Identification Truths Plus 2012

All right, we are in Lesson 16, Identification Truths. I think we made it through four questions last week. We are on question number five. Question number five, what is the answer to the question in verse 15? And verse 15 is, in Romans 6, 15, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace?

May it never be. So what is the answer to that? What is the question? No is the answer. If we're a new creation, how could we sin? Okay. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? So what is the basic premise? That if we sin more, we get more grace. That's the premise. Basically, that is the premise.

Which? Which? If you look at some of the verse, I didn't look at which one, you know, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. So, I mean, in essence, that is true. But what's this premise is, okay, Yahtzee, I'm not under the law. It's time to sin like there's no tomorrow. Because I'm what? Covered out of grace? You know, it probably works both ways. To say that if you sin more, you don't get more grace. If you do good works, you don't get more grace.

It's just all the grace is overflowing no matter what. Woo! And that's a great point. I'm going through Louis Barry Chafer's book on grace right now. And that's one of the things, one of the first seven principles that he puts out on grace is the fact that it's not based on your goodness or how bad you are. It's not based on that. If it is, grace has got to be meritorious. It's based on something that you do. So you're exactly right. That's a perfect description of grace. It's not based on how good I am. or how bad I am. It's full on all the time.

The thing that you lose in sin is what? Relationship. Relationship. And who's running away from who? We're running away. Yeah, we're going away from God. We're losing the intimacy because we're turning away. He's wanting everything to draw us back. And there are consequences to your actions.

I mean, sin, you know, if you shoot somebody, is that sin covered by God? Absolutely, but does that mean you get out of jail free card? No, you still have the consequences of the sin, but from God's perspective, that's all taken care of. So it doesn't matter how good you are or how bad you are. It's just the only thing that impacts is your relationship.

So actually one of the things I thought about this Isn't it amazing, 2,000 years later, after Paul addresses this, we have the same issues. You know, wow, we're not under law? So what does that mean? You know, if you tell people in the identification, or not identification, but just, well, I actually did, under identification, that you're now not under law because the old man was crucified, and the law was with the old man, we're now free, under grace, We get two things usually, apathy, I don't have to do anything now, so I'll just sit back and, what does that mean? People have struggled with grace because it's now apathy, you just sit on your high knee because you don't have to do anything.

And the other is, if I'm not under law, I can go do whatever I want. And is that what we're supposed to do? What's his answer? No. May it never be. Just because we have the liberty, and again, I looked up a couple of things. Paul warns against the abuse of that liberty which the believer has.

He shows that those who commit sin come under the bondage of sin as their master, even as the Lord said in John 8.34, everyone that commits sin is a bond-servant of sin. So, if you are sinning, who are you in bond to? Sin nature. You're in bond to the sin nature, okay?

If you look at Galatians 5.1, it was for freedom that Christ set us free.

Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Again, we have liberty. He's saying stand fast, set us free. He set us free. We're supposed to stand firm in our liberty. We have this amazing liberty now. We're not under the law. And we have amazing liberty, but that doesn't mean that we're able to just go out and sin freely. May it never be. Yeah, because you don't want to manipulate what's in the Bible. Well, again, I'm just amazed, like I said, what Paul is addressing here, we address the same thing 2,000 years later.

You know, were you not under the law? I hear the music. You know, let's dance. I set aside the law, though, and most churches teach me to live under the law, then I get a sense of feeling worthless, and so many people go on their feelings instead of the facts. Exactly. If I've got nothing to do, man, I can't earn heaven. The fact is, we don't earn it. We don't earn it. That's exactly right. There were two questions in chapter 6. The first is in verse 1. I'll go through both of them. Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? That was in verse 1. In verse 15, are we to sin because we're not under law but under grace?

Are they the same question? Kind of. Yes? Come on, chickens. Same question? I have a couple of yeses. And then you heard Mike say no. So you all chickens, you all put your hands back down. I can read through that. He's wrong occasionally. No, they're really two distinct questions.

The first question looks at our liberty and life under grace, that if a little is good, a lot is better. Or it looks at grace from a commodity perspective, not as an operating system or a principle. So, the first question, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Okay? So this is what Holly said. If we sin a little, we get a little grace. If we sin a lot, we get a lot of grace. Impeccable logic, right? Not what may it never be. Okay? If you look at Romans 5.20, the law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abound all the more. Right? So, that's the sin of little, little grace. Sin a lot, get a lot of grace, right? Right? That's the mentality. That's the mentality. And what does Paul say? May it never be. It doesn't make sense for who you are in Christ. If you're in Christ, are you sinning? No. So it's a question that says, are you crazy? If you're in Christ, you're supposed to sin so you get poured upon grace.

May it never be. The second question I said is purely from the Adamic side. If the chains are off, can I do whatever I want to do now? This immediately follows the truth that Paul states in verse 14. For sin shall not for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace." Okay?

I put the second question as, you know, are we to sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? It's a different perspective. The first one is, you know, I can sin a lot because I'm covered by this grace thing that super abounds. It's not a logical thing.

If you're sinning, who are you following, or who is your master? Sin nature. So does that make sense for you to keep sinning more so you can get grace more? No. But we sin maybe even we don't know that we're sinning. For instance, if you have terrible thoughts, isn't that a sin? No. It's not? Oh good.

Well, I'll counter that by, if you look at James, what is the progression? The temptation, I forget, the temptation, then it creates lust, it creates the sin. And the lust starts. It's the desires of the flesh. Yeah. There's a progression. So I would say that's the beginning of it, if you have a bad thought. It may not be a sin itself. Well, maybe. I mean, there could be... Well, it's a temptation.

Well, I mean, it could be, you know, you want to beat Mike up right now. You know, that could be a sin that you really shouldn't be thinking of beating him up or whatever. Or you beat him up, you know. Which I'd like to watch, but no. That's my sinful nature. The Holy Spirit kind of go like, you know, maybe it's not the best idea to be thinking that you want to beat up Mike.

Maybe the thing to do would be to think about what Jesus did for you. Well, I think it's, I think it's, you start realizing, and this is kind of getting on a rabbit trail, but I think it's when you start understanding that's not who you are. That's kind of what in these two questions are. It doesn't make sense if you know who you are in Christ.

Number one, are we to sin so grace may abound more? If you're in Christ, does that make sense to you at all? No. No. And if, are you to sin because we're not under law? So, Are we supposed to do that because we're not in law? We don't have the law anymore. We've been crucified. It was with the Adamic side. Are we now supposed to sin because we're not under law? No, but you know, we get so... we start believing, right? Now the Christ is in us and we're as happy as larks. And you get transformed. You really don't think about doing things that, you know, are pathetic. Well, I think it's a spiritual maturity and growth.

2 Peter 3.18, growing the grace and knowledge. As you grow, we're going to sing it, I think, today. The things of earth grow strangely dim. It's as you focus on the Lord and His life, that becomes your life.

Then you realize, that's not what I am when I want to steal the newspaper. I love that example. I do, that's my favorite. You just don't want to do that because that's not who you are. That's the same thing under this. Any of these two questions don't make sense if you realize who you are in. If I'm not under law, I'm under grace. But who am I in at this point? I'm in Christ. So am I to sin because I'm not under law?

No, that doesn't make sense. And that's where I think Paul, may it never be. But again, I just love the fact that 2,000 years later, we still go through the same thing. It's still applicable. I think the other principle that he's teaching here is that you're a slave to something all the time. The fallacy, the misnomer is that I am this free person who is able to make all these wonderful decisions and carry them out. And what he's teaching here is, no, you're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness. There's no in-between. There's no, oh, I'm kind of deciding here what I'm going to do, what the decision is, or what the understanding has to be is that I am subject to some principle.

It's either sin or it's righteousness. And I think that's one of the hard things for us to grasp, because if you think, well, the question is sort of a moot point if you realize, shall I sin that grace may abound? Well, if I sin, I'm under sin. If I'm under grace, I'm under grace. I'm under one or the other. I'm not, maybe I'll put it another way, I am not, as a free agent, sinning. It's controlling me. It's one or the other.

And we'll get it to the next question. Yeah. Well, I think, too, that as believers, and we're struggling with that, walking and not walking, and knowing that, oh, I've got this grace. It's what we think that grace is doing, not I've sinned, I've got this grace so it gets me out of consequences or a bad situation, but that the grace is there to restore you back. It's not I've sinned and I'm okay. It's I've sinned, I'm going to pay the consequences of those sins. The grace is that I'm bringing you out of that you're wanting to be in the sin nature and back into fellowship with Christ. I want to disagree. You know what I'm saying? I don't know how to say that. I want to disagree. I was going to do that too, but go ahead if you want. Go ahead.

And verse 14 says, sin won't have dominion over me because I'm not under law, I'm under grace. So what's grace for? What's it there for? It's to prevent sinning, not to restore me back. Restoration may happen, but the grace part of it is, what is our definition? Unlimited, unmerited blessings. By the way, my entire sermon is on this subject. So you get this answered in the next service with Mike.

So we can go home. Just leave your money on the slot. But I think that it's not for restoration. It's not. And that's, I guess, the thing. It's not for it. The definition of grace is unmerited, unlimited blessings from God. That's coming at you regardless. Regardless. Regardless. Right. The unmerited part. What does the unmerited part mean? Doesn't matter, just what we were talking about. Exactly. Whether how good you are or how bad you are. It doesn't matter.

But I guess what I'm saying is that a lot of believers look at that and say, well when I'm walking there's not as much grace as when I am walking. I'm not saying that's what I think, I'm saying that that's what... Okay, change principle number one. No, and that's what I was saying just on Schaeffer's seven principles. It doesn't matter if I'm walking or if I'm really in a sin and I really need it and God's going to pour out his blessings to me because of this.

It's not based on anything. You know, if we did it, if it was that way, it would almost be like, again, if we, um, I don't know if I can explain this, but if we have law and we are choosing to do something because it's against the law, we're still just being rebellious and defiant and you know what I mean? Anything under the law, what does it do to grace? You fall from grace. Negates it. One hundred percent. Yeah. So anything under law negates grace. Yeah. Because you're doing something. Right. So if that's the case, you make God a debtor. Right. Is God a debtor for any of this? No. But do you go around thinking, okay, I'm I never think of grace.

I do my work, and I do whatever, and I'm peeling potatoes, and I'm not saying, oh, I'm a dark race. You be. You don't? I do. So, you know, I know that it's there, and I'm so grateful, and God's in my heart, but I don't think, it's just not in my head. Because, you know, to me, you know, it's a life. It's not a cause and effect. That's the law. If I do this, I get this. I see this. I do this.

To me, and I go into all the things that, again, the life being the fact that it's the peace that surpasses all understanding. It's the rest. It's all those things that he has told us that are in him that are the manifestation, to me, of grace. In that the peace that I have, that no matter what goes on, whether I'm peeling potatoes or on a drill rig out in Sterling at 105, It doesn't matter.

It's a life. The minute I start thinking about how good am I doing or is that grace or I'm trying to meet her grace, it's gone. You negate it because you're trying to get a cause and effect. If I'm doing something that God smiles on me a little bit, so he's going to pour a little bit of that more grace on me because I did this, negate it. It's not what I do. It's not based on anything I do. It's just your feeling. It's who you are. It's a life.

Like I said, it becomes, again, the growth and the knowledge and grace of Jesus. As that growth happens, I'll get into it in one of my later questions. I've said this a lot of times. Jesus, when he was on the earth, Did he get up in the morning and say, OK, I'm going to do this, this, and this, and this for you, Father. I have a checklist. Do you have a checklist for today? Put it on the wall here. Stick it on the tree. And I'm going to do these five things.

Did he do that? Why didn't he? He didn't have to. Why? Because he did it. You almost said it. Perfect. Yeah, he just went around and did whatever he did. That's who he is! Yeah. Now, once you get that concept, that that's who he is, what does the identification truth tell you?

And it went into great length in John 17. What does it say about us? We feel warm and fuzzy. But I mean, because Christ is in our heart, you know what I mean? I'm a different person now. I'm so happy. I can't thank God enough for being in my heart. Christ is our life. So we don't have to get up and do a checklist.

As we become conformed to His image, 2 Corinthians 3.18, Mike's favorite one about being transformed. It's who we are in Christ. It's who we are. So why do you pick up your Bible? You pick it up to know Him. Because that's who you are. And as you know who He is, you understand. That's why it's just a life. It's not a refrigerator list. We'll get into this in the grace part of this.

Where each day, if it was under a law system or a requirement, a system other than just pure blessings, each day God would have to give a little checklist of all the things you had to do today. And it had to be a new one each day. Or he could give you 640 or 20 and tell you every day you've got to do them all. I've got to do them all.

But that's not the way it operates. The confusing part of grace is that so often it's easy to get caught up in thinking that I need to do something to add to it or that I'm responsible for the transformation that occurs. I'm totally out of the... And who's responsibility is it? Who's the responsibility? Who's the responsibility to do that in you? To change. It's the Holy Spirit. Exactly.

One of the ones I want to try and go back on in the class is the Holy Spirit, because I think a lot of times we forget how much the importance of the Holy Spirit is. We taught that class years ago, and I'd like to try and do that again, because that's important. Because we keep thinking we have to do all this stuff, and it's not our job. It's the Holy Spirit's job. Again, that goes to almost that thing like, okay, so we just sit back in our room, contemplate my navel, and the Holy Spirit's going to do it all. It is the Holy Spirit working in us, and it's our life being conformed to the image of Christ through the Holy Spirit working through us. Our responsibility is to believe. Believe. That's the only thing. And what is that? Non-meritorious. There's no work, no nothing, no debt, no nothing oath.

One time I was with a buddy of mine up in Wyoming, and it was getting late in the evening, and he said, oh, I didn't read my Bible today. I've got to go and read that before I go to bed. And I said, why? He said, you've got to. Stay in God's grace. I've told you this a hundred times.

Before the identification and all this stuff, and the rest of it, and the peace that I have now, I used to just memorizing verses. There were guys who I knew in our old church, and they could quote scripture like that. And I thought, man, to be spiritual, I've got to memorize verses. I gotta tell you, I could never memorize verses. The tricky part, though, is you couldn't say to yourself, the Holy Spirit wants me to memorize verses. Right? He could. He could. But again, I don't think, if it's like that, it's a work, mm-mm.

You know, I know more verses now that I don't have to worry about trying to memorize verses than I ever did when I tried to memorize verses. Because you enjoy it, and you go like, oh, they're here. It's my life. I'm not doing it because I want to accomplish something. It's part of my life, I see, and it's like, man, that's, yeah. It's much different. Much different. Okay.

So can you use the analogy that you were like, say you're adopted, say you were a commoner, and you were adopted into royalty. And like what this question with this verse is, yeah you can go back and act like you're a commoner, but that's kind of dumb. Yeah, you're now royalty and you still have that and there's all this grace over here. It's like undercover boss. But you know, you can go back and act like a commoner.

It's just not logical. It's like the analogy I was saying about being a husband now versus a boyfriend to a wife. I can go back and go crazy and go back to the single life. Not that I was crazy when I was in the single life, but I could go back. But that's not who I am. It doesn't make sense. Don't talk to my children. They didn't know me then.

Again, you could go the opposite and you could be like, this is what a good husband ought to do, should do. And that's a great point. I speak for my own personal. When you look at the requirements for a husband and you try and do them, it ain't happening. It just doesn't. I'm still way far away from that, but the minute you start relaxing about that, and let the Holy Spirit work through you, and realize it's only through Him, because I can't do that. I mean, you read those requirements for a husband, hoi, you know.

Well, some of them have worms. Well, we'll get into the grace. We'll get into the grace aspects of that. When we get into grace, and this is one of those things that's going to be hard to swallow, is when you look at those requirements for a husband or a wife, what's a wife supposed to do? Submissive, listen under. Is there any requirement on that under grace that says your husband has to do all these things first before you do that?

No. So if he's a worm, I'm not looking at Bruce. I'm not going to look at Bruce. I try not to look that way. He's a beautiful tomato worm. My point is that whether he's a worm or not does not change what you're supposed to. And your submission, especially if he's a worm, is It's the Holy Spirit. That's the only way you can do that. Because you can't, because he's a worm. But through the Holy Spirit, that's how you do it. It's not, and that's, again, for husband or wife, that's, you know. Okay. Yeah. You said something earlier that just went by really quick, but it's that we were dead to the old nature, you know, trying to be good. In other words, the old nature died. You know, the sin nature died. I mean, he's still alive as well. Yeah, he's judicially. But that side and the law were over here. We're not under that law.

I mean, you said it a hundred times, but I think it clicked. Yes, the law didn't die, and your sin nature didn't die, you died. To it. Right. You're the one that died, not it. Yeah, the law and the flesh are still there. It's not me anymore. But we're under grace, so we don't... I don't remember how you said it earlier, but it just was monumental. So to it is maybe the main word. Yeah. We're not under that anymore. No. We have grace. We're under the operating system of grace. That's how we operate. That's how we operate now.

And we don't have to be mastered under sin. Verse 14, all these verses say we don't have to be under the sin master anymore. Isn't that what churches say? You can choose, you can go back and be under the law or be under grace. You can. Yeah, well, I mean, yes, because you have both, you can follow walking in the flesh or walking in the spirit.

But, see what I see in the spiritual growth though, and that's what I was saying, is things grow dim, strangely dim. As you know who you are, who your life is in Christ, it doesn't make sense to you. as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. As I understand that, as I said, as I'm driving, it just doesn't make sense to me anymore. As you grow, it just doesn't make sense to go out and sin or whatever, and go crazy.

The answers to the first one, are we to sin so grace may abound? That doesn't make sense to me. Because I died. I'm dead to it. And in Christ, does that make any sense to you? It doesn't. Or, you know, if we're under the law, what's the second question? Shall we sin because we're under grace and not under law? The two questions. Yeah, are we to sin because we're not under the law but under grace? you know, if you're under grace, that doesn't just say, again, it just doesn't make sense in Christ for me to go back under the law because it doesn't apply to me anymore. It only applied to the flesh, the edemic side. So for me to go back under the law, I'm dead to it.

Kind of like Laura and Mike, you said it before too, it's like you're, you know, the commoner in the royalty sort of thing. Like let's say as a commoner you, you know, you were poor and so you stole things. And now you have, you're under royalty and you have everything and then you go and steal again. I'd be like, why are you stealing?

Because you have everything that you possibly could have. See, say I look at this though, you know, don't even go that way, go with Ephesians 1, 3. You've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. Yeah. So how much more do you want? Yeah. So why are we asking for, wait a minute, I have all the blessings.

Why are we talking about the law when it's almost only given to the Jews? Yeah, but under Romans 1 the law unto itself, Romans 1 where to the Gentile what's in their heart is the law unto themselves. I think Macaulay did a good job here when he said there are false assumptions. And the reason we keep messing with it is because there's a false assumption that law can control behavior. And that's a false assumption again.

Well, I'll get into that. What was the law brought in to do? To make sin abound. Make sin abound. But that's only for the believer. The law was brought in for the non-believer to control his conduct. It was brought in for that for him. to the Jews in order that sin might abound. Because they couldn't even keep one, let alone 600 or however many. Okay, we'll get on to question six. I might actually get two questions done today. Not bad.

In verses 17 and 18, what does it mean to be a bondservant of either sin or to righteousness? And I'll read 17 and 18 from Romans 6. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

So what does it mean to be a bondservant or slave. There's differences. A bondservant willingly submits, whereas a slave is owned. He's forced into it. Okay. Other thoughts? Isn't a bondservant... Go. You go. No, you. I thought a bondservant could, like, earn their way out of it. Like, you know, like work and then earn their freedom. At the end of the under the Roman system, right and Jewish system, right? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Actually, yeah. Well, I was saying that a slave is bought with a price. So that's true, true of a believer because we're bought with a price and a bond servant is a willing servant, which is also true.

I have from Zodiatis, the word is doulos, and it is defined as a slave, one who is in permanent relation of servitude to another, his will being altogether consumed in the will of the other. I like that. And then it goes on, generally one bound to serve in bondage. He also says, for 16 and 17, he has, in respect of things, one such as the servant of sin who indulges in or is addicted to something. I like that one too. You know, with the sin. Addicted. When you're a bond servant to sin, it's like an addiction. I like that. But can you say you're addicted to Christ? Addicted to love?

Yeah, he had it more, he had it, on the verse 17 he defined that, the use of doulos, and there, and, I had it up actually, I can pull it up, the differences, there was, let me see here. One is doulo and the other one is doulos. Yeah, there's a slight difference in them. That's just the difference of ending. No, it's... Yeah, there... One says one is a slave and the other is... Yeah, ones Dulos and Duloy. There's a slight difference in them. Let's see. Yeah, the other thing which I also looked at, which was a little bit, you know, as I kind of broke these words down.

The word in verse 17 is a noun. which is, it describes who we are in sin, a slave. The word in verse 18 is the verb, we are slaves to righteousness. And it's in the Aorist passive indicative for that one, slaves to righteousness. That means it's a factor that's true of us, the Aorist indicative, and it was done to us, passive.

So it's kind of a different thing. You are a slave, by name, noun, to sin. but you are a slave or servant to righteousness. And so it's a fact and it was done to us. It's passive. So we are placed into this bond servant. We've been placed into it. Wouldn't you say a noun describes What you are, a verb describes what you do. Do, exactly. And that's why I broke it up that way. In 16, you're a slave. That's what you are in sin. If you're a slave to sin. In righteousness, it's who you are. It's what you're doing. You're a slave to righteousness.

And it's a fact. And you're doing it willingly. Yeah. And so, as I looked at that, I thought, for the differences between them, it was kind of interesting. And a slave to sin was a servant. That's who you are. You're just a slave to this. But a slave to righteousness is what we're doing. We are a slave to that. It's a verb or action. I would say a better way to say it is what we are allowing to be done to us.

Because it's passive voice. Yes, it's passive, that's what I'm saying. It isn't that we're doing it, that would have been active voice. Right. We exercise our will to allow this servitude to be done to us. And that's what I'm saying, it's being done to us. That's the passive side of that verb. So again, and again, who's doing that to us? The Holy Spirit. So again, everything fits together. It's not us having to do it, it's us through the Holy Spirit, being slaves of righteousness.

He's doing it. The other one, right at the beginning of that, I liked it at the beginning of 17, but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, what, you're now slaves of righteousness. I like that. Thanks be to who? God. It's not our efforts. It's thanks be to God.

It means man is in control and this one is either you are a slave to sin or you are a slave to righteousness. It means you're controlled by either one at any given time. Sin is our master as a result of our old position in Adam. Everyone that commits sin is a bond-servant of sin. We now, having been set free by the cross of Christ, willingly become the bond-servant of Christ, our very righteousness.

So, the option of who we are as slaves is brought out in verse 16 and 19. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness. Or in verse 19, I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in what?

Sanctification. Okay? So, we understand what the bondservant? Doulos? Doulos. Okay? I really liked his definition in Zodiates, you know, like I said, which is one who is, his will being all together consumed in the will of the other. That's the bondservant. Now, when you put that into righteousness, I like that. We're fully consumed by the will of the other. Who is the will of the other? Christ. You're a bondservant of righteousness. What is the difference between a master and a servant? One tells you what to do and the other one doesn't. Pretty much. A master gives order and a servant obeys.

What are the two options given to the Christian in this verse? a slave to sin or a slave to the Lord? Slave to our old sin nature or present ourselves, we can present ourselves to the sin nature or we can present ourselves to God. But the cross says you don't have to present yourselves to the sin nature anymore. You don't have to anymore. If you're a non-believer, do you have an option? No. No option. You just, you pick between this sin or that sin or that's all you can do. And even, like I said, we try, you know, oh, I'm going to do something good. Oh, I'm going to do something good. I'm going in the tree of good and evil. I've now gone from the evil one over to the good side. Has anything changed?

Nope. So when I'm a non-believer, it doesn't matter. You only have one choice. But as a believer, identification, crucify the old one, we are no longer having to subject ourselves to that old nature. We have now a new nature. And like I said, as that one grows and matures, I like to say this one, I hope, diminishes. It grows dim, that as you grow in the grace and knowledge, those things just don't appeal to you anymore. It's not a draw, it's not a temptation, because that's not who I am. You were given a parachute to get out of More than a parachute. Again, we have a life. I keep going back to this. It's a life.

It's not a set of rules. It's not a set of just a new system of laws that we put us under. It's not that suddenly as a believer, we now can take care of those laws, we can do them. That's not what we are to do. And a lot of people do that. That now you're a believer, you're now empowered to do those laws, to uphold those laws. Are we under a law system? There's so many verses in here, and that's what we'll get to. We're not under law, we're under grace. We're not under law, we're under grace.

You know, we're becoming such a secular country that a lot of people, I think so many, think that if they do good, everything's fine, they're going to go to heaven, because I look at all of the wonderful things I'm doing for my neighbor, this, that, and what have you.

But they don't get it. Now, you know, and this is, I go to, there is only one question for every human being. What is it? There's only one question. Is it about being good? Is it about sin? Is it about anything? What is the one question? There's only one question now. Mike's favorite guy across the street. Are his sins paid for? Yes, they're paid for. Every single sin was paid for. So what is the only question now?

Do you believe it? What think ye of this man? Christ. Who is Christ? That's the only question left to every human being right now. Do you believe the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ? Who he was? That's it. It's the only question that's relevant to every human being on the earth.

The sin question has been paid for. It's just whether you receive the free gift under grace of salvation. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we thank you for any time we can get into your Word. We just thank you for these truths that you have that we are under grace.

What a fantastic operating system that is. Unmerited, unlimited blessings from you through the finished work of Christ on the cross. It's all been done. There's nothing we have to do other than believe. And Lord, we thank you that the Holy Spirit is here to conform us to the image of your Son. We thank you again for all your plans and what you have. And again, it doesn't rely on any merit or work from us. And Father, that just gives us great rest and peace, again, feeling that there's nothing we have to do other than believe what's true about us in Christ. So Father, we just thank you and we pray for Mike as he gives a message in the next service. Just prepare our hearts to receive that. Father, we just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.