Principles of Position, Lesson 2
Mike Doyle · Jan 17, 2016
Principles of Position, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492652616693

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

Okay, so lesson two. What we're going to do, how we're going to start out with lesson two is we're going to talk about a scripture that lays out positional truth. So, turn to Ephesians chapter 1, the first 14 verses. That sounds brain damaging, but it isn't. So as we go through these verses, What we're going to do is we're going to identify your position.

Everything I'm about to read and you're about to read is already true of you. You know why? That's the precipitating cause. But why would the things be true of you? There you go. Because we're here and we're no longer positioned here. OK. This is all position. This is all grace. This is what we used to be. And it's not based on grace.

So we're going to talk about what's ours here. As we go through and you find out this information, what do you do with it? You believe it and you may not have the foggiest concept of the reality of what Ephesians is going to say to us, but it's true of you no matter how you feel about it and what you think about it. So let's begin.

Paul talks about being an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints. That's the first position of truth. What's a saint? A believer in Christ. A call about one. And no canonization necessary. A saint is somebody who has been set apart. which are at Ephesus and to the faithful, there's another position of truth in Christ Jesus, he calls them faithful. They are people of faith.

Isn't that like another thing of the Catholic Church is you've got to earn being a saint, right? That's right, that's true of every single religion other than Christianity. It's all got to be earned, all of it. Even most of the Christian denominations have an earning program.

And that word saint is a totally unmerited... Totally unmerited position. You didn't get it because you did anything other than believe. That's all you did. Which is a non-meritorious act because the value is in what you believe or in whom you believe rather than the fact that you did believe.

Now it gets really interesting. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would he say grace to you? Don't they already have grace? Don't they live in grace because they're in Christ? So why does he say you guys need more? Grace and peace. Or is it just an expression? It's a reminder. It's not a bad way to look at it.

Understand the grace that you have and the peace that you have that's from the Lord Jesus Christ because you're already positioned in him. And now he's going to go through a litany of positional truth. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with most of the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I have this chocolate lab.

And he's starting to get white around his face, so I call him the mostly brown dog. So you are the mostly spiritual blessed people? No. We have been. Oh gee, when? When have you been blessed with all spiritual blessings? When did God know you in Christ? Before the beginning. Before the foundations of eternity. So you've been blessed with all spiritual blessings. Now here's the problem with this verse.

He didn't say in Denver, Colorado. He said in heavenly places. Now there, would you say that in heavenly places is a position that you already enjoy? So you're positioned in Christ, and where is he? In the heavenlies. So he's already now, just in the first three verses, he said to us, look, you're in Christ, Christ is in the heavenlies, and you have been blessed with all spiritual blessings."

How do you argue with that? Isn't that what he says? There's no argument about that. Now, does it matter if you know what they are or not, in terms of whether they're your possession or not? No, it doesn't, because he did it. So he's trying to explain to us, look, here's what I've done. for all of you saints and faithful in Christ Jesus. I have already blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. So the next time you want to whine about something, think about that. Are you already blessed? Yeah, you are. Here's the first one. According as he has chosen us in him, when? Last Thursday? When you believed? When? before the foundation of the world. Now we talked about that last week a little bit. How can God do, how can God say this about us, that I chose you? And my friend across the street who hasn't come to Christ, he can't say that. I'm getting hot, are you guys getting hot? Just me? I won't have to get out the AED machine this early.

So I think the best way to explain the fact that he chose us in him before the foundation of the world because in John chapter 3 it says that God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever will. So the call of salvation Goes out to every man, right? Whosoever will. Is there any exceptions to that?

Well, you can raise your hand and say, yeah, well, what if I'm not one of these guys? How do you know you're going to be one of these guys? You don't know it. You don't know it. If you're one of these until afterwards. So when God draws a person to Christ, he does it without coercion and it's a drawing in love. And in every case of a human being who doesn't come to Christ, it's their fault, not his. It's their fault. So now once you do come to Christ, is this an eternal man? No, he's not.

He had a beginning in time, didn't he? 10,000 years ago, whatever. Is this an eternal man? Existed from all eternity? So what God does, it's really kind of cool how he does it, he knows you in Christ before the foundations of eternity, but when he brings you forth into creation, he identifies you with this guy. Okay?

So how far back does your timeline go with Adam? Back to the garden, right? So when did you become a sinner? When Adam sinned. When Adam sinned, you sinned. Romans 5, 12, right? By one man sin entered the world and death came along with sin, so death passed upon all men. Why? Because every man sinned in Adam. And, you know, I used to think, well, if I was Adam, I wouldn't have done it. Yeah, I would have. Because I'm just like him. And also would have nailed him to the cross, too, Christ. Yeah, I would have. Right.

So here's this man, he's in time-space. 10,000 years ago to today, however many years ago. At some point, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. How far back does this history go? Eternity. And eternity is not an expansion, I don't think, of time, because it isn't time. Everything comes down to right now. So it isn't yesterday, today and tomorrow, it's right now. So once a believer is positioned in Christ by the Holy Spirit, can the Father say, I've known you in Christ from the foundations of eternity? Yeah, you can logically say that.

It had nothing to do with whether he thought you were going to be a good guy, bad guy, or somebody in the middle. On Tuesday we're studying Romans chapter 9 and God's ability to choose sovereignly, and why would he choose Abraham, and why would he choose Isaac, and why would he choose Jacob. It's very clear there that he chose Jacob before he and his brother were ever born. So neither one of them could say, oh, I deserved it. And if you study Jacob, he's just a sissy. You know, he really is. And he's a conniver and a sneak. And he's always, you know, I wouldn't have picked him. I would have picked Esau. My big question, when you say Adam is not, let me ask it this way. If I'm not a believer and I die in Adam, where am I positioned then for eternity? in Adam. So is Adam an eternal? He's eternal. Well, he's eternal in the sense that he was created at a point in time and he'll exist forever.

Right. That's I guess my point. You can be eternally positioned in Adam and suffer the being separated. All men have an ending life once they get it. I guess that's what I want to bring up. Adam continued. He had a finite beginning, but he continues on in separation from God and judgment for eternity if you're positioned in Adam when you die.

Yeah, that's really good. So when Christ came on the planet in John chapter 1, what does it say about Him? In the beginning was the Word. He was already here in the beginning. In other words, He's existed. And the Word was God and the Word was with God. So He is God.

Didn't Adam and Eve get saved? Sure, I think they did. Because they believed God's remedy. He gave them skins to put on and they said, OK, we'll put them on. We'll get rid of these flowers, these philodendrons. Isn't that a picture of grace though? Totally.

When you think of Adam and what he did, it affected the entire world and yet God could save him. And not only that, God's the one that sought him out. It wasn't the other way. He went in the garden and said, Hey Adam, where are you? And Adam said, oh I'm hiding. He said, come out here, you know. It's interesting. And that's the way God is. He pursues... I was going to say, where are you? Because obviously God knows where we are all the time. You think? It was just the beginning of the conversation I guess, but I've always thought that was hysterical. He could have said, why are you hiding?

So, chosen in him before the foundations of the world, and here's what he did. That we should be holy and without blame before him in love. What's holy mean? Totally set apart. and blameless. Now get this picture in your mind. You're standing before the glorified God of the universe, right here. And if you don't know this verse, you're looking for some place to hide. But if you understand what he's saying, he says that I should be holy, you should be holy, and without any blame before him. Isn't that cool? Now where are you right now? Oh, what verse am I in? Four. So the next time you start thinking that you're not acceptable to God, I'd recommend you read this verse four.

Because it says that you were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world so that you would be holy and blameless before Him in love. That's pretty cool, I think. I mean, I don't know about you, but if you can get a deal like this, I would take it. You know? It just shows, too, what God can't tolerate, you know? Because we would just be, if we weren't in Christ, we'd just be a bunch of sinners. You'd have to live across the street. Yeah. You know what's interesting? It's like...

He chose us not so we will go out and be holy. It's not like something we have to do and now we have to try to be blameless and holy. Holy and blameless because of what he did. Yeah, you are already holy and you are already blameless. And no matter how many spiritual push-ups you do today, you're not going to be any holier or less blameless than you are right now.

You're perfect in the beloved. And it all has to do with position. It all has to do with position. And it all has to do with what he did, not what you did. You only did one thing that was non-meritorious, as you believe. And look what you got. The next thing you got is you're predestined to the adoption of children.

Now here's an interesting predestination in the New Testament. is never talked about a non-believer. Are you with me? I'm going to repeat that. The New Testament never talks about a non-believer being predestined to anything. But once you are a believer, there's a lot of predestination discussion that goes on. This one in particular, what were you predestined by God to be? An adoption of children. What's adoption? Ancient adoption is different than adoption is here in our society today. If you were adopted by your father, you became the heir to all that he has at the moment that you were adopted. You didn't have to wait for him to die. I don't know.

The best example I've seen, how many of you have seen the movie Ben-Hur? You remember when Charlton Heston saves the Roman general on the ship? They were in this battle and they all get blown up and the only two guys left are him and the general. And the general wants to kill himself because he thinks he lost the battle, which in fact they didn't. And they get rescued and the Roman general is so excited about it Ben-Hur, they go to Rome and he adopts this guy, Ben-Hur, as his own son.

Gives him a ring, which means anywhere in the Roman Empire, if he held up this ring, everybody knew he was Ares' son. Everybody knew. So when he goes back to Jerusalem, the Roman centurion that sent him to row the boats, he sends the ring in. I'm the son of Eris, I came here to see you and then he comes in and it's been her.

Surprises this guy. Adoption. In ancient times, adoption is a big deal. It's a really big deal because if we were living in ancient times and Laban adopted me, I'd get the floor business. They don't want him. I don't want him. I get to move into his house now. That's the way it is. The regular non-adopted sons didn't have that.

They were at the mercy and the grace of the adopted son. He would decide what they were going to do and be in the family. So he predestinated us to be adopted and already adopted by Jesus Christ to who? To himself. Not too bad a deal. It's better than being adopted by Laban. Because I'm adopted to the God of the universe. So now I have become an heir and a co-heir with Christ. Already true of me, not going to be true, already true right now. According to what? The good pleasure of His will. His will, not yours, His.

So, so far in five verses, how's things working out for you? We're doing pretty good, aren't we? We've got a lot going for us. What do you do with the stuff that you've got going for you? You believe it. That's all God requires of us. Just believe me. I don't need anything else from you. Just believe me. Because he's telling us. He's not hiding anything from us. He's not saying, I'm going to stay over here until you do enough spiritual push-ups that I can accept you. No. You're now in a position of an adopted son, positioned in Christ. How cool is that? But it goes on. To the praise and glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Now you have to ask yourself, who is the Beloved? The Lord Jesus Christ. What is His standing before the Father? His Son. Perfect. It's perfect. The Father finds all of his satisfaction in the Son. All of his satisfaction in the Son. Where are you? The Father finds all of his satisfaction in you?

Absolutely he does. Why? Because you're in Christ. Position is everything. He isn't giving us a set of parameters whereby we might be more acceptable that we might do a better job or anything like that. He's giving us what he has already done from his side of the ledger. Okay? Critical.

Remember when we did this, those of you who were in the faith class, we talked about Hebrews 11.1 and the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. These are some of the things right here. These are the things of God.

This is what he's already done. And this is where a lot of people who go to election or selection go to. But each one of these, the predestined, that's the beginning of the census. In the end of it, it's always in him. All of these things end with the in him. It's all about identification. All these things are related to in Him.

And it's our position, our identification with Him. So when people pull this out, I don't know who pulled this out, well we're predestined. He selected us before time. No, that's not what he's saying. Every time, every one of these things is in Him. All these blessings, all these things we're seeing here, everyone amends with in Him. And it's only because we're positioned in Him. In the New Testament, in Paul's epistles in the New Testament, The phrase, in him, in the beloved, in, in, in, is mentioned 140 times.

You think that was a concept that was important to the Apostle Paul? That believers would understand what we call position? And as we talked about last week, which is reality? Position? Or how I'm feeling? Or what my circumstances are? Which is reality? Position is the only reality, and next week we'll talk about condition. But position is reality, and that's why it's important for us to know. Because so many believers want to sit down and talk to you about their condition, and they're totally ignorant of this. So what do they have their faith in? Adam. Boy, he's a trustworthy guy, isn't he? He's really worth it. We're going to fix him up. of all this, but when you bring up the condition, everybody has talked about the condition and woe is me and all this.

It kind of went by fast in verse 2, grace to you. We've talked about grace, but the second part is, peace from God the Father. That's a critical item right there, is peace. In all your condition, in all your trials, in all this, what has He promised us? Peace. And then whatever the, what is it, I have to pull up here so I can go to the Yeah, Philippians 4, 7, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Same concept, but not only grace do we live in, He promised us peace.

And all these things, if you believe them, you have peace. Well, you know, I hate to say anything contradicting my buddy over here, but I've got to do it. You understand that? What we're talking about here are not promises. These are facts. We don't live as Christians on promises. We live on facts.

Okay? Yeah. And it's like, too, like, okay, so you get adopted into this, like, super great family, and you're adopted, but then, oh, you know, your father starts disciplining you, or you're in this great family and you get in a car wreck, you know, or whatever it might be. I'm like, what? This doesn't happen to me. I'm in this like, super great family. I never said that. I understand you're adopted as an adult, not a baby. Yeah.

See, so if you have a car wreck, it's your responsibility. Because you're a part of the family. You're now the inheritor. You make the decisions. But I just mean stuff's still going to happen to you. It's not like your condition is going to be like...

You know, super great. And we'll talk about that next week. So don't jump ahead. OK. I am advanced like that. Some would say otherwise. I would. I get my rebuttal time. Yes, conditionally it's a fact of peace. But conditionally, if you believe this, you have the peace. OK. So he's told us that fact. Whether we believe it is whether we have peace or not. Right. Because if we don't, we don't have it. We don't have peace. We don't live. Experience anyway.

Verse 7, in whom we have redemption. What's redemption mean? The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. What's redemption? Bought out of the slave market of sin. Bought out of the slave market of sin. In this guy, where do you live? You live in the slave market of sin. So he redeemed, he brought you out of there. What was the price? How much did it cost him? What was the commodity that brought you out? His blood. That's what brought you out. And because of that, the forgiveness of sins. How about the sin this afternoon that the Broncos lose and you're cussing? How about that sin? I hope. I hope it is. Yeah, you hope it is.

8. Wherein he has abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence. Don't you love that? He's coming at us, not slowly or sneaking up on us. He's abounding towards us in all wisdom and prudence. What's wisdom? It's applied knowledge, isn't it? When you say wisdom is the ability to implement the knowledge you have and prudence. What's prudence? Anybody got another word for prudence? It says here intelligence. Intelligence?

Perfect. It says wisdom and intelligence. Perfect. So you got it. You're understanding because he's telling you. One of the great things about studying Paul's epistles in the New Testament is you find out all this really cool stuff that's already true of you. Already true. Not going to be, is now. So you can be spiritually intelligent with wisdom. You know what's going on. Nobody has to teach you and you don't have to say to yourself, yeah, but I don't feel good about it. Because you know better.

9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will. What's the mystery of his will? I'll take what he's given me so far. Is that enough? Why would God even make known stuff to us? Why would he even do that? I mean, if I'm God, I'm going to keep some things back. I mean, that was the big lie in the garden that Satan told Adam. told Eve, he didn't tell you the whole truth. She said he didn't. He says here, I've made known to us the mystery of his will. And mystery means it's just something that hasn't been revealed yet.

So now that all of this has taken place through the cross of Christ and we're now in Christ, is he holding back anything? No, he's not. As a matter of fact, he is proactive and the Spirit is proactive to intelligently educate believers about spiritual facts. But most of us are trapped in some sort of legal thing where we're working really hard to be blessed and we don't ever get to the, well he's already done all of this. And it sounds, oh that's too, God just isn't that gracious.

Yeah he is. Yeah he is. Because he gave the most precious thing he had to redeem you and me, and that was his son. He didn't hold anything back. When we were studying Romans, there's a little principle in there that says, if he gave you the greater thing, won't he also give you the lesser thing? Answer, yes he will. If he gave his son, don't you get everything that's less than that?

Yes you do. See, it's really important to understand that. Will I have a question? If he's adopted, I mean, were adopted. Yeah. Okay. So was that part of the mystery that he sent Jesus and he wanted Jesus to have other brothers and sisters? I mean, you know, just from the adoption point of view. No. No, but Jesus died. No, you're right.

You're tracking really good. Keep going. And so I have two granddaughters that are adopted. So he wants us to be together. That's exactly right. Together with who? And where is Christ? In the heavens. And where is he positioned in terms of other... At the right hand of God. That's right. And guess where you are? Right there with me. Right there. This is great! Woohoo! Verse 10.

The mystery of his will. What's the mystery? A mystery is just something that hasn't been revealed yet. I think the mystery is all of what we're learning. None of this was revealed before the resurrection of Christ. None of this was. There was identification, position, none of that was. Well wasn't it kind of started to be revealed but people couldn't get it?

Well the idea of the church was mentioned, but we talk about, we like to talk about the church as you know, all of you guys and all of us and Christ and we're kind of separate entities. But when you read, the first place you start to see it is John chapter 17, when he says to the Father, he's praying to the Father, right? And the Father is going to listen to what he has to say and give him 2, 5, 7, and 9, but not 3, 5, 3, 4, no. He says, Father, here's what I want. I want them, which is all of us, to be one in me. And I want to be one in them so that they might be one in us. Now if you're John the Apostle listening to that before the cross, what are you thinking?

The guy's gone off the bridge. What is he talking about? That's the mystery. He didn't understand it. But after the resurrection and Pentecost and the Spirit, they begin to get the mystery. They begin to understand this union that he was talking about. All this is about is what the elements of oneness in Christ really is. That's what it is.

So, according to the good pleasure that he has proposed in himself. Why does he do all this? He does it for himself. He wants us in Him and enjoying all that's true of us. That's what He wants. He's not the barrier if you're not resting by faith in this position. He's not the problem. I'm not going to tell you who is.

That in the dispensation or the stewardship of the fullness of times, that once this whole thing comes into fruition, what He might do, He might gather together in one All things in Christ. All things. That's the new creation. All things in Christ. We've talked about this before. The Lord Jesus Christ was involved in the creation of the first creation. It was all done through him. But this new creation that we're talking about is him. Is him. Everything in Christ is the new creation. Everything. And all of this belongs to the new creation. None of this belongs to the old creation. None of it does. None of it belongs to Adam. Could I ask another question? Yes. Okay. It's like I think that the Bible is beginning to look different.

I mean, you know I'm a little not with it, but when he says, he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Now I take that as position. I think that would be fine if you took away the word shadow, because there aren't any shadows anymore. He who will rest I would say that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, no shadow there.

And when we're with Christ, condition is position. Well, when you're conformed, yeah. Yeah, so rest, even though it might be like condition, It can also be position, right? Because there is no condition anymore. I don't know if anything of this has been positioned. Yeah.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High. Isn't that in Psalms? What? Psalms. So if I were to rewrite that. Okay. I wouldn't be dwelling in... what's the first part? He who dwells in shelter. Shelter. I forget the word shelter. I would say he who dwells in Christ. He who dwells in Christ. Okay. What's the rest of it? He who dwells in... okay. He who dwells in Christ of the Most High will rest in... You got that? Thank you. Let's see,

11. In whom also, oh jeez, there's more. We obtained an inheritance. We talked about inheritance. Being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsels of his will. Who guarantees the inheritance? God. God does it. So it's not up to you. It's his guarantee. And now here's the interesting part, that we should be to the praise of his glory. Now let's talk about that for a minute, because there's purpose here.

God does everything to do what? Why does he do what he does? He wants to glorify himself, right? So when we talk about God's glory, we're talking about the sum of his total attributes, everything that he is. He's loving, he's all of those things, okay? Now he has determined that every one of us and every member of the body of Christ, which will be the bride of Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.

Because when you objectively take a look at what he's done here, you got to think, really? That he took me out of this, which is the end of Romans 1, the cesspool, and he puts me in Christ, and he gives me all of this, and anybody who steps back and looks at that says, boy, God is a lot more gracious than I gave him credit for, because now look at where I am positioned. I did nothing to deserve it. As a matter of fact, everything I did, I deserve condemnation. everything.

So to the praise of his glory. So maybe the best way to describe this glory thing, you know when the millennial kingdom happens and it says we come and rule and reign with Christ on the earth, so we're all going to be here another thousand years plus however many years you've got left now. And there'll be a lot of saints here, Jewish saints and Gentile saints. There'll be a thriving earth for a thousand years with no impediments like we have now. There won't be any prey or predator. There won't be any... Politics. Yeah, no politics. It'll be a theocratic kingdom.

So you're walking down Holly Street here. And there's a bunch of earthly people who were born in the Millennial Kingdom, and you're walking with a person who's a saint. How do they know the difference between you and them? The light. That's the glory of God will come through us. You know, when the Lord Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, the glory started to come out of him. That's how they'll tell. And it says so right here that we should be the praise of his glory. His glory is going to shine through every one of you. That's kind of a cool thing. So far I can't keep track of all the stuff he's done.

In whom also trusted after you heard the word of truth, which is the gospel, of your salvation. The gospel is real simple. First Corinthians 15, that Jesus Christ Died on the cross for your sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and resurrected according to the scriptures and seen by many. If you just believe Him, all of this is yours. All of this and more. Just that little thing. You don't have to make Him Lord of your life. You don't have to do spiritual push-ups. You don't have to come down. You don't have to move seats. You don't have to do anything but believe Him.

All of this is yours. That little thing is a huge thing. What's that? That little thing is a huge thing. It's a huge thing when you find out what's included in it. I mean, it's a huge thing for that change of mind. It's a huge thing, yeah. Now here's another part. Also, after you believed, what happened? You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Isn't that cool? You think about it. All of this stuff is you. And there's a guarantee. The seal.

You know what a signet is? You know, in old times people would write letters and they'd put their stamp on it in wax, you know? And send it out and if you look at it and you say, oh yeah, this came from him and it's legitimate and it's real. And the Holy Spirit himself is the seal. He's the guarantee. He's the one that grants and assures and guarantees the promise.

Which is the earnest of our inheritance. So the Holy Spirit, now we're starting to move a little bit into conditional truth. The earnest of our inheritance is interesting. It's just like if when Erica bought a condo, We submitted a contract and we had to give them earnest money. And the earnest money said, we intend to fulfill the tenets of the contract. And if we don't, you can keep the money. So when you believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the earnest money? The Holy Spirit himself. So now you've got all three persons of the Godhead engaged in your involvement. So how much effort do they need from you? They don't need your help. They already want you. You're their possession.

And John 17 talked about that we as a group are the gift to the father from the son. We're the gift. You think we're important? I think so. The redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. We've answered both questions one and two. And all that goes back to him, like even you said, we're the gift, we're important, but that all goes back for God's glory.

Not that we're important in ourselves, we're important that it follows God's plan or contributes to God's The cool thing here I think is that if we were going to sit down and we were going to write out a list of the blessings that we already have from God, first of all the list wouldn't be this long and it certainly wouldn't be this exhaustive.

But you could get up every morning and read these 14 verses and it would totally change who you are. There's a part of the grace class that we teach of the 34 things that happened to the believer at the cross. And Courtney has well said that if you just took one of those things, just one of them, and it became the thing that you really rested your faith on, it would totally change your life. Imagine how your life gets changed if you go for all of these. And these aren't all of them. There's at least 20 more. I have a list at home of 210, which God has already done. Already done.

So let me ask you, how important is it to know this? Is it important or not? Or is it just a bunch of pie in the sky? No, it's really critical because our faith must have an object. And we say, yeah, well Christ is the object. Well, okay, Christ is the object. But what about Christ? What is the deal with him? What did he bring to the table? Well, we can start with this. We can start with this.

Would it change your life? If you functioned every day based on these principles, promises, not promises, but facts, absolutely would. I think Vern said, maybe not, you'll hear if this is wrong, but it's like someone put a million dollars in the bank for you and you never saw the money, but they said, I put a million dollars in the bank for you, you don't believe it, you're going to live differently if you think you have that million dollars or if you don't. Now think about this. You have all of these blessings in Christ. If you just quietly go to the Lord and rest in this truth and believe Him, His Spirit will begin to implement this and persuade you that all of this is true. And you'll begin to rest in it. And you won't.

We were studying in Philippians the other night in the Wednesday night class that Paul's in jail. and he's trying to decide whether he's going to get out of jail and go see the Philippians or stay in jail, right? And so he goes back and forth and he even went through the, well, for me to live is gain and to die, or me to die is gain and to live is, you know. And then the next verse it says, I've determined now that I'm going to see you again and it's better for me to stay here. You know what was interesting about those verses?

He's in jail, waiting for Caesar to make a determination about whether he's ever going to get out again. But he doesn't mention Caesar. Why not? Because Caesar ain't the decider. His father is, and he knows it. Your opinion about this isn't the decider. What's here is the decider. Is that the second bill? So next week we'll pick up on three. Father how we thank you for the grace that we live under and the position that you placed us in that we might enter more fully into it and rest and enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray in his precious name. Amen.