You In Christ and Christ in You

We are working on lesson should be 28 right now. We've been on this thing for two weeks and I asked a question. Look up the scriptures and it will give you a pattern. Have you figured out the pattern yet? What we're doing. It's going to get really quiet because all of a sudden they went from partying to having to think. What's the pattern? What's the purpose of all of the scriptures that I gave you? What's the main focus of what we're talking about?

Grace. Say that again? Grace. More specific than that. Understanding God's glory. Understanding God's glory. OK, close. Close, but no cigar. Beholding. What we're talking about, what all of these verses have to do with, the pattern in the verses, is intimacy with the God of the universe, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and a contrast between how folks in the Old Testament could know God personally, and then we as believers, how we behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact that It is a really central point of what God is after. And I think, I've always been of the mind, once this is discovered, I've always been of the mind that Christians just don't think that God has put that much emphasis on that point. To know his son personally and intimately. We use the terms, but we all know each other to some degree, some better than others.

And when we hang out, we fellowship. We have a good time. We we went to the corn maze last Sunday and we had a lot of fun. And afterwards, we all went to Mickey D's. And those older people who don't know what Mickey D's is, it's McDonald's. My wife is driving. Where's Mickey D's? She and Katie from the Czech Republic didn't know what Mickey D's. So we sat there and we had coffee and french fries and stuff and we just hung out and fellowship with each other. Looked each other in the face and exchanged conversation.

I don't think it dawns on us that God wants that same thing. You have to do it in his way, but that's what he wants. He wants fellowship with us and especially us with him and he has specifically suited us out for that purpose. So, as we get down to number 9, the verse titled number 9, which is I think the last one on your sheet, right?

It's Philippians 3.10-14, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed unto his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. not that I had already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, reaching for what lies ahead, I press towards the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What's the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus? What is it? It's in the very first verse,

10. What is it? That's exactly right.

And so Wouldn't you think that for Paul to make such a request after years of working, of walking with the Lord, that he wouldn't, you'd think by now he wouldn't be asking for this. This is, Paul has been 25, 30 years in his ministry when he says his prayer.

So one might think, well, maybe he's, maybe he's having a relapse. Or as you Baptists like to say, a backslide. No. If you back up in the verse a little bit, you'll look to verse 4 and read down, especially when you get to 7, he says, But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.

This doesn't necessarily mean temporal things. These are spiritual things or righteous things. where he says, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless, a perfectly good-natured man. We've talked a little bit about this in the past. We are really ready, as Christians, to abandon all of the evilness in our lives, right? No problemo. But we're very reluctant to abandon the good in our life. because there's a difference between godliness and goodness.

So when Paul says, what things were gained to me, he meant spiritually as a Jew. He didn't mean that he had a Mercedes in the driveway. He meant that the good things in his life that were religiously good, he was willing to abandon those just for Christ. because he understood that intimacy with Christ is the priority, the most important thing.

And it comes natural, because it said that even today in that book. Sure it does. The Hungry Heart? Yeah. It's natural for us to do. Because, what was the name of the tree in the garden that Adam ate from? Knowledge of what? So what do we think? When we're saved we think, oh gee, I'm just going to move from the evil branches over to the good ones. Right? Isn't that how we think? I'm not going to be bad anymore, I'm going to be good.

But there was this other tree in the garden. What was the name of that tree? The tree of life. The Lord Jesus Christ is the tree of life. The issue is, get down out of the good and evil tree and get into the tree of life. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul is saying he needs to know more and more and more and more about the tree of life, about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me ask you this question.

Did Paul ever know Christ on the earth? Did he ever know him as the Jewish Messiah walking around on the earth? The answer is no, he didn't. What were the circumstances under which Paul met Christ? on the road to Damascus, right? And when he saw Him, what did he see? He saw Christ glorified. So from the get-go, from the very beginning, he's only known Christ glorified.

That's the only way he's ever known Him. He wants more. See that? He wants more. When he says in Philippians 3.8, Yet doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but, my favorite word in the Bible, dung, that I may win Christ. It's a really hard thing for us to understand if we don't have any inkling of beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus, to really say, I count everything but loss for Christ. You see that?

I mean, when I started the class today, I said, we got anything to pray for? Nobody said, you know, pray for my earthly this, earthly that, earthly this, earthly that. But that's what we do. When's the last time you prayed that I may win Christ? That I may know Him? And that's the only thing I care about. I don't mean to say that in such a way to make you feel intimidated.

As the Spirit of God is working in your life, Christ will become that gem or pearl of inestimable value. That's what will happen. You just need to be aware that that's what he's doing. So can we say that Christ has eclipsed all the best and brightest and most beautiful things on the earth to me because he has so satisfied my heart? Can you say that?

And it's okay if you don't, if you say no, you know, I like my Chevy a little better. But you must understand that the Spirit of God is working in your life moment by moment to make Christ the most valuable thing there is to you. Because you won't abandon the things you think are good and you like unless you find something better. And Christ is the better. Okay with that? The only way to get out of the good things here is by the Spirit of God showing you something better.

I mean, when you go to Wal-Mart and you go down the line, you're looking for the best one, aren't you? And you might settle for this one unless you found a better one. But it can become less important, doesn't it? Say that again? It becomes less important.

Well that's exactly right. You know what's the hymn we sing all the time? Set your eyes upon Jesus and the things of the earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That's the principle. In the gospels, in Matthew 19 is the story of the rich young man. And that's the best example I could find when the man comes up to Christ and says, OK, I've done all this stuff, what must I do to get into the kingdom? And he says, sell everything you have, give it to the poor and follow me. And the guy went, he choked. Right? He said, well, gee, he went away a sad man. Now, under the environment that we live in of grace, when If that call comes, you won't have any problems dropping it and going on with Christ.

Because He is the source of everything that's valuable to you. Actually Mike, I was thinking that song, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Turn your eyes. That's good, because maybe the person is thinking, turn away from other things and look at Him. Sure. I never thought about that before.

And see, the beholding of Him is what makes those of secondary value. Along that same line, doesn't it seem that when you turn your eyes upon Jesus, all the satisfaction that you're looking for in your life has to do with you, right? Your comfort, or your security, or your whatever. Self-aggrandizement. Self-survival even. Yeah, self-survival.

What's amazing is that there's only one thing in all of the universe that's more attractive to you than you are to yourself. You know what it is? It's Christ. That's the great liberty that Christians have that no other human being has. You know, I've discovered somebody, some person, who is more important to me than I am to myself. It's wonderful. But you've got to find out that self isn't worth preserving. I added one verse and I don't know if I gave it to you. Did I put Act 7 on your thing? You don't have to go there, I'll read it to you. Act 7, 54.

And the reason I put this in here was I wanted to demonstrate from scripture the first time that this ever happened. Now, this is the story of Stephen when he's going to be the target. He's just finished a little discussion before the Sanhedrin and these guys are so angry with him that they're going to stone him to death.

But before they do that, they want to chew on his body a little bit because they're really mad. Now, when they had heard this, they were cut to the quick and they began gnashing their teeth at him. Most versions will say gnashing your teeth at him. But if you look at the Greek, they were gnashing their teeth on him. That's what it means. It shows you how incensed they were by what he had said.

Now watch this next part. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens open up, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Wow! Isn't that cool? That's the first time you'll see in scripture where a man on the earth looks into heaven and sees the glory of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees it. And it isn't because Stephen is some sort of high-powered spiritual Christian with a lot of degrees. Not at all.

And when he said that, now imagine, he says out loud to these guys who are polishing up the rocks, right? And they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. They were odd? No, these were... Feared? Fear was part of it. They didn't want to hear it? They didn't want to hear it. See? They were convicted. It says that they were cut to the quick. What does that mean? What's that? Well, not only put down, but put down in here. They were really convicted, yet their self went against their conviction.

And so Stephen continues on and it makes it even worse for him. And when they had driven him out of the city they began stoning him and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. There's our boy Paul. And they went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord, Lord Jesus receive my spirit.

We heard that phrase before? Where did we hear that? Lord, receive my spirit before. Where have you seen that before? On the cross of Christ, right? Now watch this next part. And then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep. Where have we heard, Lord, don't hold this sin against him before?

On the cross of Christ, right? Don't you find it interesting? I mean, I do. that here's a man who's been recreated in Christ who has the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ in him. He beholds the glory of the Lord and guess what? When he's being stoned to death he says exactly the same thing that Christ said. Kind of shows that the nature acts the same way every time, doesn't it? Isn't that cool?

Lord, don't hold this sin against him. And then he fell asleep. I thought he died. What does fall asleep mean? Why wouldn't it say that he died? Because he's already dead. Understand what I mean? Anybody here not understand what I mean by that? When you study Romans 6, it says that my old man was crucified with him. I've already been crucified. I've already died unto this world positionally.

Don't you realize Romans 6.3 that when you were baptized into Christ Jesus, you were baptized into his death? When he was separated from this world, so were you. You were in him 2,000 years ago when he died.

So you'll see from here on, in all of Paul's epistles, when he talks about a believer leaving the planet, he always uses this term, he fell asleep. And when Luke writes it here, he uses the same terminology. Why? Because he isn't dying, he's just leaving and going somewhere else. To be absent from the bodies, to be home with the Lord. See that? So, asleep is an appropriate term.

This is the first revelation of what the mark is. When Paul says, I press towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of Christ, here it is, right here. It's the glory of Christ. But this is the practical application of the work of the Holy Spirit revealing Christ to the believer. Stephen is not a unique person. Every believer is to have, now that we have the Word and we have the Spirit, that's what the Spirit of God is going to do, is reveal Christ to you, His glory, in the heavenlies.

So if you say, I have the Holy Spirit in me, you say, well, where does He lead you? You've got the Spirit of God in you, what's He going to do? Where's He going to lead you? Down to the Chevy dealer, right? To Christ. To Christ, where he is in heaven. Is it on earth?

No. Colossians 3.1, what's it say? Without looking it up, quickly. Since you be risen with Christ. Fact, right? What do you do? Seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

Why would he say that if it wasn't the whole purpose of the believer's resurrected life? Since you have been risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, and not on things of the earth. Why wouldn't you... Verse 3 says, why don't you spend time on things of the earth?

It tells you why. Remember why? For you died. Perfect tense. You died. And your life is hid with Christ and God. So you see how that fits? If you're not a believer and you haven't been crucified with Christ, buried and resurrected, this whole discussion about beholding the glory of the Lord is mute. Why would you even talk about it? You wouldn't. One last thing here.

What you find is the testimony of Stephen is a person in the heavenlies. in Acts 9.4, listen to this, and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who's me? Huh? Yeah, it's his body.

One last quote from J.B. Stoney. It is not only that by the blood of the Lamb I am without spot. and can go into the holiest of all. But, and it is the height of all blessedness, beholding his glory, I am transformed into the same image, into the very highest condition, into harmony with his glory, the expression of his satisfaction according to his attributes."

Everybody understand that or do I need to read it again? Those guys that wrote English 150 years ago, they're hard to understand. Everybody alright with that? Did you get it? Or do you want it again? It is not only that by the blood of the Lamb I am without spot. That's okay. Got that covered, right?

And can go into the holiest of all. That's easy to understand. But, and it is the highest of all blessedness, beholding his glory, I am transformed into the same image. Into the very highest condition. into harmony with his glory. The expression, this is his glory now, the expression of his satisfaction according to his or God's attributes.

Isn't that something? Can you imagine, Bob? Positionally, isn't that where we're at? Positionally, that's where we're at. What we're talking about here is the movement of the Holy Spirit in our life to make our condition begin to line up with our position. You see that? It's amazing to me that God has recreated us in Christ. And because we are recreated in Christ, we get to hang out with God on His level. We get to begin to understand and behold this glory of Christ. even while we're still here. And you know what?

That's the only thing that will cause you to grow spiritually. All your sufferings and physical push-ups and all that doesn't cause you to be transformed. Beholding His glory does. Maybe the suffering gets you ready to behold His glory, but the beholding is what spiritual growth is all about.

Okay? That was the theme of the last three weeks. Any questions? OK. Now, everybody, did everybody get a copy of the. A few words about grace. Everybody got that. Who doesn't have. You could have been behold, beholding the glory of the Lord. Oops, that might be the last one. I had to ask who else needs one. Everybody got one. OK, I recommend this.

This is a series of quotes about grace. For those of you who I don't highly recommend a lot of books, but W.R. Newell's commentary on the Book of Romans is this quintessential classic on the study of the Book of Romans at the end of Chapter six. Is this little three pages on grace?

So I thought it would be good for us to to go through these because they are that they're the kind of things that when you read them, you go, oh, yeah, you know, or isn't that something I never thought of that before. So I went through them and I created a series of questions from them. And the answers, for the most part, come from. I think even if you haven't read it you can follow along pretty good. Why is grace uncaused in the recipient? That was my first question. Why is grace uncaused in the recipient according to the, it's actually the very first principle there. Say that again?

Yeah, it's God's nature. It's God acting freely according to his own nature, as love, with no promises or obligations to fulfill. That's really important. God has no promise to keep or no obligation to fulfill. And acting, of course, righteously in view of the cross. That's the first and most important principle of grace. That God acts solely on his own behalf. He owes nobody anything and he has no obligations to fulfill and no promises to keep. But he acts because of the cross. So in order for grace to be grace, by definition, the recipient of grace can't be the cause of it. You alright with that? I know that's tough for you guys that are type A's like Courtney. I guess I guess Paul said that we're God has concluded we're all under. So. All right. Question two. Why can't Grace act? where there is either deserving or capability. Why can't it act? It says not having any debts to pay or fulfilled condition on man's part to wait for, it can act towards him and how it pleases. Isn't that cool?

I fit under this next category as me. It can and does often place the worst deservers in the highest favor. That's me. And that's everybody in this room. You're the worst deservers, but you're in the highest favor. Isn't that cool? Romans 11, 6. This is a very interesting verse. But if it is by grace, salvation. Is it by grace? Answer, yes it is.

Then, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. Isn't that a great verse? If it were on the basis of grace, or if it is on the basis of grace, question mark, answer, yes it is, then the response has to be, then it's no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, it isn't grace anymore. In other words, if we try to interject any little tiny work thing, even in our minds, what do we do? You ruin the whole thing of grace. The whole thing goes down.

We were studying on Wednesday night, two weeks ago, these verses in Romans 4.16.

Romans 4.16 talking about salvation, for this reason it is by faith in order that it might be according to grace. And the premise that we came up with is that if we think we have one single thought that would merit any blessing before God in salvation, we have totally left grace. So, here's where the discussion went, which is kind of interesting to illustrate the point. If I'm standing up here and I'm giving you the gospel message, And I include in that gospel message that in order for you to be saved, you must stand up and come forward.

And you believe everything I've said. Are you saved? First of all, I gave you 2 Corinthians 15. Christ died on the cross for your sins. He was buried and resurrected. And if you believe that and come forward, you'll be saved. So you believe it and you get up out of your chair and come forward. Are you saved? How many of you think you are saved? How many of you think, maybe not? How many are too chicken to raise their hand? You're not saved. You're not saved. You know why? Because you just added something to grace.

See, now that was where the argument went. So I give you 15 parameters, but stuck in there someplace is the gospel. I said, no, the point is, is that if there's any dependence on your part, any dependence on your part other than the gospel, you have missed it. Now, here's how we reconcile. You guys are getting nervous, I can tell. So Courtney comes forward. Courtney comes forward and in his mind he thinks, not only did I believe it, I came forward.

So I'm doubly saved, right? Well the point is that he's not saved at all. But I'm convinced that the Spirit of God will hone in on him and say, look pal, the only thing that saves you is faith in Christ. Nothing more and nothing less. Ever. It gets clear. I sent him off, didn't I? It made me wonder, because I wasn't in on that conversation. I know you were watching the kids. That you would be saved, but there would be no benefit to you. How would you be saved?

Because you believe that Christ died for your sins. I quote. But if it is by grace, It is no longer on the basis of works. If I've added works in there, it is no longer on the basis of grace. I'm saying that you didn't come into Christ. I'm saying you didn't come into Christ because there was something in the Gospel message that came to you that was a works-based thing and you were relying on that as much as you were relying on the Gospel. I would think that you'd be saved, but if you relied on that, then when you don't get what you think you're going to get because you did that, then you would be suffering, and then you would be kind of tested, and then that could improve your faith. Okay. to see some visual that signifies somebody is believing. So it's the only way the crowd out there or somebody on a platform can tell that somebody is saved because they'll raise their hand.

Come forward. Do some outward action. Sure. I'll get you. Oh, this is what you go forward. So you've already got your mind set. Well, if I go forward and I'm going to have the seals, the deal. Yeah, that's right. And that's kind of set you up for maybe failure for a works program. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that the old man always wanted? Absolutely. All right. You know, this is just if you believe I believe. that he died for me, and I believe that.

It doesn't matter anything after that point. What about the spiritual push-ups of, you know, I'm going to go do missionary work? Anything you add on afterwards, that we do all the time, you know, the purpose-driven life, or we're going to do... What's the difference? Anything after salvation, after you believe, it doesn't matter.

Let me make this clear. If I'm coming down the road and I get the gospel message, and I believe it, but at the same time I get in addition to that, and I believe that also, the whole thing is dead. But if you believe, the deal is sealed. If I recognize that the only thing that saves me is faith in the person and work of Christ and nothing else, I don't have a problem. But if I, in addition to that, add Lordship, Salvation, or whatever else I'm going to put in there, the whole deal is off because I have actually put my faith in more than one principle.

And if I get to the end of... What if I give you... Let's do it this way. I'm going to present it this way. Now, in a minute, I'm going to ask you to come forth. Okay? And that's going to be part of the deal. So when I give you the gospel, get up and come forward. I've given you the works program first. So I give it to you and you go, yeah, that's good, and forward you come. I don't think you're saved.

Yeah, but if there's a belief, if you have... Only. Yeah. And anything around that or added to it... I don't think so. Once you have believed that, isn't the transaction done and you're a new creature in Christ? It doesn't matter what you And you believe. You've made that transaction. You've been crucified.

Even though you don't understand, know, believe all that about the identification, I think. Which, I mean, if you start that way, I think you're off a lot better. But if you have simple faith, which I think, when I came to know the Lord, I didn't know all the identification truths. And yet, you know, I had a wealth of other works and other things that were there. But I've already been crucified. I'm a new creature in Christ and it doesn't matter if then I stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight. I don't get away. It doesn't matter. The transaction is done. I would say that your anecdotal evidence is... You're paying for lunch next week. I'll tell you why in a minute.

How about like Paul addresses the Jewish believers. that not causing your brother to stumble because they think that to eat meat offered to idols is... I mean, they were operating... That's after they're saved. Yeah, but you're saying that they still had a full cadre of Jewish traditions that they were following. Well, in Paul's case, yes and no. Most of the people... I mean, yeah, he went to the synagogues first and he preached the gospel to the Jews, but his job was... he was the apostle to the Gentiles. those believers, those Jewish believers, from the word, technically didn't just believe that Christ died for their sin in a pure form with nothing else attached to it.

I'm going to give you my anecdotal stance. You ready? I grew up a Catholic. I went to St. Peter's grade school. I went to Campion High School, taught by the Jesuits, man. I went to Regis University. When my Classmates sat me down in 1977 and said, I want to tell you about Jesus Christ and that he died on the cross. I said, I already know about that. We were in religion 101 together. He said, do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?

Absolutely. I've thought it for 40 years. Or 30, I wasn't 40 yet. But absolutely I did. Was I saved? No way. You know why? Because the issue came down to this. is my faith in that person and that work alone. Nothing else. Nothing else. That's when I was saved. I knew about it.

Not only that, I thought it was true that Jesus died on the cross for not only my sins but the sins of the world. I knew the information, but I didn't believe it just that alone and faith in Him and what He did alone would save me. The guy that was trying to lead me to Christ, you know what he kept saying to me? You need to give your life to Christ. And I kept thinking, that isn't what I'm seeing here. It's faith in this issue. Christ alone.

And I know the argument, and I originally thought like that, that here's 15 things that the evangelist gives you, and right in the middle is the gospel. If I believe that, I'm saved. The rest of it kind of messes it up, but I'm still saved. I'm saying, I don't think so. Now you can disagree with me all you want. evangelist giving that, or what is the Holy Spirit? What's the Holy Spirit doing? Yeah. Yeah, if I'm sitting at the Billy Graham concert, or whatever they call those things, and here comes the gospel message, and I'm sitting there, and I believe. And then he says, get up out of your seat and come down here. Okay. I'm saved. Because I trusted only the gospel. But if I'm trusting the gospel and something else, it destroys the whole thing, I'm saying. the add-ons. But the minute you believe it's done, it doesn't matter.

Oh, then I have to stand up. I agree with all of that. I more agree with what you said because I think a believer, I think a person who finds himself in a, well there was a person in Donna's office who went to one of the churches in town and they had a little class, she's a non-believer and they said okay here's what salvation is and they gave her like nine things. Right? In somewhere in there is the gospel. And I said, wow, you know, if she goes for that, she's going to miss the whole train.

I do think, and that person probably is a good example, that the Spirit of God works on only one premise, and that's the work of Christ. And that's where he'll focus. Now, I may have done all these other things, but I think that at some point that the Spirit of God, you know, gets it down to, is this the issue? Christ and his cross in you, that's the issue.

Yes, it is. But I mean, I know people, I know people that have claimed to be believers and when things got tough and you got down to that point, they wavered because they had added something else to their faith from the very beginning. Only. Yeah. OK, we have a disagreement, which is great because he'll come around eventually. Let's say you believe, but then they work and do this and do this because they want to go up the ladder or whatever. So I don't get that.

You don't really need to do that. Because we just absolutely have this old man, this sin nature that has to do something. The one thing the old man will not do is not do. That's why salvation has to be of grace. It has to be something where there is no ability on the person who receives it and no deserving from the person who receives it.

And that they operate and act in faith only because that's the thing that opens up salvation to me. It means I didn't deserve it. It was done for me by somebody else and my believing it doesn't accrue any benefit to me by my effort. It was all given to me solely by the person who effectuated it. Understand that? And not only that, if you start that way, you're going to grow that way. If you start with faith and a few other things, it's going to take a long time for the Spirit of God to get you to unlearn your ability and your contribution.

It's like Romans 4.16, for this reason it is by faith, in order that it might be in accordance with grace.

That's it. Nothing more. It seems to me that when you go to those kind of events, where there's a show of the response, it's an evaluation of the speaker's effectiveness. It's usually something the speaker wants. and it's used later on to promote. Whatever their agenda is, I agree. I absolutely agree.

See, you know what's cool? If you were a class of non-believers and you came to Christ on the faith, grace basis, and that's all the information you had, and that's all you did, and you believed it, and you were all saved, And after this class, you went upstairs and Vern started to lay the identification truths on your Romans 6. You know what? You would get them.

Because you would understand the basic principle is that God did everything. Everything. He not only took care of your sins, He took care of you, the sinner. And your response to all of this good news is just to believe Him. Nothing more. Nothing more. OK? Great discussion.

How does grace, when discovered by the creature, work humility in the creature? The statement in there is the discovery by the creature that he is truly the object of divine grace works the utmost humility. The discovery by the... How does he discover? The Spirit of God shows him that he is the object of divine grace. That works humility in the heart of the believer. For the receiver of grace is brought to know his own absolute unworthiness and his complete inability to attain worthiness, yet he finds himself blessed on another principle outside of himself.

The evangelist is not coming at you based on that principle. I shouldn't say it that way. The evangelist who wants to lay an addition to the gospel on you doesn't come at you with that principle. I always admired Billy Graham's messages because he did do what a lot of them don't do today.

He convicted you of a sinner first and he made it very clear that Jesus wasn't a Tylenol for your pain and suffering. That you were absolutely condemned and separated from God and lost. and that Christ was your substitute. He did that part of it right. Getting out of my chair was the problem.

So, do you think that God, for the growing believer, must continue to teach us our own personal unworthiness? Do you think that goes on in your life as a believer? What do you think? I think it does. Because we all think we're so worthy. We're good people. You know, a guy told me one time, the biggest problem in the church is their goodness. I am unworthy of God's grace and his blessing. Totally unworthy. Yet at the same time, what do I discover? My unworthiness doesn't slow him down a bit. Why is grace so hated by the proud natural mind? Why would it be so hated by the proud natural mind?

I don't think they need it. Okay. There's no place for merit. There's no place for anything that the flesh can do and the flesh always wants to do. Yeah, if I say, Courtney's a type A, right? He can slay lions. If I say to him, you have a totally, you are totally unable, to obtain any worthiness. You cannot obtain worthiness before God no matter what you do.

Well, like most of us, we're going to think, oh, there's something. We might even say, well, my faith. Is there any value in your faith? Why not? Where's the value? It's in the object of what you believe, not your believing. So, the next time you go to a faith healer and your arm still stays short and he says your faith isn't strong enough, you can say, wait a minute, it isn't my faith that makes my arm, it's the object of my faith and you're not it.

Therefore, the flesh has no place in the plan of grace. This is the great reason why grace is hated by the proud natural mind of man. The proud natural mind of man absolutely demands a seat at the table, a contribution to what God is doing, a partnership in which you and God work this thing out together, that is not grace. And that's why it's hated, and that's why it's shunned by people who can really perform and people who can't perform at all. They're still proud about this because they think there's something they have to do. Standing outside this mission, 30 years ago, this guy walks up and we're about to start the service.

He said, I'd go in there, but I'm too sinful. And I'm stupid, I don't know anything. I'm trying to debate with him. And my buddy comes up to him and listens to him for a minute. He looks him in the eye and says, you're too proud to come in. He said, no, I'm a sinner and I can't go in there. He said, no, you're too proud. I didn't understand what he meant. I do now.

I do now. he felt like he was not worthy enough for the grace and so he couldn't receive it. The guy standing next to him thought he was overly worthy and he couldn't receive it. But for this very reason the true believer rejoices for he knows that in him that is in his flesh dwells no good thing. And yet he finds God glad to bless him just as he is. The man under grace is not on probation, how come? Anybody not understand the word probation? How come the man under grace is not on probation? Why wouldn't you be on probation? Why wouldn't you be on probation?

In other words, you've still got stuff to work out before you get the complete deal. Christ is your standing, you're not your standing. So when you're in Christ, he's everything. And he's not on probation, so therefore you're not. Okay. Is it cool to understand that Christ is your standing? You're not your standing? He is.

Why doesn't failure of devotion cause a withdrawal of grace? We're going to take a head count upstairs. I'm going to be watching really close to see how your devotion is going. The failure of devotion does not cause a withdrawal or bestowment of grace as it would under a law system. Why not? God would be going against his nature. Here you are. I'll pick on Courtney again. As to Courtney's past, it doesn't exist before God.

Because he died at the cross and Christ is his life. God knew all the human exigencies before the cross. Any of you get an email from God saying, I'm going to die on the cross, be okay with you? His actions were independent of them and they were not dependent on your sin. Why did Christ die on the cross? Why did he do it? Hurry up, the buzzer is going to go off. The Father's will, and what was the issue? The issue was sin. So it's a transaction. The wages of sin is death. It was a transaction between the Father and the Son.

Where were you in the deal? Where were you in the deal? Nowhere. You were nowhere. If you had any contribution at all, you helped put them up there. See? So, the cross of Christ is an act that God did not considering whether it benefited you or not. It had nothing to do with you. It was a deal between the Father and the Son. Now, because He's gracious, He reputed it to us, or He gives us the opportunity to enter into the full blessing of it. By how? By faith. Because there's nothing for us to earn. Okay?

Alright, we'll pick up next time on 7, and I have a handout Let's pray first and then I'll do the handout. Father how thankful we are for your grace and for yourself and the fact that you have designed it so that we would be able to even now behold the glory of your son and find in him that he is enough, that he is the prize, that he is everything. We thank you Father, we pray in his precious name. Amen.