The Position & Possessions of the Believer # 18 (Lesson 21)
Mike Doyle · Mar 4, 2007
Identification (2006-07), No. 22
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926019106366

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

I get the right lesson here, right? Lesson 21, right? Everybody got that? Okay. It's number on the list of positions and possessions of the believer is number 18. I actually read John 17. A lot of this will be revisiting John 17 from, I think, page 9. We talked a lot about John. First question was, who are the ones that the father gave to the son?

The disciples and the church. So the gift is that our people, right? It's not an inanimate object. It's what we might describe ourselves as saints, right? Set-apart ones. The original eleven were the first ones, and then he referred to the whole body of the church, which we'll talk about in a minute.

And it's interesting, in John 17.6 he said that they were yours, they belonged to you, and you gave them to me. What's the significance of that kind of a viewpoint in terms of thinking about yourself as belonging to the Father? And then there's this gift of you to the Son. Why is that a significant thing? Or is it? Sounds pretty secure to me. Well, secure, yeah.

While you're pondering that, think about yourself as, we were all conceived in the thoughts of divine love, and God considered us of such a value that he would number one, possess us, and two, give us to his son. And we are, believe it or not, most of you won't buy this, but I'm going to tell you anyway, that you're a gift worthy of the giver. and the receiver. So you and I will be forever an expression of the Father's love for the Son.

So when you buy a gift for somebody, what do you do? You calculate your relationship with the person you're buying it for. If it's someone who's of extreme value to you, then you really take a lot of time and search out the gift that would be just perfectly appropriate for them, and that would be suitable for you to give them. And so you think about the father has a gift to give to his son, and it's you. So, you hear me say a lot, how valuable do you think you are? Pretty valuable.

Now, back to my question. Why do you think the father gave you to his son? from an identification standpoint. Why did he do it? Because there was something that had to be done in order to accomplish the purpose of God in terms of the gift. And what had to be done was the identification of all those given to the Son with the Son in his work, so that he might, as he says later, I might present you holy and blameless before me in love. See that? So, when we were given by the Father to the Son, there was this understanding that the gift wasn't going to be tainted. You know what I mean by that? The gift couldn't be. It had to be consistent with who the Father and the Son are.

So the fact that you and I were owned by Christ and identified with him in his death, burial, and resurrection, when we get to Romans 8.3, we will walk in newness of life. See, if you're late, you have to sit in front. So does that make sense to you?

These men that were out of the world, how long had they been in the possession of God? Now, Psalm 139, let me read that. Cheryl, you want to open up your Bible? I only have a new Testament. Good for you. Who's got an old Testament? Okay, Psalm 139, verses 13 through 16. He's up here because he was late. So, what this psalm will talk about is God's knowing a little bit about you before. Go ahead.

Oops, who's got it? me and my mother's will. I will give thanks for you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made and seated, and skillfully brought in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of So it's interesting, it seems from this psalm and some others that, like in Psalm 33.9, for he spoke and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. When were you conceived by God? Maybe this will help.

Ecclesiastes 3.15, that which has been already and that which will be has already been.

When did God conceive you in His mind? He's always had us in His mind. That's right. And when He conceived you, where did He do it? Let me put it this way. Where were you in terms of your position when God conceived you in His mind? Now, I'm asking a time-space question of an eternal reality. But where did He conceive you? When he conceived you, where were you? Where did he conceive you?

What do you think? In Courtney's favorite phrase, in Christ? That's right. That's exactly right. So is it legitimate to say that God has always known you in Christ? What do you think? I think so. I think so. Well, gee, then how do you resolve the issue of, boy, when I came on this planet, I was identified with Adam in nature, and I was one of his progeny. I mean, think about that.

Am I going back on what I said in the second week? forever in Christ, He didn't know us before that. I mean, He makes a statement that He's known us in Christ in the foundations of eternity. Well, eternity has always been. God has always been. He's never had a beginning. Right. But come enter time and space. And so you come into physical existence via Adam, right? So now what? At the cross then, when we were identified with his death, burial, and resurrection.

So Romans 6.28-30. Go ahead. So, as God sees things, everything is happening at once anyway. There's no time within.

That's right. I think that's absolutely right. And what's interesting is, is if God conceived you in your mind, in his mind, that's reality. Whether you're walking around on the planet or not, that's reality. Pardon me. Just a question. So you're making a distinction between being known in him and being in him? Oh, good. That's good. Is being known in him tantamount to being in him?

Well, I think God has known us in Christ from the foundations of eternity. That's who we are. That's our essential identity. But I don't think we're identified with him until Christ comes on the planet and actually goes to the cross. But Christ is termed the Lamb slain from the foundations of eternity. Well, as we know from a time standpoint, somewhere around 2,000 years ago, he was crucified, buried, and resurrected. And the Word of God clearly states that you were there in him when that happened.

Otherwise, we're in the wrong class. We ought to go to the movies. Because if we weren't identified with that event, then we're stuck in our sins. I'm laughing this week because you see on the news, oh, they discovered Jesus' bones. And the first thing that came to mind was, oh, I'm stuck in my sins. Because if they're right, we're all in big trouble. We're still in our sins. And we've never been known in Christ by the Father ever.

Isn't that something? I remember when that first happened, the first year I was a believer, and I actually had a real estate company with some other guys, and they're right over here on Yale and I forget the street just off of Monaco, and I went to lunch with one of my partners and he said, I don't know what this Christian stuff you do, and he said, I read in the paper that they found the bones of Jesus Christ. How can you believe that he was resurrected? I said, well, would they have stamped on a property of Jesus Christ? How do they know?

He said, no, they've got this box that's got his name on it. I said, well, he's not the only guy in history that was ever named Jesus. Come on. I find it very interesting that something from our standpoint is the name and that boy, the world just sucks it right up. And of course, the guy who propagates this is a real guy of authority, you know, a guy who makes movies. He's worth trusting. I'm sorry, I didn't want to go there. Back to your question.

The actual identity of our being in Christ, I think, is something that, because of the way God does things in His economy, He creates, or brings us into physical being on the planet. Identified with that, no question about that. with all of the consequences that Adam is entitled to, and that we're sinners, and that kind of thing. And we're not in Christ's position. He knows us in Him, but we're not positioned in Him yet. And that's, I guess, my thought, that distinction, because if that's true, we can somehow get out of... Skip the gospel.

Yeah, maybe, well, not only that, you skip all the gospel, or you somehow can fall out of him between being known and being in him. Being known is not the same as being in him, positionally. Well, I guess my question would be is that if he's the lamb slain from the foundations of forever, you know, just from whatever, That's what he's saying here is that, I've known you, is because once we are in Him, then that is our history, so He's always known us. So as far as being in Him, it just seems kind of like, well, it doesn't really matter, because in our time frame, there is a point whether you're saved at 4, or whether you're at 32, whatever.

That's for believers, I'm thinking for non-believers. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. If they're a non-believer and he knows them from wherever, that's going to stand true because once they do believe or don't believe, he's already known it because our history has then become Christ. So he's always known Christ as being slain even before he was on this earth. You know, that's what I'm trying to make the distinction between a believer who is then known in Him, who is positionally known, and being in Him. And then, yes, it's all true of His history, it's true of us, and all that.

But, you know, what I was trying to get at, when you say you're known in Him and you're a non-believer, somehow you get out of that. No, you can't. That's what I want to say. That's a different position for a non-believer who never comes to know the Lord. He was known by Him, or known, but he's not in Him.

Well, and when you make the statement that you were known by Him from the foundations of eternity, like in Romans 8, 28, 29, 30, He's not talking about knowing what you do. He's talking about knowing you personally as a person. And I think that you're making a really good distinction because when you start into this argument, you know, pretty soon you get to the point where the logic doesn't fit, except for the fact a non-believer or every human being has a physical beginning on the planet, right?

And from that point on, they can say, well, that's my beginning, but my beginning really started in Adam, because that's where I came from, okay? But there was no history of me before Adam. Isn't that right? Right? And so you start with Adam, and a soul is eternal, it lives on and on for all eternity. But at some point in time, a human being believes in the person and work of the Lord Jesus, and he's taken out of Adam and placed into Christ. Now, how far back does this history go? Eternity. Why? Because he's in the eternal man. So I think statements like, he's always known you in Christ, well, is always a term that can be equal to eternity. I used to, I like what Hal used to say about eternity was, we think of it as an expansion of time that never begins and never ends.

He thought of it as everything coming down together and all going on at the same time. And that would fit with God's omissions. He has all thoughts, all knowledge in play all the time. He doesn't think sequentially like we do. He's not thinking about the future. Everything is now with him. studying revelation years ago, and he was talking about your name being blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life.

How I understood it, and I could be wrong, is that everyone's name is in there, but once you've died and you have not, that's when your name is. That was another one of Malloy's teachings, and you know, to be honest with you, I've never reconciled that in my mind. I don't know. I don't know the answer. Because this is the exact same question. That's exactly it. Exactly.

Because if you, and that's what I was trying to get at, if you're known in Him, somehow then when you die or, and you're a non-believer, are you not known by Him? Uh-huh. You know, and that's, you get out, like, blotted out of the Book of Life. You're now suddenly not known. Well, yeah, because your debt has already been paid. He's got to know who to write the check to. And if you never cash it, then it's a voided check. There's another issue here.

Can all names be in the Book of Life that are not necessarily in Christ? In other words, God deals with us graciously, and we're the ones that... God's will is that none should perish. Salvation goes out to all men. And the issue, I think, in the final judgment, as we looked in John 14, you know, that the Spirit of God has been sent to convict the world of sin, of sin because they don't believe on me. Well, a person who's not a believer is going to have to answer for his deeds, his sins, because he's still attached to the sin nature, the sinner guy, right?

But the bottom line issue is What do you think of this man, Christ? That's the whole issue. Because he's the Savior. You know, you're condemned because you don't believe in him. Well, you say, well, how about the guy in Pittsburgh that never heard of Christ? Well, that's God's business. That's the spirit of God's business. He's the one that does the convicting. You know. I mean, there... Jeremy.

Let me know that when we talk about, you know, the life in Christ, does that talk about everyone? Or is that just talking about the elect, the saints? Yes, I think so. Because in Revelation, when he sends everyone to judgment, he says, Apart from me, person, I never knew you. Or does that mean those that never accept Christ, he never knew them? That it cannot be said that they've known Christ from the beginning of the world? Yeah. So those that we're talking about, who are known in Christ, those are the ones that are the elect, that are you could say the eternal elect, from the beginning of the world as we see it.

And in God's case, always at that moment, He knows that we are the ones that are going to be saved. So He foreknew it. The other ones, But there's a common grace, like you said, that he's on that medicine parish, that all should come to repentance. There's that common grace. But then the ones that he foreknew, the ones that are going to be in him, those are the ones that he foreknew. But the ones that aren't in him, he can say, I never knew you. I never knew you in Christ. You're never in Christ, so I never knew you.

Yeah. I think you have to make a distinction, too, when you come to the Great White Throne Judgment, that those believers that are in Christ in this dispensation from Pentecost to the Rapture, don't go to the Great White Throne Judgment to be judged.

They're there to do the judging of the angels. When Christ comes to take us in the air, we meet him in the clouds, resurrected body, no sin nature, and we go and participate in this thing called the Bema Judgment. which is really a place of rewards, not of judgment. We all get rewarded there. And then there's the wedding feast of the Lamb, and the judgment period's over for us. There's nothing to be judged. And the beam of judgment has nothing to do with sins, because they're not an issue, right? Are your sins an issue before God? No, they're not.

They may be because of your fellowship, but they're not So at the Great White Throne Judgment, I think the judgment is for wheat and tares, you know, those other saints, Old Testament Jews, Millennial Kingdom Saints, based on their deeds and based on whether they knew and had faith in Christ or not.

When you start talking about election, One word of warning, you don't ever want to talk to a non-believer about election. Why would you? Because to win the argument, he's going to say, I'm not one of the elect, what are we talking about? Let's get a burger. What does election have to do with?

When you read Romans 8, 28 and 29, whom God foreknew, God works all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew, He did predestinate for what purpose? Salvation? No, to be conformed to the image of his Son.

Now who is he talking about there? Believers only, right? And he's talking about a predestined outcome for those who are already believers. So that he would be the firstborn among many brethren, and those whom he predestinated he also called, and those he called he justified, and those and he justified, he also glorified. Who are those people? Believers.

So you're a called one, you're a justified one, but the issue, the predestination to be conformed to the image of his son is only for believers. And predestination, if you look in the New Testament, is things that are predestined about believers, not things that are predestined about persons who are not believers. There is no predestination in that discussion.

Second Timothy 1.9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. Pretty cool. So, before time began, The Father took possession of us by making us the subjects of his gracious thoughts and counsels. And his purpose and object in thus taking possession of us was that he might give us to his Son. That's why he did it. See that?

Probably pretty cool, actually. You think of yourself as a gift? I never do. One of the things you discover, or I've discovered in the study of these 34 things, is that God's grace is overwhelming. He tells us things that are true of us that we would never even think of. The fact that we're a gift, that we are a gift, and the cool thing about that is that you're worthy enough to be that gift because of what He's done.

You think to yourself, all week long I want you to go around thinking, I'm a gift. I'm worthy to be a gift of the Father to the Son. It would be cool if you thought that way, wouldn't it? So, from your point, how does it strike you that you're a gift? How do you think about that?

First of all, do you really believe that? Do you really think that's true? In your mindset, as you live your life every day, is this one of the things that runs through your mind about every ten minutes? Oh, you know what? I'm a gift. Do you think about that? Come on, get honest with me. No, you don't. But you are. So here we are, studying the Word of God, and the Word of God says, you know what? You're a gift. And you were my gift to my son. That's who you are. And you know what?

It doesn't matter whether you buy it or not, it's true. So we're at the same dilemma that we talk about almost every week. If we would just believe what God tells us is true of us, It would change our whole outlook on everything, wouldn't it? If you're, when you have your difficult circumstance on Tuesday afternoon at 3.30, if the Spirit of God said to you, hey, you're a gift, you're the gift from the Father to the Son, that's who you are. When you're thinking you're not very important, that's who you are. And the 34 things that we're studying, none of these are things that are going to be true in the future. These are all things that are true of us right now.

So I don't know if you track that thinking, but if that becomes your value system, and that becomes the way that you, you know, in our society we talk a lot about self-esteem. If this becomes the elements of your esteem, I mean, you're going to be bubbling over with esteem because it's going to be centered in Christ and what's already true of you.

Rather than thinking, you know, I didn't do so good today, I've got to do something, please God. But you can come up with something that's better than this? What can you come up with that would match the fact that you're a gift from the Father to the Son? Let me know, I'm interested. Someone might say, well, he's only referring to those saints then, in John 17, when he was talking to them. How can we say that the church was included? Did I give you the scripture reference there? John 10, 29, isn't it? 17, 20. Oh, yeah.

Cheryl, why don't you read it? I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their words. So it's interesting, those that believe on him through their word, the word of the disciples, they're equally partakers of all that this immeasurable prayer discloses. So is there any way that you can cease being included as a gift to the Son? You say, oh, never mind, I don't want to do that. What do you think? How many think you could maybe come up with something? How many are convinced you can't? There's nothing you can do. Tell me why. Why can't you? It's not dependent on me. That's exactly right. It's not dependent on me.

John 6.39, And this is the will of him that sent me, that all that which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up on the last day."

John 6.39. So, I mean, aren't there just legions of believers that think that they can worm their way out of their position in Christ, lose their salvation? What's it based on?

I think the answer that you just gave me was it's not dependent on me. If your thinking is that I can lose my salvation or lose my giftedness or my being a gift, the bottom line is that I could if it was up to me. That's the issue. So that brings up the weekly problem of sovereignty and responsibility. What's your responsibility here? When it comes to salvation, do you have a responsibility?

To believe. So once you believe, is this a guarantee? It is, because salvation, the whole package of salvation, is something God has done. And your faith doesn't contribute to it, doesn't add to it. Your faith just believes in what somebody else did. But if you do believe, you get the whole thing. Right? And not only that, I mean, God is so gracious to us and careful to repeat time after time about the security. The Spirit of God is the earnest. He's the guarantee.

And if you were in Christ, if you're identified with Christ, give me the mechanics, if it were possible, what would the mechanics be of your getting out of Christ? What would have to happen? God would no longer be God because he would be lying. Somebody would have found the bomber. Yeah, the bomb guy would be right. He would have to keep dying over and over.

Or how about this, they'd have to put the projector in reverse. You know, we saw the death, the burial, the resurrection, Pentecost, right? Reverse. Pentecost, resurrection, burial, death. Now I'm out of Christ. But he'd have to go through the reverse for me to lose. You see that?

My security is based solely on him and what he's done. And since he's not going to do that anymore according to Romans 6, then I'm absolutely sure that all that he says is true of me is true of me because he's the guarantee. Doesn't a lot of the insecurity and everything come from the blurring of the lines between position and condition? I think that, you know, we're talking about positional things here. And positional, we can't do anything about it. It's secure, it's 100%. We can't do anything about it. Position, once we're in it, our condition can vary all over the map, and I think that's where People, you know, have doubts about security, have doubts about all this. They draw that line between position and condition. That's right.

So you come to a place like Holly Hills, and they have this principle called position and condition, and you've never heard it before, and you think, what is that all about? But it goes a long way to explain why my activity, my daily life, doesn't affect what God's statements are about me. I mean, the Brethren came up with standing and state, modified later by somebody else who said position and condition, which I think position and condition is a better way to look at it. The facts of our position should always outweigh the feelings of our condition.

Always. Because your condition, well, maybe some of you, but my condition hardly ever lines up in my position. That's what spiritual growth really is all about. But the focus of your faith is to be where? On your position. And the 34 things we're discussing are positional truths.

So, if you're involved in any enterprise that the Lord has got you engaged in, a spiritual It's pretty quick that the lines are going to get blurred, and you're going to think, oh gee, boy, if I'm positioned in Christ. It's like the young believer who, two weeks later, commits the same old sin they were doing before they were saved, and they start thinking, did this salvation thing really take? Did the tattoo heal over? What's the deal here? Because if I were a Christian, I wouldn't be acting that way. Oh yeah, you would. Yeah, you would. But isn't it nice that you don't have to? You don't have to. You don't have to. But let me ask you a question.

Is it the strength of your faith that keeps you from doing it? What do you think? When you discover, as you discover positional truth, is it your faith, the strength of your faith that keeps you from, you know, going 65 in a 40 zone again? What told you it was wrong? What told you it was wrong?

You got something. That's right. That's right. What did I get? I got more than something. You got a lot. I got a new life and I got the Spirit of God. Lewis Barry Chaffer says it the best of anybody I've ever studied. He says that the believer has been given a supernatural life that's totally impossible for him to live. But he's also been given the second part. He's been given the Holy Spirit of God, and it's his job to enable the believer to live that supernatural life. So it's kind of cool that that's the way it is.

So what's your role? What do you do? I must get tired of sitting on your hand. What's that? Believe it. Believe it. Sure. On Tuesday we're talking about grace and we've kind of wound down to, and I've mentioned in this class, when grace comes towards you, what do you do with it? You take it. Take it. Just receive it.

You know, as soon as you think in your mind, I've got to do, if you were going to give me a jar of water and I'm reaching in my pocket for quarters, grace is gone. See that? The minute you think, oh, I've got to do something to either pay God back or be worthy of His grace, it isn't grace anymore. And if you think your faith is like that, it's payback or worthiness, you are on a legal basis. Or it's obligatory. or you have what Macaulay calls a merit mentality. I've got to merit things. No, you don't. Because if you do, it isn't grace. So if you're a gift from the Father to the Son, all grace. What did you do to merit that? Nothing. You didn't do anything. How much and how often does God give us eternal life? How much eternal life do you get? However much you can afford? How much do you get? By the way, what is eternal life according to the Lord Jesus and John?

When he describes what it is, what is it? Presence in the Lord. Well, it's to know Him and the One who sent Him. Isn't that interesting? Eternal life has to do with knowing. So, how much is unlimited? How often do you get it? We're having a fill-up party at 2.30 on Friday.

John 10.29, starting at 28. And this is the teaching that Vern had that was terrific.

And I am constantly giving them eternal life. They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. If the Lord Jesus says, how often am I given an eternal life?

Constantly. Never stops. All the time. Never stops running. So it's unlimited, it's like grace, it's unlimited, and it's time. Any questions? Let's talk about circumcision. Probably the best way I've got limited time to get through this. Let's read the three verses that I asked you to take a look at.

To cut that down, Davis, would you read Colossians 2.11, Philippians 3.3, and Ingrid Romans 2.29? In Him you are also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with the circumcision done by the hands of men, but with the circumcision done by Christ. We are the true circumcision, to worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.

Romans 2.29, Now a man is a Jew, if he is like inwardly, and circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, by the spirit, not by the written code, such a man's praise is not separate from God.

Circumcision was big stuff in the Old Testament, right? In the Jewish economy. And everything, most everything in the Jewish economy was what was known as a type or an example of what was really to come. What does circumcision represent? from a spiritual standpoint.

I mean, it's the cutting off of the flesh, right? And we like to look at it as it's an identifying mark. They're all Jewish males who say, oh, hey, you're one of the tribe. I can tell. But the act of circumcision itself, what does it depict? Purification. What's that? Purification. Think about it. What does it depict? Identification.

Because when you're crucified, buried and resurrected with Christ, what gets cut off, so to speak? What do you get separated from? Which is the flesh, right? That's why God had it. It's a type of what the real thing was going to be. So, when the Lord Jesus and Paul talk about the difference between physical and spiritual circumcision, real, external and internal circumcision, do you see the parallel?

The circumcision of the heart is what? What would that transaction look like? If I said, come over to my house, we're going to have heart circumcisions this afternoon, what would we be talking about doing? What would we be cutting off? I've got my exacto knife ready. What would we be cutting off if we were going to circumcise your heart? Cutting off something from the heart. What would you be cutting off from the heart? The world. The world? What else? Sin? Sin nature.

It would be separating you, the believer, from the sin nature. That's what circumcision is really about. You see that? So when Paul says, you know, you Jews who are outwardly circumcised, it doesn't matter. What really matters is your heart circumcised. In other words, circumcision is another word for separation. It's another word for death. It's separating you from something. The cross circumcised you from the world of flesh and the devil. So circumcision of the heart separates you from sin, self, flesh, the devil, the world, law, that kind of thing.

So when you read in Colossians 2.11, in whom you were also circumcised were the circumcision made not with hands, well how did he do it? In the putting off of the body of the flesh, isn't that interesting? in the circumcision of Christ.

This is not a religious ritual like the Jews went through. Coming out of Catholicism, everything was ritual. Oil and water. The spiritual circumcision is really identification. Do you see that? That's really what it is. If you were to define circumcision from a spiritual standpoint, you would say it is a type or a fleshly example of our identification with Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection. Our death with him severed us spiritually from our old man, which is the flesh. Do you see that?

Is circumcision a positional or conditional truth? Position? Yeah, position. Explain why. The first indication of spiritual circumcision is Romans 6, right? The chapter of Romans 6, position or condition, at least the first ten verses which describe our identification with Christ. Position. So it's a positional truth.

So, the believer was in the flesh and the flesh was in him. But now the believer is in Christ, but the flesh is still in him. He is severed from him. So the event that describes Christian circumcision is what? The cross of Christ. Philippians 3.3 says, For we are the circumcision by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

What would give us the confidence to glory in Christ Jesus? Do you know what that phrase means, to glory in Christ? What does it mean? If I said to you that I want you all to glory in Christ, what am I saying? This is harder than you thought, isn't it? Well, does that mean to be diverse somewhere that says, you know, let's be holy in a mirror going from glory to glory? Does that mean knowing Him more and more?

Yeah, that's a good way to describe it. You could describe it as to settle down and to live and grow precisely where we have been reborn in Christ Jesus, just to stay where you are. Charles Coates said, it's a great thing to have the consciousness that we are bound up with him there in heavenly glory, and to know that we are with him in that sphere of ascension to participate in all that constitutes his life in that blessed circle of love and glory where he lives unto the Father. If I apprehend this, if we apprehend this, we shall not be deceived or intoxicated by what goes on in the world or on the earth. The idea of glorying in Christ Jesus, God's glory is the sum total of the intrinsic attributes, so he comes at us and he says, okay, I'm telling you all this stuff that I've done, and I want you to believe me, and I want you to live in it, which is described as the glory in Christ Jesus.

Because what are they? If you were to describe the 34 things that are true of you, that happened in Christ. Who did they happen to when they happened to us? They happened to Christ. They're elements of His glory. So if you abide in Him, you're abiding in the glory of Christ. You see that? If you just believe Him about being a gift, that's abiding in glory. Make sense?

What does it mean to worship Him in spirit and not in the water? This one ought to be easy. You guys really know about worshipping in the letter, right? In the spirit, not in the letter. What does that mean? What's the difference? Alright, let's make it simple. If you were to take on the exercise of worshipping God in the letter, what would you be doing?

You're all here. By the letter of the law, you got up this morning and you got over here. And you're all going to go upstairs, and you're all going to recite the prayers, and you're all going to sit down at the right time, stand up at the right time, sing at the right time, help out at the right time, read at the right time. We're going to have a few other events over the next few weeks, and you're all going to be here dutifully like you're supposed to be. Can we count on that bleeding at the right time? Well, everybody in case of you, you have to stay after.

So that's what worshipping God in the letter is about. I said last week that if I were Satan and I wanted to make the church ineffective, you know what I would do? I'd make them all go to church. I'd dress them all up, clean them up, get them all involved in these rituals and traditions, and have them down at the first whatever church every Sunday and every Wednesday night and whenever I could. And I'd get them to believe that they're really doing something for me, for God. That's worshipping God in them, via the letter.

Because somebody gave you a list to do, you know, the laundry list. If you do the first 35, you're okay. So, well, gee, if somebody tears up that sheet and there's nothing for me to do, and the Word of God says I've got to worship God in the Spirit, I'm in trouble because I don't have a list of things to do. How do you do that?

How do you worship God in the Spirit? And you know, the Lord Jesus told the woman at the well that God was searching for people to worship Him that way. What was He asking for? What's He looking for? How do you worship God in the Spirit? Sing longer, right? By becoming identified in Him. Identified in Him. But from... Worship is something you do. From your heart. How do you do it? In the Spirit. In intimacy with Him. Say that? In intimacy and relationship with Him. In intimacy and relationship with Him. You mean it isn't speaking in tongues? No? Walk around the church seven times? The deal is, I think, is that Worship is one of those words that means worthy. Is God worthy of all of your attention, all of your quote-unquote worship, all of what you are? Yeah.

But you know, He's interesting in that because He loves us, He presents the worthiness to us so that we can understand what it is, and we respond in faith, and as the Spirit of God reveals the worthiness of Christ to us, we worship Him in spirit. Do you see that? Because all of these positional truths are spiritual truths. Does that make sense? So as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, your capacity to worship Him in spirit increases dramatically, because you appreciate and rest in and abide in what He's already done. Make sense?

Anybody want to add to that? I've got a few things to quote here, we've got a minute to go. Now Paul writes to all who are new creations in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision table at hand, putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. I would say to you that if you understood that verse, and rested in it, and abided in it, and really lived by the work of the Spirit in that verse, you wouldn't have any trouble worshipping God in the Spirit. Imagine living all the way free from the flesh. It would be pretty cool. Done. It's done. Okay. Any questions?

Dear Father, how thankful we are to learn of your dear Son, the love of Jesus, and to find out that increasingly we learn more of what your grace is, how it abounds towards us, how there's nothing left that is left to be done, that it's overwhelming. We are to grow in the knowledge and grace of your Son, and in response to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We thank you, Father.