Which Side of the Cross Do You Live On - Intro

Welcome to our class. Those of you who haven't been here before, we'll give you a little precursor of kind of how we do things. Hopefully you can adapt. Did you get a haircut? No, you didn't. So the name of the class was was the name that I came up with. Which side of the cross do you live on?

And so it's going to cover three aspects of our faith, of our life in terms of spiritual growth. The first thing we're going to study is known as the identification truths. And then the next part will be grace. Talk about what grace is and how we live in it. And the last part will be faith. And primarily the way we conduct the class is what is known as the Socratic method.

Over here are questions for next week or we'll start on them this week. You take them home with you. And those of you who want to get them electronically, I better get a piece of paper out here. Give me your emails if I don't have them. because some people would rather do them off of the web and I'll send them out to you every time I get them completed. Courtney will help and J.D. will help teach. We think it will probably take a year to go through all three of these things.

The reason for the questions are not to see if you're smart or not, not to put you on the spot or not. It's designed to promote discussion. So I've had people in the class who come to me afterwards and say, well, I didn't get them all right. Neither did I. It isn't designed to get them right.

It's designed to get you to think and so that you'll interact in the class. And so, you know, you can work on them if you want. You don't have to. You can just come to class. Because basically what the class will be is going through the questions and answering them. and hopefully they will foster discussion. And so that's kind of how we do things.

Now if you don't want to do electronically, and I didn't get here early enough to get them up here, but I'll get three ring binders. I got a whole bunch of them downstairs if you want one. to keep this stuff in. I'll have them up here after class and just come by and pick one up and keep them in there if you want. I call myself a gapper.

I'm in that gap between writing everything down and having it electronically, which means I've got both of everything. Way too much information in way too many places. So, a couple other things. I'm convinced, having talked for a while, that the real teacher is the Holy Spirit. It's not me. It's not J.D. It certainly isn't Courtney. Thank you.

And so what that means is that he's the one that we're dependent on to teach us. And when we're talking about this kind of information, I think there's a sequence in spiritual understanding. The first step is to just get the knowledge. Just, you know, what does it say? You know, pretty simple. I mean, some of the concepts Like an identification, they look sort of complicated at first, but to get the information, and the reason the information is so important is because you have to have, we have to have an object for what we believe. So we observe what the word says, and then we sort of think about it, take a look at it, And then if you don't understand it, let's say you read something that you don't understand.

What do you do about that? Oh gee, I can't get it. I must be one of the dummies. I don't have a PhD like Vern does, which means I'm less of a spiritual person than he is. Trust me, you're not. I'm in the elders with him. You're not. The last part and the most important part is to take God's Word even if you don't get it and just believe him. Believing is not necessarily believing the concept. Your faith is in the person who wrote the concept and you trust him to show you what he meant. It's always about him, always about him and how he's the one that's the author and he's the one that can tell you and reveal to you what he meant.

What do you mean by that? So if you find yourself, because I know sometimes when we talk about these terms, the terms sometimes scare people. Don't let the terms bother you. I mean, what would you call identification truths? What other label would you put on it?

How do you describe it? How do you describe the birth truths? What are the birth truths? Why do they call them the birth truths? Well, you can call them something else, you know, if you're a Plumas brother and you call them justification. Well, what the heck does that mean? You know, am I justified? So, birth truths is a simpler way to say, well, these are the truths that God has given us in order for us to be born anew. Identification truths are the truths that God has given us in order for us to grow spiritually and to walk away from all that is unpleasing to Him and abide in everything that is pleasing to Him. So, why do you put a label on it?

We just finished a class a whole year on the principle of position, position and condition. Well, who came up with that term? What is a position? And what's your condition? Well, there's terminology that describe concepts. And so, I'm always open. If you've got a better name for something than I do, let me know. It's really cool. So, I don't want anybody to think that they're lagging behind the rest of us. Because if God can teach me, He can teach anybody. And you think, we're coming down this morning, we're talking about who We're the twelve apostles.

These guys were all guys that had been to seminary, right? They all had PhDs in Jewish theology. Spent all their time at the temple. They were all rabbis, right? Not a single one of them. They were fishermen. That's what they did. So we live in a society today where we have a Greek mind. And we think mental acuity is the answer to everything. It's not. It's not. Spiritual acuity is the answer to everything. And the only one that can teach us that is the Spirit of God. So we have to trust Him. Miles Stanford used to say, you have to trust the Lord has come to that. And it has to come to that. Let's see what else I have to say. So we'll switch off teachers depending on people's schedules and that kind of thing.

And again, I'll have a piece of paper up here and you can write down your email address and then ask the questions. And, you know, I send them out right away. So you might be a week or two ahead. And then as we get going, there'll be there'll be some in the back there that from previous classes. that you can come and pick them up when you get to class. Any questions? Thank you for coming. It's pretty exciting what we're going to do, I think. So, just to give you an example, everybody got a sheet? I'll give you a little introduction and then we'll see if we can't answer the first question.

Identification. is a concept in English that probably started with John Darby. He was the one that brought into existence, or back into the English language, the understanding of identification truths. But to give you a little bit of a history, In 1483, there was a guy born named Martin Luther. And if you come out of Catholicism, you're a real fan of Martin Luther. Because he was an obscure monk, and about 500 years ago, he goes down and he tacks up on the door of a church what we would call the birth truths, the justification truths. Because up until that time, for 1500 years, Catholicism ruled the English or the European speaking world in terms of who God was and what it was all about.

And it had become so convoluted that the whole idea of salvation by grace through faith was gone. It was all based on works. It's still that way. If you grow up like I did in Catholicism, it's spiritual push-up up two, three, four all the time until you run out of gas and you hope you keep push-ups going before you run out of gas or you die, you know, so that you can go to heaven. And then if you didn't do too well, there's another sort of stopping off spot between here and heaven called purgatory, right? Well, he said that's nonsense because he started to read the Bible.

And about that time, And a little after that time, another guy came on the scene named Gutenberg. You know who Gutenberg was? He invented the printing press. And what was the first book he published? The Bible. So guess what? The Bible starts to get spread around. Up until that time, the Bible was in the hands of the monks in the monasteries and their hand translating it. And the priesthood in Catholicism is telling you what it meant. And if your church was lucky enough to have a Bible, it was big and it was chained down so nobody could steal it. So salvation, the grace method and salvation comes into existence thanks to Gutenberg and Martin Luther. And so Martin Luther talked about being born anew in Christ. This whole concept of born again is something that he put up as part of the, what did they call those things that he put on the door? Thesis. What did he say? 95 Thesis. I'm sorry? The 95 Thesis. 95 Thesis.

And the substance of those was salvation. How do you get saved? And so he said, well, we're born again by faith and not by works. You think that was a radical concept at the time? Yes, it was. He said that because of that, you're accepted by God because of what he did, not because of what you're doing. That was radical.

You had eternal security, which no one ever had or was ever taught before. And you had a position in Christ, okay? But fast forward now, in contemporary Christianity, can you be born again without growing? What do you think? presented with the truths of salvation by faith in the person and work of Christ and get saved, right? Can that happen today? From that point on, can you just never grow spiritually?

What do you think? What if you go to a good church with 5,000 people in it? Lots of great music. All kinds of programs. Well, maybe you can grow there. What does it take to grow spiritually? I just told you a minute ago. What does it take? The Holy Spirit to teach you. First you've got to have the information. That's number one. And oh yeah, there's this book called the Bible. Guess what? Information's in there.

Two, you have the Holy Spirit. And the Lord Jesus said you don't need anybody to teach you but Him. He's the only one that can teach you. And it isn't Plymouth Brethren, it isn't Contemporary Guys, it certainly isn't me. It's the Spirit of God. He's the one that teaches you. So you've got to have the information. And I think you've got to be dependent. And the third thing is you've got to believe what you see. You've got to believe what you see.

So, William R. Newell, And by the way, if you ever study the book of Romans and you want a good commentary on it, Newell's book on Romans is the best there is. He says this, almost all theology of various creeds and Christendom date back to the Reformation, which went triumphantly to the end of Romans 5. Now, we'll talk about that and why Romans 5. And so far as theological development or presentation of truth was concerned, stop there.

Romans 5.11 is a demarcation point within the book of Romans where the discussion ceases to be about being born or talking about the fact that your sins are paid for and began to deal with the issue Well, what about me, the sinner? What about the person who produces these sins? Did God do anything about that? And that's where it changes at 512. It starts to change.

And that's why he says, so far as theological development and presentation of truth was concerned, to stop there. Consequently, you must not regard yourself is bound to accept all the legal doctrine of sanctification. Now, what's sanctification? What is it?

It means to be set apart. It doesn't mean to do a bunch of good work so that you can be acceptable to God. It doesn't mean that at all. It means that you have already been set apart by God for his own use. Already done. That's a position. which has been and still is predominantly the synchronon of the orthodox belief. So, identification. I think, maybe go through this.

The first part of identification, before you can enter into it, is you got to be absolutely assured of your salvation. Are you assured? Should I go through the class and ask everybody? You have to be sure that you're saved. Now, let's talk about that for a minute. How do you get persuaded about being saved? How does that happen? Okay, who does it? Sure, he's the one that persuades you. Now, does that happen immediately, right? Day one? Usually? Bob over here on Thursday, somebody presented him with the gospel, he believed it, and he got saved. So Bob is now absolutely certain for all eternity that he's saved. He'll never have a doubt, right? No, he'll have doubts.

Why? Because he doesn't know all he needs to know. He may know all he needs to know to be saved, but is the faith any good unless it's been tested? Don't you have to have pushback and say, wait a minute, why do I believe what I believe? Why do I think these thoughts that maybe I'm not saved because gee, I thought I was going to be sinless from here on.

The first thing you know, Bob cusses at somebody. It's not like it. Or he passes out driving a car. I know he did that. But he wakes up the next morning and he says, how can I as a Christian do that and absolutely be sure that I'm saved? That's the job of the Spirit of God. He begins to learn some more about, to use the book of Romans, he learns more about what's in three, what's in four, and the first half of five. And he begins to find that he has access to God in Christ. He finds out that it's Christ who is his assurance, not how his behavior is. His faith is tested and now it's solid. And there comes a time when he can say, you know what?

I am absolutely convinced I'm saved. No matter what. I'm absolutely convinced I'm saved, but I don't know about you. You know why I don't know about you? Because the Spirit of God didn't convince me about you. He convinced me about me. I assume you all are. So I have to be assured. I have to know and rest in the fact that I have full assurance of salvation. It's a really important part. Everybody with me so far? Complete acceptance by the Father and His beloved Son. I'm a member of the body of Christ.

I can't ever get out of that because I didn't get in there on my own in the first place. I know that as I study the Word of God, it seems to be information that is in there that, gee, some of it is spoken to Jews and some of it seems to be spoken to maybe somebody else. I've got to think about, well, am I supposed to live based on what the Lord taught on the Sermon on the Mount? I heard the other day, well, He wasn't standing on the Mount. He was probably down with the people. Or am I to believe what Paul the Apostle preaches?

Who's the final authority in the Word of God? Who? Who has the final authority? Who? No, you're both wrong so far. Who's got the final authority? Who said he had it? Who said in the Word, I have the final authority? Paul the Apostle. Why? Why would he say that? I'm an arrogant guy. What is he saying that for? He's not the Lord Jesus, but he says, look, I am. He said in Galatians, he said, if anybody teaches any other doctrine other than what I teach, let him be accursed.

Well, he and Christ didn't teach the same thing. You think so? Did they? Did Christ teach salvation by grace through faith in the finished work? No, he didn't. Did he talk about the body of Christ? He said, I'm going to build my church for you. What does that mean? He talk about being united to Christ? Never. 717, he said, Father, that they might be, but not done. So Paul himself says that he's the final authority, and he is the final authority, because God has spoken through him. Okay? Is God the final authority?

Sure he is, but who's the herald that came with the information? It's Paul the Apostle. So we're going to find as we go forward sometimes that there might be information that the Lord Jesus was teaching that's a little different than what Paul was teaching and you have to decide, well, which one's right? And the tendency is to say, well, Christ is the second person of the Trinity. He's the Son of God.

He must be right. Well, revelation is progressive. It's progressive. And so Paul was teaching things that had never been taught before. Where did he get his information? He got it from God, from the Lord Jesus. But what he says is more important to us as believers today than what the Lord Jesus taught.

The Lord Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, is it for Christians? Is the Sermon on the Mount for Christians, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall, I don't even know what they are, obtain mercy? So do I have to be a peacemaker before I get something? I don't. If I'm positioned in Christ, I already have everything. And the subtlety of what is known as Reformed theology is that you don't really have it all. And if you don't persevere, you're not going to get it all. Where Paul teaches, we start with you getting it all, and we go from there. So what identification will teach us is what we got. what we've got all of, which is really important for us.

Now, if you get going on identification, you'll find, I mentioned John Darby, you'll find that most of the Brethren writers knew and taught identification. Guys from Darby, Stoney, Coates. Stoney was kind of a next generation. William Kelly was an editor. Contemporarily, in the beginning of the last century, Lewis Perry Chaffer, at Dallas Seminary, early on, they were very clear about identification. Most of it came here from Europe. The most popular Bible in 1940 was the Schofield Reference Bible.

It's not anymore, but it was identification based. It was dispensational based. The other term you'll hear is dispensation. Somebody tell me what a dispensation is. And explain it to me without telling me it's a time frame. If you say, well I'm a premillennial dispensationalist, what does that mean? Premillennial means that the rapture is going to happen before the millennium and I'm going to be out of here. But I'm a dispensationalist, what does that mean? You know what a dispensation is?

It's a stewardship. Through Christian history, through the history of man, God has given certain people stewardships. And one of the stewardships was Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the nation of Israel. The Lord Jesus had a stewardship. The Apostle Paul had a stewardship. We have a stewardship.

There are different, like it says in Romans, that Abraham was accounted righteous because he believed God. So Abraham was saved. What did he believe about God? That Christ died on the cross for his sins, was buried and resurrected. Did he believe that? Didn't even know about it. So what did he believe? What was the substance of what he believed? He just believed what God told him.

He said, look Abraham, I'm going to make you a great nation. I'm going to bless all the nations of the world. You'll have more descendants than the grains of sand on the beach and the stars in the sky. And I'm going to bless the entire planet through you." Abraham says, I got it.

No problem. He didn't have it. He didn't understand. But he said, you know what? I believe you. Just because you said it. And so he was considered or declared by God to be righteous because he believed what God revealed to him. Well, how long ago was that before Christ showed up and from Christ to the Apostle Paul to where we are today? You can't get saved today by believing what Abraham believed, can you?

No, it's not enough information. That's why information is really important. With that said, I'm going to start tracking now with identification. Identification simply means, the best word I think that describes identification is the word union. And the Lord Jesus talked about this union in John 17. And he said, that they may be one as we are one, that they may be one in us.

What the heck does that mean? Imagine the Son of God praying to the Father right before he goes to the cross and he says to the Father, Father, I've got a couple of things I want you to do. One of them is, I want these that are mine, who you gave me, to be one with me and to be one with us. What the heck? And here's what's interesting. John writes this down. He's listening, and he's transcribing it. Do you think he understood what he was hearing? He didn't have a clue. What could that possibly mean?

Because look at it. Look at us. I don't know how many people are in the room, but we're each one of us individuals. And there's you, and you, and you, and you. I'm not united to you, am I? Are we one outside of Christ? No way. But the Lord Jesus says, look, I want them to be one with me as I am with you.

Do you think John got it? I don't think he did. I don't think he got it at all. So you're reading John 17. Do you get it? What's the right answer? No, you don't get it. So where does that leave you? Where does that leave you? and dependent on the Spirit to show you what He meant. For you and I to be one with Christ.

So let's trace that back and see how that goes because the principles have been in play since the very beginning of creation. So the first question on your list is why did God create? Why did He? Why did He create? Better question. Hopefully you're going to be more responsive as time goes on than you are this morning. Why did God create you? To glorify himself. That's exactly right. God does everything to glorify himself. Now let's talk about what does it mean for God to glorify himself? What's glory? What is God's glory? Do you ever think about that? What is God's glory?

Come on, Courtney, you can answer. Oh, you're sick. My voice is about half gone. Is it who God is or his essence? It's God's essence. And what he does is that he creates, he created so that he could show off His essence. He could show off his attributes. And his attributes are like, name one. Name one of God's attributes. You'll see. Okay. Another one. Love. Okay. Did creation show that he loved? No it didn't. It didn't show that he loved. Did it? How about these things?

Is he omnipotent? Is he all powerful? Does he know everything? Does he have any capacity that in him is lacking in anything? No, he's not. So how does he demonstrate that to So he creates to manifest his glory. Well, wouldn't you think it would be nice if somebody could see it? Oh wow, there is a God and he is glorious. So he creates us. For what reason? Why did he create you and me? Back to the reason he created.

We can apprehend his glory. We can see it. and we can appreciate it, and we can communicate with God through His creation. He manifests His glory by His creation. But it wouldn't do any good if there was nobody there to apprehend it or to see that it was cool, right? So He creates to manifest His glory. So in Genesis, there's this principle there I'll read it to you and see if this will help us.

In Genesis chapter 121, God created the great sea monsters, every living creature that moves, with which the waters formed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures. after their kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after their kind. God saw that it was good.

What's the key phrase in there? After their kind. What does that mean? Sure. God was very interesting when he created. And he repeats it so many times here. He said, when I created every living thing, I created it after its own kind. What does that mean? After its own kind? Like begets like. Yeah. If he created cattle, There's this thing that he called in the Bible cattle. And when cattle reproduce, they always reproduce cattle.

They don't reproduce something else. When he says creeping things, some of you are a little squeamish about creeping things, and they do reproduce. John was here last week and we talked about the creepy things that live in Texas. Oh man, they're everywhere. And they reproduce after their own kind. The beasts of the earth reproduce after their own kind.

So where does that leave the idea of evolution? It's not true. Okay, so now we have two systems of thought. We have evolution and we have creation. Can you prove either one of them? Can you prove that God did this? You can prove it if you believe after its own kind. But in evolution it will say no, no way.

I read something last week about the Bombardier Beetle. Have you ever read about them? They are really cool. They have this ability to shoot this toxic substance at their enemies. And the stuff is so toxic that they have two bladders inside of them that house the two elements and they can't be combined until they're ready to shoot because out they come.

And this guy made a long discussion about why the Bombardier Beetle can't be evolutionary because these chemicals would never evolve. no matter how many billions of years, because the bugs would all die if they were growing inside of them, not in the way that God created them. They couldn't survive until today. And the other thing is that if we all evolved from a monkey, how come there are still monkeys?

I don't need those arguments, but the point is that all God's creatures reproduce after their own kind. Birds, you know, every kind of creature reproduces. That's a really important part because number one, God gave these creatures the ability to reproduce. He gave them that capacity. They could do that, you know.

And so creatures' ability to reproduce are only capable of reproducing their own natural and physical characteristics. Is there some sort of evolutionary process through that? Yeah, dogs are dogs, but how many different breeds are there? I've never seen a dog-cat though, have you? No, they're totally different. Like a fox is not a canine, it's from the cat family. But a coyote is from a dog family.

Every living creature that God made can reproduce itself, but he restricted it. You can only produce after your own kind. So man can manipulate the reproduction of creatures because God gave him dominion over them, but man can't change the essential nature of each species.

So I can teach a Labrador is a dog that loves the water and likes to hunt. But a Chihuahua could care less about water or hunting. But they're both still dogs. And what man did is he manipulated those creatures to do and carry out things that he wanted them to do. You see that? They're a different breed of horses, but they're still horses. They're a different breed of cattle, but they're still cattle. So it's important to know that. Man, because he has dominion over the creation, can manipulate things to his benefit. But man cannot create a cow that can fly.

Unless you guys have seen one, I've never seen one. So why do you think God created after his own kind? Alright, better question. When God created Adam, was Adam after a kind? Yes. His image? God's image. So he created man in God's image. So what about that image was the same as God? What did man get and what could he do? What were characteristics of that man that made him like God? Body, soul and spirit. Body, soul and spirit. Did God at that point Did time have a soul and a spirit? Or a soul and a body? No, it didn't. So what is he after?

What are the things about God that man gets? I think the first thing that man got is he got dominion. You know, God's the boss. So the first thing he did is he made Adam the boss. He gave him dominion over the creation. Because God has dominion. The second thing he did is he gave man a personality. What's a personality? So if I be quiet, will somebody find the answer? He also gave him an intellect. And he gave him a will. And why did he give man those things? Does God have those things? Does God have personality? Is He a person? Sure He is. Does God have an intellect? Yeah, it's a little different than mine, but yeah. Does God have a will? Sure does.

So why did He give man all these things? Why did He do that? He wanted them to have authority over the world. So if, let's say you're God and you've got these characteristics and you're going to create me, and you create me with an intellect, personality, I'm a person, and you gave me a will, what do you want me to do with it?

Use it. To do what? To have fellowship with you. To fellowship back with you. That's what you want. He wants us, he wanted Adam and those from Adam, to be able to use those capacities that God gave him to communicate back with God. Different persons, there are three persons in the Godhead. He wanted fellowship and he wanted cooperation. Again, back to the first question, why did God create? To glorify himself.

So he creates this creature, Adam, with these capacities to do what? So he could glorify God just by the capacities that he had. He created Adam to be subject to God because God was sovereign. He created Adam to be subject to God's will Which, by the way, is perfect freedom.

So in Genesis he said, let us make man in our own image according to our own likeness. And let him rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So he put him in charge. God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female, he created them.

And then in Genesis 2.7 he said, then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. So what God does is he took some substance that he already had created. In this case we would call it the dust of the ground. And he forms a human body. So now he's got a body that he's formed based on something he's already created. And then it says he breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives. It's plural. So how many lives did Adam get? More than one. The guy's an engineer, see, he knows the right answer. He got human life and he got spiritual life.

And the source of life was who? And God breathed into him and he became a living creature, became a living being. Genesis 5, 1-3 says this is the book of the generations of Adam and the day when God created man he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, he blessed them, he named them man in the day when he created them. When Adam had lived 130 years he became the father of a son. So here's Adam. He's made in the image and likeness of God. He can communicate with God. He can walk in the cool of the evening in the Garden of Eden with God. It gives him this beautiful place to live. And he has this capacity to appreciate who God is.

Not only that, all these beasts and stuff that God created and He gave them to Adam, what did He give Adam the ability to do about those creatures? He named them. That's pretty cool, that God would create this whole thing and then he'd create Adam and he'd say, well I'm going to give all this stuff to you, you decide what you're going to call them. So Adam names all the creatures.

There's probably not those Latin names or Greek names you have to look at today, but he named them all. And so he's, you know, I don't know how long that took, but they're probably going by him and he's saying, well, that's a squirrel. My dog went, oh yeah? You know, that's a Hereford. That's a dinosaur. You know, that's a fish. And so he names them all.

Now, none of these creatures that Adam has charge over are made in the image and likeness of Adam, are they? Were any of those creatures made in the image and likeness of God? They were made to glorify God, but are they like him? No, they're not. They are blessings to man's environment that he gave them. So could you say Could you say that at that point Adam is identified with God in terms of his existence? He's like God, right? But here's the problem.

God is essentially spirit, isn't he, at this point? He's essentially spirit. Is man a spirit? We possess an immortal spirit though, don't we? We possess a spirit that God gave us. That breath of life thing? was the Spirit. Man resembles God in respect without being equal with Him, but we're like Him. Man's likeness to God is what truly distinguishes Him from the rest of creation. God didn't create Klingons.

I don't know if you, maybe it's just my observing, Every time I go to a movie, we went to the Star Trek or Star Wars movie, what's it called, this new one? And what's interesting about you look at all of the coming attractions, they all kind of have the same thing. Here's the theme, the earth is going to blow up, there's going to be a superhero that's going to come along, and he's going to fix it all. And I think New York City got wiped out four times in the coming attractions of the other day. And we're going to leave this planet and go out and we're going to go through space and we're going to find all these different kinds of creatures and stuff.

And that's the way it's going to be. Well, as far as I can tell, the book of Genesis said that God created man in his own image and likeness. He didn't create any other creature like that. It's just us. So no matter how far you go in a starship enterprise, you're not going to run into human-like creatures that have mind, emotion, and will. And oh, by the way, if you ever watched the original Star Trek, you know what Gene Roddenberry did? Every one of those people they ran into, you know what they all had in common? They had sin natures. They all had them. Well, where did they get them? So Animus, they had dominion over Klingon, too.

Man is a personal being with the power to think, he can feel, he can decide. Boy, that's kind of scary that God would create a man with the ability to decide. Why would he do that? Why would he create us with a will? And by the way, there are only two creatures that I can think of that have ever been on the earth, or three, that had free will. You know who they are? Adam and Eve and the Lord Jesus. Nobody else has free will, as far as I can tell. You've got a will, but it isn't free.

Adam had free will. He could decide. He has the ability to make moral choices, and he has a capacity for either spiritual growth or spiritual decline. He could do either one. In the beginning man loved God. He was a holy creature. I don't think he was holy. I think he was innocent. What's the difference between holy and innocent? Adam was innocent, right? But he wasn't holy. What's holy mean? Holy means the same thing as sanctification. What does that mean? To set apart. Holiness means that you love the good and hate the evil.

Do you think Adam loved the good? Are these too hard for you? Did he know the difference? Did he know what evil was? He had no idea what evil was. Did he? There was no evil around. None. So all he knew was God. And he was innocent. Was Adam's likeness to God physical? Or was it one of personhood?

What do you think? God's a person. Man's a person. Your pets are not persons. But you are. And God is. So there's a likeness there. And as a person, You have a mind, you have emotions, and you have a will. So, and I know Vern covered this a couple of weeks ago and the buzzer is about to go off. Man fits under the same, physically, under the same principle that creatures fit under. And that principle is, like begets like.

So Adam can reproduce like himself. Is that only in the physical realm? No. What other realm is it in? Spiritual realm. So whatever Adam is, when he reproduces, he's going to reproduce after his kind, whatever he is. So next week we'll talk about is he the same when he starts to reproduce, is he the same as God created him or is he a little bit different? And was he ever able to reproduce in the likeness of what he was before he fell? Well the other thing I forgot to mention is that I take prayer requests at the beginning so if you have them I'll ask for him and he'll let me know.

The only one I know of is my buddy Peter who's been going through chemotherapy and radiation. He's now finished, but there's a couple of weeks of residual as he's been radiating his tongue and his throat. Although it's over now, he continues to deteriorate. because of the effect of the radiation. I talked to him the other day. He's probably got another week or two before he starts to get some of these. He's got sores and all kinds of things he can't swallow. He's lost about 18 pounds.

But he's coming along. So I told him he's going to have to come to Holly Hill someday so people could see what Peter looks like. We've been praying for him for a long time. Anybody else have a prayer request? And that we trust you with all of those circumstances. And we thank you. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.