple. If you have a nature of sin, then what are you going to produce? What, can you produce anything other than sins? No. As a believer, if I'm walking in the flesh, is there any moment that I'm not sinning? What do you think?

Is there moments when I'm sort of cruising in the middle? No, it's black and white. Yeah, it's very simple. If you're not walking in the spirit, you're sinning. Because that nature is now functioning. The switch isn't going around. That's right. on Adam or it's on Christ. And if it's on Adam, I don't care. If you haven't cussed in 15 minutes, you're still sinning. If you haven't hated your neighbor in 5 minutes, you're still sinning. Because you're functioning out of that sin nature. And that's all it knows how to do.

I've said this a hundred times. When John was born, and as he grew up a little bit, I didn't have to send him to sinning academy. Why not? That's what he was born. He hit the planet as a sinner. This wonderful life that Jessica is going to bring into the world, hopefully this week, guess what? That little baby comes with sin. That's what he is, or she is. She is. So you don't have to teach kids how to sin. They know how, right? Because it's in nature.

What's that? What if we're doing good things? Let's talk about that. That's a great question. What about good things? Philanthropy. The core question is, can you do something good out of the flesh? Answer no. It depends on your definition of good. Is it good in man's eyes or good in God's eyes? There you go.

How many trees were in the Garden of Eden? Important trees. Two. What were they called? Knowledge of good and evil. And what's the other one called? Light. You know the principle. All men are born in Adam, which means they're in that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? They get saved, and what in their mind are they thinking? Gee, I'm going to walk across out of those evil branches and I'm going to go live in the good ones.

That's what Christianity is. Is it? No chance. Down the tree, across the garden, up in the tree of life. There is no contrast between good and evil in Christ. Why not? It's life, it's life. It's holy, it's righteous, and it's life. So you can do philanthropic works, you can do things that benefit the planet, your neighbors, you can be a boy scout, but it's still from the flesh and it's relatively good based on what the culture says is good and evil. And so they think those are good works. The whole mentality of carnal Christianity is that, good and evil.

And I have to, you know, the theory is that the wall is kind of sticky and I throw enough works up on the wall, by the time I go to be judged, there'll be enough that'll stick that God will accept me. When the issue is, is that the only ones that stick are the ones that the new life of Christ does through me.

As the Lord Jesus said, there's none good but the Father. None. And Romans 3 says, there aren't any good. All have fallen short of the glory of God. See, that's the standard. The glory of God is the standard. It isn't human, good and evil. It's the glory of God. So what is our position of sin? We've discussed it some, but... In Adam we all die. Yeah. We're dead too. Did you get the Psalm 51 quote?

I like that one. In sin did my mother conceive me. I'm glad I never told my mother that. She wouldn't have liked it. So, if our source is sinful, our position is sinful, then we're going to be sinful. Put it this way, we are alive under sin in Adam. Now, how would you describe our sin nature? And this is what the topic is going to be next week, pretty much. How would you describe your sin nature? The key word is propensity. What does that mean? How do you describe your sin nature?

Of course, some of you, this side of the class doesn't have them. Only you guys on the liberal left side have them. You're on the fence. If you're down the middle, you're still thinking it over. How do you describe a sin nature? This word propensity, what's that word mean? Inclination. You have a strong desire within you to sin all the time. You're in enmity with God. And this nature that you have is proactive. It's cranking all the time.

The problem that non-believers have, and I would say young believers have too, is the deception that that sin nature tries to put on you, like doing good works, or getting very busy. If you're really busy, you don't have time to think about being a sinner. Or you pump your body full of chemicals so you forget, because there isn't any rest for that nature. The key is that that sin nature knows nothing but sin, desires nothing but sin, and is proactive about sin.

So, you know, when you look at your kids or look at people in your life, boy, you know, that person is really a major league center, really. More so than the guy standing next to him? No. Same nature. Same nature. You know, I told, on this basketball team I was teaching, the seven foot four center was a Mormon. He understood about two men. And I said to him, I said, do you think that you have, are you better inside than Adolf Hitler? He said, yeah. I said, no, you're not. No, you're not. You're just taller. You're just saying, the sin nature is the sin nature. And some people get the freedom, like Saddam Hussein, to manifest it more, but that's in nature. Saddam Hussein has no difference in mind. Nature is nature.

It's interesting what you said about pumping drugs into your body, trying to make yourself feel good for a while. The same way doing good things is that way you're trying to feel better about yourself. But it's all self-centered. It's all self. It's about me making myself feel better about myself.

But ultimately, when we find out this truth, we look at God. Well, when you begin to discover this truth, then you begin to start to seek for what the answer to it is. Because, wait a minute, I'm stuck here. How am I going to get free of this? If the sin nature won't do anything but sin, how am I ever going to be pleasing to God?

Could you say it struggles to survive? Absolutely it does, especially in a Christian. It wants expression. It wants to express itself. And I think it takes, in terms of spiritual growth in a believer, I think it takes quite a while for the believer to come to the realization that it won't change.

You can't put enough holy water on it. You can't anoint it enough. You can't bless it enough. You can't work enough to get it to change. It will not improve. That takes some time to learn that, don't you think? Ephesians 2, 3, And Adam, we are by nature the children of wrath. In this condition we are natural, fleshly, carnal, separated from God.

1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them.

How many times in your life have you heard, you went up to somebody and somebody new shows up in your sphere of influence and you say, what about that guy? And the answer is, you know, He's almost a Christian, or he's coming along. He might already be a Christian, he's a pretty good guy.

Nonsense. If he's an Adam, he ain't a good guy, trust me. Because that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It's a simple equation. We try to make it something other than it is because we don't like the reality. The sin nature is totally self-centered, so it is totally against God. It has to be.

Do you see that? If you're totally self-centered, you will accommodate God, but it's always about you. Do you see that? If you're doing good works, why are you doing them? For me. Do you see that? You're never doing anything, the sin nature never does anything other than for itself. The sin nature can pray, it can sacrifice, it can love, it can do good works, but it's doing it totally for itself.

Romans 8.5, For those that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. If you come from the flesh, you pay attention to the things of the flesh only, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are after the flesh cannot please God." See that? Can't do it. Okay. So, easy question.

Where do your personal sins come from? They come from the sin nature. It's the practical result of congenital condition as stated in Scripture. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All. You know? I'm sorry, you guys on the right, you're part of that all.

We grew up sinners in practice and we did it by choice. We didn't do it because somebody forced me to do it. And hence we were desperately in need of a Savior. So here comes the Savior. What does a substitutionary death mean? taking the place of something else. Now here's the dilemma from the flesh's side. Here is a race of sinners on the planet, right?

The original was created by God, but he fell and so everybody that comes from him is against God. You know, God looked over the earth and what did he see? The man did nothing but evil continually in his heart. That's all he did. And now God, isn't going to sit still for that, and he's got several issues.

The first issue is, how as a righteous God who's holy, how's he going to deal with the insults to him that every sin does? Do you understand what I mean? The thing about sin is that it falls short. Sin means to miss the mark. But every one of those misses of the mark is an insult to God. So his holiness and his righteousness have been offended.

How's he going to deal with those offenses? Because he set the plan. He told Adam, if you sin, what's going to happen? You get 40 years of hard labor? What do you get? You die. And so, could Adam's death satisfy his own sin? In my case, I would have to be dying about every four seconds. Does Adam's death satisfy his own sins?

Answer, no. Why not? If you come over to my house and my dog bites you in the leg, and you're a human being, my dog's a dog, and you say, I need to be satisfied about your dog biting me in the leg. I say, okay, I'll shoot the dog. Does that satisfy you? You still have been offended, right? you've still been assaulted, and getting rid of the dog doesn't solve the problem. I, as a human being, am going to have to do something to satisfy you, because you're a human being.

God can't be satisfied by a sinner, because God is holy, righteous, and good. And a sinner can't satisfy his sins, can't do it, because of the holiness of God. Do you see that? So Christ comes, the other man, the new representative man, And he's capable of satisfying God. Why? Because he's sinless. He's sinless. What else? What's unique about Christ when he shows up on the planet? No sin nature. What's that? No sin nature. No sin nature. He's sinless. But he's also the God-man. He's 100% God and He's 100% man.

So He can, as my substitute, pay for the penalty of the sins that I and all other men have committed. Now, is this substitutionary work of Christ enough to pay for the sins of just the saved and not my buddy who lives in the White House, who never got saved? Why all the sins? Why do all of them have to be paid for? Because they offended God. God's the issue here. God is the one who's been offended, so all of them have to be paid for. See that? So the substitutionary death of Christ means that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

1 Peter 2.24 who his own self bore our sins in his own body upon the tree having made peace through the blood of his cross unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins Colossians 1.20 and Revelation 1.15 Romans 3.24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to declare His righteousness, capital H, His righteousness, for the remission of sins. Now, in order for God to offer, we'll put it this way, in order for God to come to man in love and to offer redemption, what does He have to do before He can do that? He has to accomplish the satisfaction of His own holiness.

Why does God forgive you your sins? Because you're really sorry for Him? Or you changed your mind? Why does He forgive you? If you go to God and say, you know, I've sinned. Thank you for your forgiveness. Why did He forgive you? We're acceptable. But on what basis does He give you the forgiveness? Just because you asked? What's that? The blood of Christ. That's exactly right.

God forgives you based solely on what his son did. He doesn't do it because you're a nice guy, because, oh gee, I'm really sorry, you know. My son does something and screws up and comes to me and says, Dad, I did this and I'm really sorry and I forgive him, just because he said he was sorry. God does not forgive you because you said you were sorry. The basis on which He forgives you is that that thing you're asking forgiveness for has already been paid for and satisfied Him. Do you see that?

That's why in the Old Testament, what happened to the sins of the Jews? They got covered over, anticipating the work of Christ. Do you see that? Anticipating the work of Christ. If you read that one paragraph, one of the things about the material I gave you is that he makes this statement. It is in this new birth position of the Word that the church languishes. Isn't that an interesting statement? Rightly seeking the salvation of the lost, but inadequately ministering to the growth of the saved.

Now you wonder why we're spending so much time What are we talking about by the way? What one word would describe our association with Adam? What's the name of the course? Identification. Think identification is important? Super important. In Romans 5.12-17, pick out seven ways in which Paul insists on the fact that Adam's act of sin affected his race. I know you had to really study verses this time. How many of you got the seven ways? Did you find all seven of them? Give me the first one. What we're after is how...

Let's just go through the verse. Verse 12. Just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. Okay, what's the first one? What I'm after is that Adam's act of sin affected his race. That was the question. How did his act of sin affect the race that came from him?

Number one. Read the verse. One man's sin entered into the world. Okay. Sin enters into the world through this one man. Notice it isn't sins. It's singular, sin. And in Greek it's got a definite article in front of it. By one man, the sin. What's he talking about here? The sin nature. The sin nature entered into the world. And so what's the second one? So death spread to all men, because all sinned. Because the sin nature came in, all men got the sin nature. So, when did you become a sinner? Did you become a sinner when you were conceived? You become a sinner when Adam sinned, right? Absolutely you did. Okay.

13. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed when there was no law. There's no effect there, right?

14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who was the type of him who was to come. Do you see in that verse the issue of the two men? Here's Adam, and he is the type of the one who is supposed to come. See? In other words, what's a type? A type is an example. Adam is the head, the one who's going to come, who's Christ, is going to be a head.

Okay? There's no issues there, right? Am I right? I'm making it easy. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift of grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. So where is the effect in that verse? For by the transgression of one, the many, or all, died. That's the effect. Adam's act affects the whole race.

16. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from the many transgressions resulting in justification. Where is the act that affects the race there? Judgment. Judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. See that? Fifteen. For if by the transgression of one death reigned through the one, That's number five.

In the word reign there is basilio, which means to dominate as on a throne. So, has death literally reigned from Adam until this time? Absolutely. Know anybody who didn't die? I know you. Much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. Or the effect was condemnation to all men. That's number six in verse 19. For as through one man's disobedience the many were made to become sinners. That's the last one. So as you go through those verses, there are seven things in there which Paul says, Adam's act affected the race.

See that? I think it's critical that we understand this. Like I said last week, we're spending an awful lot of time talking about Adam, sin, bless you, the fallen race, because I think we need to understand clearly our identification with Adam before we enter into our identification with Christ.

Because the principles don't change. What's the difference between sins and sin? Fine, that's an easy question. Sin is an individual act, and sin is your sin nature. Sin nature, that's right. So did God forgive both sins and sin? Did He forgive both the sins and the sin nature? Did He forgive your sin nature? There's no question he forgave the sins, right? Because they were paid for. How about your sin nature? You, the sinner, do you get forgiven? No. How many think you did? How many think you didn't? Cool, we don't have very many chickens today.

So, what did he do about the sinner? What did he do with him? I mean, you think about it. God's a pretty smart character, right? If the sin nature won't change, and it won't improve, then what's it got to do with it? Right? It's got to go. Because if it's enmity against God, and it can't change, then there's no changing. James. It means all. It means all. So the sin nature can't be forgiven. You as a person are forgiven, But the sin nature is not forgiven. Difference, right? Miles says, a forgiven thief is still a thief. No kidding. So what happened?

Romans 8.3, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, what did he do? He condemned sin. Singular, the sin in the flesh. The sin nature has been condemned.

I'm not sure I want to chase that rabbit just yet, because I'm not sure we're there yet. But the believer, sins have been forgiven, actually the sins of the whole world have been forgiven, and so the evangelistic efforts shouldn't be about you asking God to forgive you your sins, right?

If I gave you five bucks, you wouldn't come and ask me for five bucks. What you would do is you would come and thank me for the five bucks, right? If God paid the penalty for all of your sins as a non-believer and you understood that, then you wouldn't ask Him to forgive you, what would you do? You would thank Him for doing it.

Which is what? I believe you did. I'm not asking you to do it, I believe by faith in the person and work of Christ that my sins have been paid for. That's what faith really is. Faith isn't in a promise, faith is in a fact. See that? And if I went to God and said, oh please forgive me, and then I waited for Him to somehow forgive me, I'm on the wrong track. The issue is, did He forgive me or not? Has my sins issue been handled? Answer, yes. What does God want me to do about that? He wants me to believe Him. He wants me to believe Him in the substitutionary death of Christ for me. Is it off track or related?

You talk about people repenting. That's a great question. What does the word repent mean? It means to feel really sorry, right? What does it mean? It just means to have a change of mind. So let's talk about that. If you're a non-believer, and the Holy Spirit comes to you and begins to illuminate you about who you are, condemned your sins and trespasses, and you repent, what are you changing your mind about? You're changing your mind about yourself, about the fact that up until that time did you think you needed a savior?

Probably not. You were okay. You know, most Americans grow up in our culture and think, well, I'm doing enough good things, God will accept me. So repenting, I think repenting is part of it, but it's not a separate part of it. Do you understand what I mean by that? When I repent, God doesn't say to me, you need to repent and then believe. I think believing is part of repenting, because by believing God about sins, you've changed your mind. Does that make sense? Well, yeah, that's right.

I remember the day that the Lord saved me, that I sat with these guys for four hours, and I had a change of mind. What they were telling me, there was no question in my mind it was true, about Christ, about His death for my sins, and about my needing to believe that in order to be saved. There was no question in my mind. I was very clear on the facts. I had changed my mind, but I wasn't saved yet. And that's your question, right?

That people can falsely be led to repent, be baptized, and go through baptism. And not be saved. And not accept. Or believe. Yeah, believe is the issue. Believe is the issue. I've kind of wondered sometimes about that word, accept, too. Because it puts me in a position of, I'm going to accept him, when really the whole thing started because he accepted me. Accepted you on the basis of the work of his son. Yeah. Yeah.

And that baptismal font we have is not going to save you. No. No, getting wet doesn't save you. Or, you know, making a commitment to Christ, does that save you? What saves you? If belief isn't being saved, Belief is being saved. But making a commitment to Christ isn't salvation. How about receiving Jesus into your heart? How about that? Answer no, that doesn't save you either. Because what's the gospel message? It's very simple. Christ died according to the scriptures. He was buried and raised again according to the scriptures. If you believe that, you're saved. That's all. I mean, it's really simple.

He died for me, for my sins personally. Do you see why God has to get rid of the sin nature? Because it always wants to add something. It always wants to have a part. That's right. And then I forget what his other verse is, but it talks about their lack of belief that condemned them.

Yeah. On Thursday night we're studying the Gospel of John, and the overwhelming issues that Jesus is making, not only to the Jews, but also his disciples, is, do you believe me? Do you believe me? Do you believe me? Over and over and over again. And then in 6 he says, they say to him, well what must we do to do the works of God? Right? Now they're looking, who's asking the question? Self. What's the answer? This is the works of God that you believe on Him who God has sent. Uh-oh. James.

Is it important to state the fact that he rose from the dead on the third day? The fact that he rose, because in 1 Corinthians 15, where the gospel is mentioned, it just says that he rose. The fact that he rose is the issue, because that means that God is satisfied with the sacrifice. I think the thief on the cross next to Jesus was the best example of him.

He wasn't baptized, he just simply believed. Yeah. Didn't have time. Well, and you know, we talk about our friend Abraham. Abraham believed God and he was justified. Declared righteous. See? Faith has been the issue from the beginning. Adam was saved. You know why? I think Adam is saved.

Because when God offered him a solution to his sins, which was the skins of animals, Adam initially afforded his own solution, which meant that he went and got a philodendron made a covering for himself. And God came to him and said, that's not good enough. If you want to cover your sins, here's my solution. The skins of an animal. And he accepted him and put him on.

He believed God about God's solution for his sins rather than his own. I think Adam is saved. For that reason alone. No other reason. God offers a non-believer today the person and work of his son. And he says, if you believe me about him, you're saved. Now, I want to make one other point. When were you chosen? Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. So when did you get the call?

I want to read this to you. I don't know if you probably all don't have this. This is called Interior to All. This little couple of paragraphs just blows me away. Now listen to this carefully. He said, Once upon eternity there was but infinite non-existence. Sounds like my brain. No, no atom, A-T-O-M, no universe, no world, nothing, nothing, nothing but God. Have I got you back there?

The eternal triunity of love, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. For thus saith the High and Lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, Isaiah 57. Let your heart, dear friend, be drawn back there and contemplate the beloved Son eternally in the bosom of the loving Father, receiving and reciprocating that divine love in all of its unutterable purity and ardor in the spirit of love. Back there in eternity, before anything had been brought into being, environed in the pure essence of divine life, light, and love, in the mind of the Father, heart of the Son, and the hands of the Spirit, by and for His love, God conceived you, thought of in eternity past, brought forth in time, for eternity future, forever loved.

That's who you are. You like that? That's pretty cool, isn't it? Do you think you're important? So, when the Word of God says that God knew you before the foundations of eternity, He conceived you then, in His mind. The certainty of who you are was predetermined then. And He loved you then. Now, He brought you forth and identified you and me with Adam in the race. And at some point in our life, saved us. But he saved us to what he already conceived us to be. James.

Well, if you're asking a time question in an eternal I don't know if there's an answer to that. Courtney and I have had this discussion with a finite mind trying to figure out how could God know us from all eternity. The answer I came up with was this.

Adam is a finite man. and had a beginning roughly 10,000 years ago. He didn't exist before then and he goes on into eternity and he lives forever. When you and I believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus and through identification we get moved out of Adam and placed into Christ, when did Christ begin? He's the eternal man, right?

So God can say, I've known you in my son from all eternity. Can't he say that? That's exactly right. So he looks at you and me and he says, I've always known you in my son. Always. Isn't that cool? I think that's very cool. It doesn't. That's the point. It doesn't relate to them. God will not say about a non-believer, I've known you in my son. What he says about a non-believer is, I know you in Adam. And you've got a problem being in Adam, being identified with Adam, because you come from his race. Do you see that? In Adam, all die. In Christ, all are alive.

So right where you're saying that, That's the point that we become chosen? If you want to draw a timeline, it was in eternity past. I was chosen somewhere before that. Christ was there and whatever brought me to the point where I entered into Christ, that's where I'm chosen at that point. No, no, you were chosen. My explanation was trying to describe how God could know me from all eternity. The point is that God specifically knew me before he ever created anything.

I was in the Father's mind, and if God the Father thinks about something, it's reality. That's kind of a weird thing to say, isn't it? If God the Father thinks about something. God thinks all thoughts all the time right now. He doesn't think sequentially like we do.

All knowledge is functioning in him all the time. To me that's an overwhelming comfort. The security in a viewpoint like that just blows me away. It's all in the identification with Him. It's in Him. The timeline starts in Him. Because God has known Christ for all eternity. Once we're in and identified with Him, we are known for all eternity. And it's that point of being in Him is when everything changes. And again, that is my finite mind trying to put my arms around an eternal concept. For knowledge is personal knowledge, it isn't knowing what's going to happen.

Do you think God talks to us like that, whatever you want to call it, so we'll understand? Oh, absolutely he does. One of the reasons that our being in Christ is so important to us is so that he can talk to us. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they're nonsense to him. But he's revealed them to me. He says so in 1 Corinthians. Mind is never entering into the mind of man, nor has he conceived the things that God has prepared for those who love him. Right? What's the next verse? But God has revealed them unto us. It's not a mystery.

His desire is for us to live moment by moment in what was described here as Beloved Son, living in the bosom of the loving Father, receiving and reciprocating that divine love in all of its unutterable purity and ardor in the spirit of love. That's where He wants us. Living and experiencing all the time. Because in eternity, that's where we're going to be.

That is very cool. That's a lot cooler than heaven. We've got to close. Dear Father, how we thank you. Boy, what a position you've placed us in, and what a position you've rescued us from. And we thank you, Father, and we thank you for your dear son. We pray in his precious name. Amen.