Identification Truths Plus 2012
Mike Doyle · Aug 26, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 33
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492632523908

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

OK, so this is an introduction to grace. And as we started last week, we really have two purposes in mind. One is to arrive at or come up with a definition, which we won't probably do today. But over time, a definition will be formulated. And I want you all to contribute to it.

And the second thing is How does grace function? What does it mean to be under grace? So, we said last week that the Christian life is not lived by a set of rules. Everybody agree with that? Hard concept. But it is lived by a set of principles. What's the difference? What's the difference between a rule slash law and principles? Can they be individual principles? What is a principle? A principle always stays consistent. It doesn't vary.

There's no outside maneuvering of it, whereas with the law, You can always find ways to screw it around. The principle just operates the same. Sounds like a politician. You don't change. It's what you stand for. OK, I'll give an example of a principle. See this. What did it just do? Why? The principle of gravity. Yeah. It operates the same way every time. Yeah. It does not vary. It's always the same. But it's application is broad and sweeping and so you can't screw it because if you go to the moon there's still gravity. It changes differently. And so the principle is a broad application. Yeah, the principle is the same. The effect or the application of the principle may vary.

So, if in any sense the Christian life is lived with any thought that your compliance with the command of God would cause God to bless you more than he's blessed you today, that is strictly a legal system. Strictly legal. If you do anything with the motivation that God is going to be happier with me today than he was yesterday, because of what I did, and he's going to effectuate blessing towards me, that by definition is a law-based system.

Right, because God doesn't do that. That's exactly right. He operates on a grace system, which, without defining, arriving at a definition, is that grace is in response to what God has already done. Okay? Through Christ, right? Yeah. It's in response to what He's already done. And He isn't going to say, Oh, Monique, you responded so I'm going to bless you more. It's because you've already been blessed that you do respond. Big difference. So as we go over all of this over the next eight weeks, hopefully that will get really clear.

Question. Yes. Isn't there something in the Bible that says to whom much is given, much is required? It sounds like a requirement. Oh, isn't that interesting. I'll respond in the form of a question. Grace in and of itself is a motivator, probably the greatest motivator there is. So if you live under grace as an example, one of the examples that we'll cover is the example of love. If you live under the mosaic system, And God said there's a love requirement under the mosaic system.

What was it? How was I supposed to love? Now think about this. This is before Christ shows up on the planet, before he starts to insinuate the millennial kingdom, what was the law system? Love. I was to love my neighbor as myself. Right? So that was the requirement. Then the Lord Jesus shows up, and he begins to articulate what the Millennial Kingdom law was going to be, and it was to love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. But now, under grace, what's the requirement?

Love your neighbor as he loved you. I'm just to love as he loved and gave himself for me. As a husband, I'm to love my wife as Christ loves the church and gives himself for her. Would I be encouraged to love like that if God didn't supply the capacity to do it? So let me ask you this. Did God supply the capacity in the old system to love your neighbor as yourself?

No, he didn't. He gave the commandments, but he gave you no power to keep them. None. He just said, you do it. And if you don't do it, you're going to die. You will be cursed. If you do do it, I will bless you. That's the system. I'm not giving you any help. But under the grace environment, it's all about enablement. And the standard just went from hanging out with your neighbor to heavenly standard.

See that? Was much given to me when I became a believer? I think so. Was much required of me? Yes. A lot more than a Jew and a lot more than a saint will have to function under in the millennial kingdom. Much is given, much is required. Now let's say that I don't live up to it. What happens? Am I cursed? No. So whenever you see a command or what looks like what Verne likes to call a logical imperative. You have to look at the context that's in. Who's it said by and who's it said to?

The principles of grace that we are exhorted to live under are infinitely higher than the whole entire mosaic system. It's heavenly because we're heavenly men. No fair. sneaking back down to the law system and picking up some of that so that you can feel good by doing it. No good. Going back on track now, what we were talking about is being under something.

You as human beings, are you subject to or under laws or principles? I got some yeses, I got Okay, what would you say would be the principle which all men are under? Every man. That is not a Christian, which includes everybody outside this room. Under authority? No. What are they under? They're not under grace. You're under what? Hell. Well, which means you're under sin. All men, in Romans 3, Paul says, I conclude all men are under sin. All men. So here's the society, everybody born, they're all born under sin. Now, being under sin, they think they have free will. Oh really? How free is your will? That's exactly right. That's how free it gets.

Now, when you get to Romans 6.14, which is the verse that this grace class is built on, what does it say?

What does Romans 6.14 say? That sin shall not have dominion over you. Did it have dominion over you? Absolutely it did.

Why? Because you're not under law, you're under grace. How cool is that? Sin will no longer have dominion over me as a human being. not because I'm getting much better and blessed under a law system, it's just the only reason sin won't have dominion over you is because you are under a grace system. Is it also because you've died with Christ? How did you get under the grace system?

Because of that. Because you died out of the law sin system. That's what we've been talking about for the last two months. Our co-crucifixion with Christ, his burial and his resurrection meant that we left the whole creation of law and sin. And we are resurrected in Christ as new creations. And guess what? God only operates today on the basis of grace. So if you go at Him legally, are you going to get a response? No, you're not. He operates in an environment of grace only.

I think every grace class I've ever taught, I always make this point. In terms of coming up with a definition, part of the definition is, everybody looks at grace. It's like the Dr. Pepper in this bottle. It's a commodity. It's something that is contained in a container and that maybe there are different kinds. There's super unleaded, regular and diesel. or there's sanctifying, saving, natural grace. You need to get out of your mind the idea that grace is a substance and a commodity. What grace is, is an environment in which you live in. Kind of like gravity then? I'm sorry? Kind of like gravity? Sure.

Or like we live in an air-breathing environment. Every one of us breathes air. But we can't get a fish to survive in the air, and when we go down on a reef someplace, we take our air with us. Well, if the air represented the law and sin, then by being crucified with Christ, buried and resurrected, you're resurrected into an airless environment, now called grace.

Okay? You've got to think of it that way rather than something that's contained in a Bible. or that you go to the commodity market and you buy 4,000 bushels of oats. It's not that. The other thing I think that's important is that we're in a grace system and it is just as toxic to us as walking out on the surface of Mars and taking off our astronaut suit for us to go in and embrace law. That's right.

When you look at that you live in this grace environment, And remember way back when we first started in January and February, one of the first things we talked about was position and condition. But we have a walking around condition. Our position is perfect. Our condition may or may not line up with our position. Grace is position.

And the work of the Holy Spirit is to get grace to be the environment that you literally function in all the time. Because grace never changes, so that's why it's positional. That's exactly right. And you know why grace never changes? Because it's of God.

So we can kind of benefit from, I don't want to say more or less grace, like you were saying, but it could be, let's say it's your environment, sometimes the air that you breathe like sometimes you're just not really breathing to your capacity. Yeah, you might have a cold. Right, and so maybe it's sort of based on more with our relationship with God than earning it.

That's a good way to look at it because the air that you breathe isn't diminished. You may have a diminished capacity to live in it, but it hasn't diminished. You may have emphysema or you may smoke cigars like Bruce does, you know. But if you're saying ear is ear, it doesn't change. That's exactly right.

Now, I want to, just to corroborate the not under law principle, I have some verses. Hebrews 7, 11 and 12 says, for the priesthood has changed, I'm talking about the book of Hebrews is written to believers who were Jewish, and trying to persuade them to leave the Jewish system and come over to Christ. So in talking about the priesthood, he says the priesthood has changed. It's no longer the Levitical priesthood.

There is made of necessity a change also of the law. Law being changed or transported to put something in its place. We're not under the law system because that whole system has changed. 2 Corinthians 3 The law had been done away with and that done away with is that word ketergeho which means to abolish or nullify or to make it inoperative. You know when we were talking about my old man was crucified that the body of sin might be put out of business, nullified, the put out of business nullified word is ketergeho, taken off line, that it would not be in effect anymore. We're not under the law because the law system, as far as we're concerned, has been done away with. Now, as soon as you say that, if you're at least holding on to the law, you panic, because I don't have any road signs to live by now. Really? We'll get to that.

Romans 7.6 says we have been discharged from the law. Again, the word katergeho. That's a technical legal term meaning I have been separated from it. If we're not under a law system, then we are under a grace system.

We began to talk last week about how the Greeks used the word grace. The first way to look at it is that their basic meaning of grace meant to give pleasure. Kind of a good way to start for a Greek. It meant anything attractive or charming or beautiful. We get our word charismatic from because the Greek word is charisma.

Luke 4.22 says, And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is this not Joseph's son? What they're saying in Greek was that these words that the Lord Jesus was speaking They were giving pleasure. They're really cool to listen to him. See that? The word charis. Okay, wait a minute. They were giving pleasure in what they said? In what they were hearing. Okay.

Colossians 4, 6. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. What does it mean when it says that your speech should always be with grace? So far as the definition we've discovered that it means give pleasure, charming, how should your speech be?

Kindness. It should be attractive. It should be charming. Yeah, what you just said. Yeah. Well, it seems like a difficulty with grace is that you can make a rule out of it. Because now you can say, oh, I better make my speech funny. I better learn how to be charming. I better say the right thing. I better go to Dale Carnegie's class.

That's true though, in a way. Because you're not always talking... I certainly don't always talk attractively. No, really? Now listen to this. It says that your speech should be always with grace and then seasoned with salt. What does that mean? You have a nice smile on your face while you're sticking it to them? Yeah, get to a point which might not be so pleasant. You know what seasoning with salt really means? It means to be able to turn a phrase.

To do what? Turn a phrase. Like what? Like it's the economy, stupid. See that? It's a phrase that people remember. Yeah. Or, keep looking down, for your life is hid with Christ and God. That's a salty phrase. It's a phrase seasoned with salt. Do you remember it? Salt was a preservative, so it's kind of something that sticks around. Yeah, and it was something that when it came out of your mouth, it stuck, and it preserved.

But all this comes out through overflow, because you would feel kindness in your heart, So you would speak kind things rather than think, I'm going to speak kind things and then... Understand now, we are not as far as the definition of the grace we live under. We're just sort of working up to it by taking a look at how the word was used in the Greek culture. Yeah, and it may not be kind what you say with salt, but you could always be gentle. Yeah, sure. And you know, Our speech should always be attractive and charming, but we ought to be able to say things that have a way of getting across the point. The Greek used the word in another way. They used it as a favor done for somebody. So if you were doing a favor or the Greek was doing a favor for somebody else, they would call that Charis, our boy Aristotle. Everybody knows Aristotle, right?

This is his definition of grace, and Aristotle wasn't one of your highly spiritual guys. It's something conferred freely, with no expectation of return, and finding its source in the bounty and the free-heartedness of the giver. That sounds really Christian, doesn't it? It's not. But that's, when you look at this word used by the Greeks, when they said you're conferring a favor on somebody else, that's what they mean.

That you just did it. Without expectation. Without expectation and without, you know, working a deal. You just did it. Right. So that comes from the heart. Yeah, it's something that you wanted to do, and oh by the way, under the old system of the worldly sinful system, people do that. They do it.

Do you ever, I'm sure you've all read or watched the play slash movie Les Miserables? At the end when that guy gives his life up for the, and he says it's a far far better thing I do than I've ever done before. he goes to the gallows for somebody else. He didn't do that because he was a believer. If you're a believer, you could still have that too, right? Well, if you're a believer, not only do you have that, it's in excess of that.

Example, Acts 7.10.

And delivered him out of all of his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh. Talking about Joseph. Joseph had favor. He had charis before Pharaoh. Pharaoh liked him. The Greeks used it in a third way. They used it as a response to a favor.

Now everybody in this room ought to get this. What's the best English word to use if I do you a favor? What are you going to say back to me? Thank you. Thank you. Guess what the Greek word for thank you is? So, they are really consistent in the way in which they use the word. So, we have those three concepts in mind, right?

Now, 2 Corinthians 8.16 says, But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you in the heart of Titus. The thanks be to God is charis.

As an example, how many of you have been to church when you got the, oh, we need more money for the budget? Every week? Ever been there? Oh, we're starting a building program. Or, I don't know, the pastor needs a raise. Or... He's going to Hawaii. Yeah.

They're creating in you a motive to give. You should be given at least 10%. So that's the concept of giving under a law system. It's based on a motivation of either commands or intimidation. So what would be the proper motive for everybody in this room to give anything to Holly Hills? Easy answer. What would it be? It's because you want to. Sure. It's solely because you want to. Now listen to this.

In 2 Corinthians 8-19, Paul's talking about this collection he's been taking up to send the money back to the saints in Jerusalem who are starving to death and being persecuted. He says, and not only so, but who was also appointed by the churches to travel with us in this matter of this grace, which is the money that he raised, called it grace, which is ministered by us to the glory of the Lord and to show our readiness. The offering at a church, if you're going to take it up, in and of itself is called grace. So instead of, I mean we don't do it here, but if you're going to take it up you should say well now we're going to have we're going to take up the grace, because that's really what it is in this environment. Would the ushers please come forth and pick up the thank you? That's what it is under a grace system.

So the only reason that any of us would give anything to the body of believers you work with, this one, is out of grace only. That's the only motivation there should be. Never intimidation. Paul says, we want you to know, brothers, about God's grace that was given to the church at Macedonia. God's grace that was given to the church at Macedonia was an offering. Same word, charis. The motive for Christian giving is a grateful heart, and not rules, and not intimidation, and oh by the way, not because there's a need.

So it's like freedom. You know what I mean? It's up to you. You have the freedom to give or not to give, and nobody's going to look down on you if you don't. Nope, that's right. And that's really what giving is all about. It's because you want to. So, you know the 40 bucks that you have in the bank, You're the steward of it as a believer, holding it for God, whatever God wants to do with it. It's not your money, it's His, right? And it's there by His grace, and it gets distributed by His grace. So it doesn't really matter to you how much, it's whatever He wants to do with it. Because He has already blessed you so much that you can't help it.

Whatever you want, Father, it's yours. because you understand grace, because you have been taught grace and you know how it works. And when Ephesians comes along and says you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, the word means every, all of them.

The problem is that most believers don't know what they are and they don't know how the system functions. And if you don't know how the system functions, you have to be taught grace, you don't know how to live in it. Because before you became a believer there was nothing in your environment from the time your two little feet hit the floor to the time that you became a believer that would give you any hint about what grace is.

But does it even get that far as to knowing? I was thinking it was more along the lines of refusing to even believe it. There's a knowing of it, and then there's a believing of it. You've got to know it first. Your faith has to have an object. You've got to know what you believe. You can't, like you and I came out of Catholicism, what did they teach us? We have faith for faith's sake. And what does that mean? Well, they say grace be with you, and also with you, but nobody knew what it meant. That's exactly right. Nobody ever explained what it was. It's because they didn't know.

And they're practicing it. I was just thinking of the whole breathing thing. where I work, one of the things we do is kind of sort of teach people how to breathe. Because, you know, we were born knowing how to breathe, but then as time goes on, you change how you breathe.

Oh, do you really? Yeah, you go from breathing from your belly to breathing up here, more shallow. Oh, okay. Just for different reasons. Sometimes it's like holding your stomach and don't breathe and be this way and do that. And so you breathe more shallowly. And so it's a matter of sometimes teaching people how to breathe again. See, that's really a good example. And then you practice. And then you just can't say, to breathe deeply, you breathe from your belly.

It's like now you have to practice doing that because if you don't practice it, even though you know it, you know you're still not going to be able to do it correctly. So would we have to, your example is really good until you get to the practice part. Because do I have to practice grace in order to live in it? I think so. Ah, interesting. It's a walk in belief. That's right.

If you knew that you would give generously, but yet you still, in your head, think, oh, I just can't write that check, or I can't afford it. Then you're not practicing it. But you don't have to practice praise. Now hold on a minute. If my ability to give more means that I just suck it up and write a bigger check, that's not being motivated by that. That isn't practicing it correctly. That's doing it the old way.

I would say practicing it the new way to say for a person, let's say a real stingy person who just couldn't get past that, that if they didn't at least at some point realize that God is saying go ahead and give that person a little more than you might budget for or whatever. You've just made a lot of it. Because here's what God will do. He will overwhelmed that person with so much grace that they can't help but give.

Yeah, that would be good. And they were not in any way, shape, or form the cause. Yeah. They were just the receiver of the grace. That's interesting. Yeah, I think that's where that line is right there, that mystery. That's really where it is. Now, you may say, well, I live under grace, but I ain't writing that check. Right. And I'm resisting God. Right, to let your resistance down, I guess is what it is. And you know, I'm passive-aggressive, so nobody really knows I'm resisting. Right. What does God do about that if I live under grace? Does that affect him? It doesn't affect him, but your tenacity stays the same. Your little stinginess... Can he overcome that?

He could, but he sometimes maybe will say, God would say, that's where you're going to live. You're going to live in your little stingy world. Okay, I understand something. I'll give you a really good Old Testament example of that. And how God's grace effectuated to change a man's heart like that. Oh yeah, not to say that it can't be like that. And see, I think we as believers have to understand that no matter what negative, sinful, viewpoint we have of our environment. God's grace still operates only under grace basis. He will cause me to will and to do of His good pleasure. I'll give you an Old Testament example.

Here's our boy David, right? And he's checking out Delilah one night, or Bathsheba. David and Delilah, no, that's another guy. He's checking out Bathsheba one night and he ends up having sex with her and she's pregnant. She's married to Uriah and of course David's married several times over and he really thinks he loves this woman but he doesn't want to get busted about it so he sets up a scenario where Uriah dies in battle. So he's guilty of infidelity and murder. And he's cruising along.

Only a few people know what's going on. Now I don't know if he thought he was going to get by with it or was getting by with it, but he's king. You know, and when you live in the White House, you think you can get by with a lot of stuff. And here comes, what's his name? Nathan? tells him this little story about a rich man with all these animals and has a guest coming for dinner and rather than slaughter one of his own he goes and steals from his neighbor or takes from his neighbor the one animal that that neighbor has and uses it for his dinner.

And what an injustice that was and David was hot. I mean he was like, where is that guy? I'm going to go get him. And what's-his-name says to him, you are that man. It broke David's heart. Instantly. See? Was that God's grace in action? Sure it was. And he did it through another man, and through just showing David who he was, but at the same time, he showed David the grace that he lived under. And the grace that he lived under and the favor that he had in God's heart was the thing that got him. It wasn't that he broke a bunch of rules. Because where was the first place that David went afterwards? He didn't go down to the temple, wake up all the priests, get some animals to sacrifice to cover his sins. What did he do?

He went right to God about it. Now that's an Old Testament example of God's grace in action. A New Testament or an example of us being stingy would be God overwhelming us. I remember when I was a young believer, I was hanging around with mostly business guys, and there was really sort of a practical man who was one of my mentors and a teacher. He used to have a saying, and these were all fairly successful business guys that we hung around with and young life people.

He said, you know, sometimes God will give you so much cotton candy that you get thirsty. Do you understand the concept? That he will bless you so much that you can't stay away from him because all of these blessings aren't satisfying you as to what God himself has for you himself. See?

And so that's what he'll do sometimes. We seem to look at it like if we are being child trained of the Lord that we're somehow being punished. Everything that God does to a believer and for a believer is on a grace basis to do what? What's he up to? He's up to relationship which produces conformity to Christ. You see that? That's what he wants.

Now it may seem severe And you may be running through your mind, oh, I've got to find that computer button that stops this from God, I better pray more, study the Bible more, write bigger checks, and that's not what he's after. He just wants you to come to him and spend time with him so that he can do what? So he can bless you more. When someone is in fear of their life, genuinely in fear of their life, or, give me an example, let's say someone who has a history of being a fairly high profile Christian witness turns away from Christianity and begins to become, I don't want to use the word embarrassment, but not a witness for the Lord Jesus.

And God says, I'm going to take you home. And they leave the planet. Was that a punishment? No. That's exactly what it is. It's grace. Why? All of you are believers, right? What's the next greatest day in your existence? Being there. And when you leave the planet, because where are you going? home to be with the Lord. Now let's say you're behaving in such a manner that you've increased the possibility that you might leave sooner.

God still is acting graciously, isn't he? Because sin is not an issue anymore. He operates in grace. Once you get it in your mind, that God functions on a grace basis only, it changes the way you look at things. It changes the way, like your example is a good one, but as grace increases you think, oh, wait a minute. Yeah, I totally see that now. It's different.

Practice doesn't make perfect in a grace environment. Response is what we're about. So, as we were to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, That doesn't mean that I'm over here and the grace and the knowledge are over there and I've got to study and grow so that I can get over here in it. What that verse means is that I'm already in it, I'm already in the grace and I need to grow where I am. And that's what changes the behavior because as we study the requirements of living under grace, they are superhuman. They are beyond anybody's capacity to live in them.

In a marriage relationship, husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might present his wife holy and blameless before him in love? Fat chance of me doing that. Yeah, not so much. Yeah. But is God saying, oh, do the best you can, we'll grade on the curve? No, he's not. No, he's not. Rejoice always. How about Thursdays?

It's the only day I get free. Walk in the Spirit. Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has set you free. Here are all these things that undergrace the way I'm supposed to live. How are you doing with that? You can't do it. It's a superhuman life. Well, you know what's great about that?

The fact that you and I were crucified, buried and resurrected and ascended with Christ and now positioning our seated in the heavenlies, what kind of people are we? You're not Republicans anymore. You're heavenly men. And the requirements of the life that we are now to live is a life that's consistent with who we are. Who are we? We are citizens of heaven.

They do things different there. They don't practice. See? I see like, again it's like backwards, like with the example of giving, again it would be, and I put things the opposite way, it would be more of like again, oh my gosh, I just wrote a check to the church, I can't believe I did that. Like what?

Or they, you know, I kind of have an advantage in that all my life I've worked in commission sales. I'm a realtor. And some years, I have really huge years, and some years a little lean. And I always think that over time I began to understand that if I had a really big year, then God must have some use for that money. It wasn't meant that I could get a new Mercedes. It was, oh, gee, Lord, what do you want to do with this money? I don't know. Or maybe he's just, okay, we're going to give you money this year, but not the next two, so you're going to live off of this.

So when you begin to understand that all of the physical things that you quote-unquote own, you really don't own them. You're just a steward. You're holding them for God's use. Your money, your time, your energy, your love, your life. And then you're not as affected by the ups and downs. You're not affected at all. Because you don't get overly high on the ups and you don't get depressed on the downs.

This is just life in service of the Lord. What is it going to be? And trust me, the blessings that you walk and live in as you learn are so overwhelming that you can't help but respond to whatever He would have you do. And you know, monetary stuff, it really is only a short time span that you're happy with. Because it's not really fulfilling. Because, you know, the love you have for Christ just takes over and all that is not important. I mean, it's nice, you can pay your bills and all that, but it's not like your main focus in your life, like it is with a lot of people. Or another example. relationship examples. You have a wife or a husband, you raise a family. My father-in-law says marriage isn't for sissies. He's right.

But as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, you begin to look at your spouse differently. She's a gift from God. And it doesn't matter what she did or didn't do or what she does or doesn't do. It said, wow, you know, God has put this person in my life and he's given me the responsibility to protect her and to love her and to take care of her and to nurture her.

As the man, I'm the spiritual head of my household. It's my job to teach her. What a responsibility. And that grows you. Absolutely. So over time, and same thing with kids, when you have kids, your job is to do what with your children? Train them up in the way that they should go. Your job is to love them and to teach them the tenets of grace and lead them to Christ. That's your whole job. Now you may not ever do that by verbal preaching. You may just do it by the way you live your life.

Good example. Donna said to me one time, my wife, that even though she was kind of a rabble-rouser in high school and right after that, that the one thing she never forgot about her dad is that every morning she got up and on her way down to the bathroom, her dad was in the living room reading his Bible.

And he never said a word, but that act had an impression on her even to this day. See? Because what did it demonstrate to her? That her dad belonged to the Lord. And he never said, well, you know, Jack eats five words in a week, he's talking too much.

So how you live your life under grace is amplified by the Spirit of God to those who are your sphere of influence. Now sometimes you talk, sometimes you don't. How do you know? If you live under grace, the Spirit of God will let you know. People say to me, well gee, if here comes this doctrine, then I'm to believe. How do I know?

When you study the book of Hebrews, which is really one of my favorites, Hebrews chapter 11 is the hall of fame of those men and women who were faithful. And so verse 1 gives the definition. The definition of faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

Or another way to say it, it is the substance of the reality of the things of God. So here they come, I believe them, and they're real to me. What does verse 2 say? Verse 2 says, by it the Spirit gave them witness. So the Old Testament saints are presented with a fact of faith. God says, believe me. And they did. And verse 2 says that God confirmed in their heart that the faith was not in vain.

Isn't that true of us? It's true of us all the time. You come to this class in January. It's the first time you've ever heard the identification truths. They're laid out to you. And how do you respond to them? You believe them. You just believe them.

Do you think over time the Spirit of God is going to confirm those in you? Yes He is. Yes He is. So that's the Holy Spirit? That's right. That's the work of the Spirit. He's just not sitting there in a legal system like this waiting for you to show some sign that you got it. Or that you're responding.

He's proactive in our life to teach us and to confirm in us the truths of God. The thing about God is that, we were studying Wednesday night, we used the word veracity of God. What do you think the veracity of God is? Truth. If God says it, it is truth.

It is not open for debate. If he says something to me, you have been crucified with Christ, was I? Gee, I don't remember. I didn't feel it. I wasn't there. He says, yeah you were. What do you do with that? You believe him. The person. Him. The truth, the words of the truth are important, but what you really believe in, if I say to you, outside this room, there's an envelope for each one of you that's got a gift in it. And they're out there.

And if you believe me, pick them up and take them with you. If you don't believe me, just leave them there. It would depend on whether you trusted me personally as to whether you believe that the envelopes are out there. If I was a little shady, you might think, oh yeah, sure.

No way. He's fooling me. The thing about God is, is because of his veracity, every single thing he says is true. Everything. But you know, I know, I know you're right. But when I first heard that I was crucified with Christ, I thought, you've got to be joking.

Because I just didn't get it. It took me a long time to get over that. Because it makes no sense. Because I'm here sitting here. Isn't that something? It has to make sense before I'll believe it. But you know, to hear that... No, I understand. And you know what?

That's the job of the Spirit of God. When Paul... Did the second bell go off? When Paul prays in Ephesians that their hearts might be opened, that they may enter into, what he's talking about is that the Spirit of God would teach them and open up their understanding so that they would enter into what God has given them. Yeah, that's right.

Well, you know, you mentioned 2 Peter 3, 18 where it says that we grow in grace and in the name of Jesus Christ. in what is already true of us in Christ. The problem is that we have to be persuaded of those things being true, and the Holy Spirit pushes those things into practical application through His timing, not because we just grabbed it and moved on, and now I'm ready for the next one. And that's Hebrews chapter 11 verse 2. For me personally, coming from a background of being in a lot of legalistic churches, That's a long, long road sometimes.

Well, you think about, you just think about the simplicity of that. Every one of you placed your confidence in God when he said, my son died and paid the penalty for your sins. What proof do you have that that's true? That's it. The only proof you have is that God said it. So you say, okay, I'll go for it. I found is that I've been growing in the Lord to let go of myself, so to speak. Because you can't. Yeah, and accept Him.

It's really a great source of freedom. What's interesting is that God is all about freeing us up to serve Him. That's why He's doing it. He's dealt with the sin issue. Once He persuades you about the salvation issue, when He talks about your sins being done away with and you being free and you're not going to face them again, if you're persuaded about that, then He's got some more that He's coming with. And if He comes with the fact that He crucified you with Christ, it's like, boy, that doesn't make any sense. Well, it didn't make any sense in the beginning. What kind of a God do we have that says, your sins no longer are an issue because I took care of him on the cross with my son.

Either he's telling me the truth or it's the biggest scam ever. And what a scam to say like, you know, I'm going to have my son crucified and put him through all that. It would be like, you know what, I'm going to have it so that y'all give me some stuff or whatever, you know. It's like make it easier if you're going to do that. Make it easier on yourself. I think they did too, we've got to close. Father how we thank you again for your word and we thank you for the grace that we live under and as we go forward now that we would learn more and more about your grace and your personhood and that we would be comfortable just abiding in your son the Lord Jesus and we pray in his precious name. Amen.