You In Christ and Christ in You

All right, we are in Lesson 24. Have we done Lesson 2? Yeah, I think so. Does God supply any help for man to live under any of the systems he institutes? We were talking about the three systems last week that God has instituted, or two of them he's instituted, one he's going to put in place. Can you name them?

Well, we don't have to go through all the dispensations and make it simple. He instituted the mosaic law system with Moses, but he did not give any help for man to keep the mosaic law. He's instituted the great system, which we will expand on as we go forward about. He has given an enabler for the great system.

And what is it? Trick question. And then he will, in the millennial kingdom, when he writes the law in the Jews' hearts, he will pour out his spirit on all flesh so that they will do his statutes. So question three was, to whom are the tenets of grace directed to?

We were talking about, by the way, we prayed for. It's interesting. There's three of us that have situations like you have with Christine and the gospel. She has one and Ingrid has one same kind of a situation. So we prayed. So you're home. All right. So to whom are the tenets of grace directed to? Church age. Church age just to the Christian. Are you okay with that? Let me ask you this.

If the tenets of grace are directed strictly to the believer, are the tenets of grace directed to those three souls that God may be leading to Christ? Right now, assuming all three of them are not believers. Isn't it grace that he draws someone to himself? Is he acting in grace?

Of course. Are those people living under grace? No, they're not. No, they're not. And as a matter of fact, that's one of the invitations that you give them, is that salvation, like Romans 3, 24 says that it's justified as a gift by his grace. So it's a gift. It's really important to say that and understand that it is. It's free. And what it gives means it means that there's no nothing required of them other than they believe.

So all of the tenants of grace, all of the what Verne likes to call the logical imperatives, all of Paul's epistles are pointed to the person in Christ And they are the only persons born and dwelt by the Spirit, and they are the only ones that grace is directed to.

So you wonder sometimes, why do I have such difficulty living in two worlds? In the world system and in Christ? It's because the world system doesn't live by grace. The body of Christ does. And so, you know, Don and I were walking this morning and I was thinking, How could it be any more confusing? Here I am, I have two natures, I live in two worlds, I have two sources of life, I have two enablers trying to get me to do things, Satan and the Spirit of God, I have my flesh, I have a new life in Christ. You could be crazy as a Christian if you thought about it very long.

The verse given is that 1 Corinthians 6 19 and 20 Paul says what? Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you and you have of God and you are not your own. For you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. So that language is only directed to those that are in Christ. You won't see that kind of language talked about to anybody in the Old Testament, anybody in the Gospels, or even those when there's reference made to the Millennial Kingdom.

Now, I stuck this next question in there because we're going to ease our way into a discussion in the future about position and condition. Define the principle of position. Let me ask it this way. When you hear me say this a lot, when I talk about position and condition, does everybody understand what we mean? If you all nod your head yes, then explain it to me. What do I mean? When I say define position, what do I mean?

We're in Christ, and we're in the heavenlies. We're in Christ, and we're in the heavenlies? OK. That's amazing. Eternal, unchanging, fixed. Does everyone in this room have the same position? How many think, yeah, we do? How many think, maybe, I don't know? Most of you put your hand up, that's great.

We all have the same position because we're all in Christ. We have Him. As believers. So the principle of position, spiritual life and growth is based on position. Understand what I mean by that? Your spiritual life and growth is based on your position. If one of those three or all three of those people become believers in the short future here, they immediately acquire a position in Christ, right? Do they know about that? Not much. Does that mean that you have to know about it before it's true of you? No. The position, you get the whole thing the minute you believe.

So, when I make the statement that spiritual growth is based on the principle of position, we're to walk by faith, right? As you have begun in the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in him. What is the object of your faith? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And the individual principles and precepts that we learn are our position. Do you see that? It's very, very important that we learn our position because that becomes the object of your faith. You positionally have been crucified with Christ. Is that right? You have positionally been buried with Him. Right? Resurrected. seated in the heavenlies in Christ. That is a position. Can't change it. God put it in place. You got it all at the moment that you believe.

Now you may or may not be really familiar with those four concepts or not. You might not know anything about them. But your knowing about them has nothing to do with the fact that you possess them. Do you see that? So, when I say spiritual growth depends on your position, as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, what are you finding out? Your position. You're finding out the things that are already true of you. The things that God has already done. The grace that you already live in. You see that?

That's why position is really important to understand. Part of this class before we're done will be several several classes on position and condition. Now if I said to you, how would you sum up your position if you had to use one word? Do you have a question? No. How would you sum up the word, your position?

Use one word. Christ. Christ, okay. I have a better word than that. Hard to believe. The word is source. The best way to describe your position in one word is, what's the source of your life? Yeah, it's Christ, but source is the word. You see what I'm saying there? You okay with that?

It's perfect, it's eternally established in the Father's presence. When we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our personal Savior, the Holy Spirit caused us to be born into Him. He is now our source. He created us in a position that was established through his work at Calvary. What's great about position is because your position and its source is the Lord Jesus Christ, it's unchangeable.

And it is so glorious. We've taught the class, probably a lot of you have been in the class where we talk about the 34 things that happen to you at the cross. All of them are positions. All of them are true of you the minute you believe. Now whether you live in them, rest in them, walk in them, doesn't change the fact that they're true of you.

So then question five should be easy. Give me the location of your position. Inglewood? Karma City? It's in us. And it's Christ. Christ is the Lord. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, the term in Christ, anybody remember how many times the term in Christ or related terms are used in false epistles? 130 times. Think it's important? Yeah, really important. In Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in the Beloved. In Christ has everything to do with position.

2 Corinthians 5.17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

So if you are a new creation, when you became a believer, you instantly had all the knowledge of being a new creation, didn't you? You knew all about it. No, you didn't know anything about it. As best you knew, your sins had been forgiven and you probably weren't going to go to hell.

So really what happens is a study of Paul's epistles and Peter, James and John. What are you finding out? You're finding out the principles of your position. And when you find them out, what are you supposed to do with them? Yeah, you're just to believe that they're true. And you recognize that over that, that they're over the top in terms of your experience.

How much experience do you have when 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if any man be in Christ, which means me, you're a new creation.

I don't look new. Nothing around me is new. The Word of God says I'm a new creation. Oh my goodness, what does that mean? If you don't believe it, you'll never find out. You understand what I mean by that? You'll never find out. But God tells us these wonderful things and all he wants us to do is believe.

So, does our position require a corresponding walk consistent with that position? What do you think? Maybe, maybe not. I think we should walk in a manner worthy of our position, of our calling. We should walk. So that doesn't mean it's required. That means we do the best we can, God works it out. If I get a C, I'm still in. I get to graduate. Well, I have to be honest, I don't always look. Okay, maybe I should have phrased it this way. From the viewpoint of the Word of God, does our position require a corresponding law consistent with our position? Answer, absolutely, yes it does.

How come? Why? Now, where is your position? And where is Christ? So you could say that your position is heavenly, right? Think things are different in heaven than they are here? Do you think people function a little different there than they do here? Do you think Hal Melloy's functioning a little different there than he did when he was here? What do you think? Do you think the requirement of his life and the requirement of my life is different now that he's physically there and I'm still here? Is the requirement different? No, it's not. No, it's not. Why isn't it?

Why can I make a statement like that when here's Hal Malloy, he's in heaven, he's beholding the glory of the Lord and conformed to his image totally. living a life that's really consistent with this position in Christ. And here I am, you know, on the earth, doing the best I can. Did God lower the standard for me because I wasn't home yet? No, he didn't. Why didn't he? Because Helmel's source and my source are the same. That's right. And because the Word of God says you're in Christ. I'm not half in because I'm still on this planet. You see that?

So, it gets a little scary about here, because I'm thinking to myself, if my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and I belong to God, and like you say, well, I'm not living up to the standard, what do you do about that? Go hide under a rock someplace and hope God isn't noticing? Or confess, confess, confess, confess, confess, confess?

What do you do? What do you do? Just continue to believe. Continue to believe? Yeah, you believe, so there's nothing to do. Alright, so is that it? I disbelieve? There you go. You have to understand what you believe. You gotta know. Yeah, of course. Doesn't it sound like when we get to this point and we're discussing how the life is lived, when you start talking about rest, it gets pretty apathetic about now, doesn't it? Nothing left for me to do.

Well, you grow in faith. I mean, you get stronger in your faith. How do you distinguish in your life? between the works of the flesh, really trying hard to be a good Christian, and resting and abiding in Christ, and the life of the Lord Jesus is being lived out through me. How do you work that one out? Well, you make different choices. Okay, so the Christian life is based on making choices? No, but you transform. Alright, tell us. It's the motivation behind it. The motivation behind it is grace. You're convicted of your sins. I'm convicted of my sins. There's no rest in your work. There's no rest in my work.

Who is it that lives the Christian life through me? It's Christ's life. It's the Christ's life, but who's the energy? It's the Spirit of God, right? So that's another position that we enjoy. We've been indwelt by the Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Christ, right?

What's his job? To reveal Christ to the believer, right? That's the number one job he has. Now he does convict us and restore us, but his number one job is to reveal Christ to the believer. Now why is that in the equation? You would think that, well, I could just rest, watch the Broncos, and he'd be living the life through me. But no, I'm engaged in this process, right? So if his job is to reveal Christ to me, how does that work out in terms of the life being lived? What do you think?

It's my favorite verse, 2 Corinthians 3.18.

Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. What's the mirror? The word of God. Who's doing the beholding? Me. What am I beholding? The glory of the Lord. How can I do that? Well, I have a position. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. He totally possesses the capacity to behold the glory of the Lord, but it's reflective in the word. It's not like Hal face to face now, but it's reflective through the word.

What happens when that process I'm changed. I'm conformed. What's that? That's what I said. I'm conformed. You become transformed. You become transformed. What are you doing in that process? You're beholding. That's what you're doing. You're beholding.

Who enables you to do that? The Spirit of God. He even goes so far as to enable you to pick up the Bible and look at it. And He also goes so far as to change your viewpoint as to why you picked it up. from trying to be a scholar to just beholding the Lord. So here you are with your Bible and you're beholding the glory of the Lord, and what's going on?

There's a process happening that you are totally engaged in, yet it's being done to you. You are being transformed from a conditional standpoint into the very image of Christ. So as you're being transformed, guess what? What happens to the life that you have? to live his life through you.

What are you doing? You're beholding. Your position has changed. Well, your position has not changed, your condition has. Is that what you said? Well, you're not in the condition anymore. Now you're in the position. I'm beholding my position in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. My condition now is being changed. I'm being conformed, transformed into his very image. And the transformation into his very image is a very cool thing. What happens? It's the life of the Lord Jesus being manifested out through me. What am I doing? I'm beholding, I'm functioning in a dependent manner by faith.

You see that? Now, does that sound apathetic? Doesn't to me. It sounds incredibly dynamic to me. How could you possibly, with a finite body, this temple of the Holy Spirit that we have, be beholding the glory of the Lord and His life being lived through you, which is a heavenly, spiritual, godly life.

Your body can't keep up with what's about to happen. You see what I'm saying? Paul said, hey, I'm worn out. I'm done. My body won't go any farther. Probably a good thing they're taking my head off. It isn't going to work any farther. It's like putting a 4,000 horsepower motor on the back of your 15 foot canoe. The canoe isn't going to hold together. It's really, really important for us to understand that God has a life that corresponds with our position. He's given us the Holy Spirit in order to enable that life, and He expects it to be lived. See? Not stressfully. Restfully. You see that?

The grace of God, as we've talked about, is the greatest motivator there is. And I dare say, beholding the glory of the Lord in this transformation process, you're not going to have any trouble making decisions using your will. Do you understand what I mean?

I didn't get up this morning and look at Donna and say, well it's going to be a tough day, I'm going to have to make a decision to love her today. I didn't have to do that. Why not? Because I love her. I don't have to wake up this morning and decide whether I'm going to be obedient to Christ today. It's the life in me to do it.

Does that make sense? Okay with that? Alright. Right, so you don't think about it. It's a natural thing. What you don't think about is your behavior. Right. What you do think about is Christ. Does that make sense? Yeah. By the way, do you understand that any time your thought process goes off of Christ and onto your behavior, you lost it? You missed it. Because as soon as you start checking as to how you're doing, what have you done? your focus has gone off on Christ.

So that puts you in another interesting position. You say, well, you know, Lord, if you don't do it, it isn't going to get done. If I don't behold the glory of the Lord, I'm being realistic, I'm not messing around and debating with you. I really do want to behold the glory of the Lord. It's up to you to do it.

I don't think about it all the time, so I'm a failure? No. No. But you have to admit that there are sometimes, a lot of times, where you are busy with your activity and the next thing you know the Lord is there in your mind. How do you show up? Just because you've got a great memory?

No, it just shows up. It's the Spirit of God. He brings them. You're driving down the street and there He is. You find your mind goes to Him all the time. I think that's the work of the Spirit of God. Are the capabilities required for the life and walk built into us? Are they built into us? Positionally? Trick question. No, no. And yes, he says no. And yes. No on the old man, yes on the new man.

So the capabilities to live this life are not built into me as a son of Adam. But I can say also the capabilities for me to live that life is not built into me as a new creature in Christ because they are not my capabilities. They are somebody else's. They are the spirit of God. Let me read what Schaefer says here. Since God has proposed the impossible rule of life, and provided the sufficient spirit, the believer's responsibility thereby is changed from struggle of the flesh to reliance on the spirit. That is a huge difference. Struggle of the flesh to reliance on the spirit.

Nobody in this room, as best I can tell, has ever fought with sin, right? You've never had an issue in your life about sin and you say, I'm not going to do that anymore. And every time you do that, guess what? You do it again. You do it again. And so, that describes the struggle of the flesh. I am not going to do it. I'm not going to do that again. The next time I see that guy, I'm not going to be mad at him. Comes around the corner, bang. So that's the struggle of the flesh.

It goes from that to a reliance on the spirit, a dependence on him. God does not want us to live and won't let us live ignorantly. He wants us to know. So we learn and our dependence is based on what the spirit of God has taught us and our dependence on him alone. The new principle of achievement consists of getting things accomplished in the believer's daily life and service by trusting the power of another.

How about that? Rather than trusting the energy of the flesh. Is there a more complicated or more difficult thing for you and I to do than this? I don't think there is. Especially if you can do some things. I mean, there's a lot of things that come up in my life that I think, I don't need the Lord for that, I can take care of that, no problem. Isn't that true? I don't need the Lord for that. I can take care of that.

That's the energy of the flesh. But when it gets really tough, then I'll depend on the Lord. No. It's a dependence. What God is after is a moment by moment dependence on Him, just to get out of bed. Just to live. Just to have a thought process that's consistent with his life. To have a frame of reference and a viewpoint about the world you live in that's consistent with who he is.

You can't hustle that one up. And so if there's been any victory over sin in your life, it's happened because of your dependence on the Spirit of God, not because you got really tough. Or you got really, you know, steeled up against it. Alright. In the following verses, list the character of the requirement imposed. Alright, let's look up the verses.

2 Corinthians 5.10. Somebody look it up. And when you get there, read it.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. So what's the requirement in post? Well the requirement is, there's a couple of requirements here. One is you're going to be before the judgment seat of Christ whether you like it or not.

You're going to be there. And when you're there, guess what's going to happen? the deeds of your body are going to be what? Judged. Aren't they? Talking about sins here? Are we talking about sins here? What is this event, by the way? What's this event called? This is called the beam of judgment. Who set the beam of judgment?

All believers and who else? The Lord Jesus, right? So, you show up with your sins? No. Why not? Sins have already been taken care of. That's a position you have. So when he's talking about these deeds of the body, what's he talking about? Rewards. Was he done divine good or human good? He catalogs them as to whether they are good or bad. And how about the bad ones? So every requirement that's imposed on us by this new life in Christ will be judged. Why? Right? No sin. We're not talking about sins now. We're talking about the requirements for the life. Right? The deeds and the body. What is your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Right?

Now, when he talks about the deeds of the body, what are the good ones? What are the good ones? My version says, has done whether good or bad. What are the good ones? Did you hear that? That's what Christ did through me. Those are the good ones. What are the bad ones? What I tried to do. I don't think so. They very well could be because how do you define sin? Missing the mark and Christ is the mind. So if they are sins, what's the issue then? Let's say, okay, they are sins. Do they attach to me? Not only have I been forgiven, but what else has happened? The deeds done in the body will be judged. and they'll go in the fire, as they say, and they'll be burned up. And why burned up? Why that imagery? They're gone.

I remember sitting in a class years ago with a guy who was a pastor of a church and we were talking about this and he said, Through eternity, now when I'm home with the Lord, every once in a while He's going to let me remember my sins just so I can be appreciative of what He saved me from.

I said, I'm a young Christian, I said, no way. He said, why not? I said, because any time in eternity that your thought process goes off of Christ and onto you, then Christ wasn't able to hold your attention. He's made every provision so that once re-enter into eternity, the only thought process, the only thing you're going to be involved in is Christ himself. And we think, oh, that's got to be kind of boring. I've never met anything that would hold my attention like that.

He will. He will. So, you know, whether they're sins or not, they don't attach to me as sins because they've already been paid for. Okay? They do get burned. If I try to live the Christian life out of my flesh, is that a sin? If I try to be good? Would you say it is? Everybody agree with that? What do you think? I have two going like this and most of you are doing this. What do you think? Are they sins? Say it again. Huh? Say the whole thing again. I don't know if I can. Here's another element. When you show up at the beam of judgment, what's your makeup? You have a new glorified body, right?

You have a sin nature? No. So you're standing there before Christ, totally conformed to his image, just like him, no sin nature, and we're doing a review of good and bad things that were done as a believer in your life, right? So sin could not attach to you because of who you are. Do you see what I'm saying? You're standing there as a son of God, you couldn't have any of this attached to you. Because then you would have to say the new life in Christ is capable of having sin attached to it. Can't be. Now they may be sins in the sense that There's no question that I sin as a believer, right?

But God is faithful and just to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness because of the work of the cross. We were talking the other night, Wednesday night, right in Romans 3 about salvation and how When God declares a person righteous, when he justifies a person, it isn't just for the things that he's done in the past. It's for what he's doing now and what he does in the future. That declaration covers everything from past, present and future. And that's the difference.

Because I ask the question, does justification mean to have a pardon? And the answer is no, because I haven't been pardoned yet for the stuff I'm going to do in the future. You know, if I go to court and I get pardoned, I got pardoned for some specific thing I did. Justification means I'm pardoned for everything I did, I'm going to do, and I'm doing right now. So I think the believer shows up in that frame. Well, the payment judgment doesn't have to do with your position. That's already been decided. It's not a sin issue. I think it's more for a number of things.

I mean, there's a lot of Christians who think that they're doing great things. I think it's the last chance for God to put away self and what you did, and take it all away, and all that's left is Him. Because a lot of Christians, they think they're doing... they don't understand this. What's the beam of judgment for, by the way?

Why is God having it? I don't know. Why? I don't know. Why is He doing it? The Lord? Because it's specifically designed to reward believers. No, actually what I think it's for is maybe this viewpoint. If God, if I stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and He says, okay, I'm rewarding you for all of this. Oh, by the way, everything I'm rewarding you for I did, right? Okay. And then you did all of this stuff and we're going to get rid of that so that you and I never have to think about it again. It's gone. Oh, okay. That's fine with me.

Maybe the work you did in the energy of the flesh weren't sins, but you did it in the energy of the flesh, not with the power of the Holy Spirit. But you shouldn't do things because you're going to have a reward or a reward or whatever it is. No, no. It's a spiritually natural thing for you to do. It is a spiritually natural thing, I agree.

And if Christ is living his life through you, my viewpoint at that particular time is I'm beholding his glory. The work is getting done. It's like the vine and the branches. You know, the vine is Christ on the branch, and the fruit hangs off the end of the branch. I'm not supposed to be looking at the fruit. I'm supposed to be focusing on the branch. But the flesh is always doing this. Checking it out.

You know, I never thought about what you said before. That when I get there, to this event, I'm going to be totally conformed to the image of Christ. And so I always thought, well gee, this pile is going to be a whole lot bigger than this pile over here, and I'm going to be kind of sad about that. But in the image of Christ, won't it be a thankful and grateful thing? I think so. I'm going to be really thankful that the event happened. Because there's nothing left now. It's all gone for all eternity. I never have to look back. There's no reason to. And not only that, I'll forget it because that's what the fire is for. See? I'll forget it.

It's like the scapegoat. But what about your reward? Won't you be thinking of it? What could it be? No, well, here's the way rewards work, I think. This is my own personal opinion. Just so you know. I think that we are vessels. And vessels contain things. So when we all show up, we all have capacity. You know, your capacity would be greater than mine.

So you get filled to overflowing with Christ and so do I. What's my attitude about that? I'm just ecstatic for you. I'm ecstatic for you. I don't have to think about me. I'm full to overflowing. Capacity, if I'm full to capacity, I'm not, because I don't have a sin nature, I'm not comparing capacities. See? All I know is that I'm full and I'm just exaltedly joyful that every one of you is the same way. And here's the other cool thing.

That's the least amount you'll ever contain for all eternity. It never stops growing. Ever. We will not contain Christ, all of him, for all eternity. We won't. Try that one in your mind. Eternity, growing in Christ the whole time. That's really neat. I always thought that our interest in rewards would be that we would have them cast at Jesus' feet, isn't that in the scripture? That we would have those to give to Him. I look at Him as He's the prize. He's the pearl. So what I get is Him.

I don't get things of Him. You know, when Vernon shows that view a lot of throwing your crowns continually. To be honest with you, I don't understand that. I really don't understand that. I'm sure I want to be doing it and I won't have to be coerced. But I'm not going to spend all eternity doing this. No, I don't think so. But that would be my attitude because I'll know that all that I have in Ann is because of him, not because of anything I did or Ann. Okay, the next one is 1 Peter 2 now. Anybody who gets it can read it.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a calling nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Okay, what in that phrase is a characteristic of a requirement that's imposed on us as a believer? What does God want us to, or expect us to do there? Proclaim the excellencies of Him. Okay? So, and by the way, there are hundreds of these.

Ephesians 4.1, I'll read that one. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. What is a walk that's worthy of the manner of your calling? What's the quickest way to describe that? You're called to be what? To be a son of God. A heavenly creature. So the manner of the walk is to be consistent with what your position is. OK?

Next one, 1 John 1.7. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. What's the requirement there? To walk in the light. How do you do that? Notice how he parallels it with, if you walk in the light as, who is in the light? He himself, Christ is in the light. So that puts you in oneness with him. Then there's a result of that. We have fellowship one with another. Which is just an awesome cool thing. And the blood of Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

Ephesians 5.20, always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God even our Father. What's the requirement there? Always giving thanks for all things.

Ephesians 5.2, somebody read that one. and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Okay, what's the requirement there? To walk in love. To walk in love. Okay.

Galatians 5.15, that I say, walk by the Spirit or walk in the Spirit and you cannot carry out the desires of the flesh.

The reason I ask this question is because when we were having a discussion last week about the requirements of the Mosaic Law, and the requirements of the millennial kingdom law and then the requirements of grace I wanted to show you so you could see if God came to you with his new commandments and he said okay here's what we're going to do guys I'm going to reward you for the deeds you've done in your body but here's what you've got to do you have to proclaim the excellencies of me all the time you must walk in a manner worthy of the calling, or put it another way, you must walk in a manner that's worthy of your position. You must walk in the light. You must always give thanks for all things. You must walk in love and you must walk by the Spirit.

How are you doing so far? Do you see that these requirements absolutely force us to be dependent on the Spirit? if they force us to be there. Is there anybody in this room that even entertains a fantasy that you could do half of one of these things? You couldn't. Yet God requires them, doesn't he? He requires them. So what's cool about all of this is that as we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus and learn dependency, guess what's going to happen? So, you know, no fair calling me up in the fall and saying, I'm not doing very good.

OK. OK. That's because you're focusing on the fruit rather than on the source of your life, who's Christ. You see that? OK. Question nine, I might get through here. Is it possible? Oh, there's two more of them. Don't quench the Spirit and don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Is it possible for a human being to produce the following? John 13, 34. A new commandment I give you that you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another. Can you do that? Really? Have you ever done it? One time? No. Have you ever done it? No. How about, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brother.

Being a Marine, I know that Marines would stand up and say, yeah, no problem, we'll do this all the time. No they don't. We're all brave until we hear the sound of real bullets, and then we're not so brave. So, you cannot produce any of these qualities in and of yourself. And I believe that spiritual growth, part of spiritual growth is the Spirit of God persuading you, you can't. You know what I said? He has to persuade us we can't, so that we will depend on Him, so He can. first read these things, we say, oh, okay, yeah, okay. Thanks for telling me what to do, I'll get with it right away. I'll be on it first thing in the morning. Okay, next week we'll finish up with 1011 and then we'll go to Lesson 25.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace. It's so wonderful for us to recognize that you did and have called us to live a a superhuman life, but you've given us the Spirit of God, your own Spirit, to enable us. And what's cool about it is that you have set it up so that we are intimately involved in the entire process, Father. We're so thankful for that. We pray in your Son's name. Amen.