Identification Truths

Today we're going to talk about circumcision. Anybody not know what circumcision is? Raise your hand. If you don't, I'll see you later. So we're going to focus primarily on three verses, and I think let's start by reading them. I'd like somebody to read Colossians 2.11, and then someone else Philippians 3.3, and then someone else Romans 2.29. And Colossians actually, to make it fit, verse 8 through 15 might be more appropriate. So why don't we do that. So whoever wants to be the guinea pig.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over all of them." So you can't tell me that identification isn't everywhere. Okay.

Philippians 3.3. for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in his life.

Romans 2.29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter, which he created, not from man, but from God. I don't have any more this week. So my question was, in the Colossians passage, what words describe the relationship of the believer with Christ? Baptized. In that passage. Baptized? And risen. How about in Him? Okay, now here's an answer for you Greek geeks.

In him is indicative mood, which means it's reality. This is an absolute reality. It's a present tense, which means right now. And it's active voice, in him. So you were made full in him, or you're in him, you were made full. And we'll talk a minute about what made full means. But in him describes your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You think of it that way? I mean, you walk around on Tuesday thinking, I'm in Christ. Wow. You know, you hear believers say, well, he's my brother, my elder brother, I'm a member of the church. But do you ever think about being in him? Do you? You think that way? Yeah.

I mean, it's cool. When your faith rests upon the facts, of just the scriptural testimony, you know, and you don't try to water them down because you don't think you're worthy or you don't quite, you think, well, that couldn't be that good. You know, the news is way too good for me, so.

The other part of that verse that I thought was important and I spent some time with it is, in Him you are made full or perfect or complete. What's that mean? What does it mean to be made full, or complete, or perfect? And that's, by the way, that's, again, for you Greek geeks, it's a participle, which means it's a verbal noun, kind of. It's a perfect tense, which means it's already been done, but it carries on from now forever. It's a passive voice, which means it was done to you. You didn't do anything to have it happen. So what does it mean to be made perfect?

Yeah, now think about that. You walk around on Tuesday and you think, I'm in Him. To what degree? And what am I in Him? Perfected. You understand what I mean by that? You are all that He is in Him. That's something that God would do it that way. Only God would come up with a plan like that. We wouldn't be able to describe that at all. All the other religions of the world have you trying to be pleasing to God. Only God would put you in His Son and make you complete and perfect from the very beginning.

So, you rest on the spiritual testimony of what He's already done for you in Christ. You alright with that? I dare say that that viewpoint, that our faith rests on the testimony of what God has already done for us in Christ, is one of those thoughts that you think, oh wait a minute, the problem with that is it doesn't leave anything else for you to do, you know, you don't have to do anything else, but your faith rests on something that's already completed, no matter what your circumstances or your condition tell you. Isn't that something? You never rest on what he is doing for or with us in the present condition. Faith in the vine brings forth the fruit in the branches. The fruit comes out of what's already been accomplished. Make sense?

Define what circumcision is from a spiritual standpoint. Now, think about this. We look at circumcision as though, and rightly so, that it was a sign given by God to the Jews to demonstrate to the whole world that these are my people and they've been set apart. But, I mean, why didn't God punch a hole in their ear or give them a ring to wear or tattoo their shoulder or something? Why a cutting off of the flesh? Why that? Yeah, that's exactly right.

And so, if you expand that into what spiritual circumcision is, what is it? Let's think about it now. The act of circumcision is the act of cutting off, from a spiritual standpoint. Go. Somebody was going to say something. Go. It's the very heart of identification. It's the very heart of it.

When the Lord Jesus was on that cross, and he died unto sin, and you died unto sin in him, that's spiritual circumcision. There wasn't a little piece cut off. You got separated from the whole thing. Does that make sense? the symbol of circumcision was pointing towards the work of Christ on the cross, that his death under sin would cut you loose or set you free from both the penalty and the power of the flesh and the sin nature.

You see that? That's really... How do I say this? The contents of this class, which is identification, you can see how circumcision makes a lot of sense. from an identification standpoint. So, there are two sides to circumcision. One is the actual act, but what does it allow you to do after you've been circumcised? I wrote down to abide in Christ above. To have a walk that's dependent on Him. See, the flesh doesn't get to partake of any of this. And therein lies the Christian struggle. We're trying to clean up the flesh and make it Christian. No. Is this spiritual circumcision a positional truth or a conditional truth? What do you think? Do you understand? How many think it's positional? How many think it's conditional? Or both? It's positional. It's absolutely positional.

So, it's not a fleshly ritual, as we'll talk about in a minute. You don't have to depend upon a walk in the flesh. You're free to abide in Christ above. So, it actually consists of what you find in Ephesians and other places of putting on the new man.

Understand what I mean by that? What's it mean to put on the new man? There's a command in Ephesians to put off the old man and put on the new man. And that this new man is created, I love this, after God, in righteousness and true holiness. And so the command is, put on this new man. The command wouldn't be there if there wasn't spiritual circumcision preceding it. You see that? God is not asking you to do something that isn't already, the road hasn't already been paved for you. so that back to your abiding or your believing in something that's already true. So how do you put on this new man? How do you do it?

The analogy sounds like putting on a coat, which isn't. Actually, that's a good analogy. It's getting inside of it. Miles Stanford used to say this, that the way you put on the new man is to recognize that you already have him on, and to believe it. You see that? That you conditionally put on what's already true of you, positionally, by just believing in what he's done. See that? You in the back row with good vision missed that one. Who was it that hated spiders that started screaming? Yeah, but you need specific scriptures to believe that you've already put them on. And that's where the needs are met.

Yeah, the specific scriptures, like any and all of the scriptures that we read, put it this way, the scriptures that we've studied in this class in Identification Truths, We spent a lot of time talking about our old identity with Adam and what that gained us, which was death. The mechanics that God went through to disconnect us from Adam and reconnect us with Christ through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son. And now we're spending time on finding out who exactly we are now that we have been connected with Christ. Well, how do you find out that information?

Specific scriptures. That's right. What you find in Paul's epistles is that he never gets away from this subject. Never. This is the answer to everything. If you, as a believer, have a problem with the flesh, what's the answer? The cross. And where do you find that on? Scripture. God's answer to every problem that you have in the flesh is the cross of Christ. I've told you this story before, but I had a guy come to me one time and want to talk to me about a problem he had with, he was very, very jealous of his wife.

And nobody knows this guy, he's not from here. And so we got together and he didn't know anything about identification truths and we studied Romans 5, 6, 7 and 8 for about six months. And he said to me after about six months, he said, I'm curious, he said, You've never mentioned the word jealousy since we started. Once I told you the problem, you've never brought it up again. What was my answer to him?

It's not the issue. Jealousy is a symptom. I wanted to deal with the cause, not the symptom. You see that? So the cross of Christ deals with the cause, not the symptoms. You see that? Why is circumcision not a fleshly ritual for the believer? Because it was already done in Christ. So why don't we circumcise everybody who believes in Christ? You can't circumcise a woman. That's a good reason. So what do we do? What do we do? We have this thing called baptism.

Is baptism a symbol of circumcision? Or is it... maybe that probably isn't a good way to ask that question. What does baptism portray? So circumcision, even if we continue to do it, wouldn't show the whole truth. it would only show part. So baptism is a better thing in terms... So I could say this, then why is baptism not a fleshly ritual for the believer?

Because it's already been done. Partial answer. Why don't you use baptism as a fleshly ritual? Because it's a spiritual reality. And all baptism does is demonstrate something that's already taken place in the believer. I'm one of those guys that thinks the baptism ought to be in the front yard of the church. Some people really think you have to be or you're not going to have to be. No, I know. I know they do. I think it's a good thing. There's nothing wrong with it if people do it.

It's just a testimony to the unbeliever. But it's not like you're going to go to heaven if you don't do it. That's true. And baptism really isn't for you, the believer. It's a demonstration for those who are observing it. That's really what it's about. So, it sounds a little redundant, but what event can be described as the circumcision of a Christian? It's an easy question. Don't everybody talk at once now. What do you think it is? What's that? The cross, sure. That's what it is. It's the cross of Christ.

So, you know there's the verse that says we as believers aren't to have any confidence in the flesh. On what basis do you not have confidence in the flesh? Yeah, you're dead to it. I mean, again, it goes back to knowing what's true of you in the Word of God, right? And not what you're really hoping is going to be true of you, but something that already is. And so, you know, you have the freedom, we have the freedom and the privilege not to even mess with the flesh. Is that possible? What do you think?

Boy, I don't know. Because, you know, I picked up this trailer and it's got a lot of work. But go to turn the water on and here the pipes are broke underneath. Oh boy. So now I got another mess. I'm just thinking, I guess I just have to go fix it. The sin nature is so deceptive, it'll find somebody else to do it. It's just somebody else's fault. Yeah. There's just so many layers to that. Sure. I'm asking this question, what basis can the believer have? Think about this term, no confidence in the flesh. Because trust me, we all do.

I was thinking the other day, let's see, my son's going to go to high school next year and then probably on to college, what am I educating? His flesh? So he can have confidence in it? Is that what I'm doing? No, you're building his mind. To do what? So he can have confidence in his own mind? So he can learn to use it. In the flesh? No, in the spirit. So I would say if I can get him educated and his mind trained, he'll be more spiritual than if I don't? Do you understand what I'm saying? We're to be in the world and not of the world. So we're to be in it. You educate him, he may be in a great position to do great things. Whatever. Sure.

The point is, is that how do you educate a young man who's a godly man, and like Paul the Apostle, who probably was one of the most brilliant men that had ever been on the planet, I think, yet he says that he counts everything that he ever learned as nothing. And what did he exchange it for? The knowledge of Christ. The excellency of Christ. Now, do you need to be able to read in order to enter in and behold the glory of the Lord? No, you don't. It helps. So, that's my question.

How do you take a young man and steer him in a godly direction and educate him at the same time? You send him to That would screw him up so bad. He'd come out of that so fleshly. I'd rather send him to Boulder. I mean, that's something to put Boulder a step above Dallas Seminary.

I mean, Paul was a tent maker too. And again, he had to be in the world. But what was his focus? His main focus was the testimony and to follow Christ. But he had to do tent making at times. I think it's still just maintaining that focus in everything.

In education, you'll be able to see that. In education, you'll see that in work. You'll see that everywhere. And that, I mean, that helps you, you know, certainly when you see the world, I mean, turn on the nightly news, and you see what we are now, you know, but you look at it with that focus. Education the same way. It's always keeping Christ as the focus, and what is the value in your life? Christ is always the focus throughout everything. Yeah. What I've discovered there is that A lot of this is hypothetical.

I can tell him he needs to have that focus. And he can nod, OK, Dad. But he's got to learn through the work of the Spirit in his life to be dependent on the Lord and not be dependent on the flesh. That's the hard thing to teach. And you can have talents educated mind and skills and a certain acumen in different areas, but it's who you depend on that matters. Do you see that? And that's why this issue of circumcision is so important. You can be anybody or nobody, the issue is who do you depend on? The flesh? Or the spirit?

I remember I refer to Myles a lot because he helped me a lot. I called him up one day and I was complaining about the slowness of my spiritual growth. And he said, it just takes a long time for the Lord to teach you to be dependent on Him. And that is a process of learning not to be dependent on whatever your fleshly attributes are.

God will bring those tests. Yes, He will. That will bring you to the point of focusing your dependence on Him. That's right. And it will show you whether you're depending on yourself or Christ. Yeah, that's exactly right. So, I think as we go on in our life, you don't put aside, like you don't stop being an engineer, but it's the dependence of how you function moment by moment every day, in whatever circumstances you're in. Do you see that? And the basis for having no confidence in the flesh is the Word of God that says to you that you have been crucified with Christ. Are you alright with that?

You think about it, you as a believer, to depend on the flesh is spiritual insanity. It would be like going down to the funeral home and trying to find some dead bodies to depend on. What can they do for you? Nothing. Now, the next verse that we're going to talk about is have to get more skilled in the flesh and work in this machine.

Philippians 3.3 says that we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. How do you worship in the Spirit? What's that all about? What did I say it was?

Colossians 3.3?

Philippians 3.3.

Now, you know, worshipping God in the spirit means that you're a musician, right? And if you can get some drums up on the stage, then you're really spiritual. If you put up your antennas, it's just the right time. I just came by, at the Christian Heritage Center just this moment, about five minutes ago. I almost pulled in there and said, come on over here. Well, you probably would have done better over there. Here's some good music.

Actually, there's a lot of elements that go into this, I think. Think about this. The question is, describe the different elements of worshiping by the Spirit of God as opposed to fleshly worship. How do you think that would go together? Let's say that when they play really cool music in church, you get all soapy inside and feel really good and you think, oh, that must be spiritual. Or you listen to a guy who's a very competent teacher and speaker and he just exhorts you and thrills you and you think, oh, that must have been spiritual. What's the difference? And it's okay if you don't know. Because I don't think very many people know. Let me give you some of the elements I wrote down.

You start out with this issue of circumcision, that you're free from self-condemnation. You're free from a guilty conscience. And you're free in the faithful advocacy of the Lord Jesus. You're free in the confessing of your sins and the cleansing from all unrighteousness. We are in the light of His presence to worship Him, commune with Him, grow in Him. All of those things.

You see, I'm going to read a quote to you from a guy named Sir Robert Anderson. He said, as mind and heart are fixed on Christ, we may count on the Spirit's presence and power. But if we make the Holy Spirit Himself the object of our aspirations and worship, some false spirit may counterfeit the true and take us for the prey." The point is that worshiping God in the Spirit is a dependence on the Holy Spirit because what's the Spirit's job conditionally in your life?

What's He here to do? Intercede? Bring us to Christ. Conform us to His image. He's here to conform us to the image of Christ. His job, and that conformity is done by beholding His glory as in a mirror. This is the mirror. And by beholding His glory in the Word of God, what happens?

According to 2 Corinthians 3.18, this conformity process takes place from glory to glory, even to the very image of Christ. Now, so if the Spirit does that job, and you're beholding Christ, then you're free from anything that's fleshly, right? And so, the Spirit of God is doing His job, as you are conformed to the image of Christ, what comes out of you?

Worship. Sure. Sure. And it's not fleshly, it's spiritual. You asked the question, though, about the dynamic speaker and the music, and the difference between the two. And there is no difference between the two. No, because primarily they appeal to the flesh. Yeah. Yeah. Where do those things fit in? What things? What things? The fleshly things? No, not the fleshy thing, but music.

That's a mind twister for me sometimes. Well, you being a musician, it would be. It is for me, too, because there are times that, you know, we're standing up and singing with Peggy playing the organ and we're singing hymns and, you know, we don't sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but the context of the hymns blows me out of the pew. I can barely go on because of what I'm seeing. There are other times that people stand up and out of their heart they play an instrument and you can tell it just blows you away. Other times it's fleshly. I don't know how you tell other than by the Spirit of God. I mean that whole thing can be a real diversion from what is really true worship.

Yeah, I think so too. There's millions of people caught up in it. Yeah, I agree. Yet it can enhance, as you're talking about, at the same time. And that the word needs enhancement, per se. But sometimes there are those individuals that I think about in particular, that if the word is embedded into the music, it tends to magnify the spirit, the word for that individual. Yeah, that's why I'm fascinated with hymn writers, you know, the good ones. How they can put in so few words such awesome spiritual truth, and then somehow that poem finds its way to someone who can attach the music to it, and they seem to fit, you know? They go together. Can you imagine singing Amazing Grace to any other sub-tune than that? They seem to fit. So I don't know. I think being aware of the fact that music has a tendency to be fleshly is probably enough.

You can sing words or you can sing praise. If you're singing praise, you're communicating. With God, if you sing the words, you're reading. The issue is this, that the Spirit of God uses every available tool, but especially the Word of God, to do what? To have you beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus and to abide there with Him. From that, the spiritual worship comes. You don't worship to get to that point, or to try to imitate that point. His job is to have you abiding in Christ, and from that, abiding comes spiritual worship, I think.

And you know what? If you say to yourself, without raising your hand, gee, I'm not sure I know what that's about. Trust me, the Spirit of God is about His business. That's what He's doing. Isn't the ultimate worship of God is believing what He said in His words?

And then from that, you know, can come music or whatever. Just kind of like how, you know, how we look at work, where you may do those things, but you're doing them from the Spirit instead of from... it's as a result, that's the logical conclusion. Yeah, yeah. I think if you, in any circumstance, rest in Christ, you're worshipping God.

There's a radio commercial right now that's out, about some local church, and they're talking about five reasons why you should go there. And one is they have a youth program. I can't remember the other three, except for the fact that they have a music program. Killer music program. Killer, killer, killer music program. Killer music program.

I heard it twice on the radio, too, and I thought, what? The word is never mentioned. No. Out of all five of those points. I've chuckled at that commercial, too. Which station are you listening to? Let me run through the other elements I wrote down. Abiding in Christ above, I rest in Him where He is.

Colossians 1.12. His acceptance by the Father is mine.

Ephesians 2.13 and 18. His access to the Father is also mine.

Romans 8.1 and 2.

In the Lord Jesus, who is my very Christian life, I am there, Hebrews 10.19-22. In him there I rest, I fellowship and I worship. In me here he lives and serves.

What is the definition of worship? Is it a verb? Oh, worship is a great word. What do you think? The core word of that is the word worthy. Do you understand what I mean by that? In other words, why would you worship God? What would cause your heart to worship Him? Because He's worthy. In other words, He has, in Him and in all that He's done, earned your worship by His worth, maybe is the way to put it. Say that? It's acknowledging His worthiness. Yeah, acknowledging His worthiness.

If the Spirit of God has you abiding in Christ and beholding His glory, then you are absolutely aware at that time that in and of yourself you don't have any credentials to be there. You're recognizing more and more your lack of worth to be blessed, but you find yourself overwhelmingly blessed by God. That you haven't contributed anything, yet He delights in loving you and revealing Himself to you and having you fellowship with Him. And that creates a response in you to worship Him, I think.

Did I dance all around that answer? I just wrote down two words, individual and corporate. And it seems like what we're talking about here is a very individual as to what the Holy Spirit does to us as an individual. But on the other hand, you get all this stuff translated into these big corporate productions, as I call them. It becomes very cumbersome to really sort through being where we're talking about.

I'm not sure you can. There's a lot of effort and professionalism everything else that goes into some of these things you see, that this whole environment is created so that it's a corporate thrust. Very well done. And thousands of people in one room can be caught up in that direction. It's really hard to sort through a programed worship. It's programmed, but I mean it's very effective.

I think it's a valid point. The thing is, is where do you draw the line? Because you can speak and prepare things in such a way that you move for one, almost so that every individual feels that they're talking directly to that individual, not to the entire group. Well, maybe if I'm thinking about how you sort through that, or I would say that there's What comes to mind is one criteria. Is the Lord Jesus Christ the focus and the center of everything that's going on? Or is it something other than that?

You have that same verbiage, can't you? So you could have two guys up there playing an instrument or two people out in some audience singing. And one could be on the one side of that line and one on the other. Yeah, that's true. And yet they're all there in the same environment. Yeah.

Courtney? You know, we tend to look at it as an individual thing. God uses all things. You know, Mike, when you say, you know, there's Him that just blows you away. Yeah. And others maybe not. Well, maybe on the other not, there's 15 other people who get blown away. Sure.

I think on the corporate side, we're all not just robots in the same fashion, we're individuals, and God uses different things. Just what you're saying, there may be two people up there, one is working on one person, and one is working on another, and God uses it all. But the key is the focus, for whatever you are. Oh yeah, if you're over 70 around here, if it isn't classical, it isn't worshipful. You know what, it just dawned on me, I think you hit on it. I think the issue is this. As we behold the Lord Jesus in glory, by the energy of the Spirit. You okay with that so far? As that happens, what are you learning? What am I learning? I'm learning the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And I'm learning what's of Him and what isn't of Him. I'm learning what pleases Him and what doesn't please Him.

Not from a legal standpoint, just from a person-to-person standpoint. Those of you that are married, you have learned what pleases your wife or your husband, and what doesn't please them? Just by being around them. Do you understand what I mean by that? Just by knowing their character and the kind of person that they are. And so your life with them, part of your life with them is doing things you know that pleases them and not doing the things you know that doesn't please them. Well, that's a relationship between one person and another.

What has God set up here? He has set up an agenda where you as a person are beholding the Lord Jesus Christ as a person, and that same transfer of understanding goes on. So, when it comes to worship, what do you say? Well, whatever I'm doing, does it please the Lord that I know or not? Would this be pleasing to Him or not? And you wouldn't have to make a list on the refrigerator to make sure you were doing it right. You would know because you know Him. That make sense? Donna?

In the back here, it indicates that worship is to serve, but not out of obligation. Everybody hear that? In the back of her Zodiatis, it says worship is to serve, but not out of obligation. When you consider the flesh, There's a fairly good measure of when you're listening to music, or when you're hearing God's Word taught, as to is the focus on my flesh, or on the flesh of the speaker, or the singer, or is it revealing Christ, and my focus is not so much on them, in fact they're sort of transparent. It's on Him. That's right. And if it is on Him, sometimes that can be very convicting. but you don't think about the delivery.

Are you confident that the Spirit of God is doing His job in your life so that you know what is and isn't of Him? Sure, you have to be. The people around here that went to Greek class, one of the most amazing things about Greek class in my mind were the tenses of the verbs and the voice of the verbs. Who owns the verbs? Who's doing what to who at what rate of speed?

I found out that God does everything, mostly. That's very cool. Just that was enough for me. I'd learned enough Greek by then just to know that was enough. A lot of this is based on a confidence factor, right? How much confidence do you have, and what gives you the confidence to not glory in the flesh, but to glory in Christ?

The Word. The Word does. You find out in the Word that you're cut off, you're circumcised, you're free, and listen to this, to abide in the Lord Jesus. You're free to do that. And God sure can't lie, right? Right. And you're free to walk in dependence upon Him. You can trust Him. So, as the Holy Spirit turns you to the last Adam, to Christ, you learn to abide in fellowship there. It's a work that He does. Yeah, you can be uneducated, you can be blind, You can be extremely well-educated. You can be rich, poor, or somewhere in the middle. It doesn't matter. Those barriers don't affect the Spirit of God.

You know why? Because you've been crucified. That's why. And He's dealing with you on the resurrection ground now, not on the old Adamic ground. Everything, you know, was paid for, done. God accepted it and raised Him and put Him in a position, in an exalted position. And then you go to the identification. If we're in Him, God did the same thing to us.

Right. This is Philippians 3. Look at the way it's structured. It's almost like Paul says to them, we can say this. that we are the circumcision. This is who we are. We worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and we don't have any confidence in the flesh. That's what we say. End of conversation. We're not hoping to be like that. That's what we are. Are we down to a couple of minutes? Or a minute or two? Go down to question 11.

What does it mean in Colossians 2.10 to be complete in Christ? We've kind of covered this, but... Yeah, that's a good way to say it. You know, a guy told... actually it was this Bob Strawn, the guy that we're praying for who has the leukemia.

I remember him saying to me years ago, you know, every once in a while somebody will say something to you and... those little things, you never forget them because they sort of have an impact on you. He said to me one time, he said, you know, when you're reading the New Testament, especially Paul's epistles, and you read about all these things that are true of Christ, he said, everything there is also true of you. So not only are you reading the history of Christ, you're reading your history too. That's who you are. That's amazing to me, that God would do it that way.

And the drawbacks The thing that keeps you from entering in and resting in those truths is, number one, not knowing that you've been circumcised on that cross, and two, not believing it. That you were actually united to Christ in his death, prayer, and resurrection, and now on resurrection ground, you are free to abide in Christ and to enjoy all that you are in him. If you don't know identification, you have no chance of abiding.

Do you agree with that? I have guys come up to me and say, you know, you can worship God and you can have a really cool Christian experience without knowing that. And I say, no you can't. No you can't. It's just like somebody in a Catholic church that I came out of says, well, you know, I do a lot of good stuff and I'm going to go to heaven when I die. I say, well, what about the gospel? And they say, well, what is that? Do I think they're going to go to heaven? They have no shot. Why? Because they don't know the information.

It's like those that say, I was talking about it, you'll hear them on the radio call, not necessarily a quote of this program, but just in general speaking, they'll say, if I make it to heaven, and so on and so forth, and if there's that if in there, you've already... And you know what's interesting about that? If there's an if in your thinking about your capacity and ability to abide in Christ, you're not there. You have to believe them and trust them. You have to trust the Lord has come to that.

Is the time up? I can't tell. That's close. Courtney is going to be teaching next week? Yes. Actually, for those of you who think I can forget four times in a row, I can. I do have the Greek Sheets, when they're talking about Greek Geeks. I've been promising a copy of that. I do have it now, if you want it now or next week, either hand them out. I made little ones for, like, Winnie. They fit inside your Bible, and I have full-sheet ones, too, so...

Okay. What are they? Uh, just, uh... For Greek birds? Yeah, basically help for the Greek. All the, all the, uh, pencils, moves, voices. So, it really does help out, but I probably should explain a little bit of the diagram, but we can do that maybe next week. Okay, cool. But I'll throw these up front, and then there's two different ones, a full-size sheet, and then a smaller one that you can throw in your Bible, which I think is great. Okay, let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you. We're somewhat overwhelmed by who we are in your son, but as we learn and believe and rest and abide, we'll be able to experience the fullness of who your son is and the fact that we can abide and behold his glory. And we thank you. We pray in his precious name. Amen.