Identification Truths Plus 2012

So this morning we're going to talk about position and condition. Everybody's got a handout, right? So the first question on here is, what are the five parts of the work of Christ related to identification and the life of the believer? And give their biblical addresses. So we're talking about the identification truths. We've been talking about the identification truths. And it shouldn't be five, it should be six. So apologies for that. What are the six parts of identification?

I'll give you the first one. Crucifixion. Crucified with Christ. So what are they? And we'll talk about the addresses. Buried. Huh? Buried. Okay, so we're crucified. Actually, the next one is death. Oh, really? Yeah, so we died with Christ. Oh, yeah. Funny thing is the chair is blocking my clicker from clicking. There we go. So, crucifixion. And we're going to dig into these more.

So the first one is Crucifixion in Romans 6. So if you've got your Bibles or an electronic Bible or something, let's go ahead and turn to Romans 6 and we'll read these as we go through just to make sure that everybody's got the passage in mind. So the first part of the work of Christ on the cross that we were identified with was Crucifixion, Romans 6. If you get there, read it out loud. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, then henceforth we should not serve sin. Okay. So we were crucified with him. So that's the first point.

The next one is that we have death, and death is Romans 6.8. Fortunately, if you were at 6.6, it shouldn't be hard to find 6.8. And he says, now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. So death being the second part.

So we're going to do these expositional bits like this and then we'll get into some questions. I'm not trying to change things too radically from the way Mike and Courtney have been teaching. This is your place. Yeah, well, but at the same time I don't want it to be a culture shock.

So after crucifixion and death, what's next? What happened to Christ next? Burial. Burial, okay. And then Romans 6.4 actually tells us that we were buried with him.

So if you're there, someone go ahead and read Romans 6.4 out loud. We were buried, therefore, with him by the baptism in the dead, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so he too might habitually live and have in newness of life, and behave in newness of life. OK. So we were buried with him. All right. So we have a crucifixion, death, burial, and then what's the next? Resurrection. That's right. Resurrected. So resurrection.

And we're going to go to Colossians 3.1 for this. No, but about 6.4. Pardon?

6.4. 6.4 also taught, that's the thing is that it's all over the place, but we're going to go to Colossians 6.1 just because we can. Don't take it personally.

Colossians chapter 3. Now if I ever teach a lesson and I don't go to Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 through 3, you'll know that I need to go see a doctor or something's very wrong. It's time to pray for rain. Colossians 3 verse 1 says, therefore if you've been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

So we have been raised up with Christ. So everybody feels comfortable with that? Not reading too much into the text? Now what's after the resurrection? Ascension. Alright, and this is the tricky one. So get ready for the tricky part. It's giving me volume up. That's because I pushed the wrong button.

Ascension is actually inferred. What's interesting about Ascension is that Paul Nowhere and Peter Nowhere and John Nowhere actually says If you look at Ephesians 2, 4 through 6, it's inferred. And actually, as you looked at when you were reading in Romans chapter 6, it's inferred. Because Christ was ascended, it just doesn't say that we ascended with him anywhere in the text. So I want to be careful when you see ascended, or when you're talking about this with any believer, and they say, well, where are the Bible verses? This is inferred, but not explicitly stated. It says we're seated in heavenly places in Christ. Does that kind of apply at all? And that's it. That's part of the inference. So that's part of it. But when Christ ascended, because we're identified with him, we ascended with him. And so, then what's the last? Where's Christ right now? He's seated. And we just read that, so we kind of lucked out, right? As much as one can be lucky at church.

Randy, can we go back for a second? Sure. Essentially, you said it's not explicit, but inferred, Ephesians 2, 6 says, and raises up with him. That's right. But the raising is more about resurrection. Okay. And that's why I said, if you look at 4 through 6 there, and we didn't actually read it, which we should do. Nick, would you mind reading 4 through 6 there?

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So the inferences there, the raised is actually probably more accurately describing resurrection. That being said, We don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about ascension being inferred.

The truth of the matter is that we're really more concerned about the number six or F there, the seating. So the question that's number two on there is what is the significance of F or the seating in the list above as it's related to identification and position? And I'm not going to answer that. It's somebody else's job. Our position is in the heavenlies. So our position, we get the idea of position from being identified with Christ who is seated in the heavenlies.

So position is, you won't find our vocabulary word position in the text of scripture. And that's just an important detail because sometimes when you find a doctrine like the Trinity, the word Trinity doesn't show up in the text description. But the doctrine of position, we use the word position to describe really what is a group of doctrines that are tied to our being identified with Christ all the way up into this scene. I don't know if it matters, but is there any point in time that position became the word to use? Its relevancy, as far as I know, is in probably the last hundred or so years with the Brethren, or 150 or so years with the Brethren movement, it became more common.

Unfortunately, and we're going to get into this a bit more, unfortunately legalism in the works has been so prevalent in the church for the last 2,000 years that people were distracted by a lot of other doctrines. Let's look at the Catholic Church. How were you saved in the Catholic Church? Or how are you saved in the Catholic Church? Being a member of the Catholic Church? You've got to be a member, you've got to be baptized, you've got to go through, jump through all the hoops, right? And do all the things.

So it was way more important for the reformers to deal with the issue of can you actually be saved and can you know it for sure and can you keep it? Because the position didn't matter if you couldn't even get saved. But once we dealt with the issue of salvation, then we need to actually talk about some other doctrines. And we'll get into that over the next today and next week. Lord willing. If the rapture happens, I apologize if I'm late for class.

But we have this issue here where seeding and identification lead us to position. And you can't separate identification, which of course is the overarching topic of this class, from position. But position is related and is a set of doctrines that we're going to go over those or some of those this morning and next week. We're going to start by talking about position this week primarily and then we'll get into position and condition more next week.

The first time I was introduced to position and condition it was like drinking from a fire hose. It was too much awesome doctrine at once and I couldn't take it all in, so I'm trying to break this down into two parts. Hopefully it's clear and if it's not, for whatever reason, raise your hand and tell me to say something again. Alright, so we keep using the term position and then also I use the term condition a little bit, so let's define those things.

Who can define position? Off the top of your head or from the best that you know? Location. Location. Okay. That's an important detail. Location. If Mike were here, that'd be probably the most important detail. He's in real estate, right? Any other thoughts, guesses, conjecture? It's how God sees you. It's how God sees you. Okay. That's an important detail of that.

I've got a working definition here and I'll go ahead and read this out loud, but then we're going to talk even further about elements of position. I have here, our position is our heavenly standing before God through identification with Christ on the cross, making us complete in Christ.

When you receive Jesus Christ by faith, the 34 things, and we'll talk about that in a second, are unconditionally promised to you as a member of the body of Christ, the church, as stated in God's holy word. If you go on the website to hollyhillsbiblechurch.org forward slash the hyphen positional hyphen truths or you just go to the website on the top right hand part of the page you'll see positional truths there's a link just click on that and it'll go over the 34 things or you'll see them there Mike and Courtney and I can't remember who else taught with them actually went over the 34 things I have gone over the 34 things with Roger and my brother-in-law Kurt and I think one other teacher. It may have been Jeremy Doan. So we have several recordings online that have gone over the 34 things and it's a long enough list that I'm just going to call it the 34 things and you'll have to forgive me that That's not as descriptive as it could be, but it has to do with our being sons, being adopted, being sons, being a new creation, and a whole list of 34 things that are true of the believer upon faith. And so it's really important on a longer term level to just have a familiarity with what the scripture says is true of the believer. One really important This is a picky thing and I don't even know if it makes sense. If there's a difference or not.

But it seems like it would be our position as our heavenly seating. It makes it sound more like we're seated there and we're not trying to jump up and do anything. Well, we're not jumping up and doing anything per se. No, I don't know. I'm not sure if I understand. I guess it's just the difference between Seated versus standing. Is it the same thing? Well, when I use the word standing, it has to do with almost like an accounting term. Not like prostrate. Seated. Standing. Not in a human... It's just a word thing. It's a vocabulary variance.

You know, the main thing that I've learned is that It has to do with, we are perfect, absolutely, the righteous of God in Christ Jesus, and that is our position. We stumble, fumble, and fall on the earth, that's our condition. And so... Yeah, and we're going to get into condition. So, we're getting ahead. It's okay though. No, I thought with the seated thing, it seemed like it's a position of rest. It is definitely a position of rest. It comes...

See, how much Since Christ did all the work, how much do you get to contribute? Zero. Zero dollars. Your currency is by default, and that's a good thing, is grace. Which he gave to you and you can return back with more grace. But the only thing we have as currency in the life of the believer is grace. Which unfortunately is just completely infinitely valuable and so we can never repay for, right? So let's keep moving forward as we talk about position.

Let's take a look at 2 Corinthians 5.17.

Paul writes, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. And so we see that with position comes being a new creation. That's part of the 34 things in fact. The next verse on there is Acts 17, 28. For in him we live and move and exist as even some of your own poets have said for we also are his children.

So again, who is Who is walking in the flesh in this context? It's a trick question. Don't worry about it. Who's walking in the flesh? Not the believer. The believer is called to a new life, right? We're living in a new... So this is not talking about earthly conditional things. This is talking about heavenly things. There's a heavenly life.

So position is tied in there. And lastly, we'll look at Ephesians 2, 6, and 10. And then we're going to take a look at some other elements. So that answer would be kind of like, in Christ, we're always walking in the Spirit. Positionally, we are always in the heavenly places. It's not fluctuating. I've got a chart. It's the last slide on my deck here. I've got a chart that I hope kind of visually illustrates the differences between position and condition in their relationship. I think that will be valuable.

So Ephesians 2, 6 and 10. Go ahead and read out loud please. And faith raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Alright, so position has a connection with condition. He's talking about earthly behavior and earthly actions. So position has a connection with condition. So we need to talk about a few more things with position and then we'll take a deeper look at condition because we need to define that next. I want to talk about the elements of position and this is a long list. I could ask you to to guess what they are, but that's probably going to take a long time. So we'll just go over them relatively quickly.

The first thing is that your position is immutable. Does anybody use the word immutable with any regularity? I use it in software development. So as a nerd, it's just like, hey, I know what that means. Just in case you don't, because maybe you're not using that word regularly, immutable means unchangeable. How would immutability matter to the life of anybody who's a believer?

You can't lose your salvation. You can't lose your position. How many of you have heard the term backslidden Christian? Or even that you've lost your salvation. Those are terms that get used. The thing is that positionally you are immutably linked to Christ. It can't be changed. And that's a big deal. Since you're identified with Christ, what's the reverse of salvation? What would Christ have to do for you to lose your salvation? Undo all he did. You look at question one and look at F and you say, okay, well he's got to stand up and stop sitting.

And then E, he's got to unascend, which I guess the word is descend. He'd have to be reburied and So instead of being resurrected, you have to re-die, and then be buried, and then undie and resurrect, but back into... It doesn't work. It's a real problem logistically.

Just kind of on human terms, it would be like, God gave us this awesome gift and then he asked for it back. You know, like, oh, I'm gonna take it back. And you have to redefine grace. Grace can't be the unlimited, unmerited blessings of God through the totally adequate work of Christ. Then it's like the mostly sufficient sum-of-the-time work of Christ. And then it's not unlimited either. In any case, you don't have grace. It's problematic. So it's immutable.

The object of our faith, when we looked at Colossians, he said, set your mind on things above where Christ is seated in the heavenlies. The object of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our position is where our faith is called to be looking. Position is the same for every believer.

And I think that's a really important thing. If you're a brand new babe in Christ, or you've been a believer for 75 years, your position is the same. When we talk about condition, we're going to see that that's different. It's perfect. Your position is perfect. Does God need to add to it? Do we get to add anything to our position? What if I chip in 20 bucks? I'm sure the Lord could use the money, right?

Televangelists said so. There are facts. You look at the 34 things, they're facts. They're not promises. They're not things that might happen. There's no condition in it. When God promised the nation of Israel to the Jews that came in, the land of Israel to the Jews that came in, there were conditions on it, weren't there? The law came with conditions, and it was, in part, the system of conditions. Positional truths are not that, are not promises, and they're not conditional. They're based on grace. Again, we talked about grace just a few moments ago, but it's really important that we understand that we don't get to contribute anything. They're the source of the Christian life.

The believer is supposed to be walking in the Spirit, and our position is what allows us to do that technically. And it's established in the Father's presence at the cross. We were identified at the cross. We were identified with the death. We were identified with the burial and the resurrection, ascension, and seating. And so the presence at the cross, our presence at the cross was there. What my dad has said a couple times, the cross was crowded because we were there, we were identified. All right, so we've talked about position. Did everybody get those? Were there things that you wanted to write down? That's why I put them on the slides is because I wanted to make it easier for people to write stuff down. And can we also get those online? I haven't put them online yet.

I could do that very easily. That'd be great. So yeah, I know the webmaster. That's a joke because I am the webmaster. So let's define condition. Now that we've talked about position, what's the condition? Anyone? It's what I'm doing right now. It's what you're doing right now, okay. It changes. It changes, okay. Ah, you guys are learning. This is good. Adapting to a position is this.

So here's my definition, my working definition for condition. Our condition presently refers to our earthly state. It involves the soul, body, and spirit of the believer. However, in the future, our condition will be united with our position in the heavenlies.

Our condition will be impacted as we are conformed to the image of Christ, as Romans 8.29 tells us. So, if our condition is not the same as our position, how do we reconcile that?

That's kind of a challenge. I remember, at least as a new I believe we're newly exposed to the idea of position and condition. This isn't on the handout questions, sorry. This is off the cuff. I'm wearing long sleeves, so I actually have cuffs, so it makes sense to say that. How do we reconcile the difference between position and condition? Because I feel like I'm here. Suffering. Suffering. Oh no. Is it that our Our position is our spiritual position. Our condition is related to the fact that we still have a sin nature dwelling within our bodies. It's not eradicated.

Okay. And so... That's a good answer. We as a person can choose to believe and walk in the spirit or we can choose to disbelieve and walk in the flesh and that would be our condition whether we're walking in the spirit or walking in the flesh. Okay. That's a good answer.

Fundamentally, here's the deal, here's the distinction. What did we say about position that was, let me see if I can go backwards easily. This one right here on the laser pointer, it says facts not promises. The scriptures tell us this is true of us. It's not feelings based, it's not emotional. That's an important detail.

Because there are times, especially after I sin, maybe you've noticed this in yourself, where you really wrestle with the fact that you sinned. And you go, oh man, I feel super guilty. And if I just feel guilty long enough, God will want me back. I know it will be OK. Because I'm feeling one way. But position is not about feeling. It's about the facts that are outlined in scripture that God says are true of the believer. All right, so we've got a definition of condition. Let's take a look.

We already looked at Colossians 3.1 and we even looked at Ephesians 2.

Let's look at Ephesians 6.10. If you left off where we were last, your Bible should be in Ephesians already. Paul writes, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And then he goes on to talk about the spiritual armor that we have. Does he talk about the spiritual armor and the strength of his might, because we've got to do something.

We're not seated. We've got to stand and do something. Come on, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I didn't know what that term meant. I was a little boy. I was at Sunday school at church. This is in Anderson Valley. And this woman, Emily, said, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. your own bootstraps, and I thought that was really cool, so I sat down and I had some cowboy boots on, so that was convenient. And I couldn't do it, and I just was totally baffled by why I wasn't strong enough. I thought, maybe when I'm as big as my dad, I can pull myself up by my own bootstraps. But it turns out you just can't do that. You can't do that in the flesh, and we're not called to do that in Christ. We couldn't do it even if we wanted to.

So how do we take a look at this Ephesians 6.10 passage And what's the appropriation or the application of this?

Be strong in the Lord, in the strength of His might. Is that a positional statement? Is that talking about our position or is it talking about our condition? It's in the condition section. It is conditional. But it has implications from position. Your position is in Christ. You are in God's supervision and God's character. So you can be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might because you positionally have it, but it impacts your condition.

So let's take a look at the elements of condition. Oh, I didn't do the fade in with the bullet points. Sorry about that. So the elements of condition, it's an experiential aspect of the Christian walk. Everybody familiar with the word experiential? I always hate it when you use a $5 word because it's like, oh no. What does he mean? Alright, so experiential. It's what we experience. It's the aspect of our Christian walk that feels like something.

It's dependent upon our position. Our condition still is dependent on our position. If you don't have your position figured out, you can't be dependent on it. It's variable. It changes at any given time. If I'm walking in the flesh, is my position impacted? No. But it does impact my condition. I got head nods. I interpreted that for Laura. It's not the same for every believer.

If you're a babe in Christ, how is your position? Perfect. It's secure. It's perfect. That's the word. Perfect. It's immutable. But your condition is going to be that of a babe. You're still growing. When you're a brand new believer, or frankly this is still sometimes true of people who have been believers for decades, Do you know God's Word? Probably not. You're probably going to have to learn it. You're going to have to become familiar with what is there. Do you know all of the things that are true of you in your position yet? No. You're going to learn those things. So it's variable and it changes given time.

It's not the same for every believer, but And this is the Romans 8.29 passage. God's promises that he will work the facts of our position into our condition. This is the connection. This is where the two pieces come together. Our condition, our experience, the things that we find to be normal for our lives is going to change as the Lord reveals things that are true of us in Christ. Holly? Maybe that's like one of the good things of heaven too. It's like you're done learning. Because learning is stressful. And to be in a position to where you're not learning anymore. You didn't learn it if you weren't stressed. Wow. This is one of the things.

So what we're talking about is spiritual growth as a principle. One of the things I think is really awesome is that it is super cool to be a babe in Christ because God has given you older believers. And it's super cool to be an older believer because God has given you babes in Christ. And you can come together and you can come alongside and you can be like, wow, I used to have a dirty diaper like that. Let's talk about this. Who are you in Christ? Let's talk about this. And so you grow together.

And the other thing is, how hard can you be on another believer and judge the snot out of them if you understand that their condition has grown? Nobody wants to throw stones? Don't rock throwing this morning? You can't come down and do a little bit of spiritual beat-up time on somebody if you realize that they're growing.

You can come alongside them and then what do you get to do? What's the appropriate response? Lift them up and teach them. Help them to walk. You come alongside and you encourage them and edify them. Why? Because you know that they're growing. You know that conditionally they're growing. Your position is secure. You can rest in that. Now let's talk about condition.

And I guess for teachers then too, because I've always been on the learning side, is that to be in heaven and not to be teaching anymore, because that's a responsibility too, that has its own stresses when you try to teach. There's some of that for sure. It would be nice to just not have that. Well let me ask you this, do we get to stop learning in heaven? I think it would be more, because in our condition we're just We try, try, try, try so much, the trying part won't probably be there. Yeah, so you're right, there will be less stress involved.

In Ephesians 2.7 Paul writes, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. In all eternity he's going to continue to reveal his grace to us, which means we're going to still be learning about grace. Peter's admonition to always be learning about, knowing more, and growing in our knowledge of Christ Jesus and in grace. That will be true eternally. So there will still be learning, but it will not be the stressful kind. It will be the rejoicing, worshiping, praising the Lord kind. Alright, we're starting to run out of time here, but that's okay. So how does the doctrine, okay, we've used the term federal headship a few times over the last five weeks. How does the doctrine of federal headship tie into position?

Does everybody remember federal headship? Adam was our federal head until Christ was our federal head. He was the representative type. Remember we talked about animals have descendants that are of their type from Genesis. So how does the doctrine of federal headship tie into position? Before we were, our position was in Adam, and now that our federal head is Christ, now we're positioned in Christ.

That's right. So it's a really important concept, because if you start to think about, again, the concept of spiritual growth and how you're dealing with things, if you don't recognize that your federal head is in Christ, that you've been justified, then this becomes confusing or seems irrelevant entirely. Your federal head actually defines your position. That's right, your federal head defines your position.

That's a great way of saying that. Now here's another question, and if you've been paying attention during the main service over the last couple months, you might have heard the answer to this, but we'll talk about it anyways. If we were united with Christ when he died, did that union change our identity, personal history, and future? And then you have to explain it.

You can't just say yes or no. Hopefully you can start with yes or no. Let's ask it this way. How many people think it did not change your identity, personal history, and future? Go ahead and raise your hands. Nobody's raising their hands. Alright, so how many people think that it did change your identity? Please. Some? Undecided? Okay, so explain. Now somebody has to tell me why that is.

Well, I guess because when we put our faith in Jesus and our position became immutable, and we were identified as Death Barrel Reservation. We're eternally secure. We're destined for heaven. We're not going to hell. Our future is rosy versus horrible. Okay. Well, let's ask this this way.

Did the part of you that has earthly conditional history die and be crucified with Christ? Or is it still fully functional? Kind of like the Sin Nature? It's our federal head, Adam. It was crucified with Christ, but it's still living in here. Well, we have the Sin Nature still fighting for attention.

I thought Courtney's illustration of the captain tied to the mast, he's been condemned. They're just waiting to take him to port for final justice to be executed. And he's in bondage, he's strapped to the mast, and he's still yelling. Hey! Hey! You know, furl the sails or unfurl the sails. You can tell I don't know much about boats. But you have this deposed captain, and he's still wrestling for your attention. But as far as your position is concerned, because you're identified with Christ, your history is Christ's history. Let me ask it yet another way. When God looks at your sins of the past, we're going to look one direction only. When he looks at the sins of your past, how does he see them? Are they monuments to your folly? Are they a giant structure, a statue of your screw-up? They're obliterated. It's actually even crueler than obliteration. As far as east is from the west and they're behind his back.

What do we know about justification? What does justification tell us about our sins? It's just as if we never sinned. It's just as if we never sinned. And even more than that, it's just as if we did the right thing. And even more than that, Christ's grace, or works from the cross, are poured out at that point in time. And what happens when grace gets poured out? The angels worship the Lord.

So what would Satan do when he looks at your sins? He'd throw a little party and say, you should feel guilty. What does God do with your sins? He makes a monument, but it's not a monument to your folly. He makes a monument that says, I paid for that. And the angels worship him. Satan wants your sin to be only negative all the time with long-standing wrestling in your heart and mind.

And God says, no, I took care of that, and in fact, I was worshipped because I took care of that. So your position is a pretty sweet deal. It works out well for you. So it changes our history, it changes our identity, and it changes our future. So even future sins will be taken care of.

Alright, now here I'm looking for examples of positionally bad theology. If you know that your position is secure and you know that your condition has no impact on your position, what kind of bad theological statements have you heard or could you have made yourself? I'm certainly guilty of that. If you didn't understand a position. You can lose your salvation. You can lose your salvation. You have to work to get it. You have to work to get it. You have to keep the Ten Commandments. Keep the Ten Commandments.

That's a good one. I heard that all the time as a kid. pleasing God with good works. Yeah, I gotta please God. I have some examples up here, but those are all good ones. If God doesn't give me one more thing, I still owe Him everything. It sounds so good. I need to owe God something. That's the first note. But that's not the case, is it? What part of me does He not already own? I'm of his type now.

My currency is grace. I've got nothing I bring to the table. This actually is a quote from a pastor out of Tennessee that I read this week and I was just shocked so I had to steal it. Christians need to be trying or need to try to be good. Christians should do whatever they want since it's covered by grace. That's positionally bad too. It's the other side.

Christians are viewed by God as sinners. It doesn't mean that Christians don't still sin, but does God view you as a sinner? Does He look at you and say, you're a sinner, you're a sinner. He's doing a headcount at church, and still sinners. He's really doing a headcount at people who aren't at church, and they're really still sinners, right?

No, that's not positionally true. When God is angry at me, I feel distant from Him. Is that conditional or a positional attitude? It's conditional. And it's not right. How many hoops do you have to jump through so that God will be happy with you again? Zero. Isn't that why the people you sometimes read about crawl on their knees for a mile? Well, and unfortunately it's true. They feel like they've got to do some...

If I feel bad enough, God will really be able to deal with this. He'll know I'm serious and He'll want me back. It's merit, basically. If I feel guilty enough, and that's what this quote is about, if I feel guilty enough for long enough, I know God knows I'm sorry and will take me back. Your position is a done deal in Christ. You should feel zero guilt, because guilt is the flesh saying, I want to be in control.

I remember the first time I heard Mike say, God doesn't care how sorry you are. Oh yeah, that's a good quote. What does that mean? God doesn't care how sorry you are. It is actually very freeing to understand that I don't have to crawl on my knees for a mile, or whatever I think the penance might be, but that God just wants me to say, yep, that was sin, let me get my eyes back on you. Yeah, I just need to be setting my mind on things above the Colossians passage. You don't have to repent for anything? No. And turn around? Repentance is just a change of mind.

So yes, in the technical sense, yes, you're changing your mind, but you're just agreeing with the Lord. Because as you grow in Christ, you realize things that you... Well, if repentance is required for restored fellowship, you better have a really good video camera system that's always watching you, and something that can read your mind, that's always checking every thought of yours, so that you can have a good list to be repentant of. Instead, the Lord wants us, if we're going to talk about the word repentance, he wants us to say, Lord, I'm sorry, I've been walking in the flesh.

And that's the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit restores us to fellowship. Otherwise you wouldn't even know. Otherwise you'd be just like, la la la. The flesh feels guilty and it wants you to feel guilt and feel bad about yourself. The Holy Spirit draws us to conviction to restore fellowship. It sounds similar in the sense that you realize something's not right. But the flesh wants to hold on and put a flag down and stay there and be king of the hill, even though it has no authority to do so. But the Holy Spirit draws us back to fellowship and says, hey, let's be friends again.

I think that often we think repentance is going to take a long period of time. No, it's instantaneous. Oh yeah, wait, that was sin. Okay, Lord, I believe you. I want to walk with you. That's repentance. That's it. It's just a quick, you know, I realize I wasn't walking by the Spirit, but I am now. Because He already paid for the things that you'd be sorry for. You don't need to remind Him. It's not like He'd missed it. Oh, I forgot that you did that.

So it's an attitude adjustment. It is not a change of feeling, you know, I've got to feel woeful and sorry. Here's a chart that I put together some time ago. Actually, it was inspired by one of the lessons in the men's Bible study that Mike led on Tuesday. This is coming on about nine years or eight years ago.

But at the top you see position. And here's the cross in the middle where salvation took place. But our position was in Adam up until salvation. And then our position became in Christ because we were identified with Christ. And our condition, as you can see, we were walking in sin. We had no choice.

Can the Adamic old man do anything else but sin? I mean, he can do some nice things, but they're just putting lipstick on a pig. Which is really bad. Thanks, Sarah. Sarah Palin. Oh, I apologize for that. That wasn't a political reference. I have no idea what she does. I stay away from politics. So then we talk about spiritual growth. During spiritual growth, and this is an overly simplified chart for the sake of space and time, but we walk in fellowship.

And while we're walking in fellowship, the Lord wants us to grow in the truths that are revealed in scripture. And so hopefully we're growing. And then we reach a point where maybe conditionally, again because our position is secure, we make a mistake and we sin. We're walking in the flesh. And for that time, we're not walking in fellowship, but our position is secure. And then we realize, oh no, I'm walking in the flesh. And so we say, Lord, sorry about that, I'm back. And so we continue to grow again. And this process of growing as we're abiding is called sanctification. So, and that happens all the way until death or the rapture. At which point in time our condition will be unified with our position? And that's really important.

Is the person who's lost unified positionally and conditionally? Is the person who's lost, a non-believer, unified positionally and conditionally? What's their position? In Adam. And what's their condition? So they're unified. Unfortunately it's not a very useful unification. You could say I've got a really great classic car in my driveway. Really cool. How fast does it go? Well it doesn't have an engine. It's not very useful. But it is a classic car. Now the last thing I've got on the chart here is the will. And I think this is just a useful chart to talk about. the volition of the believer.

In position up until salvation, the old man was in charge and the sin nature, the old nature was involved. But at the cross, the old man was crucified with Christ and was deposed and lost all authority and power. And we became new men or women in Christ. And so we're able to be guided by the Holy Spirit. But our human will still makes the choice whether or not it's going to be abiding or walking in the flesh. Whether we're going to be paying attention to the new nature, which is led by the Holy Spirit, or the old nature, even though it's been dethroned.

It's listening to that captain that's been strapped to the mast. He goes, hey, tie that knot better. See how I avoided an actual sailing turn? And then we have the old nature that, but as soon as we realize that, oh my gosh, I've been listening to the stupid guy who's been tied to the mast, We don't have to go to the captain and apologize for the list of dumb things we did. We just make sure we start obeying orders and walk in fellowship with the captain who's in charge.

And that goes on. But the cool thing is that you see the old nature? It actually ends at the same time as death or the rapture. It stops having any influence whatsoever at that point in time. So all of the wrestlings we have conditionally no longer exist as a problem.

So I've gone over past the second bell. If you turn your handout over, you'll see that you've got next week's questions. There should be about 14 of them there. And we'll go over those next week. And we'll talk about the application of position to condition. And we'll talk about those things in greater detail. Hopefully Mike and Courtney will be back so they can tell me all the things I missed. You'll also see on our handout that there are some questions we didn't get to, some true and false, and position and condition questions, number seven and eight. So go ahead and do those over the week, and if you can, do the other one.

Let's close and fur, and I have to actually go upstairs and tune a guitar. Actually, I hope I don't have to tune it because it stayed in tune, but it might have to be tuned. Heavenly Father, we come before you and we thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you that our position is sealed in your son and that we are seated with you in the heavenlies. We pray for a week where we are setting our minds on things above and we thank you for your strength and your hope and your power and encouragement. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.