Great Doctrines of Salvation
Mike Doyle · Dec 26, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 52
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926222234100

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

So what we're going to try to do today is and we'll go pretty fast. I hope we're going to go the last part of six. You get your whole saving on your cell phone. Oh, I think sound. That's it. That's your ears. Yeah. To the me. Yeah. I'm through. Sounds like Mark's code. I turn it off. No, I wonder if it's. That didn't do it? And then come down here and fix our thing. So what's it doing? I can't hear. It's a real high frequency. You guys are all like hunting dogs. I can't hear. Okay, we're rolling 614 through 23. The first question is, 614, from an identification point of view, why would you not be under law, and therefore sin would not have dominion over us?

I already have an answer written here. You do? Let's see if it's the right one. Because it pertains to the flesh, which no longer reigns. Wrong. Actually, that's pretty good. The reason we're not under the principle of law anymore is because our federal head is not under the principle of law anymore. The Lord Jesus Christ does not function. He was born under the law, but he died to the law. You see that? Everything that's true of us must be true of him, too, first. So he's not under the law principle anymore, so we're not. We're not under any legal principle. The legal principle first demanded what?

That you obey. And if you obeyed, then you were blessed. If you disobeyed, you got cursed. What does grace do? Grace confers the blessing first, and as a result, you respond. describe the difference between Romans 6.14 and 1 Corinthians 9.21 as regards one's association with the law.

Now, Romans 6.14 says, For sin shall not be a master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Okay, very definitive statement. Sin won't have a master over you anymore. Why? Because you're not under law, you are under grace.

1 Corinthians 9.21 says, to them that are without law, as without law, not being without law to God, but under law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. Somebody with a better translation. That's King James, that's a hard one. Somebody with a newer. What verse is that?

It's 1 Corinthians 9.21. Somebody with a new King James or You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake... Am I in the right order? No, you're not.

First Corinthians 9.21. So those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. Okay. Here's the key of that verse. In the second part of it, it says, but does your say in law to Christ? Does any of them say that? Under the law of Christ. Under the law of Christ. What that means is that those that are under grace are actually in law to Christ. We're married to him. Do you see that? And that word there is not nomos, it's a word that means principal. Make any sense? Well, let's do it this way. How many of you really, really believe that 614 is correct?

And don't dance with me. Sin won't have dominion over you because you're not under a law system, you're under grace. How come? How is grace possible that that principle can be the thing that keeps you from being under the principle of sin? How is that possible? Haven't you always thought in your mind that if you just tell me what to do I'll do it and everything will be okay? But under grace nobody tells you what to do. So how does it get you off from under the principle of sin? Or the dominion of sin?

Because we're dead. Because we're dead. Good answer. That's the right answer. What was the purpose of the law? sure that nobody holds up to it? Nobody can hold up to it, which means what? You're going to be condemned. If you're under a law system, you can't cut it, you're going to be condemned. The law doesn't have any, it doesn't grade on the margin, on the curve. You either make it or you don't, and if you don't, you get condemned. Grace confers blessing, unlimited and unmerited, and because of that you respond. You see that? And the reason you can respond is because you're now free from the man who was under a law of principle. And it stopped because we're always looking... I can't tell you how many times in my life after I've taught the identification truth, somebody will come up to me and say, well, what am I supposed to do?

I kind of hear a humming thing. Probably take this off. Of course, if I take it off and they can't record it, it may not be being recorded. They were going on. He's going to turn it off for a second to see if it stops. It's not. No, no. OK, so that's not going to help. OK.

OK. under law, then you're in-lawed to Christ. Does that make sense? For those of you who are married, I don't understand what that means. You're under the principle of grace to Christ because you're in Him. And that's what 921 means. And that in-law status writes the person of Christ on your heart. In other words, If the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't get up in the morning and check the rule book, why do you? Does he have to? No, why doesn't he? Why doesn't he have to check the rules every day? Huh?

Because his life doesn't need rules. His life automatically, spontaneously, glorifies the Father. automatically lives in holiness and righteousness. And you have the same life. And it's principle functions the same way in you as it does in Christ. So what is the relationship does a believer have with the law? What kind of a relationship do you have with the law? Right answer. And it's a one word answer. You have no relationship to the law whatsoever. None. Absolutely not. So, the difference is being a member of the body of Christ and having the life of the resurrected Christ in you.

Does that mean that we just can do what we want? You know, the answer is yes. You can do what you want. The issue is what do you want to do? What do you want to do? Yeah, you want to live a life that's pleasing to Him. You're now free to do it under grace. Well, if you're in Him, you want to live His life. That's really what it's...

It's really strange because we're so used to somebody giving us a list of rules on how to behave in order to accomplish a benefit for us that when the principle of grace comes along and we're told Well, what do you do? The question is, what do you do? And you discover that you really do want to be in your heart, you really do want to be pleasing to God, not to gain anything, it's just because of what He's done, of who He is.

And guess what? The cross frees you from Adam and sin so that you can do that. Here's the problem, you have to learn the principles. One thing I don't understand is if we don't have any relationship to the law, is He still alive? Yeah, what do you think? You understand the question? If I don't have any relationship with the law, does that mean that I can become, what's the word?

The Greek word is antinomial. It means I can become lawless. I can. Actually, the freedom's there for me to do that. You can, but you can't comfortably. You're not in a conditioned position. I'm not limited to position A. Here's the thing I don't think people understand. The principle of grace that's talked about in 14, sin won't have dominion over me. Why won't it? Why won't I lie, cheat, steal, drink more than three beers?

Because you want to have a relationship with God. Yeah, because grace comes at me and it overwhelms me. I think we're being... Somebody's transcribed it. I remember I used to be at the bubble of it buckly. This kind of stuff went on all the time and drove me nuts. Now, the thing about grace is that grace is an overwhelming environment when you start to learn about it.

That God's blessing that he's already showered on me is unlimited. And so as I learn about what they are, and it's totally unmerited so I couldn't earn it, I can't add to it, I begin to just settle down and take the grace. And so the grace is... And in the middle of all of that, what do I discover? I discover that God's desire for me is to have a personal, intimate, walking fellowship with Christ, the God of the universe, and that He loves me, and that He has blessed me with all spiritual blessings.

Well, that is such an incredible motivator that I don't need anybody to tell me what to do. I'm eager in my heart to respond to him and the freedom with which he has set me free from sin is really cool because I've learned that I was in bondage there and that's a tough lesson to learn because I always think I've got free will and I can decide and do my own thing well, when the spirit of God shows you that sin controls you and whips you around, you know, like you're a trained dog and you find out that you're free from that And now Christ is your life, and you are free to please him, and to behold his glory, and to walk with him, and be filled up by him. That's a lot of motive.

Your question is the same as what Paul dealt with in 1 and 15. What should we say? Are we to continue in sin so that grace 2,000 years later, we're asking the same question. We're yet to deal with the same thing. So that's question four and five. Question four is, what is the answer to question in verse one? Question in verse one is, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

He says, no way. Grace abounding over sin warrants and enables one believing that the Doctrine can go right on in the old life. It's impossible to do that. we know from other scriptures the impossibility, whoever is born of God doesn't practice sin, doesn't sin, positionally you can't. John says that, even though he doesn't explain it. You're reading John in two chapters, he says, well it's impossible for a believer to sin, but you say that you don't sin, you're a liar, so how do you fix that? Well, positionally, in Christ you don't sin. This new resurrected life you have in Christ is incapable of sinning.

But you do commit sins occasionally. And here's the reason. You died to sin. You were baptized into his death. You were buried with him through baptism into his death. You became united to him in the likeness of his death. Our old man was crucified with him. He that has died is freed from sin. We died with Christ. So, reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God, and present yourself unto God as alive from the dead.

If all that is true, you don't keep on sinning. If it isn't true, or you don't buy it, you don't believe it, or you're ignorant of it, sin's going to have dominion over you. I don't care. That's why when you talk to people that want to believe in what is and then they want to get married, how do you do that? If you have a person who's not a believer sitting right here, sin has dominion over this person. The believer sitting over here lives under grace, even though they may not know it. How the hell are they ever going to They're not. Because this person is totally dominated by sin. Totally.

Not just a little bit. So what's the answer to the question in verse 15? What then? Are we to sin because we're not under law but under grace? No way. Far be the thought. So we're talking about the Is it possible for me to abuse my liberty? Sure it is. But when he says, far be the thought, what he's saying is, pigs don't fly. This is totally insane for anyone in Christ to think that sinning is okay. It just doesn't fit. Which, by the way, is exactly how we confess sin. That's right. We agree with God that that doesn't match. That's right.

You have a really interesting thing here, and it's so simple, and I think we try to make it complicated, because we're always trying to leave a little door open so that we can sin. You know that? We're always trying to leave a little crack there so that we can satisfy the flesh. I do that all the time. Just so the flesh can come in and we can have a beer. Now, if you live under grace, there is absolutely no reason for you to sin at all. None.

John 8.34 says that everyone who commits sin is the bond-servant of sin. You see that? That's a tough one to swallow.

Because me and my free will, I'm not a bond-servant to anybody, really. So, are we to continue in sin because we're not under law? Is it reality to actually answer that question and to say no? Because don't you go before God and say, yeah, I see what your word says, but here comes the butt monkey, you know? God doesn't deal in butts. You know, he says, my word, when I tell you something, I mean it. And that's the way it is. I have put you under grace so that you will not sin.

So where does that leave you? Where does it lead me? Seems like every time I talk it hiccups, doesn't it? If that's the case, who is God? So what do you do before God if you say, well I see what you're saying, I see that you set me free to serve you, but how's that going to work? I don't know what that's like. Does that put any onus on you to do anything?

No. I think that people tend to go to the extreme and live under law so that they wouldn't sin, but would you say that that's sin as well because you're not trusting God's than yourself. You're focused on self, basically, if you're under law, if you're trying to follow the law. That's exactly right. And for those who put themselves under an extreme legal system, how many seconds in their life is it before they sin?

And it isn't that they... In my neighborhood, we're getting an increasing population of ascetic Jews. And what's interesting about those people, they're the most unfriendly people. They're nasty. And I'm convinced that people who are under extreme law end up being extreme people. And they will, like Muslims, will kill people because of the law they live under.

The law is designed to bring out and inflame the sin nature and to condemn you because of it. The thing about Christians who want to live under law, you know, they get rid of the external ones. that you can't see, but in here, where the real deadly ones abide, envy, hate, jealousy, those suckers are rampant because of the law.

But if you discover living under grace, they're not there. If I understand that you live under grace, and that you have been blessed with all spiritual blessings, and the heaven is in Christ, that you didn't earn any of them, and that they are totally unlimited, and I live under the same premise, what have I got to be envious about? Nothing. Nothing. I look at the fact that I'm in a position where God has blessed me, and I don't deserve any of it. And he tells me, just take it. Just take it.

But back to my question about learning it. I think it's important, and it puts an onus on us, not a legal onus, but a hunger to find out what the blessings are. Hence the study of the Word of God. I think any believer who lives under grace has an intimate relationship with this, with this Word. Because that's where his life is, and that's where the blessings are. That's the grace book. That's the only book ever written that's all grace.

So, it isn't that someone says, well, you've got to do 10 minutes of quiet time every day. No. I want 10 minutes, Lord, free to spend with you. Or 15, or as much as you'll give me. I'll take it. Whatever it is. Make the time for me to spend it with you. Because I want to learn about you. And learning about you, I learn about myself, I learn about the grace I live under. Do you think that motivates you? There's no more powerful motive in the world than grace.

None. But if you don't know it, how can you be motivated by it? Okay? I just went through two questions in about five minutes. All right, question six. In verse 17 and 18, what does it mean to be a bond-servant, either to sin or to righteousness? Somebody who can read English, read 17 and 18. Nobody can read English.

But God be thanked that through, though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Okay, so what does it mean to be a bond-servant, either to sin or to righteousness? What is a bond-servant?

They have no choice. They can do whatever they're told. In this case, the bond-servant does have a choice. This is a doulos guy. This guy chooses. He chooses to be under sin. Or he chooses to be under Christ. You see that? So, here's the deal. There's no middle road. There's no yellow line. There's no line between sin and grace. And I'm going to sit in the middle here for a while. There's no way. You're either under sin, you're a total servant to sin, or you're a total servant to Christ.

Because we're built that way. Do you see that? Now, because we've bought into this idea that God helps those who help themselves, that we really try to become healthy, wealthy, and wise so we can protect ourselves. We don't like the thought that we have to be a bond-servant to Christ. Because we don't trust them to take care of us. Right?

But if you learn the principles of grace, you will trust Him. And in the meantime, the Spirit of God is going to demonstrate to you how untrustworthy you are anyway. In me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Up until that time, you were using the percentages. 60-40, 70-30, 80-20. There's something in there. God saved me because I'm kind of good. No you're not.

So sin is your master as a result of what? Your position in Adam. The man of sin. Everyone who commits sin is a bond servant to sin. You cannot ever go to God and say, like Flip Wilson, you're probably too young to know who Flip Wilson is. He used to say, the devil made me do it. No he didn't. No he didn't. You're a bond-servant to sin and it decides, sin decides your actions. It decides.

So the Word of God says that we've been set free from that master and that we're free through the cross of Christ. We will willingly become bond-servants to Christ and to righteousness. You will willingly take that choice. Does that make sense to you? And that's a constant choice, like you say, you can never be in the middle, but you can constantly be going back and forth, is that kind of the idea? Yeah, interesting question, because you don't want that to boil down to the Christian life as just a series of will choices, you know, I'm choosing good and avoiding evil, I chose evil and avoiding good, and that isn't what it is. Once, it's like in 12 and 13, it says, present your members, present who you are to Christ as instruments of righteousness, as those that are alive from the dead. So you're resurrected with Christ. He says, well, give me your mind, give me your members, and I'll take them. And you say, okay. Now that doesn't mean you're going to, but you can always say, oh, I already, I belong to you. You bought me. I'm yours. I don't have to read, make this decision. I already made it.

You know, I have fallen and sinned, and like Alan said, confession is really agreeing with God about what has already been done. It isn't giving Him a little blondulous of the bad crap I just did. It's agreeing with Him that I am crucified, buried, and raised. I am a new creature. And in answering questions in verse 15, I don't have to sin. I agree with you that I don't have to. So 17 and 18, a bondservant either to sin or to righteousness. I think every believer has to come to the realization that at any given time you're under either one of those. You're never in the middle.

That's the big lie in the world. Don't non-believers think that they live on the yellow line and that if they do enough good stuff they're going to go to heaven and if they kind of screw up they're going to go to hell. Right? Isn't that how they think? Well we think the same way as Christians.

This is the best hell is ever going to be for a non-believer. He's already there because he's in Adam. At some point in time, the Spirit of God comes to him and rescues him. And where does he take him? Out to the middle line? He takes him to heaven. He puts him in your life. See? And as he learns and grows, he realizes he doesn't have to go back there conditionally anymore. He can stay right where he is.

So what does it mean to be delivered over to a form of doctrine? Notice the language. Somebody read that part that says the doctrine, the last part of the verse. The last part of verse 18. You became slaves of righteousness. Keep going. So that's the end of 18 in Mark. Okay, we'll go to the 12th. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I think it's the end of verse 17.

Mayim obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Now see, that's not the way it's supposed to read. It's supposed to read that that form of doctrine you were delivered to. You see that? You got delivered to the doctrine. It didn't get delivered to you. See, the Spirit of God took you and put you in the doctrine. grace. You know, you didn't sit there as king of the hill waiting for God to come up the road and give it to you.

Does that make sense? So we were delivered, to give you an example, the Jews were delivered over to Moses in the law. Did the Jews sit there? The Jews said, yeah, you know, give us some rules and tell us what to do. And God said, okay. But he delivered the nation of Israel and Moses over to the law principles. He put them under the whole thing. It was not only that the law was delivered by Moses to them, they themselves were delivered over to the legal dispensation.

They're put under it. It's a mold of doctrine which had the Ten Commandments as its foundation and the ten things of the law spoken in accordance with. The Jews knew that they were under law. They didn't ever think that they initiated anything. They knew they were under it.

So believers are now delivered over to that form of teaching or pattern. This is the gospel. We have been delivered to the gospel. We have been delivered over to grace. We're under it. Do you see that? We are under grace. And it's because of the work of Christ on the cross. That's why. It's interesting, when we were back studying Romans 6, 2 or 3, don't you realize that those who were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death? I envision that in my mind.

As the Spirit of God grabbed me in the scruff of the neck, put me in the cross, and I'm there. And as He dies, I die. As He's resurrected, so am I. I'm in Him. I'm delivered to whatever is true of Him that's going to be true of me. Because the Spirit put me in Him. I'm not in there dancing around deciding if that's going to be cool or not. I got delivered over. And that's a good thing to know.

Because then you realize that there is a dominating principle in my life and it's the spirit of God and grace. You guys aren't asking a lot of questions today, it's just too complicated. Do we as believers have the power to prevent or stop sin in our lives because we just have the will to do so? How many say maybe and you do? Don't be chickens now.

So, Romans 7.15. You don't have to go there. This is kind of a translation. For that which I am working out, I do not own. For not when I am wishing, this I am doing. But when I'm hating, that's exactly what I'm doing. But if what I am not wishing to do, I'm practicing, I'm consenting that the law is good and right. The point in Romans 7 is that that man has got his will fully engaged not to sin. What's happening to him? He's sinning big time.

So what do you use your will for? I mean, God gave me a will, what am I supposed to use it for? If it isn't to keep me from sinning, what do I use it for? Yield ourselves to God or yield ourselves to sin? Yeah, see, what you do is you use your will to believe. And believing means that you either yield yourself to righteousness and let God deal with it, or you yield yourself to sin. That's why you're responsible. will to do it. You alright with that? Can law secure obedience to God? Stay awake. Under grace, stay awake. Can law secure obedience to God? Well, based on everything we say, you can easily say no. Why not? Yeah, it does exactly the opposite.

In Galatians 3.23.24 it says the law was our tutor to lead us to Christ, to be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we, and he's talking about Hebrew believers, are no longer under a tutor.

Galatians 5.4 says you are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law.

You have fallen from grace. You know what I love about that verse? It is the only verse in the New Testament that says parameters by which you fall from grace. And you know what? It doesn't say your sinning causes you to fall from grace. What does cause you to fall from grace?

Not believing. Not believing. Or what's the other side? What causes you to fall from grace? Trying to live under the law. Yeah. When you decide to live under a law principle, you fall out of the principle of grace. You're not under it anymore. You're in the performance mode.

And again, I have to tell you. Can you say also if you mix any law with it? Any law. Yeah, if you walk up to the pool of law and stick your toe in it, it's like diving in. You don't get a little bit. You get the whole thing once you even mess with it, you got it all. You see that?

So if you feel guilty for doing something that is in the law, does that make you... Like if I feel guilty because I wanted something that someone else had, What do you think about that? That's a great question. If, you know, my neighbor gets a brand new Schwinn bicycle and I really wanted it, and I'm lusting over it, and then I start feeling guilty that I'm lusting over it, what have I done?

I've said to myself, I shouldn't be doing that, right? I shouldn't be feeling that way. Why not? what would be the other motive? Are you not allowing the fit to master you? You are. So you can you can choose, can't you, whether that masters you or not? I was going to say, wouldn't it be a situation where in the three eyes of grace, that doesn't fit with who I am. Why am I even messing with that? Does it also enjoy So you're making the conscious decision to choose. I mean, you're kind of resting in that. So what's the decision that you make? Is the decision that you make, I'm not going to lust anymore?

Or, you know, here comes this, and here's the other cool thing. Residing within every one of us is the spirit of God. And his job is to bring to mind everything that we should know about Christ. So here I am. He convicts me. Did he? Convict me. I shouldn't be doing this. What's the next step?

We shouldn't feel guilty. We should rest in who we are. It's a process, though, if you go back to confession from John 1-9, it's the recognition that this does not fit with who I am. That's right. So if I say, well, gee, I shouldn't be feeling guilty about lusting, then what was the next thought that would come to my mind? Wait a minute. Guilt is something that the old man feels. That's not who I am.

I'm now resurrected in Christ, and I agree with you, God. I've got to tell you a funny story. I was sitting at dinner the other night with the family, and my mother-in-law says, I feel so guilty about not doing the potatoes. I bet you warmed up a little bit. Oh, I did. I couldn't resist it. I said, you know, Winnie, to be disappointed in yourself is to have trusted in yourself in the first place.

And she has high standards for herself. Yeah, let's say she's, and Lynn does, she has very high standards. Yeah, she's a work of evil, I'll tell ya. And so if that little environment gets sort of messed up, or somebody does a little pushing, what do you think about that? If you're a perfectionist, you're going to feel guilty all the time. How does a perfectionist live under grace? It's a lot of work.

Well, it isn't a lot of work. You know what it is? It's believing what God has said. It's not even letting go, it's just believing what God has said. Yeah, I think confession is the key. Because I've known a lot of people who'd say you have to cast it out or you can't, you have to resist coveting or whatever it is you're doing, but where does the focus go from and on to what? I think your focus, it can be tricky too, I mean, give them the benefit of the doubt, but it is, I mean, if you're just saying the same thing that God is saying, I think that's the key. Because if you're just focused on coveting, you're focused on coveting. It's interesting.

Non-believers are to believe about the provision provided for them about Christ on the cross. Believers are to confess. We're not to believe like a non-believer would for forgiveness of sins. We're to confess. And the word confess means to say the same thing. To say the same thing that God says. So what does he say about my sin? You know, I'm disappointed in myself.

Remember what, I paid for it. I paid for it. And I've forgiven it. I've forgiven it. And it isn't part of who you are now. It isn't part of who I am. Do I have to confess exactly to sin? Sure, if it's there. You know, doesn't that sweep it under and say, oh, now I'm who you say I am. No, it's right there. The issue is this, that I'm free. I'm free.

Every sin that you've committed from the time that you were saved to now is future at the cross. You know that? The sin you're going to commit this afternoon is future. Was it paid for at the cross? Yes it was. Yes it was. So your confession is recognizing that God has already handled all of that. Not only handled the penalty for my action, but he's taken care of me too. I like the analogy that Vern brought up with taking out the trash.

When you go to take out the trash, you don't open it up and say, OK, this is what I ate on Tuesday. You just throw it out and you don't think about it again. It's like people that go to a secular counselor. The secular council wants them to open up the trash can and bring all it out and investigate it again and see what they can fix about. Jayler and McGee said it's like putting manure in your backyard when you got it out there in the grass. You don't go out there and investigate. You just leave it. I want to see. I'm going to go through these questions quick. Anybody read The Hungry Heart this morning? I think it's really apropos to what we're talking about and a good way to end. Quickly, question.

In verse 20 and 21, we were servants to sin. What is the answer to the question, what fruit did you have? The only fruit you have from sin is shame. How were we made free from sin and put into the service of God? Simple, by the cross of Christ. The end is eternal life. It's a very interesting verse. The wages of sin is what? Death. The free gift of God is what? Love. Don't you find it interesting you've got to work your butt off to get the wages. But the free gift from God, you just relax in it. Here's what I want to talk about this morning. This has to do with the work of the cross in a believer's life.

He quotes Philippians 3.10, that I may know him, being made conformable unto his death. The wondrous depth of the finished work of the cross will always be adequate to deal with the terrible depths of the unfinished work of the old man. As we glory in the cross, the flesh is denied.

When we have apprehended our death position with the Lord Jesus, Romans 6.6, Galatians 2.20, We may have failed to see the ongoing conformity to his death. The absence of this brings the anomaly of the cross being preached with little or no marks of the Calvary spirit. This is the problem of teaching the identification truths without the consequent conformity of death which brings forth life. We may rely upon the fact that we died with the Lord Jesus. and assume that it is entirely brought in us at once, not realizing that the fellowship of his sufferings follows the apprehension of identification, that delivered unto death must become deeper and deeper, until the conformity to his death in the path of the cross becomes a very real characteristic of the life.

We are not to think that our exalted position in the Lord Jesus seated with him in heavenly places frees us from the need of further application of the cross. We never reach a point where we can leave the cross. We are invincible more than conquerors through him who loved us only as we are brought into ever deeper conformity to the Lord Jesus' death unto sin.

Otherwise the flesh reinstates itself, and we once more fall prey to the old man's reign. There are always remaining, however much we have advanced, hidden strongholds of the old man, which must be rendered inoperative by the finished work of the cross."

Everybody get the point that he's making? It's really important to understand identification truths and to hold on to them. But what the Spirit of God is going to do for the rest of our time here is apply the cross to us. Apply the cross to the old man. Continually. Continually. Because Malloy used to talk about the discovery of the old man is like peeling an onion.

And the more you grow in Christ, the more you get to find out about who you really are in Adam. And the cross is applied over and over and over again. We've all run into people that understand identification who are so haughty about it you can't even talk to them. The application of the cross is the thing that puts the characteristics of the life of the Lord Jesus into your personality so that you are humble, you are meek, you are lowly of heart.

What do you think? Do you think the cross is going to be applied to your life continually? It is. And you know what? You'll be thankful for it. Because just because you learned identification, and you believed identification, and you are really glorying in identification, doesn't mean that your old man said, eh, well, I got it now, I guess I'll leave him alone. You know? Their sin just walked into There he comes. So I don't want you ever to think that the work of the Spirit in applying the cross to your life is over. Okay. Let's close. Lord, how we thank you for your word and how we thank you for the work of your Son and our inclusion.