Identification Truths
Mike Doyle · Dec 11, 2005
Identification (2005-06), No. 11
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826233924442

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, I think we've gotten to question 12. We're in John 17. We're going through the Lord's prayer to his Father, and at this point we're moving towards the end of it a little bit. I think it's so instructive for us as growing believers to be able to understand to some degree, exactly what he's saying. We're privileged to be able to look over his shoulder and to listen to him as he prays. And I think it's really, really instructive for us to have some sort of an understanding about exactly what he's saying and the relevance it has to us as believers.

So question 12 is, what is the highest blessing God can bestow on us? We're still working on two weeks ago's questions. We haven't even gotten to questions for week ten. This is week nine. So what's the highest blessing God could bestow on us? What do you think? Give you a Mercedes? His glory? Forgiveness? That's it. To have union with him. Think about that. That God gave us of himself. So the issue ceases to be what he can do for us and becomes what he's done to us. He's given of himself. It is union with himself that's more than anything else.

Union with God in Christ is more than all the grace more than all the glory because all grace in time and all glory in eternity will flow from this union. You see that? It's union first and then from that union comes the glory. We could not, we've talked about this in the last few weeks, we will be the vehicles along with the Lord Jesus with which God manifests his glory to all of his creation for the rest of eternity. we could not be the manifestors of that glory if we weren't united to Him, if we weren't in union with Him.

You see that? Because this is not the kind of thing, this is not a dualistic issue. Do you know what I mean by dualistic? We're in a dualistic classroom right now. I'm sitting here, and you're you, and you're you, and you and me, there's two of us. Union with Christ is a oneness in which there is no There's two in terms of life and manifestation of glory. There's two in terms of personhood, but not in terms of life.

OK? You see that? Does that make any sense to you? Hi, how are you? So, do you understand what I'm talking about here? OK. So, if we are in Christ then, we are related one to another in Him. Is this closer and more lasting than earthly relationships? What do you think? No? Yes? Maybe?

Absolutely it is. Absolutely it is. And the reason it is, is the reason I just gave. Even though, like my son John is our offspring, he's not and doesn't share my life. He's got his own life. You see that? We share the very life of Christ by being in union with him. So our closeness to him is greater than even our family, because we share the same life. Does that make sense? I know as we have lived on this planet, we're all human beings, but we're all these little units with individual human life kind of going around like this. in eternity or in our position in Christ, we're separate persons but have the same life.

Do you see that? Are you getting that or is that going over your heads? There are two great agencies mentioned in the Gospel of John whose testimony and witness in the earth are the result of the conversion or the conviction of all mankind. Now the question I'm asking here is, who are the two agencies that God uses to convince or convert the world? Who are they? Christ and believers. You get 50%. Truth. The first one is the Holy Spirit.

In John 16.8, He and He, when He has come, He will convict or convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer behold Me. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. So the Holy Spirit is one of the two. Who's the other one? Believers. 1721, and they may all be one, even as thou, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send me."

Do you see that? So, that means we ought to start next week with a class on how to get this done. I'm going to have a training class on how we can convince the world that God sent His Son just because you guys have got all the stuff straight. How does this happen?

The Holy Spirit does it in us too. He makes us ready. Yeah, that's exactly right. The believer, because we have the same life as Christ, And as the Spirit works to conform us to the image of Christ and that life is manifested, it convicts the world or convinces the world that the Father sent the Son. And the reason that it does is because there wouldn't have been that sort of conviction or observation without it. In the same theme I've gotten in answer to some of the questions maybe we'll get to today, this comes out of 1 Corinthians chapter 3, that we are the epistles of Christ for all men to read. See that?

Well, what does that mean? You walk around with one of those billboards on your back? Or like the guy down at the Rockies game with the megaphone? How many of you have ever seen how you walk out of the Rockies game and he's standing by the by the post there on the little podium with a megaphone telling everybody who went to the baseball game they're going to go to hell because they did. Is that what it is?

It's the life. It's just in the going who you are and the way you live your life convinces the world that the father sent his son. You wouldn't think that that would do it but that's what he says. Yes? The reference was 1721, John 1721. The Bible that the world reads is the character of the Christian. Does that make sense? The Bible that the world reads is the character of the believer, the life of Christ that comes out of him.

Boy, we are moving fast today. Okay, over to the next section of questions in week 10. And these have to do with verse 22 through 26. Everybody on the page? Question number one. What would you say is the source and spring from which all blessings flow to us? I'm on the same theme. I probably should have defined this question a little closer. By source I meant, how do we get into the stream? By the Lord Jesus, but in context of what we're studying, here's the answer I came up with.

Our union with God, I'm sorry, our union with Christ in God's everlasting purpose, because all believers have union with Him, is the source of all blessing which has been, or is, or shall ever be bestowed upon us. The point is this, is that God does not bless you outside of Christ. Do you see that? Ephesians says, I've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. There's no blessing outside of Christ. That doesn't mean He doesn't let the sun rise on the righteous and unrighteous alike, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about our union and the glory of God to be revealed in us and through us.

Do you see that? All blessing is because you have union with Him. because you're identified with him. Are you alright with that, or are you struggling with that? Okay. What has Christ bestowed upon us that was given him by the Father? According to, I think it's verse 22. Okay, just as a review, what is that? What is glory? What's that? The sum total of all of God's intrinsic values. is essence. Think about that.

In verse 22, the Lord Jesus says to the Father, the glory that you have given me, I'm giving them. I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. So, if you look back up in verse 5, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thy own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." And when we discussed that, we talked about the fact that the Lord Jesus as a man had yet to be glorified, or the sum total of God's intrinsic attributes manifested in and through Him, because that's the way they set it up, until the work was finished. And He was crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, and then He was glorified. Now, so here is the glory of God being manifested through a man, the man Jesus Christ. So, if we could go down the hall and peek into eternity right now, we would see a man sitting on the throne of God manifesting the glory of God. So, that being true, in verse 22, the Lord Jesus says, and the glory which thou gave me, I have given them." Not, I'm going to give it to them. I gave it to them. This is Aorist tense. They already have it.

So, you hear me say this a lot, and trust me, I don't know what it's going to look like, but in the Millennial Kingdom, when we're ruling and reigning with Christ, all other creatures will be able to look at each one of you and say, oh, there's a Son of God. just by looking at you, because the glory of God will be manifested through you. They'll be able to see, and they'll know because you will be the same glory that comes out of Christ will come out of you. You think about God including you in a plan like that, you can't really take it all in. We have this concept that we're going to be in heaven someday and everything's going to be cool.

But God is talking about sharing His very essence, except for His deity, with you and me. That's what Christ is praying for. That's why we're studying what we call identification. Identification is union. And union doesn't mean we all belong to the same fraternity. It means we share life. And that life, because it's the life of Christ, it's glorious. Guess what? You don't miss any of the parts of it. You don't get 50% because you're five rows back. You get it all.

I've had you in mind when I was saying that. So every believer in Christ Jesus is united to God as closely and as blessedly as possible for the creature to enjoy. And that's true positionally of everybody in this room right now. Right now. Not when you go to be with the Lord. That's true right now. So, is there something beyond glory? What do you think? Yeah, that's exactly right. I'm going to read a paragraph from this Rutherford I've been reading. This guy's amazing.

We have been in the habit of regarding glory as the end and the ultimate climax of all that the grace and love of God can do for us, or cause us to attain unto. If such has been our idea, we are altogether wrong, this guy says. Here we are taught that there is something beyond glory, even union with the God of glory. and that the glory given to Christ has been given by Christ to his people as a means and a qualification for the realization, the enjoyment and the manifestation of union with the Father." Isn't that some statement?

So if we could walk around for just half a day with our minds in union with God the Father, what a difference it would make. Just an hour. Or one minute. What a difference. I would call up Courtney and she wouldn't be teasing me. It's amazing when you think about how we struggle with sin and we do all these other things. as we're growing spiritually. Yet here is the Lord Jesus, even before He goes to the cross, talking about what God has in mind for you and me. And if the Lord Jesus talks about it and asks the Father about it, do you think there's any chance it isn't going to happen?

No chance at all. And now it's a reality. And next week or the week after when we get back to studying Romans 6, we're going to see specifically how God did it. How he did it. So he just didn't proclaim it, he actually went through a mechanical process to put us into Christ. So what then is the glory that he's given us? What is it?

The first verse I wanted to talk about was Philippians 2.6-8 because we want to talk about who the Lord Jesus is before this glory thing starts.

Who, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God to be a thing to be grasped, but emptying himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Now here's the second person of the Trinity who becomes a man and he willingly sets aside all that he is as God in terms of glory. And he purposely humbles himself because it's the Father's will that he do it. And he's found as a man. Was there anything appealing physically about the Lord Jesus, I was struck.

Remember the thing that was read last week from Isaiah that talked about his appearance, that there wasn't anything about him that would appeal to a man. He would be totally nondescript. You'd walk by him in the street and never take a second look at him. That's not what we have drawn for us. Really? The only one that maybe had come closest would be in the Byzantine period, which had nothing attractive about anyone that they drew during that period.

Otherwise, we always had him as the Robert Redford type. Sure. Almost with blonde hair. Yeah, blonde hair. And so, not to speak irreverently, but I've said, you know, well, if you saw the Lord Jesus today when he was, you know, Philippians 2, 6 or 8, what would he look like? Well, he'd be a little short Jewish guy about this high. wearing a robe and with a beard and sandals and he'd go through the crowd and nobody would notice him. Unless he said something. Then they'd notice him.

So, all the fruit of the infinite sacrifice which was satisfied the justice and glorified the law and commended the love of God. In Romans 5.8 it says, But God demonstrated his love towards us that while we were yet sinners, this one who set himself aside like that died for us. Christ died for us. So, when you start talking about the glory he's given us, all the commendation of the love of God for him to die for us is part of the glory that's been given to us, which translates into this sacrificial demeanor that believers have. It comes with Christ.

All the fruits of his conquest of death and hell and the world and the flesh. We have all of that glory too, meaning that we have positionally been separated from death, from hell, from condemnation from the world and from the flesh, positionally. That's a glorious thing. You already have that. All the fruits of his exaltation at the right hand of the majesty in heavens. You already got that. All the glory redounding from this He has given to us.

There's an interesting verse in Romans 8.29 that we talk about a lot here, that for whom He did foreknow, He also predestinated to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Well, this conformity to His image from a conditional standpoint, what does that mean? Does that mean you're going to end up being a little short Jewish guy this high? What does it mean? What does it mean to be conformed to the image of Christ? What do you think? Character. Character. That who he is and the manifestation of his very personhood is what will manifest through you.

That this process, maybe I'll say it this way, this glory that the Lord Jesus has said to the Father, I've given them. And when you study what that is, and then you realize that all of that is positional truth, right? But that the Holy Spirit has taken it upon Himself while we're still here to begin the process of accomplishing in and through the believer that very glory. That's what He's doing now.

We always thought that conformity to the image of Christ meant that we were going to be better than we were last week. Well, it's not better. It's the manifestation of who you are in Christ, this union that you have with God. Do you see that? And He does it by what? Making life tough for you? How does He do it? He does it by revealing Christ to you in the Word so you can behold Him. The beholding is what conforms you. Isn't that something? I mean, I think it's cool.

His resurrection offices in heaven are exercised with a view to his people and its benefits to them. So, what is the Lord Jesus doing right now, this very second in heaven? What's he doing? Where's his focus? What do you think? Huh? Yeah, it's on us. The focus is on us.

All the fullness of grace has been received in order to be communicated to us. He received all the grace of God because of what He did. According to this verse, why did He take it? So He could give it to us. All the glory given by the Father to Christ and laid up in Christ is intended for us. All of it. Isn't that something? You're worthy, right? No, you're not, but you know what? That's what he's done. And he's going to make you worthy just by putting you in Christ. You alright with that?

Is the Lord's request only for strong and deeply taught Christians? Only? Only those guys that go to Holly Hills, right? Go to all the classes, study Greek. What do you think? In other words, you have to get with it so that you can enter into all of this. Seminarians? Yeah, they're at the top of the list.

So, I mean, it's an obvious answer, but in verse 21 he says that they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, all of them. Isn't that interesting that it's all and it's up to Him? So it's not for the strong and the deeply taught believers only, but it's for the weakest, and this is where I fit in, the weakest, the most feeblest, the most unlearned in all the redeemed family, all of us. It doesn't matter how old you are in Christ, or how young you are, or how mature you are. This is for every believer. the weak and the strong in one glorious bond of union by the Spirit through the Savior to the Father." So, I know what your sin nature is saying to you right now. It's saying, oh, in that case, I'm in. I'm cool. I don't have to do anything else. It's party time. That's right.

Shall we sin that grace may abound? Why wouldn't you sin? Why wouldn't you sin? It's not the life. That's right. It's not who you are. You love God. Yeah. It isn't who you are. It's what he gave. So it's very interesting that if you have to cut legalism out of Romans and you're left with grace, how do you explain it? How do you explain, what shall we say then? Shall we sin that grace may abound? If you can't speak legal, how do you get your arms around it? How am I going to live? How do you understand that? Well, you understand it by identification and union. Let me ask you this.

When Richard Locke went home to be with the Lord, since he's been conditionally with the Lord, has there ever been a temptation for him to sin in his mind? Why not? Has he ever thought, oh gee, I'd like to be with those guys on Tuesday? Have you ever had that thought? I doubt if he thinks much about it.

See, the thing is... He's free from the presence of sin. Yeah, he's free from the presence of sin. He's beholding the glory of the Lord and he is immersed in the manifestation of the glory of God through Richard Locke with no thought ever in his mind of anything other than that life and Christ. No thought at all. And when he got there, he didn't go, Oh, what did I miss? He didn't do that. Or I should have really studied harder when I was down there. No, it's not like that.

So, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." What does it mean to be made perfect? Conformed to his image. Conformed to his image. But what is perfection?

Richard Locke. Standing before God, beholding his glory. The dictionary I looked up this word is. It's Middle English and from Old French means the quality or state of being perfect, lacking no essential detail, freedom from fault or defect, flawless, mature, exemplification of supreme excellence, unsurpassed degree of accuracy or excellency, perfecting, and this is the definition that I really like. the fullness of the design of the creature. Now think about this.

God takes you when you believe in Christ. He unites you to himself. He gives you the very resurrected life and glorified life of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have all of the glorious attributes of God except for deity. So that's the design. That's the way it was drawn up. So as you are being perfected, what are you moving towards? Conditionally being perfected in your life here. What are you moving towards? The design.

The blueprint who is Christ himself. As we spend more time finding out about Him and who He is and His glory and all there is, the thing is that you literally could plug your name into every one of those, because He's talking about you too. When the Lord Jesus in this prayer is saying that all that I am, Father, and all that you've given me, and all that I'm going to be for all eternity, I'm going to give to them, then you're reading about yourself. Do you see that? Some of the great passages in Scripture, it's beneficial to plug your own name into them. You start reading them down, and you put your name in there.

Put Norm in there as you go. Wherever you see a pronoun, put your name in there, because they're talking about you. The perfection, the conformity to the image of Christ is to make you a perfect man. A perfect man is who you already are positionally. So that being the case, he says that they all may be made perfect in one. What does that mean? It's interesting that he's not going to take Donna and put her over here in the corner and make her perfect right there. He's not going to do that. What's he going to do? What do you do?

Well, it's perfect in the life of Christ, so it's all in Him. It's a oneness in Him, in which there's security forever. There's a wall around you, maybe, is the way to say it. And because you've been placed in Christ, He's the channel with which all fullness flows to you from Him, because you're one in Him. So you're not isolated, you're united. But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is the agent by which this fullness is communicated. That's His job.

Thus the perfect one, God Himself must fail before His child could fail. Do you see that? Christ's fullness must be exhausted before any of our fullness would be exhausted. The Holy Spirit must be overcome before our happiness in God can be hindered or disappointed. Sounds pretty good to me. Would you buy a deal like that? You think about that. Go ahead. And it's free. So your security, your perfection, and your union are all dependent on God, not you. I like that program. It's all dependent on Him. But what do you do? Nothing? You believe. And what do you believe? Specifically, what do you believe? How about this?

That all of this union is true. That everything that Christ said and John said is true. That's the focus of your faith. And you can't look at God and say, well, I see what you're saying, but boy, that isn't what my experience is in my life. That's not faith. You see that? The faith is in the veracity. Is that okay?

This morning there was an evangelist on the radio, and he ended his whatever it was, would you rather, and this is supposed to be a profound statement, would you rather have God work for you, or would you rather work for God? And I thought, yeah, work for you, that would make you king, right? The principle that God has put into place is a very interesting one, and it's unique in... I shouldn't say it's unique, but it's the one principle that the world refuses to live by.

And the principle is the one of faith in what God has already done. When a non-believer is invited to believe in the person and work of Christ, accomplish anything? No. The focus of the faith is on something that's already been done. So he believes in the person and work of the Lord Jesus and he's baptized into Christ.

From that point on, is there anything left for him to do in terms of accomplishing the total package of his salvation? Not a thing. It's all done. His job is to continue to believe as he learns the facts. you won't find in Paul's epistles anything left for you to add to the salvation. What you do find is all this information about what God has already done and you're invited to believe it and then to walk according to what you are. Do you see that?

You have to strive or struggle to do anything to arrive at a greater plateau of spirituality than you already have. you don't already have. Otherwise it wouldn't be grace. That principle is so foreign even to the Constitution of the United States. It's so foreign to the whole mentality of the way the world functions. You have to work hard and strive hard to achieve some sort of security.

All right, back to the question we were talking about before. Can the world know today that Christ was sent because the Father loves the Son and loves us the same? Now, it's interesting. Rutherford, who I quoted before, says that the world in the future is going to know in the Millennial Kingdom. But not now. I disagree with him. I think it's now.

And the reason I think it's now, as the verses I talked about, 2 Corinthians 3, Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, or epistle, written in our hearts, known and read to all men." See that?

In the context Paul was talking about, in combating those who thought that they had authority over Paul in order to, like the Judaizers, they would show up with letters of recommendation from the Sanhedrin and say, well, who is this Paul character? He doesn't have any credentials. He didn't get his authority from those guys up in Jerusalem. Who does he think he is?

So his answer is, you are our letter of recommendation. You believers. our recommendation or the life is written in your hearts and is known and read of all men being manifested that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of the human heart now if that is true it means that every single believer has this testimony written in him, and it's there for all men to read." So, one of Hal's great statements is, you personally might be the only Bible that somebody ever gets to read. You are.

See? Now, you alright with that? What do you think? Do you think that that Is the issue in terms of the world knows today that the Father sent Christ and He loves His Son and loves us the same. Do you think the world can see that? What do you think? How many think you can? How many think, well, maybe? Or don't? Is this really right?

In the sphere of influence that you live in, whether in the workspace, whether you're a student, your friends who you hang out with, if they're not believers, can they see this? Do they know that the Father sent the Son and loves you just like He loves Christ? I mean, when you think about that, that's quite a statement. You know? I think so. Say that? Read it. Yeah, isn't that something?

So here you are, cruising around in your convertible, manifesting the love of God to the world. Isn't that neat? And you don't have to say anything. You know what's great about a letter? It's a non-verbal communicator. If I sent you a letter, you don't hear my voice. Well, maybe you hear my voice. But I email you, you don't hear me. If you're in the epistle of Christ, it isn't what It isn't what they hear, it's what they see.

And they know. That's exactly right. That's right, and you go back to chapter 14 about the purpose why the comforter was sent. to convince the world. Now think about this. If God is going to convict the world of sin based on one issue, and what's the issue? Because they didn't believe in Christ. Well, you've got to say, well that's not fair. How do they know? Well, if you get to 17 here, it says, well they do know. Because of you they know. You're dangerous.

The world knows that the Father sent the Son and loves the Son and loves you because you're here and you manifest that life. Not only that, but He sent the Redeemer and God has taken care of whatever your problem is and He's done it on the premise of love.

Now that doesn't mean that the great white throne judgment that men are not going to be judge for their deeds because they are. But the real issue is going to be, what do you think of this man? Who is Christ? That's the condemnatory issue. And the problem that you and I have as believers is that we're the ones, and us and the Holy Spirit are the ones that go around and convict men, just by what we are, not by what we say.

Kind of an awesome thing to think about, isn't it? Are there hindrances that God allows that may cause difficulties in believing this proclamation by Christ? Are there hindrances to this in the world today? And God does. He's amazing. He permits Satan to have power over the minds and the bodies and the characters of men, doesn't he? He even allows Satan to darken the minds of believers. So it puzzles the world to see evil so rampant, right? I mean, really.

And they ask the question, well, gee, would a long-suffering God, in executing judgment against, would God, because he hasn't executed any judgment against sin, what's he waiting for? It must not be real. The absence of the Lord is a hindrance because the world knows that the people of God confess their love to Christ, they believe in Christ's love to them, and yet their leader remains far away from their perspective. They can't see him. He seems to the eye of sense to have forgotten them, leaving them to toil in the wilderness. If the non-believing world understood what you and I understand, they'd be lining up down the block. But they don't, and these are the hindrances to them.

Because believers are not uniformly conformed to the image of Christ, it looks like a hindrance to the world. The world sees so little in us to recommend them to the Lord Jesus. I think religion itself is a hindrance in itself, whether that be fundamental or not. Sure. Or take the circumstances of most Christians. Most Christians seem to have nothing but trouble in their days, don't they?

And so their path on earth is weary and they have People look at them and say, well, why would I want to go there? You know, that doesn't look too cool. These guys don't have, you know, the Lord Jesus said, have you ever, Paul said, look around, have you ever seen, you don't see a whole lot of rich and smart people, you know, in my body. They're just the ordinary, well, that wouldn't recommend somebody to the world, of the world to come.

And then conversely you look at people of the world and there's so many of them prosperous and they have no cares and they don't need God and yet they serve Him. I found in Psalm 73, I'll read this to you, For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

I've never had those thoughts in my mind. For there is no pain in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace, the garment of violence covers them, their eyes bulge from fatness, the imagination of their heart run riot." Psalm 73. Now you didn't think I was going to get through all this, did you? No. But you guys aren't talking. So there are hindrances to this manifestation of the love of Christ to the world. You have to be aware that they're there. It isn't a pristine world.

I've always viewed believers as... When I was in the Marine Corps, there was a part of the Marine Corps called the Force Recon Guys, or like the Army Rangers. And those are the guys that are always sneaking behind the lines, you know, and they set up a defensive perimeter in the enemy's camp. And they have to be alert all the time for insurgents or people attacking them, yet their presence is there. And as the world discovers their presence is there, they mount greater and greater forces to get rid of them. That's what we are as the church. In verse 24, how are we doing time-wise?

Are we done? Did the second bell go off? I did. Usually I wait for the noisy crowd. Are we done? Are we done? OK. Oh, you're right. I didn't get through. So what we're going to do next time, we'll finish up question 10, 11 and 12 and then we'll go to. We're going to go back to Romans and start in 6.4 and get to the mechanics of how God placed us in this incredible union with Himself. Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank You. How we thank You that You have, for what You've done, but also that You are expending all of Your energy to inform us and to have us enter into the fullness of what we are in your son. We look forward to beholding his glory more and more every day as we pray in his name. Amen.