Identification Truths

What we're going through is what is entitled the much mores. And there's a whole bunch of verses, most of them, which within the much more care of God is kind of where we were charging through. So if you have the much more cares, I've got it, but I don't have the answers. Isn't that cool? You know, when you go to a basketball game, you have to buy a program so you can tell who the players are. I think we were on question five, right? Somebody read question five.

When Satan approaches you in the midst of your weakness and immaturity and charges that God has forsaken you because of your sinful conditions, what do you do? Oh, that's a great question. I came up with that? What do you do? I didn't hear that, what did he say?

The spiritual maturity in this room is overwhelming. What do you do when you find yourself in a position like that? I'm a gracious man, but I'm going to implement a rule. And the rule is you can't give me any pop four word answers. I want to know exactly what the process is.

Well, you pull a bullet out, put it in your gun. No. I think that's where the reckoning yourself did in the scene. Yeah. Don't you find it interesting? that the Lord will teach you a truth, a positional truth, one about who you are in Christ, or the fact that you were identified in this death, burial, and resurrection, and you've been free from sin, and you understand it, you get it, and you believe it, okay? Well, and that's where I'm going, and you think you got it, right? So then the Holy Spirit begins this process of proving to you that what he has shown you is right and true, and you end up owning it. And when that process begins, I mean, if you're like me, you doubt everything you know.

Mike? Like I was saying, you put a bullet in your gun, hold it to your head, and you squeeze it through. Well, no, you don't squeeze it through, but you find out that that ain't gonna do no good either. because you already died. Yeah. Don't you think though that that battle always ensues? It seems like the first reaction is always out of the self. Isn't that something? And then starts that mental, that's not who I am. Yeah, wait a minute.

Well, isn't the Holy Spirit also coming at us, convicting us? of righteousness and sin and of judgment and belief in Christ, at the same time, he's coming at unbelievers. He's coming at us in such a way that we recognize that's not who you are. This is his soul in the process, not your spirit. Let's talk about the work of the Spirit in a believer's life now, for a second. The work of the Spirit in the believer's life is dependent on, I think, where the believer's walking. If you're walking in the Spirit, what's he doing? He's doing the thing he loves to do most, which is revealing Christ to you. That's the object before you.

If you're not, then the conviction comes, but the conviction isn't to condemnation. The conviction is to restoration. It's the realization, as someone mentioned back there, wait a minute, that's not who I am. I'm not that person. And there's a recalculating, I think, of exactly who the Lord says you are in the Word. And if you're ignorant of that information, then the Spirit's job is to put you in a situation where you can learn it. Because if you don't know it, You can't reckon upon it being so. Do you agree with me in that?

There's a sequence of principles that have, not a sequence of principles, there's a sequence of spiritual growth. And there are certain things that, you know, you don't put brick five in before brick four is in. Like if you study the book of Romans, you don't get to jump from six to eight. or 5 to 12. You don't get to do that. But you'll sit and talk with people who will give you that.

They'll say, well, the most important chapter in Romans is chapter 12 because the yielding is there. And you say, well, how about 6 where you died and were resurrected? How about going through the process of Romans 7? How about learning all of the blessings of Romans 8?

Oh, that's all well and good, but I'm yielding like that matters. You know, they forgot 6.12 that said that you yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God as those that are alive from the dead. How much of that as those that are alive from the dead do they understand? So that's important, I think, the sequence. I think that's all that grows from maturity and foundation first and then growth. But I also worry that God has forsaken you in the midst of all this. One, I think it's understanding. Very important. The other that we are just so generous here so it doesn't really matter. Yes, that's right.

Then the forsaking, it was back to the Hebrews 13.5 that he himself said, I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you. And then so that we can confidently say the Lord is my helper, what shall man do to me? I mean those are the ones.

And then Romans 8.39, who shall separate us from the Lord?

If you have those as a foundation, it doesn't matter what goes on. Well last week you took off on a topic that I didn't think about, that there's the old nature and your new life in Christ, and God is instructing us to do Yes. And so our position is in the new life. Yes. And it's only by recognizing being in the new life that we're going to do any of those things. I think that's what you were saying. What do you mean by those things? Well, do the things that are consistent with what the Lord Jesus' life is. Does that make sense? The old nature is contrary to what the natural to them.

And what you find out is, I think what you find out in that process is, is that the new life really is a person. You know, like, did you see my sermon last week? I had Yoda up there, and the Force. I think there's a lot of times that the Spirit of God in this new life is considered a lightsaber.

It's not. It's a person. It's the Lord Jesus himself. And so there's an intimacy and a fellowship. I think God really did a cool thing. He just didn't give us an abstraction or life in a box. He gave us the person who is the life. That's a very cool thing, which happens to be himself. So maybe that's where Paul's saying it's not my sin, but it's the nature. Yeah, that's right.

But it still leaves you at a point, maybe you move it up a click somewhere, but you still have that crossover between the old nature and the new life nature. So every day you're living your life through the week and you come to a crossroads somewhere.

One of these. Yeah. To see which nature is going to function. That's a good way to put it. And it's that cross. Yeah. But he'll do it. No, I understand. It's still the same dilemma. The dilemma, the cross bar for the dilemma is just at a different place on that line. Okay. If that makes any sense. Yeah, it does. You still have that warring thing going on.

We talked about that on Tuesday in the Galatians. We're at that passage in 5 where we talk about The spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit, and they are contrary one to another, and the next phrase is so that we're not able to do what we're able to do, what we want to do. What's interesting about that, and I asked the class, you know all those geniuses that come on Tuesday, I said, which one are you? The spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit.

Which one of those are you? I'm going to ask you, which one of those are you? When you say are you, are you perhaps excluding us to be in reality one or the other? That's what the question is. Now don't run past me. Stay here. Which one are you? The spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. That's a war. Which side are you on? Which combatant are you? Spirit. I have a spirit. I have a both. Neither. You're neither. You're neither. You get that? No, you're the victim. You guys love victimhood. There it is. No. No, you're the prize.

You have the Holy Spirit himself has tremendously strong desires against what? Your sin nature. Right? Are you and your sin nature identifiable now? Not if Romans 6 is true. And your sin nature has tremendously strong desires against the Spirit of God. They're in conflict. Now, who are you? You're a new creature in Christ. You happen to have this sin nature in you, warring against you, or against the Spirit, but you're not the fighter. Do you see that?

Boy, it takes a long time to come to that. Well, I just told you this. Sure. 20 years. That's the travesty in so many churches that are not teaching identification. Yeah, if you don't know identification, you're in trouble with adverse. It becomes what you can do and how hard you've got to work to achieve that.

That's right. That's exactly right. Sure. In your immaturity, that's what you're going to start questioning whether you're even saved. Sure you will. I know of a case I'm thinking about, because that's all they get. Donna. So they wonder. Yeah. Well I think part of that process too is the old man can reckon. Oh sure, the old man can reckon, he can try to imitate all of the things of the spirit.

The fruit of the spirit Love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, meekness, kindness. Whose fruit are they? They're the Spirit's fruit. Now the flesh can try to imitate them and be loving and joyful and all that kind of stuff and you see that all over Christendom.

The problem is that when the squeeze comes, what happens? That's when you find out, gee, I've been just imitating and not resting in Christ. Because you can't squeeze Christ out of his nature. Understand what I mean? You can't make Christ unloving, unkind. You can't make him change his attitude just because you're being a jerk, or someone's assaulting you, or your sin nature's after you, or even, God forbid he'd know your name, Satan was doing something on you, or one of his minions. It doesn't change the Lord's life one iota.

And that's who you are. Wait a minute, Marla. Could you do a summary sometime in the future and give a clear understanding of Satan, who he is? I know we focus on Christ and the Holy Spirit, but isn't there some value to understanding who Satan really is and his limitations because a lot of times people throw... and I don't understand that well enough to... Off the top of my head I can give you three things that sort of make sense to me about Satan.

The first and most important thing is that he's defeated. Christ defeated him at the cross. So he no longer has dominion over the earth, over anything. He can't make a move especially towards a believer without God's permission because he's defeated. So he's now what I would call a useful defeated enemy. God uses him for our spiritual growth. I asked Miles Stanford that question one time and here was his answer. He said, our position is in Christ. As a young believer you're pretty much hanging around the perimeter. You understand?

And Satan is like an attack dog who's lost his mind on a choke chain and the Lord will allow him to come up to the perimeter with all of his noise and to do what? To drive you farther into Christ. Not to harm you, but to drive you so you'll take steps back into Christ. So he's used of God for your growth in Christ. And that's he can't defeat you, he can't touch you, he can't harm you because of your position in Christ. He can't go in there.

If you study temptation in James chapter 1, the assumption is that the believer is abiding in Christ and the temptation comes to lure him out. So if you step out of your position in Christ conditionally, you're subject to getting hammered. because you've left your position. It doesn't change the fact that you still have it, but now you've become vulnerable. Well, I've heard that...

From who? We're not naming sources. Yeah, we won't name sources. When, like, Daniel was in the lion's den, well, Daniel was delivered, the lions didn't... didn't even lick their chops. But with us believers, we're eight alive. I think Miles or somebody said all he gets is a mouth full of ashes.

The thing is, I remember as a young believer, I read some charismatic-based books as I'm growing and learning. I read this one about this guy talking about he'd be in bed at night and Satan would show up in his living room or in his bedroom, scare him to death. I used to think, oh, he's going to show up in my... I know he's going to be in my... I just will. What am I going to do when he gets there? As I grew, I began to understand, I don't need to worry about him. He's the Lord's business. You know, he's not mine. My job isn't to go out and slay the dragons. My job is to abide in Christ.

Going back to your initial, you know, where are we fighting back? And it's neither. And that's where I think when you're putting all the scripture together, you know, the stand fast, we're to stand. We're to stay right where we are. And the armor of God is all defensive. They always leave out that last little bit of faith. It's not that we're going out to slay Satan. And faith is stand fast. And then you have the peace and everything else. It's never that we're going to go out and be offensive. That's the spirit. It's very interesting.

It's subtle because if you stand in Christ, the ground has been won. If you get lured out to pull your sword out and to engage Satan, what happens is you start losing ground. That's already been won by Christ. That's why birth truths are so important. Because birth is a matter of position, of nature, of family. Let's streak ahead. We're going to be on these questions until the millennium comes. Is that question 5 that you have asked? Who believes that? Who would be lured by that? By our fallen nature?

If we start having this, I'm not saved syndrome belief, I think every Christian has had that at some point in his life. I was talking to a guy last night, and we were on this subject for a minute, and we were talking about just walk as a believer. I keep making the statement, ignorance is the biggest problem. If you don't know who you are, you have nothing to reckon on. You have nothing to believe. You can't live the Christian life based on the fact that you were saved. It's not enough.

It's just like the babies that are born around here. There comes a time when they wean off the milk and they start to eat solid food. Well, if they're 15 years old and they're still sucking milk, they're this big. They're totally emaciated. They got them in a hospital someplace. Well, most Christians are like that. They're 15, 20, 25 years old. They're still drinking milk. It's no wonder they're assaulted and moved around and in trouble all the time.

And what Courtney said about us not fighting the good fight of faith, if we magnify that, Christ said here in his life that they may know him whom God has sent. Isn't that wonderful that the strength that we have comes not just through these but in knowing Him through those words. We know the way He works, what He's promised, and then we experience it in our own life.

I would say right in there... That peace and that joy that comes from the Spirit, but that only happens if we're born again. I agree. And knowing is really important here. And believing. And knowing Him through those words. That's right. Did I read that quote from Schaefer last week?

Could it be possible that God would so love an individual as to give his son to die for him and still love him to the extent of following him with the pleadings and drawings of his grace until he has won that soul into his own family and created him anew by the impartation of his own divine nature and then be careless as to what becomes of that one he has thus given his all to procure? Would God really do something like that? No way.

So, when you go and make requests of God regarding your needs, what does He give you? We talked about that last week. What does He give you? Does He give you what you need? Does He give you every time what you ask for? He gives you what you need. What do you get? What's the most important thing? When you go to the Lord and you ask Him for something or you talk to Him about an issue in your life and where you have a genuine need, what does He give you? Does He leave you empty handed sometimes? Yeah, He gives you the peace that passes understanding. I can't imagine, I can't envision anything that would be more than that. Don't forget patience.

You think about this, if one of your children came to you and they had a real financial need and you had the capacity to solve that need and you said, you know, son or daughter, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it on Monday. Would they believe you when you said that? Yes? and they'd probably rest about it, knowing that you're going to handle it on Monday. They'd put it right out of their mind. No, they'd want to see the receipt. Well, maybe your kids would.

There's a qualifier, man, that's all understanding. That passes all understanding, you know. If, you know, your children trust you because you've been their parents and they ask you for something, you say, okay, I'll take care of it. If you're, you know, a parent who does take care of it, I mean, and never mind, it's done. There's peace about it. I gave it to dad, he's going to handle it.

Right? I mean, when my son comes home from school and kicks off his shoes and opens up the refrigerator, he has peace in his mind that mom put stuff in there for him to eat. He's not sweating it. He knows it's there. What's that address? Mike? Yes. As you talk in there, I'm thinking too that That understanding isn't necessarily that you logically understand what he's going to do, right? Yes. It's because there's no food in the fridge. The point is that you've been to him about it. And who have you been to about it? Who is this person? Is he the President of the United States? Who is he? He's the God of the universe.

And if you know you can approach Him, like we talked about a couple weeks ago, and you know you can make any application to Him about anything, which He absolutely says, and make all your requests known unto Me, all of them, even if they seem to you to be spiritually stupid, you make those requests to Him, what does He say?

I will give you the peace that passes understanding. There can't be anything more valuable than that, I don't think. You know, because you know, I've been to him about it. It's now in his hands and how he loves me. He gave his son for me. He has paid every price to bring me near to him. Is he going to not respond in a way that is best for me? Ridiculous! He is going to respond in the way that is most edifying and most beneficial to me. Now you may not like the way he responds, but it's going to be the best for you.

And you know what's interesting about that? You don't have to rally everybody in the church to go begging God to do something. you have just as much audience with him. If you ask him for something and you get 25 other people to ask him for something, it doesn't increase your chances.

Paul goes to him three times about the thorn in the flesh, right? And obviously it was painful and whatever it was. And what's Paul's answer? that the Lord told him that the Lord's power was made manifest in Paul's weakness. So Paul said, well, I've come to this conclusion that I'd rather be weak than strong, because when I'm weak, Christ is strong.

It's well worth the price. Would any sensible selfer go to God and say, oh, please make me weak? No, we wouldn't. But the Lord will put us in a position where we recognize what he's doing and we assent to it. We say, you know, you're right about this. Being weak is a good thing in the flesh, so that the power of God might be manifested through us. Well, from a self standpoint, that prayer is insanity.

But from your position in Christ, it makes perfect sense. Yeah. All right. Streaking on in light of Second Thessalonians to 16 and 17. Somebody go to it and read it. So we don't just talk out of out of the air. Second, Second Thessalonians to 16 and 17.

Okay, my question was, what should my attitude be regarding the circumstances that come up in my life? To rest in who He tells you He is. Once we get the idea of how God feels about us, It causes you to rest, you know? You get over the idea that you've got to do all these spiritual push-ups to get him to notice or to be in good favor, but you read verses like that and just hundreds of other verses in Paul's epistles, you begin to realize it's no longer my job to produce anything to satisfy God. You get that?

So you can all stop working. Because you're not the originator of anything that satisfies God. So I know that if I try, I shall only fail. Now, most of you are slow learners like me, which means you did a lot of trying before you said, OK, I'm not going to do this anymore.

So I seek to please God in an activity of another. Understand what I'm saying? You please God in an activity of another. The Son of God who dwells in me by His Spirit is able and willing to carry out in me those things that please Him, so I count upon Him to do so consciously.

Boy, does that sound like apathy, doesn't it? Oh man, there's nothing left for me to do. God is not going to be happy with me by Wednesday, because I won't have been doing what I should be doing day by day. Think about this. If your viewpoint and your faith rest in the fact and you have an attitude that he's going to work the will of God in me and through me, I have an attitude now to go forward and to rest and to serve and be comforted no matter what the circumstances are. Understand what I'm saying? even if you're screwing him up. Like Jacob? Well, or like Mike. Mike's good enough. Jacob's an old guy.

So, I'm to live by faith in the Son of God, right? That's the whole premise of my life, to live by faith in the Son of God. Well, if that's true, then I understand that he has done everything to please the Father. And I can rest in that and those facts. There's nothing I can do in and of myself to please God any more than He already is. And if I try, I'm displeasing to Him out of my flesh. Do you understand that? Did I answer your question?

A roundabout. Because it's grace, not law. Hearts are hearts. What are they? The innermost sanctuary of who you are. Is it not our new man? Yeah, well that's who you are. We use new man a lot. Tying it with scripture is my question. And you know you bring up a good phrase there, we use the new man a lot. How do you use the new man? Maybe I'll ask, is that the right question? How do you use the new man? In other words, how do you function?

You can't sit on your hands. That's what you hear all the time. become real to us. And it's not law. Then we are able to do those things. He's told us we can and should or because of who we are. So it's, you know, I've been thinking about the argument that we had about the apathy. And that's what you get. But then it's, you're able to do those things. He's logically told us we can do in Christ. So it's not just sitting in a blob. No, then we're able to do these things.

He's told us we can do. I've told some of you about Chester McCauley's tapes. One of the interesting things, he has four tapes on grace that are just the best I've ever heard. And I think in the fourth tape he talks about grace as an operating principle in a believer's life. And he said, the greatest motivator there is, is grace. Isn't that interesting? We think it's law. Instinctively we think, tell me what to do and I'll do it. You know? I'm reading the scriptures, oh, God has told me...

No, no. Imagine grace being a tremendous motivator. Grace is total unmerited and unlimited favor towards you in Christ. The minute you think you're going to contribute, you're outside of the realm of grace. Yet, the grace itself is the motivator to rest and to abide. If you're living under the fire hose of grace, you can't resist it.

Do you see that? Where sin did abound, grace did overwhelmingly abound. We live in an environment in Christ where the grace is way, way beyond. It's like getting caught up in one of those spillways at the Hoover Dam. You can't resist it. And that's what grace is.

Somebody asked me the question once, who's responsible? God is responsible. I know, but using that analogy is disused. Who's responsible? Isn't it our responsibility to believe that God's grace is sufficient? And that's where the responsibility ends, that we believe that he takes over the responsibility. Let's talk about that word. I love that word responsibility because it's the legal word.

No, it's not. You can't respond to God outside of Christ. So you can't live up to your responsibility outside of Christ. You see that? Responsibility is a composite word that means the ability to respond. You cannot respond to the grace outside of Christ. You can't do it. So if you want to turn it around and say, well, how do I live up to my responsibility in Christ?

Well, it's backwards. In Christ, I'm responsible. You rest. Did you guys read Hungry Heart 1123? How Does One Triumph in Trials? And I put it on the back of your questions so you didn't have to look it up. I bet you didn't even turn the page over, did you? It's not on there? I thought I put it on there. Okay, I'll read it for you. The title of this thing is Triumph and Trials.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He may exalt you in due time. Face it, trials and sufferings are the heart of growth. It is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that makes what is naturally bittersweet to us, bittersweet to us. It is the fellowship of His sufferings and the knowledge of suffering with him, what can it now not sweeten? We are sharing his experience, who gives us therein to realize that wonderful path in which divine love led him for our sakes. We have the reality of his sympathy with us. We have fellowship with Himself in such a way as we could not else enjoy, for nothing brings hearts closer together like sharing a common lot of toil and sorrow.

Faith is rooted in the Father's great facts. Affliction, adversity, suffering, sorrows, temptation, trials, doubt, disappointments, roll in upon us, how can we go on in a peace and patience with such things in our life? Are they not enough to overwhelm us? No, not if faith spreads itself out over them and sends its roots down into the rich soil of our Father's great eternal facts.

May you retire into the secret of your heart and wait on the Father and think that His heart is so relieved of everything about you that He sees you according to His Son at His right hand. Amidst all the confusion and contrariety of this scene, I know how my Father feels about me. If I am abiding in my risen Lord, it will show itself. I shall not be afraid of changes around me. I shall live not in apathy or listlessness, but in an exercise of lively affections and energies towards my Lord. Another great evidence of my abiding in Him is quietness. I have my portion in Him above, and I walk on, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." Isn't that a great hungry heart? So the question answers itself, how does one triumph in trials? Don't you find it interesting how important it is to know how your father feels about you? If you don't know that, you're not going to rest. Now how do you find that out? How do you find that information out?

In the Word. So the Word is not a place where you go and Cranmer had a bunch of scriptures that you can regurgitate out to somebody who asks you. You go in there to fellowship with God, and what you find out is how your father feels about you, and on the basis in which he does, and that he doesn't change his mind, and that he has nothing but thoughts of blessing for you. When he says, I'm going to conform you to the image of my son, he's not kidding. He's doing that, and He's going to do it.

Every person in this room. How many of you have ever been to one of those Bible studies at some time in your Christian life, and here was the topic. What is God's will for your life? Like it was something different for everybody in the room. Ever been in one of those? I've been in them. What is God's will for your life? It's the same for everybody.

What is it? to be conformed to the image of his son. That's it. Is there individuality in that? Absolutely. I mean total. But it doesn't sound like it at first. No, it doesn't. If you took the word be out of that last statement, to be conformed to the image of his son, Oh, that's a good point.

That's a great... You understand? Everybody understand? That's a great point. Say, could you repeat the question again? What was the phrase you used? To be conformed to the image of... God works all things together for good to those who are called according to His purpose for whom He foreknew, He foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Romans 8.28-29. But if you take the word be out of it and read that same phrase again, you can see self coming into it and you are trying to conform yourself to that image instead of being conformal.

No, but it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, not to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him that he should reflect past. The Lord is good, and mercy is everlasting, and is truth and direct to all generations. And you know what's cool about that? And that's one of the coolest Old Testament passages, you know, and you rest your heart in that, and then God comes along in the New Testament, in Paul's epistles, in Romans, and says, well, let me show you what specifically you need to trust me about.

You need to trust me with the fact that I identified you with my son in his death, burial, and resurrection. I've separated you positionally from everything that offended me about you. Right? Sin, the world, Satan, law, everything, I separated you. I rose you up in my son in newness of life, and I've positioned you in him. I am ecstatic about that, and I'll never change my mind about it.

But I recognize that there is a process of conditionally conforming you to what I've done for you positionally. And that's what I want you to trust me about. And I'm going to conform you to the very image in your everyday walking around existence to the exact same stature and status that I've already positioned you in Him. Because He pleases me based on who he is and what he's done, and he's a man, and you know what? I'm going to make sure that you please me the same way, in your actions, in your life, every day. That's what I'm up to.

You are conformed positionally, you're going to be conformed as you live your life here, and you know, our buddy Richard Locke, when he went home to be with the Lord, the minute he left this planet, he beheld Christ face to face, and what happened to him? He was instantly, totally conformed. You see that? Because the conformity process happens by us beholding Him. Now we behold as in a mirror, through the Word. But when you leave here, all of the impediments are gone.

And you're face to face with Christ. You're just like Him. Very cool. So I don't care if you're the biggest dog Christian on the planet. God's purpose is going to be carried out in your life. Maybe not here, but the minute you leave, guess what? You're just like Him. Because you'll see Him as He is.

Isn't that cool? So you can, you know, we can rally the troops to frustrate God's plan. Sorry, you're losing. Al's getting a dose of that. Yeah, yeah he is. You know, bless his heart. How are we doing time-wise? Let's do the last question and we'll be done with the paper. What is the nature of the ministry of Him, capital H, who ministers for us in the true tabernacle?

Now, the reason that I ask that question is if you look back at all of the verses that we had to go through, it has to do with Hebrews 7.25.

So, if somebody has that quickly, Hebrews 7.25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Years ago when I was teaching the Romans class, I first started here, in the other room there, I had one Sunday a mock trial. And I had, remember Charlie Hicks, some of you guys, he had a law degree, so I made him the lawyer for the defense and somebody else I made him the defendant, you know, that kind of thing. And we set up a situation where we had a trial before God and Charlie was the guy who was to be the one who was going to defend this person who was a believer here, who was being accused by Satan of being whatever, right?

So is the Lord Jesus' job as a great high priest according to Melchizedek to be begging God to leave you alone when you screw up? Is that what he's doing? What's he doing? How does he make intercession for you? What does he do? I paid for that sin. What's that? I paid for that sin. Not only paid for that sin. By placing you where he is. That's right. Look at him because he's in me. Any accusation or any thought process about your being outside of Christ is not admitted in as evidence because you're there in the Holy of Holies in Christ. And the intercession is because you're in Him. The big difference between the priesthood of Levi and Melchizedek was this, Levi's priesthood was constantly, 24-7, conducting sacrifices to cover the sins of the people. Isn't that what they did? Night and day, never stop. They must have had three shifts, right? And they were hauling those cattle in by the train load, right? And that's all they were doing.

But when Abraham meets Melchizedek on the way back from Salem, on the way back from conquering the kings, what does Melchizedek do to Abraham? He blesses him. So this new priesthood, which is superior to that of the Arianic or the Levitical priesthood, the whole issue is blessing. And if you read Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 and 2, verse 2, when he had made satisfaction for our sins, he sat down. So the sin issue is no longer an issue with God anymore. So the Lord Jesus' whole issue with you is blessing you. Your advocate is blessing you rather than making sacrifice for you, because it's already been done. Let's see... Does that blessing consist of, does it not also consist of, in that prayer, the Holy Spirit bringing us I think of that intercessory prayer as an active thing. It's not passive. It's interesting.

1 John 2.1 says, My little children, these things I write to you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. An advocate is one who speaks in support of another.

Our Lord Jesus has entered heaven, Now to appear in the presence of God for us, Hebrews 9.24. As our high priest, he is in God's presence on our behalf. He's there as our propitiation and atonement. There's never a time that God is not blessing us. You see that?