The Position & Possessions of the Believer # 31 (Lesson 33)

Today we're talking about number 31, Blessed with the Firstfruits in the Earnest of the Spirit. There were a lot of verses to be looked up in this group. I didn't cover them all, but tried to do an overview. The first question actually comes from John 3.6.

Somebody go to John 3.6. Just read it.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. Okay. The flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. Or, King James says, what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what's born of the spirit is spirit. What does that mean? What does it mean to be born of the flesh? That's the physical birth. physical birth. It also includes who we are in Adam. So when you're born of the flesh, that's the way you show up, right? Can you do anything about it? You just got it, right? You showed up in the plant. Now, when you're born of the spirit, what's that about?

That's the new birth. Born from above, and as we've been talking about in this class, if you're going to get born a second time, what's going to happen to you the first time? You're going to die. So, our identification with Christ's death, burial, separates us from the first Adamic fleshly life, and when we are born anew, we are born into Christ. So, what does that mean? When you are born of the Spirit? What do you get when you show up with being born of the Spirit? What do you get? You get the new life and everything that Christ has. You get the new life and everything that Christ has. Past tense? Right now. All that he is resurrected right now is what we are. Now, from a position or condition standpoint, is that a position or a condition? Position. Which matters most, position or condition? Position.

So that's where the faith has to be focused. So, when we talk about, it's interesting that the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus, who's a Jew, that he must be born again. Gee, I didn't think the Jewish deal had birth involved. Why would he even say that to the Jews? Why would he say that to them? This is not Christian doctrine, necessarily. He says to a Jewish teacher, you must be born again. And he said, if you're not, you won't ever see the kingdom of God, and you won't ever enter into it. And we use this verse to talk about spiritual birth.

So, are Jews who become saints born again too? What do you think? He's talking to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus isn't a Jew, he's not teaching Christian truth, he's teaching Jewish truth, isn't he? Isn't he? And he's telling Nicodemus, hey, you're a teacher of Israel, you should know all this stuff. And he's talking about what's the reward.

You won't see the kingdom of God, you won't enter into the kingdom of God, and if you're a Jew, that's what's important, is the kingdom. And unless you're born again, you don't get to see it or go into it. So does a Jew who is a saint born again, To the Jews first, and then the Gentiles.

Is it the same life? Is it the same birth that we know? Yes. What do you think? We're not in the kingdom right now. We're not in the kingdom right now. It's a different kind of church. Yeah, where we go isn't into the kingdom, necessarily. Where do we go? Because you believe now. You have the same life that we do. Where does he go? No, if he believes, if a Jewish person believes in the person and work of Christ right now, where does he go? Sure, he ends up in Christ. If Nicodemus would have believed Jesus at that time, where would he go?

Couldn't have. So, how about those other 12 guys that hung around with the Lord Jesus, they called them apostles? What about those guys? Here's the real tough one. How about the guy hanging next to Christ on the cross? When Christ said, today you'll be with me in paradise. Does that mean that he was going to be a Christian? No. Why not? The church didn't start the Pentecost. Church doesn't start with Pentecost, because what happens? Why is Pentecost such a pivotal time for believers? In dwelling of the Spirit. And what does the Spirit do to you? Baptizes you in Christ.

Jesus said, well, you know, he hasn't come yet because I am gone. He's not going to come until I go. So, well, back to my question. Does an Old Testament Jew like Nicodemus need to be born again? The answer has got to be yes, because Jesus said to him, okay, you need to be born again.

So what does that mean? What does it mean? make it easier. If he believes that Jesus is the Messiah, you know, the Savior, and how do people get saved from all eternity, from Adam forward? By faith, right? So he believes that Jesus is the Messiah. Is he born again? Answer, yeah, he is. What did you get? He gets new life, doesn't he? Is it the same life you get?

No, it's not. Because there isn't, at that point, resurrected, glorified Christ. He doesn't have a position in the resurrected, glorified Christ. I would say the best way to describe him is he's a just man made perfect. He has life. The Millennial Kingdom Saints will have life. The difference is the kind of life. We have exactly, that wouldn't have been right. We have the very life of the resurrected Christ. Are you talking about Nicodemus or the thief in the cross? When Nicodemus was alive, they had to defend him. Hey, you know, maybe he's in Christ. May well be. He might have been there. He sure could have been.

The other good example is John the Baptist. The Lord Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest man that ever lived on the earth. How would you like the Lord Jesus to say that about you? He's the greatest man that ever lived on the earth. I mean, even greater than some of them Old Testament guys way before him. But what else did he say about it, in terms of his position? That he doesn't measure up to the least of those that are in Christ. Even John identified himself as a friend of the bridegroom and not the bride.

We're the bride. See the difference? That's kind of a tangent I took. It's interesting that life, we seem to think that there's only And there is only two positions that human beings can occupy in our dispensation. You're either in Adam, or you're in Christ. If you're from the dispensation just before ours, who are plenty of people who were saved, and became quote-unquote believers, but they don't have, just because of the frame, they don't have the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus, and they're not identified with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. Do they have life? Absolutely they do. Absolutely they do. Have they been identified with Christ and his cross? No. No, they haven't. No, I don't think so. Yeah, it's interesting. Have they been taken out of Adam? I don't think so. I don't think so.

That's like with Abraham, where it was counted to him. He was justified. God said to him, I account you righteous. Nothing really intrinsic happened to Abraham like it does happen to us. This transaction of identification doesn't happen, but God just accounts him righteous. You have a standing before me now, because of your faith. Now when God saves a man like Abraham before the death of Christ, how does he do it? What gives him the freedom to go ahead and do it? He does it on credit. The Lord's got this credit card. He knows Christ is coming. And so he saves men based on what Christ is going to do.

Do they still have a sin nature attached? I think they do. For all eternity? I don't know about that. Well it has to be changed somehow. What's that? Doesn't it have to be changed somehow? Because God can't look on sin. The sin nature cannot be in His hands. That's true. Let's look at the Millennial Kingdom Jews.

When Christ comes to rule in Raymond and they enter into the New Covenant. Right? What do they get in the New Covenant? Land? Personally. To get a new heart. To get a law written on their heart. They get to know everything about God all at once. They don't have to teach each other. Well, if you have a new heart and a law written in your heart, does that mean that you have a new life?

Like we have? I mean, if that's true, you guys are pretty dumb. What does that mean? Do they still have the sin nature? I think they do. I think they do. Because I don't know. When we go into eternity, will those that live eternally with Christ be separated or not be identified with the sin nature anymore? I've got to say, probably, but I don't know. I don't know enough.

I talked to Hal about this one time and he said, yeah. And I said, well I can't see where any Millennial Kingdom Saints are identified. with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, his answer was, well, that identification is true for us. What is going to be true for them maybe hasn't been revealed yet.

But I agree with you. God can't look upon sin. And for human beings to spend eternity with Him, whether they're sitting with Jewish saints, Millennial Kingdom saints, Old Testament saints, There can't be sin. No, there'll be people born during the way and they'll be born with us in nature. They sure will. They'll have to believe like the Old Testament saints believed, right?

So let's trace that. The Millennial Kingdom happens at 921 this morning. We're gone. Jews are here. Seven years from now, the New Covenant is implemented. And here's Mr. and Mrs. Goldstein living in Jerusalem, and they have a new heart, a new law written in their heart, right? And they have a baby. Does that baby have sin nature?

Why? Because they have wine. See, the line hasn't been broken. Yet. But they're declared righteous to enter into the Millennial Kingdom, right? They are, but just because their last name is Goldstein doesn't mean they get to go in. What do they have to do? They have to believe. Sure they do. Sure they do.

During the Tribulation. Yeah. I don't want to chase that rabbit. Yeah. Because only believers are human. That's exactly right. So, we could say all humanity is born of the flesh, and all believers are born of the spirit. That's a given fact. Born of the spirit. What does he mean by spirit? You just become spiritual? Spirit referring to the Holy Spirit. That's right.

So what does it mean to drink of one spirit? Verses 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit all of us, Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, were baptized into one body and we were all privileged to drink from one spirit. What does that mean? What does it mean that every one of us have the privilege to drink, or what would the other version say, from one spirit? We all get to go to the same Dairy Queen. What does that mean?

To drink from the same spirit. Nobody has the answer. Well, it just refers to the quality in the body of Christ. Body of Christ, right. Being baptized, immersed into the Christ-like spirit. In this, in the New King James spirit is capitalized. So, notice that, what's the word drink and why? Water is life. So there has to be a source or a sustenance of life, right? For us to exist and survive. And so now we're not talking about Dr. Peppers anymore. We're talking about drink as a spirit of life. So there has to be a source of this new life that we have. What's the source? It's the Spirit of God himself. So, the point is that every single believer has this same source of life and draws on this same source of life for spiritual existence.

One verse they didn't quote, which I think they should have, is Romans 8.2, that there's a new principle of the Spirit of Life, and that's capital S, in Christ Jesus. So there's an entirely new principle of life that we live in and draw our life from and source from, and it's the Spirit of God Himself. He's the One. So when it says we've all been made to drink of one Spirit, it's Him. He's the only source of life, spiritual life.

1 Corinthians 10, 1-7, the Jews were all identified with Moses, why didn't that cause them to be pleasing to God? So let's read, somebody read those seven verses, because it's kind of an interesting set of verses. Anyway, 1 Corinthians 10, chapter 7.

I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat. and did all drink the same spiritual drink.

For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be the idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Don't you have a problem with this verse? I mean, look at these folks. Look at their credentials. Their credentials are, is that they were all under this cloud. What's the cloud? They were under the protection of the cloud that led them. Every single one of them were. They all went through the Red Sea. Every single one of them did. Because if they didn't, they wouldn't have been there.

They all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And they all ate the same spiritual food. What was the food that they ate? And they all drank of the same spiritual drink. For they continually drank from the spiritual rock, capital R, that went with them, and that rock was Christ."

Those sound like awfully good credentials to me. How could God be displeased with these folks? It sounds to me like they're doing everything that God required of them. But he's displeased. How come? They're doing it all in their own effort. Doing it all in their own effort? What else? Working throughout by the Holy Spirit.

That's one, yeah. In Hebrews it says, without faith it's impossible to please God. So if there's anything that this verse points up, is that you can go through all the motions of all the traditions, of all of the tyrannies of what you ought to be doing as a Christian, and not be pleasing to God because you're not living by faith. Do you understand that? I think that's critical.

You can get up on Sunday morning and come to church. You can go to Bible study during the week. You can tithe. You can do all of the stuff that... I remember the first week I was a Christian, somebody gave me a book and it said, now that you're a Christian, here's what you do.

So I read it and I thought, gee, it doesn't sound like the grace that saved me. And it was really important to me that I continue to be, because God had saved me, that I be pleasing to him and I live in a manner that was consistent with my salvation, which was by grace alone. So, here are all these Jews, what was the one initial event that caused God to not be pleased with them?

Because they all come through the Red Sea, and they're all trekking through the desert, they all have their camel backs, they're in shape, you know, they're going up to Kadesh Barnea, heading to the promised land, Moses was leading them and they were doing pretty well.

They got there in a couple of weeks. This is going to be a real easy deal. What happened then? They started grumbling, complaining. Even before that they were grumbling. They get to the Jordan River and what do they decide to do? They go across. The first thing they decide to do is to send some people into the land to check it out.

What's the problem with that? Lack of faith. Lack of faith. That's the first thing they do. Well, we better send some boys in and see what... And what does it say to God? We don't really trust Him. So we're going to go check it out for ourselves. Right? Is that pleasing to God?

All you Christians that are from Missouri, you know what the state motto of Missouri is? It's called the Show Me State. Missouri Christians always come to the Bible and say to God, you better show me or I'm not buying it. And we do function like that as believers.

We come up to the 33 things we have in Christ and we send somebody in the land to see if it's really true before we'll believe it. Right? What pleases God most and only is our faith. When He tells us something, when He says to us, here's what's true of you, our response is very simple. Okay, I believe you. And oh by the way, you don't have to make it experiential. I just believe you because you said it.

See that? That's why he was displeased. Notice all of the stuff that these Jews went through and did and hung out and hung together. And God was still displeased with them. It's a little tough for us Christian people, religious people, to figure out why God wasn't pleased with them. God is never pleased with performance. based on my own efforts or my doubt.

So, there's symbols that we all try to follow. But one quick question, when it says baptized into Moses, what does that mean? I thought we were the only guys who did that. Identified with whom? Sure, that's what the word means. It means to be identified with him and his mission and his ministry from God. Does the God of all creation permanently live in you? Explain.

And the verse was 1 Corinthians 6.19. Somebody read that. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not of your own? This word is, don't you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit? It is indicative, passive, indicative, aorist, passive. It means it's already happened, it's reality and it happened to you.

So, the Spirit of God took you and placed you into Christ. Now, how many of you have ever doubted your salvation at any time in your Christian life? I have. Why did I do that? Can't be that easy. God doesn't love me that much. What did I do? Why did I doubt? Could have done it out of ignorance? I didn't know all the facts? We lack faith. What's that? Typically lacking faith. Lacking faith. Lacking faith. Usually for a young believer it's attributable to lack of knowledge, understanding.

How long does it take a Christian to figure out this one simple principle? It's God that did the saving, not me. It takes a long time, don't you think? It's God that put me in Christ. It's God who is the guarantee. It's the Spirit of God who is the guarantee. You see that? That's why it's important for us to know the facts. Very important to know the facts. Because what you find out studying the facts, especially when it comes to salvation, hey this is God's deal.

He's the one that did all this. And he's the one that made it permanent. He didn't come to me and say, make a commitment to me and then we'll see how you do. And if you make it to the hospice, we'll see how you've made it and then we'll gauge everything by then. And if you've done good, we'll let you in the kingdom.

Isn't that the way a lot of Christians think? Coming out of Catholicism, that's exactly how I thought. That if I did enough good works, hopefully right before the truck hit me, I was going to be able to repent. It's a huge blessing to find out that salvation is God's program and that he engineered it and organized it and implemented it in such a way that my security is him, not me. That's a huge deal, I think, because it allows you to settle down. Can there be Christians who never figure that out? I don't know. Especially if they're saved on some basis other than pure grace, and they live in an environment where they're not taught grace.

Because as soon as the law comes in, where does the law focus on? It focuses on you. So there's never focus on Christ in what he's done. It's always based on your performance. And even the subtle thing that he loves you so much to save you, you better respond in kind. Or, gee, I really do respond in kind. Rather than, God starts in grace, he functions in grace, and he ends in grace. Which means he's doing everything. And you're responding. It's His work, not ours. It's by the Spirit of God, who He says permanently dwells in us. I used to look at it this way. I still do.

If I'm identified with Christ's death, if Romans 6 is right that I've been baptized or identified with Christ's death, so now I'm united to Him. And He dies where it says I die. He's buried where it says I'm buried. He's resurrected where it says I'm resurrected.

He's ascended and seated in the heavenly and so am I. So if I'm ever going to be lost, what's got to happen? The Lord has to change his mind. He has to come back to the earth. He has to go back down in the grave. He's got to die. He's got to get reattached to sin and me. And he's got to come back up on the cross and step down off the cross.

That's the only way I can be lost. Is that going to happen? I don't think so. You can't find that anywhere in my Bible. So it's based on him. Totally on him. All of these weeks we've looked at the things of God. How is it possible that we would know and comprehend these wonderful truths?

And the first quoted out of this group is 1 Corinthians 2.12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. that over the last nine months the Spirit of God has been teaching you, because I haven't.

If I've been doing the teaching, you don't know anything. I'm serious about that. You know nothing spiritual. So don't you find it cool? I mean, I find it awesome that God says to us, look, I've done all of these things, and oh, by the way, you wouldn't realize them, understand them, or know them, if my Spirit didn't teach you. And oh by the way, you couldn't understand them because they're spiritually discerned. So I have to put you in my son and make you, I have to resurrect you in Christ, make you a spiritual being in order for you to understand spiritual things. So we have to be suitable, first of all. And then we have to have the Spirit of God who is the one who teaches us, because without those two things we don't know anything.

You take my buddy across the street in the White House who doesn't know the Lord, How much spiritual communication can you have with him? Why not? First question of the day. Why not? Because he is born of the flesh. And the flesh, the natural man cannot know, understand or comprehend the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him because he really doesn't want to know. No, the verse says, because he can't know them.

Conversely, we as believers have the Spirit of God so that we might know the things that God expects us to do and to behave. Yeah, He does that, but the first part of it is that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That's how we know Him. So the Spirit of God, no fair, no fair, you know, tonight when you're praying to the Lord, He didn't teach me today.

Heck, he didn't. The Spirit of God is at work all the time teaching you the blessings that you have. All the time. He never stops. Because he recognizes, even though we might not, that it's the goodness of God that woos a man. And so here he comes with 33, 215, whatever the number is, of the blessings from God to do what?

To woo you to Christ. to teach you of the things of Christ. Without that, and without him, what do you find out? You'd be just another graduate of a seminary someplace, and they'd hang a theologian tag on you. Does that mean that you know the things that are freely given to you of Christ? There are legions of theologians that don't know that, that don't know those things. Legions of them. So what's the undeniable proof of our salvation? How do you know? What's the proof? The Resurrection, sealed with the Spirit. Sealed with the Spirit. Well, sealed with the Spirit, what is the absolute proof of your salvation?

How do you know? Maybe I shouldn't ask it that way. It's the fact that you have the Spirit is what I'm looking for. Because it's interesting, and I don't know exactly where this is. Remember when in Acts where Paul was talking to some Jewish people that had believed in the Messiah, and he asked them this question, he said, have you received the Spirit? What did they say? No, we haven't. We didn't even know that the spirit had been given.

Why was that an important interchange there? Because for a believer to be saved, he must have the spirit. He must have it. Now what was the status of those folks? They believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Didn't they? Because they said they did. But they didn't have the Spirit. How come they didn't have the Spirit? Because they were ignorant. They didn't know he'd been given. They didn't know that this issue at Pentecost had happened and that the Spirit was now baptizing or placing people into Christ. They didn't know that.

So why did Paul make such a big deal out of having or receiving the Spirit, because he knew that the guarantee of salvation is the Spirit of God. He's the One. If you don't have Him, you don't have anything. He that has the Spirit has life. He that doesn't have the Spirit has what? Death. Darkness. Nothing.

1 John 3.24, He that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us by the Spirit which he has given us."

Galatians 4.6, and because you are sons, here we go, because you are already sons, God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Abba, Father. What does Abba, Father mean? Two terms, Abba and Father. What does it mean? And if you don't answer, I'll just assume you don't know what this means. What's the father part mean? Because I noticed that, of course, these kids always call him Abba. I think it's Jabba the Hutt, misinterpreted that. OK, so we got the personal turned out. What's bothering me? It's more of a formal. It's kind of a thing in my definition.

When you're talking to your father... Why doesn't David call me father? Because you're not his father. That's right. Because I'm not his father. Right. You're not biological father to him. I dress better than his father. Hey, I have more color than you do. So, Abba Father is not only an affectionate term of love, But it's also a term of position. God really is my Father.

How would you know that? What's the verse say how you know those two things? Because God sends the Spirit of Himself into your heart to do what? To inform you. To let you know that God is, one, your Father, and that's way beyond the fact that He's Creator. that you're of his family, you're what we know in Greek as a Wios, you're an adult son, a legitimate offspring, an organic offspring of the God of the universe, and two, he's my dad. He's daddy, he loves me.

Could you ever know that on your own? Even if you read it? I mean, how many times have you in your Christian life read that in the Bible, especially early on, and thought to yourself, I wonder what that really means? But here it says, and it says it in Romans 5 too, that, as a matter of fact, the first mention of the Spirit of God in Romans is in Romans 5, 4 or 5 somewhere in there.

The same information, that God sends forth His Spirit into our hearts, crying out of the Father. Don't you find it interesting? That after the mechanics of salvation, the next thing that God does is a personal thing. He sends His Spirit to inform you that you are now family, and that you now are loved. God is your Father.

So, the people you're talking about, the questions they saw, they had a spirit that was going through me. catching up in time or whatever, because like John 3.16, it was the thing that if you believed in him, you would not perish and have everything else in life. Is that to people who understood? I guess my question is, can people believe in Christ today where the Holy Spirit doesn't become given to them? Is it possible today? I don't think so. I think that what's going on here is a transition.

The Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again to enter into and see the kingdom of God. We assume that Nicodemus at some point believed, because there is evidence later on that he helped out with the burial of Christ and he had some things to say at the Sanhedrin that would indicate that he believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

Was he saved? Yeah, he was. Were these guys that I'm talking about, that Paul ran into, were they saints and saved? Yeah. What was the problem? What does having the Spirit... Maybe say it this way. There are two sides to this story. One is that Christ is in me, and the other is that I'm in Christ. How is that possible?

That's a work of the Spirit of God. When Peter went down to Ananias' house and observed what is known as the Gentile Pentecost, what was the thing that most impressed him? And there had to be a visual sign for him to get it. He went back to the disciples and said, they received the Spirit just like we did. You see how important that issue of the Spirit is?

Hey, I know that God is going to put Gentiles into Christ because the same thing happened to them that happened to us. Now, it seems perfectly logical to me that there would be believers in Jesus as the Messiah living in the Mediterranean Basin that didn't know about Pentecost. that didn't know that the Spirit of God had been sent to place individual human beings into Christ, and that the Spirit of God was going to come and dwell in them permanently. And so that's why the instruction is there. Were they saved? Were they saints? Yeah.

But once Pentecost happens, I don't think the Lord would let there be a a slopover, so to speak, where there are still saints who are going to end up kingdom saints and not in Christ. I think once Pentecost happened, all those believing Jews found their way into Christ because of the work of the Spirit. I mean, you think about it, the Lord sent twelve apostles to the nation of Israel and one to the Gentiles. And it wasn't because the Jews were dumb. It's because they had a lot to be untaught and taught about the Spirit of God and what had really happened.

Were there a lot of guys, a lot of people in the nation of Israel from the time of Pentecost over the next months and years that were actually saints, I would describe them as Jewish saints, who were not in Christ? Yeah, I'm sure there were. Because not every person who was a saint was there at Pentecost. There were some guys that didn't make it. They were busy. Even though 3,000 were baptized into Christ that first day, there were more than 3,000 people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. There weren't only just 3,000 of them. And most of those on Pentecost were not necessarily from Jerusalem. They were from all over the Mediterranean Basin who were in Jerusalem for the feast.

Does that answer your question? Who makes us secure and united to Christ? 2 Corinthians 1.21 Now the one who makes us, and you as well, secure in union with Christ and has anointed us is God. So, if you were to look at membership in the body of Christ as a way to put it, we have a link with Christ himself.

Ephesians 5.30 says we are members of his body. We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. And we are linked with each other.

We are members one of another, Romans 12.5. So being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another, and we're individuals as members in particular.

1 Corinthians 12.27. You are now the body of Christ and members in particular.

So, what's interesting is we have a connection. We have actually united with Christ in three, and connected three ways. We're connected with Christ, with one another, and individually. Isn't that interesting? I mean, if you talk about family, it might be good. Our union and association with Christ is closer than your own family. Your own family.

Alright, let's look at some of the benefits of being involved by the Spirit of God. I've got two more. I picked up 18 or 20. Think about a benefit of being brought by the Spirit of God. One is that you've been regenerated. If you have the Spirit of God you're given. You have joy and peace. You have the fruit of the Spirit. You rest those. What else do you have?

What are the benefits of being Wouldn't it be all these identification truths? All the identification truths? Okay, what else? Constantly making intercession for us? Say that again? Constantly making intercession for us? Yes. But the one who does the intercessing is Christ himself. The Spirit of God is Christ. Because he's the High Priest. But that's right. We don't know how to pray, because He knows the mind.

By the way, what direction is that? Is it me going up through the Spirit and He translating it so the Father can understand? Or is it the other way, coming down? Which way? Coming down. I'm the one that doesn't know what's going on. The Spirit of God is interceding for me, to me. What else?

He's the one who convicts us, conforms us. He sanctifies us. He is the one who enables us to behold the glory of the Lord. He's the one that not only gives testimony to us, but enables us to be a testimony. He transforms us. He's the one that enables us for service. He's the one that creates the intimacy with Christ.

Explain what being sealed by the Spirit accomplishes, in 2 Corinthians 1.22, who has also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

This sealing, what is that all about? What could be our security? Yeah, it's our security. How do you know about that? Because he says so. But what persuades you about receiving information? In other words, I can use the example of a signal signal before we had computers before we had. U.S. Postal Service.

We seal it. Guarantees the signature. Guarantees the authenticity of the document and the person who signed it. So, how does the Spirit implement this sealing thing, this guarantee in the believer? How does he do it? It's an unremovable mark on your heart that says you belong to God. That's exactly right. That's exactly how He does it. He makes you consciously aware of being in Christ. That's how He does it. He persuades you to stand. He persuades you. He convicts you that this is true. He convinces you. So, I have the earnestness of the Spirit in my heart, which It means, it does two things. It gives me rest in what my possessions are now, but it also gives me overwhelming confidence that I'm going to have and be in the glory.

My last question, or my tenth question is, do you know all things? How many of you are going to be bold enough to say, yes I do, or no I don't? As a matter of fact, next week, before we start in on the other, I'm going to finish up. I want to talk somewhat about anointing, because I think it's important.

So, let's do this. Dear Father, how we thank you for this time, and thank you for your blessings and your spirit that allows us to enter into fully all that our possessions are in the Lord Jesus, and to behold his glory, and to have an intimacy with him, and a rest that surpasses understanding. Thank you. We pray in his name. Amen.