Principles of Position, Finish Lesson 8, Start Lesson 9

So I'm thinking that last week when I walk out of here, wow, wow, I'm done with Lesson 8 and then somebody says, well you skipped a question. How did that happen? And the question was Question 8. And the question is, what is the spiritual explanation for opposition to true eternal security? What is the spiritual explanation the spiritual explanation for opposition to true eternal security. What do you think? Think in your mind. What thought process would you go through to come up with a solution that, look, there is no eternal security? Nothing spiritual. It would all be fleshly. If you base your salvation on works. Based on works? Okay. How about this idea?

That if in fact God offers eternal security, it makes you loose in the corners. That you will not comply. That you will become lawless. That's the anti-grace argument? How can you possibly live under grace? It means that you're just going to do whatever you want to do. You know, and God's grace will, you know, cover and internal security the same way. You know, if I'm internally secure, why don't I just go live like a dog?

Have you met people who have had that kind of experience? Oh, absolutely. I've seen that some people more have been more on the holistic side of things than on the spiritual side. Sure. They can obey and do things on their own. The thing is, if you don't put handcuffs on people, they're not going to comply. You know, they're going to be lawless. You're thinking, I can tell. Would you consider that, you know, the Holy Spirit is the teacher who points us to Christ. Would that be considered quenching the Holy Spirit? Say that again? Would it be considered as quenching the Holy Spirit or unduly, really?

Yeah. Yeah, that's what it is. Is grace initially a positional truth? Sure. What do you think? Initially? Initially. When you begin to apprehend what grace is, is it a position? Answer, yeah, it is. And like all positional truths, what are you supposed to do with them? Just rest and believe in them.

The other problem in explaining the opposition to something like eternal security is the whole concept of how you enter into it. When you think about it, when someone comes to you, say you're an adult like I was, and starts to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ and that he died on a cross for your sins, that was always a big problem with me. I would say, what you guys are telling me is that if I believe in Christ, that he will save me for all eternity no matter what. And they would say, yeah, that's what we're telling you.

And I'd say, BS. It can't happen that way. I'm a good Catholic, I know better. I've got to be hustling down the road and if I slip, God's going to hammer me and I'm not going to have the eternal security. So to explain the opposition is that when God's grace is presented to you, it goes against everything you are in Adam.

Doesn't it? I mean, you know, Bi, when's the last time somebody told you the truth? Now that we're in election season, there shouldn't be anybody. Do you see what I'm saying? I mean, we try to operate in our sphere of influence and family and friends on the basis of trust what they say, but they're not always trustworthy.

And to find out that God means what he says, And he's gracious is quite the revelation, I think. And so the opposition is really pretty strong and that doesn't take a lot of argument to get someone to not rest in the provision that God makes for you. It's like, we pray for Joe. Does God have Joe well in hand? How come Joe's nervous? I'm not criticizing Joe. Joe's like me. I'm nervous. You see that?

When God says, with the people that we prayed for this morning, when we pray for them, we want God's will in their life, whether it means they get better or not. The issue is we can trust God with whatever he has in mind for them, and they don't need to be sweating it. But it comes down to, if you want to pick the topic of eternal security, is it really true? Everybody in this room absolutely certain that they are eternally secure?

Who isn't? I won't say I'm not, but it is so, so much to get your head around, you know? It's like out there, you know, so I won't say I believe it, but to imagine it is another thing. Oh, imagine it. Yeah. So, believing it and being persuaded, are they the same thing? Yeah. No? Maybe?

I think there's a time of believing when God presents something to you and you take him at his word. And then there's a time of the Spirit of God working it in to where you're absolutely certain that you're not, you know. Now that's not to say, here I am absolutely certain about my salvation. You couldn't talk me out of it. I'm driving down the road and all of a sudden here comes this insecure thought. I think that's really true. Where did the thought come from? Your head? Yeah, and from what's the source? Yourself? It's Adam. Yeah, it's my old man that says, nah, you can't, that's not really true.

I think for me, for imagining that, like eternal security, I like the Bible passage about how, you know, snakes are going to be playing with babies and there's not going to be pain and you know all that stuff that's really like a good sort of picture because like we're in such a you know cesspool it's hard to imagine you know but anyways that's yeah my imagination okay well just some thoughts I think talking to folks that struggle with it there's those that are doctrinally convinced, and by that I mean that they've manipulated, sometimes not at fault of their own, but they are wholeheartedly set on the fact that this is a shackle that will keep folks in the pew.

It usually comes from a perspective of teaching that is, you know, from the pulpit, so to speak. And so, talking to them is one thing. There are other believers who are young or just unaware and have been taught this and don't understand that this is not something that they have to deal with. So, in either case, there's this situation of explaining to someone, OK, let's talk about what would have to happen if your eternal security was to be reversed.

So all the things that you were placed into, your justification, your redemption, your atonement, all of these things that we talk about have happened, and sometimes they don't even know that. And that's really the starting, is getting them established in what happened. And then to say all of a sudden, okay now, where in the scripture can we find that every single one of these things is now reversed, and you have to start all the way over from the very beginning. Do we ever see an entire reversal of everything that the Lord placed you into, You now, son, are no longer in Christ. You are booted out. You're taken before the judge again and not justified. You're unjustified. So you're unredeemed.

And this process is so unbiblical and so astonishing clink of actually not ever happening in the scripture that causes some question in their heart. So those are some interesting ways of dealing with some of this and I've found that especially those that have not ever been taught respond well to going through what is true as a first step and then saying how could I ever imagine this being reversed in myself. Well, the whole idea of teaching a class like Positional Truth is to, in essence, talk to you, read, and understand what God says is true.

Now, the issue comes down to do you believe God or don't you? That's really what it comes down to. You take him at his word? And I know people that if they They would say that they're persuaded, but if they couldn't persuade Ralph, then they began to doubt themselves. It was all based on their skill and their understanding, rather than what God says.

And then it would really come down to, it doesn't matter, you still are eternally saved. You know what I mean? I understand exactly what you're saying, and that goes along with what you're talking about. Even if I disbelieve it, it's still true. And that's the awesome thing about positional truth.

Well, you know, I'm not so sure about that. See, salvation wasn't my idea. You know, I'm not the one that put it together. And I'm not the one that implemented it. And I'm not the one that, you know, entered in the program. I was saved by you. I didn't save myself.

You're taking the whole work of the Lord Jesus Christ and placing the reversal of it back on yourself. I said to a guy one time, let's assume your fears are right. Here's what's got to happen. The Lord Jesus has to come back to the earth, go back in the grave, come up out of the grave dead, throw him back up on the cross, make him alive, bleeding, back down off the cross, whip them, all of that kind of stuff, and back into Israel. Is that going to happen? Not going to happen.

I was thinking, could it be said that understanding eternal security has more to do with our position? The lack of understanding usually has to do with our conditioning. It does. And I think it comes down to sometimes looking at God's Word in terms of what he says about something, and there's no empirical evidence that what he said is true. And if I'm a person that relies on experience, emotion, feeling, signs and wonders, logic, I can't arrive at God telling me the truth because none of those things that I use are persuading me that what I'm seeing is true. And it is so simple. God just says, you believe me. That's it. That's all I want. I want you just to believe me. Trust me. So, that answer the question? You all right, Carol? Yes, thank you. Okay, good. Lesson 9.

So, we're still dealing with chapter 4 in the Principle of Physician book, which has to do with completeness and security. And so some of these questions are along the lines of what we just talked about. So the first one is, why? Why is the believer who rests in the Son of God know he's eternally secure? And all of the answers that I have for these questions are quotes from the word.

Here's what the Lord says in Colossians 3 and 4. He says, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. And the other quote was Romans 5.11, and not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement, or the reconciliation. So the question is, why is the believer who rests in the Son of God know he's eternally secure? So, can you say eternally secure is always united to God?

Would that be... Yeah, I think it comes down to what your attitude about God's veracity is, and by veracity I mean is he telling me the truth or not? You know, if you come out of a denomination like I did, And one day you discover, wait a minute, these guys are not telling me the whole truth, because there's contradictions. And you begin to doubt, well, or you adopt a position of, well, I'll accept what I think I like and the rest of it I'm just going to, you know. But when the focus is on the Word of God and what He says, there isn't any room for your opinion from a positional standpoint. Are you with me? Why is a believer who rests in the Son of God know he's eternally secure? What's the key word in that question? What is it? I think the key word is rest in the Son of God. What is that a definition for? Faith. That's really what it is. So, you know, like it or not, God almost forces us to live by faith, to trust him. He almost makes it, or he does make it that way, doesn't he? Doesn't he? It's the only thing.

Do you find in your life that there are times when you have God's word here, and you have your opinion here, and now you've got to choose? And nobody in this class has ever chosen wrongly, correct? That's all day. That's all day. You have to choose. Well, I mean, think about it. And your natural inclinations are to go with the old man. Sure, it's just how you feel. Because that's what you're used to. Yeah. Well, so you're reading the Bible one day and it says you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. What do you say? What? Huh? When did I die? I don't remember that happening.

And my life is hidden? with Christ in God? I can't find any empirical evidence for that being true. And then Christ who is my life, oh is he really? He's my very life? Who is our life is revealed, when he's revealed, then you, me, and we will be revealed with him in glory. No kidding, is that really right? I mean, I've got to tell you, from an earthly standpoint, that's a stretch, isn't it? Initially it is. Or, did you receive the reconciliation? Have you been reconciled to God? Sure. But how do you know that? Only because He told you. That's the only reason you know. Okay, the next why question.

Why does a believer who rests in the sovereignty of God know he is eternally secure? So what does sovereignty mean? What does sovereignty mean? The sovereignty of God. If you don't know what sovereignty is, you're not resting, so somebody give me an answer. What does sovereignty mean?

Part of the word is reign. He reigns over all. He reigns? What else? It's like power and authority. Power and authority? It's a sum total of all existence. Yeah, and summed up in one interesting word. You know what the word is? God. He's God. So, but yeah, I'm a guy who went to college and I studied Greek mythology. Right? So I know about gods. Oh no. Gods are pictures of people. I have a liberal arts degree and I know about gods. And those bums had no veracity at all. This is the god of the universe who's telling me that he's sovereign. And sovereignty means that you don't get an opinion. You don't even get to argue. Right? Or protest. Or protest, or even have your own opinion about stuff. Well, isn't that what prayer is? Prayer is what? Seeking your own opinion? Right, right. I think a lot of people think that's right. I'm here to change your mind.

So I wrote down Romans 8, 29 and 30, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate. What does predestinate mean? To determine beforehand. To do what? To be conformed to the image of his son. Why? That he might be the firstborn, which is status position, among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Notice they're all aorist tense. What do you think? I mean, I love Romans 828. What's that? I think we don't have to worry. Then why do we? Shoot ourselves in the foot. Huh? To shoot ourselves in the foot. Well, think about it. If you're dealing with someone that doesn't rest in this eternal security of God, what I did was I thought, well, I don't need it. I want the opinion of what the Word of God says about eternal security. How about Jude 24?

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Now unto him who is able, he is able, you are not. So it's cool how much time God takes, especially in the epistles, to persuade the reader of his sovereignty and then he means what he says. And what he says is so gracious sometimes that you just have a tough time getting your arms around it. What you say about a person who has studied Greek mythology in college. And it's like, in my experience, that would have been something that you studied something in the past.

So in libraries nowadays, you can walk the shelves in the grade school, third grade, about a three-year-old adult. presented as the reading literature of the day. It's not something dusty and old in the past that nobody would ever believe in nowadays. It's part of the culture nowadays. I don't know if you've seen it or not, but I have seen people make quotes on Facebook that the force is God.

Yeah, can I comment on that? So, I've looked at this quite a bit, and maybe I can summarize it. I don't know, maybe I get a little lost. Just bring me back in. I'll tell you to shut up when it's time. So, with this issue of sovereignty, just like any other issue, there's a pagan view of it, and there's a biblical view of it.

The pagan view is the same no matter if it's a Star Wars, or a Transformers, or a Greek mythology, it's always the same makeup. there's multiple gods that are all competing for something impersonal to obtain sovereignty over a period of time, rule, and authority. And so, for the Greek gods, you can never place an eternal security in, say, Zeus, because you didn't know how long Zeus was going to be in control. It just depended on whether or not he obtained the impersonal force that was needed at the time, the hammer, or the Achilles special location. There's always something.

It's the cube in Transformers, it's the force in Star Wars, it's pagan, it's earthbound to think of multiple gods wrestling and fighting over something that is impersonal in order to control. But when we come to a biblical view of sovereignty, there is no battle amongst one another. And there is no impersonal force that's ever seen in the scripture. But every single other view of a religious system contains some form of this pagan concept of wrestling for a force.

And in evolution, or even in just like atheism, you get to be one of those gods responsible for that authority. And so a lot of times, at least today, that position of authority and sovereignty is placed within ourselves and our own ability to choose. this concept that we are our own God, and while we might be seeking a oneness with something better, it's impersonal, and we don't know how long we're going to have control over that. And so there is no, absolutely no security, no eternal security for the pagan view outside of the biblical perspective, not for any other monotheistic perspective, that being Islam or Judaism even, there's no concept that aligns with the biblical view of sovereignty as it's fully revealed in the New Testament. And it's interesting, most of that is covered just in the first chapter of Romans. It's all right there. Have you guys seen... I saw two episodes of it. Who's the black actor that's really good? He's an older guy now. Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman.

In Search of God. Have you seen that? He's going around the world and investigating religions and all he's doing is sowing doubt. That's all he's really doing. And it's interesting because the great difference between Christianity and all the rest of them, well there are two big differences. One, those are all man-created, and where Christianity, use that term, is of the Lord. And two, every single one of them have the same, except for Christianity, have kind of the same agenda. And the agenda is that God's not happy and you better do something. And if you don't, in some form or another, you're going to be punished. And if you do comply in some form or another, you're going to receive something that you don't have now.

It's more like a social sort of way to keep people in line. It is and it isn't. I think man creates a God that he can handle. That's really what he does. And to control others. And trust me, Christianity does the same thing. I mean, why do we have so many denominations? Because in certain denominations, you get to control God through the legal dance.

Or you think you are. So the answer to is, why does a believer who rests in the sovereignty of God know he's eternally secure? Because if God is sovereign and you rest in that fact, You're secure because it's based on Him, not you. That's a real revelation, I think, when you wake up one morning and realize that, wait a minute, my salvation is based on what God is and who He is. It has nothing to do with my being able to produce any of this. It's all Him. Alright, third why question. Why does a believer who rests in the justice of God know that he's eternally secure? Because then he doesn't have to go around trying to get justice himself.

Okay, let's look at some verses, Romans 3.26, which I just love, I've always loved this verse, because when I first saw it I thought it doesn't make any sense, but when you look at it, it makes all the sense in the world. to declare his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. And here's the question, what does it mean for God to be just and also be the justifier?

How does that go together? It's from him again. How did he do it? I mean, how can God in his veracity, he is God, he doesn't dance around, He says, now here's how it's going to work out. I am going to be absolutely just in judging everything and everybody. But this verse says that I am absolutely just, but I'm also the justifier. How did he do that? Explain.

Well, God got his justice against sin through Christ paying for it by His death. That's pretty good. What God did is He took care of His own justice through the work of Christ on the cross. And once that was done, then He could freely justify any way He wanted to because of what Christ did. So He can be both. Pretty cool. Really cool, actually, when you think about it. It goes along a lot with what you're saying. You don't see that in Islam. No, you don't, or anywhere else. Even the Democrats don't believe in that.

1 Peter 3.18 For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. So what's always been the barrier between God's creation and God? Sin. It's been the issue. And we were always in bad shape because we couldn't do anything about sin. You can't fix it. Could we? God could have wiped out all humanity and he still wouldn't have been satisfied about sin.

Why is that? Why did it take Christ to do this? Why couldn't anybody else do it? It's because he was God. Who was? Christ. Okay. And he was therefore qualified to do eternal perfect spiritual works. Okay. Which we're not. Right. That's good. That's pretty good.

Why Christ? Why does it have to be Him? We can't do it. That's a given, but why Him? He's sinless for one thing. What's the most important part about what He is that makes it work? He's the Son of God. He's God. He's God. When God is offended with sin from His creation, It takes somebody on his level to satisfy that insult. Has to be God to do it.

Yeah. But didn't he also have to be a man? I think so. Well, he didn't have to be, but in order to reconcile man and to save man, yeah, he did. Because he didn't... He had to be man because God cannot die. And in that verse in 318, it says, most verses say he went and suffered for sins, but this says in the Greek he died, and the soul that sins it must die. And God can't die.

Yeah, and it's interesting because Romans 5.12 says, by one man, sin entered the world.

So, it's got to go out the same way. I was just calling to pick up on what you said. You said, I think he needed to be manned, but the point you're trying to make was just that in order to satisfy man's sin, he had to be manned. He could have been just. not loving in the same sense and annihilated. Oh very easily. I mean that would have been just but it would not have been loving so it couldn't have been consistent with his character. So he could have left man in his predicament and been just.

Well and the other thing is that if salvation is by grace then there can't be any obligations that God is under to save anybody. He's got to be totally satisfied in standing there saying, okay, I'm cool. The rest of you guys are going in the dumper, but I'm cool. And we're playing that what if game, so it's not fair, but it is a good exercise of thinking to think, he could have been just by allowing the death sentence to remain the justice for the sin. Sure, and all of humanity to die.

But his love would not allow him to exercise justice. God so loved the world that he gave. But in that same scenario, he had to become man in order to satisfy the offense against God. Right? Because it was man that sinned. Well, it's interesting. Adam, if one of the purposes was to reconcile man back to himself, then yes. The answer to your question is yes. Just to satisfy the insult of the sin issue, no. There has to be a death someplace. No, I mean, Christ died because of the sin. But he had to become man because man is the one who offended. So it was all part of God's plan. Oh, totally. Right. So it's not like even a situation where he would not have done that because that wasn't the plan. Think about this.

When Christ died, is it just the fact that he died that solves the problem? John the Baptist said of Christ, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. How did he take it away? How did he take it away? By dying, which means separation. So what kind of separation are you talking about here? What got separated from what? Who got separated from who? We got separated from sin and law and death.

And how did that happen? Because all of it was, like, accounted to Christ. Where did it go? As far as the east is from the west. You think that's it? We don't know a better place. Death satisfies the sin, but it doesn't remove it. That's right. So what else had to happen? Yeah. In other words, put it this way. The whole concept of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, without a resurrection, we're still in trouble. Why? Because then it didn't work? No, it worked. It didn't satisfy God?

Well, let's say He's satisfied, but Christ is going to rise by Himself. You're not going to be included. See, here's the thing. When we were identified with Christ in His death, separation, We were separated from the entire creation that sinned, that's not satisfied, that's not acceptable to God.

We were buried with Him and then when we rose, we rose into newness, a new creation in which there is no sin. There is no sin. So what God really did, was He started over. With Christ now being the head man, and the representative man, and all those that are in him, you're not a sinner anymore. You're not attached or acclaimed or declared to be anything to do with the sinful creation whatsoever.

So was that the grace there, the fact that we were included? Yeah, because he didn't have to do that. Otherwise it would have been like what JD's talking about. God would have been satisfied. Yeah, he would have been satisfied. Totally just and not including us. Absolutely. But he did. He did. That's so critical to understand.

Being separated from sin is one thing, but we have to be placed into something otherwise we'd be floating out there. I ask this question all the time. And those of you who have heard me give the answer, you can't answer. If Christ dying on the cross only did one thing, the only thing he did was pay the penalty for the sins of the world. That's all he did. He didn't do any of the other stuff.

Can I, as a believer in him, have access to him? To a holy God? Can I walk in and sit down and say, Hi Father, how's it going? No. Why not? because God cannot accept a sinner in his presence. And if all he did was pay the penalty, I'm still a sinner. My sins are forgiven, but I'm still a sinner. So therefore, being identified with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection, positionally in Christ, are you a sinner? No, you're not. So that's why you can't, a saved sinner is just not a correction. A saved sinner is an oxymoron, there is no such animal. But yet we Christians are taught to think like saved sinners and we're not.

What about Old Testament? Because that was the state of it. Yes it was. Yes it was, until Christ came. And then it was applied, retro application, because they looked forward to it. They looked forward to it, but it was a hope to what they did not know yet. Still a mystery, but the church part of it.

So it's learning about God and His sovereignty, and when He says something that's so, and when He talks about being just, and when He talks about that kind of thing, then you start to think, well, wait a minute, I can trust Him because He says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I love that verse. You know why? Because I'm a realtor. Location is everything. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has already set me free from the principle of sin and death. I'm already free. I'm already free. Okay? You okay with that?

So, I don't think you can rest in the security of salvation without knowing identification. You can't. There is no security without identification. I mean, there's a simple trust in the death of Christ and a confirmation by the Holy Spirit, but as you go on in your Christian life, you better know the mechanics. You better know what he did. He condemns sin in the flesh.

Oh, but I'm not there. That isn't me. That's what answers the question to the guy who lives in the White House. You know, his sins are paid for, right? He's not a believer. When he dies, where's he going? Wherever his sins take him. Because he's attached to them. For a believer not to...

We talked about the knowledge of identification. I don't know why, and maybe it's just because of the mindset of Christianity and the world, but if the Book of Romans is the first basic survey course of Christianity, where does identification show up? In the sixth chapter.

You think it's probably pretty basic stuff. Yet, you know, all of my Christian life, if you happen to start talking about identification to people, some people thought you were really spiritual. It has nothing to do with that. It's basic stuff. Every Christian should know that and rest in it. Every single one. When you were saved, you didn't know all about the identification cards.

No, I didn't. I didn't. But I was introduced to them within six weeks. Well, you were fortunate, maybe. I don't know. You know, I've told you this story before. I sat down with this guy. He said, oh, you've got your Bible. He said, open it up to Romans 6 and read the first six verses and tell me what you think it says. Six weeks of believers. So I read it and I said, Looks like I died. He said, yeah, you did. I said, really? He said, yeah. And that started, I thought, I did. And so I started checking.

And to say that this is basic, it is basic, but that's not been the experience of the Christian church. I agree. Grace is basic. We're seeing it as being advanced here, is what we're teaching, but It's not advanced, it's just rare. And so that's what makes it unapproachable for me. It's like this is unheard of, while basic it's rare and I don't get it.

And Bob, I think your question that Albrecht has maintained, there are millions and millions of believers. It's the simple faith in Christ and His Word. It's the growth that is stymied by that. There are millions of Christians who by faith, they don't know, Mike didn't know all this, I didn't know all this, but I was a believer.

But I'm in the nursery, no growth until you start understanding that identification and grace, those two things I think are what allow growth in your spiritual life because otherwise You know, a lot of believers are, you know, I'm safe, but now I'm on my own, or the Holy Spirit's going to come upon me, and they look at the Old Testament, it comes upon, it leaves, it goes, and they're worried, and then you're worried about, am I saved, am I not? And all those insecurities come. And, you know, they don't grow because they're always struggling. Or grace. I've got to do something. I've got to do this to make God smile on me a little better. He won't bless me unless I do this.

And so between identification and grace, Millions of believers but they're still in the nursery and they don't grow until I think they get those truths because you're always trying to do something yourself under not understanding grace and the insecurity because you don't know identification. Good points about identification. You know when it gets hard? is when you start to read in Ephesians and Colossians about being seated in the heavenlies.

Now it's going to get interesting, because that doesn't make any sense at all. Well, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I live, but to me as a believer, how did I go through those verses and not understand that? But somehow in my mind it justified that, or I blew it off as something else. You know, or, you know, second Corinthians 517, you know, I'm a new. I'm probably saying there are a bunch of those verses that you have to somehow in your mind get around the identification. You know, I'm sitting and when I go to the club in the morning and work out, I listen to Headset. And I listen to this, because he's the only guy on, this guy Adrian Rogers at 7 o'clock in the morning.

And he's a good old Southern Baptist preacher, right? He went home to be with the Lord. For three days he gave some of the best teaching on identification I ever heard in my life. The very next day he was teaching how you're supposed to comply with the Sermon on the Mount. I don't get it. And I'm telling you, his identification truths about sin were really good.

They were really good. What's missing? Coming out of the Brethren, and this is where a lot of the Brethren, you know, all these are old Brethren teachings. And yet the Brethren church rarely teaches any of this. So, yeah, I mean, yeah. So where did we get? And, you know, as you said, well, before the Brethren, there was there was no not really any identification that you can find. and Grace has been one of those that has been not even today very well understood or taught at all. And that's a key to how we operate. But looking in the mirror, I did it for 20 years. And we're remembering. And you know, I'm just going to defend some of these people. I don't know why.

It's your nature to do it. It's my nature, I know. You know, the Holy Spirit's using whoever that Southern Baptist guy is. Maybe there's like 600 other people who just tuned in to that sermon, for all you know. Although I'm of a mind. Cannot defend people. I'm of a mind that the spirit of God is about his business with the world and with believers and exposing them to the truth and truth be known they reject it. I think there's more truth in that than anything. Oh, and the Holy Spirit could be putting people in that situation to decide. Are you going to reject it or are you going to accept it? I don't know.

I don't think God plays those kind of games. I think he just says, here's the grace, here's the grace, here's the grace. Father, how we thank you for your word. We sure do thank you for the positions that you have given us freely in your Son, the Lord Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.