You In Christ and Christ In You
Roger Henderson · Jan 18, 2009
You in Christ & Christ in You, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926121577728

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

So today we're on lesson three. And actually, if you're counting, I was asked the question, the first lesson was actually kind of like the cover sheet. So that might be a little confusing. I'll show you here. This was lesson one, if you were here. So this is lesson one. Last week was lesson two, and this is lesson three. So just to hopefully not make it too confusing here.

All right, so I'm going to try to... Mike asked me, he said, well, Roger, you can do anything you want. You can do your own thing, whatever. I said, well, I'll just take your questions and we'll just do that. Because I think I want to be in the same continuity that Mike would do. And I probably won't do as... Mike is just really... I really appreciate his teaching and I benefit many times from it. So I feel honored that I can do this. So he likes to do the question thing, which I think is great. It's really kind of a neat way to do it.

On your sheet, the first question is, what was the result or penalty of Adam's sin in the fall? Everybody died. OK. We all died. We all died, right. Right. OK. So actually, and that's true. But scripture lists a bunch of consequences. And it kind of lists them in various verses here. So let's look at some of the verses that kind of talk about that. Bonnie, I'm going to get you to read a new person since you're close and family. And I have no choice. Romans 5, 12-14.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is the type of him who was to come. Thank you. Well, verse 12 is just really, I think it's just really packed with just really insightful information about what happened at the fall.

And so the first kind of phrase there is that just as through one man. So the, you know, what you see, especially in Romans, you see the two men, I think Mike's talking about this for the two men, you see Adam and Christ. So they'll refer to the either one. And the, so here it's talking about Adam, I believe the one man, Another thing is, it says, sin entered into the world.

If you notice, it doesn't say sins entered into the world, it says sin singular. So, if you study Romans for any length of time, you'll notice that starting in chapter 5, 6, and 7, and on through 8, you'll see that they'll use the sin singular, which is kind of a little flashing light, if you will. It's talking about the sin nature. In fact, there actually are some translations that actually would insert every time they have the sin or with a definite article, they'll put in the sin nature. So you could basically say, the sin nature entered into the world. So that's one piece of information. The next piece is that there was a death. Death through the sin nature is an excellent phrase.

And the third phrase is that death wasn't just confined to Adam. And that's what we're kind of learning about. identification, and we're learning identification with Adam first, and then we're going to learn about identification with Christ. So death wasn't just localized to Adam, right? It says, death spread to all men. So there's not a single man, and men means women too. They don't get a pass here. I'll be quiet.

And in the last phrase, which over the years has And I've had some, it says, because all sin. So I'll kind of ask the question. So do you find that maybe a little bit confusing, because all sin? I thought, well, does that mean that I look out and if somebody doesn't sin, then somehow he's not connected up with Adam? It almost seems like it, that that because is not probably the best. And I've kind of, like maybe a better, maybe a rephrasing of that, every person from that one man sinned. They couldn't do otherwise, right? I mean, because they had a sin nature, but it seems like they almost are trying to make it, you read that and you think, well maybe, maybe it's trying to make a case that we see people sinning and therefore they're sinners. Go ahead, Bud. I just, this is just, maybe Tom's rabbit trail out. Okay, that's all right.

Where was the Holy Spirit in all of this then? Where was the Holy Spirit? In the garden? You're talking about if we're going to go back to when Adam's fall? Well, it says the Spirit talks about God made us an us, he used the plural, in our image, in our likeness. So it seems like the Trinity is talked about in the garden there. I'm not sure I'm with you, Gordon. He's one that, if you listen to him, you knew what he said. He's the one that takes the sin out of us.

I just wondered if at that time the existence of the Holy Spirit was unholy. Well, at that time period, Adam, before he was innocent, but he was capable, God did not prevent him from from being enticed and drawn away from God. So, you know, the Spirit of God was there, but he didn't prevent, he didn't say, whoa, Adam, no, you can't go there. He told him what he wanted to do, don't eat from that fruit, but he didn't prevent him from doing that. So there's a difference between innocence and the public spirit as it was introduced in the church age, right? Yeah, there is a difference.

And the ministry of the Holy Spirit has changed dramatically, right? In the church age, you know, we had the ministry of the Holy Spirit with us 24-7. Now we may choose not to, you know, we can choose to not listen to him. We can go our own way, but his ministry is there. Whereas in the Old Testament, it came and went. You know, David would say, don't let thy Holy Spirit Take not the Holy Spirit. Take not the Holy Spirit from me.

So there was a... Well, like Samson said, I remember this thing. Right. Samson wished not the Holy Spirit. Exactly. Exactly. So it wasn't... It came and went. Exactly. It came and went. Whereas the church age is different. So we're looking here at the effects of the fall of Adam and this verse 12 kind of gives us a listing of all those, of what's happened. So in the New Testament, we have the identification truths and those are... Sure thing. Right. And in the Old Testament, like you say, it came and went as far as as far as the Holy Spirit's concerned.

But I think what's really neat, what Mike's trying to show here is that we were identified with Adam and now we've we now are identified with Christ. I think that's really a good way to look at it. I mean a lot of times, when I came to understand the identification truths, I didn't approach it exactly like Mike did. I didn't have the benefit. I was kind of more on my own and I just looked at it in terms of being identified with Christ, which is a wonderful thing. But this kind of puts it in perspective.

We were identified and now with with Adam, and now we've been identified with Christ because of his death and our trust and faith in him. So it's a change of identification, if you will. I think that's a neat way, because you see the identification with Adam, and you see the results of that to mankind, to the world, right? And so back to this last part of this.

Men sin because they've been identified. They have a sin nature. They've been identified with Adam. That's why they sin. You can try to get the cart before the horse. You don't say, well, they're sinning, therefore, they have a sin nature. No, it's the other way around. The sin nature produces a sin.

OK. All right. So the next verse, which I think he has in here, is pretty good, too. 1 Corinthians 15, 21, and 22. Somebody gets there. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. So here's a contrast that is kind of being brought out in several of these verses. By a man came death, and we kind of saw that in the previous verse. And they contrast that with Christ. By a man also came resurrection from the dead. For an Adam, all die. And that's kind of one of the key things to, you know, that's the result of Adam's fall. One of the results of that is that all die in Adam. If God hadn't intervened, all would die, they would die.

There was a death, and we haven't got, I mean, I won't say it quite yet. We'll get to that point in a little bit. There's two parts to the death, right? There's a part, an immediate part, and then there's a part later on, and it's physical death. Okay.

And then lastly, in Ephesians 2.3, I'll just go ahead and read that.

It says, Ephesians 2.3, among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. So what's interesting is, because of the fall, and because of God's judgment on that, all those who come out of Adam flying, are under God's wrath or under his judgment.

And that's not a nice place to be. And men, it's interesting, you talk to people and they want to say that the account in the garden, well, that's just a story. They want to fabalize it. People that aren't believers, they don't want to come to grips with that, that that's describing what happened to man and to mankind.

So we're under God's wrath. were by nature children of wrath. So that's kind of question one. Anything else that you see in terms of the result or penalty of Adam's sin? If not, we can. And these questions, they kind of overlap. We'll come back to some of these the same. So question two is, what is man's view of his fall? And we kind of just talked about this a little bit already.

So thoughts on that? that he can fix himself. Good, good, excellent, excellent. Go ahead. I'm sure that there's nothing to fix. That's good. There's nothing to fix. I'm good. And don't you see that? Sadly, I can think of that. That's the way I was. I remember telling people, I'm as good as I can be. And you think about that for a while. I'm the best person I can be. And a lot of people think that way. I think, well, how could I be any better? To the people that aren't serious capital offenses or whatever, I'm a good person. And that's how man thinks. But I think Mike actually was looking here, because he quotes some verses here. He was looking for, I think, as Scripture records it.

What is the view or estimation of his fall as Scripture records it? And in those two passages, we don't have to turn to them, but basically, you know in Romans, it's kind of neat, the first three chapters of Romans, God goes through and he talks about the Gentile unbeliever and talks about the Jewish believer and eventually he says, you know what, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. They all are sinners, no matter how good they think they are. And the Gentile has one view, and the Jew has a different view.

The Jew says, well, wait a minute. I got the law. Hey, guys, watch out. I just followed this law. And God says, no, that's not. And he describes that. Let's just look at that for a second in Romans chapter 2 and verse 17. And I'll just read it here. It says, this is speaking about the Jew. But if you bear the name Jew, and rely upon the law, and boast in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourselves are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having the law, the embodiment of knowledge and of truth." And it just kind of goes on. The Jew was so privileged. He had You know, it just goes right on.

And basically it says, well, wait a minute, down to 22, it says, you know, do you commit adultery? Do you abhor idols? Do you rob the temples? It says, how come you aren't righteous before God with the law? How come you can't be righteous? And you can't be. You can't, by keeping a set of rules, you can't be righteous because you can't keep them. That's the first part. You may have a whole list and they're from God and they're wonderful. But you can't keep them.

And the culmination of this is in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So man's estimation, as I think was mentioned, is that he thinks he can do it, but he can't. And that's man's estimation, that even though, hey, give me some laws, and I'll follow them, and it'll be OK. But he can't do it. And that's a wonderful thing when you come to realize that. I think even as Christians, we come to realize that keeping a set of laws is not going to do it, because we see that we don't keep those laws. We fail in that. I had a good example there yesterday afternoon. Two Mormons came to my door. It was an interesting conversation.

But you could apply that to any Jew or Gentile that thinks that by his own actions, by some set of code, by some set of regimentation, he can be so disciplined that he can please God that way. And the thing is, what he doesn't realize is that he didn't understand the fall, he doesn't realize he doesn't have a chance. He does not have a chance because his nature He has a sin nature. And he can only, as Mike would say, he can only choose different kinds of sins to sin. Some may look pretty good, but they're not righteousness.

Only God can produce righteousness. And that's why we need the Lord Jesus Christ. That's another thing. People say, well, why do I need Christ? Because they think in their mind that they can be righteous. And they're using their own terms, their own system, right? They're saying, well, I can be righteous because according to my system and my evaluation, I'm pretty good. And it all falls apart when you start looking at scripture. Okay, number three.

Now these next several questions about position and condition and so on, he kind of wants to focus on Adam's position and condition. As was mentioned, we look at position and condition as a Christian, that's in terms of Christ. But this is looking at position and condition in terms of Adam, and trying to contrast that with what we have in Christ. So the first question is, what is meant by positional truth?

So I'm going to offer a definition or just a thought on that. And you can use, there's a dictionary definition. It's basically a position from Webster or whatever to lay down, to put or place, the act of placing or arranging the point or area occupied by a physical object. So there's a physical sense where you might say this chair is in this position in this room. That's one meaning, but position in terms of what we're talking about could be, you could say, a title or a Position in scripture is talking more about a source.

What's your source, right? And the source for the unbeliever is Adam, right? And the source for the believer is Christ. So it goes back to our position, we're positioned in our source. What's the source of our conduct? What's the source of our life? So source and position, go ahead. Isn't position an absolute? It is. So that in Adam we totally and completely lost fellowship. Exactly. It's not partial. No, that's right.

And that's absolutely what makes positional truth so wonderful for the believer because it's absolutely true in Christ that's unchangeable. Even though We may in our minds and in our conditional walk see things and trials and tribulations and things going differently than what we expected and we say, how can God be in this? But he's declared that you're in Christ. You're in that position. Just like for the unbeliever, no matter how good he tries to be, he cannot please God because his position is one of death.

It's one of separation. So that position is really critical and like I said, it's unchangeable. It's constant. Whereas in earthly terms, you might say a certain person has a position as a CEO or whatever. You have a position as a teacher or whatever. That's my position. And that can change. You can retire.

But as an unbeliever, your only position is Adam. As a believer, your only position is Christ. The problem is a lot of believers want to still kind of help things out. But even though I have this wonderful position in Christ, don't they want to say, well, let's fix this up a little bit better.

I can add to this. When we learn that, it's really freeing. What we're just working on is Adam. Exactly. They wanted to make it better. And that's sad. Right. So that's why these truths are so important. That we learn we have an unchangeable position in Christ. So we're learning about the unchangeable position we had in Adam and how that was changed.

Okay. Okay, then basically he says what's meant by condition. Is that the next one? No, no. He asks about reality. Okay, I'll make it before I get there. About reality. Question four is, is positional truth reality? So, what are your thoughts on that? Is that real or is it just something that we read in scripture and it's just a nice thought, but is there reality to that? Depends on where our citizenship is. Okay. Okay. Well, you would agree, just like you said with the unchangeability.

It's real for every unbeliever, right? It's absolutely real. He can't undo that position outside of Christ. So God has declared that this is a reality for the unbeliever and this is a reality for the believer. So it's real, because God's declared it. Now, if you disregard His word, then you can make everything you want. But His word declares that the reality for the unbeliever and the reality for the believer.

Different realities, one being the reality of being an Adam and one the reality of being in Christ. Christian life is based upon the faith, on your faith, if that faith is backed up by fact. So it's not like Muhammad or whatever, where you sincerely believe that, but sincerity counts for nothing as far as God is concerned. It's got to be based upon a fact. And reality is fact. And that's what's kind of neat.

In the New Testament, in the Greek language, a tense or a mood actually, the indicative mood, which is a statement of fact. So when you see that mood in some of the tenses and you're looking through the Greek New Testament, if you have the right age and you look at the tense, mood, and voice, you can see that a lot of times things are stated, a lot of the truths are stated in the indicative mood, means that's a statement of fact and God is behind it. An example, which is what we read, that one man through one man's sin, entered. Entered is a verb there, back to 512. And entered is in the indicative mood. So it's a statement of fact. That's a statement of fact that that is true. It's a true fact. So positional truth is reality.

So now let's go on to condition. Is there a synonym for condition? If somebody asks you... You can say, I'm not in too good a condition today. I didn't get enough sleep. What's a term that you often hear for... We'll talk about... Without saying it, I'll give it away. Is there a synonym you can think of for condition? Experience. All right, that's good. I'll think about walk. How about the Christian walk? Now, I can't quite think of a parallel for the unchristian walk. I'm not sure that's actually such a term.

But unbelievers, they have a walk. They have a mode of operating. They're operating out of all they can. They're operating out of Adam. That's the best they can do. Like I said, when I said that, as an unbeliever, I said, that's the best I can do. I thought I was being rather, you know, self-serving, but actually I would say, the truth, that's the best I could do, and it was not good enough.

So basically, Mike has a verse here for the, no I guess he doesn't have one there. Okay, I'm sorry, he gave me some of his notes, some places he had verses, some places he didn't. All right, so that's condition, basically the walk of the, in this case, it's the walk of the unbeliever. Okay, so then six, he says, when Adam sinned, did he die positionally or conditionally?

So what do you think here? We have some boths here. We have any other things besides both? You guys have been looking at the answer sheet. You've been through the Course before, I know. Well, if you think about it, that's absolutely right. I kind of referred to this earlier.

There was an immediate separation from God. Whenever you see death in Scripture, think of separation. So there was an immediate separation from God. When Adam sinned, did he feel like he wanted to be close to God? No, I mean, I'm going to hide someplace. So there was this definite separation. And then that's what they call spiritual death, a separation from God.

And then there was death in the sense of he died at the end of his life, which is 900 and some odd years later. He died. He died in this way. So there was both physical, so that there's a positional, death and then there's a physical death later on. So that's what's referred to as, you know, so it's both position and condition. So condition is physically, is that what you're saying? Well, in this case, you know, it's obviously in conducting Adam's life, right, eventually he died, right? So you'd say just like with us, eventually in conducting our life, we're going to die physically, right? So that's that was a conditional aspect. Some of the connectivity gets a little bit, you know, because we talk of condition as our walk with Christ.

As a Christian we talk about, you say conditionally, you look and scripture will tell you about wrecking yourself dead to sin. In Romans 6 it says, wrecking yourself dead to sin. So there's something we're to do conditionally, right? We're to count upon the truths of scripture, wrecking ourselves dead to sin. That's like an accounting term, you write it down as a count and say, I'm dead to sin.

I've been separated from sin. So that's a conditional directive from God. And there's also a positional directive. I've been baptized into Christ. You can't re-baptize. That was something that was done by the Holy Spirit. So you'll see positional statements in scripture and conditional statements.

So when you take it over to Adam, I finally had a little bit of a hard time the activity doesn't seem to be quite as good, because he dies physically. Well, we die physically, too. And maybe Mike would have a better point here, so I'd have to defer to him at some point. Bud, you had something?

Well, I haven't burned these bridges completely yet. No strikes have been made yet. That's right. Well, I haven't burned these bridges completely yet. OK. Covered the whole thing. That's why I couldn't understand, because the whole was straightened up there. No, and you're right. opportunity to say, well, I think if I just accept Christ and I know what Christ is.

Well, he could have said to his wife, don't eat that fruit. Stop. Apparently he didn't say anything to her. It seems like they were, I mean, this is some of this is conjecture, but it seems like that he wasn't, he wasn't unaware of what she was doing.

I mean, But what if Adam had never sinned, though? He would be in a perpetual state of being able to sin. That's a good point. So in one sense, it's good that he did, because, I guess... That's interesting. Otherwise, he would live forever with the potential to sin.

And that would be terrible. and no reconciliation for that. We live that way too. As Christians, we can sin, but Christ has taken care of that. So there really wasn't a question where Adam was going to sin or not. He was going to sin. God had already provided it before Adam ever came on the scene, which is pretty incredible. Okay, number seven.

Why are all men condemned? Right, right. And he was condemned, right? That verse that says that we're all children of wrath. If Adam was condemned, all those who come out of Adam, the entire line is condemned. So we're, you know, many people think, well, I'm going to be condemned because this is, as an unbeliever, I'm going to be condemned because I've committed acts of sin, right? Well, no, it's really because you Your nature is Adam's nature, and he was condemned. Therefore, you're condemned. So that's important to realize that, too.

We talk about source. Our position plays out everything. Everything flows out of that position, either negatively or positively, negatively for Adam or positively for Christ. Oh, actually, I had one thing. Let's see. So I have a question here. Actually, Mike asked this question before in another class. Actually, you can't answer if you went there. Okay, here was Mike's question. When did you commit your first sin? Think about this. When did you commit your first sin? It's kind of a trick question. Other than Peggy and... When you were where? When did you... When did you? Right, but is it when you were aware? Certainly if you're a baby, you know nothing.

Okay, alright, well that's a thought. Okay, so what you're saying is you... You have to be conscious of it. Okay, alright, well that's interesting. Alright, anybody else have a thought on that? Well, if you already are... You don't have a choice, basically. If you're born of Adam, then your sin nature is at consumption.

Exactly. OK, that's good. Anyone else want to add to that? That's really good. OK. OK, we as a center forget it, even when we're born and take our kids. That's good. All right. We're good, Monique. That's great. I like that. I like that. Well, you know, what's sad is that we often think, and Bono had this discussion, well, if I'd been there in the garden, I probably could have done a better job. No, you couldn't, because we're all...

And this is like, Scripture talks about this, being in the loins of Abraham. God looks at mankind through the head of the race, and the head of the race is Adam. So we first sinned with Adam. We were in his loins, if you will. So we sinned when Adam sinned. That was our first sin. Most people, just like you, your first thought is, well, let's see. When I was two or one, there must have been some time that I sinned. But no, you sinned. The race sinned. And that's really important. The entire race fell when Adam fell. Everybody from then on fell. So our first sin was Adam's sin. Bruce?

Isn't it because God is outside the realm of time? So he knew us from the beginning. He knew what was going to happen. He knew the scenario. And he provided the solution before Adam came on the scene, which is just incredible. So before I was even here, I was a sinner. Right, and also even more wonderful. you were also saved. You were saved from the foundation. Actually, what's amazing is you were a sinner before you got here, and God took care of it before you even showed up. That boggles my mind. God's plans are all in place. It's not like he's surprised. We look and we think, what's tomorrow going to hold? We're surprised a lot of times, usually negatively.

So can we say we were in Christ before we were born, or that's not right? Believers, it says, you know, we were in Him from the foundation of the world. So, I don't know. I mean, you know, it's interesting that both, you know, both in terms of... We sinned with Adam, and we were saved before the foundation of the world.

It's just... Because God knows the results. He doesn't... And many times you think, well, that means that I'm just a robot. Well, if God God knows it, but that doesn't mean he causes it. Man still has, you know... There's some difficult things there. We have this part about man's free will and God's... Some things that seem incongruous or don't fit. Well, how can man have a free will and God determine things? And so I'm not sure I can answer all those, but Scripture declares both.

So I stand on that. Doesn't man have an incentive from the earliest part of his birth that he's born that way, but a baby crying because it wants its way, or wants to be held, or wants to be fed. It's a miniature explanation of how it manifests itself in various ways, even before. you know, reorder of age of acceptance of what the truth is. Right.

Well, it helped me actually when I saw that our children, our firstborn was stubborn. That really kind of said, how can that be? How can he be stubborn? Because I thought, well, that's something that, you know, a baby is neutral. No. No. I soon learned that wasn't the case.

So it seems that both realities are there. But the distinction as far as our experience relating to those relates to where our belief is as far as how it's going to go. Right. The reality of Adam, the reality of... Where my position is going to wind up is based on what I'm going to believe. Right. I know.

Isn't it incredible that God, you know, that He allows that to go on? I mean, He allows, you know, your trust and your faith in Christ changes that from one reality to another reality. the reality of the lost to the reality of the saved. It's incredible.

And then the other thing you think, well, why did I do that? I mean, I have a sister who's not saved. I've talked with her on and off over the years, and many times we walk away not talking to each other for a while. So that hasn't worked too well. So you wonder, well, why did I see it? Why did I understand it? So there's just some mysteries you don't know.

That doesn't lessen the message or make it less. I think it shows that the awfulness of sin, the awfulness of rejection of God, that man would say, I don't want that. I don't. You had a friend at work who just vehemently said, I see that you're a believer, and I don't want that. I just, it was so hard. Why don't you want that? Well, I'll be just like you. Go ahead. That's a problem. That's not a good... That's a problem right there. I'm sorry. Monique? Yeah, what happens to people that are mentally challenged? Now, they have no clue. You can talk to the mental... I understand. I understand. They don't get it. I know.

Well, there's all kinds. How about the babies that are aborted? There's all kinds of, you know, cases where you think, well, And I have to believe that God's fairness and God's grace, that provision are made for those situations. Then a man could come before God and say, well, you didn't give me a fair chance. I never had a chance to really understand what you were doing. And I don't think that's going to be the case. When they get to the white throne judgment, I think they're going to be shown they had opportunity after opportunity. And they said, no, I don't want it. No, I don't want it. And I don't think there will be one person that And it's hard to believe that can be the case.

I mean, you kind of look at the whole world, and you think, I mean, Bruce and Vern are going to go to Africa. And maybe there'll be some other people who come to know Christ while they're there. But you think, well, what about places that you can bring all these things up that in your mind are cases where, well, God isn't there. Well, you don't know. You really don't know or have the visibility that he has.

You know, I think Miles Stamford has got a good point, you know, in his devotional, Hungry Heart. Years ago, when I was with the Navigators, I came across the green letters and it went in one ear and out the other. Right. And, you know, the Holy Spirit had not, you know, I wasn't on the same page. Period.

There was no way that I was going to understand what Miles was talking about because my heart wasn't ready, even though I thought I was doing God's will. directly working with the navigators. But then through an environment that perpetuated spiritual growth at Holly Hills, I started to understand what Miles was talking about. But it took a long period of time to really understand position and condition. That's something you just don't kick up overnight.

No, I agree. Absolutely. You can read the book. No, absolutely. It seems like you have to be Ready for that. You have to be wanting to, you know. Actually, time's really moving on here. Okay, let's see. Why am I condemned? Okay. When a man believes on the person and work of Christ, does his position change? We've been talking about this a lot, so. You know, it does, it does.

And there's several verses, In Romans 8.1, our position changes from, it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So we were children of wrath, right? Under his condemnation. Now there's no condemnation.

And then Romans 5.17 says, therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. All things passed away. Behold, new things have come. So we're a new creature. There's no condemnation. Galatians 5 and 6.15 says, for neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. So we're a new creation in Christ.

So God had to, I think Bonnie's mentioned this, for the believer were to realize that God didn't, he left the old man, Adamic nature, the sinful nature, he said, I'm going to condemn that. I'm going to give you a new nature. I'm going to start over again. Because that nature is beyond repair. So our Christian life is not to fix up our old Adamic nature. It's to, through our new nature, that's our communications outlet, if you will, our connectivity to God. Because old nature is condemned. It's of no use to us.

OK, then the last two questions talk about this kind of phraseology. And maybe you've heard it about birth truths and growth truths. Is everybody comfortable with that? If you're around Holly Hills, you've probably heard that. But when I first heard that, at first I didn't exactly know what they were talking about. But it kind of makes sense.

The birth truths are basically the wonderful truths when we are born again. We trust Christ as our Savior. So the foundational truths become saved. You must be born again, like Nicodemus said. Christ said, you must be born again. And he said, what does that mean? And Christ explained it. It's a new birth.

It's a birth from above, right? So the birth truths are just what it takes to become a believer. Whereas the growth truths are those that help us to live our daily lives in our condition, to walk with Christ. And growth truths, a lot of times, Mike has them on here. He has about five verses here. And these are all, for the most part, talking about our birth truths. But the growth truths, they're through scripture too. But a good place, if someone were to ask you about growth truths, a good place that has them compacted is Romans 6. Romans 6 is kind of the, In fact, I can remember the first time that I was talking with Hal Malloy, and he read through Romans 6.

I did not understand. I said, I don't know what this is even saying. I have no clue what it's saying. But now I read it, and it's just like it's so wonderful that we've been baptized into Christ. We've been identified with Christ. The old man's been crucified, and so on. I mean, it just has so much meaning now.

I was a believer, and Hal said, well, he read through Romans 6, and I looked at it, and I said, I was like, you're talking about, I don't know what this is saying. I really don't know what this is saying. And so that's just in his time many times. So Romans 6 is probably a compacted growth truce. But once you see that in Romans 6, you'll see they'll show up in other places. OK.

So any last thoughts or questions? You know, it gets a little bit mixed up sometimes. That's a long can of worms. Okay, but you start with light topics here, right? That's a light topic. After the second buzzer, one minute? Go ahead. That's okay, I won't touch on that. What's your question?

My question is, I'm curious, you think back to the counsel of God, when God brought in the Son of the Holy Spirit down, who planned this whole thing out, and the matter knew it, and it danced. And here, we're wandering around here, and la la land here, and we're right there, and trying to find out that this was not the way to go, and Christ is the one who's the way to go, and make that choice. But a lot of them say, well, how does that, whether I, whatever happens, you see, I was already in the Lamb's Book of Life from the very beginning.

He predestined me this way. And you're sort of saying, I'm just a robot, and I'm either going to wind up in the good camp or the bad camp, and I have no choice in the matter. But I don't think that's what... Also God says, I'm not willing that any should perish. That all should come to repentance. So his will is, God's will is, that all men come to know him. But in his foreknowledge, he knows the outcome. But it doesn't influence any of us. And that's the hard thing. God restrains himself. He doesn't influence.

You know, the Holy Spirit is, I like the idea, it says, convicting the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. That word convict actually is better of convincing, it's actually a better translation. The Holy Spirit of God is convincing men of their need for Christ. His ministry is to convince them that they need Christ. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to focus on Christ. There's another whole rabbit trap people go down. They go, we gotta go with the Holy Spirit and they're over here. Wait a minute, the Holy Spirit says my total 24-7 job is to glorify Christ. I want you to, and he's focusing on Christ. So, God's total plan is for all to be saved, but he knows the outcome. And that doesn't cause, it's not causative, they say. By knowing the outcome, he doesn't He doesn't coerce people. They still come of their own will. And otherwise, we're robots. I mean, like I said, well, I'm going to go there or there. What does it matter? We're not. He loves us too much and cares for us too much. OK, bud. That's a fine question. That's a fine question.

All right, well, next week, oh, yeah, actually, I have a job here. I was given a job to do here. I'll pass that next week. So this will be lesson four. Let me find you the description of the question that asked about the side of convincing. Let's turn to, we'll do this first and then we'll close. It's in John, Gospel of John. Okay, yeah, thank you Bonnie.

Okay, chapter 16. Okay, let me just read chapter 16 and what I was referring to here is John 16 starting in verse 7. And this is why I was also saying about the ministry of the Holy Spirit I think this is you know anybody asked you about the ministry of the Holy Spirit Go to John 16 and start reading in verse 7. It just it tells his This is the job description if you will the Holy Spirit So Christ is speaking here, but I tell you the truth is to your advantage I go away For if I did not go away the helper which is the Holy Spirit shall not come to you But if I go I will send him to you.

I And he, when he comes, will convict. That's the word I was talking about there. That word convict, I think a better translation is convince. In fact, if you get your concordance out and look that word up, the word convict in 16.8, you'll see an alternate translation is convince. Will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. So that's what I was referring to.

So this is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. He's pointing people to Christ. We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for your word, for the blessings we have, Lord. We thank you that, Lord, even though you knew the end from the beginning, that you, in your love and your grace, gave us the opportunity to know you, and your spirit convinced us of our need for Christ, Lord. And we're thankful that we responded to that, and we pray that we would grow in the wonderful grace and knowledge of our Savior, and that we would just be those that would help others to see Christ, help others to grow in the knowledge of Him. We ask in His name. Amen.