Self
Courtney Hemenway · Oct 29, 2006
Identification (2006-07), No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492606323888

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

All right, we will get started here. You know what I want to start off with? We're going to be looking at self today. If you guys get the hungry heart, I don't know if you have that or not, but there have been a lot of good ones in October. And, you know, I'll just go over one that right at the beginning of the month was good when I thought of it, me, myself, and I. Because today, you know, we're looking at self. And, you know, I hope by the end of the class today, you'll be thoroughly disgusted with self.

There is nothing good about it. You know, most of the problems Christians face today is trying to fix up the self, the old man. and there's nothing good about it. There's nothing that we can fix up about the Adamic man. We think there is somehow through our efforts we can fix up the old man and make him acceptable to God. Well, after today, I want to see if you think that's possible. But let me just quickly read through this one. I thought this was good.

Me, myself, and I. While both are essential, it is far more difficult to get to know the old man than it is to know the Lord Jesus." Isn't that kind of a wild statement when you think about that? But it's very true, and Mike and I have talked a lot about this, about good and evil, and old man and new man, and when you really get exposed to the old man, It's ugly. And a lot of times we don't want to see that. We want to see the Lord and all that, but we don't want to deal with the old man.

And that's really what the first part of this class is. And the identification tooth is looking at the old man and how ugly that is. And our identification with him and how important the identification part of this class is. how deep the identification is with Adam, and then how deep the identification is with Christ. Every bit is important.

Many who know something of Him know little or nothing of themselves. There is not a more difficult lesson in the Christian life than to come to a true knowledge of what that flesh is, its terrible power, its secret and universal rule, and the blinding it exerts in keeping us from the knowledge of what is, are the causes of all of our sin and evil. Hence it comes that so few really believe in their absolute inability to obey God or to believe in His love. And there's nothing that can deliver us from it but that entire willingness to die to the old man, which comes when by faith we understand that we have died in Christ Jesus. It seems that God's spirit has to take every growing believer through a drastic process of self-exposure.

That's what today's class is. That fleshly principle lurking within has to be looked in the face. Its presumptuous claim to be a sufficient source of wisdom and ability has to be exposed in its big lie. Its save-yourself attitude has to be recognized and rejected, and such knowledge can only come through failure, humiliation, and despair. It's not a positive thing, but you really have to come to grips with who the old nature is.

If you come to feel, through ever-recurring misery and defeat, that unless another shall lead you into the land of fruitful obedience, your whole Christian career will be a spiritual and moral chaos. then perhaps you are ready to venture your all upon your union with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection. There is no joy like that of realizing our nothingness while at the same time reposing upon the Father's all-sufficiency."

Again, that's really kind of when I was reading that earlier this month, I was saying that's really this class, and especially the first part of this class. is trying to identify our old man. Mike and I have gotten into a lot of discussions about that. How much the old man is so insidious and creeps into our lives so much. Some of the questions we'll get to is how much, again, we talk a lot about the tree of good and evil. 99% of what is taught today is go from the evil branches and scurry over to the good side. It's every bit as bad as the evil side. I'll get to a quote here which I like about how we interpret, through that philosophy, how we interpret some scripture.

But the problem is the old man, as we will see, is 100% totally diametric and opposed to God. The other thing that we try and do is how bad that is, and the identification. That's the name of this course, is identification. There's no way you can escape that identification with Adam. And there's only one way to escape that, and that we'll see is through the crucifixion of the old man. and there's no way we can be saved in Adam.

You know, Mike always rattles my cage, you know, a saved sinner. You know, is there a saved sinner? You hear that all the time, a saved sinner. Is there a saved sinner? No, no. And you see that a lot. Saved sinner. No. What is the sinner? Crucified. We're new creatures in Christ. That's the whole thing. There aren't saved sinners. There are crucified sinners and new creatures. And so you really have to take that, and that's really where you come to this identification in Adam, what that means. All right, do you guys have the questions there in front of you?

What is the dictionary definition of self? Anybody have an idea what that is or anybody look that up? I looked it up. Actually, there's three. A person as an individual, a person's special nature, one's own interest or advantage or pleasure, always put self first. I like that one. Yeah, the ones I got, I think, from Webster were the essential person distinct from all other persons in identity. The second one, a particular side of a person's character. And then, I wonder if it's the third one. The third one comes out the same. Yours was the third. personal identification, selfishness, and then the last one is to, for, or toward oneself.

Just for your own information, when I looked in the dictionary, a lot of times for like, un, they list all the words in a list. Well, in mine, self, there's so many. There are 126 words hyphenated with self in the dictionary. little key there that self in this world is rather significant.

Do you think these definitions reflect our identification with Adam or Christ? Oh, I take it by that laughter that you don't think it's with Christ, but it's with Adam. That's right. I mean, it is self. Everything is self, self, self. And again, The key is the identification. We look at this world and it's all self, self, self, Adam, Adam, Adam. And what we want is what does that mean?

And actually, if you got your Bibles, if everybody's got Bibles, you need one? Do you have a Bible? Okay. Why don't we look up these? We'll start over. Aren't I nice? She gets so mad at me when I start from her. Okay, if you can... If you can look up 2 Timothy 3, 2-5. Brian, do you mind looking up Ephesians 4, 22? Yeah. Romans 1, 28-31. Ben, Romans 3, 10-18. Look at those. You got it? 2 Timothy 3, 2-5? You got that one? You want somebody else to do it? You want to do 2 Timothy 3, 2-5?

So we're going to look at who we are in Adam. These verses kind of show who we are in Adam and what a lovely creature Adam is. And remember, what is the name of this class? Identification. This is who we are identified as. Mike's been going through. We are born in Adam. He is our federal head. He is the one we are identified with at birth. This is who we are in Adam. Could you take that and patch it up? Yes, if you're a new creature in Christ... Well, you're not identified with Adam anymore.

And we'll look what that means. What I want to make clear too is, and we'll look at some of the verses here about the crucifixion of the old man. A lot have taken this verse and they're one nature. They preach a one nature condition where crucifixion, the old man's gone. We don't have a sin nature anymore. And that really has struggles when you look at some of these verses.

I don't know about you, but occasionally I sin still. Occasionally I have a... I know, I know, it's really bad. Well, how do you deal with that with the one nature? How do you deal with one nature if I'm still sinning? Yeah, exactly. I love that. I have this book, I gave it to Mike, and I was like, it was really good about identifying Adam, and I used some of the quotes in here, but it gets to this point where it's, you know, there's only one nature.

Well then how do you deal with these little things like I do still? Well yeah, they name it as baggage. There's this baggage that you carry along that's still there. Yeah, I mean, it's trying to justify, well, tell me where it shows you a baggage in the scripture, where you have residual. It's kind of like, yeah, I mean, it's kind of, you residually kind of just carry that along and for a while. Well, how long does that last and why does it last? So the new creature is not... complete and without stain. It just doesn't work. You can't justify what you do now in a one nature scenario. Second Timothy.

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, social, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, have nothing to do with them.

Wonderful! That's who you are! That's who you are in Adam. That's your identification. That is what Adam, through our federal head in Adam, has given you. That's a description of who you are in Adam. That is the old Adamic nature. That is what is manifest by the old Adamic man.

422, Ephesians 4. You can go ahead at the beginning of that sentence. who being past feeling hath given himself over unto lasciviousness, to work all unkindness with greediness, that ye have not so learned Christ. If so be ye that ye have heard him, and have been taught about him as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation with the old man, which is corrupt according to your deceitful love. So, again, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit.

Again, another pretty picture of who we are in Adam. Romans 1, 28-31. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to an evasive mind to do those things which are not fitting. being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whispers, fat biters, haters of God, violent, proud, vultures, inventors of evil things, disobedient to their parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, Another proud picture of who you are. Is there a real positive aspect of Adam yet? This really is who you are in Adam.

It tends to be in our minds, the Jeffrey Dahmers, the whoever's, Hitler's, those are really nasty people. But I'm up here, I'm not that bad. This is who you are. Given this little exterior that we have, this is who you are in Adam. This is who Adam is. This is the sin nature. Given time, we'd probably exhibit most of these characteristics. But this is who we are identified in Adam. This is something you can't wash off.

This is something that you can't train to get better. It isn't something that you can work at. to erase, because this is at the base of who we are in Adam. And we'll get past tense, but in Adam, this is who we are. There's nothing you can do to make it.

What kind of spiritual program do you have that will start erasing all these things? We'll get to that question here, which I threw in here. What is the program that can erase all these things? that will make you not do one of these things. Remember how also the law works too, I think it's a similar type thing, in that if you break one of the laws, you break them all. So you can't just work on 90% of these sins and just keep a few sins and be acceptable to God. You can't do that. So you've got to have a program that erases all these things. Which is the program that will do that, that will take all this out of you? There's only one actually, it's crucifixion, but we'll get to that program. Ben, Romans.

Well, we have already judged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have joined aside, together they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one.

Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues as deep as the sea. The poison of ask is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swimped with shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Okay, who sees the loophole here? Is there a loophole? Who gets out of this? I don't even think the best lawyer could get out of this one. I don't think you can avoid, you know, say that applies to everybody but me. I have a special dispensary. I have a special clause here that I get out of this.

Who can say that? Nobody. So, if that's true, What did we say about this? Their throat is an open grave, their tongues keep on deceiving, their poison of asthma is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. That's you and Adam. There's nobody who gets a pass on this. That's who you are in Adam. There's nothing good about Adam. Zero, none, nada. And we always try and justify, and most of those programs out there are to make Adam better. Is there anything in here that says Adam can get better? Nothing.

And there are so many programs that are out there to make Adam get better. So we do something which gives Adam worth, because the only thing he does to survive is to want to do something. Make him better. Give him some worth. There's nothing in Adam that is worth it. Nothing he can do. Nothing we can do other than crucify him. Let's look at a couple more verses. Kirk, you've got Ephesians 2, 1 and 3. Karen, if you've got Galatians 5, 19 and 21. So Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. Galatians 5, 19-21. Ephesians 2, 1-3. and sin, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. Yeah. So, we were by nature, or mine is, children of wrath. We formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We were by nature, or by identification, children of wrath.

And then Galatians 5, 19-21. Again, these are just poster child things of Adam here. What is so good about Adam? So, this is another one. Galatians 5, 19-21. So, we missed anything here? You know, like the top ten list of just evil, bad, horrid things that we can be.

I mean, is there anything that says Adam is great? Adam just stands up, wants to worship the Lord, you know, be good, speak peace, love, kindness, joy, gentleness, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Is there anything so far we've seen in Adam that does that? Anything that would lead him to do that?

Now that's why I think in Romans 7, 24, Paul says, Oh wretched man that I am. Oh wretched man that I am. He's come to that conclusion, you know, the Adamic self is wretched. And there's only one that can eliminate our identification in Adam. And that's, you know, after O wretched man that I am, thanks be to God. It's the only way out. Only way out. All right, now, for my good question here. I know if you haven't done this, you'll think hard about this and see.

Question three. List four programs with scriptural references, by the way. I want to make sure that you have the references with that, that will change, fix up the old man to make him acceptable to God. One. Give me one. Come on. What about the purpose-driven life? Prayer of Jabez. For a while there, I was looking into J.I. Packers, experiencing God. It's a great thing, great thing. Until you realize, you can fix a problem. You can be better. You can be better. Knowing God and all these requirements that you have to do. Purpose-driven life. Who's doing it? Only if I do this. Only if I do that. Only if I can. Only if I can memorize. Only if I can have a purpose in my life. Only if I pray the prayer of Jabez. Only if I... Wait a minute. What keeps coming up there?

I. Me.

Is there anything in Adam that wants to get better? Is there any program that will make Adam better? There's nothing. The problem with all these programs is the old man can't be fixed, washed, changed, improved, polished, redirected, anything to be acceptable to God. There is no program that will do that other than crucifixion. It's the only program. Crucifixion of the old man, as we'll see.

I have a few quotes from a few people here. Evan Hopkins. How infinite are the forms in which self appears. Some are occupied with good self. They pride themselves on their excellencies. Others are just as much occupied with bad self. They are forever groaning over their imperfections and struggling with the flesh as they had hoped in time to improve it.

When shall we be convinced it is so utterly bad that it is beyond all recovery? Our experience upward in the power of God is just in proportion to our experience downward in ceasing from self." Again, that's climbing from the good or the evil branches and the good and evil branches and we just back and forth on the tree of good and evil. we're still not getting down out of that tree and going over the tree of life. That's the problem with this, with all these programs and stuff, and different things not dealing with the Adamic man and our identification with him. Myles Stanford has this, So many dear Christians just keep plotting or racing through the deadening routine of their multitudinous church activities and duties, expecting that in time, self will change for better as they grow. But self never changes into anything but more of the same. I got to stop at that one. I am a type A person.

I want to run and slay the world. I want to go after everything. I want to do something. I want to go after it. I want to slay it. I want to run. I want to build it. I want to do it better. I want to do it faster. I want to do something. Since coming here and learning the identification truths and all these things, I can't tell you how much more peace I have. It's not me doing it. I have, I keep saying it, peace and rest that I never had before.

I built a church. I was running my own company. I built a church. I was an elder at the church. I did a thousand things. I never wanted the recognition, but deep down in my heart I think, if I do this, God's going to accept me. He's going to smile just a little bit more if I do all these things. And I won't tell anybody about it, but God will know, and God will think just a little better of me, just because I'm doing this stuff.

No. I struggle. I'm tired. I'm beat up. I have the flat forehead syndrome from hitting the wall. I just wham. Not until you realize it is nothing that you do. You cannot improve the old man. There's nothing that you can do to make you more acceptable to God. Our tendency in the old man is to do something.

I was right there. I mean, I can't tell you. Anger can probably tell you all this stuff. I do it all the time, and I just want to go out and do. But it's not. It's rest. It's from a position of rest that we're to do things for the logical commands that are in the scriptures. Anyway, but self never changes into anything but more of the same.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, John 3, 6. Sometimes the self is entirely bad as when it is angry, spiteful, unkind, unjust, untruthful, unloving, catty. In other cases, a good exterior conceives an evil heart as when we are proud of our humility, conceited about our Christian service, boastful of our orthodoxy. An over-forwardness, an obvious conceit at the sound of one's own voice spoils many a prayer meeting.

This is from Miles. A lot of people are there. I'm there. I've done that many times. I'm now coming to that realization about getting out of the tree of good and evil. Climb over in the tree of life, in Him. Number four. This one Cheryl had questions on, I think. Does our Adamic nature want to change and be acceptable to God? And your answer? I answered no, not really, since it is an enmity with God. There are times when I think Adam wants to be acceptable. Not really, though.

No. The one I went back to is Romans 3.10-18. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who is good. There is not even one. Does Adam want to change? And please speak up.

As I said, I hate yakking all the time, but I get going. So ask questions, flag me, throw something at me, do something. It doesn't want to die, so it's going to clean itself up so that it won't die. Because I think when it comes to that decision, it's either I'm going to die or I'm going to try and preserve self. So I'm going to clean it up so that it makes itself as acceptable. It doesn't want to change, but it...

That's the answer. Right. But it doesn't want to be acceptable. Right. But you said it doesn't want to change. It doesn't want to change. Right. But it doesn't want to be... Well, it doesn't want to be acceptable. Sure, because it doesn't want to die. And it knows that it's going to. Yeah, I mean it knows. That's always the wonder about Satan and that and all the things. It's a done deal. Victory. We have it. This is just the skirmishes now, during this lifetime. And you said it, it doesn't want to change. It doesn't. All those verses we read, it does not want to change.

It will do things to manifest itself, You know, good. It wants to climb over that good side. I'm going to be good today. I'm going to memorize three verses today. I'm going to be good because that'll make God smile a little more at me. And I'll be worth a little bit more.

Who's saying that? That's sin nature. That's the old man. I mean, it's just giving himself worth. It's not to make acceptable to him. It's to give himself worth and direct it to himself. You know, he said he doesn't want to change. He can't change. All the verses say that. And so the only thing he's doing is giving himself a bigger position in the two natures that we have. But it's not making him acceptable to God. It's just making himself... greater force in your life as far as wanting to change and do. That gives himself worth.

It's himself, the old name. Not acceptable to God. He doesn't want that. Right. I don't think he wants to make himself acceptable to God. I think he just wants to make himself manifest. I think that's the difference. It's not acceptable to God. He just wants to make himself a bigger part. I mean a bigger part in your life here.

But it's never directed at God. It's always directed at himself. Geraldette, I say no. All those verses, and that's why I go through all those verses, there's nothing that's going to make him go, you know, I just want to make myself a little better. Lying, wickedness, everything. He's just gnarly. There's nothing good about him. Sorry, that's common vernacular.

I would agree. From God's perspective, no, he doesn't want to change. God says this is what you need to do, and he says, no, I want to do it my way. I want to change from what I see, but it's all about what I want to do. Yeah, see, that's the focus. When St. Timothy, you know, you talk about the tree of life and the tree of knowledge and good and evil. Well, it wasn't, I'm going to accept God and I'm going to accept life. No, I want to be able to decide what's right and wrong. I want to be able to decide. I want to be like a God. And as a God, I'm going to decide, okay, this is what I need to do. It's not about... surrendering, it's not about accepting that tree of life, it's saying, OK, this is what I need to do.

And they may think they're changing. They may think, oh, yeah, I'm making myself acceptable to God, but it's on my terms. It's according to how I see it. Rather than saying, you know what, I'm just going to give over to God and not worry about good and evil. But I'm going to accept the life that God has given me. Yeah, you know, I love it when we talk about this. I just make mental notes.

When you're talking from Adamson, how many times do you say, I, my, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I So, I mean, that's the thing. I mean, when you look at it, Adam has no desire to make himself acceptable, make him better, other than point everything back to himself. So, that's the real key when we look at these things. A lot of these programs, like I said, are to fix up the old man, to make us feel better, to make Adam worth more. That's not what God says in the scriptures.

Romans 6.6, do we have one nature or is the old man dead? I'll go ahead and read it. I'll start with verse 5.

For if we become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him that our old body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Is our old man dead? Yes? Do we have yes? Dead? Who says not dead? So is he dead? We're to reckon him dead.

We're getting there. I think he's dead, but we don't realize it. I don't know. It's almost like after World War II, all those Japanese soldiers on those far away islands that, as far as I know, the war took over. Still on. 30 years later, they find them.

Yeah, yeah. That's more. That's a better analogy. That's kind of a good analogy. He's not dead. I mean, because we still have an endemic nature in us. There's two natures still in us. And when we see that verse, it's really Well, yeah, I'll read something, and this is kind of a long one. It's from Miles, but I think it puts it in perspective. And this is from The Reckoning That Counts.

In the first place, the contents of Romans 6 has to do with the tyrannical reign of the principle of sin, not its symptom, sins. Problems of sin has been dealt with at the source by the crucifixion of the cross. The King James Version uses use of destroyed in verse 6 as far too strong for that particular Greek word. In the Greek, it has reference to enslaving power, set forth the fact that the old man has not been annihilated, but crucified. Its power has been annulled, put down, made without effect. And that's a key thing, because if the old man is dead, why are we sinning still?

It's baggage. No, he's still alive. What he's done is you're no longer bonded. You are not a slave to sin. can go either way. As you exhibit the new creature, that's what you should be doing as you grow in maturity in Christ, that new creature in Christ should be more manifest than the old nature. But he's not dead. On the other hand, we're to view the old man as having been crucified, nailed to the cross, helpless, but not slain. Our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin, the law of sin in our members, might be kartagethe, which is a Greek word. The Greek word carries the meaning held inoperative, annulled, made without effect, power broken, put down. There's nothing about dead in there. We're not under the control of the bondage of sin. We're not having to respond to it. We can choose to.

Here is a further light on the principle of distinction in Romans 7, 19 and 20. Here the mighty Paul is learning in his own strength he is powerless against the indwelling law of sin. For the good that I would do, for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Note the distinction between the two sources within. Sin is flowing from the old source, not the new. He also discovers that even as a new creation in Christ, he cannot, by his own endeavors, overcome the indwelling sin.

And this was the allegory which Peggy will probably remember from the last time. This is similar to what you're saying in the Japanese guy kind of author. He's still there, still alive, wanting to do things. There's an allegory of a sea captain who, in mid-ocean, is charged with a capital offense, put in chains and replaced by another. As a ship sails on, the chained one seeks to assert his old authority over the crew. You can see the old captain chained and he's still alive. Some of them might be foolish enough to respond, But there is no need to, for he has been judicially disposed. It is now simply a matter of acknowledging the new captain and refusing the threats and orders of the condemned one. The death sentence is not yet carried out beyond his being held in the place of death, His power broken, but he will be executed when the ship reaches port. In the meantime, he causes a lot of trouble.

I think that was a great analogy. That's how the, you know, it's like a new captain, you know, a ship, he's chained, he's powerless. He was the captain of the ship. He's all chained up and he's, hey, come here. Hey, you should be doing it this way. You should be doing it that way. You don't have to listen to that captain. He has been judicially disposed. He's held powerless. You choose to listen to him. He is no longer the captain. He will be executed at port.

I think that was a great analogy. I think it really helped. How sin is, he's not dead. The old man is crucified, but that just means held powerless, annulled, held down, not dead. He can still, as the captain, shout out these commands. Do you listen? Or do you listen to the new captain? So, I mean, I thought it was a good analogy. Since Ben rang the bell, I think. Actually, Brian rang up, yeah. All right, let's quickly, true or false? Jesus died for his sins, now work hard to please him. True or false? False.

This basically shows that two branches of the tree of good and evil. You slither from one branch of evil to the other branch in the same tree. You are still accursed and dead if you remain in this tree. You need to be transplanted or placed in the tree of life. This only occurs through the death of the old man and the new creation in the last atom. Michael Wells, that was the one. I'll read this one because this is what I think epitomizes that philosophy of trying to work on the old Adam. This is from Michael Wells, Sidetracked in the Wilderness.

John 3.16 reads, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. We all know that one. Our minds understand and accept these words, but listen to how the verse is read with the emotions of one who has been nibbling from the cursed tree. This is so, so right.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever does not sin, lust, or have an evil thought, whoever reads his Bible, always attends church, never yells at the kids, prays, memorizes scriptures, does not own a radio, witnesses to neighbors, gives, has spoken in tongues, has had a conversion experience, and is continually pure, will not perish and have eternal life. Isn't that how we do it?

I mean, I've noted when I've taught in classes, I have struggled for years with the fact that I cannot memorize scripture worth beans. I'm just not a memorizer. I don't know if the engineering brain that I have just does not do that, and it used to frustrate my socks off when...

Actually, Ingrid is pretty good at memorizing verses. Other guys can just... Sam Dalton, who's a dear brother, just... I know every verse, and I'm just not worthy. I can't memorize Scripture. Well, it's not that. You know, and since I've gotten over that and knowing about this, I have much more peace. I have much more knowledge of the Scripture than I ever have trying to memorize stuff. Now I know more verses not trying to memorize than I ever did trying to memorize to make myself more acceptable, kind of like those other brothers who can memorize those Scriptures.

And I look at this, and that's exactly how we interpret 3.16. If you think of the Adamic man and trying to make it better. If I do all those things, God will then save me. Or he'll think a little better of me because I've memorized three scriptures today. Anyway, oops. That was the second one. Quickly,

8. My Adamic nature, with the help from the Spirit, can be acceptable to God. False. And I can give you lots of all those verses we read. Nine, in myself trying to do good is a sign of unbelief in God's standard acceptance. That one's a tough one. True or false? True. If you're trying to add to it, it's unbelief. It's nothing that we add to it. And then, I think, is that the final one? Ten? Ten or eleven? Oh, ten.

There are still some redeeming characteristics of the Adamic man that can be fixed up since he was created in the image of God. False. And then, last one. Our earthly condition has bearing on our heavenly position. False. False. Our position is unchangeable.

Okay, let's close real quick with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you just for your word. We thank you That is nothing that we do. There's nothing in Adam that can be fixed up, made better, look pretty, and made acceptable to you. The only thing that was acceptable was our crucifixion of the old man on the cross. We just thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross to pay for our sins and our self-crucifixion there of the old man and our new identification in Christ. We are so thankful that we're not identified in Adam anymore, we're identified in Christ. And we just thank you for that position that we have that is secure, permanent, forever. We just thank you for that and we again just commit this time to you in Jesus' name. Amen.