Identification Truths Plus 2012
Mike Doyle · Oct 14, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 40
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492633055611

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

OK. Everybody hopefully has a copy of The Fundamentals of Grace by Lewis J. Verne. We're working off of that paper. And I asked last week how many read it. We didn't have a show of hands, but we're going to barge ahead anyway. So how far have we got? Question six, six question. We're having the words table today. I've decided that questions 6 and 7 is what I'm going to do my little talk on. So you might have to hear all this twice. When it comes to salvation, say it again, when it comes to salvation, we're not talking about spiritual growth. Why are all human works not taken into consideration? According to the paper. It diminishes what Christ did.

That's right. Schaeffer made it kind of interesting. He said, if God should discover the least degree of merit in the sinner, So if he could find righteousness in any of us, any sinner, then he'd have to, because of who he is, acknowledge that it's inner. By such recognition of human merit, he would be discharging an obligation towards the sinner, and discharge of that obligation towards the sinner would be the payment of, or recognition of, a debt. See that? If God saw any value in the non-believer in terms of his righteousness then he in turn would have to acknowledge that goodness in the person and it would be a debt on God's side of the ledger to acknowledge it.

I like what Schaefer had to say about judicially we are all under sin. That's right. And I especially love that God has committed them all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on them all. The quote of the scriptures in Romans and Galatians there that puts us all in the same basket.

God has concluded all under sin, not all under stupidity, or lack of ability, or lack of righteousness, we're all under sin. That's a problem. That's a huge problem. Because he's, I mean, very simply put in the garden, he said that the soul that sins, it would die. So every soul, if you're under sin, you're under death. Okay?

Now, we've talked a lot about definition of grace, and one of the parts of the definition of grace is that it is unmerited blessing. If God found within any sinner any human merit, it would destroy the whole grace principle. You see that? Because it would take away one of the principal parts of the definition of grace. It wouldn't be unmerited favor. It would be to some degree merited.

Now what you find in a lot of contemporary denominations that have Christian somewhere in their name, that it's all about merit. Even in salvation it's about merit. The Catholicism I came out of it was about merit. it can work the other way because then God can save people who we like consider really bad like murderers and you know they we could never earn it and you know like Paul could have never gotten it that's right so as we talked I talked a few weeks ago about let's take let's take the guy that's going to prison for 12 years for drugs okay and a really good guy like Bruce.

Does it take more grace to save that guy than it did Bruce? Does it take less grace to save this one than that one? No. No. Because you can't quantify grace. It's full on all the time. And it's way more than anybody individually could ever need and it's way more than the whole population of mankind could ever need. See that? That's the way grace is.

So Galatians or Ephesians 2.8.10 For by grace you have been saved through faith and it's not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Salvation is a gift of God.

It's not of works or merit lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship as believers created in Christ Jesus for good works, or unto good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So salvation is totally a gift, nothing that you can merit. Nothing that you can merit. I think we understand that to some degree, but I don't think most believers do. salvation was offered.

So grace wasn't exhibited in their payment for sin. That was all judicially. That was not any part of grace. Well, and that's the next question. Why doesn't God deal with your sins on the basis of leniency or mercy or because he's big hearted? Why doesn't he do it that way? If you're a good guy and take a shower once a week, God's going to look nice on you. No. God doesn't care if you take a shower twice a week. That was the point. What was the point? You could be stinky. Put it another way, this is one of the things I'm going to hit upstairs.

You think it's a misunderstanding by even believers and non-believers that God does show mercy and leniency towards people who seem to be a little better than others? You don't think that way? You've never thought that way? No. The world certainly feels that way. Think of the things where they talk about, like that song, Only the Good Die Young, and different things. Why do bad things happen to good people? There's a world attitude that certainly says that. Don't you think that God shows more leniency towards Americans than Muslims? No. He's grading on the curve. Yeah, grading on the curve. Why do we pray so hard for God to restore America? Restore it to what? Because we're ignorant. What would we restore it to? To the way it is now. To back us so that we're nice clean sinners rather than dirty rotten ones?

No. And last week you said that God loves everybody even though they don't embrace Him. That's right. That's exactly right, he does. So I think the reason I ask that question is because I think that Chafer was right. He said that it's a very difficult thing to get out of your mind the idea that God deals more lenient with some people or that forgiveness is a matter of to some degree leniency or soft heartedness or God so loved the world that he gave his only son. What does that say? Oh, God's a good guy. And I must say that the gospel is presented that way a lot. Isn't it? Isn't it? So, is that a problem? Yeah.

For you guys who are always preaching the gospel? You know, it's much harder to love someone who's murdered or drugs and are gone out of the way from, you know, It's harder to actually love them than someone who's been good. How does one do that, particularly? How about whoever did this horrible act up in Westminster?

Yeah, yeah. When they catch that person, it would take more grace for God to save that person, right? Well, God loves them, but it doesn't mean we have to love them. What scripture passage is that? First Californian says that they're nasty. But it's kind of hard to love a killer if it was your child who had just been decapitated. What would you do? Say, I really love you?

We talk about love when we say it's harder to love someone. Aren't we thinking about the kinds of feelings that it generates rather than the act of will? First John has quite a bit to say about us loving one another, that if we have the nature of God working in us, then we have this love principle that's operating, and it's an act of will, rather than an act of emotion. And I think it's easy to confuse the feelings that we have towards someone who does a horrible thing, versus seeking to ourselves God loves that person. I wish that person would realize the love of God in their life and not be compelled, as it were, to do these terrible things. I think that's why the Greeks were smarter than us English-speaking people, because they had more than one word for love.

They had three or four. It still comes down to the will, maybe not the will, The will to choose to believe God to let the power of the Holy Spirit work through you. So maybe not even choosing to love, but choosing to believe in the grace of God. When you choose, when you exercise your will to believe in the person and work of Christ, What's the name of this class? Identification students, right?

So what happens? Yeah, you get saved, but there's this other transaction that goes on in which you get immediately co-crucified with Christ's spirit and resurrected. Now, when you're resurrected in Christ, it doesn't mean that you got seven new merit badges. It means that you are a brand new creature with a brand new life, a brand new nature, which is the nature of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

You have his very life. That's your position. It can never be touched. It can never be changed. It is the way that God looks at you. Now, does that new life nature that you have, have any problems loving anybody? No. The new nature doesn't. That's right. It's the old nature. It's the old nature that has got everything relative. You know, the little scale. But if it's the Satan that's caused a person to do that, we don't need to, we need to love. What do we need to love? We have to divide that person? We love them?

No, no. What I'm saying is this. As a believer with a position in Christ, I don't have to worry about whether I love a sinner or not. It's part of the new nature that I have to love them. But not the sin. No, you hate the sin. Right. But you don't hate sin until you're in Christ. You don't. You like it. You ever commit a sin you just didn't want to do? Me, I like them all. So it's like Chuck Colson, who loved all those prisoners that he went to and killed.

That's the working out of the position through his condition as a believer. And you have to understand, when the word of God says that God so loved the world, that word for love agape means that the love is resident within the lover has nothing to do with whether the person loved is qualified to be loved. It's all in the lover.

So when Ephesians 5 says husbands love your wife, guess what word the Greek uses? Agape. It has nothing to do with who your wife is and what she does and how many backflips she can do. So I'm not there yet. It has everything to do with the life in you who is Christ to love her. With no exceptions. Okay, but I don't love those ugly people. Which ugly? You mean you gotta be ugly? No, I don't love those people who do these terrible crimes.

I'm not there yet then. Yeah, you are positionally. It's, I mean... Oh, positionally. You're fine. You just believe. That's right. And you're there. As you learn and grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, guess what? You're going to wake up one morning and realize that you love sinners, but not the sin, and not what they do, but you love them as persons. It doesn't mean you excuse them. It doesn't mean that you're big-hearted.

You know, Mike, the biggest problem that the world has kind of ingrained in the mind of the modern American believer Most people are mostly good. Most people are what? Most people are mostly good. The problem is that Monique thinks that the criminals and the hardened criminals are way worse than the people who haven't been hardened.

Yeah, I do think that. They are. I wouldn't kill somebody. I thought you thought that only republicans were good. Yes. But the thing is that under communism we're all that wicked. Romans 1 tells us we all have the capacity to be that wicked. Which is why we must cling to grace.

Galatians 3.22, but scripture has confined all under sin. All under sin, including the Republicans. Well, that paper that talks about the three ways in which God sees us as under sin, judicially and because of our nature. And we're told that as Christians, to let the Holy Spirit work in us in such a way that we would have the mind of Christ. in which you're not looking at how good or bad the deeds are of a person, but you're looking at that person as God looks at a person as a living soul in need of redemption. That's a really good point, because whoever did this horrible thing up in Westminster, right? Has that sin been paid for?

Yep. Yes. Yes it has. The paper this morning quoted an aunt, I believe, that she was saying how hard it was because she saw the post with Jessica. But they asked her about how she felt about the man and she said, I'm praying for him. That's cool. That's very cool. You see, now think about it.

What was the first human sin? Oh, when Adam took a bite. Yeah. Boy, that was a horrible sin, wasn't it? Oh, it was a terrible, terrible thing to chew on an apple. It wasn't that big of an apple. No, but it was a rule. He told them not to. Oh, yeah, but it wasn't a very bad thing.

It came from God. He said no. Oh, that's right. I think all these little things come from God, don't they? No. No, if you have a law, stop at the red light, it comes from the government, from whoever makes the rules. Here's my point. You know, taking one bite out of one piece of fruit off of a tree that God says don't touch it, is that a big deal?

It turns out to be a big deal because it caused the entire creation to fall. If he hadn't done that, that dirty rat, you wouldn't have us in nature. That's true. The quality of Christ's payment is that it justified all saints. Abraham and Adam, they all died. You see, here's the problem with you, Monique. Not me, but you.

When Adam was in the garden singing, you were in and doing the same thing. and you were agreeing with what he did. Yeah. You know what's cool about that? That I would do it too? No. It's cool that you were identified with Adam when he did that so that now that you're in Christ you're identified with him in full agreement with who he is and what he's done. So because your position locations everything.

You're either in Adam dead or in Christ alive. If you're in Christ alive, everything that's true of Christ, and not only that, all those in Adam, their history is maybe 10,000 years old, back to the garden. How far back does your history go if you're in Christ? So God can say, hey, I knew you in Christ before the foundations of eternity. Wow, that's pretty cool.

What matters is who you are, not what you do. Not excusing what you do, but who you are is really important. So as we present the gospel to people, it's never about their sins. It's always about that God has resolved the sin issue for you and he will put you in perfect standing with himself if you will believe.

It is to them, though, I would think the issue, and maybe to all of us, is that you think, how could God forgive that? God can't forgive me because my sins were more horrible than everybody else. And I guess that's the job of the Holy Spirit, too, to work on the person so that they can, I won't say forgive themselves, to let God forgive them. Yeah, see that's a really important point and that's why the gospel of the grace of Christ is important to get it right.

Because again it's never about their sinfulness keeping them from God. Because God took care of the sin issue before you were ever approached about it. It's been resolved. The Lamb of God took away the sin of the world. took it away, took it out of the way, parked it way over here.

So now when the gospel message comes to you, it's based on this work that satisfied God and he stands in front of you as a judge, right? You being a non-believer, not the believer. You being a non-believer and he stands in front of you as a judge and he says, I don't condemn you because somebody paid it for you. the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, now, if you will just believe that, then your standing is going to be the same as his, before me. So it does come down to what do you think of Christ? That's what it comes down to.

It doesn't come down to your sins. If salvation was presented in that mode more often, then you wouldn't have all of this carnal, mental gymnastics about whether I've forgiven myself or not. You know, God is done with your sins, how come you're not? You know, Satan would love that, to say like, oh, you better feel more guilty, you killed somebody. God isn't going to forgive you. That's right. Or, here's a better one.

I'm sure somebody within the Mills family that's entertained the thought over the last two weeks that even though Christy claim to be a believer that this act of taking your own life is an unforgivable sin? Really? I used to think that. Yeah, I mean if God took care of the sins, did he leave that one out? Okay, you're all saved except for those of you who are suicidal. Yeah. You know?

Love the scripture. where people came to Christ and said, what must we do to do the works of God? He said, believe on Him who guides. That's exactly right. It's believe. And so it's important to understand that the Lamb of God has already taken away the sin of the world. On Tuesday we're studying Hebrews and that's one of the points in Hebrews is that the sins through the Jewish system were covered When Jesus shows up on the planet and dies, it took the equation from covering to taking away. And the book of Hebrews is designed to convince Hebrew believers that their sins have been taken away and they do not need to avail themselves of the Jewish system anymore. Because if the law is gone and your sins are gone, why do you need the system? You don't. There's a change in the law, there's a change in the system. You don't need to go to the temple anymore. You know, even though God instituted it, there's been a change. But they didn't believe it. They still don't believe it. What's that? The Jewish people. They still don't believe it. I mean some, but not many. No, well, neither do the Catholics. You have to be a Catholic to understand that.

Okay, question eight. When God forgives sin, He's acting as what? Explain. I just said what it was. I read this, judicial forgiveness which guarantees an unchanging standing and position of sonship should not be confused with a father's forgiveness towards his children. When God is forgiving the sinner, how is he acting? As God, but as a what? As a judge.

Now, I know you guys are all good guys and you've never been in court, never had to face a judge. But the judge is the guy that determines your fate, isn't he? And he says, you're going to go here, or you're going to pay this, or you're not going to go here. He gets to decide. So here you are, in the courtroom, standing before a holy, righteous God, who's the judge, with a big hammer in his hand. And what does he say? Guilty. You're guilty. But my son took it all. So you're free to go. And isn't it too, is Jesus being there saying, let him go, forgive him. Only for the believer. He's not there advocating for a non-believer. The issue for the non-believer is a judicial issue before a judge.

So, that being the case. Don't you wonder sometimes if these killers, had they ever heard about Christ or grace or... Yeah, they have. You know, I had the fortunate one time to have a lunch and spend an afternoon with, who's the guy from the Springs, with the...

Dobson. Dobson, Jim Dobson, and his wife Shirley, and we were, we got to talking about Who was the serial killer that went around killing all those women back in the 70s and 80s? Ted Bundy. Well Jim Dobson went in to see Ted Bundy in death row about a week before they put him to death and said that he received the Lord Jesus as his savior. Enough grace to save Ted Bundy is enough grace to save you.

Isn't that something? Who knows? Salvation is between you and God. It's not between you and me and God. It's between you and God. And if Ted Bundy believed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus, hallelujah. It seems to me that God saves bad guys a lot more than he saves good guys. don't need it. Christ said I haven't come to save the righteous. No because we're all sinners. But they don't think so. They're the relative on the curve and leniency from God and they think they don't need it.

You've led a pretty good life. Yeah I've done good and you know God's going to sort of add it up at the end and I get more pluses than I get negatives so I get in. Every cartoon you see about... I mean, why is there such a guy as St. Peter standing at the gates judging everybody who comes by? Because they think that way. None of that is how you get in. Okay, I'm going to dig a hole again.

I think when that is said, that a person who thinks they're doing well is less apt to be saved is kind of putting a limitation on it again. God can save people who think they're doing well. Yes he can. So I would say separating people who think they're doing well out of the equation. I think you're absolutely right.

And so enter the work of the Holy Spirit. What's his job initially? He'll knock them down and say this is how good you are. He's to convince the world that they're sinners. I think he's doing a good job, even though it's not apparent. It's not in the news every day. But he is a sovereign God, and he is doing it. And the thing is, is he deals with men and women in their hearts, you know.

And people that you don't think ever had the gospel run under their nose have had it at some point, you know. And don't forget they have a conscience too. I mean, doesn't that play a big part? Your conscience can play a part in your sense of conviction, but it doesn't play a part in your sense of salvation. You've got to get the gospel. Yeah, but it reminds you of the ugly little person that you are. Oh yeah, that's okay. I'm just going to be an ugly big person. When you look at all these things, you know, the thing that happened in Westminster on that night, you know, it's horrible in our mind, but I always get back, you know, God allowed it for His purposes.

You know, He didn't go, whoops, and He missed it. And hearing the ant, or we don't understand all of His plans and His purposes. Was it for the ant who was praying to get that out and use it? But then I go all the way back to the garden with Adam. He created it out of knowing that He had sent it. Yes, He did. And that Christ would die for it. So from day one, He knew about all this stuff and allows it. He created it and allowed Him to send it. And we don't understand his plans, but the ultimate goal of him is to have that fellowship intimacy with him.

That's right. That's exactly right. And we don't understand that, you know, that's what we rate a criminal or rate a person or whatever, or rapist, you know, in a plane crash. they were probably believers on that point. Sure. Loved them every bit as much as he loves me. Sure he did. And we've tried to break this but you know if you understand God's in control of this and for his purposes to glorify him and we may never understand all that but it's ultimately to glorify him.

And what Cain killed Abel or Abel killed Cain? Cain killed Abel. They'd be brothers. I mean if it would be like on the news it would be brother kills brother you know. You talk about You ready for a trick question? Okay. When God busted Cain, why didn't he kill him? He committed murder. Why didn't he put him to death? To show his mercy. Huh? To show his mercy. He wouldn't let anyone else kill him either. No, that's right. He wouldn't let anybody else lay hand on him.

How come? Because there was no prohibition against murder at that time. yeah so I mean but Romans 5 says that you know what from Adam to Moses even though there weren't laws how come everybody died? from Adam to Moses before we got the Jews got the mosaic system and all the other sort of principles from Adam to Moses how come the cemeteries were filling up? because you have the nature that it's condemned And if you're attached to that nature, when you check out of the planet, you go where the nature goes. Common nation. Okay.

Al has already probably answered this. So whoever's going to answer it, it can't be Al. What is the threefold sentence that every unbeliever is under? I'll give you the first one. Let's see if you can pick up on the other two. The first one is, is that he's a sinner by practice. good at it. What's the next one? You're a sinner by nature. And what's the last one? And you're a sinner by divine decree. Boy, that puts you in a real tight box, doesn't it? You know, you did it, you have the nature to do it, and oh, God says you are. You're in trouble.

So what's the basis of forgiveness for the unbeliever and then for the believer? What's the basis? We've been talking about this now for 40 minutes. Believing, I believe. Okay, what's the basis for it? The crucifixion. Sure, the basis for forgiveness is the crucifixion of Christ. That's the basis for forgiveness. Now, Christ in his death he provided sufficient grounds on which both salvation of the unsaved and the restoration of the saved can be provided. God places on man in order to have his sins forgiven.

And to believe. To believe. Is that the same condition placed on believers? To have their sins forgiven? Yeah. No. We've already believed. We've already believed. If we confess our sins. The condition is confession. And when you confess to God, right? So let's talk a little bit about that. I'm going to repeat it to make it clear.

The sole condition under which God places mankind in which to have his sins forgiven is believing. But once you're a believer you don't double down on believing. Once you're a believer to have your sins forgiven, not that they've been paid for, but to have you restored to fellowship is on the basis of your confession. Now what's the word confession? Catholics don't get the answer.

What does it mean? It means to agree with. So God says, okay, you must agree with what? What do you agree with God about? The fact that you have been sinning? Yeah, the issue is, you're a member of the body of Christ and the family of God, and you've been functioning and acting as though that weren't true. You've been acting outside the parameters of your sonship. You're convicted of your behavior pattern and you go back to God and you say, you're right God, I agree with you, I've been acting inconsistent with who you say I am. I confess that you're right and I'm wrong. What happens then? What's the result of that for you, the believer? Restoration. Fellowship. You're restored to fellowship. Now, having said that, how many of you know what the fellowship is to start with? Fellowship with Christ? Yeah. What's it like? It's great. It's great. It's got to be more.

The more you know, the closer you get to Christ. The more you get to understand, the more you're into it, wake up in the morning and you think about it, and you pull a weed and you think about it. Would it be a communion with you? Sure. It can be manifested in you. Courtney likes to say it's manifested by the peace that you have. Yeah, coffee with God. Yeah. There's a rest and a peace that goes with fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There's an anxiety when you're not. You know, and it isn't, oh, I need some drugs. It's that, oh, wow, I wonder what, and all of a sudden I lost the fellowship. Sometimes you don't even know why. Holy Spirit's job to show you and restore you.

I know this is a little bit out of what we're talking, but some years back, living in Canossa Springs, my husband ordered a piece of heavy equipment from our equipment company, and they Senate down there, and the thing would never work. It had been painted bright yellow before they finished the Senate. But anyway, we ended up in the courthouse with them. And I was arguing with the attorneys, and I said, it was nothing but a whited sepulcher. And they had no idea. And I had explained. And you know, sometimes I think, myself as a Christian, I'm kind of that way. I kind of, you know. Yeah. You see things differently. Yeah. You really do.

The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they're fully ascended and he can't know them. But God has revealed those things unto us. His great desire is for us to know Him. And the issue of being recreated in Christ through the cross is to qualify us from a nature standpoint to be able to do that. Because the closest the natural man could ever get to God was God's over there and I'm here and maybe I hear words or I see some sort of vision.

But there's a barrier between us. Not now. God has raised us up in Christ on the same level as the resurrected Christ. Why would he do that? So that he could communicate with us and we could appreciate it and communicate back with him. You've got to be on his level.

I've got a really sneaky sin that creeps up on me that I think It's a temptation for those who have received Christ, to become proud of my position in Christ, and somehow think that now that I've believed in Christ, I somehow have a little more of an in with God. And I start seeing the Pharisee coming out in me, saying, well, I'm a good sinner, and that other guy's a bad sinner. I can say, well today I'm okay God, I'll check back with you tomorrow if I need you. It's just very easy to become self-sufficient and proud of your position.

But what does fellowship cause you to do? If you're sitting quietly and beholding the glory of the Lord, say you're reading the word, what is a really great privilege there? You get closer to Christ. You kind of bask in it. The focus goes off of you and on to Him. It ain't about you anymore. It's about Him. That's the great freedom. But it's always only about Him anyway. Positionally it is, but from a fellowship standpoint, if there's fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, it's about Him. And here's another thing. You begin to get interested in what He's interested in. What's He interested in?

Everything that we do. What's the focus of the Lord Jesus Christ right now? To restore all. To save us? No. His focus is on his body. On his body? The body of Christ. The members of the body of Christ. That's where his focus is. So guess where your focus is going to be?

Sure. And so those who serve the Lord Jesus Christ serve him because that's what his interest is. If you dearly love your wife, and she loves you, you get interested in their interests. Don't you? Yeah, sometimes it doesn't work. So a couple of things. The lost are never saved by confessing. The lost are never saved by confessing and the saved are never restored by believing. It's totally inconsistent to plead with God to be gracious or to coax Him to be good towards you. That doesn't fit.

You see why? Okay. Eleven. What are the four vital elements that enter into divine forgiving and cleansing which constitute the restoration Now we just go through them. Confession is the one and only condition. Absolute forgiveness and cleansing is promised on divine side. The Christian, even though while sinning, has been safe as to divine condemnation because of his advocacy, because of his advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous. And divine forgiveness and cleansing is exercised towards the believer in unchallenged faithfulness and justice because Christ gives the propitiation for our sins.

That's a lot of big words. That's why you're supposed to read the paper. So, remember question one is what was Chafer's definition of grace? Well, I asked it again. Question 12. Here's his definition, I think it's a good one. It's probably too long to memorize. I like what's-his-name's-better.

It may be concluded that the word grace, as used in the Bible in relation to divine salvation, represents the uncompromised, unrestricted, un-recompensed, that means no payback, loving favor of God towards sinners. It is an unearned blessing, it is a gratuity, God is absolutely, tough word, It's a fairly complicated definition, but if you have it in your paper, just slowly read through it, it's kind of cool.

So why would we not suppose that God's divine plan of restoration of the child of God to the Father's fellowship will result in an attitude of carelessness on the part of the believer? If you know everything you know about restoration and the grace that you live under, why doesn't it promote or foster carelessness? Oh, so why wouldn't you just say, like, oh, God's going to forgive me anyway. Well, it's like I was saying, why doesn't it foster a pharisaical viewpoint? It's no longer who we are. OK. What's the question again? Hurricane. OK. Pay attention this time.

Why would we not suppose that God's divine plan of restoration of the believer to fellowship with the Father will result in an attitude of carelessness on the part of the Christian. In other words, if you know you're forgiven, you confess, why wouldn't you get careless about your sins? You figure he'll do it again. Why wouldn't you give in? Why don't you be more aware of it? Hopefully because you understand how bad your sins are. That's one part, and what did you say?

We become that much more aware of doing and listen to the Holy Spirit and His guidance. And how about too that the Holy Spirit is conforming us to the image of Christ and so why, there is no carelessness in that, right? That's right. Chafer said true confession is an expression of the very real, he says, repentance or change of mind, which turns from sin. This is the exact opposite of becoming accustomed to sin. or becoming careless regarding sin. I would say that, maybe put it this way, as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, there develops within you this understanding of who the Lord Jesus is. And you don't, because of the life and nature that is in you, You don't want to do anything to disrupt that because you begin to value Christ more than you do satisfying the desires of your sin. So you sin less. Yes you do, that's the result. Paul in Romans 6 has it spelled out pretty carefully and it takes a lot of verses but it concludes in verse 13 of chapter 6.

Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. What's the key phrase there? Present ourselves to God. No. What's the key phrase? Alive. Alive from the dead. That's the key phrase. See, you don't, when you became a believer, when you became a believer, JB Stoney, really cool comment, I've never heard this, with it. And there's a desire in you now because of the new life to be pleasing to God. And it's not something you pump up by following a bunch of rules. It's part of the nature.

Because we only do what we want to do and what we like to do. If I'm going to sin it's because I want to and I like to. Is Christ of such a character that he would become more valuable to me as a believer than my wanting to satisfy whatever my desires to sin are. Answer, yes you can. And he intends to do that. So that sin is not a struggle. It's not sinning, it's not a struggle. Better way to put it. Okay. Courtney's up next week and got some handouts. Say that sentence again that you liked so. You begin to get a taste.

With the new life comes a taste for the things of God. Father, how we thank you for your grace. We thank you for the work of your son on the cross so that we might walk in newness of life as resurrected ones in him. We thank you for the grace that we live under and we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.