Identification Truths Plus 2012
Mike Doyle · Jul 8, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926320565434

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

So we had made it last week down through question six, right? Yeah. So let's make sure that you have your Bibles out in Romans six. And what what actually is going on here? You know, we talk. We spent a couple of weeks on position and condition. We spent. We spend a lot of time going through Romans 6. We recognize that up through 6.10 is all positional truth, right? Everybody understand that? It's all position. There's nothing for you to do but to take it in and believe it. Starting in 11, Paul begins to tell us things that we should do in response to the position that we have.

And the first thing was to reckon ourselves dead unto sin but alive unto God. And then we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies, which is what we were talking about last week. And we are to present our members, present your faculties, as instruments of righteousness unto God. and the very key phrase there, as those that are alive from the dead. Here's why that's so important. Well, let me ask you, why is it so important for that little phrase, as those that are alive from the dead?

Because if someone gives you a command, present your members as instruments of righteousness unto God, and leaves that little phrase out, what are you going to do? to your fleshly ways. You're going to try to offer to God your Adamic talents, your smartness, your energy, your ability to do things.

But if it clearly says it's those that are alive from the dead, that changes the equation. So what are you offering? If you're alive from the dead, you're a Christian. So if you're alive from the dead, you're a Christian, and you understand identification truths, and now you're risen in Christ, and he says, present your members to me, what's he asking for?

Something from Adam, or something from Christ? Sure. Why wouldn't he ask you for something from Adam? Because you're dead to Adam because you have Christ in you and believe in him. And he's dead to Adam too. Who? Christ. He doesn't deal with us on an Adamic level anymore. That's why that little phrase is so important. So when you present your members, it's really important to understand that what he's after is who you are in Christ resurrected, not your BS degree that you got in the flesh. So what would that include? What would it include? That's a great question. What would it include? almost nothing, like you're born anew. You're brand new.

So the first thing he's asking you for is you present the resurrected life in Christ that you have to me. Well, that's not tough to figure out if you understand, wow, it is the life of Christ that's resurrected, and all the grace and all the enablements that go with that life. and they are referred to as instruments of righteousness. The only reason they're righteous is because they're resurrected instruments. Maybe is a better way to say it.

Almost like you're a brand new born baby. Yeah. You know when you see the football player score a touchdown and they do one of these? What are they offering to God? Their physical talent as a football player. He doesn't care about that. He does not care about that. What does he want? Your faith. He wants who you are in Christ, a new person. That's what belongs to him. He's done with Adam. He's done with Adam. That's the one thing that Tim Tebow hasn't figured out yet. Yeah, I was just going to say, what does that mean?

Let's go off to the mission field and serve God. Who's doing the serving? He is. The old man. Is it the old man? You better decide. Because he gives thanks to God for a touchdown makes no sense to me because God doesn't care whether you have an A grade or not. Well, I'm going to interview him afterwards and the guy will say, well, I'm so thankful that God enabled me to do all this wonderful stuff in the football field. And I think, wait a minute, that doesn't sound like a lie from the dead to me. What about when you get sacked? What about that verse that says, in all things give thanks?

Sure. And you can certainly do that. Yeah. But if you understand identification, you don't want to bring anything from the old into the new. because God isn't going to accept it. As far as he's concerned, you have been crucified. But I don't think he cares whether you make a touchdown or you have a grade A. He uses all things to conform you to the image of Christ, including your follies and misdirections and misunderstandings. Shouldn't you give him thanks for your food and thanks really? Oh sure. Oh absolutely.

And thank you for But, you know, the rain falls on anybody and everybody. You know, we gave him thanks all week long when Jack shows up at the Buick dealer and God had Ingrid waiting there for him. He was going to Brakes Plus, God had Ingrid over at the Buick dealer, so he said, come on Jack, we're going to the Buick dealer. You know, was that God's grace and do you thank him for that? Absolutely you do. And was it all about, you know, Jack's physical well-being? Yes it was. But the issue is, resurrected life.

And when he says, give me your members as instruments of righteousness, he wants your brain, he wants your mind, he wants your, when we get to 12, he's going to say, present your body to me as a living sacrifice. Oh, living sacrifice. You know? Present your members to me as those that are alive from the dead.

And how about I guess it's from the old man too, but how about our weaknesses and our failures and our junk? Okay, another example. Let's say you're weak in an area when it comes to overcoming sin. So if you're a good Catholic like I grew up, what does they tell you to do? Say a hundred Hail Mary's. Offer it up to God. Offer up your weakness in the flesh to God. Does he want that? No. No, he doesn't. What does he want you to do? In this verse he says, you present your faculties to me as instruments of righteousness and don't present them anymore as instruments of unrighteousness.

In other words, it's like when I enlisted in the Marine Corps, when Kurt enlisted in the Air Force, what happened? We went down in front of some guy and he said, raise your right hand. You took the oath, right? In other words, you presented your body to them. You know what they did? They said, thank you very much. And they took it. And they said, now we're going to boot camp, and now we're doing this, and now we're doing this. And you had no say about it. But you were transformed. Yeah. Actually, you are. Twelve weeks later, It's totally different than you were 12 weeks ago.

So God says just give me, but alive from the dead is really an important phrase there. So that you understand what he's after. It seems like kind of an attitude of sort of watching to see what God does. You know rather than trying to say like this is This is what I'm going to make happen. It's like, I wonder what God's going to do in this. Yeah, that's a good way to look at it.

I'm just going to say the same thing where it's, you're offering this, your faculties to the Lord and those that sin or those sins that keep nagging you, You keep offering and it's like, well, you know, it's learning to, or knowing that that's not even a part of me anymore, so why do I keep going back there? You know, and I know my answer to those things in my life. It feels good. I said, hey Lord, I was really good at sinning, you want that? No, I took care of all that.

But if you tell God your weakness, well of course he knows it, but couldn't you then ask him to help you to overcome that? No. No? No. Because he's not going to help the flesh, which is weak, to do anything. But if it's in the flesh that you're doing those that once or that struggle that you have whether it's like smoking for you or for you know back in the worst like it's just I'm going to just let you handle that smoking for me was it was a good example because I recognize I shouldn't be doing it and guys that were jumping me about it I would say well what it's what comes out of a man not what goes in and they said yeah but you're exhaling And the day came, I said to the Lord, I said, I'm not going to expend any effort to do this, because it would be fleshly.

Take it off of me. Woke up one morning, that was it. It was over. Done. I was finished. So then you did give me my answer. First you said no, and then now you say yes. Well, I recognized that as a resurrected person in Christ, smoking was not consistent with who I am. I also recognize that smoking addiction to cigarette smoke was a fleshly addiction.

He didn't help me, he just took care of it because of the cross. See here's the thing, he's not going to help the flesh do anything because as far as he's concerned, you've been crucified. What he is going to do is implement the new life in your condition. which doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't cuss, you know, doesn't sin, those kinds of things. So he's not helping the old man to be a better Christian.

He's conforming us to the image of Christ, who is the Christian. So he's implementing taking it away. Taking away that weakness, whatever it may be. It's not so much the weakness, it's an entire activity by the old man. Here's the thing about the old man. The old man is nothing but weak. So he's not strengthening parts of the old man and saying, you know, I'll make you good in this area and that area. No, he's conforming us to Christ.

Let's say this, I go to him and I say, oh Lord, I'm so impatient, please give me patience. Proper prayer? No, it's not. What should I say? Thank you for who I am in you. And Christ is the one who's patient. Let his life be lived through me. He's patient. I don't want to be imitating. I want his life lived through me. He's the one that's patient. But if you're combating something that you have a very big difficulty with...

Reckon yourself and be dead unto whatever it is and alive unto God. It's a change in direction. You just lose an interest in it. That's what happens is you lose interest in it. So he does nothing. Sure he does. He already informs you. Maybe put it this way. Here's what he does. He makes Christ more valuable to you than whatever you were doing before. He made Christ more valuable to me than smoking Marlboro.

That just wasn't part of who I am. And if I was going to learn to be a teacher, I couldn't have the pack in here. Couldn't do it. It was inconsistent with what I am. I couldn't... if I was going to talk the talk, I'd better be able to walk it. And it's because it sort of ruins your body, right? It ruins your body. You need to keep your body in shape so he can use it. And it ruins your testimony.

What about Christ's prayer where he says, forgive us our trespasses? There was a prayer that he taught the disciples before the cross, so he was teaching them how to pray as Jewish disciples. Now once the cross happens and the resurrection happens, you don't see that language anymore.

What you see is, well in 1 John 1.9, what does it say? If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Does it say anywhere in there that you should ask for forgiveness? No. Why not? Because you've already been forgiven. Because you're already forgiven.

So why do the churches stand up and say the prayer? Because they're dumb. To keep you in conformity. See, the prayer taught to the disciples is a legal prayer, that when you study Paul's epistles, you begin to find out that, boy, this is really a different mindset, a different way of living. It's a gracious way in which everything's already been done for you. Your job is to believe it.

Taking from the Sermon on the Mount over to John 17. The Sermon on the Mount is the best way, if you want to Once you begin to understand your position in Christ and Paul's epistles, and then go back and read the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is all conditioned on what you do. You know, blessed are they who do A, because then they'll get B. Well how does that fit with Ephesians 1?

I'm blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus? No if I do anything, it just says I am. And if I've got all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, can I obey myself into more? I suppose I could if I scratched out the word all. Okay, now, important. Next question is really interesting. I've got to ask you again.

You mentioned John 1.9. One John. One John. Yeah, one John.

I'm sorry. If we confess our sins, he is faithful just to forgive our sins. Shouldn't we confess our sins? Okay, great. Where is Bud Tracy when we need him? He's home with the Lord now. What does the word confess mean? Agree. It means to agree. Agree about what?

Agree about the fact that I'm a dirty rotten doggy sinner? I'm not. Not in Christ? I'm not. What do I confess? What do I agree with God about? I agree with him that I have been crucified, buried and resurrected in Christ, that I have been acting inconsistent with who he says I am, and I agree with him about who he says I am. I'm confessing, I'm saying, look, I sinned here, here, here, and here. That's not who I am, and I'm agreeing with you Who I am.

Which is what the Holy Spirit gives you, right? The not rationalizing it part, the not justifying your sin. The Holy Spirit's like, however the Holy Spirit works, you know, in a million different ways, might be going... He slowly, ever so slowly, brings you to the viewpoint of God. Where you can say, Well, let me give you an example. Let's say the Spirit of God convicts you of seven sins. He just convicts you, God, I've been walking in the flesh and I did this and this and this and this. So you go to him and you start to confess. How many sins do you get through before you get restored? Zero. One. What if you forget five, six, and seven? What if you forget to mention them? What do you mean, one? It's like, okay, we still have the sinful nature, which is one. Now hold on.

I wake up one morning, the Spirit of God convicts me, I've been nasty to Bruce, I cheated Holly, I was rude to you, those three. And the Spirit convicts me, so I go to him and I say, I'm confessing my sins, I was nasty to Bruce. You said you go to the Spirit, wouldn't it be more like you let the Spirit come to you? He comes and He convicts me. The minute that I enter into that and engage in that, I'm restored to righteousness instantly.

So you don't even have to get to the first one? Well, I really don't. I don't have to, like the old Catholic thing where you have to have a list? Because as soon as I'm restored, I recognize that all of this is gone. It's gone. also says if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not true. If you look at that, if you say you don't have a sin nature, we lie to God. That's what that word really says. Because it's got the definite article in Greek in front of it. If we say we do not have the sin, we lie. We do have a sin nature.

And there's no question, that's part of saying the same thing that God is saying, which is I crucified you, but you still have a sin nature, and your job is to reckon yourself dead to it and alive unto me. You haven't been doing that. You've been listening to the sin nature, and you've been sinning. You need to agree with me, because God, after you're saved, God never says you're a sinner anymore. What does He call you? A saint. You're a saint. Right? You've been set apart. You belong to Him.

Does he accept in his realm of existence sinners? Maybe that's a better question. Let's say that he became a believer, but the only thing that happened on the cross was that his sins were paid for. That's the only thing that happened. Does he have a right to be in the presence of the Holy God? Yes. As a forgiven sinner? Because he's still a sinner.

So in order for him to be in the presence of a holy God, what's got to happen? He has to die. He's got to die. And he's got to be resurrected. And this resurrected life, it doesn't sin. Does Christ sin? No. Why not? No. Because it's his life. Are you in Christ? Look, Galatians 5 says, if you walk in the Spirit, It's impossible for you to fulfill the lust of the flesh. You can't do it if you're walking in the spirit.

I just have a funny thought in your head where, you know, from the Lord's point of view, He looks at me and says, boy, she knows how to dance. It's like the woman wants to get you down on the collar and say, hey, listen to me. Listen to what I'm telling you. That's what confession is.

You agree with God about what, if you don't know the identification truths, you do not understand what 1 John 1.9 means. You don't. Because what are you going to do? You're going to make a list of your stuff, and you're going to automatically ask Him to forgive you. But it doesn't say that in there.

It says that when you agree with Him, you're restored to righteousness. Because what happens when a believer sins? Do you just get your ticket to hell until you change your mind? What happens? You lose fellowship. Does it change your position? No. So what is God retelling you? Go back to your position, reckon yourself dead of the sin, and alive unto me. purpose is the right word, but his desire is that while we're here on earth that our position and condition match. Yes. What do you think conformity to Christ is all about? If you're conformed to Christ, are you sinning? No way! So would you say that there are moments where it's like, oh you're matching, oh no you're not.

I mean that's how it feels like in my life. Galatians 5 is a very interesting verse because it says, walk in the Spirit and you cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh. So the question has to be, what's happening behind my eyeballs when I'm walking in the Spirit? What am I observing and paying attention to and focused on?

Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not the object of myself, He is. As long as He is, I'm not going to sin. The only time I start thinking about sin is when I start thinking about me. See? I'm the biggest enemy to me. I don't have to worry about Satan. I'm the problem. Good old flesh and meat. He's never asleep. He's always awake. Okay, then I guess it goes back to the Holy Spirit again, kind of saying, oh you're looking at yourself. What's the job of the Holy Spirit? What did Jesus say he would do when he came?

Comfort. Comfort, but he would remind you of all of the things that I said. So he comes to you as a sinner and he convicts you gently, but how does he convict you? He doesn't slap you upside the head. Maybe sometimes. Sometimes he lets you suffer the consequences of your sinning, but how does he woo you back to Christ? He does it through love. He doesn't do it through punishment, because we live under grace. Now, the next question will help us understand.

What does it mean to be delivered over to a form of doctrine? Notice that it says in verse, because it's confusing when you don't read it right, it says, verse 16, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are the slaves of the ones to whom you obey, whether to sin leading to death or obedience. But God be thanked though you were slaves to sin yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which most translations say it was delivered to you. What it should say is that you were delivered to it. You see how that fits?

When Moses comes down from the mountain with the mosaic system Was that something that he just gave the Jews? No. What happened was that the Jews were delivered into the Mosaic system. They were put in it. See, they didn't have a choice. Guess what? That form of doctrine, which is death, burial and resurrection, is a doctrine you have been delivered into. But they asked for that law. They did. And he said, not only am I going to give it to you, but I'm going to put you in it. It's going to be who you are. Not only is identification truce a doctrine that has been given to you, but you've been delivered over to it. You see that?

And that's really an important point because if you look at the verbiage, it says, if we present ourselves, we're always going to be slaves. Now I know that we're Americans and we read the Constitution and we think we have free will and that's nonsense. We're either going to be slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. That's the only option we have. You see that? You have the freedom to choose who your master is going to be. I'm either going to be a slave to sin or a slave to the resurrected Christ. I get to choose.

But, when the word starts to tell us, look, fellas, do you not know? In other words, you should know this, this is not something new, this is information all believers should know. To whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are the ones, slaves whom you obey. Here are the options, whether to sin, leading to death or separation from fellowship with God, or obedience leading to righteousness, right relationship. Then he says, but God be thanked, hallelujah, thank God. Though you were slaves to sin, that's what you were, not anymore, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

You okay with that? Does that make sense? It changes the viewpoint. It isn't that somebody came in and tried to persuade you of a new doctrine or a new theory. You got delivered into it. Okay? And I see super big time, I think I'm with Courtney, on the Holy Spirit thing because now we have the Holy Spirit. I mean, before we had nothing, so at least now it's not saying, oh, we're better at choosing now either. You know, it's like, we've got help. In Galatians it says the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit, right?

Where are you in that verse? Which one are you? Spirit. Are you the spirit or are you the flesh? You're neither. Oh. You're neither. Your sinful old nature, the flesh, is at war with the Holy Spirit of God. That's who the fight's between. What are you doing? You're not able to do what you want to do. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? You want to walk in the Spirit.

Who's going to win this war? Christ already did. Sure. Who's going to win this struggle between the flesh and the Spirit? It's not even a game. but it's going on, and you have to recognize that it goes on, but it's the Spirit of God that's engaged in the battle on your behalf. You don't get to fight. He does the fighting. What do you do? You rest in faith. You just rest. We are the battlefield. We're the prize. See, and Christ already won us on the cross. It's almost like, didn't the sin of nature get it? Didn't Satan get it? No. He got it, but he won't give up, because he's nuts. He's insane. I'm just thinking that it's the same way in our body.

Even though it's dying, it struggles to live. That's its nature, to just, I need to stay alive. So it's much like the sin nature. I know I'm dying, but I'm going to do my best to stay alive. That's right. that the sin nature won't do is not do anything. It has to do something to be relevant. So if it can't get you to sin, what's it going to get you to do?

To be good. To do a bunch of good stuff out of the flesh. Can't be busy. Busy, busy, busy. Sure, get the little law going, here we go, I'm relevant. J.B. Stoney, one of my favorite writers, says that one thing that sin nature won't do is won't do anything. It won't do. It's got to keep moving. It's got to question. It's got to be relevant. It's got to somehow be in the equation. When God says, all you need to do is rest in the facts and trust the Spirit to conform you to Christ. That's all you need to do.

The fight's over. You know, it's like the fourth quarter, the horn blew, the Broncos won the game, but the guys are still playing. Why? The game's over. Somebody didn't tell the other team. See that? They want to do do-overs and get the touchdown. And that's what political correctness and liberalism is. They always want do-overs. They don't ever want it to end. You ever notice that? They want angst all the time because it gives them something to do. They don't ever want to rest in success. What success? There isn't any. It's always a promise, never a fact.

And so as a Christian, you come into understanding your position in Christ, and these are facts that you're to rest in, and if you come out of the world, you think, no wait a minute, that doesn't mean, I've got to keep... No you don't. You rest in what's already true. Going to the question seven, does that describe, I forgot what you call them, and I should know, but I don't, the times, the dispersions, dispensations, dispensations, dispensations kind of?

As an example, the Jews were delivered over to Moses in the law. It wasn't the other way around. They were delivered to him in the law. It was not only that the law was delivered by Moses to them, they were themselves delivered over to the legal dispensation. To a mold of doctrine which had the Ten Commandments as the foundation and the 10,000 things of the law spoken in accordance therewith. The Jews knew they were under the law.

It wasn't something they had in their pocket. They were under it. They were delivered to it. They had been handed over to it, to its demands and its whole economy. Now the Hasidic Jews that live in my neighborhood, it's exactly what they do. They dress and act because they're under this system.

Right? Now. But isn't that what most churches also want today? They just think we're an extension of the Jewish faith? Yes, they do. They want you under it. Because they think that grace can't motivate behavior. They think only law can, but grace is the greatest motivator there is.

Likewise, believers now are delivered over to a form or a pattern of teaching. This is called the gospel, particularly the work of Christ on the cross. You've been delivered to that work. You're now under it, and it's called grace. Now, as we talked about last Sunday, if grace is the unlimited, unmerited, blessings from God based on the work of Christ on the cross.

What can you add to it? Nothing. What can you do to merit any more of it? And do you ever run out? No, you don't. So only a lost system and only your old nature will tell you there's something missing or something not quite enough. Something you've got to do. And what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to rest by faith in the facts.

You know, even doing something, maybe like feeling guilty, could be a good thing to do while, you know, you can put the focus back on yourself by feeling so bad for what you did. Yeah. And what's cool is, as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, you begin to find yourself acting and functioning in a certain way, and it's in compliance with who you are with Christ, and you recognize, have anything to do with this, but it's happening. It's happening. Is that what Paul said, some of you should be eating meat and you're still as they? Yeah, it's exactly what he meant. Some of you guys are still drinking milk and you ought to be eating meat. Sure, it's exactly what he meant.

Believers have been handed over by God to the mighty facts, not only of their guilt has put away on the cross, but that they, as connected with Adam, died with Christ that their history in Adam is thus entirely ended before God and that they now share the risen life of Christ and are before God as risen ones. How cool is that? We all stand before God today, risen in Christ. Nothing lacking, nothing left for you to do. Do believers have the power to prevent and stop sin in their lives because they have the will to do so? Yes, they do.

Romans 7.15 For that which I am working out, I don't own. For not what I am wishing, this I am doing. But what I am hating, this I am practicing. But if what I am not wishing, I am practicing, I am consenting that the law, the law that it is right. Any believer who has grown spiritually understands this. I have really tried to exhaustion to be good and it ain't working out. And I have really tried to exhaustion not to sin and it gets me every time.

That's what the Roman 7 struggle is. It's trying to implement the resurrected life of Christ through your effort implementing the law system. You finally get to 7.23 and it says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Notice it's interesting. Down through Roman 7 there are several questions about what am I going to do, how am I going to do it, and until it gets to who, you don't get the answer. It's a who delivers you, not a what, and not a how. It's a who.

The answer is Romans 8.2.

There's a new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that has already set me free from the law of sin. Where's the struggle? The struggle is over. It's over. I've been delivered by what? By the spirit of God. The new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. I'm free.

Can law secure obedience to God? It enslaves you. How can it be obedience? The law was our tutor to lead us to Christ, to be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we Hebrew believers, who he's talking to, are no longer under a tutor. Here's the problem. A good example. The law says, love your neighbor as yourself. Right? And what it says? Jesus said, the whole law is fulfilled by this, if you love your neighbor as yourself. Right?

Well how about Ephesians 5 that says to husbands, husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Now wait a minute, that's different. I'm supposed to love my neighbor Bruce as much as I love me. I better get, boy if I'm a depressed person, psychobabble, I don't love me very much, I don't love Bruce very much, but if the admonition is I'm to love my wife as the Lord Jesus loves the church, look where the standard just went. It went through the roof.

But God expects me to do it. How's he going to do it? Spirit of God. That's how he's going to do it. What am I going to do? I'm going to trust him, and believe in the facts that I know and rest my faith in Him. And He's going to love my wife. And I'm not going to have to be checking all the time on how I'm doing. Either it's going to happen or it isn't. And if you've been married a while, you really recognize that, wow, she knows that I love her. I wonder how that happened. It's the Spirit of God who did it.

I am never going to get through all of this, but we'll keep going. So next week we'll finish up chapter 6, 20 through 23. Believe it or not, I can go another hour on those. And then Courtney the following week will go through those other verses, and then we're going to start in on the principles of grace, which If you were here last Sunday, I'd laid out some of them, although I ran out of time. I still had another 30 minutes or so.

But I saw people moving around in the back, I thought, oh, better quit. Isn't there one of the denominations that stays at church like all day on Sunday? Maybe we should change to that denomination. You think so? Let us know where you're going to be. The mind can absorb what the rear end can endure. Let's close. Dear Father, how we are thankful for your grace and we're thankful for the facts of our position in your Son and the work of your Spirit to cause us to rest in those facts and to rest in his provision for us, Father. We thank you. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.