Unfathomable Riches of Christ - In Christ, position and condition

One of the things you may have noticed is that rather than going, you know, four or five, six pages, ten pages at the outside, that I've more recently gone to just two sides of one sheet of paper. And that's on purpose. And one reason is because I, in pondering it, thinking about it, was covering an awful lot of territory and sometimes never finishing the handout. You know, that's why you see it, just one sheet of paper. Then you don't have to worry about how many pages are cross-hatched, right? Just get one sheet of paper, you've got it covered most of the time. I may, from time to time, have some sort of a supplement or something, but in general, this is what I'm going to aim for. Welcome.

So one of the things, here's the schedule for the month of March in this elective. And we'll be looking at in Christ for this and the next weeks throughout the month of March. And it'll be position and condition, position and possessions next time. We're going to mention possessions, but major in them next Sunday.

So, and then in Christ as location and means. What we're looking at is different nuances of what is already there in Scripture. It's a matter of observing what is in Scripture, not trying to add to anything or doing a Holly Hills tweak. And then, in Christ, redeemed and forgiven so as to be justified.

That's the outline for this month, starting today. So, are we doing okay so far? Okay. And if you have questions as we go along, hopefully this will help answer them. Alright, so for starters there, to the Father's credit, the believer is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

So one of the things you see here, Ephesians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And then I put dot, dot, dot. That's probably the best punctuation for that verse.

Yeah, what we do in order to avoid a run-on sentence, which in English is not allowable, is a run-on sentence. What we do is we put a bunch of periods in there and form them into complete sentences, right? Because that's what you do in modern English. But, as Paul originally wrote it, what you see is, if you were to look at in Christ, in Him, in whom, in the Beloved, in Him, Paul goes on again and again and again with, in him, in Christ, in whom, in the beloved, and just keeps going through. Verse 3 through verse 14 is all one sentence. It is, so far as I have been able to discern, the longest sentence in all of Greek literature of all time. And so what we do is we say, well, that's too long, and we break it up into small English verses. So that's the reason for the dot, dot, dot.

Ephesians 1.3 is a summary statement. It is not specifically a statement about all the blessings. It's a summary statement after which he continues to lay out in detail what those spiritual blessings are in Christ. So he goes, that's one reason his pen just won't stop. Jesus, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, and zing, his pen just keeps going.

Right? Yes? There was no punctuation in the original Greek, was there? Here's the thing that's very interesting. Our ideas, our modern ideas of punctuation, of emphasis, a lot of those details were not part of the Greek writing of the New Testament times. We have, for example, we will say, and Jim asked the question, comma, quote, and then those things, and then we'll go close quote, period, right? Well, all those commas and quotes, they didn't have those, right? And so in our modern writing, when we go and put those punctuations in, and in some cases the capitalization is not there either, so we have various things that as we understand it, we put in the punctuation and capitalization according to our modern language and according to our modern sentence structure, but that's not the way things were originally.

In English, a double negative is improper. I am not not talking to you. Let's say, well, wait a minute, that's not the right way to say it, right? In Greek, that was exactly the way you would say it if you wanted to emphasize something. So here it is in Hebrews, and He will never, not not, leave you or not not forsake you. It's a double, double negative, which in English, that would be doubly, doubly wrong, right? So you ask a very good question, and it's a distinction that's important for people to come to.

We put in punctuation based on our modern rules of English, but they didn't have that. And so we would see a period at the end of the sentence, but all the stuff in between was not. Yes, but the reality is that they would read it and then understand it, but punctuation matters, especially in our English writing. If I were to say, let's eat grandma, That would have one punctuation in English. If I would say, let's eat grandma, that would have another punctuation, right? And it would mean something very different. Right?

So it's one of those things where in modern English, we understand the importance of punctuation. We use the punctuation. But in the New Testament Greek, that was one of those things where you'd read it to know, okay, he means this by it, right? It was another thing, several centuries after the New Testament era, they wrote everything, all caps, no spaces. So to use an English equivalent, I would not know the difference between he is now here and he is nowhere.

Right? So you would read it and then figure out, okay, well that's what this means. by capitalization and punctuation and all that. Well, to clarify those things, especially where there might be some misunderstanding about what we're going to do with grandma, to clarify those things in English, the punctuation makes quite a difference.

So, to look at it, the believer is made to be in Christ, which is where and in whom we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. Why don't we just say the believer is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places? Period. Okay, so it's locational in the heavenly places and it's personal in Christ.

And as we're going to cover here, In Christ is also the means by which the Father accomplishes the things that are true of our position and possessions. And we'll talk more about possessions here shortly. That's next Sunday. I hope the Lord comes between now and then, and I don't have to cover it, but if the Lord still has us here, that's what we'll do. So, here what we see is the only thing that we did to have the Father bless us with every spiritual blessing is to believe. God did the rest completely. And it's not up to us.

Isn't that great? Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, in Him, and by the way, that's in the middle of, but towards the end of this first sentence. In Him, You also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, does it do any good to just simply listen to the message of salvation? Is that going to do any good? You're shaking your head. Why not?

You have to act. And what's the act that's required? To believe. And that's one of the things that's critical. You listen to the gospel, the message of salvation, and all sorts of Not quite right on things are often said. You know, you've got to ask Jesus into your heart. You've got to make a commitment to Christ or some such thing, right?

But what is it? You believe the content of the gospel that Christ, the Son of God, so it doesn't matter who He is, died for your sins and was buried and rose again. Do you believe that without tweaking it, right? And that's the gospel, and believing that content is what is intended here, right?

Yes? Believing isn't just acknowledging the fact and then going on your way. Okay. Yeah, it's not a simple acknowledgment, right? But it is acknowledging and really taking it to heart. Okay, so it is a heart acknowledgment, not just an intellectual assent, right?

In doing that, some people have tied, well, it has to be all emotional, which may or may not be the case. Someone may be quite intellectual about it and not get there. Someone else may have very minimal understanding and will, in fact, believe so as to be saved. So it's possible for us to get kind of off-track by putting an emotional emphasis on it, or simply having an intellectual understanding be sufficient.

But nonetheless, it's the content of the gospel believed. And here I see Marilyn coming, so she's not away. Good morning. So at any rate, as we look at this, yeah, it is important. It's belief. It's belief that is not simply intellectual assent. It is belief that is not... Are we out of handouts here? It looks like it. I'm sorry. So, it is belief that is not simply intellectual assent.

It is belief that does not have within it a required emotional component. Should it be devoid of emotions? Emotions are not the issue, is really the way to put it, right? It can be devoid of emotions, fairly emotionless. It can also be very emotional, but neither of those is a key ingredient. Yes? You can believe that something is true, the whole statement that you just give, but yet you do not, and you can believe it's true for you, but if you don't depend on it?

Yeah, I think a good way to illustrate it is the seats that you're sitting in. If I, you know, if you were all standing in the aisle here and I said, you know, hey, do you believe those seats will hold you up? Yep. Well, then have a seat. And so it could be possible that I'm telling you, you know, those seats will hold you up. Go ahead and have a seat. And you're all shaking your head. Not going there. Not doing it.

Do I believe it? Yeah. Do I put my trust in it? Kind of the illustration that I used several months back was a well-known, and his name escapes me at the moment, a well-known tightrope walker who walked across a fairly large expanse with a wheelbarrow. And he came across and he'd come across to this crowd of people and he said, do you believe that I could carry a person across on this wheelbarrow? Sure. Get in.

So it is a dependence upon that it has reality to it. And again, that may or may not be emotional. Imagine the person who's getting into that wheelbarrow may have All sorts of emotions that go along with getting in the wheelbarrow before he crosses the Niagara. I hate to add anything else to belief, but the difference between saying something is intellectually true versus belief. Could you say that if you truly believe it, something that you identify with personally and something that you would take action? Yeah, the idea of a dependence is good. You know, personalize it. Now, hypothetically, that's true, right?

I could go through all the structural analysis for the floor here and all that. You know, years ago, I would have done that easily. Structural analysis is one of the things that I did. But I could go all through that, but if somebody says, well, Vern, you've gone through the structural analysis, how about if you stand in the room with a bunch of other people in the room?

Do you believe it? So yeah, it's taking it personally, not simply intellectual. And it's also having a dependence, personal dependence upon it. And I think the illustration of the seats, you know, do you believe that those pews can hold you up? And by the way, we're all on a floor here that's a fair distance down to the one below us, right? And we have come in here week after week after week believing that these pews can hold us up and the floor beneath it, beneath them. I like the illustration about the shoe and the floors because I talked to a Vietnam vet friend at work and he believed what was said about the gospel but he thought he was such a sinner that God would not forgive him. That's a very good point. Think about this.

He believed the gospel But it's the part, did Christ die for my sins? He thought, well, I've done things that are so bad that it's outside the bracket of what Christ died for. So in that sense he wouldn't believe it because of his misunderstanding of what it meant. It's faith in the facts. Yeah. And he was messed up on the facts. Yeah, he was simply his bracket about the facts, about what Christ died for.

Christ died for this stuff, but I've been doing things that are too bad, and they're a little over the top, and Christ didn't die for those. Sorry for the rabbit trails. What would you say to the Calvinist who said, well, you have to be elected to believe, because even the demons believe and they shatter. What would you say to that? Several different things.

One is, Christ did not die for the demons. The demons believe, and of course there's a point to making that statement, but if the demons believe, are they saved? Now, the demons believe, but there is nothing that comes in the way of salvation. So we are in an entirely different place with regards to the possible reality. Demons can believe, but they can't be saved, and they can't put their dependence upon it, because it never was intended for them. They already had their chance, and they chose not to. That's right, and so that's one thing, is to think clearly about, you know, okay, the demons have, they did have a chance, all at one time. Do the demons have a means of salvation?

God did not provide a means of salvation for them. They decided, they decided once, the decision is made, it's locked in. The outcome is locked in, right? And so even believing it does nothing for them to be saved, because there is no program salvation.

So that's part one. The other thing is the Calvinist viewpoint that that is an ism. And so here's in real quick identification the Calvinist idea of how one is saved. And I can send you something on that if you'd like. But the Calvinist idea is that the person that God is going to save is chosen and elect.

But their understanding of what does dead mean, dead means out on the slab, cold, dead, unable to respond, spiritually speaking. And the Bible does not describe that as the problem. The Bible describes dead as separated. And our ability or inability to respond is impacted greatly by the Holy Spirit's ministry.

John chapter 16, regarding sin and righteousness and judgment, is convicting who? The world. Not just the world of the elect, but the world. Convicting the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, and so the Calvinist would say that those who are chosen and elect are then made alive, and then given the gift of faith, and then they believe, and then they're saved.

But there's a bunch of things wrong with that. One that pops out that I didn't think of before is made alive. You can only be made alive in Christ, and that's before belief happens, right? Yeah, well, think about this. There are four places in the Gospel of John, and probably some of them will come real quickly, where it's believing you might have life through His name. Four places, right, in the Gospel of John. Believe and then life, not life and then belief. So the order is repeatedly wrong.

Right? So there's Calvinist problem number one. There's one other thing. Calvinists don't recognize the identification truths, right? And by the way, what's the first identification truth? What is the first thing that happens? You are not made alive. The first thing that happens is you are crucified. And made alive is which one? The first? The second? The third one you're made alive, but first you're made dead, given life. So the Calvinist is completely crossways with the identification truth. Absolutely wrong. Completely wrong. And completely the opposite order of four different references in the Gospel of John.

These things are written that you might believe in that believing you might have life. And what they do is they make life first. And belief is several steps down the road. By the way, faith is not a gift. It's called the Ordo Salutis in the Latin term. The order of salvation of Calvinism is profoundly unbiblical. So what happens is Calvinism, rather than looking to the scriptures to illuminate how things actually happen, Calvinism goes through and makes assumptions without checking them out, and then makes logical, oh well then, you know, you're chosen and elect and therefore you are made alive, because God did it and there's no way you could do it otherwise.

So it misdefines dead. Death is separation. That's in Ephesians, it's in Colossians, it's 1 Peter, death is separation. That's what the Bible teaches. Yes? I never heard the death is separation until I got to this church. Yeah, and the bottom line is it's in Scripture. And the death is out on a slab, cold dead, spiritually speaking, unable to respond, is not the biblical definition.

So they're starting off with what's wrong. The next thing they do is they have that the one who is dead be made alive, and that doesn't fit, like I say, four places in the Gospel of John have life come after belief, and every time, it's not like it jumps around, every time it's believed and then you might have life. Let's talk about this one. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe shall what? shall not perish but have life. Right? That's not for everybody. Pardon? That's not for everybody. That's not really the world. Alright, so let's look at that. We're going to get lost here, so I've got to move quickly.

But, let's look at Calvinist John 3.16.

For God so loved the world of the elect, because he didn't love the other ones, right? God so loved the world of the elect, that he gave his only begotten son. And by the way, Christ then, in the Calvinist model, did not die for those who were not elect.

Right. That's true. Right? Christ did not die for those elected. In the TULIP acronym, that's L, that's the limited atonement, Christ, in Calvinism, only died for the elect. The Bible doesn't teach that. Okay? It's bogus. It's bogus. The Bible does not teach that. God so loved the world.

And if you want to insert words, that's fine. You just add it to scripture. Yeah? What do they do with Romans when it says God has revealed himself to all mankind? Oh, yeah. And so what happens is you end up going through all those kinds of scriptures. Here is, you know, John wrote, and he, you know, he's a propitiation not only for us, but for the whole world. And so they insert the whole world of the elect. So you have to go through and insert, for all those kinds of statements, you have to go in and insert verbiage in order to make it fit Calvinism. This is adding to scripture.

How is that different from what the Jehovah's Witnesses do? I don't need an ism, what I need to do is to see what the scriptures say. So I don't want to be a Calvinist, I don't want to be an Arminian, I want to be a Biblicist. What does the Bible actually say?

Is life a spiritual blessing? Yes, and we're going to see that as we get farther along here. And you, he, made alive. Just one quick clarification. So we're dead, separate from God, and then the first thing in the identification is that we died from the world, the sin. So when we were crucified, what happened? Death is separation. A separation took place, and the Bible clearly teaches. We died in relationship to this in nature, the law, and the world.

Because that's what the Bible teaches. The problem with Calvinism is they don't believe you're separated from the law. Blink, blink. So they don't believe what the Bible clearly teaches. They believe things the Bible clearly does not teach. I understand that the Calvinists believe that when you received Christ, your sin nature was annihilated. Yeah, now here's an interesting thing. Boy, we're getting sidetracked here. Here's an interesting thing, but the Calvinists originally did not believe that. It has been a transition over time, and it's fairly recent that they believe that the sin nature was eliminated.

I have copies of different Calvinist catechisms, and one of the Heidelberg catechisms specifically says that the believer has a sin nature. So it's basically post-World War II that that teaching has come up. As a matter of fact, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a name you might have heard, was one of those kind of popularizers of the idea that the sin nature is gone. Up until about mid-1970s, John MacArthur actually taught two natures for the unbeliever and changed, and has since then moved into the one nature teaching. So it's been a recent drift that began just a few years before I was born. So I'm getting older. Anyway, so let's look at this.

We have position, everything that the Church Age Saint is by God's doing, having been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Of course, that's what we're spending a whole year on, right? From the eternal position in the heavenly places in Christ comes our spiritual possessions, and we'll be spending next Sunday looking more at that. But here is an example. Ephesians 1, 7 and 8a, because it's the first phrase there. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In Him we have possession. So how is it that redemption and forgiveness are applied to you. Are what? Are applied to you. How is it that redemption and forgiveness are applied to you? Because of Christ's work? First of all, the Father gets the credit, right?

And then, locationally, in Him. And we'll be looking at also the means. This is how the Father gets it done. So it is, we have is a possession, in Him is the Father's accomplishment both by personal location in Christ and the means by which He gets it done. So we have a possession by means of our position. The Father gets the credit. See that? So we'll be looking at a number of places where the New Testament spells out that we have possessions that come from our position. Our position is in Him, and that's also the means by which the Father gets it done, and we have possessions. By the way, when you have a possession, let's say, have you ever lost something, a possession?

That's what we have insurance for. You don't need insurance on this. Why? Because what we have is for things here on planet earth we have insurance. For things that are spiritual we have assurance. See the difference? So if you're worried about something here on planet earth, get insurance. If you're looking at something, spiritually speaking, in the heavenly places, in Christ, what you need is assurance. We have that. We have it. It is simply a matter of being assured of what is already true. As Jessica brought out earlier, it's faith in the facts. None of this is a matter of my experience. Do you remember being crucified with Christ? Do you remember being seated in heavenly places? Of course you remember that, right? No? Probably not.

It is something that is revealed, we would not know otherwise, and we walk into that and have assurance by faith in the facts. Next, there are fixed and predestined outcomes And notice Wayne kind of highlighted, I use the word consequences, and we a lot of times have negative connotations with that. So outcomes that are part of our spiritual blessing. Flip to the only other side of the page that there is.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of the Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom He predestined, He also called. Those whom He called, He also justified. And these can be justified, he also glorified.

So our eternal position, the spiritual possessions that flow from our position, and the things that are predestined and fixed as certain in our future can be summarized as our position, right? So we say we have a position in Christ, we have possessions, and the things that are also predestined. What's predestined? You're going to be conformed to the image of Christ, right? Image of Christ.

So all those things, we summarize those as our position. But the reality is that there's a lot more detail and nuance to this than we might at first recognize. Isn't that neat? This is a great thing. So anyway, so what we see is some have called this our standing instead of position and condition. Some will call it standing and state. That's fine.

But if we understand the nuance here, we have position that has locational aspects, and we have position that is also the means, and we have possession that flows out of our position, and we have things that are predestined because of our position. So the position that we have in Christ is the springboard for a vast amount of spiritual blessings, the unfathomable riches of Christ.

Yes? Does the word predestined always talk about Christians? Yes. In the New Testament sense, yes. Because when you look at, for example, this Romans 8 passage, when you look at predestined again, it isn't used very often in Ephesians chapter 1. Every time it's talking about Christians.

So, there's a tendency, especially in Calvinist realms, but again, this isn't the way scripture writes. This isn't the way scripture reads. There's a tendency to talk about predestination as, you know, this one's going to hell and that one's going to heaven and that's the way it is. But the language of scripture is actually talking about predestination not as a, hey, you're going to hell because that's the way God wants it, but rather here is the outcome. So what's predestined is not every move I make and every breath I take. That's not predestined. God didn't just sit down and say, well Vern's going to do this and this and this, he's not going to do that and that and that because that's the way I've decided and so Vern's going to sin here because that's what God wants.

That's not the case. What it says is predestined is the outcome. Bingo. This is big. This is big. So if you're worried about, and maybe even have this dread about God just predestines everything and I don't really have any choices, a ruse or an appearance, that's not what scripture teaches. Scripture teaches that the outcome is predestined. The destination always concerns the outcome of a believer's... Yes, exactly. It's actually a fairly rare word, and when you find it, it's focused on the outcome that God has put in place.

You're going to see what I keep showing here, the three circles looks like a target regarding God's will, and the outside circle is God's sovereign will. And so what's God's sovereign will, is you believe, And here are all the things that are true of your position. Here are all the things that are true of your possessions. Here are all the things that are true of your predestination. All those things are a part of God's sovereign will.

Can I mess them up? Not a chance. Isn't that cool? I love it. This is great stuff. I can't mess it up. These things are locked in. I have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Is my grip on those things what keeps them there? No. It's not my grip. I have it, but He put them there in an unshakable grip. It's His grip on you.

Yes, and so it's because I retain my position, I retain my possessions, I retain everything that is predestined by His strength and power and accomplishment, not my own. So that outside circle and the target that we show, the outside circle is things that are not going to break out, and God's not going to go, oops! And not even, I'm going to go, oops. Because there are things that cannot be lost.

They're locked in. Yes. So predestined is attached to that definition of those things that we're locked into? Yeah, it's the outcome, and they're outcome-focused. What about the other way, for unbelievers? It doesn't address that. Because they have an opportunity to believe.

Yeah, so the Calvinist definition of a lot of things is not biblical, and one of those is predestination. Predestination in the biblical sense is an assurance for believers. And I can go through all kinds of things, and boy, I tell you, I've made all sorts of oopsies and goofs, and heaven, I've even sinned. But, none of that is going to mess up what God has predestined, the possessions that I have, but He's doing the holding.

It's not my grip that counts, it's His, and it all flows out of my position that He did 1 Corinthians 1.30 that we quoted on page 1, that he did, all I did was believe. It's by God's doing, we're in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1.30.

I love it. I didn't earn it. I'm not on my way there. There's no grayscale. And by the way, he's writing to the Corinthians. How messed up were they? Really messed up. Really messed up. Lots of different problems. Paul just The next couple of chapters, he's going to say, you guys are fleshly. These people have problems. But he says, by God's doing, you're in Christ Jesus. Yes! This is great stuff. And it's not that I want to go around messing things up. That's not the point. Or it's not that I just say it's okay to go mess up. That's not the point either. But I have a security, and Paul was not afraid to tell these people, he says, we haven't even stepped into the beginning of your problems. You guys have problems coming out of your problems.

But he starts off the first chapter, the first couple of verses, he starts off with, you've been sanctified, perfect tense. Completed past action, ongoing results onto the future, implying permanence, unless the context says otherwise, and it says nothing otherwise. So, it's permanent, yes. So your predestination has nothing to do with what you will believe or not believe, but your assurance after you believe. Predestination is the outcome. Here's where this is headed. So let's take different scenarios. So here's Vern.

He becomes a believer at age four and a half. By the way, a lot of guys would say that's too young for somebody to believe. Alright, so Verne becomes a believer at age four and a half. Everything that Verne took decades to find out, oh, that's true of me, was made true of me when I believed. I had all the possessions that scripture says I have. I just didn't know about them until years later.

Then, what is predestined, I'm predestined to be conformed to the image of the sun. Why? I'm a believer. And God's going to work everything to that end, even though God knew at the outset, well, Vern's going to mess up this way, and Vern's going to mess up that way, and he's not going to understand this, he's not going to understand that, and all that's true, but is that going to mess up the fact that I'm predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son? No. Not messed up at all.

When is that term first used? Romans 8, 28 and 29. It's actually a fairly rare term. You can find it in Romans 8. You can find it in Ephesians chapter 1. It's a rare Greek word in the New Testament. But when you look at it, the predestination is always an outcome for believers.

That's it. It is never, this guy is predestined to go to heaven, and this guy is predestined to go to hell, because that's what I want. Yeah. Is that the Greek word pro-elitism? Yes, that's the word. And it's just, it's rare. But it's always outcomes for believers. It's not a, you know, you're going to heaven and you're going to hell because that pleases me. Well, not very many people believe in double predestination. No, no. So what will happen is, but it is not a salvation term anyway. It just isn't. It's not a salvation term, it is what's going to be the outcome for believers.

That's the kind of term it is. What's the outcome for believers? That's what it means. And that would be church-age believers then? And church-age believers is where it applies to. But if you take a predestination as the way the Calvinists believed, then you can go back into the Old Testament times It's an important distinction, and we've actually had people leave the church over this, it's an important distinction that what we're teaching here applies to church-age saints.

The Jews were not in Christ back there, you know, in the Old Testament as they got out of, you know, Egypt, they were not in Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 says the Jews were baptized into Moses in the water and the sea. We have been baptized into Christ. We've not been baptized into Moses and they weren't baptized into Christ. They were baptized into Moses and what did that mean? They subsequently, very shortly thereafter, came under the full law, all 613 laws. Are you and I under the whole 613 laws?

Not even one. Christ died so that you and I would not be under any of those laws, but we would, Romans 7, Galatians 2, verse 19, die to the law. huge, massive difference. And a failure to recognize that is a monumental oops. Right? A monumental oops. And it was so bad, in some contexts, here's the Acts 15 council, they're saying, the guys who are proposing that believers need to be under law, says, unless you do the law thing, you can't be saved. I mean, that's pretty intense. And the apostles, And the elders of the council there in Jerusalem said, uh-uh.

Not happening. Right? The apostles and the elders of the founding church did not believe you were under law. Here is Peter. He says, you don't need to put him under that yoke. The yoke was the rabbi's term for the law. We're not under it. We're not going to do it. The apostles said no. Not happening.

Middle of page two, we have condition. While our eternal position and spiritual possessions and what is predestined by God are first fixed and permanently in place, whether we abide in Christ, fellowship with Christ, behold Christ, walk in the Spirit, or are filled with the Spirit, it can vary from one moment to the next. Matters of condition are expressed in the New Testament epistles as imperatives, exhortations, and even in the form of commands.

So, John 15, 1-5, I am the vine, and my father is the vinedresser. Who's saying this? This is Jesus saying this, and this is right at the end of, or immediately following, the Last Supper. He tells his disciples, so, I am the true vine, my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And I said, let's lift up the word as I row. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide, imperative. You must abide in me and I in you. So that's not a matter of, in your position you are already in Him? Yes. In your position you are already in Him, it's a done deal. Why the command? The command has to do with our condition.

And so what happens is we have the Bible giving you statements of position, telling you you're in Christ. About three dozen times in the book of Ephesians alone. Well over a hundred times in the whole New Testament. You are in Christ positionally. The reason to tell you to abide, you and me and I and you, the reason to tell you to abide is that's a statement of condition. There is an act of will on your part to depend upon, faith in, depend upon the position that you have that's in Him.

Yes. And that goes back to what you said earlier, because the sin nature is still in existence, so the battle continues on. Yeah. And so, by the way, dealing with the sin nature, they're going to be addressing that in the Romans elective, you know, some months ahead here.

What are they doing? It says you must reckon yourself dead to the sin nature. That is a command. That's an imperative, right? And so, and it's one of many. imperatives, and it's to tell them you must reckon yourselves dead to the sin nature of why it's a matter of your condition. It is already true of the position, but you have an active will with regards to applying it in your condition.

I think it's in the book of Matthew where it talks about the tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down. Is that a parallel passage to it takes away? No. So that's in a different context and shouldn't be immediately applied to Church Age Saints. So is that more law? What I should do is, yeah, basically the Jews under law is the context. What was the verse again?

You're talking about in Matthew, and I'd have to look it up, but I can do that. It says a good tree that produces bad trees. We covered that in the Law and Grace series. And that's the thing, a lot of things people say, well, Jesus said it must be true. Well, maybe. He said everything he said was true. However, in many cases it applied to the Jews prior to his death on the cross, which separated the believer from the law.

So they're under law. And just a quick example, forgive one another. If you don't, what happens? The Father won't forgive you, right? Pre-cross. Post-cross, forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Huge, massive difference. One is, you forgive in order to be forgiven, under law. Under grace, you forgive because you've been forgiven. Radically different motivation. Radically different. Romans 12, 1 and 2, Therefore I urge you, brethren, so this is similar to the command. It's an appeal to the will.

And brethren, he's talking about fellow believers. By the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And we could say do not be conformed is also another command, right? but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Commands, imperatives, urgings, appeals are all with regards to condition, moment by moment, on the basis of the position that you already have. God does not ask us to step out on a limb He doesn't say, ah, you know, I haven't really got this covered, but I'd like you to kind of go over and do this. He doesn't do that. Everything that we're asked to do or not do is on the basis of what is already covered in our position. Right? Yes?

It's interesting because they're almost, they're commands, but they're passive in that it doesn't say don't do those things, it says abide it. You will have positive statements that are urgings or commands, and you will also have negative statements, statements of things not to be done. So both of those, however, are based on our position.

Here's Ephesians 4, 30-32, and do not grieve, imperative, the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So do not grieve imperative, the Holy Spirit of God is an imperative and that's about condition. Then he says, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, that's position. Then he says, let all imperative, bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you. Imperative. along with all malice, and be kind, imperative, to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

Everything that he has commanded or urged or asked or implored regarding for the New Testament saint has already been covered and addressed by our position. Our position already stands there as the basis for any appeal in our condition. He never says, you know, I kind of want you to do this, you know, give it your best shot. He just never does that. Everything he asks, urges, implores, commands, any of those things are all based on the position that we already have. and he's got it covered. We have position for everything he asks, we have possession, we have predestination behind everything that he asks, and we also have empowerment.

Three E's. Enabled, Empowered, Energized. Those are the three words that are used in the New Testament. Enabled, Empowered, and Energized to carry those things out as well. And that enabling, empowering, and energizing is all work of the Holy Spirit. So, every matter of condition is based upon our eternal position, spiritual possessions, and our predestination. We are never told or urged to do anything that is not founded in our position and the things that flow from it. So, is God going to delegate something to you and just say, you know, go ahead and do this and check back with me when you're done to see if I did? No. That's not the way God works. And that's good news. We have people starting to press their noses up against the glass, so we probably should better pray.

Lord, thank you. How immensely gracious this is. Imagine having spiritual outcomes that are just absolutely phenomenal, having those be predestined and locked in. We thank you for the possessions that we have but are not held by us, instead are held by you. And we thank you for the position that we have in Christ, Lord. It is indeed amazing and astounding. These are unfathomable riches. And we thank you for them. We'll spend the rest of eternity coming to understand them. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.