The Position & Possessions of the Believer #19 (Lesson 22)

Okay, finishing up, we're going to go back to, we're going to go back to, if you're from God the Father, and I have gotten through, I think, number 5, right? Is that right? And number 5, what was the question on number 5? And as we have discussed in the past, what is this oneness with John Newton? Okay. Everybody got their thinking hats on this morning? Did I put in there, Steve, week nine? I didn't do that. That was my own note. Okay.

Off the top of your head, based on your diligent study over the week, let me know, give me some of the unities that we have. Does anybody know what unity means? It means oneness. So give me an idea in your mind what we have. Oneness with God, oneness with each other. We have oneness with each other, oneness with the Lord. We are members of the same body. We have the same righteousness, the same trust, the same hope, the same confidence. We have the unity of faith, the faith. We have the same spirit, who is the unifier.

We are one heart, Acts 4.32.

We are knit together in love, Colossians 2.2. I wrote in here a little note that believers can't help but love one another. That's pretty cool, I think that's right. We are joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. The whole idea of this class, what's the best synonym for identification? Union. Yeah, union. Union with Christ. So whatever is true of Him, positionally and possession-wise is true of every one of us. Every one of us. I think if there is anything that would...

I like to take the role of Satan. If I was Satan and I wanted to keep you from being effective as Christians, I wouldn't want you to find out about this unity. I wouldn't want you to find out about your position and possessions in Christ. And I certainly wouldn't want you to live by faith. I'd want you to live by sense and reason and experience and reactions and the cares and woes of the world.

So I keep you away from this unity, and once you find out it, I've given you the list of the 34 things. As you look over that list, every single one of those things is what you are. Every one of them. So people say, well, gee, I'm a believer, I have faith, and I like to ask, but what do you believe? Those 34 are pretty good. They're pretty good.

Of course, the six I have is who's the son of perdition? It's not Ben. Who is the son of perdition? Judas Iscariot. Some might say he's only referring to John 17, 20. when we're talking about this unity, that he's only referring to St. Ben, how can you say that the church now is included?

John 17.20 is the answer.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word. So there's a line of information that comes down from the Lord Jesus to the disciples down through 2,000 years to us through the word of God. So when the Lord Jesus is praying in John 17, he means all of the church for all of the time that it's here. and that everybody in the body of Christ shares all of that oneness that he talks about.

So, describe the new undertaking God introduced in John 17 when it comes to securing the gift for himself. That's a tough question. I'm going to say it again. Describe the new undertaking God introduced in John 17. It's a new undertaking that God decided to do when it comes to securing of the gift to himself. The title of this number is A Gift from God the Father to Christ. So how do you secure the gift? Anybody got the Bible open to John 17? My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through the message that all of them may be one.

Father, it's just as you are in me and I am in you. That's part of it. Twenty four, where it says, I will. Father, I will that they also who now have given me be with me where I am. Verse twelve, I was with them. I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me. And I guarded them. One of them perished with the sons of tradition. And then also eleven. I'm no longer in the world, but they themselves are in the world. I come to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name, thy name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even if we are not.

And the next to the last book in the Bible is from Jude, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. What I was after was, what did Christ do to guarantee the gift? The verse I had in mind, I didn't write down the verse, but it's, for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth. What's the word sanctify mean?

Set apart. So the Lord Jesus set apart himself for their sakes. Right? That's what he says. So what does he do? So that they also might be set apart through the truth. So every one of you, and me, I get the conclusion in this. The Lord Jesus Christ set himself apart, brought us with him, as the gift, and that sanctification guarantees, secures the gift from the Father to the Son, that we are separate, unique. maybe in a couple of weeks, about being, we're talking about the first United Royal Priesthood, peculiar people, kings, these incredible statements that have to do with every one of us as believers. So how is this unity communicated through the centuries? How was it? How was it? And I don't mean verbally communicate, how was this unity carried on from God's perspective? Through the body. And actually I think that the verse that best describes this is Romans 8, 628, I'm sorry, 828 to 30, and I'll just snip this up.

Those who are called according to his purpose, that's every believer, he foreknew he also predestinated. For what reason? What did he predestinate believers to be? Conformed to the image of his son. And those he predestinated he called, and those he called he justified, and those he justified he glorified. So all of those things are part of this gift and the securing of the gift by God so that they are the possession of his son.

So if you decide that, well, this is all well and good, but I don't want to be a gift anymore, can you pull that off? Why not? You're not the one that's doing the securing. That's right, it's not your will to put this thing together. And it's interesting, in John 6.39, the Lord says, And this is the will of him that sent me. So here's the will of God the Father. His will. That of all that which He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise enough in the last day. I know that if you think you're Americans and you abide under the Constitution of the United States and you've got free will and you think you can pull anything off, sorry, you can't fix this, but you can't change this. Because it's God's will.

Does John 10.29 only secure blessing for us, or does it go much further from God's point of view? And I'm looking for the same kind of an answer that has to do with no one is able to smash them out of the Father's hand. The security of the gift that we are is a permanent thing and guaranteed by God himself.

Last question on this is, on John 10, 28 and 29, how much and how often does God give us eternal life? My kid's son on Thursday, I got a little bit on Friday. Gary got some last Tuesday, so how it goes. How much and how often do you get eternal life? By the way, to make it easy, what is eternal life? It's eternal. What is eternal life?

What he says it is. Oh, you do know him. Yeah, I know him. John 17.3, right?

And to know the Father and to know the Son is eternal life. So how often... How much do you get of eternal life? You get it all. All of it. But it's interesting that eternal life is based on knowing. It isn't pulling into the spiritual gas station and getting 400 gallons of super unleaded eternal life.

How often do you get it? If you look at that verse, it says, I am constantly giving them eternal life. I'm constantly giving eternal life to them. And they'll never perish. So once eternal life starts, it's a stream that functions non-stop all the time.

It's like living under grace. How aggressively does grace come at you? It's unlimited and it's unmerited and it moves towards you and you live in it all the time. It never stops. By the way, those of you who came in late, did you get all of the papers we were handing out?

I'm trying to do a little bit of a reconstruction here. You should. The next thing we're going to tackle is number 19. Less than 22. Everybody got one of those. Oh, there's that one. You've already got an extra 1922. Here's a couple. OK, this is what we went over last week. Well, part of it. All right. Last week, what we were doing, this is when I got the weird looks, which I should have got. I asked you.

In Colossians 2, what word describes the relationship between the believer and Christ? Remember that? That's when I started giving the word a look. So, let's start with the identification and truth, circumcised in Christ, lesson 21, number 19, and we'll just do the questions we didn't do last week. The first one is, read Colossians 2, 8-15, what words describe the relationship of the believer with Christ? So let's do that. We'll go to Colossians, chapter 2. If you've got a good Bible, it's on page 12. Let's see. Gary, would you read eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12? Thank you. Thirteen, fourteen, two. Eight through twelve.

See to it that no one takes your eucapody through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form, and ye have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him ye were also circumcised, and putting off the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, have 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. That's a tough word, isn't it?

So, if you start with verse 9, and it says, and it talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, that for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So that's the standard, okay? Now the question is, what words describe the relationship of a believer with Christ? And starting in verse 10, That's the first one. What's the relationship with the one who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily? What does it say? You're complete in Him, or you're made full in Him, or nothing left out. It's salvation, fullness. Not only salvation, but health. It's fullness. You are made full.

Now again, here we go. Here's something for you to believe. The next one is in verse 11. What's it say in verse 11 that's true of you? You were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. But you have been circumcised. That's also part of what you are. Verse 12. You were buried with him, right? With him in baptism.

That's the Romans 6.3 truth, right? We're buried with him in baptism, and we're also risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. So if he's raised, so are you. And verse 13. And you being dead in your sins, that's what you used to be, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he's made alive.

The brother in life of the original King James, use the word quicken, I really like that word. Because it means newness of life, it doesn't mean coming back to the dead like Lazarus, it's a brand new kind of life. I think Al said, a new principle of life. These verses in Colossians are really cool because they say, the Lord Jesus is this, now here's who you are. So define what circumcision is from a spiritual standpoint. I don't have to explain to you what physical circumcision is, unless you missed that class. What is circumcision from a spiritual standpoint?

What is it? The cutting away of flesh. That's right. So how? Fleshly nature. It's interesting that God introduces circumcision in the old system, the Mosaic law, and it's the cutting off of the flesh, right? It separates the man from a piece of his flesh.

So from a spiritual standpoint, what other word, what other description would you describe for a believer that is spiritual circumcision? What other word would you use? Would you not use the word crucifixion? Where you and I, through our death with the Lord Jesus Christ, we got severed from or cut off from what?

Not just a little piece of the flesh, the whole thing. So we are positionally separated from the flesh because of our union with Christ after our resurrection. Well, circumcision was also identification. Besides the taking off the flesh, it also identifies. It identifies you as, in the old time, as being a Jew. Now we have the identification with Christ. It not only takes the flesh off, but it also is an identification.

Because every believer is... It's also not gender specific. Not gender specific? Do you hear that? Every believer, conditionally, is to function post-circumcision, is the way to put it. Which is a sign that you really are different. You really are separate. You know what I look at it as? As a scan. As a what? A scan. As an MRI scans the body. There's no flesh there. Nothing to see. It's going to be made through.

Is circumcision a positional thing or a conditional thing? Spiritual circumcision. How many think it's positional? How many think it's conditional? How many of you are afraid of raising your hand? I don't have a blackboard, I can't do the chicken thing.

It's positional. It's positional. It's like your identification with Christ, death, burial and resurrection. It's positional. And those of you who have spent some time talking about position and condition, is your position a certainty? Is it locked in? Can't be changed even by your own actions and activities? Can't be changed.

So why is circumcision not a fleshly ritual for the believer? Why isn't that something? I mean, we do this fascism thing, but we don't have circumcisions. I mean, we can say, hey, wait a minute, we talk a lot about circumcision, and it doesn't, why don't we have one? We'll all gather this afternoon, we're going to have a circumcision. He wants to volunteer. Why is it not, why isn't it a ritual with us?

Because it's done in the heart. That's why. It's a cutting off of the flesh from the very core of the person. It's separating him. It's not physical in our case. Paul wrote to the Jews, he said, look, he is not a Jew who is one outward leap, identification. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and the circumcision is done at the heart, in the spirit, and not at the letter. So what event then can be described as the circumcision of a Christian? When did you get circumcised? When you were crucified with Christ.

That's exactly right. That's the event. Every believer was circumcised when they died with Christ. Because of what? Separation. Well, the Jews can say, well, I died to that little piece of flesh that they cut off of me. The believer can say, I've died to the entire thing of flesh because of my union with Christ.

On what basis can the believer have no confidence in the flesh? I think we talked about this last time. There's a basis on which you and I have no confidence in the flesh. I can't stand up here and say to you, look, you shouldn't have any confidence in the flesh. I better give you a good reason. What's the good reason? What's that? It's dead. It's not dead. That's a very important distinction. The flesh isn't dead. Your old man isn't dead. That's a separation that means that you got separated from.

So, I want you to think about your confidence and reliance on the flesh. Like it or not, as growing believers, there are once in a while that you rely on Christ. Not very often. Once in a while, you know. But as you gain the knowledge, the intimate knowledge of your identity with Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection, then you have the knowledge that persuades you, through the work of the Spirit, that you've been separated from the old man and all of his associations. All of them. And now you can worship God in the Spirit and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now I have to tell you, as I'm living my life with the Lord and talking to him, I say to him, boy, you know, I really do have a lot more confidence in the flesh than I should have.

I really do, don't you all? It proves to be false confidence every time, but I still do it. Because I'm more comfortable with the flesh because I've spent more time with it. Right? I think that my rational mind can solve a spiritual problem or any problem without confidence in Christ alone. But you know what? To me the great rest in all of that is the Spirit of God knew that long before I did.

And the dumb one here is me. So he's showing me his word, and telling me to believe it. And the Spirit of God is working that confidence in him, in me, on a two-sided street. So I learn not to have confidence in the flesh, and I learn to have confidence only in him. But it's based on the truth that he told me. And he says to me, believe me. Okay? I believe him.

Put the word, you know, if you're like me, I have too much confidence in the flesh, way too much. So, describe the different elements of worshipping by the Spirit of God as opposed to fleshly worship. Understand the question? Now, you know, we don't have a choir. Well, we do have an orchestra, don't we? A highly social orchestra, all six of them. What would be the elements of worshipping God in the Spirit? What does the word worship mean? What makes God worshipable?

I think the proper response to grace is thank you. Thank you. That's exactly right. the result is the Holiness of God. Because what do you find out? You find out that God is worthy of your worship. How do you find that out? How do you find that out? That He's worthy? Sit around and wait for it? How do you find that out? Where do you find it?

In the Word of God. So the first thing is that the Word of God has got to be known. Right? That's the number one thing. You've got to know the Word of God. If you don't know that, then you don't have the information, even the communicable information that says to you God is worthy. What's the next thing then? Once you know it, now what?

You've got to believe it. Not legally believe it. I'm not saying line up and we're going to tattoo you if you believe. I think it's the things that the Holy Spirit takes one through. That's right. Well no, I don't think so. I think it's the Holy Spirit revealing the Word of God to the believer and persuading him that what he's reading is in fact true. I mean, you think about it.

If you're a young believer, and you've got faith, and you understand grace, and you believe God and are rested in and persuaded about the fact that I'm eternally secure, and then the word of God comes along and says, oh yeah, by the way, 2000 years ago when Christ died, you died with him. Now your rational mind is going to say, no way! You know, I looked in the mirror this morning, I don't look any different. I'm not dead and alive.

So the Spirit of God does what? He persuades you, you did. And here's the reason why it's so important. The revealing of the Word of God shows you clearly why your identification with Christ and his death, burial and resurrection is an incredible element of grace and is something God did. Somebody comes along and hands you this sheet with 34 things on it and you start going down that and reading it and there isn't one of those things that are there that your rational mind would say, oh yeah, no problem.

That's true. The gift of God. The gift from the Father to the Son. I'm a son. I'm circumcised. Pick one. It's just nuts. Your rational mind wouldn't find that for a minute. Because it's experience based. And you can't say, gee, I don't feel circumcised. I don't feel like I'm a kid. Where's the bow?

So what the Spirit of God does is, in His Word, He begins to show you these things, like we just read in Colossians. In Christ Jesus draws the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Bang! Now here comes these things about you. You're complete in Him. I am? Yes, you are. So the second thing is that you believe it. The third thing is what?

If you know and you believe, what does the Spirit of God do, allow you to do in here? I think the Word of God goes from objective fact to love and affection with a person. And as you spend time in that Word, through those truths, via the energy of the Spirit, a person begins to unfold in front of you. and it's the ability to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus. So what is the deal here? You and I, as believers, have a personal intimacy with Christ that no one else in the world has. Imagine that God would do such a thing, that He would create an environment in the body of Christ that He talked about in John 17, that every single believer that's on the earth can have intimacy with the Son of God right now. He can behold His glory, There's a consequence from beholding this glory. What is it?

You are transformed. Where are you focusing on? The beholding? Well, he's doing the transforming. You don't even know what's going on, because you're taken up with him. When all of that comes to play, I think you find him worthy of all praise and worship.

You see that? That's where it comes from. It isn't because someone gave you a list of rules, or because someone said this is how you ought to do it. It's the Word of God entered into by you via the energy of the Spirit of God as God reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to you. Maybe you ask it this way. When Hal Melloy went home to be with his Lord, the very second that he entered into glory, Did God have to give him a set of rules? You know, we worship God around here.

Did he have to do that? Why not? Why not? Why didn't he have to do that? He was already suited and he saw. And the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ solicits a response, which is worship. It's very cool. It's kind of like the flip side of the sinner. You don't have to be taught how to sin. That's just who you are. When you step into eternity, it's just the flip side. You don't have to be taught how to worship.

And I'm learning that it's really an intimate romance. That's a good way to put it, because that's really what it is. It's an intimate romance with the Son of God. The third step is knowing that the last that always comes to my mind is rest. The rest is where the relationship comes from. Stop striving, stop. The rest is where you concentrate, focus, have the intimate fellowship with the Lord. That's kind of the final step, I think.

Rest is one of those benefits, maybe is the way to put it, that a believer, a gracious benefit that a believer experiences as he grows in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, because as he reads and understands and believes, there aren't any circumstances. We had some people over last night, we were talking about this very thing. He said to me, you know, someone was talking about a buddy of his, And the conversation with the buddy, the buddy who called him up and said, well, you know, I had this particular really troubling, as a Christian, came out of a charismatic environment, a really troubling, bad situation in my life, and then and then and then he went on for 15 minutes, and this guy said, let's see, I guess in Romans 8, 28, your circumstance isn't one of those awful things, God must have missed that one. And the light went on in that guy's mind, and he said, oh yeah, I am one of the all things, or this is one of the all things. That's the list that's rest. Philippians, Paul says, make all your requests known unto the Lord. And does it say that he's going to give you the thing that you're after? No. What does he promise to give you?

The peace that passes understanding, I've got to tell you, there's nothing cooler than that. If God gives you the peace that passes understanding, whatever you thought was so important that you needed, doesn't measure up to the peace that passes understanding. That's really a cool thing. And if you have the peace that passes understanding, what are you doing?

You're resting. He hasn't even resting though, he's telling us he's going to fast too. It stops trying to do something. It's not merit-based, so to speak. If resting, you're not doing or trying or whatever. At that point, you're receiving. You're receiving grace. You're resting in all these truths that we have. So it's not what I have to do at that point. It's resting. You know how I described that? You know there's the rock? You enter in the rock. You enter in the rock. That's right. and everything else is spewing.

It's interesting, from a position of rest, question A was kind of redundant, what would give us the confidence to glory in Christ Jesus? If we settle down to live and grow precisely where we have been reborn in Christ Jesus. If you just settle down on what God tells you is true of you, believe him and settle down, the confidence that comes from that is amazing. Because if you stop living circumstantial lies, that God, that LG and O Lord fixed this circumstance, or eliminate that one, or bring me a better one, I'd want a lottery ticket.

Why can't I win? What's the problem with all of that? All spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus doesn't take into consideration the power law. Because what you have as a son of God is, you're an inheritor of the entire creation. What's 150 million bucks? Nothing. Let's...Alan, you disagree, and I hope I got the right verse. Matthew 23, 23.

What did the Lord Jesus say about the Jews who were physically circumcised, but not in their hearts? Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithes of mint, and of rice, and of human, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought ye to have done, and not to the other undone. That whole section right in there, the Lord says three or four or five times, woe unto you Pharisees, woe unto you Pharisees. So, what's interesting about Israel is that through the centuries, Israel probably relied on her external circumcision. And the fleshly circumcision, like Courtney said, was their dad's.

That's what physically set them apart. but there was little or no spiritual circumcision to any of the Jews and that's what God was really after people on the knee so Israel's heart was far from God and one of the things that Christ did was he pointed that out to them while he was here didn't make them too happy so what is meant by in the spirit and not in the letter?

Is the letter referring to the law? The law? The letter of the law? What was the law designed to do? Let me put it this way. In Romans chapter 5, 19, 20 or somewhere in there, it talks about that here's the person, and the law comes in beside them. The law doesn't go inside of them, it comes in beside them. And it was designed to do what?

If you bring the law in beside the sin nature, what does it cause the sin nature to do? Say, okay, I get the rules now, I'll behave myself. What does it cause the sin nature to do? Sin more. Sin more. That's right. And so, here comes the law, the letter of the law, and the 600 and whatever things that you're supposed to do and the things you're not supposed to do. And if you do them, I will bless you. If you don't do them, I'm going to curse you. And so, everybody in their mind thinks, oh boy, if I had a law, and I could just follow it, you know, I'd be alright.

The problem is that the law inflames the sin nature. God says, OK, what I want is a spiritual response to my commands and not a physical, fleshly one. So rather than the law coming in next to the sin nature, what happens in the believer's environment? What happens to the believer in the law?

What's his relationship to the law? He died to it. He has no relationship to the Mosaic law at all, right? And the reason he doesn't have a relationship to the law is why? It's a new creation. The practical reason. Why wouldn't God want a believer to have a relationship with the law? If we've been separated from our sinful nature, from the old man, who was the law given to? The righteous man? No, the old man. So if you get separated from the nature that the law was given to, you're also separated from the law. Do you see that?

And the bottom line reason is that the new man in Christ doesn't function based on the principle of law. How does he function? Grace. And grace means unlimited and unmerited blessing all the time, based on what Christ did, not what you're doing. See that? The problem is that, again, that's pretty good news. Maybe too good. Selk doesn't go for that. That's Selkmont's law. He doesn't want grace. He's angry about grace.

The letter here in this phrase refers to a whole law system and what you should do and it's an outward imposition that's placed on a person who has a sin nature and to behave according to its dictates. The law is designed to solicit behavior. How about the spirit? Is he designed to give you, to solicit behavior? He's designed to establish a relationship with Christ. And does it result in a certain kind of behavior? Mike says earlier, from his age, too. There's a new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We have an entirely new principle of the spirit of life at this time. Does it solicit behavior? Absolutely!

But it's not done because the law said to do it. If you have a new life, I use this example all the time. How many of you guys have dogs? Nobody. You have to teach your dog how to bark. Why not? Well, maybe some of you got some dogs, but you don't have to teach a dog how to bark. You have to teach my dog how to bark. Why? Why don't you have to teach them? You know, you give a dog food and water, and he says, you're God. You give a cat food and water, and he goes, I'm God.

So your dog doesn't have to learn how to bark, your sin nature doesn't have to learn how to sin, right? I haven't had to send John to sinning academies. It came with the territory, right? And all of you who have kids and thought your kids were born without a sin nature, they have proven you wrong. Haven't they? They know how to sin.

How about this new life in Christ Jesus? It's interesting. Lewis Barry Chaffer says that we've been given a new life in Christ. And we are told by God that we have to live this life, which is supernatural and totally impossible to live. But at the same time, we can live in the Spirit of God, who is God Himself, and it's His mission and His job to make sure that that life gets manifested in all of the believers. So, life in Christ, or the new life, isn't based on following precepts. It's based on faith and believing what's already true. And relying on the Spirit of God to implement that life in and through you.