Great Doctrines of Salvation

OK. We're working on lesson nine. But we got less than nine. We're actually the last few lessons and continue. So I would say we're crawling through the chapter six and lesson nine. I think we got to question six. Right. Yeah. We're ready. We're ready for it. this assurance that we shall keep on sharing the risen life of Christ. Verse 9, somebody read verse 9. So the word tells us that we know common Christian information, every believer knows this. that Christ having been raised from the dead, that's a fact, that he's not going to die anymore.

And death over him no longer has any dominion. So did death have dominion over him at any time? At least for a while. And so death did have dominion over him. And what's death mean? Separation. Separation from what? God. Separation from man. Like us, if we're dead, we're separated from God. Was he separated from God? Yes. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was. So he enters into the domain of Mike, is there a verse that you use to point that death means separation and not annihilation?

Because you'll have people ask you that. Because you tell them death means separation. How would you prove that? I think every time you see the word death in the word of God, it only means separation. It never means annihilation. Every time you see the word. So it's not really a verse, it's just more of a definition? read the gospels and talk about Christ dying, or somebody dying, it doesn't mean that they cease to exist. There's always discussion about that they're going to be somewhere else. You know, if you're a Jew, it's Hades or...

There really isn't any annihilation, is there? Because even unbelievers are not going to be annihilated. Not for human beings, or is it? Yeah, right, exactly. There's no annihilation for human beings. Now, the Lord Jesus comes out of this realm of death once and for all. And it doesn't have any dominion over him anymore. So the question is, what's the reason given for this assurance that we shall keep on sharing his risen life? The assurance is that death doesn't have dominion over him anymore.

And if you go all the way and three, where the union with Christ is created by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And from then on, everything you read has to do with your union with Christ. So the reason you would have assurance is because of Christ, not because you're such a bummy Christian. Your whole Christian life is in association with the Lord Jesus Christ, and whatever is true of Him is going to be and is true of you every time.

I also emphasize that in Romans 6, 1-10 is positional truth. Anybody know what I mean by that? Anybody not know what I mean by positional truth? So this is not condition yet, this is all position. So your faith is to be focused in on and your position is always in union with Christ. So whatever is true of him is true of you. Yes ma'am.

To me the second part of that is not just that his risen life will never end, but our life will never end either. Well it isn't so much that the life won't end, The question is not so much will the life end or not, the question is will I keep sharing the resurrected life with Christ? Will I? And why won't I ever lose it? And it's because He's not going to ever lose it. He's not ever going to go back.

People have said to me when we enter into these discussions about losing your salvation, If you understand identification, in order for you to lose your salvation, Christ would have to come back to the earth, go back in the grave, go back up on the cross, come down from the cross, and become just an ordinary walking around human being again. And you would have to be separated from him. What are the chances of that happening? There is no chance. Mike, I think a lot of times people with a lack of security It's because they really believed there was something in me that contributed to this. Yeah, that's a great point. That's a really great point.

I've been looking at, reading some stuff on grace lately. And that's the point that the author has been making is that in any sense, in any sense that you think that your salvation, that you had any contribution to it, then it isn't a grace of salvation. You see that? In any sense, you think you contributed anything. Grace means not only that you escaped, but that you didn't get what you absolutely deserved and you got all this wonderfulness that you have nothing to do with The value of your faith is in what you believe, not the fact that you believe. It's really important. And if you start on a grace basis, you're more likely to grow quicker.

So, what makes the fulfillment of John 8.51?

Somebody read John 8.51. Yes sir, I agree. Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my word he shall never see death. So what makes the fulfillment of age 51 possible? He has faith in what Jesus said. So why are you never going to see death, Carol? Because I don't have to be separated.

Because you already died. Yeah, you already died. Do you understand that? Everybody understand that you already died? When did you die? What did you get separated from at the cross? Sin? What else? I think death itself, the whole dominion of death. So when the Lord decides it's time to take your sorry person home, what happens to it? If you don't die, what happens? Paul always refers to a Christian leaving the planet as going to sleep. See that? Because you already died.

Colossians 3.1 says, 1,2,3, Since you are risen with Christ, is that true? Since you are, that is. Seek those things which are above, for Christ is at the right hand of God. Set your mind and affection on things above and not on things of the earth.

Why do you do that? He says because you die. and your life is saved with Christ and God. He already did do that. He already did do this death thing. Right? That's why this thing of death goes away, I think, for a believer, because it doesn't have dominion over you anymore and you already did die. I have a question from last week. I think I may have answered it, so if you let me know if it's correct.

I was wondering that when we're believers and we continue to sin, since God can't look on sin, if our relationship is then separated again, But I think what my answer is, is that God still has a relationship with us. God can sort of look on the sin, but we're the ones that are hiding from God in the relationship.

Okay, that's pretty good. A believer is a two-natured individual. He has a life of the resurrected Christ, which is his identity, but he also has floating around within him the old nature of the old man, that he's been positionally separated from. Okay?

Now, when we get to 14 and 15, there's going to be an encouragement there, or actually an imperative there, to present ourselves to God. We're supposed to do that. I'll elaborate on that one. And as those that are alive from the dead, Because that's who we are, we're alive from the dead. Now we may not, we have the choice, we may not do it. We may decide to present ourselves to the old man because we find some value in something that the old man has offered us, which is sin. Okay?

Now once you do that, how does God view you? How does he see you? sees you in Christ, even though you're singing, right? What's the consequence to you? Yeah, the fellowship breaks off. Now why does the fellowship break off? Think about this. Think of the logic. If I have the resurrected life of Christ that I'm identified with and that's I'm in Him and He's in me. I'm going to have this other nature within me that has no fellowship with God at all. So if I choose to abide over here, is it any wonder I don't have any fellowship? Because there isn't any over here.

It's like if you turn the lights off in the room, you wonder why there isn't any. You can't see? Hello? So, what's the deal? Here I am, darkness and no fellowship. But that isn't who I am. See, I'm acting like who I am not. I'm insane, is what I am. Okay? So what happens if, but I'm in abject darkness, how do I get back?

There you go. See the cool thing is that God placed the spirit of God into us for what, in this case, for this specific purpose, to restore us. Now he may do it by bringing something to mind, or he may send Courtney to see. Sometimes you don't want to have. You have. His whole job is to reveal Christ to the believer and to maintain that fellowship. This is abnormal.

So that's why I make a big deal out of 1 John 1.9 when you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. What does God say about who you are and where you are? Christ. What have I been doing? Not what God says I am. I'm going to agree with Him. Doesn't let me off the hook for actually confessing the sin, whatever rabbit I chased.

But this is the deal. The great thing about that is you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. You're more and more and more persuaded. that this is who you really are. This is who I really am. I'm not this other idiot that, you know, I'm so used to. You know, I've lived in this person for literally decades. Is that like you being a human being and you're over here acting like another species, like a dog or something, and you're not acting like... Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's almost like acting like like you were a turtle or something, you know? I'm not what I'm doing. It doesn't let you off the hook because you're responsible. And don't insult dogs like that.

So that's I think the basic and I think you It's hard for us, I think, to understand this word, dominion. What does a dominion mean? Real control. Absolute control. We're all squirming because we don't want Obama to have absolute control over us. I don't like realizing that something has absolute control over us. We live in a resurrected life, and we're glad about that. That won't ever end because we're never going to have to go back under dominion.

So, but in order to share the resurrected life, you also have to share the death first. You all ready for that? Let me ask you something right here. Is it really important to understand and to to some degree rest in the fact that you really did die with Christ. Is that really important? Why? Why is it so important?

Isn't it just a bunch of theological piety? Because it opens you up to your real new self. Christ, reason and mind. Assurance that we can and we do participate in Christ, reason and mind. What else? The other side of it is we're always working on the old man because we still think he's valid.

Haven't every one of you gone through the issue of dealing with sin that you can't control? Yes. Haven't you? You and you young people. There comes a time when you think I can't control this. Sin has dominion over me. What's the answer to dominion to sin? Death. That's the only answer. It's death. What an answer. What an answer. Right? I died to it. Because Christ died to it.

But I wasn't just left hanging out in limbo there. I was raised and I have a new life now. that sin is not part of this new life. It's not part of it. Isn't that cool? So, next question has to be then, did sin die? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but for the life that he lives, he lives to God. Okay.

This is the... Laura likes to know what verses to have to deal with certain issues. Well, this is the One Nature verse. This is the verse that blows the whole One Nature theology to bits. Wipes out One Nature Theology. John MacArthur and all his minions. What's that other group that's here in Denver? They're Exchange Life Ministries? All One Nature guys? This is the verse that blows their theology. And what's the one word in the middle of the verse that blows it?

Daughter? No. Kid? Once. Huh? Once? No. To you. Huh? To you. Unto. Unto. What does unto mean? You have the word to, right? To sin. And really the Greek word there is unto. To is okay. But the verse says, for in that he died unto sin once. It does not say that sin died. It says that you died unto sin. That's why separation is so important. Here's a good verse for you. Separation. I died unto sin. true, then sin didn't die. Let's chase a rabbit for three minutes. If sin died, how come you're still sinning?

Memories. Okay, I remember about that sinning. I was kind of bums and I went after it. What else? Sorry, what's the question again? If sin died, if your sin nature died, then how come you're still sinning? What's the cause of your sin? Courtney said memories. I remember. You're more familiar with how sin nature works than how grace works. Yeah, habits and just lifestyles. Right. Okay, what else? What else would be the cause of your sin? Ego. Huh? Ego. But see, you can relate ego with the sin nature. This is where the devil made me do that. There you go. Ultimately it's going to be Satan's fault. Sin died. Right? That's my fault. So it's got to be, you know, the Flip Wilson answer. The devil had to do it.

The problem is that if they would just read the verse and read unto or to, it would explain everything. So next time you're confronted with with the OneNature boys. This is the verse you want to show them. You want to concentrate on that word, unto. This has nothing to do, this verse has not a single thing to do with Christ dying for our sins. You alright with that? Christ died unto sin, here it's a sole question So right here, this verse shows Christ dying unto sin, not dying for sin. Key identification verse. Position? Yes, absolutely. Do you have a question? Does God intend to change your old man? No. Kill him.

Now think about this, this is really what we instinctively do without even realizing we're doing it. We are in the self-improvement business. Aren't we? Isn't that what we're into? I mean, there's all kinds of programs to improve yourself. The problem is that God is not in the self-improvement program. You're an old man and what did you decide about it? It wasn't savable. So what did he do to it? He crucified it. Now that's pretty hard because you think you're a pretty good guy and a swell dancer most of the time.

Anybody who remains in the Adam race, will they be saved? Remains in the old man? Anyone who remains identified with the Adamic race they be saved. But still believe. I didn't say that. The answer is no. Why do you think even though what the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus who was a Jew that he must be born again. He wasn't talking about Christianity to Nicodemus. He was talking about the kingdom. He must be born again in order to see and enter into the kingdom of God.

Wow. Born again is regeneration By the way, I've been taking the kids, you guys think you're so smart, I've been taking the kids through the words we studied. They're getting them. Last week we did regeneration. They figured it out. They figured out what regeneration is. It means to be born anew. Again birth. That's what it means. Why would God use a word like regeneration for salvation? Because he wants to get you disassociated with, unhinged from, the old man.

Now, I know a question is going to come up, well how about Gentile saints of the millennial kingdom and Old Testament saints and all that, were they identified with Christ's death, burial and resurrection, were they? The answer, I don't think so. But they did get life from God. like Abraham was declared righteous, does that mean he was identified? No. He believed what God had revealed thus far. And God declared him righteous. Yeah, that's right.

Now, if God is done with your sin, how come you're not? In other words, if you right here, and you go through these ten verses and others, you have to come to the conclusion that wait a minute, God is done with sin. He's done messing with it. So if He's done with it, how come you're not? Because you don't believe Him. You don't walk perfectly. You don't walk perfectly, you don't believe Him. We're not reckoning ourselves dead with sin. Yeah, I mean, does He mean it? Maybe He doesn't mean it. Well sin wasn't eliminated, it's still around. Yeah, but he's done with it. Now come here now. Don't you find that a really legitimate question when you start thinking about the position that we have in Christ? That God doesn't deal with us on a sinful basis anymore? done. Shouldn't we? Shouldn't we? How come we're not?

I think all of the reasons that I think we're to grow and acknowledge the grace of the Lord Jesus. I don't think initially we have all the facts. I don't think our faith is strong enough. Either because we don't have enough of the facts or there's a positional part of our of our life in Christ and then there's a conditional part. There's the growth part. But what's interesting about position is that all of our spiritual growth is growing into something we already are. It's not an addition.

We're not getting better than we got to be at the very moment you were saved. So all of our earthly life from the time you're saved to the time that the Lord takes you home has one purpose in mind and that's to orb you out fully in what you already are. But if you don't know your position then you don't have an object for your faith. You can't be free from the dominion of sin on a practical basis.

Can't be, it's impossible. Alright with that? Position is everything. I have these little cards at home that Miles Stanford was a master at sending me the little things that had That's all it says. Think position. And that's really quite a cool thing.

If you would think about in your mind what your position is in Christ, you would be thinking about those things which are above. Your position. Do you realize that all that you read of Christ, in Paul's epistles, what you read is true of him is also true of me. You read your own history. It's who you are.

There isn't anything other than deity that Christ is that you're not, from a positional standpoint. This question is that one where my mind kind of explodes and goes crazy, because I think so many people get asked the question, what more do you have to do to be accepted in Christ, or to stand before him, or the intimacy, the Abba Father, all those things, what more do you have to Just this question, if God had done this, I think we'd get dragged down. I'm not worth as I sinned. I look at that too.

It's also that God is sovereign. He allows you to do whatever. I mean, whatever happens, He's allowed it to happen. And if you put in that God loves you, can't be separated, what's His purpose in allowing you to maybe go off track? peel off some of that onion, change some. So what?

Ultimately, to have more fellowship with Him, to, as you say, expand who you are in Christ. And I think we get so dragged down in that we still sin, that we're not worthy, we're not able to stand before Him, we're not able to have that intimacy. Well, at that time, yeah, we are when we sin, but there's nothing we have to do to get us any better to be accepted, because we're in the position, we're in Christ.

And I think we get so dragged down by that other half, you know, the old man, that it takes away from where we are in our position. And I think, as we were talking last week, Kyle, I think, you know, the growth part is identifying those things more and more. Well, now at least you're identifying it. And that's that slow process of looking more at who you are in Christ than who you are in Adam. And even though you still fail, you still sin, we all do, I think it becomes less and less as you focus more on your position of who you are and how worthy we are in Christ.

There's nothing more we have to do. And that's where grace comes in, that unmerited part. That's the key on grace. Unmerited. There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing more we have to do. For us as believers, one is to find out who we are. Find out what we have and find out where we are.

That's really critical. When you say to someone, you need to study your bible, it sounds litigious, right? Academic. But if you say to them, look, there's all kinds of things in the word of God, especially in false epistles. that will explain to you what God has already done to you and for you. And you need to find those things out. You need to find out what they are.

Because it will change your life if you do. And there's all kinds of sort of stupid examples about you need to go find out how much money you have in your bank account. Well, if I were a gazillionaire and I could put five million bucks in each one of your bank accounts, and said, you know, go for it. If you didn't go check it, and you didn't believe me, you would continue to function the way you function. Right? Wouldn't you? I'd be the first one down at the bank.

I'd want to know if you were lying to me or not. When God starts to make these pronouncements to us through his word about what he has already done, in my relationship to sin, in my relationship to him. Wow! I'm going to go check and see if he really did say that, didn't he? He must be serious. He must be right. I learned these things. That's why he says grow in the knowledge and grace. The knowledge shows you what the grace is.

You see that? So you cannot no part. I don't think. If you accept what he's saying, buy into what he's telling you, you are what he's done, without being overwhelmed by the grace. But the problem is, it is so gracious that most of us say, ah, must be for somebody else. Must be for one of those high power believers. Can I take this a little further without thinking about it much in advance? Great. All right. you gave us all five million dollars, let's say you put five million dollars in my bank account and I didn't know or prior to you putting it in my bank account I was a really greedy person and I just wanted to buy stuff and I got into a lot of debt so here I overspent and was greedy, wanted everything everybody else had and then you gave me five million dollars. So what if I go, um, do I stop worrying that I was greedy before?

Does that make sense? Absolutely. Here's how grace works. Now understand your position in Christ. You could be outside of Christ and be really great greed. But God comes to you and says, I have given you this provision. And you decide, I'm a little greedy, I think I'll use some of that. So I go and I grab the whole five million. What's left? Another five million, probably. No. Fifty. Fifty million. Ooh, I'm really greedy now. I'm going to go get the fifty. Now what's left? Five hundred million.

That's how grace works. See, what grace eventually does is you realize, I cannot out-sin God. I cannot out-grace him. And no matter what I do, he still is gracing me off my socks. All the time. That's how grace works. And so what happens when you begin to get your arms around this grace? You begin to respond to it. You just do. You can't help yourself. You see that? Well, and to that point too, it's not... That's exactly right.

He never looks at you as to who you were. Because in his perspective, you died. And if you died, why would he mess with you, the old man? He won't. So your focus is like, oh, I was greedy. I only in there's 5 million. I'm just gonna and then you put yourself under the law, I'm just going to take this much, and I'm going to be real careful with it, and I'm going to pay off my debt, and...

See, the thing about grace is that because it's unlimited, from a spiritual positional standpoint, the whole environment of grace is turned upside down from the way things operate in sin. In sin you have to work your butt off to get a reward of death. The wages of sin is death. But in the grace environment, the free gift of God is eternal life.

It goes just like this. I have to work. Is it in Galatians where you have the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh? Notice what they're called. The works of the flesh. I'm working my butt off to be sinful. But if I live in grace, they are fruit. I don't work.

See that? Mike, it seems like if you would give me five million, throw it in my account. They're gracious dollars by the way. I spent it all and you said here's another ten million. Aren't you encouraging me to do just exactly what I shouldn't be doing? No, no I'm not and I'll tell you why. Okay.

Because I think for a believer who has the resurrected life of Christ, if I give you enough cotton candy you're going to I mean, you think about how many cars can you drive at one time? Just one up to now. That's right, up to now. How many pairs of shoes can you wear at one time? You know, that kind of thing. I mean, you're going to walk out of your castle one day and like Solomon, you're going to say, vanity, vanity, it's all vanity. There's never been a more wealthy man on this planet than Solomon. Never been. He was worth trillions.

Plus a couple of girlfriends. So and he and he said it's just that's what happens. That's what that's what overindulgence will do to you. What's that? It's like Thanksgiving dinner. You feel much better before you have it than after. Hidden within the turkey is tryptophan, right? It puts you right to sleep. Well, it's not the sleepiness. It's the feeling too full. You know, because you're too much, too rich, whatever. One last thing on this thought. We're done with the positional truth. Go on to the next.

We're going to talk condition. your history and Adam ended the day that you believed and you acquired a whole new history and the whole new history is Christ himself so what's cool about history you know we like to look at salvation as here's the timeline right here was the cross and I believe and so going forward everything is cool look back sometime Because now your history is no longer in Adam. The separation from Adam is so complete that there is no history in Adam. My history now is Christ.

And that goes back in all eternity. So God can legitimately say that I knew you in Christ before the foundations of eternity. How come he can say that? Because you are in the eternal man. So God knew you personally by name. and character when he forms you in eternity past and present.

So I'm not going to start on the next group other than to maybe help set it up. We are, you have 10? So what's the first question? This is the first word, reckon. I want you to, in the last couple of minutes, I'm not going to answer the first question, but I want you to realize that right here there's a change. Right here there's a change of God saying to you, here's who you are, here's what I've done, here's what your relationship to sin is, he doesn't say the world, but all the rest of it, and here's now your new relationship to me. So if you're an intelligent thinking person, you're going to say to God, well what do you want me to do about this information? Wouldn't that be a good question to ask him? What does he want you to do about it? He wants you to believe him.

That's why we're going to deal, starting next week, with the word reckon. It's all based on the facts that have already been accumulated in our minds from way to the 10th verse of chapter 6, based on all of that information, all of it, here's how you're going to respond to it. And that's a response to grace, and that's how it works. See now, that's why reckoning is out of law.

Reckoning is a response to He never asks you to do something that's going to make things better. He always asks you to do something so that you can enter into what he's already done that's already better. Okay? Any questions? I hate to do this, but we're going to close early. Oh, good. Make a new one.

For Old Testament saints, how so post Christ resurrection? For believers, when they sin, they have a separation of their union or fellowship with Christ. How would you say that works with Old Testament saints? God was able to forgive the Old Testament saints their sins, I like to say, on a credit card.

He knew Christ was going to die. in the Old Testament time until Christ did die and pay it, pay for him. If they believed him, then he would cover their sins. If they weren't put away, like they are, it took Christ to come and die to put their sins away.

Now, going forward, what God is going to do with the Jews is he's going to put the law in their hearts. He's going to put the spirit in them so that they keep his statutes, which would be a different economy than we've become. All sin, to be forgiven, has to coalesce into the cross. Either in anticipation of the cross, or looking back towards it.

Did that answer the question? I guess it was more dealing with if they, did they have any type of fellowship that they could be separated from in the Old Testament, like you would say we are. Yeah, you know, some did. They like that. They can eat with the Lord. Others. I'm studying now as long as 11.

You know, with the temple system and the Socratic glory and all that was going on, God got as close to the sinful man as he possibly could. And there were certain ones, prophets and other people that actually had interaction with God, but not the nation as a whole, not like all of us can. Just certain people. David prayed that God wouldn't take his spirit from him.

Yeah. There was a lack of fellowship there, evident. Now David was cool because he knew that was more important than what he would end up with the temple in. Right. He had troubles with God. When did you say that was a special case though? Well, I don't know. You know, there's one guy that I've been enamored with. It's a guy, Ananias, that stood out in front of the temple. God promised him that he wouldn't die until he saw him inside. Where did he send him? A memo? You know, we've got some direct communication with you all about that.