You In Christ and Christ in You

OK, we are in less than twenty five. How far did we get? Did we just did we just enter into it? What are you laughing about? Everybody have a lesson. Twenty five. I got one left. So we even started. Have we gotten into it? Could we finish up 24? Okay, it shows you how good my memory is. Alright, lesson 24 then. The sum and substance of what we've been doing in 24 is talking about living the Christian life under grace.

And we've spent a lot of time talking about how possible is it to do that. Can you do it? Alright, how many think you can't? How many think you can't? We're talking about the enabling power of the Holy Spirit that we've been called to live a life that's totally impossible for us to live in and of our own strength. because it's a supernatural life, but we've been given the Spirit of God in order to implement that life. Question nine was, is it possible for a human being to produce the following? To love one another as I have loved you, that you should love one another. We talked about that.

You can't love like Christ unless the life of Christ is in you, right? You can't imitate his life. Would you lay down your life for the brethren? I've been trying to get Courtney to do that for a long time and he won't do it. I keep trying to run you over. I know.

So question 10, by what power does God propose a believer to accomplish this superhuman life? What human can reproduce the very virtues of Christ? No human can, right? But that's why the Holy Spirit has been given, and His job is to reproduce the Christ life in you, not to teach you how to imitate it. Do you understand the difference between the reproduction of the life in you and you trying to learn all the facts?

I love the, what would Jesus do, bracelets? Because really what that says is that here's a Christian operating out of the flesh, trying to act like Christ, and this is supposed to remind him that in every given situation, what would Jesus do in this particular situation? Well, what happens when he gets to the point where Christ gives his life?

Is he ready to do that? Or he's to love his brethren as Christ loved us? Is he ready to do that? Can he do it? See, the issue is, without the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ is impossible to live. Yet, does God expect us to live it? Sure does. Sure does. I mean, I can't disagree with him. I mean, he gave us the Lord Jesus Christ, put us in Christ, and then gave us the Spirit of God. Wouldn't you, if you were God, expect something to come from that? So what's your role? How does all this get implemented from your side of the ledger? What do you do? Work as hard as you can. You have to believe it. You have to live by faith and you have to trust Him.

In the teachings of grace, what is the most vital element? We've talked about grace now for a long time. What's the most vital element in the teachings of grace? What part of it? Let's look at John 7.37-39. In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified.

Romans 5.5 says, And hope makes us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.

Romans 8.9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Okay, 1 Corinthians 2.12, now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Question, in the teaching of grace, what is the most vital element? Yeah, it's the fact that the Holy Spirit of God has been given to you.

Now, given to you doesn't mean that he's lent out to you. You get him for a week, then you've got to give him back. I have a friend in town that has this carved duck decoy, and sometimes on your birthday he'll give it to you. And you get to keep it for a year, but then you have to give it back. And then he'll give it to somebody else. It's kind of a weird thing, but I've had it twice. So does the Holy Spirit come along and say, OK, Bob, in 2007 you get me for a year. In 2008 you have to give them to somebody else. What is the deal with the Spirit of God with you?

He's permanent. Right. And what does He bring? What does He bring? Well, maybe put it this way. What's the very first thing that He does when you believe? What does he do? He baptizes you. And what does that mean? He baptizes you of what? Into the Holy Spirit. No, into Christ. So he takes you out of Adam and he puts you in Christ.

So here you are positioned in Christ and the Spirit of God has come to dwell in you permanently for all eternity, who is now the source of your life. You also, the problem we have is we also have the life of Adam in us and we don't really understand or know what happened when the Spirit of God placed us in Christ. But as we grow and learn, we begin to learn that it's totally different than anything that we have been familiar with because it requires us to live by faith and to rest and trust Him to carry things out. When our whole existence in Adam was to perform as well as we could in order to... so that God... we would somehow please God and He would like us and bless us. Right? So...

How does the Holy Spirit's role in the Old Testament before Christ came? The Holy Spirit was still... The Holy Spirit would indwell people in the Old Testament for specific purposes. The best example I know of is that he indwelled the craftsmen that built the temple.

And it was such a precise job that they would chisel these huge stones out of the quarry and when they set them in place they fit perfectly. They didn't have to shim them. They didn't have to put any mortar in there to make them fit. They fit perfectly. all of the blocks of the temple. But when the job was done, the Spirit left. So He was upon them to enable them to do certain things.

The believer is indwelt by the Spirit. He lives. Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? He lives in you. Wherever you go and whatever you've done, from the minute that you believed on Christ, the Spirit of God has been in you and with you that whole time.

And He's there for The primary purpose is to reproduce the life of Christ in you. That's what his job is. Does that make sense? It makes sense, but I mean, are we aware of that on a daily basis as things go? That I am carrying around within me the Spirit of God and He's there to manifest the life of Christ through me.

That's his job. And one of the things that I think we'll talk about when we talk about beholding His glory and And that kind of thing next week is kind of the principles on how he does it. How does he do his job? Because he doesn't do it the way we think he's going to do it, at least initially. We have to learn.

I was going to end up with a quote from Lewis Barry Chafer. He says, If the manner of life under grace is superhuman, so also the provided enablement is superhuman. and is as limitless as the infinite power of God. Since God has proposed a humanly impossible manner of life, he has, in full consistency, provided the spirit who gives life. Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the fact that since God has proposed the impossible rule of life and provided the sufficient spirit The believer's responsibility is thereby changed from being a struggle of the flesh to being a reliance on the spirit. I really like that statement. That the believer's responsibility is thereby changed from being a struggle in the flesh to being a reliance on the spirit.

Now think about it. In your Christian experience, whenever you have struggles, it's because why? Usually why? Because you're trying to do something spiritually out of your own energy, and your own flesh, and your own ability, without the reliance on the Spirit of God. But it's so un-American to think that way.

Isn't it? There's no amendment to the Constitution that says rely on the Holy Spirit. It says, you know, we're all created equal, get busy and go to work. We've got this freedom, so enjoy it and do it. Isn't that kind of what our ethic is? Right? So to be a believer and to live and reliance upon the Spirit, at least initially, is a foreign concept to us, don't you think? Are you white today? Okay. Maybe this new lesson What problem does Grace introduce into the believer's life that is totally foreign to every aspect of law? What is it? Unmerited. Everybody understand what unmerited means? What does unmerited mean? What's that? This thing doesn't work, I can't hear you. What does unmerited mean? I'm sure they didn't deserve it. Didn't deserve it? No work required. There's no work required. There is absolutely no... Does that mean I get to watch the soap operas and I don't ever have to get out of my Barca lounger?

Is that what it means? Isn't that what your mind says to you? When you hear a phrase similar to, it means that there's no effort required on your part, doesn't your mind automatically say, wonderful, I'm retired. There's nothing for me to do. And so where does your mind go? I mean, if you're a type A person like Courtney, you get really nervous because you've got to be doing something. If you're lazy like me, you think, ah, maybe I can pull this off. You understand what I'm saying?

Again, it's one of those concepts where you think, oh my goodness, if you don't tell me what to do, I'm not going to know what to do. Haven't you had Christians say to you, well, we need the law, like the Burma shave ads. Those of you who are older will know what Burma shave ads are.

We used to drive down the road and there were these little signs and they had little sayings and there was a conclusion at the end. But they always kind of told you, or a friend of the freeway, and say, well, where do you live? I live off mile marker 212. Well, I know where I am if I'm off mile marker 212.

That's how you think about the law, that if it isn't there, how do I know what to do? That's a problem, isn't it? It's totally foreign. The problem is that we are under grace and law is totally foreign to what grace is all about. So how do you possibly propose to live without a mile marker? How are you going to do it?

Principles that are given to us. Principles are given to us. Principles of how grace functions. So would you think it's important to find out how grace operates? Principles, absolutely. Again, Schaeffer says, any aspect of life or conduct which is undertaken in dependence on the energy or the ability of the flesh is to that extent purely legal in character.

Whether it be the wholly revealed will of God, the actual written commandments or the exhortations of grace, even if you take upon yourself the exhortations of grace to live them out of your flesh, it's legal It's all laid out, and that's what the law is.

But I've got to realize that's the old man. The new man in Christ doesn't have that. It's crazy to think about going back under the law with the freedoms that we have under grace, but it's the old man who wants to go back under the law. Like I said, it all goes back, I think, to the identification. I'm going to keep harping on that, but it's understanding that the old man is the one who wants the law, not the new man.

Don't you find it interesting that if you sit down and think about, we've had a 15 minute discussion now about the Holy Spirit, so boy, I've got to get busy and figure out how to get the Spirit active in my life, right? I've got to figure out how to do that. What have you just asked yourself to do? Come up with a bunch of laws in order to get Him to move, right?

Isn't that what you've done? So any effort on our part to get the spirit to move in my wife, that depends on the flesh, is totally legal. Which means that if I do this, then he's going to do this. Anything like that is legal. Does that make sense to you? And you will see it all over.

I mean, even Louis Barry Chafer, the King of Grace, writes in a book that he wrote called, He that is Spiritual, three steps that you need to go through to get indwelt by the Spirit. Confess all known sin. Really? Really? So what do you do? Did he ever come out of that? I don't know. I actually ought to look and see when it was published to see if it's before or after.

And that's why there's so much focus on salvation by grace. If you start by grace, then you're much more likely to understand how the life functions by grace. It would be graciously profitable to you to sit down and think about how you would present the gospel to somebody graciously, so that they would start by grace and then dependence on the Spirit and not on anything that they would do. or bring to the table.

Why is the power of the Spirit in the life unlimited? Because He's unlimited. Do you see that? You're not dealing with somebody in your life who is your life now that has diminished power. This is God Himself. He has unlimited power. So to carry out the prescription of the life of grace in you is unlimited. The power that's there to do it is Him, not you. Since God has proposed an impossible rule of life and provided the sufficient spirit, what's your responsibility now? By the way, do you have a responsibility under grace? Do you? What is it? I just told you a minute ago. What is it? What's your responsibility? You forgot already?

Instead of being a struggle in the flesh, what's it supposed to be? A reliance on the Spirit of God. That's your responsibility. When you read the Word of God, do you expect God to do what he says he's going to do in there? Do you believe that he did what he said he did? The new principle of achievement consists of getting things accomplished in the believer's daily life and service by trusting the power of another. It's not you, it's somebody else, rather than trusting the energy of the flesh.

So, experimentally though, the believer, when empowered by the Spirit, will be conscious... Maybe I'll do it in the form of a question. If you're empowered by the Spirit to live the life on a daily basis, What are you conscious of? I'm riding in the driver's seat and he's doing everything. Now I'm in the passenger seat and he's doing everything. What am I conscious of? What am I aware of? If you're in a situation where the love of Christ is coming out of you towards somebody else, what are you aware of? Is the Spirit of God doing it in you? Or are you just aware of loving that person?

I don't think so. No. Why not? Because I think that the exercise, he's exercising that life through my faculties. You understand what I mean by that? I don't think, I don't, go ahead, say that again. I was just asking, where does the fruit of the spirit land? Okay, good question. The fruit of the spirit, have you ever noticed on that verse that it's not the fruits of the spirit, it's a singular term, it's the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, kindness, meekness. Why do you think it's singular, the fruit of the spirit? and there's a whole bunch of them, right? Okay?

So, following along your logic, then all of those fruits should be in play at one time. I shouldn't be working on love today and joy tomorrow. Because the life of Christ is all of those things in play right now. So if the Spirit of God is always operating in the background, right? I mean, the Lord said it's like the wind. You never see them. You never see the wind, but you always see the effect of the wind. Right? If the wind blows through a tree, you see the leaves go like this, but you don't see the wind.

So the Spirit of God operates through my faculties, and I'm aware of the operation going on, I'm living in a dependency, but I'm not aware of the Spirit of God doing it. I'm doing the loving. I'm joyful. Do you understand that? So what am I doing? What does that look like? Second quarter of the Broncos game.

And I think that's where we're getting to the point where as you become more Christ-like, because you have known him through his word, you know him. and becoming more Christ-like. Would it be inconsistent to say that if I have a purpose, the purpose would be to be more dependent? Yeah, I mean, we have to be dependent on Him. But the action is, it's not like, I'm going to be Christ-like today, I'm going to be Christ-like tomorrow.

If that, you've defeated it. It's who you are. You know it. It's just who you are. Holly? I'm going to say something as a new person again. Oh, that's good. I know what I'm saying. But what I've found, and I'm here, is that to me, it's like I recognize it as gratitude. You know, to have the feelings of recognizing that I'm being patient, or recognizing love, or recognizing whatever, it's all of a sudden like a feeling of gratitude. Yeah, and that's new. Well, you know, it's a very interesting phenomenon because what I've been trying to do the last week or so was to demonstrate to you that there are two things in play here.

Number one, that you cannot live up to the standard of the life you've been called to live. You can't do it out of your flesh. And as I look around the room and I'm looking at you, you know, I know what's going through your mind. Well, I'm getting half of them done. And the point is that you can't do any of them. And the second part of this, which is the most critical element, is the work of the Spirit. You just described how the Spirit functions.

Here you are, going along, living your life, and this newness of life, and what's your response? Boy, you're grateful for this. My goodness, look at this. This is not who I know myself to be from back there. But this is a new thing that's going on, and it's the Spirit of God who's doing it, and I'm grateful to Him. My goodness, you know what? I believe you a little more today because you just demonstrated to me that you really do mean what you say. See? Because you really have two elements going on here, and that's what question two is about.

There's a body of Scripture that sets forth the character and conduct that is becoming the one who is already saved and safe by the grace of God. In the word of God, as we've discussed, there's all kinds of scripture for the believer that sets forth the character of the conduct, and we'll talk about some of those.

The second other theme is presented, the body of scripture, which sets forth the fact that the life of grace is to be lived in sole dependence upon the enabling power of the Spirit. Those two things are the two most critical things, the most critical being the fact that the life is lived in dependence on the power of the Spirit of God. All of this scripture includes every detail and every instruction concerning the life of faith and the walk in the Spirit. Everything you need to understand about this life is in the scriptures, and it's in Paul's epistles primarily. Not all of it, but primarily, but in the New Testament from Romans on. So, just to take a look, What is this superhuman manner of life like? And I gave you some verses.

Philippians 2.5. Have this mindset or attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus. Don't you love that? I'm supposed to think God's thoughts after Him. Can I do that? Yeah. Yeah, you can.

When you realize that you love somebody that you've known a long time, and now that you're a believer, there's an affection in your heart for them that was never there before. Or there's a tolerance, or there's a joy about certain things, or a patience about certain things that just was not there before. It's there now, and it's growing.

Or, one John 4.17, By this, love is perfected in us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world." What a statement!

As he is, so are we in this world. Who's the he he's referring to? The Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Christ, when he ascended into heaven, he was only gone from this planet for about 40 days. He's been back ever since. You know where He is? He's in you and me. He's here. I just had a thought. That verse. That's who He is. That's exactly right. What does that do with what would Jesus do?

Yeah. Yeah. All we gotta do is reckon. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Yes, sir. So, a while, a bit ago we were saying that the effort to get the Holy Spirit to move in my life is a legal aspect. So Paul in 1 Thessalonians, he says, it's like, from what he's saying here, it's like going in the back door from that statement. He says, don't quench the Spirit. What's your question? How do you quench Him? avoid getting the Spirit to do something. Oh, I see what you're saying. Well, maybe answer it this way.

The Spirit of God, and it's actually question four, the Spirit of God has a specific purpose for being here, doesn't He? What is it? What's His specific purpose for Him being here? He's to reproduce Christ's life in you. Isn't that His job? And that's, like Stephen talked about a minute ago, the fruit of the Spirit. His job is to produce the Christ-likeness or life in you, and it's demonstrated by the fruit of the Spirit. That's what it'll look like.

Okay? So, here you, you know, you're a fairly young Christian, and you don't know much, and you're just starting to investigate, well, now that I'm a Christian, what am I about, and what am I supposed to do, and what am I supposed to learn? And you begin to study. Paul's epistles. And you begin to find out, wow, there's some cool stuff in here. And every time you run on something, like if you study the Book of Romans, about every new paragraph, there's a whole new thing I have to learn that I never knew before, but it's brand new to me. It's kind of exciting stuff.

Like I was crucified with Christ, buried and resurrected, I should walk in newness of life. I can reckon myself dead unto sin and alive unto God. I don't have to let sin serve as my master anymore. I'm not under law, I'm under grace. All those that are in Christ, which includes me, there's no condemnation. Wow! There's a new spirit of life in Christ. Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

All of that stuff is true. Now, how would I quench the spirit once I learned all that stuff? Try to live out of the flesh. Don't believe them. You see what I'm saying? As you have begun in the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in Him. How did you start? You started by faith and some facts. And as you learn the facts... By the way, who reveals the facts to you? The Holy Spirit does. And what's the tool that He uses? The Word of God. And so here you learn Him. And then what does He want you to... How does He want you to respond to the facts? He wants you to believe Him.

My buddy Bob Strong used to say, if you believe him, hang on, because you're going for a ride. If you really believe, you say, you know what, you said that I've been crucified with Christ, I was buried and resurrected, I'm a brand new creature. I believe you about that. Hang on. Hang on, because here we go.

You're going to find out a practical experience that he means it when he says that. so that when you say, I'm reckoning myself indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God, it isn't because I've been told to, it's because I know it's true. I mean, it would be stupid for me to say, well, I reckon myself to be in the parking lot right now, because I'm here. I would reckon myself to be here. I would reckon myself to be dead unto sin, because I am.

How do I know that? The Spirit of God showed it to me. And not only that, my dependence on him enabled me to reckon it to be so. See? So I live this life that's supernatural. What idiot would ever reckon himself dead unto sin and alive unto God? Nobody would, unless God showed it to them and the Spirit of God enabled them to do it. How do I quench the spirits? Real simple. I don't buy what he's selling. I don't believe him. Go sell it to somebody else. It's not for me. I can do it myself. Or if you help me, I can get it done. No. No. And you know what's cool about the Spirit of God?

He never gives up. If you don't learn your lesson today, we're going down the corner, around the bend, and we're coming right back. You know, it's like those Jews in the desert. We're going out for 40 years till the guy that doesn't believe dies, and then we're coming back to Kadesh, Barnea, and we're going across the river into Promised Land. We're going one way or another. Willingly.

See that? It's cool, isn't it? So, when you get nervous about the fact that, gee whiz, I don't see any love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control in my life. What's the problem if you don't see it? Oh, by the way, of such things there isn't any law. What happens if you don't see that? It's okay if you don't see it.

There's a lot of times that the Spirit of God does His work in and through you that He doesn't let you in on what He's doing. Sometimes He does, but a lot of times He doesn't. So I can say that as I look around this room, there are people in this room who have edified me. You have no idea you've done it. You have no idea you did it. But you did. By something you said, something you did, something I heard about you. I was edified. And it was the Spirit of God who did it to me through you. And you have no idea. Sometimes you do. But we're always searching for those opportunities so we can go effectuate it and then we can take credit for it, right? You okay with that, Steve? Is that alright? Well, that's good. I whizzed through four questions just then.

Question four, what's the supreme purpose of the Spirit of God and the believer? I think the most appropriate verse for that is Romans 8, 28 and 29. This is a tremendous verse for growing believers. For we know that God causes all things to work together for good."

Oh, really? To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Well, I didn't love him so much on Tuesday, but I am called according to his purpose. I love him today, so I guess I'm in the loop. For those he foreknew, he also predestinated to what? What's he going to do? To be conformed to the image of his Son.

So if you're ever in a circle of Christians who say, well, what is God's purpose for your life? And you've got to come up with some foxy answer. This is the answer. This is the only answer. God's purpose in my life is that the Spirit of God is conforming me to the image of Christ.

Why is he doing that? He says, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. Why is he conforming me to the image of his Son? Why is he doing that? Why can't he conform it to the image of Mike? Why? Why is he doing that? You don't know? Some of you must know. You know? To reveal his glory? Anybody else? Do you know? I love it. Anybody else want to take a stab at it?

Who is the one person that is totally pleasing to God? The Lord Jesus Christ. Kind of cool, huh? So here's the Spirit of God sent to conform you to His image. Why? So that you can be conditionally, totally pleasing to Him, so He can manifest His glory through you.

Do you realize that for all eternity God has made a couple of really cool determinations? Number one, he's going to manifest his glory to his whole creation through Christ and one other entity. Who's the other entity? You and me. We don't realize how important we are to God. We, as the body of Christ, as the bride of Christ, entity that God has determined that he's going to manifest his glory to all of his creation through. The head and the bride. The bridegroom and us. You and me.

When we're cruising around in the Millennial Kingdom, everybody's going to know who you are. You know why? Because they're going to see the glory of God coming out of you. Not because you have a sign that says, I are a son. No, it's going to be because this glory is being manifested through you. Unique in all the purposes of God. Process started the day that you were saved. Conformity to the image of Christ started the day you were saved. That's His purpose.

List five of the standards of grace that's described in the Word. Oh, I forgot. Just give me five standards of grace that are described in the word of God. Five of them. Give me one. Steve mentioned several. One of them is love. What's the next one? Joy. What's the next one? Peace. We got three. We're doing good. Working towards five. What's number four? Kindness. Patience. How about gentleness? Faithfulness. Self-control. Or I'd like to say Christ control. I would say those are the standards of grace. You meet those standards, you got it.

So, what word would you use to describe Christian service? One word. This ought to be fun. What one word would you use to describe Christian service? Sacrificing. Sacrificing is a good word. Dependence. No problem. The word I came up with was superhuman. Christian service is superhuman. Because it's imparted by grace.

And I go back and quote that John 7.37.38.39 passage. He that believes in me out of being will flow rivers of living water. Superhuman.

Is grace just an imitation of God's graciousness by the believer? Is that a good question? Kind of weird, isn't it? Is grace just an imitation of God's graciousness by the believer? In other words, I've studied how gracious God is and I'm imitating what he's doing. Is that what grace is? What do you think?

If you say no, I'm going to say why. If you say yes, I'm going to say why. How many think, yeah, that's really what it is, it's just an imitation? Should I leave it there without an answer? No, I'm going to give you an answer. I'm going to say no because you put the word just in there. The reason it's no is because grace is the reproduction by the indwelling spirit of that graciousness in the life and service of the believer. If the Spirit of God is reproducing the life of Christ in you, He's reproducing the grace of God in you.

For those of you with good memories, we'll pick up at question 8 next time. So let's close and hand out those new ones. Dear Father, how we thank you for your Spirit. who enables us to behold the glory of the Lord and to abide in the Lord Jesus and we trust him to manifest the life of Christ in us, Father. We thank you for you and the Lord Jesus in the Spirit and your whole plan of your representation, representing yourself through us, Father. We thank you, we pray in your Son's name. Amen.