The Position & Possessions of the Believer # 15-17 (Lesson 20)
Mike Doyle · Feb 25, 2007
Identification (2006-07), No. 21
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492601825170

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

I wanted to start off today, we're going through, for those of you who don't know, this is identification class, and we have gone through, some months ago, the fact that we were identified with Adam, and all that accrues to Adam is Death is separation from God, the fall of the creation, sin, all of those things. And that's what we were. And then we went through the mechanics of how God took us out of Adam and placed us in Christ. And now we're going through what we call the 34 things, the positions and possessions that we have in Christ.

I wanted to ask you this morning, and I want you to be thinking about this as we go forward. Why are these things important to us? Are they just, you know, nice, pious platitudes that we get to learn? Why is it important that we know them, and know about them? What's true of Christ is true of us. That's exactly right. What's true of Christ is true of you.

And what you'll find, and probably you have already discovered, a lot of times when you start talking about positions and possessions that the believer has in Christ, in his mind he thinks the discussion is about somebody else other than them. And we talk a lot around here about the fact that believers live by faith. Faith has to have an object. These are the very things that a believer is to believe about yourself, about who you are.

So as you study these things, and one other point, if you look at these, these probably, in more cases than not, go against what your experience is, right? Do you walk around with these kinds of thoughts going through your mind every day? Probably not. Probably not. So, you can see how the intrusion of the world is designed specifically to get your mind, your thoughts, your focus off of who you are. But this is really who you are.

And these are the very things that you're to believe. The people up in the Romans class, when they got to Romans 6, They were informed that their old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be put out of business, that they should no longer serve sin. And when they got to verse 11, the Word of God gave them a command, which was there to reckon themselves, indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God. And there was tons of focus on that one reckoning. We're giving you 34.

You're to recognize every one of these things as being true of you, because they're true of Christ, who is your very life. It's who you are, and it's how God sees you. So, lots of times, you know, as you talk to believers about their faith, their personal faith, and what are they supposed to believe? Well, I'm saved, but what am I supposed to believe about who I am, where I am, and what I have? This is it. These are the things. And not just these 34, there's a lot more. So, my point here is that the focus of your faith, every week, like today, if we get through them, we're going to go through three of them. Are they true? Are they true of you? And do I believe them? Do I reckon them to be so?

Because sometimes classes like this are sort of, well, that's nice theological elements and information, but it doesn't make any sense for us unless it gets to be personal. It's about who I am, who you are in Christ. Okay, question 20. Position in the possession of the believer, number 15, is entitled the powers of darkness. So let's read.

Davis, Colossians 1.13.

Colossians 2.13-15. The verses talk about, which you'll see, this thing called the power of darkness. When you were dead in your transgressions, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, we made you alive together with Him, having forgotten all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Tell me what the powers of darkness are. It's not some rock band from hell, is it? What are the powers of darkness? Satanic powers? Fallen angels?

What are they? The old man? What else? The world? What makes them powerful? What can they do? What do they cause? Why do they cause me trouble? Why do they cause those that are under its influence? problem. Because it keeps them from the truth. And do you perceive that the powers of darkness are powerful? Or are you deceived, thinking that, nah, no problem? Maybe ask this question. What's your viewpoint of our pal Satan? How do you view him? he twisted just enough to make it invasive. How powerful is he? Very powerful, right? Much more so than we are. Is he omnipresent? But nobody can come to this class and say, Satan is picking on me, because he doesn't know your name, and he doesn't know your address. He doesn't care about you. See that? So he's not picking on you. Well, one of his minions says, well, maybe.

But there's a kingdom of darkness that we live in, this world. And it's a darkness based on deception. And a whole energy in place to keep people from the truth. The truth that is in Christ Jesus. All you've got to do is watch the news at 11, 10 or whenever it's on. And that's death and darkness functioning. The world majors in things that don't matter, really matter, because it keeps you focused on something else. Well, that power still functions in the believer's life, after he's saved, in order to accomplish the same purpose, to keep you from the truth.

But this verse says that that God has done what? He's delivered us from that whole power system. See that? You have been delivered. So the next time you become aware of the fact that, man, this world is getting to me. It seems to be influencing me more than it should. In terms of reckoning, this is a good one. I've been delivered. I'm no longer like the sin nature. The sin nature is still in me. I'm not in it anymore. I live in an environment of darkness in this world, but it isn't in me anymore. I've been delivered from it.

So, I ask the question, are you delivered from the powers of darkness just by being forgiven? Do you understand what I mean by that? The answer is still no. Just forgiving your sins doesn't get rid of the old man. And the old man is who is influenced by these powers of darkness. Is anybody other than a believer forgiven? No. Who? Everybody. Not forgiven. Paid for, but not forgiven.

So the point is, I think, that you can't disconnect forgiveness from deliverance. Does that make sense to you? If you're forgiven, you're delivered. Because if you're forgiven, you're a believer. Which means you are a believer. And the word forgiveness The Greek word for forgiveness means to send away. It doesn't mean, oh, never mind. That if I sinned against Gary and I say, I'm sorry, and he says, oh, never mind, that's not forgiveness.

Forgiveness is that you and your sins have been separated from each other. If that's true, then you've been delivered from darkness. Do you see that? Positional truth or conditional truth? Yeah, you've been delivered by forgiveness from the punishment that's due. And it's not only the things you do, it's also the things you think. Right.

So what are the mechanics? How did God do it? Of being translated or transferred from the power of darkness into the kingdom of the sun and his love. How did he do it? Mark dies. How did he do it? He did it through death. How did he deliver you? Death. Expanded. Death to what? How did you die? Repositioned in. You died in Christ.

You know, the whole entire identification principle is how are the mechanics and how God delivered you. Or maybe put it another way, how he took you out of, this side of the room is darkness. Sorry guys. This side of the room is the kingdom of the son of his love. How did God get you from here over to there? I mean I love vocation, being a realtor. I really like vocation. It's really important.

How does God get you out of here and into here? Well right in the middle here is the cross of Christ. And so he takes the people here who believe, and he identifies them with the cross of Christ. And so what happens? He dies, so did they. What does death mean? Separation. Separation from what? Death?

You said he identifies us with the cross, but he really identifies us with his son. That's right. He identifies us with his son on the cross. Thank you. So, once you believe, you find yourself here, buried, resurrected. When do you get resurrected? Over here.

Those are the mechanics of how he did it. That's a reality, a spiritual reality, that is for the rest of your life here, you'll be learning more and more about. This is how God sees every one of us. He sees the whole room sitting over here. in Christ. And he deals with us only from this position. He doesn't deal with us from everywhere. Because from his perspective, what happened? He left. You're gone. You're out of the kingdom of darkness. And now you live in the kingdom of the Son of His love. Identification. That's how it happens. That's how he did it. It's pretty cool. Now you know what's interesting about that?

You talked about the powers of darkness. How many believers do you know that understand that? You pointed to her husband. You talk about deception and the power of darkness. If you were Satan and you wanted to keep some information from believers so that they couldn't function as believers, what information would you keep from them? This is it. You wouldn't want them to know about this.

Why? Because there's deliverance there. There's life over here. If you're over here, you're much less likely to be fooled. If I've got a plan together and I'm trying to keep Christians, I'm going to clean them up and march them all to church on Sunday, but I'm never going to tell them about identification. Ever. Because then they're dangerous. I can't influence them and control them anymore.

See that? That's the power of darkness that believers deal with, is just the darkening of the mind about this particular truth. And even in circles where people understand this truth, they think it's some highly spiritual understanding. Where does it show up in the Book of Romans? What chapter? Six, right? Basic stuff. Romans is Christianity 101. It's the survey course. Chapter 6.

And if you don't understand identification, you really can't understand the rest of the Word of God. Because it's all based on that principle. You see that? Anything you study in Corinthians, Colossians, Galatians, from then on, it's all based on this principle of identification with Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. And without that understanding, you don't know. what the writers and what the Spirit of God is talking about.

So it's critical. But if you're Satan, and you want to keep Christians just sort of running along, majoring in the minors, what are you going to do? You're going to keep this information from them, and you're going to give them a set of rules to live by. Then they're not effective. Okay, the next part of that is to be translated into the kingdom of his dear son.

Being made alive together is one word in Greek. What do you think it means? I have no shot. Sun sun oheo. That's the word. There's one word that needs... Some of the older Bibles would use the word quicken. Being made alive together. What does it mean? We're a new creation. But what does the together part mean?

There's nothing that we have that's separated from Him. That union with Christ is the most important. So in the Greek language they use a word that talks about a preposition that denotes union. Union with Christ. It isn't that you by yourself floating around in the kingdom have been delivered. No, it's all in union with Him. There isn't anything we have in the kingdom of the Son of His love that's separated from union with Him. Union of what? Life. Union of life.

So what does it mean to blot out the handwriting of ordinances and to take it out of the way? What were the handwriting of ordinances? What's that? The mosaic law. And why does he refer to it as handwritten? And by the way, I think that this part of the verse refers to Jews, in particular. Why handwriting? He wrote it. That's right, he wrote it. With his hand, in the rock.

So he took, this deliverance takes those out of the way, okay? The Word says that Why would he take those out of the way? It means that it's been taken out from the midst of believers. In other words, it isn't part of this. The kingdom of the son of his love doesn't have any of this. Why? Why is that so important? Isn't this what Satan is actually doing? He's appealing to our ego that we've got to constantly take the old self, buff it up, clean it up, and present it as a true sacrifice? buff it up, clean it up, right?

And if you're a Jew, the rules were the mosaic system. And realistically, I come from an environment of Catholic Catholicism. I was steeped in the stuff. I mean, the whole reason I'm in Denver is because I came to Regis University. My dad said, I'll send you to any college you want, as long as it's Catholic. Colorado seemed like a cool place, so I came here. The thing about Catholicism is that they're really more Jewish than the Jews are. They have more rules, and it's all about polishing up.

The famous Thomas Akempis wrote a 700-page book called The Imitation of Christ. What do you think's in that book? The how-to's. The how-to's. This verse says you've been delivered from all of that. In other words, just like your sins, if you've been separated, if they've been put away from you, same thing with the law. Oh no, if I don't have any laws to live by, how am I going to live? How are you going to live?

Grace. Grace. By grace. Not by law. By grace only. It's very difficult. Could you repeat what Gordon said? Oh, yeah. I couldn't hear. Speak up. Boy, that's the first time I've been accused of being quiet. Now, the same thing as the law, and a lot of people will quote Galatians 3.24, which is, Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. They always forget the second part, which is 25. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, under the law.

Don't you feel uncomfortable with the fact that you don't have any laws to live by? So what's to motivate you? What's to motivate you? Don't we, from the time we're old enough to be aware of the fact that I have parents who have put the law on me, don't we function based on a law system? You know, do this and I'll reward you, and if you don't, I'll get one of these. So you become a believer, and you start to learn about this grace thing. How does grace motivate you? Because there's no hammers in grace. There's no rewards in grace for what you're doing. So how does it motivate you? Doesn't it fall under Christ's command to love He who does? If that were all it was, then it's just another law. What motivates me to respond in grace? Say that again? God loved us first.

The thing about grace is that if it is, by definition, totally unmerited, which takes the merit mentality out of me, I can't earn any of it, and it's totally unlimited, which means it's coming at me way over the top all the time, and it's all based on what somebody else did, once I check into that stream, so to speak, the response is, in my mind, simple.

Because grace itself will cause you to respond and will cause you to obey. Because you can't resist it. You can't resist the grace. You can't resist the love of God. But if you're stuck in a legal system, you never get to the grace. See that? So that's what makes it so difficult, because if you sit down and try to catalog how gracious God is being to me right now, the legal list would be longer, wouldn't it? So you study the Word of God, you study these 34 things, they're all based on grace, and they're all true of you now. And the work of the Spirit is to persuade you, and to put you experientially into this stream of grace in which we grow.

And so then you don't have to worry about the response. The response will be there. Does that make sense? But most of us would rather have a rule. I mean, I think that, you know, in our day-to-day lives, we want to... I know, I want those rules. It's like, okay, what do I do today to get done and grow and whatever it is we've done to that day?

Just even in the last couple of years, Kirk and I, where we've gotten to know other believers who understand that grace, and that the Lord really shows you with more tactile things in real life, like visual things that we do, say, with our friends that are believers, and just show us grace, that we can show them grace, and that grace just goes back and forth, and it's not that obligatory response, and then you've got your neighbors that have not believed it.

Sure. Like, okay, you let me borrow your snow blower, so I'll let you do this. Sure. And it's this law thing, and I think that when you're able to see that in your worldly, your relationships with your parents, boy, it just puts it into perspective. It changes their judgment. Yeah.

I mean, so, this is just a tiny sampling of what Christ is doing with me, even though I can't visually be him, and touch him, and those kinds of things, but then he shows that to us, and the relationship then brings into our lives. Yeah. And again, that's why I try to emphasize as much as I can that as we're studying these 34 things, these are things that are already true of us, and they're all gracious. They're all something that God has done or doing, and the work of the Spirit is to bring us into the fullness of that, so that that's the way we live.

I mean, I think about our buddy Hal Malloy. Right now, what's he doing? Thinking about if he's going to live up to the expectations that God has for him? No, it's like the throttle is wide open to receive the glory and grace of God. Wide open. No restrictions. Not even a thought about whether he deserves it, what he can do to thank God for it, He's just taking it, receiving it. And we really aren't convinced, I don't think, until we mature a little bit, that grace really does motivate and control our whole life and what we do.

I think the first place you learn it is in relationships. That's the first place you learn it. You know, you get married and take the vows, right? And you're always looking at those vows. You enter into grace and you think, gee, that got handled. I don't have to worry about that. I'm amazed that she loves me anyway.

So how would you describe what the kingdom of the son of his love that we've been translating to is? What is it? People listening to the tape are thinking, did the tape go off? What is it? Full-time dwelling in his presence? Okay. Anybody else? Here's the verse, I think.

2 Corinthians 5.17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, new things have become. So the kingdom, the son of his love, is the new creation.

And so, what is the new creation? Trick question, by the way. What is the new creation? I'll ask it another way and it won't be as tricky. Who is the new creation? Christ was the creator of the first one. You know, this thing we live in now. But the new creation is him. Does that make sense to you? He didn't create the new creation, he is the new creation. So when you get translated into the kingdom of the son of his love, where are you? Here in him. And it functions based on the principle of grace only.

So don't you find it interesting that God takes us out of a thing and puts us into a took us out of the kingdom of darkness and put us into his Son. So it's all about intimacy with the person who's the resurrected Christ. That's the kingdom. Okay. Wow, we went through this fast. Position and possession number 17. On the Rock.

Verses 1 Corinthians 3, 11. 1 Peter 2, verses 4-7. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Christ the prophet. From the foundation of the apostles and prophets was Christ Jesus himself as the chief 2 Corinthians 1.21. By the way, I did make a typo there, so if you guys are looking for 2.21 or whatever I put in there, you can ask.

First Peter 2.4-7. And coming to him as a living stone which has been rejected by men. but is choice and precious to 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. For this is contained in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. This precious value, then, is for you who believe, But for those who disbelieved, the stone which the builder rejected, this became the very cornerstone.

Why do you need a solid foundation? Why do you need one of those? You crumble without it. Yeah, you crumble without it. Like any of you who know anything about engineering or construction, structure. So you must have a sound foundation, and for us as believers, you have to insert the word Bible in there.

We need to have a sound physical foundation in Christ, because the Bible is the thing that God uses to explain to us the solidity of it. I don't think God honors anything other than that. positional truths like we're learning are the scriptural foundation of spiritual growth. I don't know if you've ever noticed this, referring back to Romans chapter 6. It's a very logical presentation of line upon line, precept upon precept, and they all have to be in place in the proper order, and that's the solid foundation. It builds one thing on another, one thing on another, one thing on another, so that by the time you get to Romans 8 and some things are said about you graciously, it's all based on the foundation of everything that went before. That's why Romans is such an important book for believers to have intimate acquaintance with, because it's the foundation. And, you know, we function that way in the world.

I mean, intellectually, if you go to college and you study whatever your major is, where do you start? You don't start in the 300 courses, do you? Where do you start? The 100, 101, whatever the basic course is that you're going to study. If it's engineering, you better have a background in math, right? If it's literature, you better be able to read. and understand language and understand grammar. If it's history, where do you start? As far back as you can go.

So in everything there must be a solid foundation. It's the same thing spiritually. When you deal with believers that are a little, as I call it, loose in the corners, and you start to spend some time with them, what do you find? That the foundation is a little loose. Harold Lloyd was probably the best counselor I ever knew. And I asked him one time, I said, how do you do it? He said, well, counseling is real simple. It's 90% biblical education.

It's taking people into the Word of God and showing them who they are, what they have, and where they are. And once they get the foundation down, then the rest of it will come into place. You see that? It's true. All believers. All believers. And God intends us, intends for us, to be solid. And so what, when we're talking about a class like this, identification terms, are we talking about foundational stuff, or really cool, high spiritual stuff? What is this class? Is it foundational? Sure is. It's absolutely foundational. Let's see.

Youth and immaturity tend to act first and think later, if at all. Maturity has learned to take time to assess the facts. Our patient husband, who is the spirit of God, is willing for us to take time and to learn the eternal facts, without which we cannot be brought to maturity.

We cannot deepen spiritual life If the life isn't there to start with, you will only build askew if the foundation is not properly laid. I don't recommend you spend a lot of time doing this, but it's worth going to Vern's apologetic course next time he offers it, because what you're going to find is, in most every case, it's because the foundation wasn't solid. And if the foundation isn't solid, who knows where you're going to end up. spiritually. A quote from a guy named J.C. Metcalfe, A lack of appreciation of the wonder of a full salvation in Christ opens the door to every kind of over-balance and spells continual frustration and failure. And again, if I'm Satan, and I want to keep Christians from being effective, what am I going to do about it when it comes to the foundation? I'm going to make it as obscure as I can.

Today, not that I recommend you do this, but turn on your television, go to a Christian station that's evangelizing. Listen very carefully to the gospel message to see if it is the gospel message. You're going to find that it isn't. You're going to find that it's usually law-based, not grace-based. Someone's going to encourage the listeners to make a commitment to Christ, to receive Jesus in their heart, to come forward, to do something where they have a part in it, and just the pure, gracious gospel is not presented.

So how good a start do you get? If you don't start on the basis of grace, how are you going to grow in grace? If you started on the basis of where you had something to contribute, then your mindset is going to be, I'm always looking for what God wants me to do, other than just believe Him. See that? If you start on a grace basis, you're much more willing to let God be gracious in your growth. So is it important for us and you collectively, to be clear about the gospel, to know what it is, and be able to articulate it clearly? Absolutely it is. Absolutely it is.

We all know believers in our life who have sort of drifted off, and the reason was that they didn't start good. Their conception of Christianity is not based on grace, and they probably don't have all the facts. In their mind, they made the commitment. How come it isn't working out? Or they've been given an expectation that's unrealistic.

If God is a buffering, you know, two Tylenol, he'll fix all your problems. That's not what salvation is. If the Lord Jesus is the rock, then explain what your function is, or our function is. If he's the rock, then what do you do? Mike, I was struck by what you said on Friday night at our annual meeting, when you took us to Ephesians 4, and you're talking about the building in terms of how we're being built up, and that there was a logical order here. He first gave us, the verse doesn't say Christ, but that's there. And then the apostles and prophets. And what comes after that? Our teacher.

And for what was the purpose? The unity and the divide, building up the front. Which you're talking about right here, foundational thing. For what purpose? Yeah, for what purpose? Remember what those of you who were here... For what purpose? Ephesians talks about what the purpose is. It's for the edification of the body of Christ. For the growth. So that we all come into the fullness of Christ. The full stature of who He is. So, if your faith and your rest is on the rock, what do you do?

You're being built up. Oh, gee, one of them hats are birds. Who's doing the building? But what are you doing? Here's the point I want to make. You're receiving. If you study the Old Testament scriptures about the rock, what are they supposed to do? They're supposed to drink of the water. You're supposed to receive in the life. You do that by faith. You receive. That's what you do. In the Ephesians passage, God just doesn't come and turn on the spigot. He supplies everything you need.

People. the Scriptures and the Spirit of God to do what? To cause us to grow. To cause us to grow. And our growth is based solely upon God doing and your receiving. Because that's the way grace is. God does and you receive. Make sense? So if you go home this week and spend a half an hour reading those Ephesians 4 verses, just to kind of get the sequence, What you're going to find there is that the God of the universe, in all three persons, in all of their energy, are engaged in your maturity. Pretty cool, isn't it?

And when you say you're, you're talking about not us as individuals, but as us collectively. I'm talking about both of us. Both of us. Not only as individuals to conform each one of us to Christ, but that as a body of believers we would represent and manifest the life of Christ himself. If they're engaged in doing that, you're the one that will be the manifester.

And you know what's cool about that? Why would God go through all that trouble? Why would He care? Because you're really important and He needs you, right? Yeah, you are. Why would he go through that trouble? He has determined that in eternity to come there will be a vehicle through which the glory of God will be manifested to all of his creation. You know what the vehicle is? It's Christ. But there's another part to it. Who's the other part? Us. Us. not the nation of Israel, although the glory of God will be manifested to them. Do you realize in the millennial kingdom that we are going to rule and reign with Christ? So when you're cruising around this earth in the millennial kingdom, everybody is going to know you're a son of God.

How are they going to know that? Because they can see it. The glory of God will radiate out of every one of us, so that everybody who's on this earth will know He has determined that each one of us, and collectively, we are going to manifest the glory of God.

When did the process start? The minute you were saved. The conformity to the image of Christ is designed to do what? Manifest His glory, right? So here's the process. It's going on already. It's sequential, all the players are in place, and the game is on. Right now. Right now.

To think about the privilege that we have as believers to just have fellowship with the Son of God is overwhelming to me. Why would you do it? I mean, why would God even go through the brain damage to get you and me to know his son? Intimacy, to know him like we know each other. Why would he do such a thing? If I was God, I wouldn't do it. You guys would be out of luck. So he's up to that now.

And so here we are going through these things, and he says, OK, my son's the rock. My son's the foundation. He's the cornerstone of the building that I'm building. And what are you in that building? What do I want you to do? I want you to receive of him. OK?

It isn't just enough to see. We've got to draw from him. For us it is not a monument of stones on kingdom's shore, but our rock on the shore of glory. It is the glorified Lord Jesus, the object of our faith, the firstborn from the dead, risen and entered into the heavenly places, but one who represents us there, associating us with himself, even as he associates himself with us in his death and sin. How does, or what does it mean to be established?

2 Corinthians 1.21. Now he that establishes us with you in Christ and anointing us with God, what does it mean to be established? confirm us, conform us. Who's doing this establishing, according to this person? You are. You're doing a good job. Who's doing it? Who's doing it? God is doing it.

So, from 1 Corinthians 1.22, it says we're sealed. What's a seal? We don't have much in the world. We have notary seals. What do they do?

If you come to me and need a document, a notarized seal put on it, what does it say? Seal wishes it is real, then it's real. And that your signature is the real you, and you meant everything you meant said in the document. When God comes to us with this document, and it's got a notary seal on it, what's the notary seal? The Spirit of God Himself, He's the seal. So what does the seal represent?

A guarantee. A guarantee, right? So, is it important for us to have guarantees? Only for Godly promises? How does it benefit us to know that we have been sealed by the Spirit of God? What benefit is it of it to you? Says it right there, guaranteeing what is to come. That's right. And how good is a guarantee? Well, you can't take it back. No, how good is it? How good is a guarantee if you're, you know, you're by a... It's only the person who gives it back. That's exactly right. A guarantee is only as good as the one who stands behind it.

Right? If you come over to my house and I'm going to sell you my old snow shovel, I guarantee that thing for six months. You come back to me in five months, guess what? I'm not giving you another shovel. So the guarantee is only as good as I am standing behind it. So God says to you, here's all that I've done and all that I'm going to do. I saved you. I'm sanctifying you. I'm going to glorify you. And oh, by the way, I'm going to give you my guarantee. How good is the guarantee?

God himself. God himself. So that's why it's important. I wanted to spend a little bit more time in the 1 Peter verses, but the one thing I want to talk about in there, Peter talks about the fact that if you're a priest, what does a priest do? He represents the people that you love. Okay. So who do you represent? If you're a priest, What do you do? Who do you represent? Oh, and by the way, you're not only a priest, you're a high priest.

So, the priest in this book, those of you who were coming over on Thursday night and found out that in the mosaic system, we discovered there weren't any chairs in the temple. The reason there weren't any chairs is because the job wasn't done. These guys never got to sit down. They had to be sacrificing all the time because the sin issue wasn't resolved. So you won't find a sofa in the temple. But in Hebrews and other places it talks explicitly about Christ having sacrificed one time only, he sat down. So if he sat down, what does it say about the sin issue between you and God?

Done. Okay? So what does Christ do now as a High Priest in the Heavens, for you and me? He intercedes. He's an advocate, and more importantly, because he's a priest after the Order of Melchizedek, he blesses. That's what Melchizedek did. He blessed Abraham, right? That's what a Melchizedek priest does. And so our job is to convey blessing. That's really our job. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for the position and possessions that we have in your son. And I guess if you have one prayer that we would enter in more fully into, I don't know what they are or who they are, but we should just pray in his name.