Principles of Position, Lesson 8
JD McCulley · Apr 24, 2016
Principles of Position, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926532185922

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

Alright, we got some new faces, so welcome folks. We are studying a, this is a book, it's a pamphlet, a book, it's a collection of writings by a gentleman named Miles Stanford. called The Principle of Position. And so we're looking at a lot of different verses that relate to who we are in Christ.

So this is very much a, what we would call, not so much a course or a study on salvation truths, but more on the sanctification truths. When I say that word, we haven't used that word, but maybe a couple times. What would be the difference, maybe in terms of getting some of you new folks familiar with some of our terms, what's the difference between salvation truths and, say, sanctification truths? And maybe what does even sanctification mean? Just by way of getting some definitions in place.

Salvation truths. What makes up salvation truths in the scripture? A week off and you're rusty. Rusty folks. That's right. So it's death, burial, and resurrection. A lot of times when we talk about salvation, we remember we all have, or could have, a moment in time where we recognize our sin and our need for a Savior, and then we place our faith in the truth of the Word of God that tells us about what Christ did in order to satisfy the judgment towards sin that God had towards us while we were in sin and satisfy that through His atonement. We talked about justification, atonement, we talked about all of those sanctificational truths that relate to what it took for God to make things right between us as a sinner and Him as a holy and righteous God. We put those salvation truths, oftentimes, I think in classes like this, we put them in a box and we say, you know, that's what happened. And then we move on to sanctificational truths. It's like, okay, now let's grow, right? And so by sanctification, what do we mean? What does that word mean? Is it set aside? Okay, set aside, set apart. Set apart for being conformed? Okay, conformed is a good word. Yeah, so sanctification is that process. It's that Christian growth process.

And I think, you know, a lot of times Bible studies and Sunday school classes will center around the Christian growth movement. I mean, there's a movement behind that. There's a desire to learn those truths because once you get somebody saved, it's time to start growing, right? It's like we've got to move the baby into the nursery and from the nursery into the toddler classroom and so forth. It's largely the desire of teachers like myself to see myself grow as well as the body and so we create classes like this to help us understand what it means to grow. And so by sanctification we are talking about being set apart for that process that God is doing by conforming, transforming, all of those action verbs that actually are being done by God to us.

And so this class takes a little bit of that perspective, but the way it's a little bit different is that it doesn't leave those salvation truths in that box. because that gospel message actually has everything to do with your present growth as well. Oftentimes, it can be a hindrance to you if you forget about those and move on too quickly, which brings us to this first question.

Just by way of introduction, we're looking at these truths and determining for ourselves, how does this impact our growth and where does it? Where do we find the information that we need to grow? And how do we understand our own personal process through that? Does that make sense so far? Okay, so question number one on your sheets.

What principle does Isaiah 28.10 and Psalm 37.23 teach us about the steps our Father has us mature through? So what are these steps? What are these principles that these two verses? Now, first thing you've got to notice here is Mike is using the Old Testament. Well, Myles referred to the Old Testament, and Mike saw fit to bring it out.

So, Isaiah 28.10, let's read that. Can someone look that one up?

And while someone's reading that, also have someone ready to read Psalm 37.23. It says, Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there. Okay, let's read Psalm 37, 23.

The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and he delights in his way. So you think about, let's think about Old Testament stuff for a little bit. How did God go about revealing himself in the Old Testament? Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning. Go ahead. through what he's created. Okay, so he starts creating, right? Do you see order there? Do you see a process? Do you see chronological processes and principles that are all laid in time, in order, when they are supposed to be, right?

You don't see Moses at the top of Mount Sinai right after he created, you know, man and woman. I think that because the Bible is structured the way it is, where you've got the old and the new, and it's not necessarily in chronological order. There are aspects of the scripture that are, but we lose the fact that in many cases, we have this kind of read the Bible mentality where we open it up and wherever we open it up to, that's where we're supposed to be. What's wrong with that kind of thinking? What does that do to the way that God revealed himself? If we just jump in wherever we please. What does it do?

You lose context. Alright, and what is context? Context is the surrounding information that makes something understandable, right? What if you went into math class and you just jumped straight into calculus? No basic arithmetic. Good luck with that, right? You don't study any other area of this world without placing or getting foundational understanding of basic precepts that create more and more context to more advanced content. Do you? When was the last time you got a movie and jumped right into the middle of the movie?

So there's a couple things here. First of all, God did not reveal himself that way. And second of all, do you expect to grow that way? See, there's a connection here with the way that God revealed himself. We call it progressive revelation. What does progressive mean? It builds upon the original concept and not build from that. That's right. Yeah.

There's steps to the way that God reveals himself. In fact, if you're a Jew, under the law, and you're recognizing that, hey, I'm a believer. I believe in all that God has revealed, yet I'm guilty of breaking one of the laws and I have to die. Do you understand everything there is to understand about your life at that point in time?

You think about those folks. I oftentimes think about them. I mean, here they are. They're going to be with the Lord in heaven. Yet they broke the law and so there is a punishment required for them. Yet they don't understand the fullness of what is coming. Why did God not reveal it all to them all at once? Is He not fair? I bet you feel that way in your own Christian life at times. Why didn't God just reveal this to me when I was 45 years old? Or 60 years old? Why do we have to wait?

There's no faith. The waiting is keeping in faith. I think you're right. There's unfolding of truth. When Jesus came, and now we have a New Testament, a lot of the stuff we didn't understand in the Old Testament came to light, lit up. His time went on and Jesus came and told us about himself. He fulfilled all of that. Yeah, fulfilled the law.

So, would you call us privileged in terms of having knowledge of God's progressive revealing of himself? Would you call us privileged believers in a time where we get to look back and see? Yeah. When was the last time you thought about that? Never. Yeah, you know, we think about the Bible that we have access to and we forget sometimes that we get to be privileged to see a full picture.

However, just because you've got it doesn't mean you understand it. And that's the situation that we're talking about here. These verses in Isaiah and Psalm 37 talk about the way that the Lord child trains us, so to speak. the way that he reveals himself. He doesn't expect you, or the folks that he was talking to in the Old Testament this time, to understand every single thing about himself. But what he does expect you to understand are those things that are right before you, and that you do have knowledge of.

Oh good, I was waiting for that. Well, I have been wondering about my mother. And, I mean, she was a Christian, but People back then, I mean, look how long it's taken me. Does God judge you on, well, let's say she was Methodist. Well, let's just say she joined the church and so she was saved back then. Sure. So this brings up an interesting point. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take it and set it over here and come back to it in a little bit, but just to kind of talk about what we're setting aside.

So there is this whole issue of what about other people and their process? And so, wait a minute, that doesn't match up with mine. That doesn't look at all like mine. Or did they not have certain privileges and access to good teaching or this kind of thing that prevented them from being as mature as they could have been?

So we'll take that and set that right here. But let's think about ourselves for a minute and where we are in this process. So the question has us ask ourselves, what principle does this teach us about the steps that the Lord uses to mature us? What are the principles here? The biggest principle I think is that they're His steps. It's the Holy Spirit doing the work and And our part is to have faith that that's what he's going to do. And so it seems like it's a matter of listening or having faith or whatever you want to call it, that he's going to complete that.

Sorry, I'm on mute. All right. I think that's good. I think we're headed in the right direction. We're talking about principles. So principles are are important for us because we're not under law but there are many principles that relate to us as Christians and we define those principles each out of the Scripture and I think while even in the Old Testament there is a principle here that translates to the way that we are sanctified in a New Testament era, so to speak, or dispensation or age.

So here you get saved. Your life starts I'm just going to use these little lines as points where you're reading scripture. You're familiarizing yourself with the scripture. When you first got saved, where did you spend time in the Word? Because you probably have a daily quiet time at that point, and it's probably pretty regular. Most folks get started pretty ambitiously, right? I mean, this is new. This is exciting. Maybe not for all, but for many, you're ambitious and you start to read and you have these verses.

You probably, like Courtney says, you start writing them down and you start memorizing them. I remember the process that I went through when I was becoming acquainted with all that Christ has done right after salvation. I would write things down and keep them in my pocket and try to flip through them and constantly remind myself of them.

But you have those verses where they're all different for each of us, right? Okay? And maybe this isn't your exact life. I'm not saying that this is a pattern for every believer. But there are places in your early Christian infant stages that you're reading and you're learning. Does everybody agree to some degree with that?

Okay. Then all of a sudden, something happens, right? And you stop reading. Okay? Right here. You stop. you didn't think about it at the time, you just got busy. And so the scripture and that time that you had was something that was new and exciting, all of a sudden was challenged by something that was difficult and challenging in your own life. Maybe you lost a job, maybe you had to move, whatever.

Something happens in our life that causes our focus to take off the scripture and onto something else. And at the end of the day, you end up thinking about yourself a lot more, right? So you end up kind of moving down this slippery slope of not beholding the Lord through His Word, right? Then something happens, and you get a verse, or you get a passage of scripture. Maybe it's in church, or maybe it's from a faithful friend in an email, whatever. But something triggers your mind, and you say, you know, I need the Word.

And you start to get hungry, right? This is obviously showing you yourself and you're not very satisfied with yourself and so you start to get hungry for what is true again because you fed yourself a lot of false lies and things that you thought would get you through the next stages of your maturity but they didn't. So verses and scriptures and passages start to come and maybe you kind of grow a little bit more.

So wouldn't you call that the Holy Spirit right there? You get a verse You get redirected kind of back on the path. It's okay. Is the Holy Spirit working here, here, here, and here? No, all of them for sure. All of them? But I think down that point where you're turning your focus away to yourself, then that's where you're not like... So during this process, what are you telling the Holy Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit's job is to do what in your life? Conform you. Reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to you, right? So he's doing his job. It's not like he's taking the day off. Right, right. So what are you doing? You're just looking at yourself. You're not listening, are you?

Romans 1 talks about, now this is the way an unbeliever responds to truth, but we can mimic this in many ways. It talks about how the Lord reveals himself, and literally the unbeliever, I use a jack-in-the-box illustration, he suppresses the truth and unrighteousness. So he shoves the truth that the Lord is convincing him of, and he shuts the box. He thinks it's going to stay shut, but what does it do? pops right back up. And so his whole life, he's doing this. And you do that too, right?

Except for it's not with salvation truths, now it's with the Holy Spirit trying to convey who you are in Christ, and yet you're sitting there suppressing Him. Quenching the Spirit, those are terms that we could study and look at. So the Holy Spirit's doing His job, But you find that you don't actually start to grow until you start to behold the Lord through His Word. What do I mean by behold the Lord through His Word?

That's very important. We talk about it a lot. What does it mean? Notice I'm not just saying read the Bible. You gotta read the Bible, folks. I'm using the term, Behold the Lord Through His Word, because it is a personal process. It's a personal experience with the Lord. When you read the scripture, you are beholding a person. You're not reading text from a book. That Holy Bible on the front of your Bible is there for a reason. It means unique book. This is different. One of a kind. Unlike anything else. And that uniqueness is the fact that it is a person. He is the Word, capital W, right? So you're beholding the Lord through His Word.

Maybe you didn't even realize that you were doing that, but you were, and you become acquainted with a person, and you find out that relates to you. It's not just that I need to learn this so that I can go out there and do it. You all of a sudden start to realize things, and this is where you start to grow, okay? And you start to establish yourself in different truths. Now based on what we just read in Isaiah and Psalm, is this process and this concept of properly related scriptural truths, meaning this is what you need right here, right now, at this point in time.

You don't need this right now. Is that biblical? Can we say that? So what we're not saying is that you get saved and you need to memorize the entire New Testament in order to be mature. And once you've completed that, and also a mission of some sort, so that you get your little badge, you now have become officially an elder and you now are mature.

Are we saying that? Nope. Not at all. It's a much different situation, isn't it? Our growth, based on this principle of properly related scriptural truths in time to you, individualized, is something that is biblical. Does that make sense? Well, it's all gotta be part of God's plan, right? It's not like surprising Him that you're, you know, went down the slope. Yeah. Let me ask you another question. Okay, go ahead.

I think there's a couple of things here that we need to talk about. One is, God's plan is specific. And one of the things that we're learning as we study is what his plan is. Rather than just have this overall sense of the sovereignty of God, it's precise and it's particular. And it's line upon line, precept upon precept. This is how we grow. Need is part of it. Sin is part of it. Revelation is part of it. The Word of God is part of it. All of that is in there. And it works based on principles that are verifiable and knowable.

A lot of times I think we have our own agenda in terms of how God is going to grow us up and it doesn't happen to be God's agenda. because we're in an environment where we're either under law or we're looking for experiences or something rather than justice work. So the other issue I would point out is that when you start the downward path, I think one of the things that changes there is that you get to a point where I know my sins aren't forgiven. I understand that. But boy, I'm sick and tired of going to him all the time and confessing. There's got to be more to this life than sin and confess, sin and confess, sin and confess. There's got to be something where he took care of the issue of the production of the sins.

And I think that's what causes, in a lot of believers' lives, that going off the cliff kind of thing. And they give up. If they're under law, they know they can't live up to it. If they're in an experienced environment, if the experience doesn't hold them up, And so down they go. And again, ordained for the Lord, it really is. So there's kind of these truths of Romans 3. The justification side of things, right? Go ahead.

Well, the downward slope thing, I think anytime, and I think that's what the Holy Spirit gets us to, until we come up with a question, there's not going to be the answer given. So, unless you get yourself a fix, then you're not going to have being receptive to learning a truth that's there for you at that point. So I think like, well, experimenting in places just where you are open to learning something. Yeah. I think at St. Peter 315 or so, be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have when asked.

It's similar when we think about how we share our faith with others. That need, that question, has to be present. And sometimes it takes a long time to see that question come up. It's very similar in our own Christian walk. If we're not asking the question of what is wrong, then you can anticipate that a lot of times our help in trying to encourage other believers in the body They've got their answer, so they think, at the time.

And for us, even recognizing ourselves, it's like, well, is the need great enough that these truths are at a properly related time? Notice I use the word related. Is it related? to what you're dealing with. Now, there's always something that we can tell an unbeliever in a backslide, so to speak. I don't like that term, but it's used.

But the question is, where are they actually hung up, and are they curious enough to ask the question of, what's going on in my heart? Because there are other believers that get here, they're like, I got Romans 3 down. Justification done. Give me Romans 6, 7, 8. Give me the heights of Ephesians and Colossians. I want to know about my citizenship in heaven.

Give that all to me. And so you give it to them. You just dump it. You dump all of it. Because they want to know, right? All of a sudden, you give them all this glorious truth that other believers are holding so dear in their walk, and they just go, why? They really didn't understand Romans 3. They're still not sure about certain things. Some examples, these are salvation growth studies that we're talking about here, but You've got believers who are wanting to grow and wanting to just...

I remember having so many people around me in my early college years. I would see them come to know the Lord, and they were there. Every time the church doors opened, they were there. They wanted to know, know, know, know. They were so hungry, and it was so great. But once they started getting hold of those things, they realized they couldn't eat them at the pace that they were being child-trained, so to speak. And so they got frustrated. And the problem, oftentimes I think, is that this whole justification thing, that was the beginning of our class. We talked about justification truths.

Do you really understand what it means to be justified before the Lord? If you don't, what are some of the things, as a young believer, not fully understanding justification, that you can get trapped in? What are some of the thought patterns and confusion points? If you don't understand justification, you're a young believer, What are some things that are going on in your mind? Remember, justification means to be declared righteous by God.

Well, I guess, you know, I was raised Catholic. I don't know if this is the question you're getting at, but it's like, okay, you know, you believe that Christ died for you, but, you know, when you sin, then you've got to go to a priest to confess it or else you're still going to go to hell. And there's a lot of that even in the effects of Catholicism and Christianity. There's a lot of this whole confession related to repentance. Are you repenting of your sin? Like, okay, you're saved, but you should be repenting of it, meaning you're not doing it anymore. And so you feel like your justification is based on how well you can quote-unquote repent of your sin.

And so you can get lost in some of those truths. you can get lost in this whole idea of, is justification once and for all, or do I have to keep getting justified? I mean, we're just in Romans 3, and all of a sudden, we could spend some time saying, yep, I got it, I'm a believer, but wait, now I'm confused. And we can fill all their minds, all of our minds full of other truths, but justification's really still not clear in their mind. You still don't believe that you are righteous.

I think hence the whole idea of position of truth is critical to a believer that they understand that the work of Christ on the cross is a completed work. And when you exercise faith in the personal work of the Lord Jesus, that's a completed position of work.

That principle is thought. It helps, I think, understand that, well, you know, I'm thinking this way, that way, this way, that way. But I do understand about this position that I am justified because of what God did. And that's where I'm going to hang my hat. I don't care how I feel about it. I'm going to trust him because he said this is already in place. And I don't have to make it get in place. It already is.

This brings up an interesting point, and I think as a teacher it's been very important for me to understand this, and it took me a long time. We'll call it the position and condition conundrum, because you can probably think back in your walk where you first got introduced to this concept, and for those of you that haven't been introduced to it, I'll just kind of summarize it very quickly.

Your position is who you are your position is who God says you are. Everything that is true about you, regardless of how you look, how you behave, how you think, it is true of who you are because of a decision of faith in the gospel message at some point in time. When you believed, there were many things that became true of you positionally, meaning before the Lord, He now views you a certain way. Conditionally, you feel that way some days, you don't feel that way other days. your condition is oftentimes separated from your position as a young believer because you're not taught this, right? So you can think about this PNC conundrum issue because it's not taught, so you're sitting here going, well, God says that I am justified. Well, I don't feel justified, so now I'm confused, and now I'm frustrated, and so now I'm going to quit for a while until something comes along and maybe encourages me again.

And he tells me that I have, you know, everything that I possess, I possess and the spiritual blessings are complete in the heavenly places. Okay, what does that mean? I sure don't have any spiritual blessings right now. I don't feel that way. Everything's falling apart. You know, health, family, friends, my possessions. What's this whole thing about Ephesians and Colossians? I don't get it.

So, all you really know is your condition. And you're trying to make everything in the scripture match up with your condition. And so to fix it, a lot of times you introduce laws into your life, right? And there's laws that other people introduce into your life. Well, you've got to do this, and you need to do this.

In order for your condition to match the things that you don't understand are positional, you want your condition to be that. You want to become perfect. Because that's the positional perspective. It's perfection. because position is based on Christ, so it is perfect. You want to be perfect, you're trying to make your condition match it, and you get frustrated and mad.

And sometimes folks leave for good. Are they saved? Many yes, but they're frustrated because every single law that they placed upon themselves was not understood in light of the grace environment that we live in now, nor were they taught the positional perspective of who you are.

Now, that being said, Just to bring up that point that you mentioned here, it is very important for us, as we train children and train ourselves and work in our marriages and our families and our friends, to recognize the difference between positional truths and conditional. However, the more time you understand the position, precept upon precept, line upon line, the more your condition will be conformed and transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit. That is something that happens naturally over time, and that's the process that God has us in today. He is at work, but He cannot work through your condition if you are not beholding Him and beholding your position in Him.

Does that make sense? Totally. Totally. Awesome. I like totally. Alright. So, question number one. Good? Alright. Number two. What does it mean to be complete in Him? I'll let you guys give some answers. This sure doesn't feel complete, does it? What does it mean? Are you complete? Is there a verse that tells you that you're complete? Is there a verse that tells you you have everything, you're 100% complete in who God designed you to be? Yes, but since we don't memorize verses, I can't tell you which one it is. Well, we have little fancy phones. Just look up complete in the Bible and see what happens.

I think Galatians 2.20 has that flavor to it.

Galatians 2.20? What does it say? It says, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. And I'm not saying I'm right, but Christ lives in me. In the life I now live, I live by faith in the same God who died and gave himself to me. Okay, why does that make you complete? Because he's the one who's doing it and did it. Okay. Because he's the one living. He's the one living. That's right. He's the one living.

And to mention, you mentioned the Ephesians passage about spiritual blessings. So there is position and there are possessions. Okay? Sometimes related. Honestly, they are related, but does your possessions, every spiritual blessing, you have it. Does that make you complete? Not just the blessings. Is it just the blessings that make you complete? That was my question.

I think a lot of it depends on our awareness. God does everything for us, but we don't always pay attention. We don't realize we're all we have. It's because God has said that as He is, so are we in the world. That's an essence. It's an essence thing. It's a nature. It's who you are now. Right. Because God said so. Not because I did anything.

So let's look at Colossians 2.10. Let's all look it up. Let's see where God says this.

If you've been at a place in your walk where you said, I just feel incomplete. You don't use that word, probably. You just feel like you're, you say, I'm missing something. Have you ever thought that in your mind? Something's just missing in me. Wanda gets a roll, I get the, oh yeah. I feel that way. in my condition because, oh yeah, conditions everything a lot of times, isn't it? I feel like I'm incomplete, like something's just not clicking. It's like there's some missing blocks to my mental build that just are not working. What's going on? I'm just, something's missing.

Colossus 210 tells us that positionally, absolutely nothing is missing. Let's read it. Someone go ahead. In Him you have been made complete and He is the head over all rule and authority. Someone have another translation? And we are complete in Him which is the head of all principality and power? I have one that mentions the word dwells, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him.

So I think it goes back to, this verse is one you want to hang your hat on. So you put your little star by it, whatever. I'm not telling you to memorize it since that's something that apparently we're not supposed to do. I'm just kidding. Go memorize it. I'll be ready to quote it next week.

Colossians 2.10. Because of Christ's dwelling in you. Now, just like Rorah said, it's true because God said it. But what is he saying here? First of all, there is a dwelling. Okay? And where is that dwelling? Does this apply to you or is this somebody else? Is this believers? Are you a believer? Then this applies to you.

So, in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When was the last time you thought about yourself as possessing and dwelling within you the fullness of the Godhead bodily? The last time? The last time you thought that? This morning. Very good.

What does the Godhead mean? What are we talking about? Triune God. What is that Triune God made up of? Father, Son, and Spirit. So this is telling us that all three persons of the Godhead are dwelling and actively bodily fulfilling you in fullness. Not just part, not just in pieces, not at times. It's a presence that is full and complete based on the entire Godhead.

Does that make sense? Does it have to make sense? You're not supposed to say that so fast! I was just going to say, that does not make sense a lot of times for me. Is it true? It's absolutely 100% true. And I don't care how you feel. And you shouldn't either.

Could I say something here that might help? It's been my experience that even in an environment like what we're doing right now, discussing who God is and how he indwells us, we speak about this? It's a question. It's easy to talk about it, but yeah, I mean, I don't feel that way. Well, I didn't hear what he said. Sorry, I don't speak very loud. You have to speak really loud. I'll repeat it. We talk about this, this very verse, we're talking about it right now, in an environment where we're all in agreement with something.

Do we actually believe it to be true at this very moment? And I responded, I said, I don't feel like it. Does that matter? You don't feel like it too. I guarantee you there's some of you out there that would raise your hands if I were to ask for that. You don't feel like it right now. Or you don't feel like it tonight. or tomorrow. You just don't feel that that's true.

Well, what I like is that Christ is praying for us. I mean, I don't know, somehow I knew that, but I was reading something and that gave me a lot of peace. So, in your mind, and I don't feel like this is on you, I'm asking because this is what I would think of.

In your mind, do you think of yourself as the Lord in heaven The Holy Spirit's interceding and the Lord in heaven is concerned and He is looking down on us and praying for us. Well, we're in Christ. We're in, you know, our position is in the heavenly. So this, what you're saying is personal.

It's not just, here He is at the right hand of the Father and here I am and He's at least... It is. He lives in me. And that's what's really cool about that. Isn't it? Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, we don't feel like it sometimes. No, that's true. But at that instant, you're honest with yourself to the point where you say, I don't feel like this is true. I don't feel like I'm complete. That we're complete, having been made full. I mean, done. There's nothing left. Right now, there's nothing left. You are complete in Him. Well, if that were true... I mean, if that is true... How about, since that is true? What did you say? Since that is true. Since that is true. Okay. I'm learning.

Doesn't the Bible say that the power that it took to raise Jesus from the dead, which was a huge thing, indwells in us? Well, it says the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So not only that, but also the parting of the Red Sea, the creation of the... That's the God who indwells us.

And it says you were made complete in Him, having been made full. Now, this is where you get a little greeky-geeky. But this is in passive voice here. What does that mean? It's been done, it lasts forever. Are you making yourself complete? No. But are you? Yeah. Aren't you trying? Don't we try?

Even this morning Charles Stanley was saying Are you trying to obey God over and over? And I say, oh minister, come on, it's God's Word. So let me say that to you guys. Are you trying to obey God? If I sat here behind this pulpit and said, are you trying to obey God today? What's your initial thought? Nick, what are you thinking? I'm trying. You are trying? That's the initial thought. Okay, what are your initial thoughts? Well, I thought we weren't supposed to try. Well, I'm playing a...

Don't give it away. You asked. You're right. You know what? You're spot on back there. Baccaro-Baptist. And you know what? How easy it can get into, like you've been saying today, because today's a church day. Oh yeah. You know? Am I obeying God? Am I going to church? What does this verse tell us about that kind of question that's asked from teachers that have so much They can get you on the right path and they can get you on the wrong path.

And they can do it very unintentionally at times. But you have to be the Berean in your own spiritual walk. You have to rightly divide the word of truth regardless of what we're sitting up here saying or Charles Stanley saying on the radio. If I tell you, are you trying to obey him? You should think through some things in your mind.

And one of them is, yes, you've got an initial reaction. It's... I think so. I mean, well, not yesterday at that point. If I ask you, if you're trying to obey God, where does your focus go right away? I think it goes on yourself. And it goes on that condition, and I wanted to draw these bigger. It goes right here. Is there obedience in the life of a believer? Yeah. But it's an obedience of faith.

You're not trying. It's a different thing. Yeah, it doesn't really originate in us. It's backwards. It's backwards. That's the point. Most of our Christian life and growth is backwards. We start with condition, and then we end up with position. If you learn anything from this class, learn that it's backwards in most cases, in most books. It starts with position, and it ends in condition. Is that fair to say? Well, why is it that I've never heard of position and condition ever before in all my Bible studies. Let's go back to question one. For precept must be upon precept, line upon line. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

So you got there, Wanda? In his perfect timing. Just as I'm ready to leave, I get there. Jim, it might help Wanda a little bit. I don't know if you can hear me or not, but my mom never heard of position and condition. But in talking with her, she understood who Jesus is. His work on the cross was complete for her. She was totally secure in his work for her. She knew her position, but she didn't understand the word position. Yeah, I think that's a really fair thing.

There are many, many thousands upon thousands of believers that have never heard those terms. And those are not scriptural terms. They are terms that are used to explain scriptural principles. There are many believers that struggle with this, and you have to struggle with this, because it's confusing. But, you stick with the Word, you stick through Paul's epistles, you're going to see two different things. You call them whatever you want, you're going to see two different things. And there's many, many brothers and sisters in the Lord that don't use these terms.

I think it's a very useful way of referring to things, it's helpful for us. but it's not a necessity to understand the term itself. What you really need to know is what are the truths that are related to this bucket, and what are the truths that are related to this bucket, and the person.

So, when we talk about Colossians 2.10, we're talking about another principle. That first question we asked, we learned this kind of principle that God uses time. It's a growth over time, precept upon precept. And the second question in this verse, we're learning about a source principle.

This is a big deal. So we're going to start next week and just finish a little bit. I'll read you a quote about this whole aspect of our source. You are complete in Him. There's a source issue that you need to be thinking about in order to not find yourself focused on how you feel. And that's where I'll end up this week. Let's pray.

Lord, we don't understand many of the truths that you tell us are true, and we don't have to. We know that you've given us the exact amount of revelation that we need to understand ourselves and understand who you are, but not fully the Godhead bodily dwelling within us. Lord, we rest in that truth, even though we can't fully fathom how that works. We know that there are so many components and aspects of who you are that we will spend an eternity gaining better insight into, but we rest in the fullness of what you've given us in the Scripture, and most importantly, in the fact that you said we are complete in you.

And so we trust you and we simply respond by faith and say, yes, that is true. And Lord, we just pray that we would continue to desire to behold you through your word so that you would teach us line upon line, precept upon precept, in your very perfect way, designed specifically for us. It's in your name we pray. Amen.