You In Christ and Christ In You
Mike Doyle · Jul 26, 2009
You in Christ & Christ in You, No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926139366790

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

Okay, everybody got a 21? So we've talked about what Christian freedom means, right? We've talked about 1 Peter 2.11 and 3.12, right? And 6 says, what are the three areas of subjection described in the verses of 1 Peter? What are they?

In other words, the Lord has determined that Well, maybe I can set this up this way. We spend a lot of time here talking about our position in Christ, the way the body of Christ functions, the grace that we have positionally. But God also, on a conditional basis, has a very orderly universe, and especially within and amongst of his creatures, human beings. One of the things that you, in the study of a dispensational theology, is you find that the expanded revelation of God, and he implements things as he goes along.

Like with Noah, he implemented government. There wasn't any government before then. The guys were all kind of winging it. Whoever was a strong guy in the tribe, he was setting the rules, you know. And he, in the Mosaic system, Israel is a nation for a long time until Moses comes along and lays out the rules.

So he's had the family in place in the way that the structure of the family was supposed to be from the Garden of Eden. So he is a very orderly God and so we're talking about condition here. and principles of grace and authority under which we are to live.

Submission is a very interesting subject for human beings who have sin natures, because we all think we are God, and somebody else ought to be submitting, not me. Peter talks about three institutions that are described that we are as human beings, as believers be in subjection to, what are they? I think husbands to wives and human institutions. Yeah, human institutions or you might say government.

The government is there because God put them there. Now whether you like who is running the government or not is a different matter. And I remember when Bill Clinton was elected president, lots of Christians said, why would the Lord allow that to happen? You know, well, you can say it again. But it's designed that God allows even people that we don't agree with to be put in a position of authority. And we are to be subject to that. We'll talk about when not to be subject to them later.

The second group is the family, the house, the household. There are certain parameters and setups in the family structure, and it's designed for the safety of all the members that are in it, just like the government is designed to protect the people. The household, and the last one is the family itself. The husband, the wife, the father, the mother, and the children. Now, don't you find it interesting that if you wanted to destroy God's environment, you'd go at those three institutions, wouldn't you? Look what's happened to the family.

Look what's happened to the viewpoint of our society in terms of government. Because we're a postmodern society, we think we can do anything as long as it doesn't harm the guy standing next to me. That we don't have to live by the rules. Any questions or discussions about that? So, Courtney says, describe at least three things that freedom is not, or liberty is not. The easiest one is that I can do what I please. I get to do anything I want. Is that what liberty is? That's what my son thinks it is. No, he really does. I can't blame them. I think when I was 17 I thought the same way. I can do whatever I want. Because I'm wise. I've got a lot of experience. I know how to do everything. But that isn't what freedom is.

Do you know what the word autonomy means? Anybody know what that word means? It means self-laws. Autonomy is two Greek words. The first word is auto which means self and namos which means law. That's one thing that liberty is not. Freedom is not autonomy. I don't get to make up my own rules. Right? You're saying autonomy. Autonomy. You're not autonomous. What do you think about that? Doesn't it seem like if I could do what I want, I would be free? Why is that kind of a slippery slope?

You might find yourself enslaved to something. Well, see, that's the point. Every human being is enslaved to something. Until you meet the Lord Jesus, you're totally in bondage to the sin nature. I've always marveled at that, that non-believers in America walk around saying that they are free and they have free will. Now here's the scenario. This is the person and this is the sin nature, right? And you go where the sin nature tells you to go.

You don't decide, it decides. And then the whole time, somebody's whispering in your ear that you're free. It's like walking a guy to the gallows telling him he's free. It's probably the biggest lie ever. So every human being is subject to something or somebody and the lie is that I'm autonomous. I can do what I want when I want. No you can't. No you can't. Like free will. Do you have free will? What is free will? How many people in the history of creation have had free will? How many human beings have had free will?

Three hundred? Four thousand? How many? Two. Two. Who are they? Adam and Eve. Yeah. They have free will. Right? You and I, have we ever had free will? No. Free will means that you can do what you want to do. You make a choice and you can do it. So, as Christians, do you have a freer will than those that aren't? believers? I think you do. You have the power not to sin? Yeah. You have the power to make the choice not to sin and not to sin. Now, I lost the thought, boy it was right there. So, The idea of free will or autonomy is really something that liberty is not. So what would you say would be in contrast to that? Bondage. Bondage?

Is anybody autonomous? Is there any person who is autonomous? God is, right? God is not subject to anything and he can make up the rules himself. And he makes them up, he doesn't make them up, he puts them together based in harmony with himself. All designed for the good of his creation, never to harm. But there are some things God can't do.

Such as? Can't sin. And why can't he sin? See, now that's interesting. Doesn't that question sound like God doesn't have the freedom to sin? Isn't that what that sounds like? So let's talk about who God is. Could God go against himself? He could. And we, in our view of freedom, would think, well that means he's not free to do it. Do you see that? It's like, oh wait a minute.

If I'm God and I'm holy, righteous, and good, why would I want to do something that wasn't holy, righteous, and good? It wouldn't be in character with who I am. It isn't that I can be evil because I'm free to do so. The fact is that I'm free not to be evil. So we human beings are the only ones that would look at God's autonomy and say, well, he can't sin, so he must not be really free.

When we go to be with the Lord, we behold Him face to face, we're with Him for all eternity, will our wills be kind of locked like the angels' wills are? In other words, will you be forced to love Him and worship Him? No. So what will your will be doing? It will be willingly doing that. You see what I mean? Perfect freedom for the human being is to do God's will. That's what perfect freedom is. We were created that way. Does that make sense?

So the struggle we have is with the first commandment of the Ten Commandments, I'm the Lord thy God, I shall not have false gods before me. Who's the false god? Who is it? Me. Self. That's the one that's in conflict with God in terms of will. when the believer goes to be with the Lord and has no impediments of the sin nature, he willingly worships God and loves Him and there's never ever going to be a thought that, well, maybe I want to eat some fruit. Like Adam did. That thought will not be there. And even if it was there, it would never be entertained because it wouldn't be of God. Freedom, freedom from service?

Look at Romans 6.18.

Romans 6.18 says, Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether to sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteousness.

So the choice is what? For a free man, what's the choice? It's who I freely decide to submit myself to. Do you understand what I'm saying? I only have two choices, what are they? Sin, nature and righteousness. That's it. And one of them you're a slave, what about the other one? What about the other? I can become a slave of righteousness. What is that? Does that just mean I go from being one sort of a slave in bondage to another? My questions must not be clear today. Here's what I'm saying. Every human being is not free from sin. Everybody's in bondage to sin.

The believer, because he has the life of the resurrected Lord, is encouraged by Paul to become a slave of righteousness. To exercise his will and put himself under the dominion of God, of his righteousness. He's encouraged to do that. He's the only creature that can do that. A non-believer can't do it. Do you understand that? Can you go to a non-believer and say, listen, what you need to do is become a slave of righteousness?

He'd say, sure. You know, where do I sign up? Really what liberty is, is changing masters. That make sense? You decide that you're not the master anymore, and the Lord Jesus Christ is now the master, and you submit yourself freely to do that. Now, what if I say to you, that's what you've got to do, and if you don't do it, God isn't going to bless you. Now you've got them under a merit system. That's exactly what I've done.

So how does one submit to become a slave of righteousness under the heading of grace? How does that happen? It's not so much anymore, but maybe 10 years ago, there was a big focus in Christianity on this word yield. Everybody was yielded. I've got to be yielded. Remember that? How do you do that graciously? How do you submit yourself to become a slave of righteousness graciously? Somebody tell me how you do that. You mean nobody knows?

Strictly accepting Him. Accept Him. On what the Word says about Him. What the Word says, okay. From the Word of God you learn the facts. You learn the facts of grace. And as grace becomes more, you become more and more educated about grace and how it works. Unlimited and unmerited blessings from God, right? When you begin to understand that, and then God asks you to do something, there's no resistance. You understand what I mean by that? You can't wait to do it. It's interesting in the study of the book of Romans.

You're not asked to ever do anything until you get to Romans 6.11. Everything up to that point is positional.

That not only that you're saved, but that you have been crucified, buried and resurrected with Christ. Which are astounding facts. And then God says, here's what I want you to do based on those facts. I want you to reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto me."

It's the first time he asks you to do something. And if the facts are presented correctly, it isn't very tough to do that, because you recognize it's already true. Then when you get to these verses about presenting or submitting based on what you know and the grace that you know, how tough is it? It's not hard.

And by the time you get all the way over to Romans 12.1, If you are any kind of a thinking believer, you've already gone to God and said, well what do you want to do with my body?

It seems to be in the way. He says, give it to me. It's your reasonable service. Just give it to me. You don't have any resistance about that at all. See? But it's based on understanding what God has told us in his word and the grace that comes with the knowledge that you have. Does that make sense? That keeps it from being legal.

If you focus on what I ought to be doing, you are going to make it legal. If you understand what God has already done, and you're the recipients of his grace, then when he inquires of you, present your body to me as a living sacrifice, no problem. I've been wondering what to do with it anyway. When he says, I own you, I bought you with a price, you don't have any struggle with that, you're thankful that he does.

See that? When you start talking about the logical imperatives that Burns calls them, the commands, if you don't understand the biblical doctrine before the command comes, and the grace in which it is given, then it becomes, you know, it gets to be a grind. It's a rub because you think, if I don't do it, God isn't going to bless me. Well, you've missed it. If you're functioning on that basis, you've missed the grace that motivates you to respond to whatever God would have you do.

It's the same thing in a marriage, it's the same thing in a family. So, we are now, in terms of the verse we're talking about, we are now free to serve God. You weren't free to do that before. The liberty and freedom in the New Testament are not freedom from service, but it's just a change of masters.

I wasn't designed by God to be God. I wasn't designed by God to be autonomous. I am not going to be happy being autonomous. I wasn't designed by God to be a father and a husband and be subject to my wife. You understand what I'm saying? He didn't create me and configure me that way. He configured me to love my wife and to cherish her and to present her to him holy and blameless. I'm not to submit to her, she's to submit to me. If I'm trying to do her role and she's trying to do my role, it doesn't work. Because we're not made that way. Does that make sense? So I'm not designed by God to be autonomous. I'm designed to be a bond slave.

And that's where my fulfillment is. Any wife who is in a marriage with a believing husband, who is a godly man, finds her fulfillment on being subject to him. She won't find it any place else. Now that's assuming that he's doing what he's supposed to be doing too. But God sets up these systems that if you function within the system, you're fulfilled.

If you don't, you're not. We're to live under grace. We're fulfilled under grace. Under a law system, we're not. So we're not free from authority. We submit ourselves to every human authority that God has put into place. So we can say that freedom is not freedom from authority, right? Next time you get pulled over for speeding, tell the cop that you're a believer, and that you're subject to God only, and that if he writes you a ticket, it won't do him any good. So give a definition of what liberty is. How would you define liberty if you had to define it?

You just said it was a change of masters. Change of masters? From where you were to what you are now. Could you say that it's freedom from tyranny? Yes. You could say it's freedom from every sort of tyranny. Tyranny is impositions imposed on me by a bad guy. Freedom from tyranny as specified in the Word and its submission to the Lordship of Christ as specified in Scripture.

Now, what I find interesting, whenever you have discussions of this kind, and I'm repeating myself, if there is a limited understanding of what grace is, then there's always the camp that says, you better do this, because God said so. And there's the other camp over here that says, well, I really can't do it because God's got to do it. So how do you reconcile those two viewpoints? How do you reconcile? Because you should do it, right? But I can't. So how do you reconcile? Just do it anyway and hope for the best?

The focus is on him instead of on me. That's right. The focus is on him and his grace that's coming at me full on. And so when this guy says you've got to do it, this guy should say, when I understand the grace, because I don't want to act in a legal manner, I want to be the receiver of the grace of God. Yeah, should I do it? Is God requiring me to do it? Sure He is, if I want to enter into the fullness of what He has for me.

This guy over here says, well I'm just going to sit and wait. No. What does this guy do? He needs to find out about the grace too, because all he's doing is being apathetic. So what's interesting is that living under grace is a very dynamic system that's really alive and with untold amounts of energy and submission. But if you don't understand it and you're like Courtney in type A, you're a doer. Or if you're kind of a passive person, you're waiting because you don't want to make a mistake or whatever your reasoning is.

The person that lives under grace, all you have to do is spend 10 minutes and study Paul's life. The guy wore his body out. By the time you get to Timothy, his body is going to stop. It's a good thing they killed him because his body wasn't going much farther in as it was. He was thinking he was going to Spain. When you have a spiritual life, the resurrected life of Christ, living through a human body, the body isn't long going to keep up.

Any of you guys Star Wars fans? Or Star Trek fans? I remember one of the first ones where these creatures inhabited the bodies of this guy crew on the ship and they were these really highly advanced and they couldn't, they were moving so fast that during the show if they lasted another week or so they were all going to die because their bodies couldn't keep up with the life that was in them. We have that problem.

We have the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ functioning within our body, living out that life. Your body can't keep up. That's why we get the new one. The new one that's designed and fitted for the life. So, Courtney says that in summary, in the same way that he wants to Liberty is a change of masters, the definition notes a change from a tyranny under other masters and now under submission we are under the Lordship of Christ who is the new master and he uses some examples like husbands and wives. I haven't done a lot of marriage counseling but I've done some. What I find interesting when you have this discussion between a young couple that want to get married and you spend several weeks with them, laying out the biblical principles of marriage, the toughest job in all of that is for the husband to come to the realization of what his role is. If the husband loves his wife, as Christ loved the church, if he understands that, and that's the direction he's heading, then his wife is going to have no problem submitting to him at all. As I come into a greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, do I have any trouble submitting to him? The one who gave his life for me? The one who is full on grace towards me all the time?

The three persons of the Godhead are at work 24-7 conforming to the image of Christ. And I'm beginning to learn my acceptance before the Father is just way beyond anything I could have ever brought to the table. But they love me with the same intensity they love each other. And I'm starting to learn all of these things.

And then he says, how about submitting to me? You know, where's the door? I'm going now, as fast as I can get there. Well, a wife doesn't have any trouble submitting, but if a man goes to his wife and says, see right here, it says submit. It's like my son says, I'm standing up dad, but I'm really sitting down inside. And that's the problem.

That's the problem when you use the Bible to beat each other over the head. Because she turns around and says, well I don't see a whole lot of this loving me as Christ loved the church going on in you either, buddy. Both of those things are in play. Because both of those folks are subject to the Lord. Do you see that? I know in my life that I can't be what God called me to be. I'm in this camp. You need to love your wife as Christ loved the church. I say, OK, I will. But I can't. I can't. And he says, I know you can't.

But I've given you the life and I'll explain it to you. And guess what? Over time and understanding, you begin to realize how God has done all of that. Right. And does that mean that I can crank it up harder? No. The life of the Lord Jesus does not get up in the morning and write down what he's got to do today in order to be pleasing to the Father. You understand what I mean? He doesn't get up in the morning and say, let's see, the Father wants me to glorify Him today.

I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. No, the life just functions. It's spontaneous. He loves the Father. He loves you and me. We have that resurrected life in us and God would not ask us to love our wives like Christ loves the church and gave himself for us, if he didn't give us a life to do that with.

See that? So, and if that's in play, oh, I don't have any trouble submitting. I don't think. Let's see. I think we're done, right? Okay. Well, I'm moving fast. So now let's go to. Lesson twenty two. First question in lesson. Everybody have a twenty to. Twenty one.

I think we did we hand them out last week? I think they're on your podium underneath the binder. Where? They're on the podium under the binders. Oh, good. So none of you did the homework? No, we did it. We did it. You have one? Do you have one? Oh, great. Do you need one? Are you good? I'm set. Awesome.

Okay, first question, is Jesus my only authority? Is Jesus my only authority? We were just talking about how he's delegated authority to civil government, it's not like other government husbands or wives. Sure. So I can't say, well I'm not going to do what you asked me to do because Jesus is my only authority.

Tell the cop that. Good luck. So what about if I'm in a position where I'm subject to a delegated authority and he sort of gives me a direction that isn't what I don't think is biblical. What do I do about that? Well... It depends on what it is. If the government tells you you have to have an abortion, you don't do it. There you go. Yeah, it needs to align, but that doesn't mean that if...

I don't know, if there's an awful lot of things that come down that don't suit us spiritually, or if you're a liberal you don't like what the conservative view is, or if you're vice versa. Everything that you have a question with, you have to go to the Word of God and decide and see in there whether God would have you do it. Is there such a thing as a conscientious objector?

I served in the military before I became a believer. After I became a believer, I was thankful I didn't have to make that decision at the time I was in the military. But there's tremendous godly men in the service. What about those guys? Is it okay to be a conscientious objector? What if you really are serious about the fact that I can serve, but I couldn't take a life? Well, we come from a neighborhood where there was a lot of Quakers. They were conscientious objectors.

Yes. But some of them did go into the service and they would do some other service other than, say, be a medic or something that wouldn't be carrying a weapon to kill someone. And I think the service allows for that. I really do. I know they did in the Marine Corps. Although everybody had to be able to shoot that rifle. Everybody did. No matter what you did, what your job was.

So I think so. I mean, I've thought about that, not a lot, but that if I was sent to Vietnam with a platoon and had a rifle and I was a believer, could I actually point that thing at somebody and pull the trigger? I was going to hit him and he was probably going to die. Could I do that?

Well, some believers have no problem. Others, I think if they have a problem, I think they can work it out under the authority that's been delegated that they're under. Is it okay if you're a conscientious objector to go to Canada? Remember those, when everybody went to Canada? See, I think that's wrong. I don't think you have that liberty. because you've taken yourself out of, or tried to take yourself out from under the authority that God put you under. What does the word obey mean?

In the Greek, Hal loves it. This is why it's blazing in my mind. I'm so fortunate to have Hal around. to listen under. Listen under. You get that in your head and it changes your view of obeying. Yeah, it's really, it is, and it's blazing in my mind too, because it did, it changed the whole way I looked at what obedience meant. Because, I mean, we have this whole camp in Christianity that seems that every other word out of their mouth is obedience. It's just, you know, it's like running chalk up a board.

The word is hupakalo, Which hupo means to hear and akao means subordinate or listen attentively or under. So obey means to listen under. Isn't that a great way to look at it? To listen under. Does that mean to do? No. If you are in the military and he says give you a command, you are to obey that command. You're to listen under and respond. Yes, you are. Yes, you are.

But you know, it's interesting about when you were in the military, and you don't think about this when you enlist, or they call you, but you sign this thing called a contract. Right? Because I remember guys in my unit that says, you know, I'm done with this Marine Corps stuff, I'm leaving. And they pull out the contract and say, see your signature right there?

And right here it says that you'll listen under. And you'll listen under until the date on the bottom of the page. And if you don't, here are all the remedies, including jail. And you agree. I mean, they don't force you to go. You agree to go. You know, you signed the contract.

What if you were drafted? Yeah, if you're drafted, you don't sign. I don't know. I wasn't drafted. I was in the era where they were drafting. And I enlisted before they got to me. No, when my dad was in World War II, and I had his draft papers, and yes.

There's a contract? Yeah, we signed it. You signed it? Yes. You raised your right hand. I promise. You raised your right hand. Defend the Constitution of the United States. We have to watch men do that. Yeah. That's right. They stand up, stand in meditation. You don't have to do this. You're going to do this, you don't do this. You don't. But you agree. See, you agree.

It can be, listening under, when it comes to the Word of God, what's amazing about the Word of God is that if you read it and spend time in it, with a listen under attitude, it's amazing what you'll get out of it. You'll see the grace that's there, because you'll receive the grace. If you read the Word of God from an academic standpoint, that you want to cram your head full of a bunch of spiritual facts so that you can be another theologian, which we've got like lawyers, we've got too many theologians, you won't see the grace that's there. But if you listen under, you will. You will.

And, you'll get to see and meet the gracious one. That's the most important thing. So, when someone says that liberty is submission to the Lordship of Christ, as specified in scripture, you take a guy like our friend John MacArthur, who preaches what he would call Lordship Salvation. He says that you believe in the person and work of Christ on the cross and you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life.

And if you don't do that, you better go check your credentials. You might not be saved. What's the problem with that? Other than the obvious, it's not the gospel. But the Lordship part of it, what's the problem with that? It's requiring you to do something. You to do something without hearing. Yeah. You see that? I haven't listened under anything.

You've got to make Jesus the Lord of your life like he's not. What's that? He already is the Lord. I've got to make this decision that he is the Lord otherwise it didn't take. It's like getting vaccinated. Did it not take? The antibiotics aren't working. Can you explain it a little bit further? The listen under part? No, Lordship.

Lordship salvation says that incorporated in the salvation of a person, he must make Jesus the Lord of his life. He has to say, Jesus, you're the Lord of my life. It is not enough just to exercise faith in the person of Christ and his work. It's not enough. You can't just say, I understand and I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and he was resurrected according to the scriptures. I believe that. That's not enough for salvation. You have to make Jesus Lord. That's the premise. The problem is that I can't find that in any place in the Word of God when it comes to salvation.

That's an addition. It's just like you're not saved unless you repent. How about that one? What does repent mean? Do you think repentance is kind of included in the package? Sure it is. Because I've changed my mind about who I am and my destiny and where I'm going and who's going to save me. I change my mind about who's going to do it. But it isn't. Repentance is not a separate requirement. It's part of believing. I'm not going to believe in the Savior unless I've changed my mind about how I'm going to get saved. Or that I even need to be saved. So what the Lordship guys do is say that you have to make the jump from Savior to Lord. at the time of salvation.

And how did they define that? That if you submit yourself to him being your master. I think that's how they'd say it. That's very confusing to me because when you are saved and you start to study and you start to learn and you, as you say, learn about grace then that comes about as a kind of a natural follow through. Yeah, that's right. So I understand how they can. Well, it's like we're not going to study.

Is it time? Yeah. It's time for a second bell. So I had the bells late. I don't think they even ran. I mean, let me finish up this one thought. Yeah. I think Brian's here. I can remember the thought. I can't. The Lord does not want me to finish that. Oh, I know what I was going to say.

When we taught the grace class, one of the things we taught were the 34 things that Schaeffer says happened to you at the time of salvation. You may not know any of those, and most believers don't have a clue what those 33 or 34 things are. They don't know what they are.

Did they happen to you? Yeah, they did. Are they true of you? Absolutely they are. Do you get to abide in them from day one? Physically you do, but you don't get to enjoy them until you learn them. You know, like your acceptance, being an heir, a co-heir with Christ, a son, all of those things, they're just tremendous facts, but you don't know them. Is Jesus the Lord? Your Lord? Yeah he is, but I don't know what that's all about. And if somebody says, well you better get that squared away or you're not saved, puts a burden on me and takes me out of the umbrella of grace. You see that? That's the problem.

And when are you going to know that you've really arrived? When you've submitted enough. When you've lorded it up enough. I was just going to say, it seems to me that a person who teaches that way, somebody standing up front, who has the greater responsibility according to the Word to do it correctly, what he's doing is saying, I don't understand grace. I don't know what I've got in Christ.

But you go out there and get busy doing it. Well, it's even more subtle than that. Having been the guy standing up here a long time. They ain't moving. How am I going to get them to move? Give them a little walk. And they'll get moving. I've been guilty of that early on. You know, I think, you know, I'll stiff them a little with an obligation here. And they'll get rolling. No, they don't. It freezes them.

It's grace that makes you move. It's the only thing that makes you move, is grace. So teaching it and learning it is so important for us as believers because that's where the motivation is. The grace comes at us so fast and so much, so overwhelming, you cannot help but respond because you have the life in you that responds to grace. That's why we have to learn it every day, more and more every day. Let's go.

Father, how we thank you for your son and the grace that he brought. that grace and truth came by him and as we grow in the knowledge and grace of him we are able to increasingly listen under and to rest and to be your actually your slave father which is total freedom for us we thank you father we pray in your son's name amen