Identification Truths

All right, well, you should have week six notes. Oh, wait, there's two of them. Week six with the red silk should be the lesson we're going over today. So hopefully you have that one. If you don't, I have extras. And if you haven't picked it up on the way out, we have week six number two, the questions for next week.

Today's lesson will be well with basically, I hope at the end of today, you'll hate self. The purpose of this was to see how ugly self is. That no matter how much we try and fix up the old man, the old man is ugly. And we have several verses we'll go over and kind of show just how wonderful the old man is.

And the problem is today in a lot of teaching is, You need today's, Craig? And then here's next week's. The red self week. Okay, that's next week's. The problem with a lot of the teaching now is Anne Ingrid, when she went over the notes or the sheet, wondering about whatever question it is, Number three, yes, yes.

I put that in there as not a trick question, but what kind of programs are out there? We'll get to that one. But a lot of the teaching right now is how to fix up the old man, how to make it better. The goal of today and what Mike and I have been trying to do for the first several weeks is really the identification with self, the old man, and how permanent that is, how 100% that is, and how there is no way, no possibility to fix up the old man.

And yet, like I said, there's lots of programs, teaching, and things like that to try to do that, but you can't do that. It's inseparable. And just the fact that we kind of go to, you can't be saved in Adam. Adam is dead, crucified. So we want to get to two things. How bad self is in Adam, and then the identification and what that means, because on the bad side with Adam, how complete that is, that identification, which required the crucifixion or the removal of the old Adam. The flip side of that is the good side, which is the same type of identification, but in Christ, and how permanent and how much and how pervasive that is. It is 100%.

So we're kind of going on the bad side, and I think Mike may be starting to dribble out of the bad side next week and get into some of the positive stuff. But we really wanted to try and go over the self, because as I said, a lot of the teaching right now is how to fix up the old man. And that is also, as we'll see a little bit today too, is how, and I brought this up to Mike a long time ago in this book I brought him, and I'll reference a little bit of that today, is, you know, I really had not thought of it, about the tree of good and evil. And we've said it many times, and again, I think that's the real insidious part of the fall, is the good and evil. We know evil, and we can see that, you know, by all the horrible things, but we tend to climb over just to the good side, to do something good. And that is every bit as insidious and fallen as when we do the evil things. And I think all these programs and all the things to fix up the old man, we're just slithering over to the other side of the branch, the good side. And that, I think, is harder to deal with than the evil. I mean, you know, you look at Hitler, you look at the rapist, the murderer, the evil. Oh, we can identify that. Ooh, ugly. Get it out. Ooh.

Every bit as bad as putting yourself in doing things to fix up the old man. And that's just us slithering over to here. We're just every bit as lost as sitting in the bad side. So we're really trying to show a lot of these things and today is self. And that I think self is really a result of climbing over onto the good side to do things. So we're going to look at a few things today on that. So the first thing is, what is the dictionary definition of self?

Did anybody look that up? Anybody? The essential being of one person as distinct from any other. Good. Others? One's own welfare and interests. Good. Others? Funny it's not, I mean those are partially ones that I had. Any other dictionaries? Identity, character, There you go. All right, yeah, I had the ones that I got.

The essential person distinct from all other persons in identity. A particular side of a person's character. And that personal identification. Selfishness. To, for, or toward oneself. Again, the biggest thing, though, on there is the identification. Again, self. Self deals with our identification with who we are. And again, the name of the course, Identification Truths, Identification.

We're identified with self, or in Adam, we're identified. You can't separate us from our old Adam. And the funny part is, well let me ask you, do you think the definition reflects identification with Adam or Christ when you read these definitions? I just kind of thought of that. Adam, you know, it's self, you know, the one that I had, to, for, or towards oneself. You know, it's all pointed at ourself and that's exactly what the old man wants. And, you know, to further that, when I looked up the definition of self, I don't know if any of you looked at the dictionary.

There were 126 hyphenated words with self. I mean, what does Adam do? Everything is towards here. Everything is self. 126 words. I'm sure there's more of them, but that was just the one that I had. 126 self-centered words. or hyphenated words with self.

So again, I think the identification that we see in the dictionary is to the Adam, the old man. It's always looking here. Now, if we're looking here at what Adam is, let's look at some of these verses. Can I get a couple to read these? If you have your Bibles, if somebody has them. We'll look at how beautiful we are in Adam. Somebody wants 2 Timothy 3? What? You got one?

Ephesians 4.22, somebody? Anybody?

Okay, Romans 1.28, somebody want that? Craig? And what else we got?

Romans 3.10, somebody? Somebody else on that? No volunteers. Oh, I get to volunteer my wife.

Yes! For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous toasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truth-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, body, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away." Wow, what a good picture. Don't you want to be just like that? I mean... I see a lot of things that I can glean out of here that can be fixed up and helped, you know? There's just an underlying good root there that You know, I look at this and I try to get some versatile look at even a few more.

You know, this is who we are identified in Adam. I mean, it's not like this isn't us. You know, we think about that, you know, we pull out these hideous and horrible men, you know, Adolf Hitler, you know, whoever the mass murderer of the week is, you know, and it's like, oh, horrible, horrible. we're the same material as that person. And we tend to say, well, no, I live in a middle class house.

I brush my teeth. I go to church. I'm such a good and wonderful person. This is who we are. This is who we are. Look in a mirror, and you can read this to yourself. We may cover it up. We may be not acting this way. But our root in Adam is this. And, you know, as much as we try and fix up, you know, I look through this, what can we fix up in here?

What was the good stock in here? Even that part about having a form of godliness. Yeah. People say, well, I think that's where they get this basically good thing. But what it says about that? Yeah, a form of, you know, which means fake, imitation, you know. listed with all the others. Yeah, James?

Well, that second part of verse 5, and from such people turn away, what's to do with that? Well, I think it's kind of almost guilt by association. You shouldn't, you know, you'll be identified with them. And I think it's really just trying to avoid that.

It's not like, you know, of course Paul and Christ all went to the sinners, the tax, you know, they all went out to save and... I think it is, you'll be drawn in, you'll be associated with, you know, it's just to avoid that. You know, I think if you go, you know, as like a, you know, somebody goes into the prisons, you know, you know, you're associated with, but you have a specific purpose, and you're separate from them, and you're out. But if you're just hanging around with the guys who, you know, are coarse talking, you know, hanging out at the bar, hanging out at, you know, whatever, you know, you're going to be associated with them, the identification again. So that's what the end of the verse really, I think, is saying, is just don't be associated with this.

Because you're going to be drawn in, too. Because, also, your sin nature, which is still there, what does it want? It wants this. This is who it is. If it can act out, you know, or to be who we are. I mean, the famous Mike dog dog, you know, a dog can only bark, you know, it can't be a cat. I mean, this is what it left to yourself. This is what you'll gravitate to in Adam.

So, Ephesians 4.22. That you put off concerning the former manner of life of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful one. Again, good stock, right? Corrupt, lust of deceit. Again, look in the mirror. You may not see that, but in Adam, that's who you are. And corrupt, lust of deceit. No, that's not me. I'm good. I'm good. I'm really good. This isn't me.

This is for those other guys. Now, given the right circumstances and the right responses, you will be just like this in Adam. It's Romans 1, 28 through 31. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to the accursed one, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, their gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, offenders of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.

I'm glad that got better this time, I think. We're looking a little better now. Yeah, it does make you, you know, I'm glad that those first ones were a little tough, but this is a little better. We're looking in the mirror and it's a lot better. You know, I like this one because he gave them over.

He said, you know, I kind of like this, like with Israel, with the king, we want a king, we want a king! And they kept screaming, what did he do? Okay, here's a king. And what did they do? Oh man, their history is rife with, you know, the wonders of having a king for Israel. So, you know, I look at this, and it's kind of where, okay, I'm going to give you over to what you want. And what does he want? Exactly what Adam wants. And this is the result of Adam. This is exactly who we are in Adam.

You can't separate that, and you can't say you're better than that. It didn't say, and for those people who go to church, or those people who walk the little old lady across the street, or for those who provide meals on wheels, or you know, whatever. It didn't have the exceptions in there. It doesn't have the loophole.

This is us in Adam. This is who we are. And you can't separate. That's again the identification. This is who we are in Adam. And that, when we look at it with the sin nature, the two natures, this is what we struggle with. And without Christ, this is the person who doesn't have the regeneration in Christ. This is who they are. No matter what the covering, the slick packaging, this is who they are. This is who we are in Adam. So again, I'm just trying to paint the picture and we'll get to the end of this and you can quote me the verse of where Adam is a beautiful creature that is loving and all this. You know, you're not going to find it.

So, Romans 3.10. This is one of my favorites, yes.

As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. No one who seeks God, all have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. In the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

We've gotten better, right? You know, this one is the, you know, I kind of see this as the final, if you, well, I do expert testimony and they have the closing arguments by the attorneys. This one is kind of the closing argument, I think. How many are righteous? So, does anybody get that exclusion, the loophole out there? Does anybody get the, you know, do not go to jail? You know, card, does anybody avoid being just like this? No, not one. There is an exception clause here. There is no one, and no matter how good you feel, how good you act, none is good and righteous in God's sight, in Adam. And so, you know, their throat is an open grave. you know, I mean, just deceiving.

This is who we are in Adam, inseparably identified in Adam as this. So, you know, I look at this and it's, you know, a couple of other ones, Ephesians 2, 1, you don't have to look, I'll just read them. And you were dead in your trespasses and sin, in which you formerly walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working, the sons of disobedience, and among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath." Another beautiful picture of us in Adam. And the other one, Galatians 5, 19 and 21.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident. So, deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. If we put all those lists together, And we paint a picture of Adam. That knocked down everything that's horrible. And that's who we are.

And I think when you get to it, Paul identifies this when he realizes in Romans 7.24, he says what? O wretched man that I am. He realized who the sinful nature and just doing it in self It can't be fixed. You can't wash yourself, polish yourself, redirect yourself, do anything different in Adam, but do all these things. You can't go to school to fix Adam. You can't be brainwashed to fix Adam. You can't do anything that's going to fix Adam.

Because this is who he is. This is who we are in Adam. Inseparably identified. The identification, you just can't get it off you. That's important. The beautiful side is we have that same identification in Christ. We're going to get to there, but right now I'm getting ugly. Now question three. I didn't want this to be a struggle. List four programs, list scriptural references that will change, fix up the old man, make him acceptable to God.

They're all in Hezekiah. First Hezekiah, isn't it? Yeah. First Hezekiah. 5-1. 5-1. Yeah, okay. Anybody program? None. None. The answer is none. I tried to say, I wasn't tricking you, but I was trying to limit those. If you started to list about five programs, I want to keep it at four. There are no programs. What about the Purpose Driven Life? Is that the one? None. What about Experiencing God by J.I. Packer? None. That's a great one. What about the Prayer of J-Biz? None. Promise Keepers. Promise Keepers? Look at that. Look at how big that program is. Look at what it does.

Is that going to fix up and change Adam? Nothing. Nothing will change Adam. You can't paint him, you can't polish him, you can't do anything. There is no way to improve Adam and we have to get out of that. A colleague of mine always said, when we said excuse me, she said there is no There you go.

The trouble with most of the teaching today is that it goes after fixing up Adam. I kind of, when Mike brought this up, I don't know, a few years ago or something, he said, you know, there are no saved sinners. What do you mean saved? We're saved sinners. No. What happened to Adam? When we... Gone. He's not saved. Adam is crucified. Gone.

We can't fix him up. You can't make the dog meow. You can't make the cat bark. You can't make him change 100% from who he is. So you have got to get rid of Adam. You can't keep him around as far as being in the presence of God for eternity. You can't fix him up and make him look good and have him stand in front of God. He can't.

He's identified with all these things we've looked at. So, you know, as Mike said, if all Christ did was come and pay for our sins, is that good enough? Is it good enough? No. To me it's like the blood of bulls and goats and it covers over. But what happens when you wash that off? You're still ugly underneath. You couldn't stand before God because you're identified in Adam. If you don't get rid of Adam, you're identified with him. So he can't stand in the presence of, face to face with the Lord in Adam.

He's this guy we've been reading about. So, we look at a lot of programs, and I have a couple of quotes. This is from Evan Hopkins. How infinite are the forms in which self appears. Some are occupied with good self. They pride themselves on their excellencies. Others are just as much occupied with bad self. They are forever groaning over their imperfections and struggling with the flesh as if they'd hoped in time to improve it.

What shall we be When shall we be convinced it is so utterly bad that it is beyond all recovery? Our experience upward in the power of God is just is just in proportion to our experience downward in ceasing from self So again, it's cutting off the old and and looking at the new and then miles had a had a quote which I like and I think this is kind of where Mike gets kind of the dog the dog philosophy here and So many dear Christians just keep plotting, erasing through the deadening routine of their multitudinous church activities and duties, expecting that in time, self will change for the better as they grow. But self never changes into anything more, anything but more of the same. Okay? Self never changes into anything more, but more of the same. That which is born of flesh is flesh, John 3, 6.

Sometimes a self is entirely bad, as when it is angry, spiteful, unkind, unjust, untruthful, unloving, catty, which means slightly spiteful. I had to look that one up. I didn't know what it meant, catty. In other cases, a good exterior conceives an evil heart, as when we are proud of our humility, conceited about our Christian service, boastful of our orthodoxy. And over forwardness and obvious conceit at the sound of one's own voice spoils many a prayer meeting. Again, the good and the bad. I mean, we think we're doing good to help Adam. You can't change Adam. He's still going to be Adam. He's still going to be all those things we talked about. And then, this now should be easy for you.

In question number four, does our Adamic nature want to change? and be acceptable to God? Yes and no. Oh! Yes and no. Yes? I think, like you said, grow. We think we're growing and it's our self that's growing, but we think it's spiritual growth, but it's actually the opposite.

And then a lot of times we just don't want to accept that. Yeah, I think, kind of, you think by doing good, you're wanting to change. The old nature does not want to change. The old nature being as perfect as it is. And less of deceit, deceiving. Wants to make you feel like, you know, like he's changing, wanting to change.

What is Romans 3? 10 through 18, no, none. 100% in enmity to God. So the answer is no. I mean, you may think you're fixing up and you may think that Adam wants to do it. That's the fallen man thinking, you know, he's just deceiving you. Let's crawl from this ugly branch and we'll slither over here to the good branch. He's 100% deceitful. He does not want to change. You can't make... Yeah, I mean it's not Adam wanting to change.

You may grow and that's an in Christ in him, yes. The regenerated man acting as your position. Hopefully as you recognize your position, you then will act out or live your life as in him. I kind of struggled like you did with that. Also, knowing the answer was no, but then where do all these programs come from? And most of them come from believers. Yeah, but it's self-generated. So it's where their focus is. So it's the old man trying to influence, or is it the other way around? It's the old man trying to influence. And I think that's where, falsely. And, you know, imitators of God, less of deceit. Satan, I think, has no better trick than to say, okay, let's do something good because that feels good.

You're still in the same tree. You need to be transplanted out of that tree in the tree of life. It doesn't, you know, we tend, and that's what I said, I think most teaching today is, how do you fix up? And those programs are one after another, after another, after another. It's kind of like being in the corporate world. I hate that. I'm glad I have my own company now that I'm out of that. Because what they would do is, this year's program, the paradigm shift, team building, there is one program after another. Similar in the church today, a lot of teaching I think is, being deceived. They are looking to improve Adam. And I think that's why we're going over so much of this now, is our identification. We cannot fix up Adam.

And all these programs are to make you do, feel, do something. And I'm going to get to that. I think one of the questions I have, I'll get down to it, is in the true-false, What do you have to add to this? There's nothing we add. It's the free gift and it goes against Adam. Remember Adam is struggling for life here. Adam is struggling because if we deal with Adam we have to remove him. There's a self-preservation in Adam that wants to keep going.

He'll do everything. Let's climb over here and feel good. I'm still alive. And I'm doing every bit as fallen over here on the good side as I was on the bad side. And so there's always this constant battle. And I think a lot of these programs are just people don't understand this identification. Just the things we're going over right now. is that you can't fix up the old Adam.

And if you look at him, it's to feel good, to memorize this, do this, do this, do that. It's not what, and I've learned this from Mike a lot, he told me this a long time ago and I never thought about it. You go to the scripture to get a relationship. You go to know him. You don't go to learn, I mean you can memorize, I mean, you will do that, but you go to meet Him in the scriptures. It's not to fix yourself up. It's to know Him. And as you know Him, you'll know who you are. Because we're identified with Him. If we know Him, guess what? We know who we are in Him.

So that's, you know, the programs are, if you look at them, and, you know, the Purpose Driven Life has sold 80 gazillion things. Five years from now, are you going to remember that? It's going to be the Volvo driven life. I don't know. Whatever. I don't know. Some weird thing. That was five years ago.

Who remembers it today? Would these programs fail if they were truly of God? Focused on God? Most of these, if you look at all these, what are they focused on? Right here. If you look through these programs, the first thing you do right after about the first five pages in is, who are you looking at? Who are you trying to fix up? You know, and that's, it's wrong, you know?

So, five, read Romans 6.6. Do we have one nature? Is the old man dead? And explain. Do I have to do a mic and raise your hand and chicken? What? Depends on who this we is. Them over there. Is that the believer? We. Yeah, we. Do we.

I. The answer is no, no. No, we do not have one nature. Is the old man dead?

No. What is misquoted a lot of times on Romans 6.6 is that the old man is crucified. He's dead. He's gone. So we only have one nature left. That is not what the verse actually says. for miles in the reckoning that counts when we went through that.

In the first place, the content of Romans 6 has to do with the tyrannical reign of the principle of sin, not its symptoms, symptoms, sins. The problem of sins has been dealt with at the source by the crucifixion of the cross. The King James Version uses the use of destroyed in verse 6 is far too strong for that particular Greek word. In the Greek, it has reference to the enslaving power setting forth the fact that the old man has not been annihilated, but crucified. Its power has been annulled, put down, made without effect. And the actual word is kartegethe, and that Greek word carries the meaning held inoperative, annulled, made without effect, power broken, put down.

Does that say the old man is dead? Yes? No. Chickens. Separated. Yeah, we're separated. Yeah. Do you have something, Craig? Yeah, the, do you remember, do you remember I liked it, the other way that, that, that Miles had put in in the, in the reckoning accounts about the sea captain. Do you remember that one? There is an allegory of a sea captain who, in mid-ocean, is charged with a capital offense, put in chains and replaced by another. As the ship sails on, the chained one seeks to assert his old authority over the crew.

Some of them might be foolish enough to respond, but there is no need, for he has been judicially disposed. It is now simply a matter of acknowledging the new captain and refusing the threats and orders of the condemned one. The death sentence is not yet carried out beyond his being held in the place of death, his power broken, but he will be executed when the ship reaches port. In the meantime, he causes a lot of trouble." You know, I think that was a great analogy, the way the sin nature is.

He's not dead. He's just kind of strapped to the mast. And the captain of your ship is still trying to bark out orders to you. He's still alive. When you walk by, do you listen? Or do you respond to the new captain? He's going to be executed. He's going to be taken out. But he's alive. That's the same thing where the power has been broken, but he's still alive. He's still able to bark out commands. Still able to entice you.

I think that's a great picture of how we have two natures within us. A lot of the teaching now is one nature. In fact, one of the books is Sidetracked in the Wilderness that I gave Mike. We were looking through it and it does a great job of painting the picture of being in Adam and our sinful nature.

But then it gets to the point where it says no. coming to this verse basically and saying, no it's dead. So we only have one nature now. And that's really hard to justify. A lot of things come up, you'll hear them justified by, well you have baggage. You have baggage. You have memories. You have a lot of different things that they go about to justify that, you know, why when the music starts we dance? You know, why do we have anger? Why do we have malice? Why do we still sin? It's real hard to justify that if you're a one nature teaching because why are you doing that if you only have the new regenerated nature?

So they have to go to a lot of contortions to get that. Like I said, a lot of it's memories, it's baggage, it's you just repeating things. If you've done things for so long, it takes you a while to get out of that. They use a lot of that, but you can't justify that.

Call it anything you want, it's still the old nature, isn't it? It's the old nature. I'm still dancing, and it's because the sin nature is still resident. It's restrained, it doesn't have the bondage to me but it's still barking orders and occasionally I listen. I'm not acting who I am now in Christ, I'm still listening to that old guy. He's still there, he's bound but he still has the ability to bark and bark out these things that if I listen or follow the old nature. Otherwise why would he say reckon yourself dead? See, that's a whole other thing. Reckon yourself dead. Well, wait. If he's dead, why do you reckon yourself?

Exactly. That's exactly what he gets to. That's kind of the genius of Satan because some of the stuff you're talking about, memories, babes, that becomes very common to the culture. You just kind of say those things and it becomes part of your thinking. Oh, yeah. I mean, what do we see? Less deceit. Who's the consummate liar and deceiver?

He'll do anything to keep this going. So, yeah, oh yeah, it's just me. I'm not even there anymore. No, anything he can do to keep alive and going. Because he knows, I mean, when we step into eternity, he's not gone. He's gone. Positionally gone. So, you know, he's struggling with anything right now to keep a place in our lives. So, again, the identification with him is not anything to be fixed up, changed, anything like that.

Okay, true or false? Jesus died for your sins, now work hard to please him. False. False. Why is it false? Oh, it's easy to give the false answer, now you have to give the reason. to become safe, we believed. We didn't work. So now all of a sudden, now that we're safe, now we just have to start working for it.

It doesn't make sense. Yeah, you know, and that's the thing that we struggle with and that's why I say all these programs and the programs I think we think are to please him, to do things, you know, and I'll get down to number nine, which is kind of in response to that.

I love this one. This was in that sidetracked in the wilderness. We think we have to be doing something. He had this great quote. This is how we do it as we see it. He's just gone through this analogy of the good tree, the good and evil, and we've been in the bad and we're still nibbling at the bad tree. We're nibbling here over on the good side.

So, this is from John 3.16, and this is for somebody who is still wanting to fix up the old man. Think about trying to do something good.

You know John 3.16?

Everybody know John 3.16? Okay. This is how it reads if you still think you need to work, or you're nibbling on the good side of the tree. Yeah.

John 3.16 reads, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Our minds understand and accept the words, but listen to how the verse is read with the emotions of one who's been nibbling from the accursed tree.

This is John 3.16, somebody nibbling, still on the good side. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever does not sin, lust, or have an evil thought, whoever reads his Bible, always attends church, never yells at the kids, prays, memorizes scripture, does not own a radio, witnesses to neighbors, gives, has spoken in tongues, has had a conversion experience, and is continually pure, will not perish, but have eternal life." That sounds funny, but how many times do we jump on that bandwagon? There are a few of those in there that are kind of near and dear to my heart, I think.

Did John 3.16 say anything like that?

We look at that and I laugh, but I thought, wow, sometimes I kind of read it that way. I got to do something. You don't. It also goes on, eating from the tree, i.e. letting Adam direct or still be captain of the ship after that, will cause us to advocate a very simple teaching that goes like this, you did evil, now do good. Do we do that a lot? You know, you did something stupid.

Now what do you have to do? I've got to do something good to please Him. I've got to do something. What do you have to do? Tithing. Oh, tithing. That would be great. Yeah, that's how you fix it up, right? That's exactly it. Now, I mean, that's the question. Jesus died, now work hard. Do we have to work hard to please Him?

No. False. Okay. my Adamic nature, with help from the Spirit, can be acceptable to God." True? False? False. What I put was, what from Romans 128-31, Romans 3.10-18, and Galatians 5.19-21 is so good that the Spirit will make it acceptable to God? My five minute warning. You know, what can be acceptable out of everything that we read in Romans and Galatians that can be fixed up? What is that one characteristic that can be fixed up by the Spirit that will be acceptable to God in Adam?

Zip. Okay? This one I think is good, number nine. This is the one I think that we have to think about a little bit. Trying to do good is a sign of unbelief in God's standard of acceptance. True? False? True. You know, by trying to do good, you know, we're still in the same tree, different branch, the good branch.

God will still reject us because we have tried in Adam to add to God's standard of acceptance, which is being in Christ. And we have, in essence, committed acts of self-righteousness. It's really hard to put it in that, that if we try to add something, we're kind of slapping God at His standard of acceptance, which is in Christ.

So when we think of all these, what can I do, jump in the program, how can I fix this guy up, does He require any of that? Does He want any of that? No. It's in Him. Oh yeah. When I think of trying to do good and fix things up, He's dealt with it at the cross. It's dealt with. It's done.

Now all we have to do is start realizing who we are, our identification with Christ. How do you know who you are? We're identified with Him. We know who we are by knowing who He is. Because we're identified with Him. That's who we are. Again, the identification part.

10. There are still some redeeming characteristics of the Adamic man that can be fixed up since he was created in the image of God. False. False. False.

You know, again, I think people go on, you know, we're created in God's image. They go back to Genesis. So, you know, I think a lot of the fix-em-up people go, we're created in His image. You know, inherently that was good breeding stock. You know, well, yes, but it fell in Adam. We're separated from that image. We're separated. When Adam fell, we're out of there. You know, the identification was gone with Christ or the image. Separated.

And so, in 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. You know, I didn't say, and part of the old is brought along with us, or, you know, no. It is completely new.

It has to be. There is nothing that we can do in Adam that is acceptable to God. Nothing that is worthy of keeping. So, we are a new creature. Old things passed away. And the last one, yay, we did it with one minute to spare. Our earthly condition has bearing on our heavenly position. True or false? False. False. Our position in heaven is eternal, immutable, and has absolutely, praise God, nothing to do with our actions on earth other than our simple faith to believe in the Lord Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection for our salvation. There is nothing that we have to do, and that is the hardest thing to get into a believer is you don't have to do anything but believe. Believe in Him. Get to know Him. And so you can act as who you are now in Christ.

But there isn't a laundry list, the Ten Commandments. There aren't those things. You know, I think, who's that Judge Roy Moore, the guy in Alabama, wanting to have the Ten Commandments? And I heard one of the commentators, Cal Thomas, I think, said, which I kind of was surprised, he said if he knew, you know, all that big thing and all the Ten Commandments going on and all the stuff and all the Christians wanting to have the Ten Commandments. And I think Cal Thomas, he said, you know, they really knew what the Ten Commandments were and that they'd want to get as far away from that as they could. You know, we don't want the Ten Commandments.

I mean, we don't want law. Not this Tuesday, unfortunately. We discussed that really extensively, because the point was, if we take on the tank pans, and take on all 700 of them, it never happens to be. But see, people don't do that. We only want to take this portion of it. Well, no. It's a package. It's like one pane of glass. It actually becomes a religious artifact, if you want to talk about it.

In Galatians, I mean that is, Galatians is the greatest, you know, if you want, you know, the trial, you know, between grace and law, read Galatians. And grace trumps law. I mean it really shows, you know, under grace we do not want to be under law. But who wants to be under law?

The old man. The old man wants to do something. He wants to, you know, I'm an engineer. I'm an engineer. You know, I want metrics. I want metrics. I'm an engineer. I want to build a square plumb with, you know, specifications and this, you know, and Adam wants the exact same thing he wants because that gives him life. to be able to have you do something, to put up the metrics. He can make you feel, you have to do a little more.

No. The hardest thing to accept is the gift, the free gift that we have. And the only thing we have to do is believe. That's the only thing. And if you're trying to do other, you've got to look at self. Any other questions before we close? If we don't understand Christ and we think we have some control, we have to have some control over our destiny. Christ isn't big enough. Because if we're focused on the self, we don't see how we create Christ.

Yeah, I was talking to Mike about that. It's like the footprints in the sand deal. I've used that little thing. Well, in the rocky times, he carried me. Just in the rocky times, uh-uh. One set of footprints the whole time. It's him the whole time. The other thing that I always kind of look at with that, too, and it's so weird. It's got to be just the deception of Adam.

Many Christians get to that infancy of, which is great, salvation. They believe that God had to deal with their sins and had to take care of that and He died on the cross for us. But now it's up to us to continue on. I'm going, you know, does that make sense? You know, He's so powerful and so good that He died for all of our sins and He brought us into eternal life. Now, go on by yourselves.

You know, you put Him in a box. You say, well, He's good enough to save us. With a little help, I'll throw that little holy water and holy spirit on there occasionally and help you out when I'm not busy, when the Monday night game is not on and I'll take care of you. Why do we put a bot? He's great to save us, but then he's like, we'll put him in a little box here. He can only do so much in our lives. It's just the deception and the sin nature in us that clouds that. Because He's infinite. He's not going to leave us alone. And He loves us and He wants us to rest in Him.

My metric is rest. If it's a lot of work, I've got to think about it. If it's rest, you work from a position of rest in Christ. If it's a lot of work, I've got to think about it. You know, that's my metric, at least, to kind of, you know, see, you know, am I listening to who? Adam or Christ? If I'm at rest and I have that peace that surpasses all understanding, I feel better, whether that's right or wrong, but that's kind of my metric.

So, anyway, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. You have not left us alone. You have given us a gift that is unbelievable in Adam's eyes. You have given us a gift that gives us eternal life, that gives us identification with your Son, and you have blessed us with all spiritual blessings. You have given us a love that surpasses all. Grace, mercy poured upon us.

Father, we are so thankful that you have dealt with Adam. And we just thank you for your plans and your knowledge and just your intimacy with our lives. And Father, we just give you great thanks. And we just pray as we look into your word, we're not looking to do anything but to get to know you and to just see that relationship. So Father, we just commit this time and this day to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.