Great Doctrines of Salvation
Mike Doyle · Jul 4, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 27
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492628346653

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

We're going to talk about the gospel. Everybody have the sheet? Gospel, gospel. Let me see if I can find it. There it is. If you looked at the chapter, and we talk a lot about the gospel here, how would you define, what's the word gospel mean? good news.

Marchbank says it's the proclamation of good news or glad tidings. So it's not just the good news itself, it's the proclaiming of it. The gospel carries within it the idea of proclamation. And he says the root meaning of the word is closely associated with the word we get evangelized from. So sometimes he says that we sometimes speak of the gospel as the evangel. We spend a lot of time talking about 1 Corinthians 15. the gospel message. But I do agree with Marchbanks that the gospel itself is not only the information but the proclamation of the information.

You alright with that? Sure. Okay. Now that proclamation can be verbally or like how Molloy used to say that you may be the only Bible somebody gets to read. That in Corinthians when Paul talks about you, when he was talking about his credentials, he said you are an epistle of Christ.

And what's the great thing about an epistle? If I wrote you a letter, what's the great thing about it? Or an email. What's the great thing about it? The information they give you. That's right. And what doesn't it give you? If I send you a letter, what kind of a communication is it? It's non-verbal. A letter is non-verbal? Well, you're not speaking it. You mean it's not audible. Okay. It's very, very full of words. Yeah, but I didn't speak it. I didn't speak it.

I wrote it, sent it to you, and you read it. But when I read it, I hear you say it. The point being that if I'm an epistle of Christ, if I'm a letter, written and the impression of Christ is written on me, I can stand in front of you and I don't have to say anything. Do you understand that? And other people can read the gospel in me without my ever having to say anything just by the way I am and the way I live. And you're never going to know who read you. You don't know. You don't know. So when Paul says you're the only epistle that a person may ever get to read, or the only Bible, which means the only exposure to Christ may be just you as a person.

Your behavior. And it isn't some sort of planned out, written down and memorized witness or testimony. It's who you are. Yeah, I was going to say, it's more than behavior. Yeah, it's Christ in you. It's your whole essence. It's your whole demeanor. Which becomes more and more Christ-like. Right.

And I think that's why the Gospel message, or if Marshbank says the Gospel is more than just the information, it's the proclamation of the information. Okay? So what is the Gospel message? What does it declare? If it's good news, then you start with that. The proclamation is good news. Not opposed to bad news or no news, it's good news. And it's good to those who hear it and receive it. So, what is the good news about?

Christ died for our sins. 1 Corinthians 15. is the key verse. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received. I love that phrase. He uses that same phrase which we'll talk about this morning at the Lord's Table. He starts that communication out. He said, For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. He does the same thing about the Lord's Table. What was the information that he received?

First part. that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. The second part is that he was buried. Not to ask this question too many times, but why buried? No, why buried? Which proves that he died. You don't bury alive people. And he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's the gospel message, right? So, it declares the vicarious death of Christ and his bodily resurrection. And by the way, resurrection has everything to do with the body. That's what resurrection is. It's a bodily thing.

The fact that he was delivered for our offenses was raised again for our justification, which is Romans 4.25.

Therefore, if we, from the heart, believe that Jesus died and rose again, 1 Thessalonians 4.14, we are saved. Okay with that? No spiritual push-ups beyond then?

I think you have to know what he died for. what the resurrection signifies. You know, that's a great point. And I'll tell you why it's a great point. The first guy that approached me about the gospel was a guy that I had gone to Regis with, Catholic school. And he sat down across from me for lunch one day and said, Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and was raised again. I said, well, I already know that. information. He said, and I was in religion class with you at Regis. I already know about Jesus. He said, no you don't. I said, yes I do. And he said, here was the deal.

Do you believe that he died just for your sins? Just yours. You know, from a religious standpoint you could say, well he died for the sins of the whole world and it becomes kind of a general generic thing. But how about your sins? He was saying to me, it's personal to you. Did he die just for your sins? He said the answer was yes, and that started me thinking. Well, why would he do that?

So I think you're absolutely right. I think you have to have in the gospel message the reason why he died. You need to know the bad news of Genesis. You need to know the bad news. Well first you need to know you're hopeless and helpless. That's the bad news. But you have to know that or you can't appreciate the good news.

Well sure, I mean if you don't know you're lost, what do you need a savior for? If I'm walking around on a hike in the woods and I'm lost but I don't know it, I'm not looking to get out. Do you understand? And there's lots and lots of people that don't know they're lost. That was the one thing, you know, I'm not a big fan of Billy Grant's, but that's the one thing he always did.

He always set up the scenario by the first thing out of his mouth was, you're lost. You're separated from God. You know, your future isn't too good. You're probably going to a place called hell because of your sins. So, to present a savior, to present the good news, you also, I think, have to present the bad news. So, why is it necessary for the gospel to be offered to men? Why is it necessary? So they can be saved. Yeah.

Look at Romans 3.23. for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So here's the deal.

If you come to me with the gospel message, and I'm a really good guy, I don't drink, smoke, or go out with girls and do. I'm just a really nice guy. I mow my neighbor's lawn. I do all the really good stuff. And you give me the gospel message, I'm going to say back to you, I don't need it. Look at all the good stuff I do. What do I need the gospel message for? And you say back to me, well, let's take a look at your life.

What is the standard? What is the standard? In order for you to be saved, where do you have to arrive to? Where's the mark on the ladder that you have to come up to? What's this verse say? the glory, all have fallen short of the glory of God. So what's the glory of God? What is it? We were talking about this, I think, were we talking about this on Wednesday? What is the glory of God? What does glory mean? Glory is the best definition is the sum total of God's intrinsic attributes, who He is.

So Paul says in Romans 3.24, unless you have reached the status or statue of your being able to say to God, I have arrived at your glory, if you don't make it to that level, you're toast. You're going to go to and stay in hell. Does that make sense? Most people's bring the bar down. They say, well, you know, you're a bad guy or you're not good enough. But just let the Word of God do the speaking. What's the standard? The standard is the glory of God. And what's the word hamartia, which is a word for sin? What does the definition of hamartia mean? Missing the mark. What's the mark? The glory of God. How are you doing with that one? Not so good. Not so good. That's why it's really important to pay attention to the words when it comes to salvation. Because there's a lot of people who think they're really good people.

There are a lot of people who are religious people who think that they're accumulating enough merits that God is going to have to let them in. or they're obeying enough laws, or they're memorizing enough scripture, or they're climbing the ladder of sanctification. Well, you can climb that. I view the ladder of sanctification as like an escalator that's going this way and you can't walk fast enough up this way. It's the glory of God is the standard. If that starts out to be the standard, then after you become a believer, that still remains the standard. Okay. I think there's a distinct problem with many super intelligent people who think they must have a different standard. Well, they have their own standards. They're not like those people.

The best argument for Romans 3.24 is Romans 1.1 to 3.23 because what Paul does is he, that argument is so persuasive that it used to be standard fair in Harvard Law School. It's the best logical argument ever written and what Paul does is he takes man and he puts them all under sin.

And he logically says, well, how about you guys that are just walking around, no religion, not Jewish, what standard is God going to judge you by? And what's his answer? Whatever your standard is, that's what he's going to judge you by. Make up your own rules, right? He says, okay, I'll judge you by that, but you've got to come up to the glory of God by your own agenda. Then he addresses the Jews, doesn't he? And he says, well, how about you Jewish guys who have had the law and the prophets and all of that? We're going to judge you based on that. You see that? And then they judge the guys that have nothing at all. And he says, I'm going to judge you based on just the simple, you know that I exist and you need to honor me as God and be thankful.

But the standard is the glory of God. So by the time you get to 323, if you read the first three chapters of Romans and you did it from a logical standpoint, you as the prosecutor would have won the case because there's no escape. If you get busy with programs, do this, do that, attend church every Sunday. You've got to be here every Sunday and get dressed right, and look right, and talk right, and carry your Bible with you also. That's the standard by which you'll be judged.

And it's not what the Bible says. Well, and that's the issue. What is the authority? And with Catholicism, like Mormonism, like Islam, what's the final authority? Catholicism, it's the church. Mormonism, it's the church. Islam, it's the Koran. That's the final authority. With us, it's the Word of God. It's the Bible. And so that's the judgment. Because he's above all. Well, the Catholic Church, in order to keep people under their thumb, came up with their own rules. They have their own six principles.

And if you violate any one of those six, you commit these things they call mortal sins, which means they're deadly. And some of them are things like if you don't go to church every Sunday, or you don't go to church on what they call these holy days of obligation. You miss one of those, you're toast. You miss church on one Sunday unless it's absolute, you couldn't get there, you're toast.

You have to believe that the Pope is the final authority in doctrine and practice. I was just reading the other day that if you don't believe that Mary was immaculately conceived, that's a mortal sin. That's right, it is. Or you don't observe the feast day. Sure. The problem with Mary, you know what the problem with Mary is? She died. But they've elevated her above Christ. Oh, I know they have. That is awesome.

Yeah, you know why? Because she's the Jewish mom. That's why. The Jewish mom has more influence with God than God has. That's what it is. But on the other hand, God, her Savior. Yeah. That's she, not they. Yeah. Well, all you got to do is... Not the church. I'd say she. Mary. Yeah. But she wasn't part of the Catholic Church. Oh, she wasn't? Oh, I always thought she was. She knew, but they miss that, don't they? Well, the thing is that the Catholic Church is like every other organization. What is the final authority? The final authority are the teachings of the Church. It's a good thing you're home, Mom.

I'm going to tell a story about her. When I was first a believer, I went to visit her and she was really excited because she said she had prayed for me for years because I was such a dog. I knew I needed some sort of reclamation. So I become a believer, and my life changes. So I went out to visit her in Nebraska, and when I walked into her house, she's got the priest waiting for me.

And I had met this man a couple times before, and it was obvious to me that they wanted to sit down and have a discussion with me. So I said to the priest, I said, if we're going to have a discussion, do you have a Bible? He said, I do in my car. I said, go get it. We're not talking without the Bible being right here. He said, fine. So we spent a couple of hours, you know, debating things. And I said, I said, you know, I think it comes down to one issue. What is the final authority of doctrine for you?

Is it the church or is it right here in this book? He said it's the church. I said for me it's the book. That's the difference. And I said, you know, God wrote the book. Half of the stuff you believe some guy through the last 2,000 years came up with. And I can show you, especially in the last 500 years, most of what you believe was incorporated into your doctrine over the last 500 years. This is eternal.

And that was the difference. Well, it's the same thing when you talk to a Mormon. I had two Mormon guys knock on my door the other day, young men, and they start in, and I had told them that I was an elder in a Bible-believing Christian church, and their eyes lit up. They thought they had a pigeon. And I said, I can't talk to you now because we're getting ready to leave. But I said, the difference is that your final authority is the Book of Mormon, mine is the Word of God. And the Word of God prevails over anything that's written in any other book, any place, any time.

And they said, thank you very much. But you might have planted a seed. I don't know. I doubt it. It's like the Catholic Church. It's brainwashing all our lives. Very heavy indoctrination. We don't need a Bible. We have the Catechism. Oh yeah, the Catechism. Okay, question four. What is the act of Christ that affords salvation?

Romans 5.10. What was the act that afforded salvation?

Romans 5.10 says, For while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God. How? Through the death of the Son. much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. So the thing that affords salvation is the death of Christ. Why is the death of Christ such an important issue?

Why couldn't your own death do it? Or like in Les Miserables, one guy dies for another guy. Why wouldn't that work? He was the ultimate bloodsucker. And why death to start with? My mind asks weird questions like this. God sets up the program, right? Isn't this his program? Why death? It's a separation between God. That's the reason.

He said to Adam, the soul that sins it will surely die. And death means separation. So, Adam sins and what happens? He dies. he gets spiritually and positionally separated from God, right? He physically is going to die as a consequence of his sin, because God said the soul that sins is going to die. It's going to be separated from me.

I'm the source of life. So in order to bring somebody out of death back to life, there has to be another death. In other words, let me see if I can see. Let's say that These are all the pre-fall Adamic people. And they have a relationship with God. They're created in His image and likeness. And we've got Adam and Eve here. When Adam sins, he goes over here. This is the gang of separated ones.

And so all of you come from him and all of you are born separated. How is God going to get you back over here? Because you died and left this place and now you live over here. How do you get back over there? You have to die from here in order to get back to life. You see that?

But you're not worthy to die over here for your own sins. It has to be somebody who's worthy to pay the insult that your sinning did to God. So it has to be God sends Christ as only son to do the dying because you have to, once you've sinned, you've got to pay the penalty or you've got to pay the price of sinning. What's the price? It's the blood of Christ. That's what it costs.

So it's got to be, if you, if you, Insult a holy God in order to wipe out the insult God's got to take care of it himself because you're not worthy to do it I've used the example of we had dinner over at your house last night, and if their dog precious or what's his name? Famous famous precious I call him vicious no If he would bit me in the ankle Let's say bit me in the ankle and now I've been offended You he is a creature that's below me who has assaulted me, what can he do to fix it? The offense is your problem. It's my problem, but could he satisfy the insult to me? No. They would have to do it. Why?

Because we're on the same level of creation. You see that? So when we sin, who's going to satisfy God about us? It's got to be somebody who's up on God's level. Otherwise he won't be satisfied. Do you see that? So the gospel message revolves around Christ himself and that he's the only one that's worthy to satisfy a holy God. It has to be someone on God's level but it also has to be someone who is man.

That's right. And the reason it has to be someone who is man is because man was the one who did the offense. That make sense? Yeah, who came up with the idea of blood sacrifice? God did. God doesn't die, man dies. That's right. Did Jesus die? Yes. Okay.

Why blood? Why the blood? Why didn't he just say, well, we'll We'll give you the electricity. There's an old tradition that says life is in the blood, but I'm not sure that came straight from God. Why blood? It's a very simple equation. Once you take blood out of a body, what happens? You're dead. The only way to prove it is if I took all the blood out of my body, put it in a jar, what would my body be doing? He'd be laying flat on the ground with no life in it. The blood in the jar wouldn't be jumping up and down either. No it wouldn't. So the point being is that the proof of the death is to separate the body from the blood.

Do you see that? Isn't that the symbolism of Cain and Abel? Cain's offering was not a blood sacrifice? That's exactly right. That's why God has always demanded a blood sacrifice. And you know, even the Aztecs figured that out and they never had a Bible. Yeah, so that's why the blood is so important. When the high priest takes the blood into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, by bringing the blood in, he didn't bring the animal in under his arm. The blood was separated from the animal and when he sprinkled it, it proved that the animal had died. See that? That's why the blood is so important.

So it's the death of Christ that deals with the sin issue which affords the gospel the good news. That God is what? Now satisfied. That this death of Christ has totally satisfied and I'm proclaiming to you that your entrance into it is by believing what God said.

And that's what it comes down to, doesn't it? If you're sitting there as a non-believer and here comes a believer and he gives you the gospel message, what is he saying to you? Number one, you're lost. Number two, there's a way in which you can be saved. God took care of the whole problem himself by crucifying his son, burying him, and raising him from the dead. So God is now totally satisfied. What does God require of you? That you believe him. That's it. That you believe him. So, maybe I'll ask this.

This is a good time to ask this question. The non-believers over here, who, are their sins paid for? Sure. Because God had to have the sacrifice of Christ pay the entire insult. You see that? Whether they enter into it or not is not the issue. The issue is the sin, insult. It's paid. Now, but if they die without being saved, are they going to be, will their sins still be attached to them? Answer, yes, they will be. And the reason is, is because the thing that does the sinning is still attached to them and that's the sin nature. Okay? So, okay. What's that? Say that again? Yes. Yes. Both. Both.

They're not forgiven until they believe. Their sins are paid for, but they're not forgiven. That's a really important distinction. Okay, but if I believe they're forgiven? Yes. Oh, thank God. So is the gospel the only way to be saved? By believing it? Is that the only way? Yes. You sure? What if you do a trek to Jerusalem? What's that? What if you do a trek to Jerusalem and go to all the holy shrines? What if you go to Mecca on Friday? If you vacuum out the church once a week, you can be saved.

Acts 4.12 says, Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. no other name.

Romans 116, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone that believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. So, when Romans 116 says that the gospel is the power of God to salvation, what does it mean, power? Gospel is to be proclaimed because it is the word of God and such does not return void.

It requires a decision. The question I'm after is, maybe put it simpler, does it take power to save you? Eternal power. Is it the same power that raised Christ from the dead? Yeah. It takes power to save you. And the gospel itself has the power within it. Because, now listen to what Romans 1, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, the gospel itself, for it, it is the gospel, is the power of God, whose power is it? It's God's power to what? To salvation to everyone who believes. So this just isn't a weak system, this is the power of God to save you. And as you discover when you spend time in identification, position, condition, truth, boy what God has done on that cross took more power than we ever imagined. Okay, how does one enter into the good news of the gospel?

Sure, 1 Peter 1.19, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through him believes in God. Now let me ask you a question. It doesn't say believes in Jesus there, it says believes in God. who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God." It doesn't say Jesus. How come? They're one and the same. One answer is they're one and the same. Quote that again. You want me to say it again? Okay.

1 Peter 1.20 and 21 says, says, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Why God? And why not Jesus Christ? He's the one that did it. Who's the one that did it? God. And he's also the one that gives the testimony.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Let me put it this way, and I hate to do this, but I'm going to do it anyway. Let's say I'm God the Father, he's God the Son, and she's God the Holy Spirit. And we work out this deal where Bruce is going to become a man and die for the sins of the world. I'm God the Father. I make a proclamation to the world. I sent my Son to die for your sins.

He was buried and resurrected. And I say to you, do you believe me? who you focused on. My testimony. He did the work. I believe in the person and work. But I also am believing in the proclamation of God. Let me tell you why I think that's really important.

Because as a believer, when you go forward in your Christian life, our Father is going to make a whole lot more proclamations to you. And the issue is always going to be, do you believe me or not? Because that's all that's required for your whole Christian life is faith as you have begun in the Lord Jesus.

How did you start? By faith. So walk ye in him. And you know as well as I do that once you get the gospel message, the simple 1 Corinthians 15 gospel message, that's just the beginning of the good news. Isn't it? So here you are. You're a young believer. You're all excited about the fact you're saved. And one day you're reading along in your Bible and God tells you, you were baptized into Christ's death. You were buried with Christ, so that as Christ was raised from the dead, you might walk in newness of life.

What does God want you to do with that information? Believe Him. And what do we do as Christians? We say, well, I don't feel that. I've never had that experience. What the heck is he talking about? Well, what the heck was he talking about when he gave you the gospel? Did he want you to feel it? He wanted you to believe it. So, if you start on a grace basis by believing God when he makes a proclamation to you, as you go through your Christian life, he's going to make proclamations to you that are over the top.

How about when he says in Romans 8 that the creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God? How about that one? In other words, the creation is going to be released from its vanity, not by, according to this verse, not by Christ coming again, but by the revealing of the sons of God. Who are those guys? Who are the sons of God? We are. So we're tied, via the word of God, to the creation being released from its vanity. You ever think about, wow, that makes me kind of important in God's mind. In other words, He's not going to do any of this stuff without me. Isn't that right? He's not going to say, okay, Laura, you have to stay home today, but the rest of us are going to go release the creation from vanity. But you don't get to go.

No. All of the sons of God. How about all of the sons of God are led by the Spirit? You don't have to prove you're led to be a son. What it says is that because you are a son, You're led. How about all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. There's a proclamation. Is that true? Who do you believe about that?

You believe your Father because He told you. You may never have experienced any of this. That has nothing to do with it. It's called positional truth. You see that? If this were a court of law, this would be the father's testimony. That's exactly right. It's the father's testimony about his son. So who do you believe? The father. And yeah, they're one. Jesus said the father and I are one. If you've seen me, you've seen the father.

But the testimony is the father's testimony about his son. So your faith is in him, the person. Testimony is part of it, but the faith is in the person. What is the condition placed upon by God on man, man's part for the gospel? Does God give this, maybe I should ask it this way, does God place a condition on the gospel to men? Say that again. Does God put a condition on the gospel for men to have a part in it?

Hebrews 4.2 says, for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. When the writer of Hebrews says to us as well as to them, what does he mean? He means to us Jews as well as to those Gentiles. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith for those who heard it.

There's 115 passages in the New Testament that condition salvation on believing. There's 35 of them that just talk about simple faith. Maybe we ought to talk a few minutes about faith. When you're presented with a testimony by God either through the Word or primarily through the Word and you know that your response is by faith, what is that about? How do you go at that? I'm not asking that very well. Let's say you're presented with Well, you were crucified with Christ.

Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. And the life I now live in this body, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now here's a fact. I have been crucified with Christ.

Everything in your experience goes against that fact. Am I right about that? Is there anything in your experience when you first come upon that verse that would say to you, what do you mean crucified? Nothing has ever changed about my living condition since the day I was saved. I'm still the same old body. I don't remember being crucified. I sure don't feel crucified.

And God says, and you say, but I've heard Mike mention this in Sunday school, that when God presents me with a fact, I'm supposed to believe it. So what is your believing about? How do you do that? Well, it's in the Bible, so you believe it. But what does believe mean? You trust Him. You trust Him that it's true. You put your faith and trust in the facts. And why would you do that?

I mean, yeah, I believe that God saved me because Christ died on the cross for my sin, but I'm not so sure about this thing that I died with Him. Because my life sure doesn't indicate that I died with him. And when I was saved, boy, there was all kinds of unbelievable evidence that I really needed to believe in Christ as my Savior. And I died with him? Any evidence to corroborate that?

Well, you're a new person in Christ, so you're thrown away the old. How do you know that? Because I know me. Well, being a new person, how do you know about the new person thing? Is it thoughts? Beliefs. No, how did you find out that you were a new person? From you. From reading the Bible. One out of three. From reading the Bible. You know more than me. The proclamation comes to us from the word of God. And so God never changes his requirement of us. It's always the same that we're to believe him.

Right? So the definition of faith is it's a substance of things hoped for and it's the evidence or the proof of the things not seen. What happens is with your faith, when you take God's just at, your raw faith buys the statement. Right? You have no emotion, no experience, no collaboration other than you just, God said it and that's good enough for me and I'm going to believe him. Okay? and here you stand there just raw faith. What happens? You've responded in what God wanted you to do. And he wants you to do that about every fact. So is that the end of it? That's the start of it.

Because if you look at Hebrews 11.2.

What is Hebrews 11.2?

Somebody quickly go there. This is a great verse and I think a lot of Christians today could benefit by this verse. by it the elders obtained a good report, and then through faith we understand that the world is refrained by the word of God. I'm focusing in on verse 2. What? I'm focusing in on verse 2.

By it, the King James says, by it the elders obtained a good report. Now somebody else other than the King James read verse 2 and see if we can get clearer. By it the men of old gained approval. Wow, they gained approval. But that verse doesn't mean that they got approved. What got approved? Here's the thing. Once you believe, what does the Spirit of God do? He proves to you that your faith wasn't in vain. He gives you witness about what you believe. I have written in here that they were witnessed about it by the Holy Spirit.

That's right. That's exactly right. And the best example of that is I'm assuming that everybody in this room is absolutely persuaded that they're saved, right? Are you persuaded that I'm saved? No, you're not. No, you're not. Are you wasting your time? What I mean is that the Spirit of God has persuaded you that you're saved. He hasn't persuaded you that I'm saved. You understand what I'm saying? You think I am, and I'm convinced I am, but I'm not so sure about you. Because the Spirit of God hasn't confirmed in my heart that you're safe. But He has you. He's confirmed it to me.

And so that's what I think that verse says, is that when you believe God, no matter what it is, He's going to confirm in your heart that your faith is real. And that now these incredible facts that aren't seen, are in fact the evidence of who God is and what He is all about. You see that? The Spirit witnesses to us that we are sons of God. Yeah, they witness to us that we are the children, we are the legitimate offsprings of God.

I had lunch with a guy this week. He says to me, I'm 70% convinced. It sounds funny, right? But here's what I said to him. I said, has the Spirit of God ever witnessed to you that you are a son? He said, yeah, yes. I said, then it's 100%. He said, why? I said, because if you weren't a son, there would never be any witnessing. You can be 70% persuaded from God's percentage you're in. And you can dance around with percentages all you want. It's either nothing or all. Right? There is no witness of the Spirit to a non-believer. None. See that?

He said, well, most of the time I think on the sun. I said, it only takes once. Once, and you're in. He kind of looked at me like, oh boy, my grading on the curve probably isn't so good. I said, you know, you need to take God at His word, all of His word, and stop filtering it through how you feel about it. So, to sum up here, Take the identification truths. When the Holy Spirit reveals to you exactly what they mean, wow, I really did get crucified with Christ. I really was buried. I've already died. And I'm now resurrected. I'm seated in Christ in the heavenlies.

When it comes time for my physical departure from the planet, all it is is the next step in my life. Well, if you believe that, you better sit down and hang on, because you're going for a ride. The Spirit of God is going to come and confirm in you that those truths are really part of who you are. And probably it's going to be a rough ride at first. You see that? Because if it's just a bunch of rhetoric to you, It's going to be really nice when you arrive at the point one day when you say, wow, Lord, you did the right thing with me. You did crucify me.

You do get to Galatians 2.20 and you do say, I have been crucified with Christ. Hallelujah. That's a wonderful fact. But when you first learned it, you were thinking, well, I better take God at His word. I don't know really what He means. But He will show it to you. He will persuade you. And that's why faith is so important.

Okay, we will pick up. We went to another subject. Next week we'll continue on, but one of the things we're going to do next week, and you might be thinking about this, is we're going to talk about how many Gospels are there, and when were they proclaimed, and what do we do about it. Okay, let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word, how we thank you for your Son, and how we thank you for your Spirit who teaches us, Father. And we thank you, we thank you for the life we have in the Lord Jesus, and we pray in his name. Amen.