Great Doctrines of Salvation
Mike Doyle · Jan 31, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492615353123

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

OK, we are in Chapter 3, Regeneration, and we had just gotten into it last week. So what does the word regeneration mean? It's the Greek word, Palaeogenesis, Genesia. Remember what it meant? What does palen or palen mean? Again. And Genesis means what? Birth. Okay, so it's again birth, or new birth.

And then we spent some time talking about, we looked up the two verses and where it's used and we talked about the fact that why does the earth and creation need a new birth? And we began to talk a little bit about why would Adam's sin cause the creation to be subjected to vanity? Why was that? This is an important doctrine, one of those little bricks that needs to be put into your theology.

He's the federal head of the human race and he's given dominion over the first creation, the planet and everything on it. So if he sins, the whole creation goes down with him. And so that's really, really important because it's a principle that seems to be pretty traumatic if he's the only federal head that ever shows up. But God is going to incorporate federal headship in another man which is going to be the regeneration of the entire creation because of this other federal head. So that's why the doctrine is really important.

And we looked at Genesis 1 28-31, did we look at that? Did we get that far? You guys pay attention. So, that was question 4. Question 5, according to Titus 3, let's look up Titus 3, chapter 3, verse 4. And somebody, when you get there, read it. Just 4?

3, let's see, 4-7, yeah. according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we would make heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So we did talk about the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. What's the substance that's used for washing of regeneration? The Word. It's the Word of God. And the renewing of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that regenerates you. All right, and then, why do we need personal regeneration?

Now, more verses, Romans 5.12 and 18. I'm looking around, some of you have come to the Romans graphs.

Romans 5.12 is a very interesting verse because it does a couple of things.

Romans 5.12 says it, therefore, Just as through one man, our pal Adam, sin entered into the world. So it came by one guy. And death through sin. So sin comes in and along with it comes death. And so death spreads to all men because all men did what? Did Adam sin for us? Is that what the verse says? Did he sin for us? What happened?

We send in him. So people who have this idea, well gee, if I was Adam, I wouldn't have succumbed. Yeah, you would have. I used to think that. I thought how stupid. Adam should have been smarter than that, but he wasn't. Not over that anyway. That's right. Sure he did, sure. Why did he do it?

So sin and death come through Adam and so the entire race falls and you fall with it because you sinned in Adam. Now that's another biblical principle. in which the actions of a representative means that all of the people of that representative do the same action. And so when we look at that principle again, it's a good one, because when we get over to Christ, the positive side, the same principle holds true. So therefore, by one's man's offense, judgment came, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in the justification of life. So, with the doctrine of the two men, you have one man's action, his sin, caused judgment to all men.

The other man, through one righteous act, which is, what's the act? The crucifixion on the cross. Then, because of that crucifixion, here comes the free gift. What's the free gift? Salvation. And so it comes to all men. Does that mean all men are saved? But it's available to all men. Okay. Resulting in a justification of life. Okay. So there's that verse 12 and 18 point out the doctrine of the two men and why why we need personal regeneration, why we need to be again birthed, maybe is a way to say it.

Hebrews 9.27 says, as it is appointed unto all men to die once, but after this the judgment. Now no matter what men think, no matter what they try to do, you know what? They all die. And they are all going to judgment. And they can't escape it. No matter what. It's a universal principle. All you have to do is get in your car and start driving through cities. You know what? What's in every single city in the country and in the countryside in every town? You know what's in those towns? Cemeteries. Everybody dies.

Galatians 6.15, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. What's terrific about that is, why would you think circumcision would help you? Or in our case, how about water baptism?

Does that benefit you? No. It doesn't? No. I thought it did. Did it give you something special? No, it's not actually a spiritual act. I mean, becoming safe benefits you. Trusting God benefits you. And that's exactly what the verse says. If you were a Jew, what did circumcision do for you? It set you apart. That's all it did. So Paul says circumcision doesn't really matter. Nor uncircumcision. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. What matters? a new creation. That's the only thing that really matters. So, Paul says in Galatians that new creation is kind of important and that you need it, by the way.

Romans 8.8.

So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, if you are not saved, can you please God in any manner? Are you sure? How about if you sent a million dollars to Haiti, would God be happy about that? Would it be pleasing to Him? It would get you salvation. Would it make God happy that you did that? Would it make Him sad if you didn't? No. I hope not. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to Him. Why wouldn't that matter to God? that you did some really wonderful philanthropic act. Why wouldn't it matter?

Because you're in the flesh. And the statement is, if you're in the flesh, you can't please God no matter what you do. So position is really important, don't you think? Or, I'm a realtor, location. I love location. Location is everything. You're either in Christ or in the flesh. If you're in the flesh, you're toast. You can do what appears to be some good deed, But the problem is your location, not your actions. It's your being, not your doing.

1 Corinthians 2.14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. And the reason is, for their foolishness to him, he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned.

So I'm sitting, I'm at a wedding reception at Hilton Head one time, and my buddy hooks me up with his close friend who's a Catholic priest and a theologian. So we start talking about theology as he's sucking down the beers. But this verse came into my mind. Because he's a natural man, it doesn't matter that he's a priest or whatever he is, it doesn't matter.

He didn't understand. He had a lot of theology, but he did not understand. What if he really wanted to? Would that have changed it? What if he said, you know what, Mike, I really do want to understand. Explain it to me. Yeah, it would have changed. He would have had understanding. You think so? How many agree with that? I hate to do this to you. How many disagree? Why?

The Holy Spirit's job. The Holy Spirit has to work. Well, the Holy Spirit has to work in you, but think about what your position is. If you are a natural man, if you are an Adamic man, it is totally impossible for you to understand spiritual things. You don't have the equipment. But we have the Bible. Why do we have it? We're talking about a natural man. We're not talking about Christians. We're talking about unregenerate people. Well, we're not regenerated by understanding, we're regenerated by belief. Why do you say that this guy was a natural man? Oh, why did I observe that?

Because as we talked, he didn't have any understanding of spiritual concepts. He had a lot of theological theorems and things that he worked on, but he didn't understand basic, he didn't understand grace. He didn't understand that, well like salvation is by grace through faith, it's not of yourself, it's a gift of God. He had no concept of that. A priest didn't understand that. So you can't assume, I guess, that if somebody is a priest that they understand that.

There you go. No, it's whatever they were taught. Did they know? Well, it seems like that's what they would be taught. You would think so. You would think so. I'm not saying that all priests are non-believers, but a lot of them are. There's a lot of Christian pastors that are so truthful. Oh, boy. You know, you really do, if you walk around and you run into people who you think should know better, and you think, wow, they don't know the basic stuff.

You've heard me rail on how important it is to, if you're sitting with someone who's not a believer, to be very careful that you present the gospel to them without any add-ons. What's the gospel? The pure gospel. What is it? The gospel, the good news. and he rose again. Christ died on the cross for your sins, he was buried and rose again. You don't need to add anything to that. If you believe just that, God will save you for all eternity. Then he'll be happy if you send one. Then he'll be happy if you send one. Oh, that's a good question.

In order to bring glory to God, it's done to honor God. So is motivation the issue? Those acts are related to our condition probably more than our position. I mean, God isn't impressed or not impressed by us related to position. That's true. Our condition is kind of a different story. It's probably more of a realm, that kind of stuff goes on. It doesn't make it bad or good from God's perspective.

Let me give you a good example. You remember in the Gospel of John when the Lord Jesus, I forget the town he's in, but Mary and Martha send word to him that Lazarus is sick and he's going to die. And the Lord Jesus doesn't pack his bags and go up to Bethany right away. He waits three days. Now I would have thought, what?

My friend's sick, I need to get up here and heal him. And his answer was, I only do what I see my father doing, and what I do is to glorify God only. That human circumstances don't matter. My whole life is dedicated to glorifying my father. So Lazarus dies and he goes up there. Well, you find out later that he was going to raise him from the dead, which glorified God much more than if he had healed him. Although if I'm Lazarus, I'm thinking, I've got to do this again.

But do you see the point? I mean, we in our political correct society, we just said, Jesus, there's a problem here. You know, the news people would have been all over him for not running up there and fixing it. Well, a way to think about that present day is like there's a great need in Haiti.

God lays it on my heart to send money there. God doesn't say something in my position has changed. I'm in a better spot. If it's dedicated on us giving a million dollars to Haiti to make God happy, we're in a world of hurt. It's nothing based on our actions. That frees you up to do things because the motivation is not because of what I do, it's because of who I am in Christ. You cannot please Will if I do a million to Haiti.

He'll like me just a little bit more. He's going to just bless me a little bit more. I did something that made him happy. It points up an interesting fact. Let's say a need shows up in your life. What's the first thing you should do about it? Go to the Lord about it. And see if he would have you even involved. He may not want you involved. The need could be tremendous. You don't go to the mission field because the need is so great. You go because God called you to go. So it may even look like a failure for you to even go, but if the call comes, you go. I know, he sure did.

And he had to have cataract surgery and I couldn't figure out why he couldn't heal his own eyes. The point here though is that the natural man, in his position in Adam, is incapable of understanding spiritual things. That's what the verse says. If you're walking in the flesh, you don't have any greater insight than the natural man has either. You know that?

Because the flesh doesn't get it. your old man isn't going to get any better because you're a believer and it's not going to get spiritualized or it isn't going to grow spiritually. Your new man in Christ grows, not the old man. So that's the need, that's why there's a need to be regenerated. Otherwise you're going to spend your whole life working on trying to get your old Adamic man to act and look like a Christian.

One of those hungry hearts was really terrific. I don't know if it's come up yet. It's not what you turn yourself away from that flavors you, it's what you turn yourself to. So as a new man in Christ, when you turn yourself to Christ, he flavors you. There are plenty of people that go into monasteries. There are plenty of people that, like a jihadist, who are really fervent and serious about what they're doing. But look at the flavor. You see that?

It's what you give yourself to that matters. And as a new man in Christ, when you give yourself to Christ, He flavors your whole temperament because you have the same life. Okay? Alright. Was this necessity for rebirth apparent in the time of Christ? I think it's always been apparent since the original sin.

John 3.7 Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again. It's very interesting. Let's talk about that. And that's the verses. I have John 3, actually 3 through 73.

Jesus answered and said, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you're born again, you'll not see the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus said, Moses, surely I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God. What's born of flesh is flesh. What's born of the Spirit is Spirit.

Now, who's Nicodemus? Who is this character? He's a Pharisee. He's a member of the Sanhedrin. He's one of the inner circle guys. Do you think in his mind he thought he was in? Sure he did. Was he? But he had some doubts or he wouldn't have come to Jesus in the night. It wasn't so much the doubt that brought him there, what brought him there? Was it curiosity?

It's curiosity, but the thing about the Lord Jesus Christ is that he's going around and he's healing people and he comes to them and he says, boy, you must be from God because you wouldn't be able to do the things you do unless you were. And the Lord looks at him and gives him this born again thing. And Vern talked about this on Thursday night over at Latham's. It was really cool what he did because he pointed out the fact that Nicodemus thought he was born again. He really did. because of his stature in the Jewish community and the fact that he had studied the Torah and that he was a godly man and he was a Pharisee, he thought he was in.

And here the Lord Jesus says, you've got to be born again. And he's kind of surprised, wouldn't you think? It's interesting. Is this Christian salvation right here? Look at the verse. Unless a man be born again, what won't happen to him? He won't be able to see what? And then unless a man is born again, he won't be able to enter into the Kingdom of God.

Is that where we are? Where are we? Are we in the Kingdom? What are we in? What are we in now? We're in Christ. Is that the same thing? No, it's not. We're in the King. So, the appropriateness of what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus was Jewish in content. The Jewish focus and hope is to be in the kingdom, right? With the Messiah King. And he's telling Nicodemus, a Jew, you're not getting in there unless you're born again.

The born again, the regeneration thing is appropriate to him and to us, But he's not entering into the same thing we enter into. Does that make sense? No? Well, when you said that you have to have salvation, yes you do. Was I right or was I wrong? You have to be born again for salvation. Yes you do. Let me pick the best guy, John the Baptist. Was John the Baptist saved? Sure he was. Saved to what? The kingdom.

Jesus Christ himself said that John the Baptist was the greatest man that ever lived on the earth. But he wasn't even measured up to the least that's in him. Do you see the difference? John the Baptist is not in Christ. When the Lord Jesus said to the thief on the cross, today you're going to be with me in paradise, what did he mean? That he'll be saved, he'll have salvation. He believed in Christ. Would he be in Christ? Answer, no. Why not? Because Christ hadn't been raised yet and Pentecost hadn't happened. The church started at Pentecost. It didn't start in the cross. It didn't start when John the Baptist was beheaded. It started at Pentecost.

Back to Nicodemus, verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He said this to Nicodemus. That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. By law you know it. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

That doesn't seem terribly different to me. Well, it's not different except for where you're going to be, as an example. And that it's before the Resurrection. The Resurrection and it's before Pentecost, yeah. When did the Church begin? It began at Pentecost. And what is the Church? What is it? It's the Body of Christ, right? So was there anybody, before the Spirit came, was there anybody in the Body of Christ before Pentecost? There are six guys we don't know about. Who was in Christ before that time? Nobody.

And the reason it's then is because the Lord Jesus told his disciples, you wait here, I've got to go to heaven and when I go to heaven I'm going to send a comforter. What was going on in heaven when he went up there for a few days? He was glorified. And the reason that's so important is that when we're baptized into the body of Christ, we are baptized or placed into the glorified Christ. That's really important to know, even though we were included in this death, burial and resurrection. So that's why it's different.

Are all of these Jews who are born again going to be saved? Absolutely they are. Sure they are. How about all the saints in the Millennial Kingdom? It's like the comparison to us and Abraham. We both believed. There's a difference though. Yeah, is Abraham in Christ?

He couldn't be. He couldn't be. Yeah, Christ hasn't even come to the earth yet. But is he saved? Absolutely he is. Is he a saint? Sure he is. Does he have eternal life? Yes he does. He believed God. He was accounted righteous because he believed God. He was glorified, and then so that when the Spirit came and baptized us into Christ, we were baptized into the glorified Christ.

This born-again word in John 3.7 is the word is a word that means to be regenerated, to beget, to be born, to bring forth, to conceive, to be delivered. Back to Titus 3, 4, and 5, and when the kindness and love of God, or the grace of God our Savior towards men appeared, verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The thing is, is that the renewing is this kainos word, which means to come into a new state of being. something you weren't ever before.

When the Lord Jesus is raised from the dead, is he a new kind of a man? Or was he just like Lazarus who came forth from the dead? He was a totally new kind of a man, wasn't he? And not only that, the body he came out of the grave with was not at all like the body he went into the grave with. Do you think his resurrected body had blood in it? Yes. I don't know if he could eat. I don't know how it works, but all molecules are different. Maybe all atoms are different. Whatever.

So he's crucified three days before that. He rises from the dead. And the next day he appears to the apostles and he says, put your finger in the hole in my hand. How come no scab? He's just a fast healer. The hole is there. Put your hand in my side. Put your hand in there. I'll come. It sounds to me to be leaking. Right, I thought you were talking about Lazarus. No, I'm talking about the Lord Jesus. Okay, no, I don't think he had blood.

At that instance, he said to touch him, but prior to that, he said, Mary, not to touch him. Well, if you look at that word touch, what it really means is this. I wish I had it in front of me. He met Mary right after the resurrection in the garden, and she didn't recognize him at first, And she wanted to re-identify herself with him as the earthly messiah, and he said, no, what he meant was, I'm a totally different man, and we're going to have a whole new agenda here, so don't attach yourself to me, or touch me as you knew me before. Just wait until I'm glorified. Yeah, it's a different word.

It doesn't mean touch physically, it means attach. Well she wasn't going to attach her though. She was going to grab him around the ankles or whatever. And the point that he was making to her is that pointing towards Pentecost that the whole environment and principles are all going to change.

I'm no longer the earthly Jewish Messiah doing miracles. I'm now the glorified man in heaven. And I want you to be associated with me on that plane, not on the old plane of being a miracle worker. Actually she was joyous, she went to the disciples and said, I've seen him, he's risen. And my boy Tom said, nah, unless I see him.

The word regeneration in the washing of water is correct description here. The word is used for a bath or more specifically for the water of a bath. I want you to be clear on this point. One of the big reasons that you spend time with the Word of God is that it washes you. Do you understand what I mean by that? And by washing I mean if you ever go I hate to use this parallel, but it's a good one.

If you ever go to an AA meeting, they have this term there called stinkin' thinkin' and what they mean by that is that you're thinking like you used to think when you were drinking, right? And the whole premise is to get you not to think like that anymore, which is really working on the old man. What the Word of God does when it washes you is it gets rid of your stinkin' thinkin'.

And the way it does it is it presents you as crucified, buried and resurrected with Christ. You're a new creature in Christ and you have the very mind of Christ. You have his life and his mind. And because you have the Word, you can think God's thoughts after him. Your frame of reference, your outlook will change because you have spent time allowing the Word of God to wash you.

You see that? That's why the Word of God is so important to us, because it's the only communicating vehicle that God has put in front of every one of us in order to be conformed. That's what it's for. It's designed specifically for you to have intimate fellowship with Christ in glory. And that will change you. Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, the mirror is the Word of God.

OK, the renewing word here is a kinos, which is a word from kindness, which means a brand new creature, brand new kind of creature. OK, question eight in John 1, 12 and 13, what does the word receive? Let's look up John 1, 12 and 13. Somebody read it. him to them, he gave the right to become children of God to those who believed in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The word receive here literally and figuratively means to have or to hold or to receive or to take. What it means, therefore, is a regeneration. is by new birth.

I want to point out a couple of interesting things about this verse. As many as receive him, which means believe him, what does he do? He gives them the right to stand with the children of God, to be one of them. And the really cool thing about this verse is I know you guys are Americans and you think you make all the decisions, right? Look at this.

When God says to you, you were born not of blood, so you're not born because your last name is Hemingway, or whatever. You're not born because you decided you were going to be. Right? It's not by the will of the flesh. You were not born again by any will of any man. How come you were born again? Who decided?

God did. And the point here is that, do you enter into or are you engaged in the regeneration process? You use your will to believe. But who does the regenerating? God does. The only thing you do is believe. And you've then been transformed. Well, positionally. Yeah, you're becoming transformed.

Does that make sense to you? We exercise our will to believe. We do not exercise our will to implement. Do you understand what I'm saying by that? God says to me, if you believe in the personal work of my son, I will save you. So I do the one thing that I can do that I can't take any credit for because all the value is in what I believe, not the fact that I believe. See that?

Whenever you look at the verses that have to do with faith, The object of your faith is the thing of value, not your faith. You get to get into the deal by faith, but you don't get credit. You can't go to God and say, I should get 10% here because I believe. No. He gets all the credit. Because all the value is in what you believe, not the fact that you believe. Does that make sense? That's why I think this verse says that you were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It was God's will. He gets all the credit. Sorry. So, any question about that? Did that make sense?

I think it's really important, the issue on faith, that what you believe in is where all the value is, not the fact that you believe. that doesn't diminish the fact that we live by faith. What it does, though, is it puts all the focus and the value on what and who you're believing in. or anything else, you'd be adding to your own salvation. That's what you'd be trying to do, yeah, that's exactly right. And that's the problem with most teaching. Yeah, most teaching has somehow got you in the game. So, let's look at some, let's compare unregenerate with regenerate. On the unregenerate side is darkness, on the regenerate side is light.

And by the way, you ever been to Carlsbad Cavern, anybody? When they turn the lights off? Ever been in a place like that where there's absolutely no light? They turn the lights off and you can hold your hand right here and you can't see it. You cannot see it. That's the kind of darkness he's talking about. No light at all.

The unregenerate abide or live or function in death means they're separated. The regenerate abide in eternal life. The unregenerate stand condemned before a holy God. Well, you could say, well, I haven't had a trial yet. Yeah, you have, and you lost. You were tried in the Garden of Eden, and you were tried and condemned at the cross, and just that the sentence hasn't been carried out yet, you're condemned, if you're not in Christ. The regenerate stand justified before a holy God. And here's an interesting one, the unregenerated are alienated and enemies to God in their mind. Their whole thought process is at enmity with God.

Isn't that something? But if you're in Christ or you're regenerated, then the verse says that you're His workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works. Irreversibly adopted. Yeah. So those of you who have been in the grace class, we've been through the 34 things that happened to you at the cross. And all of those things are true of you. The minute that you believe, whether you know them or not, they're true of you. Another reason to get washed by the word is to go find out what they are. Question ten was discuss position and condition as it relates to regeneration. Tell me what position is. Well, let me ask you this. How many people don't understand what position and condition is about?

Oh, wow. Nobody put their hand up. I've got an honest man. He has much greater faith in God than the rest of you. I got to admit, I don't fully understand that. When you read in the Word of God, when the Word of God, especially in Paul's epistles, makes a pronouncement about you. Your old man was crucified with him. Don't you realize that when you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death? Is that a position? Yeah. Do you feel it? It's a statement made about you that God makes about you. Is it true or not? Absolutely true. That's your position.

Does it vary? Does it wane? If you don't do good, does it kind of... No. It's set in concrete. Again, one of the reasons to spend time being washed by the water of the word is to find out what your position is. Find out what all of it's in there. So it never varies. It's set in God. It can't ever be changed.

What's your condition? It varies, because it's your everyday walking around, stumbling, fumbling kind of life. It changes on a moment by moment basis. Does your condition affect your position? It can't. Does your position affect your condition? It better. That's what spiritual growth is all about. Growing in what you are positionally. So, is it important to know what your position is? Yes, it is.

It's really important because that's what becomes the focus of your faith. And where is the power in believing? It's in what you believe. If the Holy Spirit convinces you that you've been crucified, buried and resurrected with Christ, let's say you're totally persuaded about that, and here comes the temptation, how are you going to react to it?

As though it's not there. because it hasn't got anything to do with your position. Do you see that? That's why I can say a Christian who sins is spiritual insanity. It's totally inconsistent for a Christian from a positional standpoint to sin. Never should he be sinning because of his position. Do you see that? But conditionally we sin all the time. But it doesn't affect your position. Never.

So is it important to find out what your position is? It's critical. Isn't that the beauty of grace? We get it all in a position. The condition just doesn't believe it. Sure. So we get this marvelous position and we get it all by grace. And so we go to church and study law. Why would we do that? Why would we even think about going there?

Why would I even want a set of rules? I wouldn't. You know, I wouldn't. I mean we're all screaming and yelling because the federal government is trying to impinge these rules and regulations on us and we don't want any part of it. Why would a believer want law? He wouldn't want it. He wants to live under grace because that's the way he's been positioned. You see that? But it's not what he's accustomed to. That's true. That's true.

When you see like in Romans 12, 1 and 2 it says, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your body a living sacrifice, a living holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual or reasonable service and worship. Is that the first part? So when you get an exhortation like this, to present your body to God, right? Notice where it is in Romans. It's in chapter 12.

What have you learned about your position up till now? You've learned four, three, four, and half of five, you've been regenerated. Five, six, you've been crucified with Christ. Seven, you're free from the law. Eight, no condemnation for them, you're in Christ. All this wonderful Christian information.

So once you get all that position in you and God comes and says, I want your body, what are you going to say? I've got to think it over? I don't think so. Do you have any trouble doing that? You do it by grace and faith. I mean you can't wait to do it when you get there. The problem is that you hear all these exhortations taken from the second half of Paul's epistles and they want you to do all this stuff before they lay the position on you.

Do you see that? Like in Romans 6 it says present your members or whatever it is Yes, Mr. God, with this little phrase in there, it's those that are alive from the dead. If you don't understand the alive from the dead, when you present, you're legally doing it. If you understand alive from the dead, you're doing it out of grace only. Do you see that?

With Ephesians 4, 22, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts and deceits. and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness and truth. So I read that.

I have no understanding of positional truth. And I think, oh wow, that's something for me to do. I'm going to be putting on this new man. I don't know what he is, but I'm going to put him on. As a believer who's informed about your position, how do you put on the new man? How do you put off the old man and put on the new man? How do you do it? You believe, but what's the process in your mind? If I said to Courtney, Courtney, I want you to put off your old man and put on the new man, and he understood what I meant, what would he do?

Well, it depends on how much he knows about God's Word. That's true. That's exactly true. We have to know what the will of God is. I mean, what he asks of us, that he asks for us to submit our will to his will and what have you. I mean, the more you know about God's Word, the more readily we will do that. But I'm looking for why he would do it.

Think about his position. What's his position tell him about the old man and the new man? That he's already got it on. And that the old man is already off. Isn't that what his position tells him? So when Paul says, put him on and take him off, what's he saying?

Believe that it's already been done. You're not actuating anything. You're believing that God has already done it. So he has to do nothing. But believe. That's it. Romans 6.11 says, Reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God. Why would I do that? Because I am positionally. But you told us position doesn't change, it's set in cement. Say that again. You said position is set in cement, it never changes. It never changes.

But the exhortation is to change your condition. and you change your condition based on what's already true of you positionally. Do you get that? Does that make sense? Now, trust me, you may read a positional truth and say, Are you kidding? This can't be true of me. I wasn't crucified. Are you kidding? I'm standing here. I wasn't around 2,000 years ago.

God makes a profound statement. Do you know what your job is? I believe you no matter what. And when you do that, hang on, because the Spirit of God is going to take you for a ride And there's going to come a day when you're going to do the reckoning that I am dead to sin and alive unto God. That's who I am. And I am persuaded that I am. So what's man's responsibility regarding his own regeneration?

Just to believe. That's it. Embrace it. That's it. Believe is it. What's your responsibility in spiritual growth? Put on the armor. What's your responsibility as a believer? As you have begun in the Lord Jesus to walk in him. How did you start? By faith. How do you walk? By faith. So you better find out who you are. That's the most important thing for a believer to know. Who he is. And what he has. And where he is. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace and how careful you are to explain to us this incredible position we have because of being regenerated in your son, Father. We thank you and we pray in his precious name. Amen.