Identification Truths Plus 2012
Mike Doyle · Jan 22, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926258551712

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

The first question was, and for those of you who are new to the class, what we do, the modus operandi around here is that we put out questions this week and next week's class is actually answering the questions. First question for this today is what was the result or penalty of Adam's sin and fall?

And we gave some scripture quotes, Romans 5.12-14. and 1 Corinthians 15.22 and Ephesians 2.3.

So, Romans 5.12, Karen. I'm almost there, even on it. 5.12?

Yeah, and somebody get 1 Corinthians 15.22 ready.

Somebody else Ephesians 2.3.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. For before the law was given, sin was in the world, but sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking the command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. Okay, what was the result of Adam's sin?

What's the one word we're looking for? Death. Okay, what's the word death mean? Separation. Well, separation from God just by itself means separation. Right. You know, if I say I'm dead to the Broncos, I ain't watching them anymore. But it just simply means separation, and when God told Adam, the day in which you sin you will surely be separated from me, and he didn't mean until Thursday, he meant permanently.

So death means separation, and that's what Romans 5.12.13.14 means, that this one man, Adam, brought sin into the world. And along with sin, sin has some partners that come with it. And the partner is death. And so the next issue here is important for us to understand is that death didn't just stay with Adam. Death passed on all men. Except for Randy. No. So death passed on all men.

Why? Why? Read the rest of the verse. The last phrase of 12. All sin. Oh, gee, I'm older than most of you, but I don't remember being in the garden sinning. This is the first hint of what, when we get to talking about identification, this is a hint to it right here. How is it possible for me, for God to say, hey Mike, you sinned in Adam. Oh, wow. So hold that in place, I'm not going to expand on it anymore, but it's the first understanding that wow, there may be something going on here more than just time-space reality right now where I am. Maybe I was involved with something that happened 10,000 years ago, you know, and that's what it says. Okay, 1 Corinthians, yeah.

I'm sorry? When Adam sinned and he separates from God, and we're going to find out in a minute, something else was added to him. And that's another thing the Catholics don't understand. They think that he was the same light bulb that just got tarnished and all you need to do is clean it up and you're fine. Alright, 1 Corinthians 5. 1522. For as in Adam, all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Wow. Now, more information that helps us understand, now we're looking at, and Randy's subject is going to be position, and that will be a couple of weeks down the road. This word in is a really, really important word, and I'm just going to pass over it a little bit, that if you If God looks at you and says, you're in Adam, what's the result?

You're all dead. All of you. If he looks at you and says, wow, you're in Christ, what's the result of that? You're all alive. So I love this verse. You know why? Because I'm a realtor. And location is really important to me. So it's not what you do, it's where you are that matters. Okay.

Ephesians 2.3. So everybody that comes from Adam, and that includes every human being that's conceived on the planet, is by nature the children of wrath. You see why now?

Because 5.12 says that they all sinned in Adam. I say they're all guilty. We're all guilty. We're all guilty. So, question. One more verse that I didn't ask you to look up and I want you to look it up. and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Okay, now here we got Adam, who sins and dies, separates from God, he's a child of wrath, we're all involved in him, and then now here's a new element, if I'm born of Adam, I'm born of the flesh. So what does flesh mean? In other words, that which is born of the flesh, which means every human being that comes from Adam, because Adam was made flesh, is flesh. You, not only are you born that way, you is that way. Make sense? What does it mean to be of the flesh? It means you have a physical body. It's all been concerning worldly life. Remember last week I told you about my idea with the bell jar?

With the soul and the spirit? When Adam sinned, the spirit's life diminished to virtually nothing and the soul filled it up. And the thing that expanded the soul life was this thing called the flesh. I don't want to call it the sin nature, but what it means is that your soulish, fleshly characteristics began to dominate. Your emotions superseded your spirit. Your intellect superseded your spiritual intelligence. And you thought you had free will, so you're going around exercising will all the time. You're a fleshly, soulish-based person. You are not spiritual. You're soulish.

And the problem we have in contemporary Christianity is it's Christians get emotionally excited and they stick the label spiritual on it and it isn't spiritual, it's emotional. Just because it feels good. The emotions are from the soul, is that correct? Yes, mind, emotion and will. Now, if I'm a solely fleshly dominated creature that has a sin nature, I am always at enmity with God.

And the reason is, is because I'm king. I'm king. You know, when God gave the Jews the Ten Commandments and all the Jewish laws, the first one was really interesting. He said, I am the Lord thy God. I shall not have false gods before me. What's the false god? I am. I'm fleshly. I'm king. I've set my throne against God.

He's going to do it my way or there isn't going to be any way. So the very first commandment condemns every human being. Doesn't it? It isn't that I've got these little statues hidden in my closet. I'm the problem because I'm fleshly. I'm totally self-absorbed and self-centered in Adam because of sin. That's the way sin is. And that, uh, Kortney's going to talk next week about self.

Perfect name for it. Self. That's what it is. Kind of an interesting anecdote. My mom and I were talking and, um, she's reading in her Bible and she says, Karen, I just came across the neatest thing. And I said, what? She goes, I figured out that I am my idol.

And it was one of those things where when the Lord shows you that, that that is self, the things he can, You know, it's like, okay, now you recognize where the problem is. I can really show you what I did about it. Yeah. Yeah. And so sorry, mom. Yeah. The Old Testament quote that we found the enemy within the camp. Guess who it is. Mwah. I'm it. Okay. Now, all this is in place.

The second question is, well, what's man's view or estimate of his own fall? And you don't have to go there, but I'll quote Romans 1, 21 through 23. Paul says that they became futile in their speculations, their foolish hearts was darkened, professing to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, of birds and four-footed animals and crawling things. That's man's estimate of who he is. Do you see that? Now, does man recognize the fact that his foolish heart was darkened?

No. I remember as a young believer I was in a class one time and a guy said, you know why God had to send John the Baptist to be the precursor to Christ, to say here he is? Because it's like talking to a room full of blind people, and if you come into a room full of blind people and you turn the light on, do they know the light's on? No, somebody has to tell them. And so when the light comes into the world, John the Baptist had to say, hey fellas, the light's on.

Because they're darkened, they don't know. But their own estimate is that they think they've become wise, but what's the truth? The truth is they're fools. And it's demonstrated by the fact that they take God's creatures and make their own gods out of them. And what I always loved about this verse is that birds, four-footed creatures, and crawling ones. It always is going downhill. Always going downhill.

Romans 2.14, For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law, these not having the law are a law unto themselves, and they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts ultimately accusing or else defending them.

On the day when, according to my gospel, God would judge the secrets of men's hearts. So men have this conscience in them that accuses them or excuses them of their behavior. Is your conscience reliable? Is it reliable in a non-believer? Absolutely not. How about your conscience, since you're all rooty-kazooty Christians? Is your conscience reliable? Not necessarily.

That's why you have the Word. But that's why we have the Lord Jesus Christ. So what happens is that Man's view and estimate of his own fall is very limited. He doesn't really see that he's that far away from God. Do you agree with that? I mean it's obvious that you can see within our society that when 9-11 happened we had a prayer meeting with all these religions that have nothing to do with God. Like they could do anything. We're studying 1 Corinthians on Wednesday night and we went through the chapter about idols, things offered to idols, and what are idols? They're nothing. They're just figments of somebody's imagination.

Alright, question three. Why are all men condemned? You should know that by now. Back to the number one question. Yeah, back to number one. Why is every man that shows up on the planet condemned? We're all under Adam. That's right. We're all in Adam. Location.

Hebrews 9.27 says, Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes a judgment. So, I think this teaches that in our position we're acting just as our federal head was acting. In other words, every human being is going to die once, and then judgment. How about believers? Don't we kind of, when we come to Christ, don't we die unto ourselves?

Hopefully. Okay. Now, again, it's maybe a... Judge for rewards. I'm sorry? Judge for rewards versus condemnation. Oh, okay. Oh, I see where we were last semester. Last semester. Last fall. As we approach the Roman six truths and when we get there we'll go through them almost a word at a time.

Would you say that you have already died? I got some no's and I got some yes's. Now if you're born dead, are you born dead? which means you might be brain dead. You're born dead, you're born separated from God. So when you believe in the person and work of Christ, what happens to you? No, let me take, what happens for you? To identify with Christ? No, for you. What's the work of the cross do for you?

When Christ died for the sins of the world, what did he do? He did one simple thing, he paid the penalty. He paid the penalty, right? So he paid the penalty for your sins, and what was the penalty? So if he paid the penalty for your sins, you're clear, you don't have to die, right?

Okay, that's what he did not for us, but to us. And that's really what identification comes down to. We already died. And that's what we're going to learn over the next two, three months is we in fact did die. We were buried and we were resurrected. So when Paul starts talking about in 1 Thessalonians about believers who are going to go up to the time of the rapture, they're going to go first and then we're going to join them.

He talks about them going to sleep. He doesn't refer to them as dying. Why would he do that? Because they already died. But again, we are going to parse that apart like you can't believe. I know in my father's grave, my mother had put asleep in Jesus. Yeah, because separation or death doesn't mean annihilation. The soul and the spirit of a man who leaves the planet still exist. He just doesn't exist in this body anymore. Again, it's a matter of location. Where is he now? Where is she now? The location is really important. So, in your mind, I'm just giving you hints now.

Is there a difference between what we might call the birth truths and the growth truths? Okay, you say yes. When you say yes in my class, you have to explain. What are the birth truths? The gospel. Christ died for your sins according to the gospel. He was buried and he was resurrected.

Somebody turn to Hebrews chapter 6 and this will be from a Jewish Christian's viewpoint of what the birth truths are. I think it's verse 2 where it says let's move on beyond. I want you to read verse 1 and 2. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. That sounds like those are birth truths. The baptism there has to do with Jewish washings, not baptism of the Spirit. But notice how much information there would sound like, wow, this is, it isn't that you disregard them, we're going to move on. It's Hebrews 6, 1 and 2. We're moving on.

Okay? Now, if you say there is a difference between the birth truths and the growth truths, then The next question would be, can you grow spiritually with the birth truths? You can only go so far. We've got two or three babies around here now, brand new babies, right? And they're all working on milk. When they're 15, we hope they're not on milk anymore. Why not? Because it's not enough to sustain them.

It's the same thing with a believer. If you're 15 years in Christ and you're still drinking milk, You're handicapped, big time. So moving on and growing is really important. And that has to do with identification, position, condition, grace, and all of those things that have to do with your faith. And it's way past the fact that Christ died for my sins. Not that that's not important. It's intricately important. But it isn't the thing that you, it isn't the information, or put it another way, it isn't the food that you're going to grow on.

Okay? Alright. So what would you say, what would you mean when you say a person is saved? What does that mean? I'm going to walk back here so you guys aren't anonymous anymore. What's that? Okay? Did everybody hear that? No. No, I just said because you were walking by. Oh. We're part of the class. Yes, you are. Do they turn around and look? So what would you say is when you say someone is saved, what do you mean by that? I guess it all depends on what you're talking about. Okay, I'm talking about salvation. Okay. God's great inclusive word.

What does it mean? That's part of it. What else does it mean? It means you believe in and embrace the birth truths and are eternally saved and secure. Okay, eternally saved and secure. Which means I have this new thing called eternal life. How cool is that? You know what else salvation is? It's powerful.

You know that the gospel is designed by God not to be argumentatively persuasive? You understand what I mean by that? In other words, when the gospel is presented to a human being, it isn't presented in such a way that it's going to be the last thing said. That it is just so persuasive from a logical point of view that there just isn't any arguments to it.

Listen to this, Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. It isn't logical, it's powerful. The gospel itself, that basic information is power. Because it takes power to save. To everyone who believes. So, the next time you give the gospel to a non-believer, you don't need to anecdote it, add to it, just let it do its own thing.

Because it's powerful. So, when a person is saved, you're always saved from something to something. You're saved from condemnation, death, the second death, which is hell, you're saved to Christ, you have eternal life. Anything else? Just a question. What makes the gospel so powerful? Because it's the Word of God. But behind that? Oh, the Spirit of God.

What did Peter mean in Acts 4.12? I'll read 4.12 and you tell me what he meant. It's not hard. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. That's it. There's only one guy. There's only one way. There's only one issue. There's only one person. It's God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way. I don't care what denominations and religions tell you, including Muslims, or Mormons, or anybody else. There's only one way to salvation.

In John 10.9, The Lord Jesus says, I'm the door, if any man enter in he shall be saved, he shall go in and out and find pasture. Same thing, right? He's the door. Now the example he was using, he was talking about being the sheet pen is like this and there's one way in and one way out and the only way in and out is through him. Okay? Now... I have a cool observation. Cool.

Because I think in that verse it states both birth and growth truths. Because if you're a sheep, it's like, here I am, you've come into the fold, so I'm going to, your life is with me, I'm going to make you have life because I'm going to watch out for you as far as the shepherd is concerned. However, but you can go out to pasture, which is where they're going to eat and grow. So it's kind of, I saw that and went, oh, there's both of those in that verse. I don't know if it's right or not.

Paul said in Romans 10, 9 and 10, If thou shalt believe with thy mouth, I'm sorry, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now, here's what I'm after here. What does he mean by heart there? When he says, believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead, I'm after something specific here.

Yeah, I think it's from the very center of who you are. It just isn't an intellectual apprehension. You're in it. You've got all of who you are in it. I think it has to do here with faith and believing, and that believing is not just, oh, I got the facts, I guess they're okay or they're right. Anecdotally, I remember when the Lord was leading me to Christ, these two guys were working me over pretty good, and they kept repeating and putting the information together, and I finally said to them, I said, I understand what you're saying to me, and I'm convinced it's right. I believe it's right.

But at that point I still wasn't saved. Why not? Because it probably wasn't... I think the difficulty is just what you said earlier. It wasn't logical. No, it was logical. I bought it. It's logical to you. Well, I bought it. I said, this is the way. It's the way with your head, not your heart. There you go. It's the relationship. It's the actual communication and relationship with God. It's not just the ascent. It is entering into that relationship with faith.

It was more than just knowing and buying the facts. It was way more than that. And to be honest with you, it scared me to death. I kind of knew I was going to die if I believed it. But when I finally did, it was more than just my knowing. Do you think it's difficult for people to believe in Christ because they can't quite give all of themselves to Him?

You know, let go, you know what I mean? I understand. I would say a couple of things there. Salvation is by grace. So if I understand that going in, that it's God who saved me, it wasn't me who saved myself by entering in by my own efforts, then I realize that my moving on with the Lord Jesus is also by grace. So, if in any way that I'm asked for commitment or more dedication or devotion on my part, that's not grace. So, when you're given the Gospel message, that's why it's so powerful in and of itself, because it's a gracious message. We're saved by grace through faith. Grace is the most powerful motivator there is in the planet. There's nothing more powerful than grace. And six months from now, when we're talking about grace, you'll find out why.

And then I ask, and we kind of have gone through this, what are the so-called birth truths? John 3, 6, unless a man be born again. Why would he use this term born again? And he's talking to a Jew, but it's also true of us. Why born again? Based on what we've talked about this morning so far. Why would he use that term? In order to get born again, what do you got to do first?

You got to die. You just got to die. You see that? Unless you're born twins or something. I mean, I'm trying to think, what could born again possibly mean if it didn't mean that I die first? I have to be born spiritually from above, okay? Born of a new seed. I'm sorry? Of a new seed. Of a new seed, that's right.

He told, Jesus told Nicodemus that not only if, and this is a Jew who wants to enter the kingdom. Even a Jew who wants to enter the kingdom, this is not Christian salvation. If he wants to enter the kingdom, he has to be born again. Isn't that something?

Because this thing called flesh and sin itself doesn't get to go in. Ephesians 1-7, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. This one I like, Colossians 3-4, you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God.

1 Peter 1.23 here, I have been born again out of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is through the living and endearing word of God. So back to salvation. I said list four things that salvation would include. So Laban is salvation for later.

He's not any better looking. What? He's seated in the heavenlies, okay. Okay. What else? I put down he's rescued from sin and this penalty. Okay. You never have to face his sins. Okay. Eternal life, okay. I wrote down he's safe. He has safety. Here's another one. He's been delivered from the power of sin. Now he may not know that, but he has been. And he's been delivered to soundness of person.

Romans 6 talks about the gospel that you've been delivered to. I think a lot of them say that what's delivered to you, and that's not the correct grammar it should be, that you got delivered to it. You were delivered to this gospel. You ended up going in there. What was the last one that you wrote?

Soundness. Soundness of person, in other words. Here's another word. Perfection. You now are everything God ever designed you to be, positionally. How many different ways does God offer salvation? Guys that can't trick you, you're too smart. Yeah, there's only one way.

So, can you lose your salvation? How come? Why can't you? He'll never leave us or forsake us? Pretty good. In Colossians 3, who are you with? Can you un-negotiate that relationship? Can you annihilate that relationship? About three months from now when we've finished going through the Romans identification chapter, The answer is that if you're united to Christ and you went through this whole process and you got over here, how could you get back here? The only way you get back to being lost is Christ has to go back through the process. We were also bought with Christ. Yeah, the blood of Christ. We were purchased.

I love the one your dad quoted, John 10, 28-30, and you don't have to go there, this is really good. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father who has given them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."

Here's the thing that Vernon says, that, I give unto them eternal life constantly. I am always, every second, of every minute, of every day, of all eternity, giving them eternal life. I just don't give it to them and leave. I'm always giving it to them. Present tense. I give them eternal life. I'm giving them eternal life. I'm giving them eternal life. I'm giving them eternal life.

It never stops. So there's never a time that it gets cut off. The Holy Spirit, and that's not a losing salvation. Yeah, it's not. They're talking about salvation. What did you say? Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, but you don't lose your salvation.

Well, you can't. That's a rejection. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a rejection of salvation. Yeah, it's a rejection. It's not you have it and you lost it. It's you rejected it before you ever had it. You never accepted it. Because the Spirit of God comes towards you. You never have accepted it.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. If salvation is a gift, and it's given to you for free, what makes you think you have the right to walk away from it? You don't. And I guarantee you that after we get through the Roman six truths, you'll understand that there's no way you could lose it because God would have to fire you. And he's not going to do that. You didn't do anything to earn it in the first place, and you can't do anything to screw it up in the second place.

Let's see, do all believers share in the common salvation? The ones that have been saved for 15 minutes and the ones like you that are old dogs? We all share the same. So the believer who came to Christ this second has exactly the same salvation as you and I do.

Last question, there are three phases to salvation. I probably should have said there are three tenses to salvation. What are they? I am saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. So if I say to you, I am saved right now, what do I mean? I am now saved from the penalty of sin. Right now. I have already been saved from the penalty of my sins. Your position? At this point I'm just saved from ever having to face any penalty for my sins at all. That's present tense. I'm sorry, past tense. Present tense is I am being saved right this minute from the power of sin.

And that's what identification is about. That old sin nature. I ought to write a tune about that. That old sin nature, I am presently and now being saved from its power. Future tense, I will be saved from the very presence of sin itself. Okay? Does that make sense to everybody? I am saved from the penalty of sin.

I'm being saved from the power of sin and I will be saved from the very presence of sin itself. When Bud Tracy went home to be with the Lord, guess what he left behind? Sin. Sin. Your mom now sits in the glory of God's grace and sin is not even an issue. No presence of it whatsoever.

How cool is that? So those are the three. So if you have, I think my next question is, if you have a salvation, you've got to have a savior. Who is he? Right. Sure it's him? Not you? It's him. Sure. You know, when you feel that you've done something wrong, it's okay to ask God for forgiveness, isn't it? No, it's not. Bud Tracy would love me for this. What is God's remedy for your sinning?

He says in 1 John 1.9, confess your sins and God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Does it say anywhere in there that I need to ask for forgiveness? Why do I think I need to?

Well, here's the point. When I sin as a believer, the consequence is loss of fellowship with Christ. It doesn't affect my salvation at all, but it certainly affects my fellowship. Yes. And when he says to confess my sins, confession is a word that means to say the same thing.

So I have to think about, well, what does God mean? What am I going to say that's going to be the same thing he's saying? It isn't going to be, Mike, you're a dirty, rotten dog, you're sinning, and give me a list of everything you've done, and I'm going to hand out the penalty. No, what he means is say the same thing I'm saying.

And what I'm saying is, Mike, my son gave his life for you. All of your sins have been paid for. You've been acting and conducting your life as though that wasn't true. Do you agree with me or do you agree with your own behavior? No, I agree with you. I confess, I've done this and I agree with you. And because of that I'm restored to fellowship and my righteousness and relationship is restored. But it doesn't affect my position.

To ask God for forgiveness is not to understand that you're already forgiven. To confess to Him As a matter of fact, if you have five or six things you go to him with, I guarantee you, get through the first one, you'll forget the rest. Because he wants you in fellowship.

See that? But you could say, I'm sorry, can't you? I was in front of a bunch of ladies down in Parker one day, and I said to them, we were on this subject, I said, now, the word repentance, I said, how many of you think that in the word repentance, that the more sorry you are, the faster God forgives you." Over half the hands went up. They did. I said, that's ridiculous. I was a hero. I was a hero right away.

I said, God doesn't care one whit about how sorry you are because he doesn't forgive you based on what you are and what you did. He forgives you solely on what his son did, and repentance just means to have a change of mind. That's all it means. There's no emotion involved in it at all.

Randy? One thing I found at least liberating in this discussion is the idea that the Holy Spirit convicts us under relationship. That's where he gets us. The flesh leads us to feel guilty so that we'll try harder. And you need to distinguish between those two. Am I feeling guilt? Well, if I'm feeling guilt, I should know that's not It's just back to relationship or fellowship because I have a relationship.

Yeah. If you have a relationship with somebody like a husband and wife, then you know something has transpired that you did that has caused some strain in the relationship. You know, it's just, you can fix it right away because you know that you love her or them and they love you and that's, it's done. See?

The great thing about our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, or with the Father, is the fact that it's not based on anything we did or do. It's all based on what Christ did. Because if it was based on Karen, or Kurt, or Lavin, or any of the rest of us, we wouldn't last very long. We wouldn't get out of the door.

Even shorter than that. Yeah, I know. So, okay. I have next week's right here and I'll pass them out. Let's pray and I'll pass them out. Thank you, Father, for having us be able to take a look at how sin came in the world, how we as sons of Adam and as the consequence of being born sinners, our viewpoint, but mostly we thank you for the fact that we have a Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray in his precious name. Amen.