The Position & Possessions of the Believer # 10-12 (Lesson 18)
Courtney Hemenway · Feb 11, 2007
Identification (2006-07), No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926016511002

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

Going to catch the last question of Lesson 17. You guys have Lesson 17 out there? Lesson 17, I believe it is Question 5. No, excuse me, 6. The last part of 17, we'll try and catch up here. Do you have 17? The question is, do I have 17? That could be another person on the left.

I would hand out 19 because I have all the position truth on the back. I'll show you. I'm back of 19. I have I've given you all the vision through. So we've gone through and the corresponding verses. Last time I think I just listed them. This time I'll give you all the verses that go along with it. So you can go back and look at all the things we've already gone through.

We're on position number nine here. Back here. Display. One second here. If you weren't here earlier, I had my computer crash on me this week when it's Tuesday at the Mass Bible study. And so I have to reset things like my time out here is in like two minutes. So I'm talking to you and watching my computer screen disappear here. So let me just get this. Alright, shouldn't disappear. Okay. Possession number nine.

Again, these are the thirty-four things we're going over that we have when we become new creatures in Christ. These are the thirty-four things that Lewis and Perry Chamber put together that are true about you the moment you are transformed into a new creature in Christ. So, Bible's out. This is unfortunately, when I'm teaching, I make Bible drills. We have you read lots of verses. We should start in the middle this time. No, that would be too confusing. Cheryl, do you want to start?

John 3.7.

Laura, John 1.12.

Mike, 1 Peter 1.23.

And then Ingrid will get you on Ephesians 2.1.

Erica, Colossians 2.13.

Gary, 1 John 3.2. 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians 6.18, 2 Corinthians Actually, do 12 and 13 if you could.

And 1 Peter 1.23, ìBeing born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which lives and reigns for us or abides for us, OK, so the first blank there, from those verses related to the children of God, what are we?

Born again. Again, these are important things that we'll see, again, on the identification when we go back and we talk a lot about the identification, I do, of course, about being a new creature in Christ. Again, this is born again. That means dead or alive. crucified, and now we are born again. We are not just fixed up. This isn't Red Cross. We aren't fixed up in a new body, I mean, a new fixed up atom. We are born again, completely new creature. We'll get into, actually, as we get into the next one, where we are quickened. Oops. Never mind. Ephesians 2-1. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

Okay, Colossians 2.13? When you were dead in your sins, and in your unrighteousness, and in your sinful nature, God made you alive again. He redeemed all of our sins. Gee, what would that be now? It means quicken. What do you know? We got that one anyway. Quicken. And what does that mean? Alive. What? Alive. Alive. You know, and that, uh, from Lewisbury Chaffer, I like the way he put it.

The word Quicken expresses the thought that an object is made alive that did not possess life before. Through regeneration by the spirit, as in the case with the flesh, there is an impartation of life. Regeneration imparts the divine nature. So this, I think that if it's light, it's something new. And we'll get into actually a little bit more of that and what that means.

As in new, just like a new atom. just like we were before, but it's not the 1957 model, it's the 2007 model of Adam. Is that what it means by new, new life? Am I just a new-approved? I was born in 1957, really old. See, there's something laughing and something going, wow, that's really old, that's really old. And Mike's just not saying anything. So, I mean, when the Quickened is a new light, what I'm saying is, you know, is it just a, you know, the atom that I was before was kind of the 1957 model, now I'm just going to get the 2007 model?

Is that what it means? No, that's what a lot of people try and do is just fix up the old one, but it's not, it's completely new, and we'll get into the word, what that means, completely new in form, completely new, different than before. Where are we?

C, 1 John 3.2. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Yeah. 1670? Yeah, David was 16 through 18. Wherefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ Jesus, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

And one agreement hath the temple of God with idols, for ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and you will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. or children of God. All these express different expressions of being that we are children of God. I'll be your father and you shall be sons and daughters to me. You are all sons of God. 1 John 3, 2, now we are all children of God. Again, we are children of God. Now this is one, again, kind of what I was addressing before.

Second Corinthians 5.17. I don't want to hear your voice, Pam. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come.

Second Corinthians 6.15 Ephesians 2.10 Galatians 6.15. Okay. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Okay.

Ephesians 2.10. For we are his workmanship, pre-embedded in Christ Jesus, for good works which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. Okay, so the last one is? What? New creatures. That's, you know, again, remember putting all these things together. We have Quicken, we are children of God, we are born again, we are now a new creation.

This, I think, are key attributes for our identification. This is what a lot of the teaching around doesn't address. Again, it's the old atom repair society. It's trying to fix up the old atom. This is very clear in that we are new creatures. We are born again. We are quick, and there is a new light. It's not the same old. In fact, this word is kittesis. which means qualitatively new, original formation. So it's something completely new. We are something completely new. And I keep beating this up because I think it's so misunderstood in a lot of the teaching. It is not just we're going to get better in Adam. We are completely new.

There is a new life. It's a new creature. Christ is the head, the firstborn of the new creation. So that's the whole key to our identification class. in recognizing, going back to Romans, in our crucified old man, well, if we're crucified and dead, we now what? We are now born again, we are a new creature, we are quickened, there's life, and it's a new life. So that's the key to the identification truths, is this new aspect of our new life. And again, as I go back and I read these, most of them always have that in him, in Christ. It's all because of him, not nothing we have done. It's all what he's done. The only thing we've done is the non-meritorious act of belief.

Got that? Understand? Questions? All right. Bring it down to... You actually have an E. This is the one I think we do have an E, right? The question I had to regret, and I apologize. I'm regrading things from my crash disk from old to new. And so we do have an E out there. OK. I should probably grab one of those, actually. OK, E. Titus 3-5. Got that? And you want to read? OK. Cheryl, back up to you.

John 13-10. And, Laura, 1 Corinthians 6, 11. I just read five. He saved us, not because of righteous things which we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 13th day. Jesus says to him, who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you.

1 Corinthians 6.11 And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Spirit of our God. Okay, and so the last attribute there, being children of God, is Probably from the Titus one. By the washing of regeneration in John 13, you are clean.

1 Corinthians 6.11, you are washed. And the answer is, washed through regeneration. OK? So, now the $10 question, bonus round. What does regeneration mean? You were washed through regeneration. What does regeneration mean?

Born again. What? Born again. Born again. Any others? New birth. Rebirth. Yeah. Rebirth. Born again. From the Titus, the washing of regeneration is palangasia as the word, and it means spiritually rebirth, and it's the state or act of it. a spiritual rebirth. It's not by ourselves, it's by the Holy Spirit.

Exactly. You know, actually, I get to this, and I think this is, I didn't put them on this one, almost every question I usually put, how much of this is based on what we do. These are statements of fact that happen to us, and it's nothing that we do. The only thing we do is believe. We, once we do that and we are in Christ, that's all this is in Christ, in Christ.

And when you look, and in fact what I did, for those of you who haven't been in class before, I do have the cheat sheet on Greek tenses, the voice and the mood. If you don't have that, I'll put it over on the table here and that, you know, and Vern or somebody or Mike or I say something about the different tenses. It's good just to have, and if you want, I have another little small one that fits right in your Bible. It really helps out, because a lot of these are aorist hymns, past completed action, done.

And the action was done to us through Christ. It's nothing that we do. We're the receiver of the action. We're not really participating in the action, other than receiving. So a lot of the things, when you look at the Greek, It really emphasizes that fact that it's not us, it's God doing these things.

There's some sheets over there if you want to look at them. And if you want, I'll make up for next week. I'll try to make up the little ones you can throw in your Bible. So when Vern or I or somebody says, you know, the heiress comes, you can pull out that sheet. And I need the cheat sheet because I forget about these things a lot of times.

Alright, are we children of God now? And something different when we step into eternity? Now? We're prepared for heaven now. So we're children of God now, and then when we step into eternity, will we be something different? It's starting to come up, the answer is... No. No! No! We are always that.

This is an everlasting position due to our identification with Christ. We are always, and we will always be identified with Christ. This is a new creature, a new whole race with Christ as the head. So we will step into eternity and we will still be children of God. All right, now moving on to Lesson 18. All right. Again, sorry, all the verses. Where did we leave off? The mic?

Romans 8.15-17.

Romans 8.23.

Erika, Galatians 4.3. What do I have? 4-7. So, we're looking at what is the tenth one.

The ninth one was children of God, and now we're looking at the tenth Possession that we have as new creatures in Christ, Romans 8, 15-17. For you have not received the spirit of bondage against fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, and in children and heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may also that we may be also glorified together.

Romans 8.23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Galatians 4. And then verses 4 through 7. I'll get one more to give us our 10th position Ephesians 1 4 through 7 in love he predestined us to the adoption his son through Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. So what is our tenth position, possession?

There's one word that comes through all those, although yours has a different translation. Here's an IV. Adoption. Adoption. So, we were just told, I mean our last one was Child of God, but now we are adopted. So, question two, how does the tenth position, our adoption, differ from the position number nine, Child of God? How does adoption differ from Child of God?

Is it the same thing? It can never be disowned. Yeah, that's true. Other aspects? Adoption versus being a child? Aren't we adopted as full sons? That's more what it gets to. As a child of God, you are part of the family. We are children of God. But, if you go through the analogy of a child, you're little and you grow into a position of fully vested child where you could inherit everything. This adoption places us fully into a fully adult child of God, a fully vested heir And actually that, I mean, what you were saying about Eric, we are, at that point, we have everything.

You know, in the Jewish culture, you had at, what is it, 13 or whatever? 18? Your own Jews were 14. Yeah, 13 or 14, that's what I thought it was. At that point, you were the adult, or the oldest child, was fully able to inherit everything that the father had that he could give to him at that age. So at that point, you were, able to inherit everything that your dad had. But it wasn't until that time. Is that when the bar mitzvah and all that stuff? It's today?

Maybe I got it wrong, Korten, but my understanding is that this was written under the genesis of Roman law. And under Roman law, you could be disowned as a child of your father, whereas if you were adopted, you could never be disowned. That is true in the Roman law, and in fact that is right, because that meant you were permanently as a member of that family, that you couldn't be disowned. I think that is true that the Roman law had it that way, but that has that aspect of it in it, but it's different.

I think the point is that When we become children of God, this adoption then places us fully forward to that position where, yeah, it can't be severed, but we have all rights of the adult child of that family. So it's just a different aspect of us being a child of God now. We are now fully vested, fully, we have all rights as an adult child in that family.

And I guess in Roman law, you couldn't be severed from that at that point, too. There was a position that couldn't be taken away. Once you're adopted, though, in Roman law, you were in. Yeah, I mean, that's what he's saying. You couldn't be severed from that. Once you're adopted in the family, there's no way to sever that.

I think the Jews were 14, the Greeks were 18, and the Romans were at the will of the father. He could do it whenever he decided. Yeah. And so we now, though, have that position. Whatever age that is, we, as new creatures in Christ, we are fully vested. We have all rights in this family, this new creature. So Lewisbury Chaffer had a kind of a good discussion of this.

According to human custom, Adoption is a means whereby an outsider may become a member of a family. It is a legal way to create a father and son relationship as a substitute for father and son reality. On the other hand, divine adoption is primarily a divine act by which one already a child by actual birth through the Spirit of God is placed forward as an adult son in his relationship to God. I thought that was a good summary he also had.

In human experience, legitimate birth and adoption never combine in the same person. It's kind of an interesting verse of what we are. We are actually born into this family and adopted. But you don't have that in secular or the human experience. You don't have adoption and natural birth together. There is no occasion for a father to adopt his own child.

In the realm of divine adoption, every child born of God is adopted at the moment he is born. He is placed before God as a mature, responsible son. Thus, adoption becomes one of the important divine undertakings in the salvation of man, and is a position of great importance.

And I guess the thing that comes up on this also is in the 1 Corinthians 3.1, about the orbated Christ. How's that? What does that mean with relationship to what we're talking here is adoption, adopted as sons? That kind of says there's babes in Christ. So is that what we're talking about here in adoption?

Is that the same thing? And again, a few people go and it crescendos a little bit there. So the answer is no, it's not the same thing. It is not the same thing. That speaks of our spiritual maturity and our growth in Christ. They were talking about actually in Corinthians, the carnality of the believers at that point, that they were babes in the milk of the word and meat. This, when we talk about adoption, this means our rights and our inheritance, everything that we have as an adult child in Christ. So, it's different than if somebody brings up the Corinthians verse about being a babe in Christ.

Oh, Cory? Yeah? Couldn't that be saying, here's your condition? Yeah. And here's your position? Your position is you're adopted, you're there, You kind of have to grow into it in your condition. Excellent point. All these things we talk about are positional truths. These are things that are true of us right now. They can't be changed. There's nothing we can do.

I go to John 10.28, the verse that says, I'm in God's hands and there's nothing I can do to get out of God's hands. That's kind of been one of my anchor verses a long time ago. was, you know, there's nothing I can do, there's nothing that's going to get me out of God's hands. It's like our positions, these are position things, what I say is that we're in God's hands. We can't get out, we can't move, we can't jump out, nobody can take us out.

That's the same thing I equate to being in position, the position that we hold. Those are things that will never change, no matter what we do, no matter what anybody else does, no matter what happens. These are things that will never ever change. positionally true. The condition, however, is something that is in our growth, and we do want our condition to match our position.

But it doesn't always do that. So, that in the 1 Corinthians 1 is talking more of our condition than our walk. Other thoughts? Clear on that? Okay. Verse 3. What will this position our adoption, what will that allow us to cry, cry out? What does it say in the verses?

Abba, Father. You know, and I really get this one, and this one, when Burns talked a lot about it, I know in some of the messages he said, we're able to cry out Abba, Father. From and from the Romans 8 15 for you've not received a spirit of slavery leading fear again But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we court and cry out Abba father and You met you know what that means. I mean Abba father Daddy Papa you know your most intimate expression of of a father-son relationship, whatever you call your dad if you had a great relationship, you know, daddy, papa, whatever, it's an intimate term. I'm sorry, I'm probably saying, you have a term and you probably don't want to express what you say, so I'm not going to embarrass you, but I sort of thought that as I'm saying, you know, what expression, that's probably embarrassing for some people. This is my mom's mother and dad. They were affectionately known as Gummy and Sticky. We were just talking about that the other day. Now explain to me, what are Gummy and Sticky? I was trying to explain it. I really couldn't do a good job of that.

Whatever that affectionate term that you have, that's what this is allowing us to cry out to who? The God of the universe. the God of the Universe, you are able to cry out, Daddy, Papa, whatever that term is. The question I had was, do you really believe you can do that? Do you really believe that? A lot of really stoned faces out there. We say this, it comes down to, do you believe Romans 8? That you can cry out, Daddy, the God of the Universe, You know, I think when I look at it, I look at with John in Revelation, what was the first thing he did when the angels and all that?

He's down on the ground. No, get up. You know, I think we have this thought that God is so big and so immense and so awesome and so just unbelievable that we just immediately cower, or in humble respect, I don't want to disturb you. You're the god of the universe. I think you're kind of daunted. You are. But is that what this says?

No. Does it say, back off, he's busy? He's got a big job out there, holding on to everything together. You know, Colossians is, he holds the small and everything from the large to the small. He holds everything together, from the atom to the universe. He's kind of busy. So, should you disturb him? Should you cry out? Do you believe in Romans 8? You know, do we?

I have these things, you know, a lot of times I always have this where I slap myself now for these thoughts. The thought that, you know, God just doesn't understand. This is too big. This is too much of a problem. It's too big. God just wouldn't understand. And I sit here and I think I'm putting God in a box. God's too busy. God's over here. God really doesn't know about what's... He's got all these other people in the world to pay attention to, but I'm over here and I'm suffering and He just wouldn't understand what I'm going through. Bonk.

You know, I really come down to, do you believe this, and I want to emphasize this, do you believe that you can cry out to the God of the universe, Dad, Dad, I'm hurting, Dad, thank you, you bless me beyond all belief, thank you. Do you believe that? Do you believe you can do that?

You know, everybody has these deep, dark, you know, hurts, deep, dark, Joy is deep, dark, I shouldn't say dark joy, that's pretty odd. Deep joy, you know, things that make you happy, things, blessings that you like, you know. Do you ever just sit back and say, thanks Dad? Do you ever just sit back and say, Dad, you don't understand, I mean, you do understand, but help me. Do you go through that at all?

You should. He has told us we can do that. anything you're going through, you have that intimacy, more than your earthly father. You know, if you had a great relationship with your father, and some just have great relationships, you did everything together, man, he was the biggest thing in life. Multiply that by an infinite amount to what you have with your holy father. I mean, think of that. I mean, you can come to Him with anything. You know, your dad, you could tell him things, but he really didn't understand sometimes. Your Holy Father knows everything about you. He's created you. He knows every thought before you think it, everything. He's in control of all things. That's the person I want to go talk to. And in John 17, what is the word for Father in Hebrew? Let me see here. So she wasn't one. So we threw out the whole thing in a second. I nearly reloaded. No, no, no, it's not. It's not fair.

Yeah, it's another one. which means the primary word of father literally or figuratively, near or more or most. So it's not the inman one, although if you went through it might be. Do you know that? The Abba father is actually two words. Yeah, Abba's father is the same word, I think, which is the word of position and Abba is the word of relationship. That's the love. That's the different characteristic of love. That's right, actually. Abba is the word that is the one that expresses the intimacy of love, and father is the paternal word.

In Romans, Chapter 5, there's the first five or six verses. running down, we have access to God, and he talks a little bit about suffering, but then in 5 he talks about the fact that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our heart the love of God. So, what you're talking about before, it would be consistent with grace that God would be the initiator, that he would be the one, through the Spirit, that would shed abroad in our hearts the love of God, His love towards us, whereby we would respond. Well, in the verse, God is love. I mean, if you look in the dictionary for love, the definition of love, it should be, I think, Christ, number one. I mean, God is love. That's where it all is initiated. I mean, we only have love because He has love. Again, these things, it's nothing of what we do. This just expresses the intimate relationship that we have with the God in the universe.

And as I was doing this and I was preparing it, I just kept my notes and it was just, do you believe this? Do you believe that? Do you really understand what that means to cry out Abba Father? I mean, is there a time when you can't bug him? You know, nine to five, he's busy.

I mean, it's all, I just, I have a lot more ease and peace of just, and the other thing, It was always, you know, when you get to the God of the Universe and there's reverence, which we should, it's an awesome God. But I also think of these things where, you know, in prayers, and it changed a lot of my prayer life, too. You know, I kept trying to pray like other people. You know, I was in the Bloom's Brethren for years, and I had great guys who we'd share at the Remembrance meeting. Great guys who'd share prayers, eloquent prayers. Wow, how can I compete with these guys? Number one, why am I competing? Duh. And number two, I have this intimacy with God the Father. Why do I have to talk like somebody else? Why do I have to talk in great eloquent sentences to God the Father?

Do I have to do that? Is there a scripture that says, thou shalt speak in these terms? That when you speak to God, you have to use $10 words? that you have to be, you know, rigid, you have to be, you know, this certain form. Is there anywhere that says that? Don't you have to use King James English?

Thou shalt. But really put this in perspective, what we're talking about. Really do you do that? I mean, when you go to God, and it's changed my career life a lot, in that I can go to Him anytime, anywhere, and I'm not using $10 words. I'm just talking. I don't understand this, Lord. What's going on? Wow, Lord, thank you for these blessings.

You know, I say when I'm in business and I tell Mike I get this Nebuchadnezzar syndrome. I think I've told this before, when I get a big contract, a big thing comes through. Yeah, Courtney, you did a great job. Yeah. And I keep thinking, I call it the Nebuchadnezzar syndrome. Remember Nebuchadnezzar looks at him as an empire and he goes, wow, look at all that I did.

What happened right after that? Boom. He's to the field. Don't what? He looked up. So I always get that. I get, you know, I come back on my nice contract. Yeah, man, that's great. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So but I talk to him in intimate terms. I don't get you don't have to be stodgy. You don't have to have a set form. There isn't a way that you have to talk to him other than who you are. And anything. Anything. You know, there are things you probably didn't want to talk to your earthly dad about. But there's nothing you can't talk to your heavenly father about. There's nothing. And don't get in big terms. Talk to him with the intimacy of what is said here.

Abba. Daddy. Dad, I don't understand. Explain to me. Show me. You know, those are the terms we should be expressing to God. As I kept saying, do you really believe this, that you can do that, this intimacy? Do you believe we have that intimacy? Alright, jetting ahead quickly to number four. You know, at the time, I think I'm going to try and read some of these to go through. The first one is, or this 11th position, is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And the verses, I'll read them quickly so we can get through them here.

Romans 3, 21-24, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 1.30, but by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

2 Corinthians 5.21 He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Philippians 3.8-12 More than that, I count all things to be lost in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count none but rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings be conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." So, the first one about being acceptable, we are? Righteous. We're made the righteousness of God in Christ. And the righteousness is imputed to the believer on the sole condition that he has believed on Christ as his Savior.

The next one, 1 Corinthians 1.30, But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

1 Corinthians 6.11. And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. So, next one about being acceptable, we are? Sanctified. Positionally set apart in Christ. So, the word sanctified means? Set apart. Set apart. Haggadahzo, and again, it's to be, to make holy or to be set apart. Okay, next one, Hebrews 10, 14, for by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. So what are we accepted? We are also perfected.

And in Ephesians 1.6 and 1 Peter 2.5, in Ephesians 1.4, In love he predestined us to the adoption of his sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. And then 1 Peter, In coming to him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So, we are made what? Accepted in the Beloved. We are accepted. We remain accepted in the Beloved. In Ephesians 1, God accepts those who are in union with his Son. Who makes us acceptable?

Christ, God, God is the one doing it. The point being, as Mike says, we do 59 spiritual push-ups, we are the spiritual gym, making us acceptable to God. That's what does it, right? It's what we do. No, no, no, no. It is all through God. Again, these positions, everything we come back to is how much do we do in this. And it is God doing it in us, or setting us positionally in these different aspects. Colossians 1, 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. So the next one, we are made qualified.

Are all believers qualified? All of them? Not for you. See, I wasn't going to put it that way, but are some more qualified than others? Is Mike more qualified or less qualified? Obviously. Are there some that are more qualified? Or are some that are less qualified? You know, and that's a big point, you know, when you think about this, you think of maybe some great, Lewis Perry Chaffer, who were going through all this, oh, he's more qualified. Oh, that's right, Brian just left.

You know, we get this thing that these giants, you know, who are maybe in faith, oh man, he's just, man, he studied the Bible inside and out, he can do it in Greek, he knows parsing, he can do everything, you know, how? I mean, how? Wow. He taught us all the diagramming. He taught us Greek. He was probably one of the most conformed men to the image of Christ that I've seen in his humble attitude.

Was he more qualified than you? No, not more qualified. So, should we as children of God adopted, should we have an inferiority complex? I'm just a little less qualified than Mike. He's got much more gray hair than I do. So I should hold him with a little more higher esteem. Is that the white hair as a mantle of wisdom? As I get grayer, I'm thinking that more and more.

Wow, he's really cool. Okay, number five. Who is responsible for you for your being in Christ, and with what consequences? Who's responsible? God. Right. And what is the consequence of that? Of us being qualified? 1 Corinthians 1.30 But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. The consequence is that we have a standing in righteousness through our living union for identification with Christ. It is a righteousness imputed to the believer on the sole condition that he has believed on Christ, and that what is true of Christ is true of us now. Through this union, we also have been positionally sanctified, or set apart, as new creature in Christ, and we have been redeemed. So, for us being in Christ, we have all those different things.

Now, question six. For how long have you been perfected? Three weeks? Put another quarter in the machine? You get a little bit more. If you're really good, you get an extra week. What does Hebrews 10, 14 say? Forever. He has perfected us for all time. Okay, let's see if we can get through this. Seven. I'll read the verses again.

For our next position, these verses, Romans 5, 1 through 3. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom which we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exalt in the hopes of the glory of God. Romans 3, 23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith." Romans 8, 29, and 30, "...for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, and whom he predestined, these he also called, and whom he called he also justified." whom he justified, he also glorified."

1 Corinthians 6.11. And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in the Spirit of our God, Titus 3.4-8, when the kindness of God, our Savior, in His love for mankind, appeared. He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of the regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by His grace, that we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." This is a trustworthy statement. So what is our twelfth position? We are justified. We are justified. Now the question is, what's the difference between a believer's righteousness and justification?

Stone-faced they look at me. Righteousness is a worship. Declared right in God's sight. What? Declared right in God's sight. That's justification. To pronounce or declare one righteous. Righteousness. Righteousness is to have right standing or to be right. Right. Usually I do right standing. That's the one I use. And then justification is to pronounce or declare one righteous. Now, Lewis Perry's paper had it this way, which I think was kind of a good way.

The believer is constituted righteous by virtue of his position in Christ, but he is justified by a declaratory decree of God. Righteousness imputed is the abiding fact. Justification is the divine recognition of that fact. So, right standing is the righteousness and justification is the declaration of that.

Now, I give you my question. Nine. Are there any of the twelve position possessions attributed to us when we receive the Lord discussed above, based on our merits or behavior? And the class all said, no. Thank you. Thank you. We are moving along. All right. Let's close with prayer and then give you question set 19 or lesson 19. Let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for all the time that we can study your Word. We are so thankful of these truths. We don't have to use million-dollar words to talk to you.

You have an intimacy that goes beyond our knowledge. We know that you're intimately involved with each and every one of us, and we have this relationship by which we can call you Father, Dad, just the intimate terms that we come before you. And you want us to come before you. You want us to have this relationship. And you've given us this access by which we can come before you. And we are humbled by how awesome you are. But we revel in the fact that you have an intimate relationship with us. And we thank you for that. We thank you that there is nothing that you don't know about us. There is nothing that we can't bring before you. There is nothing that we can't ask of you. We thank you for that intimacy that we have with you.

Father, as we go throughout this day and this next week, Lord, again, just get that relationship that we have with you. We thank you for it. We just pray that we'll grow in our walk in that intimacy. Father, we just commit this day to you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.