Great Doctrines of Salvation
Mike Doyle · Aug 1, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 31
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926211341215

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

So today we start the last chapter, which means the first thing we're going to do, which might take most of the class, is you're going to review the other 14 chapters. So most of you haven't taken this course before. Probably. Hopefully you have liked what you've seen and probably have helped you understand. enter into greater depth of exactly what this salvation is. So the work of salvation represents a work of God in a work of grace. So the first chapter we talked about was the word repentance.

What does it mean? Change of mind. Anything else? Doesn't it mean to feel sorry? Sure. When you hear, you need to repent, don't you associate emotion with that? No? I always associate penance. Penance? With repentance. With repentance. Penance. Everybody, all you non-Catholics, you know what penance is? Yeah, it's a making up, paying for your sins. So, repentance is a medaha eho, it just means to have another mind. Did I say that right? I don't think I said that right, but that's okay. To think differently for good.

And we had some people over last night and they were talking about, the lady was talking about a Bible study she's in with some some other women that she's known a long time. But this lady kind of has a grasp on positional truth and grace and identification and her friends don't. So there's a growing animosity against her because she won't conform and knuckle under. So we talked a lot about if you aren't familiar with or don't understand the identification truths, then you're always working on getting the old man to look and perform like a believer.

So I gave her a series, a publication I did for a lady years ago called Change Viewpoint, which is repentance. What it's designed to do, it's a book, it's pretty thick, it's designed to get believers to look at things differently. change viewpoint. And so that's really the problem. If you don't ever see yourself as dead, buried, and resurrected with Christ, what are you left with? The old man. Chris, how are you, bud? Good, how are you, sir? Nice to see you. So you're left with spending all your time working on the old man.

So I find it interesting that Marchbanks starts out his discussion on salvation with the word repentance, to have another mind. Now, from a non-believer to a believer, repentance is really important, but from our perspective it's important too. So then, the next chapter was conversion. What does conversion mean? We're on the last chapter, so we're reviewing all the others. So what's the word conversion mean?

It's epistetropho. There you go. What does it mean? Turning direction. Change direction. It means to revert. So how would you coordinate repentance and conversion? Repentance is not a change of direction, it's just a change of mind. Because it changes how you think. Conversion kind of changes what you do or who you are. That's really good. Conversion means you change your direction of what you do or where you go. Which would come first? Obviously repentance. You have to change your mind.

And I really think that Repentance and conversion are things that not only are for non-believers in salvation, but also for growing believers. There's a lot. I don't know about you, but there were a lot of things. I changed my mind about that. And I'm still getting my mind changed about things. Which results in a different direction or a different way in which I walk.

You agree with that? I think so. Okay. The next chapter was Regeneration. Palingenesis. Can you say that word? What does it mean? Regeneration. Born again? That's the best description. It means again creation. When you hear that term born again, what do you think? What does born again mean? Because it's not so much an overused term today, but it used to be when I was first saved. Born again was everything. It's still overused I think. Is it really? Yeah. You hear it so much you don't even think about it. Well, it's a term that you hear used a lot and I don't think the people that use it understand what they're saying.

You can also translate it born from above. I like to think of it that way. Yeah, that's better than born again. If you look at the word it says once more birth or again creation. I like again creation because what it really means is a new creation. Most contemporary evangelistic efforts are trying to add Christ onto who you are. If you have a problem in your life, or problems, then you need to be born again, which means Christ is going to come in and fix your program. He's going to help you. But that's not what it means at all. It means an entirely new thing. It really means to come into a new state of being.

So, I've always been convinced that if you were with young believers or involved in the salvation of young believers, if you really explained what regeneration meant, you'd be way ahead of the game in terms of explaining the doctrines that come next. Because, you think about this. A person comes to Christ and he or she is explained what regeneration really means. Wouldn't that fill their mind with a ton of questions? What do you mean regeneration? What do you mean I'm born anew? What is it, just an expression? Or use the expression I'm born from above. What does all of that mean? Or does that just pass by as some pious rhetoric? Because what it really means The whole identification truths are in that one word. See that? It also means, I think, that you're born as a baby. You can't expect everything to change right away. You're just that baby. You know, it's interesting.

When you look at Corinthians and Colossians and Ephesians and even in Romans, when it talks about you being a son, they use the word adult son, technon. Oh, that's right, we talked about that. Yeah, and it doesn't mean, and so what it does is I think set up the idea of position and condition. Positionally, when I'm saved, I am an adult son. But conditionally, I am a babe, you know.

I need somebody to carry me around, you know. And so, but that's why I think positional truth is so important for us to understand because It gives you where the focus of your faith should be. And it gets you to change your mind about where you ought to be looking. You're looking at your progress or your position in Christ.

Once I was saved, when we went over this little word here, I thought, well now I'm really going to get busy so that I don't lose my salvation and earn my keep. If someone would have sat you down and explained to you what regeneration is, though, maybe you wouldn't have worked so hard. Maybe. Yeah.

Because, you know, we just got done praying for little Finn. Little Finn has apnea and stops breathing. But in all other aspects, the little Finn is a little baby and he's functioning like he's supposed to. He eats, you know. He gets his diapers messy. He cries. He's growing. Yeah, his parents are there to help, but who's causing the growth in that little guy?

It's who he is. As a believer, a lot of that is who we are. We have a lot of help. We have a lot of people that minister to our needs as a young believer. We really are, from God's perspective, an adult son. And you know what? He never treats us like a baby. He always treats us like an adult. Okay.

The next word is redemption. Now, keep in mind as we go through all these words, every one of these words are part of the salvation package. Every believer enters into all of this at one time. So, regeneration. I'm sorry, redemption. What does that mean? Buy back. It also can mean to go to the market and buy back. It can mean to purchase, to ransom, to buy up, to rescue, to loosen. So, why is that necessary for salvation? I was doing fine, nobody needed to buy me anything. Why do you need redemption? Why does every person who, well, just period, why does every person need redemption?

They're purchased out of the slave market of sin. So, every human being including our pal Finn, when he came to the planet, he came in slavery to sin, didn't he? Every human being. So the idea under redemption is that first of all we needed to be purchased out of there, right? Every single human being is a slave to sin. Now, what was the price? What was it? Blood of Christ. Yeah. That's very interesting. It wasn't shillings. It wasn't dollars. It wasn't good works. It was the blood of Christ.

It's the only thing of value that God would accept to purchase us out of the slave market of sin. So, is the blood of Christ a valuable commodity? Roger is going to do the Lord's Table this morning. That's really what we celebrate. His blood purchased us out of the slave market of sin.

Now, how many of you really thought you were slaves to sin when you came to Christ? You did. See, people who come to Christ a little later on in their life, they understand slavery. You guys who have been believers all your life, you don't know what slavery is. No. No, you really do. You did. You and I have talked about it.

This guy was in the front row. of slavery to sin. So we're redeemed. Now redemption is something that's already been done. You don't have to go through any efforts to pay God back because you haven't got the right commodity to do it anyway. But you have been purchased.

Which means on the other end, If I could go to the slave market of sin and I could purchase Courtney, he would belong to me, wouldn't he? Would he not? I mean, that's a scary thought when you think about it. I could go and buy Jim, and now Jim belongs to me. But in Jim's mind, he would never think like that. Would he? Do you ever think that you belong to Christ? You're his property?

He owns you by right of redemption. I think that's a really comforting thought. It's nice to be owned by the God of the universe and not be owned by a slavery to sin. The next chapter we studied was justification. What does it mean? to be declared righteous by God.

Now, when Abraham was justified, what did he do to get justified? That's all he did. So, justification is not something that you earn, is it? You can't earn it. And by being justified, are you somehow righteous in and of yourself? No. So justification, is justification the actual act of righteousness or is it just the declaration of righteousness?

It's just the declaration. That's all it is. God declared you to be righteous. And what did you do? You believed in the person and work of his son. So it doesn't mean you're righteous. It just means you've been declared righteous. But you know what's cool about that? Who did the declaring here? God did, so it would be better than if I did it. So God declares you righteous because of your faith, but it doesn't mean that you're righteous in and of yourself.

You okay with that? Because we'll expand on that. So along with justification comes this thing called forgiveness. What's forgiveness? Hephaestus is the word. I got that one right. Pardon and send away. Say that again. Pardon and send away. So forgiveness means pardon for what? Deliverance from bondage. I thought redemption did that.

Your sins are attached to you. Lost are sinners by position. They are sinners by declaration of God and they are sinners by their own actions. So those sins are attached to you. And you can't say, you can't give it to Flip Wilson Dance that the devil made me do it. Because he didn't. You decided. You did it yourself. Anybody in this room ever commit a sin they didn't want to? that they didn't enter into it by agreeing to do it? Oh, sorry, I misunderstood your question. Yeah, you regret some of the sins after you did it, but when you did it, you're in full agreement. So the sins attach to you, and now they're part of you. So God offers you forgiveness.

Now, I think the best way to explain it is the Day of Atonement in the Jewish system with the two goats. There was a toning goat, the one that was sacrificed and the blood of the goat was put into a jar and used for the high priest to enter into the Holy of Holies and to sprinkle it around the mercy seat. He went in a few times that day, one day a year, and that was to cover the sins of the people, cover them. Then the other goat was brought in and the high priest put his hand on the head of the goat and symbolically transferred the sins of the people from the people to the goat and then they took him out in the wilderness and let him go and he never came back. Symbolizing that the sins were gone, out of sight. Now, what's interesting about the Old Testament ritual there is that The blood of the lamb or the goat that was slain that went into the Holy of Holies, what did it do to the sins of the people?

It covered them. It's a really important point. It covered over. But when the Lord Jesus comes on the planet, John the Baptist looks at him and proclaims he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So God can function graciously in the Old Testament, looking forward to the cross of Christ, but he could only cover sins until Christ actually took care of them. So it's important to understand as believers is that your sins have been separated from you. You see that? Now, my buddy who lives across the street, who's not a believer, that white house over there, One of these days he's going to show up here and talk to me. He's not a believer.

Now Christ died on the cross and paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world, didn't he? Then how come that guy's going to hell? And don't tell me it's because he didn't believe. What are the mechanics of why he's going to hell? He's still attached to his sin nature and the Bible clearly says that he will die in his sins You see that?

So part of forgiveness is also identification. You see that? For you to get separated from your sins, you've got to get separated from the sinner who did them. Question? Did you just check it? It's garlic, isn't it? So, forgiveness is to send me a release from bondage or imprisonment, pardon, letting them go. What do you think about this statement? Letting them go as though they were never committed. Do you agree with that? Well, God, they aren't only out of God's sight, they're out of His mind. They're God. Yeah.

When we go back and dwell on those things, that's a really bad thing. And boy are we guilty of doing that. And if you were one of my kids, I'm really guilty of doing that to you. I won't ever let you forget. So, in order to have complete forgiveness, you have to bring in identification. You have to. Do you see that? You have to be positionally separated from the one who is the sinner. That nature. And if you're separated from that nature, the sins stay there. So, maybe put it this way.

A non-believer dies. The minute that he dies, what happens to him? He leaves the planet, but what's his make-up? His body, or he's not a body anymore, but his soul and spirit. What else does he have? He has a sin nature attached to him and the sin nature has been condemned so he's going to go wherever the sin nature goes and the sins are going to go along with him. When a believer dies, take that back, when a believer goes to sleep and to go to be with the Lord, his soul and spirit go to where they already are positioned, sin nature and sins are gone.

They're not attached. So, a guy said to me one time, God is finished with your sins, how come you're not? I thought that was a really profound statement. I should be finished with my sins. So your sin nature is annihilated? No. But I should be finished with messing with them. I'd like for it to be annihilated, right? It's over here, and I'm over here, and what happens to it? Where does it go? You mean when somebody dies? That's what he's saying, what happens to the, he's asking what happens to death. What happens to the sin nature? What your sin nature is.

I'll give you my opinion about it. I'm not, I don't, I've thought about that a lot but I don't have, I couldn't give you a biblical reference. Here's what I think happens. We get separated from this body which is a fallen body, sinful body and it goes into grave and I think the sin nature stays with it. Because the next time I'm united, I have a resurrected body. That's what I think. But I don't know. Anybody else have thoughts on that?

When we were saved, were we removed from our sin nature? What do you mean by removed? Sin nature is not removed. Oh no. No. But it's been taken care of as far as I'm concerned. Well, let's see if I can give you a practical example. When you were saved, before you were saved, let me do it like this.

Here's you, here's the sin nature, right? And when the sin nature says we're going left, you're going left. The sin nature says we're going back right again, we're going back right. This is the slave picture that you are under in the marketplace of sin. Now all the time the sin nature is saying to you, And you're saying, yeah, I do. As the sin nature marches you around and says, oh, let's try this sin.

How about that one? Well, you can pick between these two sins. That's free will, isn't it? Now you believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and you are crucified with him. Death means separation. So here's what happens. When he dies, you get separated from the sin nature. It still exists. You're still existing. But it's not here anymore.

You've got a new life who is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, you may not be aware of this information, right? You don't know that at salvation that you've been separated from sin and that you don't have to respond to it anymore. Because you're so used to it, doing good and evil and mostly evil, that you, you know, But you learn by studying the word of God that wow, a separation really did take place and even though this nature is still functioning inside of me, I do not have to respond to it anymore. I don't. Because I'm taking God's word for what he did.

It's still alive and active and rocking and rolling. But you were talking about at the point of death. No. And the reason it's not going with you is because of this. Yeah. It's separated but this is still functioning. But when you physically die, when you go home to be with the Lord, the sin nature has nothing to control anymore.

No way to express itself. Because that's really what it's trying to do. It wants to express its nature through your body. Just like the Holy Spirit wants to express the resurrected life of Christ through your body. Well, if it's not attached to a body anymore, it has nothing to express.

And as a nature, Romans 8.3 says it's been condemned. I don't know. It goes in a grave. It goes to Washington, D.C. I don't know. Lord, there can't be sin there. And this is why. Because if you're in Christ and you drop the body off in the sin nature, where are you going? You're actually going where you already are. You're already in Christ. All the impediments to being in Christ are now gone. Does that make sense? Does this make sense? Here I am as a believer in Christ and my sin nature is out there doing this at me. Trying to convince me that I'm not separated.

Watchman Nee had the best example in the normal Christian life. He used the example of an old ship captain on a sailing vessel who was a tyrant. And so much so that the crew mutinied and replaced him with another guy's captain. And they took him and they latched him to the main mast. Right? Storm comes up and the captain, the old captain, latched to the mast is yelling out orders. And as the sailors go by, they're used to hearing his voice. And it's hard for them not to respond. Do you see that? Oh, I know that voice. Oh, wait a minute, we've got a new captain. I don't know his voice very well yet.

And that's a really good example of how it functions. So as eternity goes on, what is the sin nature doing? My sin nature, I'll be picking on somebody else. It won't be picking on me. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. I don't know if it ceases to exist. It's a nature. It's not a life. It's not attached to a soul or spirit or body. Yeah, it's not attached. That's a good point. It's not attached to a soul or spirit or body. So I don't know where it goes. It doesn't have life in and of itself, I think. It certainly doesn't have a vehicle through which to express itself.

Is he talking about eternity? Yeah. Well, it's eradicated. I mean, there's no such thing. Is that what happens? The sin natures of believers are eradicated. What? The sin natures of believers are eradicated, but those that aren't... Oh, I think that would be... And that's fine with me. You couldn't have it in eternity, because who's going to be in eternity? I mean, I'm not thinking about hell, but who's going to be there? Sure. But saints. That's right. See, and what's interesting is, there's going to be this judgment of believers called the Bema Judgment.

And when we go there, think about how you show up. When it's your turn, you're standing there in a glorified body with no sin nature. So the Bema Judgment is not about sins that you've committed, because the sins have already been taken care of. So what's the Bema Judgment about? It's a place of rewards. It's a place where God gets the opportunity to reward you for the opportunity for Christ to live his life through you. Now, the degree to which you didn't let Christ live his life through you, we have a thing called a fire for that.

Burn it up. But once the fire goes... we were just camping. Fire goes out, it's over. All of you probably have camped at least once in your life and sat around a campfire, right? You ever look at that that combustion is going on and the log is getting smaller and the log is like it's going from being wood to vapor, leaving. Where does it go? It's not a log anymore, it's burned up.

Maybe all the whole sin natures go to hell, that's why it's such a torment. So, we as believers, when it comes to forgiveness of sins, I think you have to include at least some understanding of the identification truths here. Because forgiveness is not God just...

Let's say I did something to harm Jim. And I went to Jim and said, Hey Jim, would you forgive me? And he says yes. On what basis does he forgive me? I'll forgive you Mike for being a jerk. Yeah, no problem. He just does it out of the goodness of his heart, right? When I sin, And I go to God and say, you know, I've sinned and He forgives me. On what basis does He forgive me? He's just a greater guy than Jim? Why does He forgive me?

The work of His Son. Sure. He forgives me solely on the basis of what Christ did. Solely on that basis. It has nothing to do with emotion. It's a judicial forgiveness. And that's why 1 John 1. If I confess my sins, God is faithful and just to forgive me my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Notice it doesn't say I'm to ask for forgiveness. How come? Because I've already paid for them. I haven't paid for them, Christ did.

So I am to confess and I'm restored to fellowship, but the penalty phase is gone. You alright with that? Okay. Alright, forgiveness. The next word is sanctification. This is what all of you are doing now. What is sanctification? It means to really, really work hard at being a better, better Christian, right? Huh? What did I miss? Oops, I'm missing pages. Hold on. I'll find them. I got them. Oh, there they are. They're not really that important. Oh, they're not. I can cut right through all that.

So the next one, the next one is assurance. Oh, I like this one. What is assurance? To know to know where you're sitting. Yeah. Assurance is one of those subjective things. It's not objective anymore. It's based on objectivity, but it is. Now, do you think that God, when he saves a believer, assures him without question from that point on? He might, but the person doesn't. He has enough in play in terms of what he's done for absolute assurance, but the believer must grow and understand why he can be assured. And I think God does that on purpose.

You know why? Because through that process you get to know Him. If I offer you a warranty, the warranty is only as good as my word. You send the slip in, register your product, and then the first time you have a problem with it, you can't find the guy that you sent the warranty to, it isn't very good. Assurance is one of those things that everything that God is telling you is the truth.

Now, how does He do that? He does it with the Spirit, but through His Word. Somebody really quick, who has their Bible open, look up Hebrews 11, 1 and 2, both verses. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the men of old gained approval. So by it the men of old gained approval. Really what happened there is that they believed God, And because they did believe God, the Spirit of God came along and persuaded them that what they had believed was true. My definition is it's confidence in what we know.

So let's say you come to class here and somebody teaches you two or three biblical principles and you think, wow, those are pretty cool. I believe them. But then two days later, some circumstance shows up in your life that goes totally against what you learned in Sunday school. And you think, gee, I wonder if those are really true. I wonder if I really am separated from that sin nature. I wonder if my, you know, the sin that I have done more than 40 times, I really am separated from having to submit to it. Nobody's ever had that thought. Never faced that trial. So at that point, where are you? You have the information and you believe the information, but you may not be assured of it. Who's the one that will assure you? The Holy Spirit through trials and tribulations. I think so. I think so.

God works all things together for good to those who love him, to those who are called according to his purpose. So every single circumstance in your life as a believer is being worked by God to approve you, even though you fail. Let's say you fail. Is God going to say, well, we'll have to sweep the sins under the rug, we'll have to go some other way? Even your sinning is used by God to approve you. It's one of the old things. So God not only saves you, He not only gives you His Word to give you all this information about what He's done, He also has given you the Holy Spirit to persuade you about what He said is true of you personally.

You alright with that? You think that's the way he does things? Or does he just say, read my word and believe me and we'll let it go at that? That's a big part of it. Does he have to increase your faith about certain things? Are there times when you read something in the word of God and you say, wow, that's cool, I believe that.

I wonder what it means. Impractical working out everyday life. What does it mean? Does that mean that God is really going to rescue me in certain circumstances? What do you think? Is assurance that kind of a thing? He will in all circumstances. Rescue you. What will He... What do you mean by rescue? What's that? Depends what you mean by rescue.

It might not be the outcome that you think it should be. It might be something different. Let's say you're Paul the Apostle and you have this incredibly cool experience of going to heaven and seeing all the glory of God, right? And then you come back and God sends an agent of Satan to stick a thorn in your flesh. So when it first shows up, what's your reaction? Why me? And what do you do? You go to God and you say, hey, this isn't fair. I've got to get rid of this. This thing is really uncomfortable. What is going on here? And you know what? Does God respond? Nope. Still got it.

So you go a second time. By the second time, you're probably saying, why are you doing this? Still stays there. You go a third time. After the third time, you say, oh, I now understand why you're doing this, so that I won't be puffed up about what I saw, and I will trust you, and I would rather live by your power than by my being relieved of whatever the circumstances are. See that? That's assurance. Ooh, that's a painful road, isn't it? But that's what assurance is. You see how strong Paul became? about suffering in that one instance. But, you know, it's okay to go three times. Or four or five. It's okay.

As a matter of fact, I'm convinced that there are circumstances that God brings in your life that are suffering just to get you to go to them because if you don't have them, you won't go. You will not go unless you have need. See that? Need is really important. And from need comes the assurance, I think. You all right with that?

It enhances fellowship. It enhances fellowship. Assurance is a really important thing for a growing believer. Because as you grow, the opposition gets more. You begin to wonder, I didn't think my sin nature was this powerful, but it is. It's really powerful.

OK, any questions about assurance? We're going to talk more about assurance in a couple of weeks. OK, the next one is reconciliation. What does that mean? Reconciliation actually has two viewpoints. We can say repentance is a change of mind and conversion is a change of direction which comes when the believer turns towards God. So what's reconciliation? It's a change of heart. It's a change that is wrought in the heart by God. But the Word of God says that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. What does that mean?

While you're thinking about that, has God ever reconciled to you? He's always been reconciled to us. Does He need to be reconciled to us? No, He doesn't. So the whole reconciliation deal is Him, is me to Him. So in order to reconcile me, what has He got to do? He's got to do a couple of things. The most important thing he's got to do is he's got to take care of the barrier between him and me. What was the barrier? Sin.

So did he take care of it? Yes, he did. And not only did he reconcile believers to himself, but he reconciled the whole world to himself. Is that right? How did he do it? He could put the sin issue out of the way. That's what he did. So you can go to a non-believer or my buddy across the street and say, hey, God is totally satisfied about your sin. Why don't you believe in his son?" And he'd say, I'm busy, or whatever he would say. So God is reconciled. Then the second part of that reconciliation work is what we've discussed, that he works in you to change your attitude and your viewpoint in your heart towards him.

Because I know everybody in this room is a really good guy, and you wouldn't dare say it out loud before you were saved that you really hated God, but you did. You hated him. You didn't want him anywhere around. I know I did. I couldn't stand to be around Christians. They were way too holy for me. Too judgmental. Once I got out from under my parents' umbrella, I never went to church again. That was a scary place. I didn't want to be there. I'm going to be judged if I walk in there.

But when I'm saved, when you're saved, your whole attitude changes. You're reconciled in your viewpoint towards God. Now you're comfortable with Him. You want to be around Him. You want to hang around with these nerdy people called Christians. They're really neat. See, that's a change. That's a reconciliation in your mind. It's more than repentance. It's more than conversion. It's a total mind change about God that He's approachable now. And you know what?

I think reconciliation is one of those words that separates the religious from the Christian. Do you understand what I just said? It separates religious people from Christians. Religious people set up a whole system whereby God is a scary character and vengeful and angry and we've got to pay homage to him but we've got to have a distance between us too.

And I have to toe the line or it's going to be really tough on me. For me the change was having to go to church versus wanting to go to church. That's a good idea. I never wanted to go to church. Yeah, I didn't either. So, nine, one of my favorite words, propitiation. So what's propitiation mean?

It's a real simple word. Satisfaction. Who's the group that sings the song Satisfaction? The Rolling Stones. I can't get no satisfaction. That's what God was saying up until the cross. I can't get no satisfaction. That's why he can't. Propitiation. Just means satisfaction. What is God satisfied about? Sin. You seldom hear this word propitiation used, but maybe put it this way. Reconciliation points to man being brought back to God. Propitiation points to what? the side of the cross that dealt with God. Do you see that?

God is holy, righteous, and good, and unless sin is taken care of in terms of its offense against him, he is not going to reconcile anybody. He is not going to forgive anybody, because he can't. So you need to look at propitiation as Christ's work Godward, maybe is a way to say it.

1 John 2.2 and 4.10 talks about to make satisfaction four. Now, one other thing about propitiation. Not only is it an activity, it's also a place.

Where would the place of propitiation be? The mercy seat. God told the Jews that I will meet you at the mercy seat. Where was the mercy seat? What was it? Where was it? It's in the Holy of Holies and it's the top of the Ark of the Covenant. It's the place of propitiation. So do you have a place of propitiation where you can go? Yeah, and Hebrew says it's the Holy of Holies. The thing is that once you go in you're never supposed to come out. Because that's your home. So propitiation is not only an activity, it's also a place.

The next one is adoption. What does adoption mean? Is this the class you taught? What is adoption? To place as a son. We talked earlier, when you become a believer, you come as a babe, right? But also, you're adopted at the same time. So the placing of a son is putting you in a position of what? You're in the family. What's that? You're in the family. You're in the family, which means you now receive all the rights and titles to being in that family. You get to be an heir and all those kinds of cool things. In ancient times, adoption was a ceremony.

I remember I told the class that I was going to adopt Courtney and what all that meant. He wasn't happy about that. If I adopted Courtney, He would leave his family and come to my family and his whole relationship with his old family is gone. Gone. And he now is in a position to deal with me as his father. And his real father has no authority over him at all.

I can, under ancient Roman law, I can sell him if I wanted to. I also could make him, through an adoption ceremony, be in a position of having all of my property, all of my money, right now. I thought under Roman law it was a place of permanency. You could not sell it. It is a place of permanency, but I could sell Courtney to you temporarily. You could pay me for him. Ransom? Not a ransom, like an indentured servant. Really?

He's still my son. I thought you could do that to your natural children, but once you adopted, it was a permanent relationship. It is. He's permanently my son, but I have all rights over him. I can do with him what I want. So adoption is an interesting concept because we look at adoption as going to an agency and trying to acquire a baby, an infant. Or like the Traces did, they adopted a whole family at one time. In ancient times, which is really the way the Bible talks about adoption, it's a much different thing. You can adopt anybody at any age.

Seems to be a pivot point from condition into position. Adoption does. Yeah. Yeah. Adoption is a positional thing. You have these privileges and responsibilities that you didn't have before. Yeah, that's right. And you had a lot. You have a lot more. grace than you had before.

Okay, we'll pick up and hopefully finish the chapter next week. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace and thank you for these items of our salvation, which as each one individually is overwhelmingly gracious, but added all together, what a salvation we have, Father. We thank you. We pray in your Son's name. Amen.