Great Doctrines of Salvation
Mike Doyle · Sep 19, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 38
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926215276540

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

All right, we are on, I have to look at myself, I guess lesson three, identification, results of the fall. So question one, what was the result or penalty of Adam's sin and fall? And the reference scripture there is Romans 5, 12 through 14. Somebody wanna read that, anybody have that? Come on, Jessica, you have it there. You're smiling at me.

Therefore, just as though through one man sin entered into the world, and death was sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed, and there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned, in the likeness of the offensive Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. So from that, what is the result? Death, yeah, if you, in verse 12, therefore just as one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, and in verse 14, nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses.

So, the result is death. So, we all know these, and we go over these words all the time. What does death mean? Separation, separation. So, if death means separation from the Romans verse, what are we separated from? From what? Fellowship. God. Life. Yeah, I mean all these things.

When you look at it, Adam, by sinning, died what, positionally to God? and that resulted in total death, spirit, soul, body, and so that separation was from God. His position then manifested in his condition. So his position and his condition were together, they both were separated from God. He began to die immediately after the sin. It took how long? How old was Adam?

I love this, when I think about it. He was 700 years old. I had like 900, 930 is what I had. I think about that. How would you like to live 930 years? Wayne and I were talking earlier and I thought, If the Lord decides to take me home, would I rather stay here and climb that one last mountain or be face-to-face with the Lord? Duh! You know, I'm like, you know, why would you want to stay here?

You know, I keep thinking that if you really, truly understand that you will be face-to-face with the Lord, what is the draw here? Do you want to climb that last mountain, take that last vacation, play that last round of golf? What is more important than being face-to-face with the Lord? The Lord wants to take you home. It's a celebration. Unless you have family. I'm thinking of you who's this face-to-face. Yeah, the family is a different matter. I haven't gone through this with my mom just recently.

From that standpoint, I rejoice in the fact that she is face to face with the Lord. That gives me the peace and rest. My theory, and again this is one of those unsubstantiated, my engineering, trying to put my engineering brain on an infinite god. My theory is, and when you step into eternity, so this is for the people in eternity. They step into eternity.

Do they have a clock on the wall? Do they have anything that says, you know, it's three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon? No. So, mine is, you know, I was saying this with, thought about this with Hal and Lindy. Hal steps into eternity. You know, my theory is, as soon as Hal's in eternity, he looks behind and Lindy's there. because there's no, I mean we're all going to be there in eternity, because if eternity doesn't have a time frame, when we enter, I may be right ahead, but I don't mind, you're right there. We're all there, we're all there essentially at the same, you know, there really isn't a time factor. So for those in eternity, you know, Hal will look and Lindy's there. I mean, I don't know how it works, but for us, locked in time, it's another year gone by. It's another hour gone by. So there is some for the families left.

But I rest in that fact, and we just talked about it with Jeremy's grandmother, it's a whole different story if the person passing doesn't know the Lord. I mean, that is a very grieving situation, I think, because you know what's transpiring. But if somebody knows the Lord, it's completely different. As far as I'm concerned, we miss the person.

I don't want to discount the pain that is left for us, but it's also somewhat supplanted by the peace knowing that they're face-to-face with the Lord. And I rest in that fact, that they're rejoicing, and I rejoice in that fact. I'm stuck in time. You know, I'm wishing that they were here and I miss them. But that kind of is overridden by the fact that I know where they're at. And that gives me peace that gets me through these things.

I wish that, you know, people who, I mean, Sean Sherman, you know, just went to his service. Great guy. Loved him on Tuesdays, you know. But he was ready to go home. I think the last time I saw him on Tuesday he had to get up and leave and that's the last time I saw him. He was ready and at the memorial just some of the stories told that he was ready. He was ready for his change of assignment or whatever. He said he got his relocation and he had accepted the transfer. He had accepted it.

I remember going down with Hal at the hospital when Hal was in the last days. He was making everybody cry down at the hospital. They couldn't understand how this guy who was going to die very shortly was so happy and so peaceful. I go down and I still remember who was it, the psychiatrist who was meant to comfort him came in and she went out crying and was going, you know, she was to comfort him and he was comforting her. She couldn't understand it. Hal was doing a lot of witnessing at the end. He was completely at rest. His charm was completely at rest. He was doing the same thing in intensive care over this week.

If you know the Lord, or even with the family, if you know that, it's a totally different situation. It really is. If you know they're going to be face to face with the Lord, why do you want to hold them back? That's the thing. Why do you want to keep them here? You know, deadlines, finances, taxes, elections, politics, you know, all this stuff we got here versus face to face with the Lord. You want to stay here? You know, if you have that, you have a piece.

So anyway, we digress. So if Adam died in his sin and was separated, how does that affect us? If Adam was separated, how does that affect us? We were separated. Yeah, same thing. 1 Corinthians 15, 21 and 22. 1 Corinthians 15, 21 and 22. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22, for as in Adam, all die. And the flip side, so also in Christ, all will be made alive. Why does this happen? Adam did it. Why do we all die for Adam's sin? He did it. I'm pointing at him, it was Adam. Why do I get this nasty... You do not have the sinful nature. Sinful nature. What else?

But soon as us out. He's a federal head. Federal head? You can say it. You don't have to tell your wife. Life begins like. Life begins like. That's right. Federal head. Life begins like. What does like begin like mean? You're the same. You don't know what that means, do you? Well, if it's a fallen person, then that person begins calling people. Okay, use another one. Well, God created man in his image, that means he was innocent. He was sinless. At that point, we have creation. But, so he sins. But, like begins like.

So, I guess the thing is, if there's a dog, can it reproduce into a rabbit? No. What does the dog reproduce into? A dog. Birds, birds, snakes, snakes, we can go down the whole list. So, like begins like. So, if Adam has a sinful nature and has offspring, What happens? The same thing. Someone who is identical to Adam. Adam has a sin nature. So, like begins like. So, if Adam's sin, sinful, has a sin nature, and any offspring from that one person will also have that same characteristic or same sin nature. So, that's what, when we were going through that verse, four is an Adam, all die.

It's because we're legitimate offspring of, and we use that term, Greg used it, federal head. What does federal head mean? I don't know. You like the term and you use it, but you don't know what it is. So what does federal head mean? Adam was the prototype man. Prototype? What else? Federal head. Is that a government position? He's the head of the Republicans. No. Federal head. We didn't vote for him. We didn't vote for him. I love it. So, federal head. Prototype. What? What do you want to say, Bruce? You just whispered. I said Jessica's all over it.

She's got it. Okay. Federal head is one that represents basically Everybody underneath or everybody stems from that one person or one entity. They all can go back to that one point. You know, it's interesting. I think somewhere a few years ago they did some DNA or something or whatever. They said they could trace it back to like a single individual or something. I read some scientific thing.

It's about time it came down to one couple or one person. We all go back in the flesh to Adam. Now we have, thankfully, another federal head. Who is the other federal head? Christ. That's the pinnacle that everybody who is in Christ relates back to. So everything that is true about that federal head is going to be true about us. In Christ's case, everything but deity. We can look at this one. Ephesians, we're looking at how we all are, by birth, a sinner.

We look at Ephesians 2.3, there's another one that says, Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. So, by birth, we were children of wrath.

In John 3.6, this is the like begins like, if you wonder where that term or why we use that.

In John 3.6, that which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. Okay? That's the like begins like. So if you're in the flesh, born of the flesh, you are flesh. If you are born of the spirit, you are what? Spirit. Okay? All right. Question two. What is man's view or estimate of his fall? We can look at Romans 1, 21 through 23. Anybody have that one?

Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful. but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man, and to birds, and forfeited beasts, and creeping things."

Yeah, that's a good picture right there. I'll read the next one since it's kind of a longer passage. Romans 2, 14 through 23. For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a lot to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience, bearing witness, and their thoughts alternatively, accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

You know, this is one of those ones where it picks up those Gentiles who weren't under the law. This is where it picks up those that it's instinctively written on their heart. So, you know, they weren't under the law. They weren't under. This is where you can pick up on the Gentiles. But then it goes to the Jews.

But if you bear the name Jew, and rely upon the law, and boast in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.

You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God?

So, man's view or estimate of the fall? What's his view? It seems like he's utterly disdainful. Yeah. Utterly disdainful. I like that. What else? What's that movie? Clueless and whatever. Yeah. You know, clueless in life. you know, not only disdain, but, you know, they're doing, in the Romans, I think the Romans 1 is probably, the Romans 1, 21, they became futile in their speculations, their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

You know, this one brings up something that I think Mike's touched on, I think it's I think if you look earlier in Romans 1, everybody knows that there's a God. I was just talking to somebody about that, about an atheist. See, there's no really true atheist. Everybody knows there's a God. I think they kid themselves and try and convince themselves that there's not a God.

But when you look at this, I think when he had the Inca or the Mayan or whatever, everybody knows there's a God, and they're always trying to appease Him. They know He's mad. Every one of the religions knows that there's a God that needs to be taken care of.

So that's why there are sacrifices, that's why there are all these different things to appease God. So everybody knows, and this is demonstrating that. What did they create? Idols they created all these things they they worshipped animals they did, you know, they sacrifice they did everything they could to to try and appease God so they everybody in their heart knows that there's a God and that he's mad or he needs to be appeased or pleased or something so in like city look at all the religions not you know, I think Mike said it was you know in the Mayan one and You know, they didn't have the gospel, they didn't have all this, and yet they knew that there was a God and they had to sacrifice children, I mean hundreds and thousands of children that they sacrificed to a God because they knew that God was there and he was needed to be taken care of. Well, could that be because of their own conscience? They knew that what they would do, everybody knows the difference between right and wrong.

Well, and that's what I'm saying. Everybody knows that there's God. That's why I don't think there's a true atheist. I think everybody knows that they try and kid themselves or try and convince themselves. But everybody knows that there's God. And yeah, they want to try and take care of it. And yet they'll do everything else other than what the scripture says. You know, and that's why I say they become foolish and wise. They try to be wise, but they're foolish. So I think this points to that fact that everybody knows that there's God and He's upset.

But how do you take care of that? The sorry thing in this verse I think is, and I've written in here by this particular word for knowing, they knew experientially. Yeah. Yeah, they knew. Right, that's a good point. For even though they knew God, even though, you know, although I, you know, when you say that and you look at these and they go, They knew it.

I look in the mirror and I go, how many things do I know about God that I don't fully appreciate? All the things that He's promised. I got in late last night and I was doing this. I couldn't go to sleep last night because I was thinking about connecting the dots. we don't connect the dots a lot of times. And so, before they knew, and then they did, well, I look in the mirror and go, well, I know all this stuff. Why don't I accept this? Why don't I, by faith? So, every time I look at some of those condemning ones, I look in the mirror and go, ooh, that guy, ooh, ooh, what did he do?

So, yeah. I think the verses in Romans point out that there is a time with every human being when they do know. Yeah. But then they reject. Yeah. Once they reject, the darkness starts to invade them. And so I can see a person, you know, 15, 20 years after they have rejected God, being an atheist. I can't see them being an atheist, but as their mind gets darker, and as they become more foolish, then they begin to rely on what their own mind tells them.

Right, they convince themselves. But it's a convincing process. You have to be convinced of it. And then, you know, you've gotten to a point where you believe, you know, but there's a point that, yes, there is a point that they have to, they know, and that they have to come to this, you know, contorted, the professed wisdom, and the, you know, so they have to be wise to try and get over that. And their lack of wisdom allows them to put in place of the real God, the real creator, a creature, that they will worship. My political side coming out. Environmentalists.

They worship the earth. That's a very good example. It's a religion. And they've exchanged and they worship the earth. Not that every environmental thing is wrong, but the ones who are radical on this, that's their religion. They've exchanged it for this is exactly what they're talking about. Yeah, they've become crazy. Well, I mean, to the extremists, where they truly worship the earth, that man is a blight, it's a parasite, that guy who was at Discovery Channel, humans are a parasite. You've exchanged a lot of things in there that just is not healthy. We all want to take care of it and do our thing, but it's the ones who worship that becomes the idol, that becomes the whatever in exchange.

Following on those lines, it may be because there's this innate desire to have a purpose. If you're lacking any purpose, that will give you something to do. The word in here is, and I think it's a good word, exchanged. There's a void created when you exchange. And that's what I think that word exchange means.

You have God and you have to exchange that and you fill that with whatever. And that's where you've taken what God has and you have to exchange it with something else. Another question on this, going back to this Romans 2 verse 13, it says, the doers of the law will be justified, meaning these Gentiles, because they follow their conscience. So for those people that are not typical, they hear about Christ and they know Christ, but I sometimes wonder about if this covers the people over in other lands that they know there's a God, they follow their conscience, No. All have sinned.

All have fallen short of. It describes who we are. We are open graves. Our throat is an open grave. You know, that's it. That's described. So even though you're a Boy Scout and you've done everything, you're still sinning. And it's like the Jewish law, 600 and whatever. You break one, it's all gone. So that person who is whatever, they are not perfect all the time. They're sin nature. They cannot, even though they're doing good things or they want to worship Mike, it's on me for my scuba diving. You know, you're down and you're scuba diving, you see this glory of the Lord, and I'm thinking, oh man, he's created all these things. That still doesn't, I mean, you see God, but that doesn't, there's no way by law or by understanding nature can you, in what we're getting to, is exchange your position in Adam. So no matter how good you are, this doesn't cover it.

Well, what is this first sentence? If you were able to do all the law, Sure. Has there been one person who's ever been able to keep every law? Of course not. Christ fulfilled it. This verse is kind of not really going to happen. Yeah, if you can do it. But nobody can. And that's why I say when you read in Romans 3, there's nobody who can do it. All have sinned.

Romans 5, I don't know, 13 or 14 says that Between Adam and Moses, before there was a law, people were still dying, how come? Because it says they didn't sin like Adam sinned, because they didn't break a law. Yeah, the law wasn't there. The graveyards are full of people that died between those two periods, and why did they die? Because they had sinned. Sinned natures.

So even if they were doing everything wonderfully, this is, if you can do this, but it's a lot of merit. If you can keep all the law, it's fine. But nobody can do it. It's impossible. So it's a catch-all, but it's a null point. The other problem with the law is that if you could keep it, you would become self-righteous.

You wouldn't be the righteousness of God, which is what the standard is. You're being able to keep the law, Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he did all of this stuff. He was righteous in himself. The problem was that him being righteous in himself didn't make it to the standard. The standard is the righteousness of God. And you can't if you're self-righteous.

But even if you were locked in a room somewhere, you get out and you still have a brain, and your brain will start thinking good stuff. That's sinful right there. When you look at the Romans 3, there's nobody who gets out of this. All have sinned, all have fallen short, and then who we are in ourselves, in Adam, it doesn't matter. You cannot do it. It's impossible.

It's what you are, not what you do. Yeah, it's what you are, not what you do. I was just reading, isn't that more like a red herring that allows those that seek darkness to pursue it? Yeah, I mean, you know, they'll corrupt the scripture. You know, they'll take it, they'll pull it out and, oh, well, I'm, you know, no, it's, yeah, it can be abused. Okay. Number three, racing on to number three.

Define what is meant by position or positional truth. We have a limit as it relates to our position in Adam. Let's do it that way. What does our position in Adam mean? What was our position in Adam? Well, if you're in Adam, yes. Assuming that everybody...

Well, because he was our federal head, so our position under him, in him. Yeah. Separate from God. Separate from God, right. So, Webster defines position as And arranging in order the point or origin occupied by something. Is that what we mean by position?

It's all about who we're connected to. Who we're connected to. Who we know. So what was true of Adam was true of us. Right. Yeah. Like begins like. That's the premise that you have to understand. You know, we always look. I didn't sin. Well, yes, you did. All have sinned. But, you know, if you think yourself all wonderful and You think you can keep all the laws and justify yourself. You still have a sin nature. And like I said, there's always thoughts, actions. You do not keep that perfectly. So we all sin, no matter if you're, like I said, head of the Boy Scouts and think you're the best person on earth. Well, if you do that, you've already failed if you thought that.

So position, what does that mean? It's an important concept that we use, a term, position and condition. So what does position and atom mean? I forget what you said. Somebody, what was it? I forget what you defined it. What is position? Well, it's who we're connected to. Connected to. Okay. Connected. Mine says what you are versus what you do is one's position, one's condition. Perfect. What you are. Okay. Yeah, it's the identification. Ooh, what's that term? Our identification with Adam. Before salvation, you are identified in Adam. All natural and spiritual life are based on the principle of position. Where are you positioned?

I think Mike puts it, it's all summed up in one word, source. Where is the source? Where is that head? Where does it all go back to? It all relates to the federal head. Because that's where it all started, because like begins like, so you start off at that source. And what is the source? Well, Webster defines source as origin or beginning, a point of origin or procurement, beginning, one that originates, the point of origin. So what is our source? What is our point of origin?

Before Christ. Before Christ. What is our point of origin? Adam. Everything points back to him. That's our point of Adam. So, positionally, we are exactly like him. And this is before you know the Lord. We are exactly like him in body, soul, and spirit. Exactly like him. That's our source.

Okay, so that's the one who, everything we have to, you know, when you're in Adam and you think you're doing great, what are your choices in Adam? You mean like sin or sin? Yeah. Basically, which sin am I going to do? You know, that's your choices. You can act holy, righteous, good, whatever, but It's through a sinful nature. So, you know, you're always there's always the the root motive or anything under that is corrupt so the source is Adam so, you know It all points back to him and we can't we in in Adam.

We can only choose different sins someone does something Yeah, because usually, you know, I think that, well, you know, if I, if I go down and I give up my house, I do everything and I go to Africa and I live and I, you know, and I give all my money away and I do all this and all this, you know, what, what probably is my, in the root of my heart? No, look at how good I am. I've given up everything. No, me, me, me. Well, your idea would be, what more could God want? I have earned what I expect to get. And in Adam, you get what you deserve in Adam. Separated death, that's what you get in Adam.

Years ago here, we used to talk a lot about human good and divine good. I think people can do good things and not do it out of pride. But out of a wish to be really helpful. But if it isn't done out of the power of the Holy Spirit, then would you say that's human good? Yes. If you do it in the power of the Holy Spirit, it's divine good? Yeah. I think that's a good way to define it. I think that's a real good way to define it.

You know, yeah, I mean, there are a lot of good people who don't know the Lord, who do a lot of good, amazing things. But they're still sinners. Sure. You know, and even the good that we see, they're still there's still sin in their life. But I think some people, do you think everybody who is not a believer, who does good things, is doing it out of pride? No. Out of interest?

I tend to be more, yeah. I think deep down there is, because that's all they can do in their sin nature. They really can't, I mean somewhere deep down, even they're doing good, they're thinking, how good am I? You know, great philanthropists, I'm sure, deep down in, you know, they're looking... They're probably trying to make points. They're making points. They want their name on the building. They want, you know, and they want recognition somewhere, you know.

It's just, you can't, in a sin nature, you can't do other. You can't do anything. You just can't do it. So the outward appearance is humanly good, but when you get down to it, they can't do anything other than sin or have that You know, so human outwardly good, sure. But when you bore down, they can't do anything other than be sinful.

Doesn't it come down to what the standard is? Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, in human terms, I guess, yeah, I mean, the standard. And, you know, our standard is a sinner. What's the only thing we can do? Sin. You compare yourself to other people. Yeah, you can do that, but that's not, I mean, Yeah, that's not the standard. I mean, in God's eyes, is that a, you know? No. Yeah.

If you fell out of a tree. Are you hoping that? And I came running and saying to my Lord, what can I do? And try to help you. I'm not doing it for brownie points. I'm doing it because I want to help you. But you're also doing it out of a need. Yeah. To be helpful? Yeah, the guy's having fits. Yeah, and... But if it's always based on need, then I think that your motives can be, I mean, that's an extreme example. Yeah, you know, again, I don't know.

It's still, you can't as a sinner do anything else than sin. And so, you know, the outward appearances, and I, you know, I don't know, maybe you can do outwardly good things as a sinner. I mean, that's maybe, like I said, the human good versus divine good. You know, there can be acts, but I don't know, you know, Like I said, the sinner can only sin. There isn't a choice for him. So can there not be altruism? Well, I mean, basically, yeah.

I mean, what if you helped him and you put yourself at risk? What if you saved a drowning child and there was a chance that you could drown yourself and you did? Well, what is the verse, yeah, that even a good man... I would say that if you were saving a drowning child, and you did save them, you would secretly pat yourself on the back for doing it, or you'd want to be recognized. And you may, in the sense of approaching a crisis situation, want to help somebody but were incapable of doing it, but you would credit yourself with the wanting to.

As a sinner, you can't do anything else but that. How about a mother and a child? I don't know. Maybe as a parent, you'd do something that you only did it for them. As a sinner, can you do anything else but sin? I don't know. That's what I'm asking. If you go to the source, it's sin. Sin is missing the mark. God is more righteous. So if you're in that sin nature, you're sinning. And it doesn't matter if there are motives or not, or perceived or not, you're in that sin nature. Sin is like a pattern though. Sin is like being committed to sin. Maybe just one action isn't really sin or not sin. Sin is another issue.

The tree in the Garden of Eden was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good don't function based on good and evil. The world does. That I either do something good or do something evil. In Christ, good and evil is not the standard. The standard in Christ is holiness. And so you don't judge your behavior based on whether it was good or evil. You base it on whether it's God-like or not.

You know, that's a good point. That's a point that's rarely... When you look at your life in between the old man and the new creation. We can look at the evil things very easily. You go and you shoot somebody, you kick the dog, you beat up the child, whatever. Easy to identify. I remember a long time ago, there was a guy who had a book. you know, the good part, and it's harder, it was the tree of what? Good and evil.

So you can identify this evil, and do Christians crawl from the evil side over to the good side? Is that what we do? Yes. I think that way. You think that way, but what, in the tree, did we go from evil side over to the good side? Is that what transpired? To the tree of life. We left the tree. We got out of the tree.

It's in spirit, but in the flesh we're still crawling over. Oh yes we are. Oh yeah. Yeah, but that, but see, and that's, and that's my, I guess that's my point is, and that's really where, I guess even in the good side, we're not, we're still in the tree. We're still in the tree of good and evil. We are transferred to the tree of life. So it's harder to eradicate that we moved to the good and now we're over on this side of the tree and don't we feel warm and cozy.

We're still in our sin nature. We've just gone from the beating up the children to, now I'm going to go down to the rescue mission and I'll serve the children. We've only moved across the tree. We have to get out of that because you're still a sinner. So we'll always be pathetic.

Am I? We're talking about a position in Adam versus a new creature in Christ. Totally different. Totally different. We're talking about a position in Adam. Once you have been eradicated from that position or moved from that position, to a position in Christ, totally different. So, new creation, totally. So, I'm no different. You are totally different. A hundred percent. I get it.

So, it's saying like, then, if you're in Christ, you're doing, you're saving the child because that's the Christ-like thing to do, or you just do it because that's how your thoughts have been going, versus like, you're doing it, if you're not in Christ, you're just doing it because you're saving a person and you're...

And you can still do it in your old nature, too. I mean, I can, you know, there are a lot of things I can point to myself, you know, that's altruistic, you know, and I'll just tell you, there was, last church, I helped build it, I oversaw the building of it, I did all the stuff, never wanted any recognition. I think I've been through this. I totally didn't want to. And you brought up a good point.

Maybe that was to help other people and do other things by the example. But deep down in my heart, I can look back now and I can say, you know, I did it. I just wanted to do it because I wanted the Lord to smile on me a little bit more. Just between God and myself. Nobody else didn't want to... I'll say I'm working out for you. Yeah. Exactly. I saw that in you and your friends. Nobody else...

I confess this and I... but that's my... you can still do things as a believer with the wrong motive. And again, I go back to, and you really helped on one, we brought this up before, and I said, you know, even though I did that, I could have been used, and I was, you know, could be used in a lot of different lives. God used even my screw up. to still witness and do to other people. So I really appreciate you. I talked about this before and that really helps. I mean, even though God is in control of all these things. God is in control of all. And He uses all these things, even my screw-ups, to help somebody else.

But my motive, when I really dug down deep, I didn't want any recognition by any person. But when I started learning the identification truths, and grace in particular, When I started learning grace, I looked back at that and I said, if I'm honest in my heart, I wanted to do something to make God smile. To have him thank me for the privilege of doing this. I mean, how screwed up is that?

The biblical example I think explains this is Lazarus. When Jesus got word that Lazarus was sick, He didn't, I mean the human thing would have been to run up and kill him, but he didn't do that. Why didn't he do it? Because it was not his father's will that he do it, because God's ultimate purpose is to glorify himself, and so what he did is he waited a few days, Lazarus died, and then he goes up and he raises Lazarus from the dead. None of us would have ever, from a human standpoint that just doesn't make any sense, but from a spiritual standpoint being connected personally with the father, that's what the father wanted done and so he didn't go up and do it until God told him, his father told him, okay, go up now. And even Martha and Mary were angry with him because he didn't show.

You know, God uses all these things. And I'll get to why my sleepless night, you know, the connectivity. If you really connect all these things, It overwhelms you. When you put all these things together, you know, with the identification of truth, position, condition, and grace, when you lock all those things together and you connect the dots, you're just overwhelmed by what God is doing. And I, you know, I just, I, like I said, I sat there last night and I was, I just thought, man, my mind was just racing from point to point to point and how it fits together and how God perfectly has put this together. You can't help but be overwhelmed by who he is and what he's doing.

I read something in the spiritual anthology of one of the guys, just as a teaser. One of the things, if we're in Christ, which we're going to get to along the way here, in Christ. If you're in Christ, think of this. I challenge you to read John 17, the intimacy. And you see the intimacy between Christ and God. It's amazing. Now, put yourself in that position.

Are you in Christ? Do you have that same position? And does God, talking to Christ, when you look at that, how much you loved Him and the intimacy, you're there. Do you feel that way today? That you have that intimacy with Christ? The same intimacy with God the Father? And I keep thinking, God loves me so much. If you look at it, God loved Christ so much. Well, He loves me the exact same way.

What am I complaining about? What am I worried about? If He loves me that much, what am I doing? I can't be separated from Him. You can't be separated from His love. You just go through it all cascades. Like I said last night, my mind was just going, how much God loves you. What are you worried about? He loves you that much. Read John 17 and put yourself in that one.

Which he's telling us, he wants all those things for us. Well, he's given those things to us. Anyway, we need to close. Mike needs to teach upstairs. He needs to get ready. Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you for just any time again that we can get into your Word. We thank you for just who you are. We thank you for all these truths that you've given to us. We are thankful that you have given us a method and a way to get out of our position in Adam and to be put into our position in Christ.

What a tremendous transaction that is. And we just thank you for that. We thank you for what that means. in that all the attributes and all the things we receive immediately, positionally, it's just overwhelming. We thank you for that. We humbly thank you for that. We thank you that we reside in your grace and what that means. Father, we just pray for Mike as he gives a message upstairs. Prepare our hearts to receive it. And we just thank you. And we just thank you for all these things in Christ's name. Amen.