Identification Truths Plus 2012
Courtney Hemenway · Sep 16, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 36
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492632749559

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

So we are on lesson 19. This is our third lesson on grace. I want to go through the verses. We have a bunch of verses listed up there. Romans 3, 9. Romans 6, 14. Galatians 5, 1-4. Romans 5, 15. Titus 2, 11-12. Ephesians 2, 4-8. And 1 John 4, 7-9. Can we get people to read those? Can we start? I've got the first one, though. Okay, you got the first one? Yeah. Second, you're 3-9? Yes, sir. Oh, you don't? Yeah. I can't give you mine. No, I don't. 6-14, Romans 6-14. Do you want to go Galatians 5, 1-4? Sure. Romans 5-15. Titus 2, 11-12. Ephesians 2, 4-8. And 1 John 4, 7-9. All right. Romans 3-9. What then, are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

Romans 6.14? For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Pretty clear.

Galatians 5.1-4? Is that you?

Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole lot. Christ is become of no effect unto you, Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye have fallen from grace.

Romans 5 But the free gift is not like the offence, for by the one man's offence many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. For the grace of God that it brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved, and God raised us up with Christ. and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Jesus Christ. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. That's number nine. Okay, that's fine. You can throw the extra in, that's all right. First John four. Seven and nine.

Let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God for God is love. For this, the love of God was manifest in us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world. that we might live through him.

Okay, a bunch of good verses. We're going to be using those all through this lesson, so we'll be coming back to those. So, question one. What is the design of grace, or what is it supposed to accomplish? I think freedom. Freedom. Okay. What else? What we couldn't accomplish. What? What we couldn't accomplish? What we could not accomplish. I like that. What else? What couldn't we accomplish? What we couldn't accomplish by ourselves. What? The grace, the system. What couldn't we accomplish? Salvation. Salvation being placed. I assume that was what, that we couldn't be put into the grace system or what it accomplishes by ourselves.

Am I... There's always one in the classroom. I know. There are some other things. Main things. Well, it's so we can have a relationship with God, right? By getting rid of sin, by... You're getting warmer. What? The verse I read said that it's to put the domination of sin out of business. Exactly. It's the method by which God takes away the ruling consequences of sin and the rule of sin. It won't have dominion over you because you are under grace. Right. If we're under grace, what are we not under?

Law. Right. So, what was, when we get into this a little bit, what did law, what was law to do? To make sin abound. Huh? Our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. and therefore we needed to have God's way and not our way. But there are many verses that say... To make sin abound. To make sin abound.

You know, most people think, oh, it's law. Oh, that's the governor on this thing. We're not going to sin as much. Well, we had a lady in high position whose son was accused of marijuana possession, as I recall, and she said, well, if it hadn't been law, he wouldn't have been guilty.

Well, law brings out sin. without the law, and it's contrary to what most people think. Most people think the law is to, you know, sequester or bring down or to minimize sin. There are verses that it is to incite sin. So, when we're under grace, grace prevents us from having sin reign. You know, so if we're not under law, can you think, what is under grace then? If we're not under law, and we're under grace, what is the system? How does it work? We don't have laws. Can you have a system without laws? An operating system without laws?

Apparently. Apparently. We're working on that. Good. Well, as you said in our casual comments before class, by which we live. Correct. And that's what we'll get into in the following lessons, is that we're not under a law system. But God, you know, the first thing you think of is if we don't have law, what do you think of? Anarchy. Anarchy. You know, if there's not rules and we're just a bunch of crazy people running around.

Is that the way God had it? No, he gave us principles lived by us. I was saying it earlier. If we're under new creatures and grace was the new system, if today we wake up, each day God would have to give us a list. Wake up, here are the rules for today. Because Gary, you're going to be running into traffic and hating somebody because he cut you off, so you're going to need this rule for today. have trouble with the paper lady or paper man. You'd have to have a whole list of today's things to do.

He doesn't do it that way. He gives us principles to operate. So we can operate in this world under these principles of grace. Well, he also gives us the Holy Spirit. Exactly. Right? That's the biggie. And if we have principles, we still wouldn't even be able to follow the principles without the Holy Spirit. Exactly.

But again, the thought of anarchy under no rules is typically when you say grace, people automatically go, what do you mean there are no rules? What? No laws? What do we do? Yeah. Courtney, what it sounds like to me is that you're just taking a word, law, and replacing it with another word, and it's still being left up to me to accomplish Do you have fun every day? No, it is not a new law system. It is not in any way, shape, or form.

Remember who we are, though. We are new creatures in Christ. We have a new operating system. So, we do have the Holy Spirit, but we are new creatures, totally new in kind, new in quality, in Christ. So did Christ need a bunch of laws to wake up every day to do what he needed to do?

No. It's who he is. Who are we? We're in him. So we operate under that same system. We have the Holy Spirit now that indwells us and convicts us, moves us, convinces us. But we operate under a system of grace, just like Christ. Because that's who we're in. And we're new creatures.

So, is this a natural way of thinking? If you were sitting around the coffee table and you had to come up with a new operating system for us, is this something that you would come up with? No. No. We're kidding. I mean, we always kid when Mike and I go out to lunch, you know, who paid last week? You know, our natural reaction. If I go over to your house for dinner, My natural reaction is, I've got to invite you back for dinner, because you had me over for dinner. I have to pay you back.

It's totally against what the natural man thinks of. We would not have come up with this. This is a system by God. And we just normally wouldn't come up with this. Alright, let's move on to question two. What are the two things scripture says we can be under? We can be under two different things. Law and grace. Law and grace or sin.

Romans 3.9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

Gentiles are under Romans 2.14. Gentiles are under their law, not a Mosaic law. So, Jews and Greeks are all under sin. So, from this verse we can understand that one thing we can be under is sin.

So, the other one is grace, and that was Romans 6.14. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Okay, so the two things we can be under are sin or grace. And that's with the two masters. Those are the things, you know, dominion, control of sin or grace, law or grace. Those are the two principles of what we can be under. Okay, question three. Do you think grace is a natural way of thinking for us? I've already answered that. No. Why does Paul have to tell believers we're under grace?

Why does he have to tell us? Because we don't know. Because we don't understand it. We don't understand it? Yeah, I said the same. We don't know until we read the Bible. Exactly. It is something that is not natural. That's why we say it's not a natural thing you'd come up with. The natural man perceives not the things of God without the Holy Spirit's instruction. It's very clear. Between the Word and the Holy Spirit, really the Word teaches us, and that's why Paul goes into great lengths about teaching us about grace. You know, sorry. Never sorry, never sorry.

So, I would say that the Holy Spirit is more important because what happened before people had Bibles in their houses, you know, it wasn't until the 1400s, since I went to the history of the Bible thing, is that unless you heard it from somebody else or really had a relationship, a personal relationship with God, you might not have access to the Bible. You still needed to hear the word, though. You might hear it, what, once every... I mean, whenever you got together with other Christians. Right. And, you know, I guess I look at that, and that's the thing of, what about the poor guy in Africa right now?

Is God limited by that? No. You know, how many stories of, you know, this, that suddenly a missionary is brought to that tribe, or, if God, if he knows, prepared the heart, he'll bring the word to him. I don't limit God into that, you know, he can have a missionary fall out of the sky into the river, or, so even in the old times, before the Bible was printed, that they would hear the word, you know, either in the churches, the assemblies, the fellowships, they would hear it, yeah.

Ultimately, it's still the Holy Spirit that convicts us, but it's like in Romans 1, when we see that God created all this stuff. Mike gives me a crud about being, you know, scuba diving, and I love scuba diving because I can see God's creation. God didn't make it all just gray and blah. I can see his hand in creation. When you see these fish or the coral or whatever, I see. But what does that tell you? Does that tell you anything about Christ? Tell us more about what you like in scuba diving. I don't know.

When you look at the mountains or whatever, you look into the skies at night and you see countless stars. What does Romans 1 tell you about? What does that tell you in Romans 1? or created those things and you can know, but atheists can enjoy, atheists can repress that idea and give glory to DNA or whatever. You said it, they repress it, because what Romans 1 says is that everybody knows that there is a God. That's what you see in creation.

But do you see anything about Christ's salvation, His dying on the cross, anything without the word? So, you need the word. So, you need the word and then the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts you of it. And it can be words. Like, words. Verbal. Yeah. I mean, however. And that's what I was saying in the old days before the Bible. It was the spoken word. And then it's always the Holy Spirit convicting you of that word. So, it's both, but you need the word. Otherwise, we don't know.

And that's why Paul taught so much about grace is because this was totally new. And I've told you this story several times about, you know, we helped on a catering thing and then there was a Jewish one and it just became alive to me how Paul, I can see in Galatians, him just trying to tell these Jews, get of the law. Here's grace, freedom, all this stuff. But they're so steeped in the law.

I mean, you didn't do things. I mean, you know, you didn't associate, you didn't walk, you know, all the 612 things, the laws and this and that, you just didn't do it. Because you know God had a big stick and he was going to whack you. Or you had a lot of sacrifices to cover up for all those sins that you did. So I can see in Galatians where Paul is just pleading with him, saying, You have this liberty.

We'll get to it in Galatians 5.1. Stand fast in the liberty. Here's all this liberty. But I can see him going, yeah, but I'm kind of cozy in this law. This makes me feel good. It's something tangible. I can see it. I can do it. It's a plus and a minus.

Stand fast in the liberty with which you have in Christ. stand fast, telling him, pleading with him about this. But the natural man, that's what I was saying too, the importance of our identification, understanding what happened to the old man, co-crucified, pulled away. We are now a new creature in Christ. The old man, when you get that inkling to go under a law system, which one is pulling you there? The old man. Because the new man doesn't operate in a law system. It doesn't.

Okay, so why does Paul have to tell believers we're under grace? Because if we're not taught it, we'll never get it. Would we come to understand grace? No. Just hanging around? Would we pick up grace? No. Grace isn't a natural way of thinking for us.

It's contrary to the world system of operation. It's the most illogical, unnatural way of human thinking. It doesn't make sense. After we were in Adam, it doesn't make sense. After what we were in Adam, that now God is going to give us unlimited blessings for no work of our own? Does that make sense? Our definition, unlimited blessings. He's just going to do that for us? Does that make sense?

Not in a natural way of thinking. Not just sitting around, like I said, the water cooler, thinking of things to, you know, how we would run things. You know, I think, I don't know if I had the demonstration here. I was going to do it. I could, no, I'll do it later. And you're not, you can't participate. So, we'll never understand grace until we get into the word and study it. There's no way we understand it unless we are taught it. That's why I think woefully lacking in the church today, the body today, is the lack of teaching of grace. How many series on grace do you hear? And really get into it, and what it is. Wow. Yes. Yeah.

I was watching TV. I don't know if you've heard of Creflo Dollar. Yeah, he's a big TV evangelist. I have watched him before and I just I couldn't stand to listen to him. I just was like, oh, fingernails on a chalkboard. Yeah. Yeah. And then just one day I was, you know, busy doing stuff.

So I could hear it you know and I couldn't get to the TV to like turn it off and somehow I don't know if this is just me recognizing it he totally switched to grace he's like the grace and the law we don't live under the law we don't live under the Gospels we live under the epistles the Gospels are Jesus teaching the Jewish principles to the apostles. So we're not even under the Gospels. We're under the epistles of grace and grace.

And I was like, wow. He's really come around. But, I said, now I'm thinking. But send me the dollars. Now I was thinking. Because I always wonder about tithing. Because I always hear that. So he said, we're now, he said, we're under grace and only grace And so we have the grace to tie. And I was like, dang it, he was so close. Can you mix any law with grace? Yeah, no. No. He was so close. Maybe, I don't know, I think God's working in him.

And so maybe, you know, another whatever. It's just another schtick to get money. I don't know, because it's in your heart to give. So you give because you want to, not because somebody says you should. Exactly. It's as you're convicted, you do it. It's not under a percentage, it's not under anything other than grace.

I was going to say, people have sent me books with the title of Grace, some aspect of it, and usually it's a book that explains grace a little bit, interacts law after that and says that now under this system what grace really is is the Holy Spirit enabling you to keep the law. Yeah, and that's usually what I see is that when you say grace or you know now that's the whole thing is that I don't know if they put it under the topic of grace but that's where they get the identification so messed up. is that suddenly now as a believer, you're now enabled to fulfill the law. I'll give you a good example. I don't know if a lot of people in this room read it, but when, what's his name, brought out the book, Purpose Driven Life, the first chapter is kind of gracious.

I mean, it's the kind of language that sort of hooks you. But chapter 2, you're right under the thumb. Here's what you do. You're right under obligation to God. Yeah. We had a discussion with my son-in-law on that. Isn't this good? It sounds good at the beginning, but as you delve into it, it's do's and don'ts. Here's the law. Here's what you do. Think about the title, The Purpose Driven Life. Once you get the purpose, you've got to drive. That's why I call it The Purpose Driven Life. It's a porpoise.

So it's totally like a matter of salvation, or justification, and then living your life on the planet, right? I mean, you can be saved, still be living under the law, but it's just kind of making your life here a little bit more miserable. We'll get into verses that say what happens when you do it with law. What really transpires?

I believe there are billions and billions of people who are saved. They're just in the nursery, they're not growing. I don't think until you understand the identification in some of this can you grow because you're always dragging this old man around.

And that's why we get the Porpoise Ruben Life and the, you know, Prayer of Jabez and all these programs, J.I. Packard, Knowing God, and all these different things that come up. It's what can I do? What can the old man, how can I make him smile a little bit better on me? What can I do to make this...

Yeah, but it seems like some people are just more focused on being available to help or thinking they're helping or whatever of getting people saved so that they don't go to hell. And it's kind of where it ends and then it seems like some people are more gifted for growth, truth. So it seems like the people, maybe a lot of the people who are on TV and stuff like that, they're just big on, you know, just get saved, get saved so you don't go to hell.

You know, which I believe, because salvation is very simple. Simple faith. That's it. Faith in death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who Christ is. Very simple. I think there are millions and billions that know that and are saved. But their growth is just stunted. They just don't grow. They're the milk of the world. They're in the milk. And as Paul says, what are you doing in the milk? You should be in the meat. And I think that God uses that.

I don't understand why, like the identification truth. It's just the way God has made it, that there aren't churches of 10,000 that teach identification. I think identification is more of a one-on-one thing. Explaining those and getting those to people is just... I don't know the way God has chosen it because there's so many that don't know this.

And then they struggle with doing and the guilts. I was talking about a few weeks ago, I said, 83 years old and I'm free now. That is just... that's wonderful. To take off this load of the law and to just... swim in the sea of grace. If you put it all together, He offers you rest, that peace that surpasses all understanding. How do you do that? Well, if you're in Him and you're in our system of grace, that's how you do it. While we're here on the planet, because we'll get it. Once we get to heaven, we'll get it. But here on the planet... We shirk these shells, a lot changes.

Carol and Jerry that went to this church left the church and so they're now in a different church that one of the books that they were reading and learning about was that book from, you know. Yeah, Greg Reward. And people in church often times you don't hear anything about Greg. You know, I look in the mirror. You know, I can throw stones in a glass house.

You know, 20 years, you know, doing J.I. Packer and programs and this and that and working and doing and doing all these things, not knowing these things, but through the circumstances coming and learning the identification truths, I just can't express how much peace and rest I have now, versus the guilt, the effort, the work, all those things not associated with grace. Life is just so much Easier. And you work from a position of rest. And it's not this grace that is apathy. We sit in a room and we contemplate our navels and we just sit there and we're under grace and we can't do anything.

It's once you understand that and who you are in Christ, then you act because that's who you are. Like I said, Christ didn't wake up every day and say, okay, God, give me the checklist for today. It's because who he was, he did the Father's will. Who are we in? We are in Christ. We don't need all these rules and laws. It's because who we are in Christ.

It's like breathing. You do it as you know who you are in Christ. And that's why the study of who he is, you know, after all these years, Mike had one good thing to say to me. You know, one of the first things was, you know, don't read the Bible to know facts. Read the Bible to know him. Big change. Big change. When you come to know Him, that's knowing who you are.

It's like someone said the Bible is like a love letter. It would be like getting a love letter and reading it over and over, going like, oh yay. As you say, we talk about this, if you're married or whatever, and you know your wife, you've been married 30 years, you know everything about her because you've been with her for so long. And you know everything about her because you've just been there. You've had this relationship. That's what we are to do with Christ. To have that intimate relationship so we know who He is. We know everything about Him. Because as we know who He is, we know who we are. Yeah. It gives real meaning to Matthew 11, 28 through 30.

Come unto me all you who are. Heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You know, that and the peace that surpasses all, all these things fit together. When you get it, they come together. How does that happen?

Well, I'm in Him. Who's doing the work? He is. The Holy Spirit is. It's not my responsibility. It's His. To live through me. Alright. Are we good? One candid question. Yes. He disagreed with my, he had more than one thing good to say to me. I'm surprised he got that far with you. Yes. He's a latecomer. Yeah. Did you have something? Yeah, I wanted to mention that in contemporary Christianity the gospel message is not presented in a gracious way. So what you have is additions to the grace.

The gospel of Romans 1.18 says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all those that believe. Well the gospel is simply 1 Corinthians 15.

And that by you believing those facts and in that person, faith is a non-meritorious act, so you are saved on the basis of grace alone. If you add something to that, then there's a tinkster of law in there and obligation on your part. So what happens is that from that point on your growth is stunted because you didn't start on a grace basis only. If you start on a grace basis only you are much more apt to receive the grace and growth as it comes towards you. to make God respond or react to you in a more favorable manner than you've experienced over the last whatever time.

You know, that's me. I mean, I am a classic example. I mean, I had Selvey, I know as a believer, but just went through 20 years of trying to, you know, do. And until you find out, you know, about the Unificate, and it's not about you, and this co-crucifixion, the burdens is off. And then the growth begins. And the rest begins. The peace begins. The joy begins. All the fruit of the Spirit become part of you. Because you understand who you are in Him. I hate to tell you this, but I'm doing the sermon today and this isn't the topic.

But I wanted to point out that if we are under a grace system, which Romans 6.14 says we are, then that's the only way that God is going to communicate with us. If we go at him from a law basis, you get no answer. Because he's done with sin and he's done with the law. Right, and he's done with the old Adam who we're doing that in. He does not see us in Adam anymore. He sees us in him. So the Adam is not even a part of the equation anymore.

So if you know that premise, then you would logically think, well I better learn more about grace so that I can interact with God on a gracious basis rather than this other basis. Yeah, I mean that's the system we operate under now, is grace. What should you be learning? Well you know, what you just said, continuing with what I read is, for we are God's workmanship created in Jesus Christ to do good works which God prepared prepared in advance for us to do.

So he's already taken care of us. And what did you create in what? In him. There's that thing again. In him. I tell you, keep looking when you say in him, because we're in him. We're created in him. I think on a practical basis, though, it comes down to learning to listen to God. Because otherwise if we are kind of trying to still do our own thing, we're not available.

And who's the one doing that? What you said again, the Holy Spirit. That's the one. That's the one who convicts, convinces. Right, and we don't listen. I'm talking for myself. He's the one who does the work. It's the Holy Spirit. I don't think we're going to get there by the time. We're going to try and cover some of the Holy Spirit. We may do that next session.

The next session is going to go over the Holy Spirit, which I think is great because you understand what the work of the Holy Spirit is. That gives you much more understanding of how you operate now under grace and what His responsibility is. It brings to remembrance all the things that I have taught you. It's what Jesus told the disciples as He left.

It brings it to your mind, those things that are popular. The works that are talked about there, can I do one more? No. Can I do one less? No, you can't. That's the point. You're being mean. When we were talking about how God's done with the sin part, there's always a thing where we talk about keeping short accounts with God about sins and things. That's a little confusing to me.

One of the things that I'm going to talk about next is in order for God to act in grace, he has to get the sin issue out of the way first. So if you understand what he did about sin, because he can't act graciously as long as there's something in the way. And so sin is one of those things that can be in the way. So if he's going to act graciously, then he has to resolve the sin issue, it's not you that resolves it, he does.

And so he doesn't want you spending any more time on your sins than a recognition that that's not who you are. That's my point. God is done with your sin. Why aren't you? I mean, God is done with it. Did Christ's blood not pay for everything? And when you beat yourself up for sin, God is done with that, judicially done with it. The only thing you are is not acting who you are in Christ.

That's the first John 1.9. Confessing that I'm just not acting who I am, that's sin? That's not who I am. I confess that. I agree with you God, that's not who I am. It's not, oh, I have to do something to pay for this sin. God's done with it. You know, sometimes though it's difficult because somehow our humanness makes us sneak back in our thinking. You just said it. If you know that, who are you listening to?

Old man or the new man, the new creature? That's the first thing of growth is to understand that. Once I start feeling guilty, who is feeling guilty? The old man is. The new creature in Christ is in Christ. not burdened, can't be burdened with this sin. So when I start feeling guilty about it, who am I listening to? Which nature? But as you understand that, you begin to diminish that because you understand that's the old man doing it. That's the understanding.

I think you have to mention there though the convicting work of the spirit in that he isn't convicting you or convincing you from a condemnation. It isn't that you're a dirty dog sinner and look how bad you are. This isn't who you are. That's the first job. It's not who you are. So there is a convicting work of the spirit to restore you to fellowship that is not condemnatory.

Romans 8, therefore there is no condemnation. And it's to restore us, it's not that God ever left, it's that it's like ourselves, so to turn away from that guilt so we can look at God again, instead of like hiding behind fig leaves or whatever we do. Romans.

How can we be separated from His love? You can't. We can turn and run that way and God is just trying to drag us back. We're the idiots that run that way. He's there. Yeah, He's the one doing everything in His power to bring you back to what? The intimate fellowship that we have with Him. We're the ones going that way. When we listen to the old man, we turn our backs. When we sin, we do think we're not acting how we are. We go that way. God is doing everything in His power to bring you back because we can't be separated from His love. We can't be, there is nothing. So if you understand that, all the circumstances, everything that happens in your life, it's what? To draw you to Him.

I always bring this up, you know, that James, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. What? What? How do you enjoy through trials? If you know you can't be separated from His love, anything that He's doing in your life is to what? bring you back to the intimacy that He wants with you. So if I'm going through a trial, I can consider it joy because I know He is trying to draw me back. Or to manifest His life through me. Something. But it's in love. If it's doing it in love, I can have joy. I love the bumper sticker that was popular about 20 years ago.

If you feel far from God, guess who moved? I wanted to say that you just described the reaction of a believer who is uninformed about grace. They run away. They run away. And it's not because the old man said, you can't get everything for nothing. That's crazy. Unlimited blessings. Are you kidding me? He's the one doing that, saying, no, come on over here. Let's do a little work over here. Do a few little works over here. You need to pay for that, Grace. Let me hide this one. Let me keep this one hidden from you.

Okay, so we'll move on to question four, which I think hopefully we'll see. It's kind of a brash statement. Do you agree with this statement? There is no more immoral, rotten, and filthy to the core with sin than a person who is a legalist. Bob is wincing over there. That's pretty harsh, isn't it? Jesus accused the Pharisees. Jesus confronted the Pharisees in perhaps the most side with this good appearance, but you're like a grave inside full of rotting bones and decay. We have even harsher, harsher statements. You know what, I think, I'm sorry, I'm going to say I think this promotes, this idea that this would be true kind of promotes hate.

I think we're all, regardless under the law or not, we're all immoral, rotten and filthy to the core. Under the law? Under the law, yes. So I would think this kind of singles out people who are under the law because I think that could be misinterpreted to mean people who are... We'll get to what Paul says. We'll get to what Paul says and Paul says it very succinctly. Who the legalist is and what it means.

Not in that time, in that place. It wasn't, there wasn't a time factor on that. It didn't say just because, you know, in the new church. We'll get to it. Okay. You can still argue with me. Okay, no. Rats. This may give you lots of time to think about it over the week.

So this isn't our normal view that one who is keeping the laws, the goody two-shoes, the one who tithes, the one who shows up for every church function, that they are more spiritual. It doesn't jive with that. If you tithe, we were just talking about tithing. If you're tithing, you're just a little better, or you've got smiles on you because you tithe. How do you know that you agree with the statement that the legalist is rotten to the core, if you agree with that statement?

You don't, Holly. And Bob is wincing on that one. It describes us as who we are in Adam. It's who we are in Adam. Is there a verse that you can... Romans 3.20. Well, yeah, but that's not about keeping the law. I'll get this. There are a couple of verses that really hit it hard in Romans and Galatians. Romans 7-8. What shall we say?

Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. For I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, You shall not covet. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

So, what does the law do? It makes us stay in It makes sin abound. So what does a legalist do? Put you under law. So if he puts you under law, what is he making you do? He's stating the devil made me do it. But somebody who puts you under that, and he has a tougher one in Galatians. So we'll see that the law activates sin to its peak. And the one under the law thinks he's good, but he's doing just the opposite. He's mixing that law with grace. And you can't do that. Paul is very succinct in this, and I want to get to this one verse. So, Mike, kind of explain this a little bit to me.

A legalist is a person who teaches legalism. That I could go for. Yeah, but see, it's anybody who puts you under a system of laws, do's, don'ts, you know, if you don't tithe, you know, we're going to have a little thermometer on the wall over here that shows how much you gave, you know, if you, oh you didn't come last Wednesday to the Bible study, you know, I can go through all these things that, it's very subtle in what the law is. Anything that you have to do Right, and a person who teaches that. Right. Anybody who teaches that is really taking you out of grace and what?

Activating sin. I mean it's very clear what the law does. It doesn't mince words about what the law does. So the bigger sin as far as scripture is concerned is among the legalists because of their mental attitudes even though it doesn't look like it, it's pride. You know, I did it. I tithed. I did 15%. Mm-hmm. Pretty sharp. God's a little happy with me. I went over the 10%.

Well, you know what? If you say it's a teacher of legalism, a person who is saved and happens to be in the circumstance where they're learning legalistic doctrine, isn't the same as someone who's the one up there teaching it. The one who's learning it is in the same mold as the one who's teaching it. The law is activating this in nature. They're not quite as rotten and filthy.

It's just the thought that somebody putting you under legal is something that's very rotten. Let me get to the Galatians one and you can think about this over the week. Bob, you can. We'll see you on Tuesday and you can dispute this. Galatians 5, 1-5. Think of what this says. It can't be any clearer to me about being put under a law system or legalist.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. What was the slavery under? Law, do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, okay, that was just a little tiny bit of the law, just one little tiny requirement under the law.

What did he say? Christ will be of no benefit to you. Pretty harsh. Pretty harsh. Feeling better, Bob? You know, it could depend on tone, though. If he's saying, don't be, don't be under law. Not like, do not be under law. It's like, don't be under law. No, no, and that's what it is.

It's more, I'm just trying to say, and that's absolutely right. Everything done in love. It's done in love. He didn't scream at him. I'm just trying to say that. Right. He'll say it later. I'm just trying to tell you how important this is. I emphasize it because of the importance of it. Because we don't realize what legalism will do. Let me finish the verse.

And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he's under obligation to keep the whole law. That means he can't be sort of pregnant. You have to do all the law. All of it. You can't just take one, the circumcision, and say, I'm good. You have to do them all. But the key is the last verse. And this is where I think, and Hal, you're right, it's in love.

He says this, you have been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by the law, you have fallen from grace. Now that severing, if you look at the word, it's actually in the Greek, it's ekpipto, which means to lose one's part or interest in that state. So, the New American Standard has it kind of severed, but it's basically, you're losing that relationship.

And we do it. We do it. To ourselves. Yes. Yeah, that's a great verse. And so, you have been You've lost that relationship. What's the King James? Fallen from, I think. Is fallen from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by the law. That is a very harsh statement. You have fallen away. You who are legal. Right, not God saying, you're away. It's yourself going, I'm deciding to turn away.

That's what it is. When you understand that. But see how important law is? to this relationship. He just brings out circumcision, one thing. Just a little law, one little piece. You have fallen. You have been pulled away from this relationship because of the law.

He's very harsh on legal. And the whole key is law and grace don't go together. Remember what the first questions were? Law, sin, grace, unmerited, unlimited blessings. They don't go together. They can't. You can't mix a little bit of law with grace. It doesn't happen. I guess this is a whole nother can of worms, but women don't have to worry about that circumcision thing, huh? That was just a demonstration of law. Alright, let's close. All right. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Father, thanks for just another time to study your Word and understand grace and just what it means. It is an incredible thing just to understand grace, unlimited and unmerited blessings.

And it's nothing that we do. It's based solely on what Christ did on the cross and what we understand that to be where we are co-crucified. And you've judicially taken care of our sin nature, and we thank you for that. Positionally, we are placed in Christ right now, and we enjoy that relationship. And Father, we just understand that as we are new creatures in Christ, we operate in a system of grace, and there is no requirements, there's no laws, there's no dues, there's no anything. pour out your blessings to us, and it's for nothing that we have done.

It's just you graciously pouring out blessings to us. We thank you for that. It just doesn't make sense to us in the natural mind, but that's the way you develop this system, and we thank you for it. So Father, we just pray right now for Mike as he will give us the message upstairs. Just pray your prepared hearts to receive it. Father, we just thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.