Principles of Position Lesson 16

So we had gotten ourselves down to question six. We finished question six, right? I better bring you up to speed because there's a little bit of a change here. We're talking about sins and conscience. And we are talking about being seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We talked about the Lord Jesus has entered into the Holy of Holies. and that he sat down and why sitting down is so important. We've talked about the advocacy of the Lord Jesus when we sin, and we've talked about that we actually have a couple of advocates. We have the Lord Jesus in heaven and we have the Holy Spirit within us. And so, question six says, why is he seated? And the verse is, by his own blood he entered once into the holy place, having attained redemption for us. And then in 10-12 he says, by this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand of God. And we talked about why sitting. Why is he sitting?

You can't do hard work sitting. What's that? We can't do hard work sitting. We can't do any work sitting. Just look at Ralph when he's watching TV. He isn't working, trust me. He's seated because as far as the acceptance and our position before God are concerned, there's nothing more required for him either to do or to say.

It is finished. It's finished. It's all there. He didn't say, well I got 85% of it done and here's the 15% rules that you've got to do to make it complete. It's done. So let's talk a minute about atonement and propitiation. A couple of those 25 cent Christian words. Let's talk about atonement. And I want to read something to you. to kind of set this up.

Whether it be accurately or inaccurately employed, the student will become aware of the fact that the word atonement, which is in Leviticus 5.10, is the term upon which men have ceased to express the entire work of Christ upon the cross. That such a word is sorely needed cannot be doubted. The almost universal use of atonement for this purpose may go far to give an authoritative acceptance regardless of his ineptitude for the immense service that it thrust upon us.

The point is that we talk about atonement in Christianity a lot and atonement is never used in the New Testament. Objection to the use of the term are employed generally arise from the fact that the word is not in a New Testament term. And when used in the Old Testament some 77 times, it is a translator's attempt at interpretation that poorly represents the meaning of kafar, which purports to translate which word originally meant to cover. So the word atonement in the Old Testament means to cover. religious activities were covering their sin. And covering for sin. Through the study of word origins, the word atonement suggests at-one-ment.

In other words, it feebly relates itself to the New Testament truth, which presents Christ as the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. So, the word atonement is never really used in the New Testament. Wherever you see the word, you should change it to reconciliation. So, interesting discussion, and we don't have to go very far. If the word atonement just means a covering, what the Lord Jesus did on the cross was not a covering for our sins.

What did He do? He took them away. John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, takes them away, got them out of Dodge, where the Jews, their sacrifices of goats and bulls and whatever they were doing, just covered them over until Christ could come and pay the real penalty for them. So what's the word reconciliation mean?

We're aligned with God. Aligned with Him? Yeah. Expand on that some. Think about it. When you reconcile books, you get all the numbers in order. Okay. So they're right. How about if you reconcile people? What? How about if you reconcile people? Is that the same thing?

You get everything in order? They're fairly much in agreement and peace. There you go. That's pretty good. And is God reconciled to us or are we reconciled to him? We're reconciled to him. He doesn't need any changing or realizing. That's exactly right. Good point.

And that's a completed issue for believers, that the reconciliation, we have come from the farthest point that we possibly could be in terms of distance from God to the closest point we could possibly be to God because our position is in Christ and he's seated at the right hand. face-to-face with the Father.

So it's kind of cool what God has done. He didn't leave anything up for us to sort of finish up the equation. He put us in Christ, and Christ is seated in the heaven. He's right next to the Father, so pretty good spot to be. We have been reconciled. Now, one more thing. This is really good.

Not a vestige remains before the eye of the Father of the one who has offended Him. Is that a cool statement? Now what? Vestige means not a thought, not an inclination, remains before the eye of the father of the one who has offended him. We are all the time beating ourselves up because of our behavior, but from the father's viewpoint, the one who offended him is not before him today.

But the one who has glorified him fills the whole scene. And every believer in him knows that the Father's heart towards him as we illustrated in the Prodigal. The Father runs and falls on his neck and kisses him. He's reconciled and then as he enters into the reconciliation, he begins to joy in the Father. He is in Christ before him as Son of God, joint heir with Christ. There's not a cloud between him and his Father. And finally he learns that the Father loves him as he loves his own beloved Son.

By next Sunday, I want every one of you to be living just like that. Just like that. Because that's your position. There's not a cloud. between you and our Father. Not a single problem. Nothing. So you just laid a law on us? I did. I did and you better conform or there's going to be retribution. Yeah. Um, that is a lot of times people talk about going out of fellowship, having a flyover. So do we kind of have a flyover fellowship? That's a great question.

If we if we learn nothing in a position condition class. Two of the most important things is that your position is permanent. Your acceptance before the Father never changes, no matter what you do, because it isn't based on what you did, it's based on what Christ did. We're to walk in that, we're to live in that, we're to have fellowship with one another and with the Father from that position. So if we sin, conditionally, what happens? The fellowship goes away, but the position never does. And if there's anything that's going to motivate us to be restored to that position, it's got to be the experience that we're having as we abide. You see that? I mean, think about it.

Why do we all drive home at night? That's where we live. And why is that the place we go? That's the place we're most comfortable. most at home at, and we can't imagine going anywhere else. Well, imagine that same mindset, being face to face with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ with no impediments. Where would you want to go? You know, if it's five o'clock, I'm heading home. That's got to be a World War II plane, right? So it's the same concept that the Father has constructed, in the Holy of Holies for us to be at home where our home really is. And you don't need, like Bruce says, you don't need a law to be there or stay there.

You look at the facts. I'm there. By faith I enter into the facts and I sit down because Christ is seated and I enjoy God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I just hang with Him. See, that's kind of where that's going, I think. And I think since that is the most perfect place to be, who would want to be in a confession state?

I was, one of my college buddies, I'll use the word, died last week. a funeral mass for him yesterday. And because he was a friend and a fraternity brother and a lot of my fraternity brothers and friends were going to attend, I struggled about going. It was yesterday morning, 10 o'clock at the chapel at Regis University. And I ended up not going. And the primary thing for the reason I didn't go is that nobody there would understand what I just talked about.

They would all be praying for the salvation of this guy and they wouldn't get it in terms of, wait a minute, when I go home to be with the Lord, we're having a party around here because I'm finally home where I've wanted to be all along. I got to drive home today. and be with my Lord. And nothing, you know, there's no earth separation. There's no sin nature now to impede anything. I'm home. Why would you not want to be there? Well, you wouldn't unless you didn't understand what's really going on positionally. And you rest by faith in it, see? So I didn't go. And that's the whole reason I didn't go.

I thought, boy, you know, the last thing I need is an hour and a half of separation. Well, that's what I'm facing. Yeah, I know. But they had the priest come, someone, I think his son, my daughter, didn't want to, but anyway, they had the priest come and then they were talking to him about how my son-in-law thought he was going to hell. But because he married my daughter who was divorced, I mean his wife died. So I don't know.

Yeah, isn't that interesting how the subtlety of religious traditions, what is it designed to do? It's designed to spoil your intimacy with Christ. That's what it's really designed to do because then you think, well it isn't real. I can't sit and have fellowship face-to-face with the Lord Jesus Christ because I was divorced, or my wife was divorced, or I don't know.

Some craziness, you know, that has nothing to do with it. But this young priest came and he said, that's not true. He said, the Pope has said that... Don't you love that? It's like the Pope's final authority. The Pope said that it's okay now for people that have been defeated. That's because so many people weren't coming to church. Well, it's interesting that if the donations go down, somehow the doctrine changes. They're not too stupid, they know.

So what does the word propitiation mean? Anybody else? Propitiation. 25 cent Christian word. Get it right. Satisfied. What's that? Satisfied. It means satisfied. Who is satisfied? You? It's a Godward effect or the value of the cross. Since Christ has died, God is satisfied. This truth is the heart of the gospel and that which is to be believed Satisfied. Is God satisfied with you?

Yeah. So what does it mean then, question eight, what does it mean that Christ is in heaven as our propitiation and our atonement? Mike, can you back up a second? Sure. It's not that God is satisfied with me. He's satisfied with the work of Christ. Right. And I am in Him. And I've been made acceptable by what He did. It has nothing to do with me. Well, yeah. It does.

You have to have faith. Well, assuming that you wouldn't be in there if you didn't have faith in the person and work of Christ. Yeah. But I also think, stated better than I could state it, but I also think that there's a It needs to be a recognition on my part that I belong there because of Christ.

I'm not there of my own goodness or effort or anything else, but I am there. And now that I am there, I don't come in there as like sneaking in under his coat. I come in there fully orbed with, Hebrews 10 says, with boldness. I'm to enter into the Holy of Holies. And you notice if you read down there, there's no verse that says I can leave once in a while. Once I go in, I'm there. And I stay there because it's home. I have a right to be there. I have the enjoyment of what's there.

Yeah, somebody else did it for me, but now that I'm there, I get I can't walk around saying, well, gee, I wonder if I'd be okay with Christ if I hung out with the Father for a while. But he's only seeing me through Christ. That's right. And you're only seeing him through Christ. It's a two-way street. Fellowship is not a one-way street. It's a two-way street.

I know you don't like the emotional part of it. I don't, no. Especially from you, the Irishman. What is the fruit of the spirit? Okay. Singular. Fruit. What is it? Love, joy, peace, patience. What are those? They are attributes of God himself. Which we enjoy, right? Which he is the fruit of, the fruit singular.

So, you know, when you say they're there, I say the reason why we have joy, peace and all that is because we are seated with him. Right. We have our new new creature in Christ has all those. If we are in fellowship in that, we have the joy, peace, rest, and all those things. That's where I go to the intimacy part, where we can say, Daddy, and we have that boldness to call him Daddy, that intimacy, that fellowship. And that gives us the joy, peace, and the fruit of the Spirit, which I think there is. When you have fellowship, you have that. He's told us that.

Right in there is where the implementation of my position starts to become the condition of my life. And Monique's right. That's right. Right there is where the faith, my job is to believe Him. And the fellowship and the intimacy, we're to believe all of that too. And that's because of the faith we have the joy and peace. That's when you want to back out of it. It's all based on faith. Yes it is. And personal faith is what? It's resting in God's word. That's really all it is. You believe him and you trust him. And you don't say to him, well I believe you as long as you do A, B, and C. No. His answer is always the same. I've already done A, B, and C. It's already done.

Now let me ask you a question, whose job is it to propagate this intimacy? Is it yours? Fruit of the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit's job and oh do you think he likes doing it or is he waiting for you to measure up to some sort of standard before he'll begin to show you Christ?

No. No. That's why you start with position. You have to start with position. You can't go to the Lord from a conditional standpoint of how I feel and none of that. God says it's so, it's so. And I don't really have a handle on this intimacy and this fellowship, but I expect you and I trust you to show me what that is. Because he wants to do that.

So if you don't get it, it's a problem of the spirit? No, I think we don't get it because we don't believe them. We don't believe it's really true. We give them the buck monkey. Yeah, but you don't know what my circumstances are, or you haven't had the experience that I've had, so how could it possibly be true of me?

If he said it, that's enough. That's good enough. If not only has he said it from a positional standpoint, but he's been very clear, like Courtney's talking about, how he's going to implement this intimacy with the Lord Jesus, he's going to do it. It takes forever to settle down on the fact that he's going to do it, because we always want to help him. We always want to get out in front of him. We always are complaining that it isn't fast enough, or whatever, you know, and we don't realize a lot of times that our flesh is asking him to make the flesh comfortable.

And that's not what it is. Yeah. Well, and I was thinking too about rightly dividing the Word of God. There's a lot of believers that are a little confused about it, you know, because of the law. It's still mixed in there, so you can't really be free as long as that component is there. Yeah, I want to chase that rabbit a little bit. In Romans chapter 7, Paul's talking about the law, and the law comes to my sin nature and to Paul's sin nature. And that law says to the sin nature, you shall not desire. Right? You shall not what? You shall not desire.

That's really what it says. It says to your sin nature, my sin nature, you will not desire. And oh, by the way, the total lifeblood of the sin nature is to desire. That's what it does. And the law comes and says, you know that thing that you do? You can't do that anymore. And the sin nature says, back to the law, I'll show you about desire, and here comes all manner of desire out of the sin nature.

So, if you begin to understand, my sin nature will dance with God until the believer recognizes that he's been crucified and separated, and no matter what the desire is, he doesn't have to respond to it. Why? Because he's seated in Christ in the heavenlies. He was crucified, he was buried, resurrected, and the sin nature is going to do what it's going to do. It isn't part of me anymore. trust the facts, rest in the Spirit. The Spirit does two things. He promotes fellowship with the Lord Jesus, and he holds the sin nature at bay with the cross. That's how he does it.

So we're free, even though we have the sin nature. And the sin nature is always trying to leak out the side and go to God and say, well, give me a little stroke. No stroke. Why not? Because as far as God is concerned, what is his attitude to the sin nature?

He's condemned it. It's not an issue with him anymore. If it was, we couldn't be seated. He wouldn't be satisfied. You alright with that? If it's my word, I never get it right. But whatever Byrne says, faith in the facts of the tracks and whatever, you know, and the caboose. People generally go the opposite way. They just try to justify scripture by feelings. And then I search the scripture to find out something based on my feelings. Not that feelings are bad, but feelings come after the faith, not before. You see that? On Wednesday night we've been in Colossians 2 and we've just finished 6 and 7.

As you've begun in the Lord Jesus, so walk in Him. How'd you start? By faith. rooted, grounded, established, as you have been taught. Those four things are all passive voice, which means it's all being done to you, right? I'm being rooted, grounded, established, and taught by the Spirit, by the Word. And then it says rejoicing with thanksgiving. Well, there's the emotion. But it's based on the first four things happening. The teaching, the grounding, the rooting, the establishing. So that's the proper sequence. It isn't rejoice and then hope this fills the gap. Now what was that scripture? It's Colossians 2, 6, and 7. Right? Know what it is?

So the benefit of Christ's blood for the sinner in the acceptance by the Father, and this word halismos is the word for appreciation, refers to Christ as the one who not only propitiates or satisfies, but offers himself as the satisfactory sacrifice, which means to pay the necessary price for the compensation and the removal of the sins of the people.

So a guy said to me one time, you know, God is done with your sins, how come you're not? Well, they're my sins. You're taking full responsibility. I sure do. Why doesn't God just pass over sin? Question nine. He can't. Why can't he? He's just. He's holy. He's righteous. He can't pass him over. He can't look at him. He can't sweep him under the rug either. He can't just say, well, I'm just not going to look at him anymore. He can't say that.

He's got to deal with it. He's got to deal with the sins because they are an offense against him, his righteousness and his holiness. You know, people say, well, the only contribution I have to the cross of Christ is that I put him there. It was my sin to put him up there. The rest of it he did.

So he has given us the responsibility and the privilege of confessing our sins. Do I need to go through what confession means? He that is washed needs not to say to wash his feet. He that is washed, use the word atonement or reconciliation, needs not to do anything but to wash his feet, which is confession. Did I make that kid mad? I was talking to a couple of guys a week or so ago, they were concerned about this verse.

Why in John 13.10 Jesus says to Peter, he that is washed needs not to be washed again, but to just have his feet washed. Why would he say that? Do you understand what the concept is here?

If you lived in the time of the disciples and the Lord Jesus, feet washing was a common thing. Every time you went into somebody's house, they washed your feet. Why? Because they were only wearing sandals, their feet must have been really bad. And they didn't have asphalt driveways and concrete streets and stuff, so you were out there walking around not only in the dust, but everything else that finds its way into the dust.

So, what's the point of contact for you and I as believers with the earth? It's our feet, isn't it? So, our point of contact with the sinful world is, in this sense, our feet. So, washing the feet is confession. Do you understand how that works? You as a whole human being are already washed, are already bathed in Christ, but your feet get dirty once in a while. The washing of them is done with the Word. The washing of water with the Word. See that? That's why you don't want to go out on the street too much. So, we've talked about this. How many advocates do we have? We have two.

The word comforter in John 14, 16 is rendered advocate. in 1 John 2.1, we need and have a dual advocacy.

When we sin, the Lord Jesus intercedes for us on the ground of His having borne the judgment of every one of my sins. And He's not up there begging. He's just there. The indwelling Spirit acts upon our conscience to produce confession. I think every one of us kind of knows what that's about, that the Spirit of God, what does He do?

Does he make you feel guilty? Yeah. Does he make you feel bad and that you've got to go through some warm heaths before you can be restored? Well, it's our human nature, don't you think, to feel... By human nature you mean old sin nature? You're right. Yeah. How reliable is the old sin nature?

Well, it's not reliable, but we have it. I have it, but do I have to react to it? No, but as a human being you most likely will. So if I grow spiritually and I rest in what we've been talking about, then I don't have to react to it. I know, but at times, don't you think? Oh, I'm not saying that you don't. I'm saying you don't have to. Okay. Okay?

And I think that, you know, I mean, I sin and God looks down at me and says, well, after he's mourned for about seven minutes, then I'll restore him. And he's got to say sorry six times and say a couple of prayers. Donna? You know, it's interesting as you think through that process there. If you feel bad about your sinning, then you're really thinking that there should have been something in you that wouldn't have done that. which is totally disagreeing with what Gordon says about our sin nature. Did everybody hear what Donna said?

Yes. Something in us that... So it's not a flippant response. No, it's not. Well, it's our conscience. Well, we dealt with conscience last week. If you see a booby jar, don't you feel tempted and you're going to kind of sneak one? I just take one. I don't think about it.

You have to grow up in the McBride household. In their household, here's the jar of cookies, right? It gets down to one and nobody in the house will take it. Because they don't want, they don't want to offend anybody until they got me in the family. I always, if I walk in and there's one, I grab it. Probably been saving it for you. No, they weren't. That was an old cookie though.

So here's the point. that we do have a conscience that isn't reliable. We do have a sin nature that wants to express itself. We do have emotions that are dictated by this sin nature and our humanity that want to keep us from resting in Christ. All of those things combined together to keep us from just by faith resting in the Lord Jesus.

And so there comes a time when you just reject them. I'm not going to, you know, yeah, I'm human, but wait a minute, I'm this brand new, resurrected, seated in Christ, human being, who is exactly like Christ. I have a privilege and a right to be in His presence, and I'm going to sit there, and I'm not going to pay attention to this. I'm going to sit there by faith. I don't trust my conscience. I don't trust my feelings.

None of that, until your feelings begin to line up with your position. And when they do then they are trustworthy. See? Alright with that? Okay. We have the assurance of the sin having been forgiven, the unrighteousness cleansed, and our fellowship with the Father completely restored. That's pretty cool. Okay. I need this information. Where does it say I've read it many times, but that we are seated in Christ.

Colossians 3.3 Colossians 3.3 Colossians 3.3 We're seated not only in Him, but in God. So I should have preceded in him and he got raised up together and seated with him in the heaven. Well, then also Ephesians is that's an Ephesians verse. Yeah. Ephesians one or two. We're seated in the heaven. But it's an Ephesians Ephesians one or two. But it's one. It's one. Right. The very one three years.

Yeah. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. What is it, Ephesians 1-3? I think so, I'll look it up here in just a second. Yeah. It's 1-3. Thank you. I think. Yeah, Ephesians 1-3. Colossians 3-3 is the one where we're seated in Him, in God. We just went through the verse that in Christ Jesus dwells the fullness, all fullness, and it says you're completing him. Read Colossians chapter 1 and 2 and it will change your perspective about who you are. Okay, now here's the hard part of the class.

True or false? Ready? If we turn from our position of rest to fight against sin, we have stepped off the rock of grace into the swamp of self-effort. True or false? True. Don't you like that term, swamp of self-effort? Two, at rest in our position in the Lord Jesus, we can't depend upon the Holy Spirit to take us through all that is required for our growth in the purpose of God. What's the key word? You can't. Yeah, it's supposed to be can. Yeah, you can. Now, I want to talk just for a second about, notice that the author said, take us through all that is required for our growth in the purpose of God.

There seems to be a process going on here, right? We're going to be taken through, we're going to be taken on a journey Now, again to explain, we have a position instantly that's totally accepted in the Father. We have all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, but there's this journey, the conditional journey, I'll call it. And the conditional journey is the work that the Spirit does to take us from a viewpoint, a mindset, and really faith in what's going on in my condition so that it will eventually line up with my position and I'll live that way. I won't look at God and say, yeah, but I'm a human being, you don't understand.

Yeah, he does. Yeah, he does. And he has us on this journey. I read one place where He shows us the top of the mountain at the beginning and all the glories that are there. And then he takes us all the way back down to the bottom and we've got to walk all the way up. We've got to learn every step of the way.

Why would he do something like that? Why didn't he just show us the mountaintop and let us go at that? Well, we wouldn't be very comfortable if we just started down here and then jumped right up there. Yeah, not comfortable. What else? We wouldn't learn dependence on the way. We wouldn't learn anything. And here's the big deal. None of us would be suited out to walk beside somebody else.

We'd be going to them and saying, well, what's the matter with you? Aren't you just sitting in your position? And then they're saying to you, well, I don't see this position. All I see is the road is muddy and it's not straight and it's tough. And because you walk the road, you come beside them and you say, yeah, but it's okay because we know where we're going.

Let's go together. That's the big reason. Because we're all interdependent on each other. for spiritual growth. The Lord uses us for others. And there does, believe it or not, there does come a time when you're not so concerned about yourself, where you're not the focus of everything, that maybe the body of Christ is, or somebody else is, and why? The only way you come to that conclusion is to realize, well, I already have everything, what do I need to be worried about? I'm free to be used of God to do something else, to walk by somebody else, because I don't need to be... It isn't about me. Right. You should take your eyes off yourself.

You come to love another human being. What happens in that relationship? One of the things that happens is that you start getting interested in what they're interested in. Oh, they like to go to movies, or they're Bronco fans. So you get interested. Well, imagine as your intimacy with the Lord Jesus increases, then you start to think, well, I'm kind of interested in what he's interested in.

What is he interested in? Where is his focus? On you. Well, not me individually, but on his body. And so that's how there's a natural spiritual progression about how you serve the body. You grow to the point where you can serve because you start to see, well gee, my Lord is interested in this body. That's what I'm interested in. I just want to be involved in whatever He's doing.

Because it isn't about me anymore. That's what Pentecostal churches do. They get all over you unless you know how to speak in tongues. Speak in tongues, well I can fake that. That's what they end up doing. Most of them do. Okay, last one. Even though God fully and justly accepts the atonement of His Son on our behalf, He in no way passes over or tolerates our sins. True or false? I have a true. I have a false? True. What do I got over here?

I'll read it again. He doesn't tolerate our sins and we all are sinners still. Does that mean he doesn't tolerate us? I'll read it again. That's good. Good question. Even though God fully and justly accepts the atonement of his son on our behalf, he in no way passes over or tolerates our sins. I told him it's not the right word, is it? Reconciliation would be a better word. Even though God fully and justly accepts the reconciliation of his son on our behalf, he in no way passes over or tolerates our sin. True or false? False. It's true.

Example, Alan Sins. I know it's a rarity, but he does. What happens in Alan's experience? First thing that happens is he loses fellowship, right? So it's like turning the light off. And all of a sudden he's walking around in a dark room. And there's an upsetting about that. Then the Spirit of God interacts with his consciousness to do what?

To have him confess. The confession does not involve, I'm a dirty rotten sinner. Because positionally, is Alan a sinner? Positionally, is he still a sinner? The answer is no, he's not. He's positioned in Christ. So what does he do? Confession means to say the same thing as God says. And what does he say? Okay, I'm positioned in the Lord Jesus before the Father. I'm totally accepted in the Beloved. I've been functioning and acting as though that weren't true. And it is true. And I confess. What happens? The Spirit restores me, turns the light back on. restores me to fellowship.

Did it affect my position? No, but it certainly affected my condition, which shows that God doesn't tolerate sin. You can't walk around in sin as a believer and expect to be fellowshipping with the Lord Jesus. You can't do it, because it's in the way. I think the key is that our position of total salvation, acceptance for God is affected in the same way. So it sounds like he doesn't follow his sins, it's true, but he still loves us, we're bound for heaven, etc. And it's more than that he loves us and we're bound for heaven.

It's based on specific facts of what he's done. The love is in there, but the facts... I mean, here we are eight months into position and condition class. Hopefully we're learning that position is critical to our life. We must know what our position is. We have to know those truths.

Because if we don't know them, we don't have an object for our faith. We can't walk around and say, Jesus is everything to me and I'm dumb other than that. No, we know specific. Believers are to be as meek as a lamb and as wise as a serpent. You're supposed to know. We're supposed to know. what's going on, and our faith rests in it. And that's how it works. We're not to be walking around like a Pentecostal with a bunch of warm fuzzies going on, or a legalist looking for the next law to live under. We're not to do that.

Quickly, a couple of things we were saying about, you know, we start in the bottom grade, we go up and all that, and the body concept, but I think back to 2 Corinthians 1, Blessed be the God and the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, mercy is God of all comfort. who comforts us in all afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. And just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. So I mean the body concept and the reason we go through trials is to help somebody else in the same thing. And I think every one of us knows at least 30 or 40 incidences where we were bumping along and the Lord sent somebody next to us. We all know of that.

The other one, Wanda, for those, the one sort of thing about Ephesians 1.3 is that we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heaven.

It's Ephesians 1.3 that we're talking about, but the seeding part is in Ephesians 2.6. where it says, we've been raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's Ephesians 2, 6. And then the other one was Colossians, and if you look at Colossians 1 through 3, therefore you've been raised up with Christ. Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But we're seated at the right hand of God.

So Ephesians 2.6 and 3.1, Colossians 3.1, proceeding or interplacement with him. So is the last one true? No, no. Oh, you mean the last one of these? Yeah, it is true. I don't know what that look meant. I thought you were referring to the verses he was talking about. Is the last one true? Let's close.

Father how we thank you for your grace and boy you've just done everything that's necessary for us to be totally accepted in your son and that you're working to allow us to just rest by faith with a clear conscience in the presence of your son and behold his glory father we're thankful for that we pray in your son's precious name amen