Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Identification truths: joined to Christ &...
Vern Peterman · Jun 24, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 23
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/410261638323848

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

We've been going through, and this actually is the last day of the first half of the year in terms of our teaching schedule. So next week we start the second half, July 1, and so we continue on with that. Your handout here is the same one we had last week, however it's not a matter of just covering the same material, but we actually just got started last week. handout for last week and this week is on this idea.

In the identification truths, we are joined to Christ and therefore separated from three things specifically that the scripture lays out. And one of the things also to point out is the identification truths are the front door to our unfathomable riches. There have been some very good outlinings. Schaefer, Fruchtenbaum did another one, Thame did another one. Different ones have done a great job of outlining what our unfathomable riches are.

The one adjustment to that was we're looking at the identification truths are really the entrance point to all of our unfathomable riches for us who are in the body of Christ. And so that's a key insight that we'll want to continue to underscore, and we'll continue to do that today. So what you see in the middle of page one is a diagram, and what you see is on the left, and it has nothing to do with left hand or right hand or anything like that, but on the left side is in Adam, before faith in Christ, and does that include you?

Not anymore. Not anymore. So, formerly, as Paul put it in Ephesians chapter 2, formerly this described you as an unbeliever, right? You were in Adam, and how did that happen? You just woke up one morning and, oh no, I'm in Adam! Is that how it happened? That's just what happens. Oh no! And it's this sudden realization of this nightmare. So how did this come about? Was it, you know, I got Adam's disease or what's the problem?

You were just born. Pardon? You were just born. You were just born. And so, you know, here, Adam, he actually made a choice. Is this fair that we were just born and all of a sudden situation. No. This is not fair. Stan says it's not fair. It's not whether it's fair or not, it's just the way it is.

Okay, first of all, it's true, and it's certainly, once one has a realization of it, it's certainly awful, but, matter of fact, Ephesians 2.4, but God, right? It's certainly helpful, but God. And that's the key thing here. So in Adam, before faith in Christ, we were separated from Christ. And we were joined to the same nature, principle of law, and the world.

Did we vote on that? No, we didn't vote on that. It wasn't a majority decision. You didn't get to select individually what you put on. I noticed we didn't all select the same things to wear this morning. I'm glad you all wore something, but we didn't select the same things to wear. And that was an individual choice, wasn't it? This wasn't something we individually decided. This wasn't something that we voted on, we didn't decide it together. the case, that's where we start from.

We are joined to the sin nature, which is attached to this body, and so it is inextricably, un-extractably attached to the body. Then, the principle of law. So if I'm a Gentile, am I attached to law? Yes. However, for the Jew, what's the law that I'm attached to? The mosaic law. If I'm a Gentile, what's the law I'm attached to? The law of conscience. This is Romans chapter 2. It's one of the great things that they get to cover in the Romans elective. For the Jew, it's the law of Moses. For the Gentile, it's the law of conscience. The Gentile is not, and never was, under the law of Moses. but it's a matter of the Gentiles' own judgment then turning back upon themselves.

Yes? That's part of the knowledge of good and evil then? Yeah, and if you look at it, let's just take it for instance. Suppose Adam, we move it back to this point. Suppose God said, here's Adam and Eve, I'm going to put them in the garden. But God didn't make the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, didn't put it there in the garden. What would be the outcome? We wouldn't have to be in here. We wouldn't be talking about Jesus on the cross. We wouldn't be singing these songs. We wouldn't be talking about identification truths.

There's still the tree of life. And by the way, is the tree of life gone forever? No. You read about it in the last chapters of the book of Revelation. It's going to show up again. And there won't be any weeds. There would be no weeds. There would be no thistles, there would be no thorns, and there would be no okra. No thistles, no thorns, no okra, or fill in whatever vegetable you don't like. But anyway, so you got that. So then we have on the right side, and again, that's just a matter of putting it on there. The right side, in Christ, after faith in Christ, you're joined to Christ, separated from the sin nature.

The principle of law, which for the Gentile is the law of conscience, which for the Jew is the law of Moses, and the world, Galatians 6.14.

It's also in Colossians chapter 2. So that by these principles, what we see is there's a joint to before we believe, and it wasn't Christ. We were separated from him. Having been joined to Christ, we're now separated from the sin nature of principle of law and the law.

So that's the big picture. Yes? I believe that you had a poor faith in Christ because it separated from Christ. that I understand what was said there, but it kind of implies that there might have been before that a bond with Christ. Before that, like before Adam, sin, this kind of stuff. Yeah, so let's talk about this. Does this imply something about the condition before? Does this do that? Before what? before being in Adam, before Adam fell? So what was the condition there? Was Adam joined to Christ before he fell?

I believe so. Pardon? So one thing, let's go to Genesis chapter one. By the way, we're going to spend over a month, about a month and a half, six weeks, talking about being made in the image of God. Because that's really important and it's one of the things that's been greatly overlooked, but we're going to look at it. Back to Adam. He's in the garden. He's there. Was he joined to Christ? Or was something else the case? They had fellowship. Okay, so let's kind of step through it.

The three persons of the Trinity Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And we have those actually in various ways recognized in Genesis chapter 1 or referred to elsewise. So the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit let us make man in Christ's image? In the image of that tree over there? No. our image. Ah, so this is key. So we were made in the image of God. Was that a fallen image?

No. So we were made in the image of God, and one of the ways that we differentiate things, Adam was fundamentally innocent, but he wasn't fundamentally righteous. So he was not joined to Christ in this same way because this joining takes place on a cross. And that's not what happened when man was created. So this is talking about something different. Man was, however, before the fall originally made in the image of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But he was innocent, not fundamentally righteous.

We'll talk more about what does the image of God mean. We'll see about a month out or so. for about six weeks, so we get that real clear. So being joined to Christ was not our status before, because being joined here is identified with Him on a cross. But we were made in the image of God as innocents, not as fundamentally righteous. Yes? The Trinity was with Adam, but he wasn't dwelling in Adam.

So this is a key thing, having been made in the image of God. Let's ask one more question. Does the image of God just completely go away? No, it does not. In fact, what we'll see when we get into it is the image of God and image and likeness continue to be referred to, having been made in the image and on into the New Testament, into the last place as directly as the book of James. So the image of God remains. Is it corrupted and marred? Yes. But it remains. Anyway, we'll talk much more about that and it'll be a really good thing. Yes? So when does separation actually take place? Okay, so let's talk about that. That's a very good question. Excellent question. So this is the introduction.

We looked last week at Romans 7, 1-6, and let me read through that again quickly, even though we'll want to move on, but just to get it in our minds. He gives the example, and the first few verses are an example that he takes that applies to both the Jews in a marriage relationship, that both the husband and wife were expected to be faithful, In Roman law, the wife was expected to be faithful, but not the husband. Weird, huh? So Paul picks that example because he's writing to who? He's writing to the Church of Rome, which included a substantial number of Gentiles, but a minority of Jews. Nonetheless, Jews and Gentiles. And so he picks the case that fits both.

So he says, Do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law, Roman and Jewish, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. I'm going to sentence you to 50 years even though you're dead. What good does that do? So the law doesn't apply if someone is dead.

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living, and that is both Roman law and Jewish law. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband. Can she get remarried? Yes. So then, while her husband she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

So here's the example that the Apostle Paul gives, fitting both Roman and Jewish law. He picks the wife as the one in both cases, Roman law, Jewish law, who is required to be faithful. Because it doesn't fit in the case of Roman law for the man. So he picks that one.

Therefore, my brethren, you also remain Did the law die? No. So the law didn't die, we died in relationship to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, and who's another? Christ. To Him who was raised from the dead, and who was that? Christ. Anybody else? No. To Him who was raised from the dead, one and only, Christ. in order that we might bear fruit for God.

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law, by the way, what's the law going to do? It's going to arouse, and that's what the rest of Romans 7, starting in verse 7, is about. You want to really stir up the sin nature? piece of cake. Just apply one law. That's all it takes. Isn't that easy? Right? Real easy. Real simple. Just one law is all it takes.

Sin nature jumps up and down. Pick me! Pick me! And then when it finally gets picked, then it goes, oh no! And resists. Right? So the sin nature is going to give people this double whammy. It's going to get really riled up. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

And death is what? Separation, not termination, annihilation, and cessation. Key point. But now we have died to, so did the law die? No, we've been released from it having died with Christ, we died to that by which we were bound so that we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Is the law going to help you? Are you still under law? Does grace and the Spirit need law to help?

Not even a few of them? How about if we just pick some select ones? Is that going to help? No, it doesn't, does it? Not in one, not ten, not eleven, minus two, none of that. Here's the Sabbath law. And people would say, oh, all of them but that one. That's switched to Sunday. Oh, yeah, really? You're not going to work on Sunday, starting from Saturday afternoon? No. It's not a modification of the Sabbath law to meet on Sunday. Yeah? How about the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus? OK. So, one of the things you'll see in Romans, it talks about law of the spirit.

One of the things I like to have as a translation to help clarify, it's really talking about the principles, right? So it's not like I've got another law, meaning in the sense that here's my rules, but it's a principle. This is the way things work. and fundamental truth. So that's a key point. At certain points in Romans, particularly other places, but certain points the word principle may in fact be a real clarifying term to put in there. And so that's key. We won't be going into it now, but it is an important one to keep in mind. in Romans 6, 1-10.

So what shall we say then, are we to continue in sin, and this is the definite article, the sin nature, continue in sin so that grace may increase. How does grace increase if we continue in sin nature? Because it is all sufficient. So grace, it isn't like Sin keeps growing and then grace gets kind of challenged and overwhelmed. Right? Is that how it works? Grace always outruns, superabounds past sin. So he's asking what some people might think is a logical question. Shall we continue in the sin nature so that grace may increase? Right? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin, to the sin nature, live in it? So did the sin nature die? No. We died in relationship to, died to, died unto. Died in relationship to the sin nature. to define the sin nature, or better define the sin nature?

Yeah, so let's ask, what does the law do? Why did God give the law? Why didn't He just say, hey, you know, this Adam guy's got a problem, let's just go straight to grace. Why didn't He do that? He wouldn't know about sin. Could God have done that? For sure. Yeah. He could have. He could have just said, hey, let's just skip this whole pre-acknowledgement of evil thing and just bypass this whole sin problem and everything else. And I don't need any of that.

Do you need the law if there's no sin in nature and no fault? No. But the other question is, do you need the law? Anyway, why did God give it? Oh, by the way, was the law inspired by God? Yeah. Yeah! The law was inspired by God. Paul says, later on in Romans 7, the law is holy and righteous and good, so is the law a bad deal? Yeah, so some Christians can get that in their heads that, boy, the law is really naughty and nasty and awful and all that. So what's the problem with the law? Keeping the law never saved anyone. Yeah, first of all, keeping the law never saved anyone. Paul would write in Galatians especially, but other places. Keeping the law never saved anyone.

And what's the other problem? The problem isn't the law, the problem is me. The problem is me, and what's the problem with me? I can't keep out of a sin nature. Yeah, I've got this sinful nature and I'm stuck to it. It doesn't matter how fast I run, I can't outrun this thing, right? I can't let go of it. Reptiles, have you ever seen a reptile shed its skin? So the reptile sheds its skin, but can we shed the sin nature? No, we can't. The sin nature is attached to this body, and we're not getting rid of it until we Until death do we part. Until death do we part, right? The sin nature, probably a good analogy is the sin nature is a deposed monarch of the Christian. A couple examples in our era, for most of us anyway, would be Idi Amin and Ferdinand Marcos. Ferdinand Marcos was the head of where? President of? The Philippines. Of the Philippines. And Idi Amin of Uganda.

And both of them had a period of time where they were booted out of power, and they tried to get it back and make various efforts, but in the end they both failed to do so. They could call up their old buds and say, hey, old buddy, old boy, how about if you do X, Y, and Z? The old buddy of Idi Amin might say, hey, get lost. Or he might say, well, yeah, I recognize your voice. And yeah, we used to be good friends. So those people have a choice, don't they? Do we have a choice? Once we're safe, yes. And that's what it's talking about, separation. So let's continue on here.

So Vern, it's like being a gang member. Yes. It's like being a gang member? Well, you have the Sin Nature that's running the gang, and you're a member of it, and you do what... Right, and can you leave the gang? Yeah. Alright, but in a gang, can you leave? Normally not. Yeah, what do you have to do? Die.

I met a guy in the East Bay, back in my late teens or early twenties, a guy named Rick. Hells Angel. He'd just become a believer, and he said, they'll be after me. A week after I met him, he was dead. They caught up to him underneath an overpass, and caught up to him and did it again. He told us that's what was going to happen. He knew that on becoming a believer, he said, they're going to do it again.

So this is also the case similarly with the sin nature in order for us to break away from an absolute monarch position to the sin nature, we have to die. And God says, I'll take care of that. I'll take care of that. So it says there in verse 3, Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, All of us who have been placed into Christ, immersed so as to come out radically different into Christ, have been baptized into his death.

So this is where we come across different terminology, is joined to and baptized into exactly identical. They're different pictures, aren't they? However, the event, Christ's death on the cross, has that in common. It's using different illustrations. One being a marriage relationship, joined to. the other, in this case, being made, baptized into. Some of the examples we often, when we're teaching, we'll give pictures.

Some of the examples, they would take cloth, start off white or something close to that, and they would dip it in a dye, red or purple, something of that sort, made from shells, made from crimson worms, things of that sort, and it would go in this white color, and it would come out a reddish or a purple color, depending on which dye color and dye material I picked.

In the day, there was no way to reverse it. There was no click undo. There was no way to reverse that. The change was permanent. And so this baptism, you would baptize the cloth into the dye, and it would come out radically different, never to be changed back again.

So here we have, "...therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection." At the end of verse 4, it says, so we too might walk in the goodness of light.

So this is a change in our position to make provision for our condition. See that? A change in our position to make provision for our condition. And that's what we need to look at for everything that we're learning in this elective about are unfathomable riches.

God makes every provision for everything He asks of our condition. At no point does God say, well, you know, over in this little area over here, I really haven't done anything to help you out, so you've got to wing it. Until about three o'clock, you're just kind of on your own. We'll see you at three, and we'll see how you did. Everything God asks us to do is already accomplished in our position. It makes provision for our condition. Then, for if we have become united, is that doubting it? If we have become united, is he not sure?

What's the if therefore? Actually, Sims is not the meaning either. So what he wants you to do, if you see the if, the intent is to have you follow through on the logic. And it can mean in this case, as it does, if, and it's assumed to be true, but he wants you to follow through on it and not to substitute Sims.

For if we have become united with him, and that's united, the King James has planted there. That's actually not correct. So it has planted. Darby translated it identified. Most other modern translations, including the New King James, the Senior Pew, Racks there, will have united. So united with him. united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Next, beginning of verse 6, knowing this, what does knowing this mean? Was that what he just said? Okay, so you have knowing this, and matter of fact in verse 9 it's going to have something very similar, knowing that. So, question, is knowing this something you're getting to know or something you already know? Okay, yes, it's already know, and there's a few ways to check that. In John 13, it has knowing this two times, in the first three verses. And it's Christ knowing this, and as you read the context, it's something he already knows, in both cases.

Another cross-check on this is, I like to go back and see how some of the old translators translated it. Tyndale translated this in both places. Remember, So he gives us that understanding, oh, this is something in our music. Now, so let's ask this question. This is kind of amazing. Here's the Apostle Paul.

He's writing to who? Who's he writing to in this letter? The Church in Rome. Had he ever been to Rome? No. But what was fascinating is he knew that they had been taught these identification truths. So verse 3, or do you not know? And the answer is, yes you do. Because in chapter 7 he says, and do you not know? And I'm writing to those who know the law or don't know the law. I'm writing to those who know the law. So do you not know? And yes you do. And then verse 6, remember, you know this.

Verse 9, remember, you know this. so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, that is the sin nature. Are you a slave to the sin nature? No. As a matter of fact, the sin nature will try to talk to you as a former slave master and give you commands. Are you compelled to obey your former slave master? No. So what he tries to do is to pull off of old memories and old feelings, and I remember that tone of voice before, and old threats and old promises, and that's all they are is old.

For he who has died is freed from the sin nature. Did any slave master come up to the corpse of his slave, and say, get going. So this is why the first thing God does is, okay, you're crucified with Christ. That just, among numerous other things, cuts you off from the old slave master.

So, verse 8, so now if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him, Now, he says, if we have died with Christ, did we in fact die with Christ? It's not calling it into question, but he's saying follow the logic. And it is assumed to be true, but follow the logic. For if, and it's assumed to be true, we have died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him. Knowing that, so here's the verse 9, knowing that, knowing this, this is the telltale sign, knowing that, knowing this, it means you know it already. Remember, as Tim Bale translated it.

Remember that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. Did Christ die on the cross? As Hebrews puts it in chapters 7 through 10, Christ died once for all. He's not going back. He did it fully, he did it once, there's a one-way valve on this. He's not going back through the system the other way. Never to die again. Death no longer is master over him.

For the death he died, he died in relationship to the sin nature. Once for all. By the way, that's the first use of that word that means once for all in the New Testament, right there. But the life he lives, he lives to God. Is Christ going to take sins upon himself any more once again? He's going to have to pull this off again, maybe get crucified every thousand years or a century or something. It's never going to happen again. It's once for all. Once for all. By the way, once for all is three words in English, it's one word in Greek, right? Hapax. Hapax. Real easy. he lives to God. What is Christ's relationship to God the Father now? Is there ever going to be a separation again between God the Son and God the Father?

No. That was for about three hours on a Friday afternoon, April 3rd, 33D. Right, now let's look at Galatians 6, 11-15, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Interesting, he could have written in larger letters than normal, but it may also be that he wrote in all caps. which, by the way, became the standard way of writing Greek after a while.

Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the law themselves that desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. Let's do something external here. And by the way, it's only for the males, right? Let's do something external, all the males, and that will fix everybody.

But may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Remember what we said in the first part? I have died to three things. What are they? The sin nature, the law, and the world. Those three things. So here's where it's telling us that. Accepting the cross for the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Did the world die? Did the world go away? We're going to see that in the Acts passage here.

The world is going to scream with a vengeance. really get excited, right? People can scream the greatest arguments of the Ephesians for two hours. Absolute nutjobs. But, they're going to do that. Were all the Christians taken out of Ephesus because of that?

No. The death in relationship to the world is a spiritual death. I'm no longer connected to having us master the world up, the world system. Yes. that the same nature no longer rules us. Yes. And the world itself no longer rules us. By the same token, we no longer rule the world.

Right? Right. Not this world. Not the world system. Right. So they recognize. We will rule, but it won't be this world system. So here's verse 15, for neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. We've got this new creation, and it's not connected to the same nature. It's not connected to the law. It's not connected to this world system.

And what kind of a being are we then? Are we spiritual versus carnal, or is that the way the scriptures describe it? again, if I have died to the world, if I have died to the law, if I have died to the sin of nature, and it says here, but a new creation. Here I am a new creation, a being which, except for what God accomplished here, but because of what God accomplished here, rather, is not having any relationship to what was previous in terms of being mastered. We are a new creation altogether. Who did the creating? God did it. It was God's accomplishment. It's his creation.

Do we have to work really hard to try to get into the new creation? Do we have to work really hard to try to behave like a new creation? Do we need some laws to make sure that we're acting like a new creation? None of that's going to help, is it? Yes. So is the new creation, actually I have several questions. Is the new creation only spiritual? Is the new creation because we are in love with the Holy Spirit? And is the new creation a repair of God's image?

Three questions. You guys have more questions than we have time to answer. But let's try. OK, so the new creation, is it physical or spiritual? It's spiritual. It's spiritual, OK. In what sense is it physical now? We have this spirit in us in this physical body. OK, so we have this spirit in us in the physical body.

Let's ask, where's Christ right now? Does he have a new creation body? Does he? Yes he does. So physically speaking, that's the new creation physical expression. Say it again. Christ is the new creation physical expression. We're not there yet. He's the first fruits. These are the first groups, but we're going to get there and we will have physical bodies like his that will be physically a part of the new creation and I hope that day is today. Wouldn't that be great? I hope that day is today. Now, you asked some other questions. I don't remember what they were here.

Oh, the image of God. We're going to be looking at this a lot more, so this is obviously a real quick answer, something we're going to be answering for a month and a half. The quick answer is we were made in the image of God as innocents, right? We're being conformed to, and are predestined to ultimately be conformed to the image of Christ. This is Romans 8, 29. We are being, as we behold Christ, transformed into the image of Christ. 2 Corinthians 3. So two processes in parallel, both of which are in the direction of making us into the image of Christ.

Notice We were created in the image of God. We are being conformed and transformed into the image of Christ. Having been made in the image of God, we were innocent, but man fell, not erasing, but marring and corrupting the image of God. But we as believers, we who believe, are being conformed and transformed into the image of Christ, does that have risk of being corrupted and marred and fallen? No. So it is not exactly the same, is it? One is creating the image of God as let us make. And whose image? Our image. But we are being conformed and transformed into the image of Christ.

That is different. Okay, but the Trinity is all the same. So, really, is there any difference? The Trinity is the image. The Trinity is the image, but is the Trinity all the same? Well, no, it's God the Father. God the Father, God the Son, so there's three separate persons, one essence. But the image, isn't that the same for all three?

Yes, except for one other thing. Creating the image of God, does God, as Genesis 1 describes, does God have a body in the same sense that Christ has a body? No. So it's different. It's a different kind of creation in Genesis 1 than will be the case with us. So that's one of the things we'll be looking at. And what's included in the image of God? Let us make mankind in our image.

And if it's something that continues to have relevance and existence even beyond the fall, all the way into the New Testament. Both Paul and James write about this. So we'll be taking a look at that. It's really important, as a matter of fact, it's even exciting to take a look at it and understand what those things mean. So we'll be doing that for about a month and a half, and it's really cool. But you ask a very important question that we give a quick answer to and we'll be looking at it in far more detail in weeks to come here. Unless the Lord takes us home, which will be fine with me. Then I don't get to teach on it, because I'll let Him do it. So anyway, so what we have here, let's look at, before we run completely out of time, Colossians 2, 20 and 23.

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, this would be the ABCs, the ABCs of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch? Let me paraphrase this. Why, if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to laws? Man-made laws. Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch. All refer to things destined to perish or be used in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.

Does legalism make you more holy? Even if I got really special rules and I got this really charismatic fellow with lots of personality and authority, doesn't it fit them? Does it help? Nope. He died in relationship to it. These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. And the Church and Christendom have struggled with what's right here in these verses for centuries. Oh, I'm going to take a vow of silence. Oh, you are? Oh, I'm going to give up this for Lent. Oh, you are? Excuse me, how does that fit in with this?

I'm going to give up eating X, Y, and Z, because I think God likes that. I'm going to turn everything I have over to the church and go into a monastery. That would make me more holy. Oh, really? Or will it make you? This is a wild idea. Go into a monastery and get more worldly. Wow. I was just thinking of the last three words, against, fleshly, indulgence.

Ah. Yes. How much value? None. Excuse me, what? Zero. What? No value at all? I mean, that's amazing. So that made laws and flames in nature. Yeah. So here's what happens. People try to concoct ways of, oh boy, if I do this I'll be holy. This group said so, and this guy over here said so, and he's a really nice, respectable guy, and he puts on special clothes, and waves smoky things around. You know, all sorts of funny things. He says, hick-ass corpus, and everybody thinks it's hocus pocus.

And the reality is, what advantages is it? Just a second, how much does it help? Zero. Can we go to the positive side? Ah, what's the positive side that you want to go over? Ah, this is walk by the Spirit, live to God, and we're certainly going to be going over that. But just the key thing, all the things that people concoct that seem to help, not at all. Yeah, but what if I get canonized? Pardon? What if I get canonized? If you get canonized, the ball is going to hit you real hard, right? It's hard, and it's heavy, and it's fast. All right. So let's pray before the canons come.

Lord, we do thank you for what you have in your word. Thank you that your word is absolute on these things, not just some law, a little bit of law, phasing into it, faking it until you make it. None of that is going to do it. What you have accomplished is absolute.

And so we look to you as we look at this passage and as we move ahead here. You've done these things to make provision for our condition. And as we will look forward to, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, that is part of our unfathomable riches, and the Holy Spirit's indwelling us is not optional, but absolutely essential. And you know that, and the Holy Spirit has also promised what is to come, a down payment. We thank you for that. We thank you for what's to come, and what we look forward to. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.