You In Christ and Christ In You
Courtney Hemenway · Mar 22, 2009
You in Christ & Christ in You, No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926127506815

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

Last week we didn't quite get finished with lesson 10. Everybody have a lesson 10? I think I got one over here. I've got a couple of more here. Yeah, we're tag teaming today. And what we had talked about last week, we were basically working our way through Romans chapter 6 and verses 11, 12, 13, like in there.

And we're talking about reckoning, we've already discussed it, we have been included United to the Lord Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection, Romans 6, our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be put away or done away with or taken offline, that we should no longer serve sin. And then when we got to 11, we talked about wrecking yourself, indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. We talked a lot about, we ended up talking a lot about reckoning. I think we pretty much finished verse 11 unless somebody has a question about it. So we're going to finish up 12 and 13 today and then Courtney will pick up the mantle.

He's going to go from here to John 17. And the reason we're going there is because even though we have discovered identification truths in Romans chapter 6, They really are referred to in John 17. It's amazing. Typical of John though, John makes these wonderful statements, but you have to go to Paul to figure out what he said. But once you figure out what Paul has said, John makes a lot more sense. Because he's Jewish and Paul really thinks like a Greek. Okay, Romans chapter 6 verse 12.

Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in its lust. So, the command in verse 12, not to let sin reign in your mortal bodies. How come? Why wouldn't you let sin reign in your mortal bodies? Why wouldn't you do that? By the way, do you understand what reign means? has control. I know you Americans thought that you were controlling sin, but trust me, the word of God says no, you weren't. It reigns. But now the word is, you don't have to let it reign anymore.

How come? Basically it goes back to logical imperative. It says so. And what's the logic? What's the logic here? That's what I'm after. That you died. See? If you're dead to sin, I should say it this way. Since you're dead to sin, since that's true, then why would you let it reign in your life? See?

That's what the logic is here. If the Christian, upon the fact that we died with Christ, we reckon ourselves dead because we participated in Christ's death. Therefore, we dare refuse sin's dominion. Do you think it takes some courage to go there? I think it does. You have to take God at his word. You can't feel it or hope it. You have to take God at his word.

He says that you died. And because you died there are some results or consequences because you did. And one of them is you don't have to let sin reign in your mortal body anymore. We don't owe sin a thing. Not a thing. We're dead to it. We're justified from it. Actually we're living in a totally new sphere. where sin has no dominion.

If we believe God about our union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, sin was the reigning principle of our lives before then, but now it no longer has to be because of the work of Christ and the full revelation of the meaning of the cross.

So, question ten, if I'm dead to sin, how can it still reign? In other words, if the position and the principle is, I've died to it, can it still reign? Can it still be controlling? Sure it can. Because it didn't die. Yeah, because it didn't die. Sin didn't die. We've covered that twice now, but it's a really good point to review. Sin didn't die. Your sin nature didn't die. Who died? We did. What's death mean? Separation. On the cross of Christ, we were separated from the sin nature. That's a positional truth. That's a fact.

It won't be a conditional reality in your life unless one, you know the fact and two, you believe it. See that? If you don't know the fact, how are you ever going to live in it? And once you do know it, you've got to believe it. And then it will become a reality. Because you took God at his word.

So, sin is present in my members and it's ready to reign as king anytime. It's there and that's what it wants to do. That is, our bodies aren't redeemed, so sin is rocking and rolling inside of us. We now, well maybe put it this way, we didn't have a choice before. Do you know that? Before you were a believer, you didn't have a choice. about sin. It reigned. Now you do.

But the choice isn't to snuff sin out or to fight sin. The choice is to believe or not believe what God has done about it. It doesn't have to reign. And I think part of the believer's understanding and reckoning of spiritual growth is to come to the realization, at least at some point, that sin is more powerful than your will is to stop it. And that the only answer is by faith to take God's solution and to believe Him. And let the Spirit of God conditionally separate you from the power of sin. Question 11.

What does verse 12 say about our bodies? Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lust. It says a couple of things. That our body is mortal. That it is subject to physical death. We are waiting for the redemption of our body at Christ's coming.

It's when natural desires are yielded to in self-will or self-indulgence that sin uses the desires of the body to assert sin's power and establish its reign. If you look at James chapter 1, he said, where does the temptation from sin come from? our own desires. It comes from right in here.

The believer is directed to reject this reigning of sin which would involve our obeying the desires of the body, James 1.14, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and he is enticed.

Question 12, moving on to verse 13. In verse 13, what does the word yield or present mean? Verse 13 says, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." So what does this word present mean? I'm going to pick on you, Matt.

When you graduated from college, you raised your right hand with the army and said, what did you do? You presented yourself to them and you belong to them. Isn't that what you did? That's exactly what this means. That's exactly what this means. When I went in the Marine Corps, I stood in front of some guy and gave it one of these. And he smiled and said, you belong to me. Oh, you sure I did the right thing?

That's what this word means. A lot of translations use the word yield, which is sort of a passive thing. This is not a passive word. You didn't yield to the army. You presented yourself to them. And you desired what they were going to give you. And so you said, OK, I belong to you.

You do what you need to do with me, because the end result is going to be something really positive. And that's what this word means. It signifies an attitude to be taken in recognition of the facts that you know. It signifies an attitude to be taken in recognition of the facts that you know. You can present because you know some things.

We are not here, now listen to this next part, we are not here looked as giving ourselves to God but as believingly assuming the aspect towards God of those that are in Christ. Do you understand the difference? I'll say that again. We are not here looked at as giving ourselves to God. We are here and looked at as believingly assuming the aspect towards God as those who are in Christ. Those who died to sin in Christ's death and are now alive in Christ unto God. In other words, it isn't Mike, individual, from Adam, doing this presenting. It's Mike, new creature in Christ, who presents.

You see that? I hope that's clear. Mike, otherwise you would be, like under the law, I'm going to be I'm going to be presenting. It's the old nature. I'm going to do it. I'm saying no, I can't do it, but in Christ's sake, I want the Lord to do it. I'm going to allow Him to do it. In Christ, it's the thing to do, and that's the place it's done.

I want that clear, and in the next couple of questions, I'll talk about that a lot. It's really important to understand that all of these activities, you'll notice up to verse 6, there was nothing for us to do, right? It was all informational. It was all positioned. And when we got to 11, it was like, oh, now we get to do some stuff. We get to reckon. And now we get to present. Pretty cool. You know, for all you legalists, we got something for you to do. The problem with that is that you do this in Christ. You don't do it outside of Christ.

You see that? that we hear, like, give your life to Christ? Say that again, the last part? How does it relate to some of the phrases we hear, like, give your life to Christ? Okay. That's a great question. Everybody hear the question? Give your life to Christ. You know, the first question I have to answer, I mean, I'm a salesman, I always answer a question with a question. I'm always asking, who's doing the giving? You know? Let's talk about the gospel for a minute. How many times have you heard that the gospel is receiving Jesus into your heart? Giving your life to Christ? I don't know, give me another one. Put your trust in Christ. Yeah, ask Jesus into your heart. Isn't that a great one? The problem is that you don't find any of that in the New Testament. What is the gospel? Jesus died on the cross for your sins. He was buried and resurrected according to the scriptures.

What are you supposed to do with that information? That's it. The receiving and all of that giving your life stuff is all a worldly viewpoint of what really is going on in the spiritual realm. You see that? You always have to ask, and the last question will really deal with that, you always have to ask, at least I do, who's doing the doing? Am I in Adam doing this trying to get better spiritually? Or am I doing this from my new position in Christ? Like Romans 12 says, I plead with you by the mercies of God that you present your body a living sacrifice. Okay? Now, does that sound like if I do that I'm going to get all kinds of goodies? No. You understand that Romans 12 comes after Romans 6. After Romans 6. It didn't come in Romans 3. Yielding your body to Christ and your instruments to Christ are something that the man who is positioned and resurrected in Christ automatically does. That's part of his life. That's what the life does.

If the exhortation came before Romans 6, your spiritual growth and life would have been conditioned upon your presenting and yielding. Did I answer your question? Also, the command to present ourselves thus unto God is in the imperative, aorist, active tense. For you Greek geeks, what that means is, it indicates a definite entering in upon this attitude of presenting ourselves as risen ones to Christ. Math belongs in the military. Your attitude hasn't changed. Not since you gave it one of these. It's the attitude, it's an heiress deal. He's there. He's a member of the armed forces of the United States.

As to sin it is, do not be presenting present tense, in other words habitual continual action, your members to sin. Don't be doing that all the time. But do this one thing and trust God with it. Do you see that? The exhortation is, believingly, to take the attitude of a risen one in Christ and thus present yourself once and for all to God. You don't have to go around every 15 minutes and say, Oh, I'm you. I'm presenting myself to you, God. You do it once. It's like salvation. Early on in my Christian life, I worked in a mission down on Larimer Street, and we had guys down there that came to Christ every week. They came forward. We'd give the call, and here they came.

Well, it's the self-attitude that we've got to keep repeating these kinds of things in order for them to be valid. Here, the exhortation is you do it once, you belong. Matt doesn't go down to the guy, find the guy that swore him in once a month and repeat. He doesn't have to do that because they took him at his word the first time he did it.

So, the last question, 13. Who are the ones commanded to present themselves to God? Give me the answer as it appears in verse 13. Who are the ones that are commanded to present themselves unto God? You are members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. I am your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Okay, who are they? Those who are alive from the dead. Those who are alive from the dead. It's a very important phrase there. Those are the ones that the command goes to. It isn't the guy in seminary working really hard. So do you understand how not only is it important that we understand the identification truths, our death, burial, and resurrection, but there are commands from God as a result of our being dead, buried, and resurrected with Him. Do you see that? One, if you don't know that information, or two, you know it and you don't believe it, but here come the commands and you want to do these things they won't be effectual in your life because you have to know, understand and rest in the fact that these commands are only to a person who's alive from the dead.

Now who's a person alive from the dead? Everybody in this room. Every single person in this room. So the command goes to you. You see that? I have always thought that that was incredible. That little phrase in there makes all the difference in the world in terms of whether it's a legal command or a grace command. Do you see that? If it's a grace command, it's given to the man who's alive from the dead. If it's a legal command, you kind of wipe that out and you try to do it yourself. Alright, Courtney, you're up.

Alright, we are on Lesson 11. Does everybody have Lesson 11 out there? And, as Mike said, we're taking a little step back and having, we just taught on John, going back to John 17. And the cool part of this is when you figure out, even though John was written after most of the epistles, the act that he's describing in 17 happened before the epistles. So, as Mike said, when you look at all the identification truths that Paul lays out, and then you go back and look at what Jesus in his prayer in John 17, there are all these identification truths that are laid out. What Paul was saying wasn't new. As Mike said, he was explaining and amplifying what Jesus was saying in his prayer in John 17. So, we'll look at John 17.

I always like to go over the verses, so you can follow along. I'll read them. And again, to me, this is one we taught in the John class. This is, I think, one of my favorite portions in the Gospels. This is the intimacy between the Father and the Son, but our inclusion into that, which makes it incredible to me. You can follow along. I'll read John 17, 1-21. So, John 17, 1-21. Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh. that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world.

They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words which you gave me I have given to them, and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from you, and they believe that you sent me.

I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine. And I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world. And I come to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me. And I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scripture would be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word. What a fantastic passage right there. That they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. That they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

Fantastic scripture. Again, what we see, so question number one, and again, lesson 11. After reading John 17, are the identification truths evident? Okay. Name some of the verses that may show our identification in Christ, or identification with Christ. Twenty-one. Twenty-one? Go ahead. That they may all be one. even as you father in me and I in you. So that's being in Him. So that's in Him. In Him. Others?

How about verse 11, the end of that? That they may be one even as we are. What about verse 22? The glory which you have given to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in what? unity and then in verse 24 where I desire that they also whom you have given me what be with me where I am and Then at the end of 26 so that the love which you love me May what be in them and what and I in them? The beauty of John 17 is that it does show the identification truths or our oneness with the Lord. And again, remember the time period.

This was disclosed well before Paul and the epistles. So he's telling us all of this identification before. And as Mike says, it takes Paul to amplify and really explain this to him. As we went through John, when he was speaking all this, what were they doing? Huh? As you go through John, he just keeps revealing more, and more, and more, and more, and more.

It was interesting, that party we did for the catering with the bar mitzvah and the legalism. I keep thinking of after that, when Jesus was telling the Jews this stuff, They were going, are you kidding me? Where's the law? What do I have to do? And he's going, no, just believe and then what?

Look at this unity that you're going to have with me. The joy, the love, all these things that the son shared with the father, where's that going to be now with us? in us, that joy, all those things. The intimacy that we have here is fantastic. I love 17 just because of the intimacy. You know, me and the Abba Father, you know, our intimacy, Daddy. Everything flows together with this. You know, when Paul, Abba Father, Daddy. What do you think the unity he's talking about here? Do you think the intimacy that Christ had with the Father, we're going to share that same intimacy?

We have that same intimacy, not past, present, and future. So they're definitely in here, the identification truths. Our oneness, as I go through scripture now, I see more and more, look for in Him, in Christ, all those things. Those are identification things. Our identification with Him, we're in Him. Our very life is His very life. or vice versa. So the in-hymns are really important, and 17 just lays that out beautifully.

So question two, from verse 13, who is coming to whom in this verse? If you look at 13, but now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves. Who is coming to who? It's not a trick question. The son to the father. Right. And in verse 11, Jesus says he comes to the father. Where was he coming from? I come to you. Where am I coming from? What?

He was in the world. He was in the world, again from verse 11, Jesus says he's no longer in the world, but he comes to the Father. Realize the intimacy of this. Jesus had stepped out of glory and taken on human form, away from the intimacy that he had enjoyed with the Father from eternity past. He'd stepped out, he'd taken on fully man, fully God, and so he'd been away for over 33 years, or 30, whatever it is, And now he's saying, I come to you, I'm coming to you.

So what does that say about Jesus? What is different now? Is there anything different about it, I should say? Is there anything different with him coming to him now? Was this just another, I'm coming back? It was, you know, I had a 33 year little hiatus here, I'm back. He had fulfilled the promise of the return. He fulfilled it. And what changed now? What changed when He came back now? He says, I'm coming back. What's different?

He's a man. He's fully man. What does that do for us? You know, He's now not only fully man, but He's now the federal head for us as new creatures in Christ. He's now the firstborn of the new creation. So this is a completely different thing. He's now, he's taken on fully man.

He's looking ahead to the cross and his completion at the cross. But he's saying, now I come to you. I've fulfilled, I'm coming to you. I've fulfilled this. I'm now changed. I'm now fully God, fully man. I'm coming back to you as the firstborn of the new creation. So there's a lot in this intimacy when he says that. He's changed now. It's not just, you know, I kind of stepped out for a little bit. I went to Tahiti for a week and I'm back. You know, there's been a distinct change of the relationship. He's now fulfilled what the Father had for him. But now he's coming back as fully man and fully God. And for us, that's great. I mean, he's the firstborn of what? Us as new creatures in Christ. And so, in question three, what did Jesus represent when he said, now I come to you? I kind of answered a little bit. I jumped ahead, I'm sorry. What does that represent when he says, now I come to you? I already gave you the answer.

As a man, but as what? Head of the new creation. He's now coming to you. I come to you now, not as just God by myself, I'm God-man. I am now the firstborn. I come to you as the firstborn of the new creation. So there's a lot meant by when he comes to you. It wasn't just, like I said, it was on vacation, I'm coming back. It was a great 33-year vacation here on Earth, and I'm back. It was now I come to you different. I come to you as the firstborn of the new creation.

All right, in verse, question four. In verse 14, why does the world hate these people? John 17, 14 is, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. What do the disciples have now?

Oh, they have the word. Bingo. I have given them your word. Okay. The world hates what is not of it. Two different things. He's giving them the word so they know truth. And what? They're not of the world either. Two different things. They have the truth and they're not of the world even as He is not of the world. So, they have two different things. And because of those two different things, the world hates them.

So, does the world love us? No, you know should we get the warm and fuzzies and the world will come to us and just you know Love us because of the word that we have them because Christ in us Does it say because of that the world is going to love us because of that they're going to flock to us, right? Yeah It's becoming more and more evident Don't remember experiencing it as much when I was younger and growing up in this country, and I think it's only gonna get worse Yeah. That's actually kind of a pitfall I think for Christians to think that this world will ever embrace us. And we kind of have that feeling from time past. We say, well, the world used to embrace us. They really never did. So we actually haven't lost anything. We never had it.

They say that the world loved Christ so much that they embraced him and brought him inside for warm cookies and milk, right? They crucified him. In fact, I was reading the Hungry Heart this morning, and I think that was actually talking about this. It says the joy and all this stuff, but what are we also to share in? Suffering. The world hated him. The world crucified him. Does the world come to us with more milk and cookies? No. And you'll feel that, I think, more and more, especially now. It seems like it's really becoming polarized, or more polarized. Yeah, Mike?

Appropriate verses for that are in John 15, 18. You don't have to go there. The Lord Jesus said, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. And then in 16.1, for a few verses, the Lord says, these things I've spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogue, yes, offers God a service. These things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me. Yeah, this shouldn't be a surprise. But you've got to counterbalance this. I don't want to be the purveyor of doom and gloom. All you're going to be is suffering. Yeah, there will be.

But what does he say in these other verses? That what may be in them? Joy? Boy, how does that work? Because you know of this, because you know of what the world is going to do to you, and you're going to share in the sufferings of it, but what do you have? Are we from around here? No. This is a momentary thing, you know, and the momentary trials we see in scriptures...

You know, I always go back to this one, and one of the few passages that I really memorized was James, you know, and I love it, because, consider it all joy, my brethren, when? What? You encounter warm cookies and milk and they come in and they love you and they... No, when you encounter various trials. Consider it all joy? How do you do that? It's hard sometimes.

It is. I think where it makes sense is when you understand the will. When you have the Source, God, God loved you first, you didn't love Him first. Exactly. Where did it start? You understand that first and it all kind of fits together. Mine is too, you know, and I think Mike has that circle, it all starts from God loving us first. That's first and foremost.

The other thing is, which I, you know, through Loving my crutches for eight weeks now, and these things. The fact is God is in control. I go back to that. He's sovereignly in control. One of my isms that I always bring out is, does God ever say, oops. Missed that, oops. I'm sorry, I missed that. You fell off the ladder yesterday. How did I miss that? No. In blessings and in trials, God is in control. So if you know that, can you have joy? Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. If you're going through whatever, you know, and this is very germane to what we're going through right now as a country.

A lot of people worry. Jobs, you know, economy, 401ks that evaporated, you know, what's going on? Are we supposed to panic? No. I mean, You know, you can use your brain. I think he gave us a brain and we try and do whatever we can. I don't go and play in traffic on I-25 and just say, Lord, protect me. Because, you know, no. I mean, you have to use your brain to do stuff.

But whatever happens, you know God is in control. Whatever's going on in your life, God is in control. The joy he promised should still be there no matter what's going on in your life. He's in control. He's not saying, oops, missed that. And that's where I think all these things, the joy, the love, all the things that he said, which is in you, that is in what the Father can be in us, no matter what's going on in our lives. And so I think that's really pertinent to today, the sufferings. The world hates us. The world's going to do everything in its power to irritate us. Whatever.

Kelly put it this way in one in the world there were to be witnesses They were they were to be witnesses of him and the father's word He has given them in the world hated them not not for that word only offensive is it it is to the world But because they the disciples who had it were not of the world even as their master is not we're not from around here You know we're different You know, I just love that too, when you travel.

I don't know if you can travel. When you find a Christian, it's kind of like, you know, you just find that fellowship that you just can't have with other people who don't have the life inside of them. You know, and it's just, I find that, You travel in business and whatever, and you find a Christian out there, a fellow believer, it's just like a breath of fresh air, because the world is not like this.

We're not like them. We're not from around here. So I just think there's a lot in that Christians, the first thing, a lot of prosperity doctrines, you're going to be healthy, wealthy, and wise, and it's candy and nuts, and we're all happy from now on. No, that's not what the Christian life is. And again, through the sufferings, the suffering is meant to what? Draw us away or draw us to Christ? To Him. That's the purpose of it. God is love. God doesn't just say, I'm going to whack Courtney today because I just feel like it. He was pretty stupid last week and I'm going to smack him. He works out of love. It's to draw me to Him.

Did you have something back there? A comment, I may have heard this wrong, but you're in the world, but you're not of the world. Well, Christ says you're not in the world. He said I'm not in the world, so we're not in the world, we're not of the world. We're neither. Yeah, you know, the new creature in Christ is not a part of this.

Maybe conditionally. Yeah, this is a conditional. Well, actually, it's positional and conditional. We're here physically, but positionally we're not in the world or we're not of the world. Right. And that's why I say, and we'll get into that in the next third session, I guess it is. Grace is next, and then we get into position and condition. And that's very true. Positionally, where are we right now? Seated, positionally. Seated in the heavenlies in Christ. Positionally. Is that ever going to change? Anything can happen in this world? You know, we vaporize this world, is that going to change? Nope. So, conditionally though, there are lots of things, you know. Alright, question five.

Based on what we're studying regarding identification truths, why in verse 16 does the Lord say, they're not of this world? We've kind of gone over this. Why is it? Are we identified with the world? We're identified with him. He's the firstborn of the new creation. So if he's not of it, we aren't. It's like those who are identified in Adam, they're of this world. That's their realm. That's where they're at. Where we are, identified in Christ, is where? In Him, in the heavenlies, positionally. That's where we are.

I also put the question, how important is that today? Do we know that? Very important. When the world's in a blender, I'm sure glad I am not there positionally. As I fully confess, I tend to be the political junkie. I confess that. My son-in-law will identify with that. We have great discussions. But the way I equate it is, it's a football game.

I watch it and it makes absolutely no difference whether it wins or loses. The tilting of the world means nothing to me as far as which way politics goes. Yeah, I love to follow it, I love it, but it's a football game. Whoever wins or loses doesn't mean diddly to my position and who I am in Christ.

So I can get all, you know, exercise about this, which is, you know, stupid, actually. But in the realm, I also realize that, you know, whatever happens politically, God knows about it. God allowed all whatever, who'd win, who got in, who, whatever, whatever's going on with whatever bailout this week and that. Did God go, oops, I missed that? No. We are soldiers.

In Philippians 3.20, where's our citizenship? Even though we have something that says we're a US citizen.

No. You mean those orange and blue sunsets are not gods of Bronco? No. Well, I think there probably is a little bit of leaning that way that we have a Bronco sunset. People on the table not understand that. All right, so another question I have. Are we to have the same tastes, ambitions, and behaviors as the world? No. No. You know, it's kind of funny, too, when we, and we've talked about this before.

You know, especially guys, what is the first thing you do when you come up? Hi, Gary. What's the first thing you do? What do you do? What do you do? What's our identity? Where am I? I'm an engineer. That's the first thing. What's our identification? Christ, that's who we should be identifying. Have you ever answered that question? I'm thinking about that. I haven't had many of those. Where are you from? I'm not from around here. Oh, from Detroit? Where are you from?

You can have fun with this pretty fast. That's what the world already thinks of us. But it would be a great way to start it. I think there are some things that you can... and take opportunities like that. I think we have some of these things where... I think we are to be a light on a hill. We're to be salt. And what is that? In a world of turmoil, Who should be the most calm in this turmoil? Us.

Isn't that a drawing factor to a world that's being blown around in the blender? If we're fine and have the peace that surpasses all understanding, the rest that we have in Christ, and the world is being dumped on its head and turned around and spun, and we're fine, people should be drawn to us. I'm not sure that's always true, because if the Lord says they're going to hate you, then if you're the calm one in the midst of turmoil, it's not that... I mean, some may be drawn to you, but some may hate you for that, too. Be offended by that.

Yeah. Why aren't you upset? How come you're not? You're not one of us. Two different things on that, and we did this in the John study, too. There's two, and I think Andrew brought it up actually. Well, the world hates us. Okay. So, how did you come to know the Lord? Did He use people? Oh, yes. Absolutely. So, you were in the world. Yes, I was.

And so you hated him, well, but you were drunk. And we got into the scripture passages of that, where even though they hate it, they'll know, and you'll be drunk. because of the fact that you are peace in this. But not because of my thing, because of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, I mean, if he's looking at Courtney for great wisdom and stuff...

Forget it. Forget it, you know. It's the Holy Spirit working through me as an instrument. When I rest and let him, you know, do the work. Yeah, so it's a two-edged... The world hates us, but because of those who we are in the world, We draw people, and that's why I say, I think it's especially important in what we're going through right now. You who are believers, don't panic. Regardless of what happens, have the peace that surpasses all understanding. You're not from around here. Even if you go through sufferings, which we know we're going to have sufferings, rest. You have that peace. Did God miss it today? When he evaporated your 401k? When your job disappeared? Did he know what happened? Yes, he did.

And so, you know, I think for us to have the peace in that is a great witness. And we'll see because of the world that's in us, the world will be drawn to him through us if we let that come through. All right. We have a couple minutes here. I'll try it. Six, what does sanctify them in truth mean in verse 17? So we know, what does sanctified mean? We all know that. What is that? Okay, so what is truth? God's word is truth, so Jesus is truth. So, in John 14, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. In John 17, your word is truth. So, what does sanctify them in truth mean?

Yeah. So we're set apart in Christ, in God's Word. So what does that mean? Oh, it's easy to put the two parts together. But what does the whole mean? Come on. You don't think I was going to leave you with those two easy questions. What does it mean? You have to believe it. If you don't believe those two related facts, then it doesn't have any impact. Yeah. So if you're sanctified in truth, what does that mean? Do you think this is a conditional verse or a positional verse?

What do you think? I believe it is. I could look it up. I'm pretty sure. I think it is. Who is truth? That's where you're going. Is Jesus asking God to accept them apart for Him and His purposes. And the means of that sanctification is truth. Yes. The truth. Perfectly said. Perfectly said. You know, that's really to set us apart, I think, for these things.

What is His purpose? What is His purpose? To glorify Him. Yeah. If we're set apart in truth, what will we do? Glorify Him. Yeah. That's what he's doing. Conditionally, we are to glorify him. It's a conditional. I was going to look it up in the Greek as far as what it is here. We will finish... Mike went so long at the beginning. That was the reason. So I'll give you these for next week, the lessons. We'll continue on. We may go on for two and a half weeks on this if I can't get through all this.

And then we'll have one more class we'll do on Romans to lead us into the teaching on grace, which I'm extremely excited about. I've been anxious to get back to the grace. When we taught it before, it was like I opened a window, just about one inch, and looking and studying of grace. And I hope you'll be as excited about the grace portion of this class, because when you really start understanding it, What the other is, and I think I've convinced Micah this, that you need to, I mean the identification truths are the cornerstone to, if you don't understand identification, I don't think you can move into grace. Because you just can't understand the unmerited portion of grace, unless you know the identification part of it. And so I think you'll stumble a long ways to understanding grace until you understand the identification. So hence why we're going identification, grace, and position and condition. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you just for any time, again, just to look into your word.

Father, I just thank you for you allowing us to see the intimacy that you have with the Son in what was recorded in John 17. I thank you just to see that intimacy, and the exciting part is that we share in that intimacy, that we have that ability to come before you now and just say, Daddy, I don't understand. Daddy, I love you. Any way we can come before you in the intimacy that the Lord had with you, we have that same intimacy, and we have that same joy in us. We have that peace that surpasses all understanding, the rest that you've given. If we're in Him, we're walking in Him. So Father, we just thank you for this time. We just commit the remainder of this day to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.