You In Christ and Christ in You
Mike Doyle · Dec 20, 2009
You in Christ & Christ in You, No. 51
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492615086545

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

Question four, in addition to position, we're talking about two things, position and condition, and then two things under position. One is the characteristics of your position, and then the next thing was, what are the possessions that you have because of your position? Is that clear? The characteristics of your new position, which we talked about last week, And now I want to talk a little bit, I asked you to, in your new position you have some possessions, list some. And I gave a bunch of verses, but for the sake of brevity, one of the possessions you have is a new standing in Christ. A standing with God that is an entirely new thing.

Probably the most important possession you have though is the fact that you have an entirely new life. When you study in the Word of God about new life, there's that word kainos, the Greek word kainos, which means to come into a brand new state of being, something you never were before. There never was that kind of life here before. And so now we all have this kainos life, which is a brand new, entirely new kind and quality of life that wasn't even on the planet before Christ.

Along with that you have the Holy Spirit. He's a possession. Isn't that something? He's a possession. He lives within you. You're a temple. And He's there permanently for all eternity. But He is your possession. And He manifests the life of Christ in you. Somebody else give me something that you have because of your position in Christ. Check the 34 things from Chafer. We have the full armor of God, okay.

Joint heir, which means you have an inheritance. And an inheritance, you know, if you're a greedy little grubber like I am, if somebody says, well, you're an heir, I'm always asking, well, what do I get? And how soon do I get it? And do I have to pay taxes? So probably the easiest way to say it is that whatever Christ inherits, so do you. Whatever he inherits, so do you. Pretty cool, huh? So here's another interesting one.

You have a brand new enemy. Who's your enemy? The devil. Yeah. Was he your enemy before? You were a believer? But he's not our possession. What? No, he's talking about it. You have the possession of a new enemy. You have a brand new enemy. You didn't have... The devil wasn't your enemy before, was he? Yeah, we've always had him. No, you haven't. Outside of Christ, you were his pal. You were in league with him. You belong to him. Now he's an enemy. He wasn't an enemy before. Oh, by the way, he's not a guy with a forked tail and red suit. He's not the devil.

Access to God. And here's probably another one of the most important possessions you have, is this. This. This is an incredible possession. What are you looking at? I gave you the wrong ones, didn't I? You know what I did? That was the one that I did 30 and I marked 29. You're going to just have to listen. That's terrible. Oh, you know what? I might have. I usually put a blank one in here. Oh, awesome. Let's try that again. They're going to start charging us for coffee. So that's enough on possession.

Is God able to keep us and is he disposed to keep us safe as his inheritance? Can he do that? Did I give you the two verses? Ephesians 1.18? Is God able to keep us And is he disposed to keep us safe as his inheritance?

In other words, it'd be one thing if I said to you, you know, I'm going to give you all of my property. And then between now and the time I die, I dispose of it all. You don't get any. Or if God says, I'm going to give you this or I'm going to give you that. And then you find that somehow you got disinherited along the way. Somebody took it away from you or he was only kidding.

So the question is, is he able to keep us and is he disposed to keep us safe as his inheritance? Do you know that you're an inheritance? Yeah. And who? I think so because we have faith. But you yourself are the thing of value. You're the thing that's going to be inherited by God. Do you understand that?

Ephesians 1.18 says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, not your calling, His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. His inheritance in the saints. Now remember, some of you were in the John class when we did John 17, when the Lord Jesus talked to the Father about, you have given them to me, Right?

Who are they? It's us. It's the church. And I've kept them. I've kept them from harm. So you have to look at yourself as the thing that's of great value to God and that you are an inheritance that has been given by God to Christ. That's really cool. So I was right. We are. We are an inheritance. Yeah, we are. And not only that, you're made suitable to be Inherited by him.

In other words, he's not getting worn out goods. You know? A lot of times when people write wills and they say, well, I'm going to give you this, this, this, and you go to pick it up and you think, well, what am I going to do with this? You know? This rocking chair is broken. You know? I don't care about a poster of somebody from the 20s. You know?

1 John 5.13.

These things I've written unto you who believe, in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. In order to be an inheritance, you have to have the life for the inheritance. So the believer is standing at Christ, and there will be no fall in the last Adam.

Do you understand that? He is secure. In other words, we were all identified with the first Adam, but he fell. So you couldn't trust him. Can you trust the last Adam? The answer is yes, because it's Christ. And so if he gives us a guarantee of himself, it isn't conditioned upon what you think about it, it's only according to God's purposes. So it's important that we understand God's purposes, okay?

In 1 Timothy 2.5, Christ is the mediator between us and God. What kinds of rights of entry does he provide us to God?

Now you understand what a mediator is? Anybody ever been in a mediation? Where somebody sat in the middle and said, tell me your story, tell me your story, and we're going to bring the parties together so they can have an agreement. Christ is the mediator between us and God. He's the one that brings us to God, and because of his work and who he is, we're acceptable to God. So he did the mediation, and oh by the way, When you study Hebrews and some of these others you talk about, and you hear this a lot in Christianity, that we are under a new covenant, right? Are we under a new covenant?

How many think we are? Hands up. Come on you chickens. How many think we're not? Are we not involved as beneficiaries of the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son? We are not principals, but we are the beneficiaries. So when Hebrews makes a very interesting statement, the writer of Hebrews says, you have not been brought to the new covenant, but you have been brought to the mediator of the new covenant.

Do you see the difference? In other words, we've been brought to the person, not the contract. You see that? That's really important to get that straight in our minds. We have been brought to the person who is the mediator, who is the fulfiller of all covenants or contracts, but we've come to him, not the deal. You see what I'm saying?

A covenant is a transaction. It's like when I sell a piece of real estate, we do a contract and we have a covenant. I'm going to do this, they're going to do this, the seller's going to do this, and when it's all said and done, this person is going to own the house, the other person will have sold it, won't own it anymore, and the mediator in the middle will have earned a commission because he did. Well in this case, you're not selling or buying, you have come to the mediator, him alone. So the covenant is irrelevant. Does that make sense?

You are under the covenant in terms of the grace and the blessing afforded you by what Christ and the Father worked out in the eternal covenant, you're under that grace, but you're not a participant. They were the participants. The new covenant with Israel, Israel is a participant. They're the receiver of the tenets of the covenant.

Does that make sense? Go ahead. It's important to think of the word covenant in terms of the eternal covenant, not of other covenants. Rather use the term eternal rather than new. went to the cross and that became our new covenant. Christ went to the cross that fulfilled the covenant that he had with the father. It's called the eternal covenant. He and the father worked out the deal. And the father said, if you'll become a man and die for the sins of the world, I'll raise you up. He said, okay, I'll do that. And so they agreed.

Now, once the covenant was carried out, we weren't, what were we involved in? Were we even mentioned in it? No, no, we had nothing to do with it. But we are receiving it, is what you're saying. But we didn't have to receive it. But we want to because we believe. Well, it doesn't matter whether you want to or not, it matters whether God is going to let you. Huh. You see that? Well, he'll let me if I believe. Well, now let me back up.

Whether he even deigns that you are going to be a beneficiary, he didn't have to do that. Just because he and the Father fulfilled the covenant doesn't mean he has to apply it to us. The arrangement was between the two of them. Yeah, we had a contribution, what was it? No, what was the contribution to the cross? No, what was our contribution to the cross? We're the ones that put him up there. We're the ones that sinned. And sin is an offense against God and God works out the offense against himself with his son. So he takes care of the offense, but that doesn't put him under any obligation to give you any of the benefits of what he did. Because he could have condemned you just as easy.

You understand? The reason I say that, and that's such an important point, is that you have to understand salvation is by grace only. You can't look at Christ dying on the cross, and he didn't die for you, he died because the Father wanted him to. And it was an arrangement. Now, when he says, OK, now that I'm satisfied, I'm going to offer you salvation by faith alone. That was a gracious act on his part. He was under no obligation to do that. None. And I think it's really important you start that way in your Christian life, because then you start on a grace basis. Does that make sense?

In other words, if I say, OK, I'm going to sell everything I have and I'm going to give the money. I'm just going to sell everything I have. So I have 15 bucks in my pocket. And Vern comes to me and says, well, aren't you going to give me the 15? I said, no, there was no agreement between you and I and Holly Hills. It's my 15 dollars.

You see that? He said, well, no, we have no arrangement. There's no arrangement. between mankind and the God of the universe in terms of Christ dying on the cross, where man is owed anything other than condemnation. See that? We are not part of the covenant. We are not. Well, the soul that sins will surely die, right? So Adam sinned, and we all sinned in him. So as it stands before the cross, what's our position before God? We're condemned. Because we're all sinners, right? Aren't we? And so here comes the cross, and Christ pays the penalty for the sins of the whole world to satisfy the Father, but you still are who you are, you're still condemned.

Because he didn't offer any of the benefits of his work to us, Theoretically. You understand what I'm saying? Let's say he didn't do that. Let's say he paid the price for the sins of the world, but he decided, oh those bums, I don't want to offer them any salvation, so he doesn't do it. So what hope do we have? None. We all are condemned. Every one of us.

But why would he go on the cross? Because he had to satisfy himself about sin. Oh, okay. See? Does that make sense? That's a tough concept, but When you grasp that concept, you realize that when he decided he can now, because he is a loving God, under no obligation, can offer salvation. See that? He's not obligated. Because if he was obligated, it wouldn't be grace. Do you see that?

Well, we're so self-centered, we always think it's about us, and yet he did everything for us. Which, in essence, it turns out that we derive all the benefits. But Christ didn't die because of me. He died because of Father. He was satisfying the Father's righteousness and holiness. You see that? So it's important to understand that. It's important to start there. Because if you start there, then as you go forward and learn these other things, you're not thinking, well, I got something coming. You don't have anything coming. It's all of grace.

So there's a fine line between the phrase, Christ died on the cross for your sins. In other words, he died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. But he did it for God, not for us. That's right. He did it to satisfy the Father. That's right. That's the eternal covenant. And a covenant is an agreement between two people. I'll do this and you do that. Now somebody around here may benefit from what we do, but they're not part of the deal. You see that? Don and I got married. We have a covenant between us. You guys all came to the wedding, but you weren't part of it. The agreement was between Don and myself.

Now, you may be beneficiaries of the fact that whatever, but you're not part of it. The Father and the Son's covenant was about the two of them. And we were contributors in that we caused it to happen because we sinned. But the grace that comes from that is not under any obligatory program from God at all. He does not have to do, he's under no obligation to offer salvation to anybody. None. It's in... Is it Hebrews 15? It's at the end, I think. Is it Hebrews 15? 1320, I think, yeah.

So it's like you and Donna. It's like we're the beneficiaries of the cake, but it's between you and Donna. That's right. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. So that's a really important point, I think, because it starts on the grace basis. It starts on grace and ends with grace. So everything God does from the cross forward, towards us, he does it in a gracious manner.

He's under no obligation to do anything. He is under an obligation to condemn us. Isn't he? Because he set that up in the garden. He said, the soul that sins, it will surely die. There's a deal for you. Did you sin? Yep. What do I get? Death. But there's no obligation for him to give us life, none. Is it 1320?

Somebody read it. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, and the blood of the everlasting covenant. The blood of the everlasting covenant. The blood was the thing that solidified it. It's actually eternal. Eternal. It should be eternal. Eternal is better, I think, yeah.

See that? Donna. There was one when I was there. Oh, what? What were you thinking of? It seemed like there was a verse about where you like, Donna. I will take it up again. Oh yeah, there's a verse. Where's the verse where the Father says, if you lay your life down, I'll take it up? Anybody remember where that was? I'm going to move on. Raise your hand when you find it. I'll be here for a week.

First Timothy 2.5, there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.

So access into the grace of God is only by Christ. It's the only way you get it. All communion and fellowship with God is on the basis alone of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. It's not on any other basis. And Christ is the only access to God in prayer. Now listen to this. The unsaved have no access to God in prayer. Agree with that statement?

Non-believers have no access to God in prayer, yet they pray all the time. Okay, but what about they want to learn, but they have no faith, but they want to learn, so they get to the Bible and they start reading, and then they say a prayer and he refuses to hear it? Because you haven't yet been convinced? We haven't believed. That's right. That's right. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot know them. They're nonsense or foolishness to him. So, you know, we have 9-11 and we have this big prayer thing in Washington with, you know, Muslims and da-da-da-da-da. Like God is, okay, you guys went ahead and did a really cool thing, so I'll come listen. No. No. Everything God does is based on what Christ did, not what we do. See that? You alright with that?

That's a really important point to understand that if you're a non-believer you don't have any access to God. You don't have any. But that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is trying to move that person to faith in Christ. You're absolutely right. But that person doesn't have any access.

Let's set up that scenario. Here's a non-believer walking down the road and the Holy Spirit is actively trying to woo that person to Christ. He's convicting them of sin. So the non-believer acquires the knowledge of salvation, the gospel. And he says, OK, I believe it.

I believe in the person and work of Christ. No prayer yet. You know, that's why when you hear these guys, you need to ask Jesus into your heart. No, you don't. You need to believe that he already died on the cross for your sins and was buried and resurrected. You don't need to ask God anything. You just need to believe what he tells you.

So what happens from an identification standpoint when the natural man believes in the person and work of Christ? What happens to that natural man? He dies. Do you understand that? He immediately is crucified on the cross with Christ. So that's the last act of the natural man. That's of any relevance to anybody, including God. When he believes, his history is done.

You now are recreated in Christ. We went through the identification truths. I was crucified, buried, and resurrected in Christ. I'm now a brand new creature. I may look the same. I still have a sin nature rocking and rolling inside of me. But from my position, I'm brand new. And that's the way God sees me. is in Christ only. Okay? You all have looks like you've never been in class.

What about Paul on the road to Damascus? And he was confronted by God. By the Lord Jesus Christ. Glorified. Yeah. It just seems like Paul knew all of this. He walked into that situation and he accepted. He was saved at that point. Yes he was. Just by the grace of God. By the grace of God only.

But Paul could have rejected it. I don't know how he could have, though, to be honest with you. When the Lord Jesus shows up in all of his glory, what are you going to say, let me think about it? I don't think so. I mean, the first words out of his mouth was Lord. He said, who are you? Scared to death. You think he was afraid? Lord? Who are you? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting.

So, did I answer your question? Or was that more of a comment? We have new associations because of our new positions, some positive, some negative. List them. We have a new association with God the Father. And if you look at John 17.3, he says, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Now don't you look at eternal life as a commodity, you can go to the Conoco station and get some. Eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son, knowing them. That's eternal life. So if you don't know them, and the Lord Jesus even said, I don't know you. I don't know you and if he doesn't know you, you don't have life.

We have new access with Christ the Son, 1 John 1.3. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We have a new association with the Holy Spirit. We've talked about that. And oh, by the way, this amplifies on our new enemy. We have a new association with Satan and his emissaries.

Ephesians 6.12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against powers, against world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.

And then you also have a new relationship according to Hebrews 1.14 with angels. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? You don't realize it, not that you need to talk to these angels, because you don't, but they're there as a safeguard and to serve you because you're inheritors of the salvation of God. No fair whining. Alright, one of your new associations is with the world. How does the Bible define the world? How has our relationship to the world changed? That's a great question. What is the world? How does the Bible define what the world is? What is it?

People that don't believe. Is it people that don't believe? Okay. where all that is in the world are lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and the boastful pride that all life is not from the Father but is from the Lord. Don't you find it difficult to come to Sunday school and learn about your position in Christ and that you knew creatures in Christ and then when you walk out of here Calvin and I have had this discussion several times when you walk out of Bible study you know you're in the world And the world didn't take a look at you and say, oh now you've become a believer, you don't have to live here anymore. Here's a definition. The world system is the whole sphere of human life with its institutions, its ideals and projects.

Concerning this world system, the believer is warned, you just read it, do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The world is passing away and also its desires, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

Ephesians 5.11 says, don't participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. Colossians 4, conduct yourselves with wisdom towards outsiders making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace as those seasons with salt so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

So let me ask you this, is human government now under the direct authority of the Gentiles? Sure it is. I have written down the order or arrangement that is under siege. Here's something interesting. When God made his covenant with Abraham, covenant again, there's that dirty word, but God made a deal with Abraham, didn't he? And Abraham was one side and God was the other. God said, here's what I'm going to do. And you're on one side and I'm on the other side. It's a unilateral. Everybody understand what unilateral means? It's a one-sided.

It means God's going to do everything. God intended for the entire world to be operated and run under the system of the nation of Israel. which will be in the Millennial Kingdom. His original intention was not to have Gentiles ruling anything, but they do today. Israel doesn't run anything but their little property over there in the Middle East. But when Christ comes to rule and reign, the entire world will be ruled from there.

And that's the purpose of God, is to have it done that way. It's funny because here's the little poopy piece of land, and the whole world goes crazy over it. Yeah, they do. Isn't that interesting? And at the end, that's where everybody will be moved from. Right? Yeah, that's right. That's really right. This is the time of the Gentiles. So, the world system is...

I mean, I like to say to people, you want to know what death looks like? Watch the news at 10 o'clock. It's death acting out. What did death do today? Turn on your tube at 10 o'clock and watch. That's what they did. Death doesn't mean you're stiff in a box. Death is moving and active and going up and down Colfax. Death. Death means separation from God. All those separated from God, there they are. There they are. That's the world system. And they have their own values, own ideals, and their own projects. Don't they?

An entirely new relationship we have is with the body of Christ. What are some of the new associations and changes in old associations? And I gave John 13, a new commandment that I give unto you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. Now if you were a Jew, under the Mosaic covenant, what was the love principle there?

I'm supposed to love my neighbor as myself, right? Oh, and I'm also supposed to hate my enemies, right? But the Lord Jesus says, a new commandment I give you that you love one another even as I have loved you. Oh no. Now the bar just went up, didn't it? Because I can no longer claim that I'm only going to love Courtney as much as I love myself, which means he's in big trouble, right?

Now I have to love him as Christ loved me. And I have to love everybody that way. Unconditionally. Unconditionally. So if you're an honest person, once you understand that, what do you say to God? How can I do it? Yeah, how can I do it? I can't do it. How does it get done then? Because God isn't kidding around. He says, well, we're great on the curve.

No. Christ, we have this life, the possession of life, and that life loves. I showed you the love circle. The answer is yes and no. The answer is yes because of your position in Christ. And that's the only way you can love. Now if you're really angry, you're probably functioning in the flesh.

Yeah. Although, you know, the Lord Jesus had righteous anger about some things, you know, like people in the temple and stuff like that, you know. But he wasn't angry when they crucified him, you know. He wasn't angry when they were beating him up, you know, and whipping him and that kind of thing.

So it's the demonstration of the love of God. The greatest demonstration of the love of God is the cross of Christ. And so whatever is happening to you today, in terms of an assault on your person, it doesn't compare to the cross. And so when you understand that, and you understand the grace that you live under, and that you have received resurrected life in Christ, you know you're just forced to live by faith, and not by your emotions and feelings, whether they're good or angry. And you read in the Bible, God works all things together for good to those who love him. That includes me. Right? Does he really? Do I believe him about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I don't, he'll make it pretty clear to me over time that there isn't anything that's going on or has ever gone on in my life since I've been a believer that was not ordained of him to conform me to Christ. Not one single thing.

Love is revealed as the underlying principle of a Christian's relationship with other believers. Now I want you to know you're doing an okay job, but you need to step it up when it comes to me. Hebrews 13 says, Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and consider the results of their conduct. imitate their faith. The thing that you find, I think, within the body of believers is that, anecdotal, you find that you love people that you never thought you could or would, and that you really care about them, and you care about their well-being, and you may not even know them very well. You understand what I'm saying?

You find that you really are upset with any assault that you see on the person of Christ. Before I was a believer, every fourth word out of my mouth was taking the Lord's name in vain. Now if I hear it, it offends me. The love is a very interesting thing because it's the love of Christ that's sacrificial and has nothing to do with the behavior of the person loved. It has everything to do with the lover. Christ died for me when I was ungodly. See? I'm to live in such a way that I'm sacrificially living even though you're all ungodly. How do you like that? But you're supposed to return the favor. Because I'm ungodly a lot of times too.

So the realization that comes is that I can't live that way in and of my own strength and myself. It would take a resurrected life in Christ, enabled by the Holy Spirit, just to approach doing that. So what are you left with? You're left with believing what God says. You see? You're not left with trying to do it.

Well, I'm not given license to not love them, you know, because God so loved the world, right? The focus on non-believers is that, well, if a non-believer does me wrong, I can hate him. Like a Jew could. A Jew could hate his enemy, you know. If the basic source and center of my existence in Christ is love, then I'm going to love them too. But I won't have intimacy with them because we're not the same life. They can't reciprocate like you can. See that? I suppose I could spend a month on that subject.

I had a whole bunch of verses, Ephesians 5, Fathers, don't provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Maybe one thing, you learn things even though you've been reading and studying a long time. I learned something this week reading a book by a guy, a friend of mine in the Springs. Do you know what the difference between punishment and discipline is? And is there a difference? When God, does God discipline us? Does He punish us? I didn't know the difference. You understand? I mean, I understand discipline, but I also thought there was punishment involved.

To those who belong to Christ, there's no punishment at all. There's discipline. He disciplined the Jews to the point that He took them out of the land. Right? But it wasn't a punishment. And I was reading, because this guy was writing about the Jewish nation and why they don't have peace today, and how God has disciplined the Jews for centuries. And why they don't have peace today is because they won't repent, they won't change their mind about who Christ is, and so they are constantly under God's discipline, but not his punishment. It would seem to me that if he jerked them out of the land, he was punishing them. No, he was disciplining them. Because he loved them and he's trying to restore them. Am I the only idiot that didn't understand that? I didn't. Do you have a definition for punish and discipline? Discipline is when circumstances are used to restore me to fellowship. And punishment is there's a consequence in what you did and I'm going to hammer you with it.

I've been reading through the book of Isaiah and you see that discipline all the time. God loves them because he's always... and it comes back and the verses tell about how he's going to bless them. Time after time after time. And he disciplines us as believers.

He even disciplines us in advance. Have you ever noticed that? He knows what he's... he's got something specifically designed for you to do way down here. And here we are in time-space reality, way over here, and he knows he's got, there's some growing you're going to have to do to be able to do this. The discipline starts here. So that when you get here, you're ready. That is a blessing that's so cool. And it may be, it wouldn't even be in your mind. And not only that, way over here when you get into eternity, We're being suited out for eternity now. Do you know that?

Whatever God is going to have you do, you're being recruited and trained for it right now. So that when you show up, like in the Millennial Kingdom, we're going to be ruling and reigning with Christ. We're all going to be ready. I don't know what it is, but we'll all be ready for whatever He has called us to do. Perfectly suited out, and trained, and disciplined. You know, which is really cool. All right.

We Courtney next week is going to do one of two things. It depends on how many questions you have, if any. And then he's going to he's going to go through and in the process of reviewing, he's going to ask you a lot of questions if you don't have any for him with with the idea to open up the discussion. If really.

And we've done three things in this class. It was called Christ in You and You in Christ. We talked about position and condition twice, at the beginning and the end. We went through all of the identification truths, right? And we talked about grace. So on those three things, if you have any questions that you don't understand, bring them up.

Because trust me, the guy sitting next to you doesn't understand it either, but he's too cool to ask. I mean, when I ask you for a show of hands, I get two over here, one over here, and the rest of you end up in a chicken coop. Because you won't ask.

What you will find, and what I have found, I've been teaching a long time, that if it starts to move around, and you start to talk, and you talk, and you talk, The Spirit of God is controlling that conversation. And people are learning. You're saying something that somebody over here, oh wow. Because the Spirit of God is speaking to them through you, and you don't get to get in on what's happening. And Steve says something that Bob goes, oh man. And that's what we're hoping is going to happen next week. Because that's how you really learn. And so, if you do have a question, yeah.

I'd just like to say as pretty much a new believer, that you guys are just awesome. I'm learning so much. I'm so grateful. Thank the Lord for that. That's the Lord's doing. I'm hoping they don't run out of stuff. Well, we won't. We won't ever run out of stuff. We have the inexhaustible source of the word of God. Yeah, that's right. Just great. All right.

The next class we're going to do is the great doctrines of salvation from a gracious standpoint. And at the end, we'll hit identification again, too, because they all are sequenced. And this is kind of a promo. The reason that that class is so important is that if we understand the basic great doctrines of salvation, if God brings somebody into your life, guess what?

You're prepared. You know what to say. And that's really important. And you won't do it from an anecdotal viewpoint. You'll get out the word and say, well, like Hal used to say, well, what does the Word of God say about that? Here we go. And you'll let the Word of God do the talking. That's really important. Okay, let's close.

Father, how we thank you for your grace towards us, Father, and how you constantly, inexhaustibly are growing us up in Christ, that he may become our all in all, and that our life may be not I, but him. We thank you, Father, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.