Praise to the Father for our position in Christ - part 1
Ephesians 1:3-4 · Bob Eckel · Jan 14, 2018
Ephesians (2018-19), No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/410261637483745

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

Randy, read verses 1-4, if you would, please. Sure. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him. Okay, good, thanks very much.

Okay, last week Roger introduced us to the epistle in the first two verses and we're not going to need to revisit that tonight, or today, but ultimately I think it's just as comes in verse four really refers to everything that precedes it, so we will go back and take a look at those two verses. So this is the heart and soul of identification truth that we're talking about here today.

I think you remember now that verses 3 through 14 are one sentence. I mean there's some punctuation there which is maybe not God-given, but I look at verse 3 as at or at the peak of this whole scenario. Remember one sentence you've got to begin in some place and generally if you think about when we write Whatever we write, to whomever we write, the first sentence grabs attention. The first sentence is boring and dull and you get distracted and you're wondering why you're reading what you're reading. So anyway, keep that in mind as we go forward. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Reminds me of Hal Malloy who spent two years teaching Galatians 2.20. Should we spend two years on this verse? Roger is laughing, he says we probably should.

Alright, so interestingly enough, blessed are the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, It's interesting, and this is kind of the same identical phrases in 1 Peter 3.1, but it's repeated in multiple other areas. This is kind of unique here, and Macaulay points this out. Macaulay says that the verb form here is used exclusively in the New Testament to identify God the Father and God the Son, and it's used in context, in that regard, eight times in the New Testament. Never of man or us. So this term is really specified to relate to the relationship between God the Father and the Son.

So what then do you make of John 20.17? I have that in your handout.

So John 20.17 says, Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. What do you make of that verse? Of course, this is a hardcore gospel account now, this is not the church. Yeah, Tom?

Well, it would seem in some ways the apostles would be doing less of a mental skip than we would because they recognize that Jesus is fully human at the time, but with his resurrected body. But we would have this kind of mental skip trying to get that into our heads unless we saw what the apostles were seeing and reckoned the way that they saw it when he was going up. Because that way he's still intimate with them, but he's making it plain that he's going. Other thoughts about this?

Well Bob, I think it's kind of remarkable that the Lord differentiates my versus your. My God, my father, your father, your God. So it seems like that's really one of the key things that comes out. There's a special relationship between the son and the father. There's a special relationship between us and So what Roger is doing is identifying the pronouns and how they are uniquely interpreted here. Is not then God our father too? Of course he is.

But yes, but we are not the Godhead, right? I mean, identification truth is wonderful, but we're not part of the triune God. Of course, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned here, but he, of course, is what communicates that new nature we all have in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I don't want to be overly technical here, but Macaulay makes this point and made me think a little bit about, is God really my father? Yes, he is, but the Godhead is still the Godhead. I think it distinguishes the relationship that the father has with the son and the son with the father.

It is not our relationship, despite the fact that we're fully Righteous in him. Remember, he hath made him to be no sin, to be sin for us as we could be made then the righteousness of God in him. Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

How many hours do we have here today, Roger? Isn't that spectacular? Just think about that for a second. Let's drill down here. To be called blessed, it's the same root word, but it's a different word that reflects the recipient now. God never calls Christ The relationship they have is one, but we are blessed because we are the recipient of who they are. Do you think this in any way diminishes our relationship? that we're the recipient of being blessed. No, of course it doesn't. Notice in what we are blessed in every spiritual blessing, which is the same root word in heavenly places in Christ. How many? Every. Whenever there are. Every or all, and that implies everything that the Holy Spirit has to bestow.

Now I think that's really important. You know, we can be told that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, but how do we know this? Just by intellectual study? No, it's in fact this Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, and that's what ultimately allows us to have those blessings manifested in our thoughts and in our lives. Incredibly important. The Holy Spirit is the communicator of these blessings through the new creation we are in Christ Jesus. And that's where we're going in this verse and the next verse here in a second. And where is this?

Ephesians 2.6. And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Okay? Positional truth.

That's where this stuff happens. These blessings flow from the right hand of God. They're not circumstantial, but as we in fact view ourselves as truly positioned, ultimately the blessings flow endlessly and infinitely into our lives. And what does this entail? Meaning what happens?

Well, I think this is a statement of who we are positionally. I just kind of said this. Our union and our new identity. Everybody on the same page here? Yeah, Tom. I remember that big bold-faced screen projection when Hal was here and he made sure we knew that it said, in unity, identify. So it's ticks, it still clicks. Well, that's good. Hal taught us a lot, didn't he? I think we could be a better book for identification than Ephesians. Of course the other epistles of Paul teach us that. I mean Romans has a lot of identification truth too. What Margaret? Well I was just going to say, you know, how many times do we talk to somebody and they'll say, I'm going to pray that you will be blessed. And I turn around and say, I'm already blessed. And they give me this funny look. Like, you're pretty presumptuous. But before you came in and you were late again. She's chatting upstairs, probably eating bonbons. We have fun. I'm not serious here.

Well, kind of. We're saying that prayer, if it's not based on the cross, is kind of worthless. It really is. In fact, that's what you're saying in that regard. Randy, hand up. The thing is that we're blessed in the heavenly places and everybody always wants earthly blessings. Yeah. Let's focus on earthly blessings. It's so true, isn't it? Blessings is having that new car, right? Or having a trip to some place. And the funny thing is that in the U.S., we're one of the wealthiest nations in the world. We're blessed.

When you talk about third world countries like Puerto Rico is going through massive financial disasters and people still on power and all these things. While we were out of town over Christmas, I got an email notification that Excel was aware that we were out of power and here's what it's going to be fixed by. In Puerto Rico, they're like, jeez, we love to have power. And then you look at other third-world countries like Hassan in Uganda.

He doesn't need earthly blessing like we have. He would just like to make sure that they have food. Exactly. I mean this blessing is spiritual blessing. This has nothing to do with our next meal. It has nothing to do with what we drive or our job. It's entirely from the right hand of God.

I wonder how many people came to the Lord in Hawaii yesterday? Have you heard about this nuclear threat? Anyway, we saw a few examples of how people responded on the news last night. And it's in Christ. And by the way, last week I threw out a number, 154. Actually, it's 234 verses in the New Testament that say in Christ. How many times can you think of doing things for Christ?

In almost all those, there's about five or six. I didn't drill down on that. But they're all in the Synoptic Gospels. I mean, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. and not in the epistle. So anyway, in Christ is something that is established for each and every one of us being in Christ. These spiritual blessings in the heavenlies are in Christ.

Philippians 3.20. A couple of verses that really relate to this is one of my favorites. Our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Citizenship I think if you think about this and I remind myself frequently because the flesh still exists but reminding myself frequently of where my citizenship really is. My late wife Sharon had a sign on the refrigerator and it had a negative sign meaning no relevance. Heaven is my home and earth is my business address. No whining. It really said a lot because Heaven's our home.

It's where our citizenship is, and that's where the spiritual blessings flow from. Back to what Randy said, it's not a nice piece of chocolate for dessert tonight. I mean, this is really spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And so, Colossians, I think Roger or maybe Randy last week mentioned this, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. That's where our life is hid, and that's where these blessings ensue.

Now, I say this often, but it's so true. This is not something you intellectualize. This is a life of identification in the Lord Jesus Christ that allows those blessings to flow by the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, Bob, you know, the whole set of truths we're learning here are supposed to shape how we view everything in life. It's really true.

Even though we're not being blessed here physically, it's to shape our mind and how we approach everything. We approach it from where God says we're identified, we're going to end. It's to shape every part of our lives. So it's not just, well that sounds like nice truths about you, but it's to change us and make us have a view that God has about us. Let's have the same view that God has about us. Yeah, we're not wrapped up in legalism here. We sure don't want that, but it's just an example personally the other night.

I was in Lexington, Kentucky during the day on Thursday and I had a flight from Lexington to Atlanta. Why do I have to fly south and east to get to Denver? Anyway, I did. And then the Atlanta flight to Denver is about three and a half hours or maybe three plus anyway.

So I was brain dead because I was there doing science. And so I said, gee, maybe I'll watch a movie. I don't watch many movies, I must admit. And so I turned on a movie and about 10 minutes later, this is not what I need to watch. But I'm not saying it right or wrong.

And then I watched Dunkirk, which really caught my attention. The whole story of the Dunkirk, you know, removal of all the troops from France and England back to England across the Channel. Some 300,000 men, I would presume almost all men transported. during World War II, and so that, but anyway, it's just an example of how who you, and this is not who I am that first movie, but it seemed like it might be entertaining, and it clearly wasn't entertaining to the new nature.

Yeah, Tom. Quick flip on that, and I'll be quiet. No, please. This is Sunday school. Come on. At the end of that movie, did they even, because I didn't see the movie, did they even flip over to Winston Churchill's quote, wars are not won by evacuations, And, you know, just kind of a lead in to say this could have been avoided, but it happened and we have to live with it. I don't remember that phrase, but Churchill ended the movie. And I don't know exactly what quote it was of Churchill that ended the movie. The movie's well done.

I do like war movies. I mean, but it's not what you like. This is history and it's well exemplified anyway. And war is hell, right? I mean, it just brought back bad reminders. I mean, both Margaret's My father and my late wife's father, he was a prisoner of war for 10 months in Germany and lost 100 pounds, barely lived. So anyway, war is hell, it really is.

But anyway, back to this. Set your mind on things above. That's where the spiritual blessings come from. Macaulay also outlines what he calls placing us in the forefront of five spheres. I was okay with this but I brought it to your attention because I know Roger likes Macaulay. Blessing, power, External, God's display of wisdom and lines of spiritual battle. So, somebody read Power. Blessing is where we're at right now.

Power, somebody read Ephesians 1.20 please. Just pipe out when you get it. Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Okay, that's the power of the one sphere in which we exist.

The eternity of this, Ephesians 2.6 and 7. Somebody look up 310 while we're doing 67. God's display of wisdom, 310. to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. I like that one.

612 lines of spiritual battle. Don't be bashful. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the ruler forces of this darkness. Keep in mind those battles exist from above for us to be manifesting those in the power of the Spirit here. All right, thanks everybody.

All right, let's then think about contrasting these types of blessings with those of Israel. What are the blessings to Israel? We could go back and look at multiple verses to support this. What kind of blessings has God shown Israel and what has been promised Israel? What's different in the land than spiritual blessings that we're given infinite numbers of?

Temporal, not supernatural. Okay, and what else is different? Heavenly and earthly. Beautiful, Patty. Heavenly versus earthly. Israel's about the earth, right? I mean, everything about them is earthly and temporal too, although the eternal promises is a new heaven and a new earth. We won't go there right now in terms of the scriptural basis of that. So, Israel, earth, and keep in mind the Jewish community today, even those who are more conservative or orthodox are looking for their land, right? And for the kingdom that God has promised them. Then there's the rest of the Jewish community just takes the holidays, right? Okay.

Alright, let's turn then to verse 4. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Boy, this verse, depending on what your theology is, could take you way out in the left field. And what are the couple things about this verse that could take you out in the left field in terms of what we believe here at Holly Hills in terms of the total truth of the Word of God in terms of our lives in Christ? I see two things here that really are thorns for the body of Christ. Yes, Karen. I'm kind of seeing that we should be holing without blame.

Oh, good. How are you doing at that? I'm not doing well at it, but I need to work harder at it. We're going to come back to this. Okay, that's one thing. Boy, you know, this idea of covenant theology where we have kind of a legal system that we need to abide by and we have to live up to these expectations, that's one thing. What's the other thing that's a big stumbling block here? being chosen. Okay, the whole predestination issue. We're going to deal with both of those this morning and the Holy Spirit's given me the answer for both of these. Why are you laughing? I'm waiting for everyone to see the answer. Oh, okay. We have fun. Alright.

Just as he chose us, airst indicative, factual and once applying to future application, us in him and Christ before the foundation of the world. Just as is an exemplification of what's preceded it. By the way, it's kind of like therefore. What's it there for? Just as relates to what occurs before Tom.

Don't beat yourself too hard over the head. Indicative is not the kind of thing... Indicative. I'm glad Tom's here. Could I be sending you some of my manuscripts to proofread here? Anyway, my bad. Well, you know, the spelling check didn't point it out, so it must be a term. Anyway, all right.

So we were chosen in Christ, and when and why? Class is puzzled by that one. We've got the answer to one. And why were we brought into this relationship? He decided. He chose. Well, we're going to come back to that, Carol. That's why. He chose, okay. That's why he loved us. Because he decided to.

Alright. And what's the purpose of us being brought into a headway relationship and receiving all these blessings? That we should be holy and without blame. Okay, and what's the end of that? Before him is love. For what? And love. Okay, but what purpose do we have here? The summing up of all things in Christ. Alright, good. I guess I'm playing guess what I'm thinking. But it's to bring glory to God, is it not? I mean, Hal spent a lot of time on that. But really, I mean, to God be the glory. Great things he has done, right? And he's doing that in each and every one of us. All right, interesting.

Foundation literally is a noun that represents being thrown down. Think about the foundation of the world. What do you think about this universe in which we live in terms of being thrown down? The foundation of the world. I mean, is that just all the seed that's been planted both literally and spiritually? Well, that's where we were identified, right? Boy, isn't that amazing to think about that? Before the foundation of the world, before the world was ever formed, you were known by the Lord. Boy, that's just so incredible, isn't it? To think about that.

But the Lord doesn't have a timeline. The Lord looks at everything, I mean we're so spatial, we have to have this timeline, but that's not how the Lord sees everything. God sees the entire timeline of eternity past, eternity future in one view, constantly, in real time. It's so hard for us to get our brain around that. Here we are, we're a little speck on that timeline.

Tell the Nobel Prize winner in physics that. I guess getting back to the nub of the issue is God created created time. It wasn't that time existed before God was. So who is this God anyway? He so totally makes everything work. Don't you think God throwing out the universe is so hard for us to understand, isn't it? But he makes us believe that that's true.

Are you going to get into the choice thing? Yeah, we're going to get there. And this all relates to Christ. So I've got a series of bullet points here. Christ is the author of all things. John 1 through 3. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. How about that one? Christ's suffering is dated. I found this quite interesting. I hadn't really thought about this.

But in Hebrews it says, he then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So this picture of eternity, I mean, Christ saw himself in this, if you will, this eternal covenant that he had with the Lord, that this suffering would ultimately need to occur.

The eternal promise of this identification truth, John 17.24, Father I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world. So it's all foundation of the world kind of stuff. And finally the eternal promise to those who turn to the beast during the tribulation.

Revelation 13.8, all who dwell on the earth will worship Him, meaning the beast, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world. So this concept of predestination, gee, it looks like God has chosen some to worship the beast and they're out of here.

They have no place in my eternal kingdom, whereas others, in fact, not true. Even though the knowledge is there of God in terms of who will be part of the body written in the book of life, that's ultimately only his knowledge. It's not that he's chosen those to be saved or unsaved. But then who are those who are not chosen in this predestination? Let's first look at the chosen. So let's think about us.

John 3.17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. Right? We've got to recognize that up front.

2 Timothy 1.9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. Okay, back to the foundation of the world. We need to put this in eternal context. Now for the unchosen kill. God's will. What's God's will?

1 Timothy 2.4, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's God's will, that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. And that's why we spread the gospel in our workplace, in our neighborhoods, and around the world through the missionary services we support and or we exist within. So who then are not chosen? Who is not chosen? From this interpretation that he would have all come to be saved and God came to the world to save men not to condemn them. So who are the unsaved? People who don't.

Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God.

We're going to be looking at that in detail. So it's those without faith. That simple. Now one could have a long discussion of where that faith comes from. How does my flesh get up enough faith to get saved? That's an interesting conversation. Does anybody have any thoughts of that? Is whether that faith is resting down deep in each one of us? Or in fact does God give us special faith to get saved? Well, Bob, it's always good to kind of go back, because there's some teaching that says that we have to be given the gift of faith.

So we need to make sure we agree on that that's not the case. That scenario portrays that man is capable of exercising faith in him. And secondly, the Holy Spirit is involved. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, each of us can think of our own salvation. If it occurred as a child going forward, you can reflect on that. But you have to come to some understanding at some time that basically you're saved by grace, meaning that's the carpet we walk on is the grace. And we have to believe that when we step on it, that the floor and the carpet are going to support us.

So that faith is a faith that ultimately is placed in each and every one. You know, the idea here, and I remember a man who was in Laos for a number of years as a missionary and has really been called to international students. And John Davis said something profound. Every human being asks who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going? Three basic questions we all need to ask. Who are you? Well, you know your name, where you live, your family. Where did I come from?

That gets you to think, gee, is evolution really true? Or is it that maybe there's something more to it than that? The scientists tell me evolution's proven. In fact, Francis Collins, who's director of the National Institutes of Health, is a born-again believer.

There's no question about it. But his book, The Language of God, indicates that he believes evolution to a tenth degree. And he never really resolves this monkey-to-man transition. He never can quite deal with that. So is Francis Collins saved? Yes. But he's an evolutionist, he's a geneticist by scientific training. Anyway, I'm not going to change his mind. But we'll see him in heavenly places one day. And then where am I going? I mean, most people are coming back as a cow. Anyway, we don't want to go there. But faith, faith, faith, faith. And we're all intrinsically capable of responding by faith. But it's the power of the Holy Spirit.

And you know there's stories of people who've never been shared the gospel who ultimately come to some understanding of their need for God and ultimately they come to learn of that truth that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyway, we don't want to spend too much time here but predestination is not predestination to hell. predestination relates to God knowing those who will respond by faith. Randy? I think it's really valuable, thank you for sharing First Timothy T4, where it's God's will for all men to be saved.

And the thing about, there's a theological term for what you're saying is false, which I agree, but the name, if you hear it, just be aware it's called double election. That God elected some for heaven and some for hell. And the scriptures don't paint a clear picture of God choosing people We're called to things when we're in Christ. And there's a clear articulation that you're elect, you're chosen in Christ. So if you believe, you're in Christ. And then that makes sense. That's simple. It's the easiest gift ever for us to accept. All right, good. I think we're all pretty well found in that truth. that we should be holy and without blame before him or not.

Carolyn, back to your concern about this two component aspect of this verse that we could really look at and be faulty in terms of the interpretation. Should be, present infinitive, now, is best, it's interesting, I drilled down here in the Greek on this. The best interpretation should be is to exist and to live.

It should be, what do you think when somebody said you should be holy or you should be blameless. What does that mean? That I have to work harder to get there. That means you're not there and you should be working harder doesn't it? But in the Greek exist or live is a different interpretation isn't it? I mean should be means gosh I'm not.

This is not the subjunctive case, right? Subjunctive is that there's potential. That's right, that's right. This is present active. Therefore, we are holy without blame before him in love. That means it's a statement of fact. Sanctified positional truth. All right, let's continue. So back to the question that I posed a few minutes ago.

How are you doing at this? Now what's the problem with this theology that we're bringing forth here today in Ephesians 1-4? That we are wholly blameless and without fault made fully righteous. Roger? Well the question that you know, positional versus conviction. Conditionally we're not obviously. Positionally we are. And the outside world looks at us and they go, I thought you were a Christian. True. I thought you were and look how you're acting or look what you said or look what you're watching or look at your friends or whatever. They don't see it.

Well, the idea here is I think the criticism of this type of theology is this. is if we view ourselves positionally fully righteous, wholly blameless, then goodness gracious, I've been positioned there, I can do whatever I want. Paul says, should I continue in sin that grace may be abound? God forbid. Absolutely not.

That's the power of the Spirit. The Spirit acts within our lives as we increasingly get endorsed and ingrained in the Lord Jesus Christ through identification, through positional truth, the Spirit will lead us into greater truth in terms of the application of that in our life.

Randy, back to our conversation after church. I thought a lot about our conversation last week. The life I speak of is that life of the Lord Jesus Christ that's empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring glory to God. That's what we're all about. It's not a list. And I think when we do things like come to lists and say this, this, this, this, that that to a large extent is fleshly motivated.

It's knowing him and the power of his resurrection working in our lives day in and day out. And by the way, it can take a lifetime. People think that just because they become saved, their whole world should just, I mean, they should just be that person right now. Well, it doesn't happen that way. It's a lifetime of learning about the Lord and who you are and the truth about you.

That's our problem. We don't understand the truth that is about us. You know, Paul so purposefully said near the end of his walk with the Lord, that the greatest among sinners is me. Isn't that something? Now, back to Barger's point a few minutes ago, if in fact you've offended someone or the flesh has really been flaming in terms of anger or bitterness or something, how does the believer deal with that? We're talking about the application of our positional truth.

How do you deal with that when we fall short in the world's eyes? Well, what has happened when we in fact fall short and the flesh shows up and is not demonstrable of the Holy Spirit led life? What happens then is you lose sight of what's how you were equipped with the Holy Spirit, what he can do for you stepwise, not all at once, but stepwise, and you try to either run ahead or shy away, and then you fall short of the glory of God, and here comes sin. Alright, so the Holy Spirit has convicted you that you've been faulty, or at fault, let's say. What's the next step?

Confess. Yeah, and you know, Mike says this well, I think, you know, that's not who I am. I'm in heavenly places, positionally and spiritually. So what I've done here is not who I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. So you confess it to the Lord first of all, because your fellowship has been kind of temporarily broken, but 1 John 1, 9 is beautiful because we keep relying on that fellowship to be restored.

And then what about the person we've offended? Are we going to let that just go by? No. The thing is, I think this is an opportunity, and I've had this happen several times, where I've really offended somebody or I really responded in an incorrect manner. Going to them and confessing, look, forgive me, this is not really who I am and I really want you to forgive me. Sometimes that's an opportunity to share that yes, I am a believer, but by the way, I still can fall short in earthly terms, and the way the world views me. So don't get burdened with this. It doesn't mean we should continue in that space, but if we offend somebody, we need to ask them to forgive us. And again, it's sometimes an opportunity to share the Lord with them.

Because if they understand, yeah, I'm a believer, and I'm fully righteous, I mean, you wouldn't go doctrally into that space, perhaps. But yes, we still, fall short because we live in a human body. But the Lord isn't counting on You know, my being perfect here, he's schooling me. I mean, in other words, you understand where I'm going.

I think it's an opportunity to sometimes share with people, particularly within the body, I think. Sometimes we just don't recognize, but when we recognize it, we need to go to who we offended and ask for their forgiveness. Any other thoughts about that issue?

All right. So, Karen, forget it. We already are. We're already holy, blameless, righteous, positionally true. And that's really that citizenship mindset that we need to have. We know where our home is and when we leave Holly Hills today after the service we know how to get to our house. Our house is in heavenly places. That's our citizenship. And reflecting on that constantly as we walk day in and day out is so important for all of us. and we get easily distracted by so many things here on the earth.

Colossians 1.21-22 And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. What did John identify as the three greatest shortcomings of the believer? Remember 1 John 2 I believe? Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and what's the third?

Pride of life. And boy don't we all have a lot of that. We do. And so, you know, we think of the outward sins and the inward kind of sins, less of the eyes, less of the flesh, but the pride of life really, it's not, you know, my brother, who I prayed in his dying days, came to the Lord and the person that carried out his service reminded me, I don't really know for sure, but thought his life was good enough. He didn't need a savior. He did a lot of good things from an earthly perspective, but that was his view of the world. The private life really keeps a lot of people from coming to salvation, because they don't need anything more than that. But all have sinned and fallen short of the righteousness of God, right?

All, even my brother. Forgive me, maybe too many applications today, but I think that's what positional truth is all about. It's positional truth is how we apply it to our lives, and we're all on a learning curve by God's grace in terms of that experience.

God is not dealing with the uncertainty about how we were chosen, but the purpose for us being chosen. Again, what's the purpose of being saved? To be conformed. But what's the end point? To bring glory to God. That's really the ultimate outcome of the lives we live. And the verse says, and in love I think in love is really the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? The way we carry ourselves in love is the Christ life energized and ultimately educated by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4.16, And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. So Randy always makes the point of abiding, and I think that that love of the Lord Jesus Christ is the love that we have for one another, the brethren in particular.

So I think one thing that's worth reminding us of, we don't have to like everybody. In fact, some of our best friends are not believers. There are people we like, we like to be with, but there's no fellowship there. But yet there are people we like. And there may be believers that don't like us very much. I mean, so the point is, is that God doesn't say we have to like everybody. We just have to love them. And that takes the pressure off of us because that unequivocal, non-conditional love that he has for us is really that love that he wants us to exemplify one to another.

So today's verses really I think are at the peak of this mountain of positional truth and I think Roger and Randy are going to be doing most of the teaching for the next five or six weeks I think because I'm going to be gone. But anyway this is a good place to start I think. So other thoughts about today's verses? Alright, if not, let's close in prayer. Tom, close the class in prayer, will you please?

Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us more in greater detail to each of us that you know the level of growth of the great wondrous grace and riches of your love through your son Jesus in this particular area of need at this particular point in our growth so that we can continue in your will, not by fleshly effort, but by just recognizing what is true from your word here today and in the days to come. In Jesus' name we pray this Thanksgiving. Amen.