The Position & Possessions of the Believer # 28-29 (Lesson 29)

Okay, first question. What did you notice about this week's question? We were studying the 34 things that we have in Christ. Remember I said a couple of weeks ago that that might not be all of them? How about this many? We're going to be here a while.

This is an article written by a guy at Middletown Bibliotheque, George Zeller. And I emailed him and he's going to send me a hard copy of this. And when I get it, I do want him to send me 25 copies. I'll get it to everyone before the class is over. And it's interesting about this thing.

It actually has two lists to show you. This is the first list, which is the 61 things that were true of me before I was saved. Most of us operate out of that system. the 215 things that are true of me now, then I am saved. And it goes to 215 and then it has on the last page add to the list.

So I'll hand this out to everybody. I think it's quite instructive as to all of the things that are true of us now that we are believers. If we would just live by one of them, I think it would change our lives. Okay, this week we're talking about, according to Chafer's list, number 27. which is a heavenly citizens. The first four or five questions are exactly the same as last week. So, boy, you got to be on top of things. Everybody has a question from this for this week. Anybody else need one for today? Okay, so did I give you the right one?

First question is, what does it mean to be a citizen? Does it just mean to be a citizen of anything? To be from that location? It means to be, the word comes from the word polis, which means place or town, and orenas, in our case heaven or heavenlies. One of the reasons I re-asked this question was because I don't think we appreciate enough where we're from. You know, we live in an interesting culture in the United States where everybody's from someplace. If you live in Denver. I mean, how many natives do you know? How many of you were born in Denver? You were, right? Two, three, four, five, six, seven. Quite a bit.

I remember when I came to college, out here to go to college, nobody was from here. Nobody I knew, except for at Regis University, if you were from here you were a day dog. You didn't live in the dorm. Everybody in the dorm was from someplace else. So they brought with them whatever their environment, experiences, culture was.

Well what's difficult I think for us is to recognize that through the process of identification with the Lord Jesus Christ, You're from a new place. Now the problem is that you didn't grow up there. Like if you grew up in Illinois like I did, I came out here sounding like I was from Illinois. People would say, oh you have an accent. I didn't think I did, but I did. And I dressed a certain way and certain characteristics about me, and I immediately identified with other guys that were from Illinois. I didn't identify with the guys from Texas real well. For a while, anyway.

So I think now, believers come from the earth through the process of identification with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. You change locations, your history changes, your home changes, you're now from there. The problem is that you have to learn about your home. I don't think believers, for the most part, think of themselves that way. Do you agree? We think, well, I'm a Baptist and I grew up in Denver, and Christianity is my religion. They don't think about it as coming from a place, coming from the heavenlies.

So, we are in fact heavenly creatures. We come from there. That's our home. That's our base. We're only here for a visit. We're not from this planet anymore. You know, Mike, along that line it would seem that we're more like an alien coming to this country and becoming a citizen. Interesting. Yeah. Now we have all the rights and privileges of this country. We're citizens of this country. But we still talk with the accent that we brought with us. From the other country. And we still have the frame of reference. Exactly.

I think that's really an important point because I have a good friend from Chihuahua, Mexico. He'd love to be an immigrant and get a permanent visa. But he thinks like a Mexican. His frame of reference. And he's just now learning the language a little bit. And so he would really like to be a full-fledged American. He loves America. And but he's from there and most of his behavior patterns, culture and language are still Mexican. So now.

Also, when you think of citizenship, it's not just your culture, your habits, it's a legal position. As a citizen of the United States, we have certain legal benefits. In Paul's time, in the Roman Empire, being a citizen had significant legal implications. You talk about your friend who came here, even after 20 years, they may start to act like an American. what we think of as American, but if they don't have that citizenship, then they don't have the legal rights of a citizen. So you can act like a citizen, but still not have that. The important thing being a citizen of heaven is we may have the habits and cultures, heavenly habits and cultures, but more significantly we have all those legal benefits. that go with being a citizen, that have nothing to do with how we act. That's a great point. Everybody understand that? You've got a fertile ground. Well, I'm still thinking about Ben's comment. You know, part of me says you move a little slower. No, no, no. If they just go up here and rattle for a while.

You know, I just, do we want, I mean, it's like dual citizenship. Do we want dual citizenship? I don't think so. I think we are. citizens of heaven and we're ambassadors here. I don't think we're... I don't want to be flavored as a worldly citizen. But what are you doing to get rid of your accent? Well yeah, I mean I should be getting rid of my accent. That's the maturity and the growth is getting rid of my accent of this.

But you say you want to be a citizen. No, I'm saying that's what we reflect. Yeah, yeah. We act like we're newly arrived citizens. Oh, okay. I thought you were saying that we were to be citizens here or to act like. I misunderstood. We are citizens of heaven and we do not want to be a dual citizenship. We are, you know, citizens of heaven. We still act like we came from the old country. Right. We want to get out of that.

We want to be ambassadors of new citizenship that we have. Okay, so with all of the, not only cultural changes, but the legal rights, if you come to the United States and you want to become a citizen, there's a whole process you've got to go through. Most of it is educational, to learn some history, you know, that kind of thing.

And then you have this swearing-in ceremony, and now you're a citizen. Okay? Which you're entitled to all the rights and privileges of a citizen. So, describe what a heavenly citizen would be. Not only culturally, but the fact that you were from heaven.

And the first is Ephesians 2.19. So then you are no more strangers and sojourners. Strangers and sojourners to where? But you are fellow citizens with the saints of the household of God. We are in this world, but not out of it. We're no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints of the household of God. We'll talk about the household of God and some other things as we go. For the time being, let's talk a little bit about if someone said to you, well gee, I understand that you're from heaven.

What do they do in heaven? What are those citizens, how do they function? How do they function? What do they do? They all dress the same, talk the same. What do they do? Well, if I said, show me a heavenly citizen, what would you do? When you point me to Christ? That's the heavenly citizen that was here, that we know. And where is he now? In heaven. Okay, where are you now? In him. And we have the Spirit of God to do what? To reveal Christ to the believer?

What do you think the conformity to his image is all about? to function like a heavenly citizen, you see? They do things in heaven according to their set of rules, so to speak. The citizens function there based on their set of principles and not what we were thinking they might be religiously, you know?

And is there a law system in the heavenlies? A law system? It's grace. The whole operating system of the heavenlies is grace. That's how they function. The whole function of the law system was to point out sin, and in heaven there is no sin, no sin major.

Okay, so here you are, you're a heavenly citizen, and the surest way to describe you is that you're from Christ or of Christ and he's the one that, if you want to look and see how a heavenly citizen functions, he's the one. So you come to the earth, you're an ambassador here, what should people see? Christ. They should see Christ, and they should see, for lack of another way, you're here primarily in order for God to be glorified.

That's why we're here. Really, that's the basic reason. And to that end, for the Lord Jesus to be manifested through us for the sake of others. See that? That's really what we're doing here. And if you begin to think about your life span, no matter how old you are now, and if you've ever had the thought, well, I wonder how long the Lord's going to keep me here. That's what we're here for. That's the only reason we're here.

The Father is calling out a bride for His Son. For non-believers to be one of those called ones, or just to find it attractive to be called to be a bride, they've got to see it in others. So, to manifest the glory of the Lord Jesus, or the glory of God by the life of the Lord Jesus through us, is a very interesting process. It can't be imitated. It has to be something that the Spirit of God does. And it's the beholding as in a mere process.

In 2 Peter 2.12, conduct yourselves properly, honorably, righteously among the Gentiles, so that although they may slander you as evil doers, yet they may, by witnessing your good deeds, come to glorify God. So Peter gives the believers he is writing to a command to conduct themselves in what kind of a manner? Like they are.

If I said we are all going to get in a bus and we are going to go to Florida. I want all of you to conduct yourself like you came from Colorado. Or like my son gets on the team bus and he goes to some place for a game and the coach says, you guys need to conduct yourself as though you are members of the Denver Christian soccer team. You need to be representative of where you come from.

Same thing with us. We are to be representative of where we come from, of where our home is. Because we are the epistles of Christ for all mankind. Mike, since our old nature is still from this place, then if we operate out of that, then we are still reflecting. Where we came from here, not from where we really are going now. Yeah, and that's very interesting. It's like this... I go back to my friend from Mexico. He's trying to be Americanized, but he's got this old cultural pull in language and experience.

I'll give you an example. Going down the road the other day, I had stopped at a stoplight and there was a lady on my right who wanted to come in front of me and in front of somebody else to get in the left turn lane. So she turned her blinker on and sort of gave me the I'm coming over sign, you know. So I backed up a little bit and she came over and she did the same thing and she finally got at least in the median next to the left turn lane. My buddy said, in Chihuahua, I knew exactly what he meant. That lady would have had no shot at getting over there.

So here we are functioning, positioned in Christ. with the Chihuahua mentality trying to express itself through us all the time, right? So it's difficult. To be a member of the household of God, and that's kind of the next step I wanted to go to, What is the household of God? Do you remember from last week what we decided it was? It's Christ himself.

It's the abiding place in the environment of the new nature and it's the life where we speak. Now, I quoted in my own studies from Hebrews, and I won't chase this Hebrews very long, but Hebrews 3, 4 says, for every house is built by someone, But the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all of his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken later. But Christ was faithful as a son over his house.

Here's the key point. Whose house are we? And then the little caveat at the end, if we hold fast our confidence and boast our hope firm until the end. So we have a tendency to think that not only are we from another place, but now we are discovering we are actually from another person.

And if you were to say the household of God is made out of bricks and mortar, you would have to say, well not really. The indweller of a wood and a brick house has no living connection with the house. You guys have a living connection with the houses you live in? Only financially. So, you don't have any connection with the building materials, do you?

But, if Christ dwells within us and is the life that's within us, we have a life connection with the elements that the house has with the builder. Do you see that point? We are life-connected to the one who built the house. And so if we say, well what is the household of God?

That would be it. It would be Christ and us, built with not bricks and mortar, but with humans, or with the spirits, the souls and spirits of believers. Make sense? Any questions about that? Other verses, and you may or may not want to write these down, have to do with the same theme.

1 Corinthians 3.9, where Paul says, for we are God's fellow workers, we are God's field, we are God's building.

1 Peter 2.5, also a living stone, being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.

1 Timothy 3.15. But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

So, how do you get to be a member of this building? How do you get to be a member of this building or this house? You believe. So what happens when you believe? In other words, what's the process by which one becomes a member of God's house and at the same time ceases to be a member of Adam's house or even Moses' house? What's the process? What's the name of the course? That's how.

We're identified with Christ's death, burial and resurrection and seating in the heavenlies. Your association and your union with the death of Christ separates you from where you came from. It separates you from the house and the city and the environment. Everything where you came from, it's over. Your history is done. It's over. And identification is the mechanics by which God moved you into his house, in this case.

So, what's a sojourner and a stranger? Same question we asked last week. What are those two guys? Alien residents. What's that? Alien resident. Okay, that's a stranger is an alien resident. That's a good way to describe it. So what's a soldier? Somebody that's temporary. Just passing through. Right.

It's interesting on the earth, how many people groups are there? Irish, Italians, no. How many people groups are there? How many? Two or three? Three. Jews, Gentiles, and the Church. Although the Jews have been set aside. But in all of Scripture there are three groups of people. Gentiles, then Jews, and now the body of Christ, the Church. When a Jew or a Gentile becomes a believer, so we now have Jewish believers and Gentile believers? What do we have? We just have the church. Their whole identity from where they came from goes away. Right?

If you become a member of the household of God, the transformation is so complete that you're considered no longer not only a Jew or a Gentile, but you're no longer from the earth itself. So now you become a stranger to this creation. and a sojourner who is just passing through.

Question three, where is Mount Zion? The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem? In the heavenly Jerusalem, in Christ. Do you remember what Mount Zion represents in in the sight of God, what does it represent? Sinai. Sinai's law, right? And it was such a terrible place, that it was fire and brimstone, and if you touched it, you died. If your animals walked on it, you died. I mean, it's a really awful place.

But that's where God dwelt in the Old Testament. But now, we're talked about being, we've come to Mount Sinai. and has described the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. So what does Zion represent from God's perspective? It represents grace. The first thing I think it represents is God's grace triumphing over sin. Because there's no sin in Zion. And it's the city, the city of the Lord Jesus dispensed, from that city he dispenses glory and grace.

Is this city ever going to show up around here? What do you think? Is it always going to be heavenly? If the city is a person, then wherever he is, that's where the city is, right? Is he going to come here and hang out for a while? In the millennial kingdom? Sure he is. How about in eternity? Here he talks specifically about the heavenly Jerusalem.

It's the city of life. It's our hometown. We're from there. We're not from here anymore. It's the city of glory in which all the saints occupy. We'll expand on that a little bit. But if the household of God is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and the city is made up of persons, we're in the city. So wherever He goes, that's where we go, that's where the city is.

See that? In other words, when the Lord Jesus comes to rule and reign from Jerusalem, is He going to vacate the heavenly Jerusalem and come here? I don't think so. I think the city comes with Him, wherever He is. So, according to some of the stuff we talked about last week, in the city now, in the heavenly Jerusalem, list some of the inhabitants that are there.

Anybody? Give me one. Angels. Huh? Angels. Okay. You could say it's the universal gathering place of the myriads of angelic beings. They're all there. And they're rejoicing in the results of the grace of God for men on the earth. So they're there, okay? All of a sudden it got to be a lead place. Who else is there? Who?

Christ. Christ is there, okay? And he's described as Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Okay, and we'll talk about that in a minute. Who else is there? Who's that? Bahá'u'lláh, who's there? He's described as the God, the Judge of all. Who else is there?

The Old Testament Saints. The Old Testament Saints, and they're described as what? The spirits of just men made perfect. Interesting way to describe them. Who else is there? We are. Yeah. How about the assembly of the first born? Who are those guys? That's us. And we're brought there by sovereign grace. How were the angels brought there? Did they get there by grace? They've always been there. The ones that are still there. So we have been brought there by God's grace into a new association with Christ. And it's interesting, the angels are not ever spoken of as Christ's body or the bride of the Lamb. They're different than we are. And they're never spoken of as joint heirs with Christ or recognized with the title Firstborn. When someone were to say, well you guys aren't Bible Church people, you're Firstborns. How would you say, yeah, that's right, I am. And the person says, well, explain that to me.

What does that mean? What does it mean to be a firstborn? You don't know, huh? Are you going back to the... Roman definition of firstborn son where the firstborn was the son that inherited or the Jewish in the Jewish traditions is the firstborn that gets to inherit everything and gets all the rank and the privileges. You want to answer? No. Starting at a church age? Yeah, and first born, if you're born, you're born into some place. What are you being a first born into? Church age. What's that? Church age. Church age.

Well, more than that. The new creation. We're first born. So, it's interesting. Here we are described in the heavenlies as the first borns. First borns into a new creation. So, not only Are we of the household of God? But it's also described as a first-born place.

There's two creations, right? The old creation, look around us. There's a new creation, right? Here's how I think about that. The old creation was created by Christ, right? Any problems with that? How do you describe the new creation? Is it also created by Christ? What do you think?

He's the first proof. He's the first proof. How about looking at him as that he is the new creation? He is it. He created the old one, but he is the new one. Isn't that interesting? And so when you see in the scriptures a household of God and a building and all of that, it's a new creation that happens to be a person.

Now, of all of those people living in the heavenlies, in this great place, Who's got the best position? Who's superior to all the rest of them, except for God? Christ. Well, except for Christ. We are. Do you think of yourself that way? Do you think of yourself as having a superior position? that because you're members of Christ's body and you're co-heirs with him that you occupy a position greater than any other creature? Pretty nice. Pretty nice. So, the fifth question is, what's the significance of our names being written in the heavenlies, or written in heaven? Does it have a significance? Who says? Who says?

It's like you say, I'm from Denver, and I say prove it. Wait a minute, I've got my driver's license right here. It says right here, I'm from Denver. And I say, oh, that's a fake. Well, I say, well, that's a fake. How would you prove? How would you prove? If I wanted to find out if you were really a citizen of Denver or Colorado, where would I go to find it out? I'd go to the records and I'd see if your name was there. To go to the records in heavenlies, is your name going to be there?

Yeah, it is. It's there. That's why it's significant. Two is, it delineates the kind of creature that we are. Your name can't be there unless you fit it. You have to be suitable to be there. If you weren't suitable, your name wouldn't be there. A couple of other things it does, it gives you a certainty about your position. If your name is written in the heavenlies, and you're the kind of creature that is suitable for that place, and you know that, and you rest in that, there's an absolute certainty about your position there. A man said, we're registered in heaven as our proper fatherland in sovereign grace. Kind of a cool way to put it.

In Ephesians 3.6, we probably should read the verses, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promises in Christ by the gospel.

Ephesians 3.6 is one of the verses today for family and household of God, etc. My question was, why are the Gentiles being heirs, members, and partakers specifically mentioned here? Why would he phrase it this way? Why would he say that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and the partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel?

It's quite a surprise to the Jews. Well, doesn't it sound like the Jews kind of already had it? And the Gentiles were kind of let in later? Is that right? Is that the way to look at it? What did the Jews have? Do they have any of this stuff we're talking about? No, they don't. Are they heirs of God? They are earthly heirs, aren't they? They have all kinds of promises.

As a matter of fact, if you look at Isaiah 60.12, he says, For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish. and the nations will utterly be ruined. So, if you were looking at it from a Jewish standpoint, a Gentile who said, well I'm not going to serve you, nation of Israel, then according to Isaiah, you're going to perish. Do we serve the Jews in this capacity? Doesn't that sound like if you look at it from a Jewish perspective, we're somehow subordinate to the Jews?

Doesn't it look that way? However, I don't think that's what the testimony is here, because that viewpoint is Old Testament, and it's earthly. Now, this verse I think has entirely to do with the new divine purpose, which has been hidden by God from eternity. And it has to do with a couple of things. The uniting of Jews and Gentiles together. Now we think from an Old Testament standpoint, well we've been brought up to the status of Jews. No, no we haven't.

How could that possibly be if when you start out with the premise that those who are the household of God, once you become a believer, your Jewishness or your Gentileness goes away. You're this brand new creature, right? So, who has an advantage? Jew or Gentile?

Neither, because they're not part of this. And it's been hidden with Christ. And so, what's happened here, which is interesting, is this entire purpose has been hidden by God from all mankind. from up until now. Now, I'm going to read some verses that hopefully will make this clear. Any questions about that so far?

This verse does not refer to us becoming up to a status that the Jews had, even though the gospel went to the Jews first. That's not what it's about, because if a Jew became a believer, was he a Jew any longer? No, he wasn't. Now, if you read Ephesians 3-9, Now listen to how this fits.

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote to you in a few words, whereby, when we read, you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ. What does the mystery mean in the New Testament? It's something that hasn't been revealed. It isn't like watching a murder mystery on TV. It's just something that hasn't been revealed by God. Paul's the guy that's going to reveal it. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men. So the Jews didn't get this. This wasn't about them.

As it is now revealed unto us holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Here's the mystery. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Wherefore I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power, unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world has been heathen God who created all things by Jesus Christ. So this entire revelation about union with Christ, about identification with Christ, has been a secret that God didn't make known until who came on the scene. Did Christ make this mystery known?

Paul made it known. He's the one. He's the one. Because Peter, James, and John, if you read them, you don't see anything about oneness with Christ in their writings, do you? You don't see this mystery revealed through those guys, only Paul. He knew this mystery.

And so, I think it's critical for us as believers to understand that we are in an environment of an entirely new thing. And for those of you who want to slide Israel into Christianity, tell them there's a mystery that they don't know about. That we're new. That we're not under a lost system. We're totally under grace in Christ.

I'm looking at Romans 10 and 11, and that's part of the argument that Paul is making. God's plan was involved Israel rejecting him, but then now there's the New Testament and just for instance it talks about And in verse 23 talking about Israel, they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again. Just as we are grafted into the branch Paul is talking about, so can Israelites if they believe.

It's now a matter of faith. It's not the works that were given to Israel by the law. It's now through faith. And even though they were rejected, they can still come in just like we are, so that we're all on the same footing. We're all, like you say, citizens of heaven. We're all joiners with Jesus Christ. But Romans 11 talks about that.

And specific to the Jews. I was with a guy at lunch this week who is a believer, a guy I went to college with, and he doesn't understand what we're talking about. He thinks that it's still a Jewish issue. And he spends all his time evangelizing Jewish people, going over to Israel.

I said, well, if you go over there and I don't see you again, I'll know you got arrested and I'll know what will happen. And I say to him, I said, don't you understand, I said to him this week, I said, don't you understand the mystery? He said, what mystery? And I showed him these verses. He said, yeah, but the Jews were there first. I said, well, that's true, they were. You know, they were.

But, as you become a believer, are you still a Jew? Because that's how he thinks. That what a Christian is, is just a Jew on a high octane. You know, that's how he thinks. And that what we're supposed to do is take the Jewish model, get as many Christians in there, and get them under the model. I said, well, you know, I said, I think what the problem is, is that in your mind, you think that the new life in Christ is just a new method of behavior. You don't understand that it's an entirely new life.

That, you know, in Christ Jesus there's neither Jew nor Gentile. I hate to tell you this, but you've got to, you know, the Republicans and the Democrats, neither one of them fit. And neither did the Jews. And of course, those Irish people, they don't go either. So, what do you think, notice in that verse it says, that fellow errors are the same by takers of his promises in Christ. What are the promises? What do you think they are?

And by the way, maybe this will help you. If you look at that, if you translate it, it's in the Greek word before promise is a definite article, so it says THE promise. It's one promise. It's not a whole series of them, it's one of them. What is it? THE promise. It's a specific promise.

So how would you sum it up? What do you think? Give me a verse in your mind that would sum up the promise. I came up with one. What do you think? Anybody have one? How about this one? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. How about that?

That's a good one. I think that's what the promise is. all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. That's what it is. By the way, already done. So, last question. What's the household of faith? You guys that were there Thursday night ought to have a leg up on you. We talked a little bit about faith.

The household of faith, in the verse we're talking about, Galatians 6.10, As ye have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. What is that household of faith? So, for new men in Christ. And we live in this new house. Does this new house have an operating system? What is it? What's the operating system?

It's Grace. That's how the house runs. Now, within the house, there's a modus operandi of how Grace functions. And what's the modus operandi? Now it's faith. Because faith is this thing you can do that you don't get credit for. If you live under grace, you function by faith. They go together. So, we are now members of the household and the immediate family of God and as such we function by faith. That's how the members function. If we look at the principle of the household by grace through faith.

So, give me a definition of what a principle is. Short definition. Are all of you on vacation? A principle is the way a thing functions, or the way it operates. So if I say in the household of God, It functions by the principle of grace. It's the way it operates. If I say to you, if I drop something and it always goes to the ground, that's the principle of gravity. That's the way it functions and operates. That's the principle under which it functions.

Now, if you take a look at Colossians 2.6, you don't have to go there, but it's a familiar verse, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. So here we go. How did you receive him? by grace, what did you do? By faith, right? So you're supposed to receive Christ by faith, you're supposed to walk in Him by faith, right? So, what would you say faith or believing is? What would you say it is?

Thursday night, we talked about this. We talked on Thursday night about this thing called the essence of faith. which was Hebrews 11-1. And all those who have read Hal Molloy's deal on faith probably know what I'm talking about. And what he did, which was really cool, he diagrammed Hebrews 11-1.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence or reality of things unseen. So draw the line, put faith here, put the line here, is, and then the direct objects. There's two of them. It's the substance that things hope for, or it's substance, and the other one is the evidence or the proof. Who wants to tell me what a linking verb is? This word is, is a linking verb. What does it mean? That God is this, the proof is this. It means that the subject and the direct object are linked together. Here's an example of what it isn't. Karen hit the ball. Is there a link between the ball and Karen in terms of who they are?

No. But faith is substance. Faith is proof. Faith is linked inexorably with the object. So what do you wind down with this thing of faith? What in fact is it? It's substance and it's proof. Of what? What is it substance and proof of? The things. The things of who?

So, in the household of God, operating under a principle of grace, functioning by faith, what's going on? We're living, day by day, moment by moment, in the things of God. We're functioning that way. And you know what the abiding result is? It's this little word that Courtney loves, rest. because that's the way it is. Believing is just resting in what the Spirit of God reveals to us. Personal faith is just resting in the facts that have been presented to us by the Spirit. The walk in the household of faith is the same way as the entrance.

We receive his light by resting in what God reveals about himself and his work on the cross and we walk in his life by resting in who Christ is and who we are in Christ. So as you study 34 things, 215 things, we live by those, resting in those facts. Dear Father, I would thank you for your life and all, and I mean all, that we have in you and your Son. Father, that we would be able to rest and abide and function from our position in him. We pray in his precious name. Amen.