Principles of Position Lesson 22 Week 2
Mike Doyle · Dec 11, 2016
Principles of Position, No. 48
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926543375375

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

So I have a confession to make. Would you let me confess and not anticipate what I'm going to say? You guys are brutal over here. Wait till I tell you what I've got to confess, then you can pick on me. I lost my notes. So you said you did. So the ultimate question is, where did you lose them? Which I knew anyway. The one she just got to. I don't even know if I got that got that far, but I can't believe I went through every sheet of paper and the notes stay in the back of my car. You guys haven't been in my car. I got the right car. So the tires of the car.

So I think we got to question five. What's that? Lesson 22. And J.D. is coming through the door with copies so that we can. I find it interesting that like we pass out the lessons, you know, two or three weeks in advance and every week somebody is looking for a copy. You think I lose stuff. So the title of what we're doing.

We're in chapter 10, Sins and Confession. And we've worked our way through being free. What is God's purpose for us now? What is God's purpose for us now? Being free from sin. Do you have a purpose? Make you a rooty kazooty Christian, right? What's the purpose? It's not that hard. Yeah, to conform us to the image of Christ. That's what he's doing.

So, we talked last week that in 2 Corinthians 3.18, which is the verse we're talking about, it's the look that justifies, but it's the gaze that sanctifies. Did we talk about that? Did we? We did, sure.

We, as we behold the Savior, We look at Him and what He did, and by faith, He saves us. And that's justification. But the gazing is a constant thing that we do as believers, which causes us to grow in conformity with Christ. By beholding His glory, we're transformed.

So, having died with Christ and now raised, what are we free to do? Having died with Christ, Did we? Did we? Did we? Yeah, I left the room. You did? I missed the bus. And now raised with him, are we? Yes. What are we free to do? Trust him. Trust him. Behold him. So we died with him, what did that accomplish? What did that free us from? From sin? Penalty of sin, the old man, what else?

The world. What else? Most important thing for you guys, this is the most important one, and you missed it. Law. Up two, three, four, law. I know it's hard to believe that you've actually been separated from any and all law principles in order to be righteous or in order to be sanctified. Law doesn't work in this realm. And the reason it isn't because God just said it, it's because we've been separated in the death of Christ from any performance mode whatsoever.

Now, on the positive side, what are we free to do? Give me some laws. We can rest. We can rest in what? In His provision. Okay. The last chapter we talked about being in the light. What's that mean? We're in the light of the Father. And so if we're in the light of the Father, what's the privilege that we have? To what?

Enjoy Him. If you and I are going to sit down and hang out, how do we enjoy each other? We communicate. We talk. We look at each other. We learn about each other. So we're in the light of the Father. We're at liberty, we'll use that word again, to gaze on the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see Him and behold Him. And here's the other thing. Because we've been recreated in Him, We have the capacity to love Him and to be loved by Him on His level. This is not like loving your dog. My father-in-law used to say, we had this dumb friendly looking red haired dog named Far. And he said, nobody loves me as much as Far. Because Far was one of those really compliant dogs.

Well, when do you find out that the Lord Jesus Fire doesn't even enter into the picture when you begin to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have the capacity to receive His love and to reciprocate. That's pretty cool that you can do that. Your mind is free to behold Him. Your heart is free to love Him. And you're free from all, because of the provision He's given us, We're free from all of the darkness that has to do with unconfessed sins and a defiled conscience. You ever sit down and spend time in the Word and desire to behold the Lord and your mind is filled up with crap and guilt and stuff like that? You're free from all that. You're free from all that. You're free not to be nervous, anxious, restless. You're free from any kind of self-effort. Just quiet rest. That's what you get to do. Pretty cool, huh? Just quiet rest.

And the reason is, is because Colossians 3.3 says, what does Colossians 3.3 say? Christ and God. What's that? We're hid with Christ and God. Well let me ask you that. You believe that? You know what that means? What does it mean to be hidden with Christ and God? Hidden from what? Your life is hidden with Christ in God. What does that mean? You're hidden from any danger.

Yeah, you're in Christ and you're in God. You remember in John chapter 1, John says that we beheld the glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Where did he come from? Where? What part of the Father? Huh? He came out from the bosom of the Father. Guess where he took us? Back into the bosom of the Father. Hidden. Hidden. In Christ. In God.

It's pretty cool that he would do such a thing and I dare say we don't really have much apprehension of what that benefit really is to us. you know, that we are free from and free to. If it wasn't true, he wouldn't tell us. So let's say you get up tomorrow morning and say, gee, I don't have any idea what this life is here with Christ and God. What do you do about that? I mean, really, if you got honest with God and say, you know, I see this and I read it, sounds really cool to me, but I don't have a clue what you mean.

What do you do? Pray and read your Bible. Would that not be something that you were going to do that maybe God would reward you if he saw you doing all those things? Well, we already got all the rewards. Okay. But you're saying to the Lord, I see what you're saying, but I don't know what you mean by this.

What do you do? I trust Him. You trust Him? Ask him to show it to you, but you trust him that what he's telling you is true. What are you demonstrating? Faith. Because there's an awful lot in Paul's epistles that you can look at and you can't pile up the empirical evidence or the emotional evidence or any other kind of evidence that it's true, other than the fact that God told you so.

So we're bringing the one who really makes this all work, and who is that? It's the Spirit of God. Sure, He's the one that is the life of the Lord Jesus that manifests increasingly in us every single day. It's His job to do that. It's not my job to pray and beg. It's my job to trust the Spirit to do what He says He's going to do.

And you know what? He's really good at it. He knows how to do it a lot better than we do. How hard is it for us to learn just to receive? I've got to tell you, it's a hard thing. It's a really hard thing. I'll let you guys be an elder for a month and people come and they want to give you stuff. It's really hard to take it. Especially guys like Courtney who are chargers. He wants to be the payor, not the payee. We all want to be the payor and we don't want to be the payee. We don't want God just to give us free. We don't like that. We think we're some sort of liberal. It's hard to learn how to receive. I think it is. Do you agree? Do you think it's hard to learn how to receive?

Most of you have worked in your life. When you work on Friday, if you get paid on Friday, you expect to get paid. Why? Because you earned it. And then you find out in the Word of God that you can't earn anything that God's given you. You can't go to Him on Friday and say, pay me. Why not? We didn't earn it. It's all by grace and it's free. It's free. You make God a debtor. Yeah, you can't make God a debtor.

But we really try to do it. That's why when I ask a question, what if you wake up in the morning and discover this is not, you'd really like to know what this is, your mind instantly says, what do I got to do? And there's only one thing we can do as believers that we can't take credit for. What is that? It's believing. Because all the credits in what we believe, not the fact that we did it. So we're stuck. We really are stuck.

You have to take God as His Word. You know, Miles Stanford used to say, you have to trust the Lord has come to that. And oh, by the way, it's got to come to that. And it does. Because we're so used to just doing the little things that we think that's going to sort of open up the gate. Anything other than just believing Him. We're going to pray more. We're going to study more. We're going to go to church more. We're going to beg more. And if you like, Courtney, you write bigger checks.

Although I haven't seen them lately. Question six. How many circumstances, experiences, trials, and failings in our life are being used to conform us to the image of Christ? Could be a trick question here. I'm going to say it again. Now listen hard this time. How many circumstances, experiences, trials and failings in our life are being used to conform us to the image of Christ? All of them. I don't think any of them. He's right, none of them. That's right, it is a trick question. Sure it is, it is a trick question. Think about this, what do trials, experiences, failings, what do they do? What do they teach us?

That's who we were. Yeah, they expose who we are in the flesh, or who we were in the flesh, right? But what's the thing that conforms us? Beholding. The beholding is the thing that conforms us. The trials get us ready. What the trials teach us, the circumstances and experiences teach us, is that there's no place else other than Him. You see that? So we can say, yeah, they contribute to our growth because they prepare us But like I said before, we have to trust the Lord has come to that. The interesting thing about what God does is He's working all things together for good, to conform us. But the actual conforming itself is beholding the Lord Jesus in the Word.

How often do you hear that? Talked about, read about, spoken about. Hardly ever hear it. Because we pray for the trials. We started off the class by praying for people for the trials. Maybe we should revisit those prayers. What would we say? Come on Lord, keep going.

Because the trials are designed to do what? Not to reveal Christ to us, but to get us ready to go to Him. in the Word and say, look, I just want to know you, I don't care about the rest of this. Because you won't do it unless you have an issue in order to do it. Am I right about that? Am I right about that? But there does come a time when the wooing of the Lord Jesus draws us to Him. And you know, we're comfortable with the trials that are brought our way because we know what they're going to do.

You know, the trick question part of that, I'm thinking about one of my verses, you know, that I've... James, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter... Not that one, that's not a verse. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and that endurance has its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

And it's meant to, you know, the perfect and lacking in nothing is the conforming to Christ. So he's using those trials to perfect you. So I mean, it is a trick question, but the trials are there to conform you. To get you, yeah. And which leads to the next question.

Why would God let us flounder so long? Why would he do that? I mean, wouldn't you think because he's a God of love that he would keep us from having really severe trials or any kind of trials? But he lets us flounder. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, you get yourself in a box and it seems dark and you can't figure it out. You know, you're trying all your tricks with God that you know and he isn't responding. And he lets you flounder for a while. Why would he do that? I think to open your eyes, you realize you don't want to be there. One, I don't want to be there. Dependency on yourself or dependency on him. There it goes.

One of my favorite guys in the New Testament is Peter, because he's such a mouthy guy. But when he gets arrested for preaching the gospel after he was told not to, And they put him in the prison. What's the very first thing he does? What's the very first thing he does? They haul him back, lock the gate, and what does he do? He falls asleep. He takes a nap. Why that? Why a nap? I swear that any of us, throw us into Denver County Jail, we aren't going to be napping. Right. Especially for preaching the gospel. He takes a nap.

Why? Because he knew, he understood, he absolutely trusted God, whatever the circumstances might be. Does that mean he didn't suffer? No, it doesn't mean that at all. But he knew. One of the cool things about the life of the Apostle Paul, he was suffering all the time. Not only from his enemies, but from those who supposedly were his friends. Yet he rested. And you can't fake rest. Because you can't take a nap. You ever try to take a nap thinking I better take a nap? I need a nap. I'm going to go lay down and take a nap. And you can't go to sleep.

Boy, if that doesn't point up legalism, I don't know what does. So God lets us ponder there. Why? Why? Harking back to the old days. When Stephen died in 87, I had a really hard time for about five years. And I was a fine Christian, you know. Sure. I had been for a long time. Sure. I understand that. No, I understand that because when the Lord took my brother, it was the same way. I was mad as a helicopter. I was mad, and don't dare tell me that everything happens for good. But he couldn't grow in the Lord because I didn't want to grow in the Lord. What if my son's dead so I can grow in the Lord?

Yeah, don't tell me. He's a real Christian. Yeah. So, um, floundering. And the Lord let me do that and I was so mad at him for so long. Sure. And I told him so. Yeah. Over and over again I told him so. I was really mad. You're the only one in the world that ever told him so. And it was like he didn't answer me. It was steel up there.

Sure. You know, and finally one day I said, okay Lord, I'm sick and tired of me. That's what it is. Not that I doubt it. I'm sick and tired of me. Sure. So we, floundering I think in a lot of cases is learning what the old man is like. Sure is. And how much we really are in the old man, and he's a God. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. How much of an enemy am I really of God? Even though I'm born again, that's in there. That's right. That old sin nature, it is not a friend of God.

I was mad at God because my older brother was my best friend. He was 13 months older than me, and we grew up together, and he also was a guy that took a lot of hits for me. And he'd only been a believer maybe a couple years. I said, Lord, I've been around longer than him. Why does he go before me? I was mad about that too. And I was talking to a guy about this and he said, well, two things. He said, one is that he was done. His work was done.

And the Lord loves us and he wants us home with him right away. And two is, that this is all part of your understanding where you're going. You're still here, and he's there, but it's a short time. It won't be that long. So yeah, I don't know, does anybody else understand about the Lord will allow you to flounder in a circumstance that's very tough? for a long time.

I had it with a job situation for two years. It was just pits and I couldn't leave. Anybody else have been in that kind of circumstance? We all have. And don't you get sort of, it's like a bad toothache that won't go away just every day. It's, oh, I want out of this. And you can't get out. I want free from me, and you can't get free, yet you're reading it. I already am free. Well, easy for you to say. I'm not free. You might be free, but I'm not free.

So, why does our Father encourage us to do? What does our Father encourage us to do when we are laboring under a load of unconfessed sins? We're disqualified from friendship with our Father and usefulness to others and a burden to all. What does he encourage us to do? Confess our sins. Now, how tough would it be for somebody like Dale to go to the Lord and say, you know, I'm seeing this thing as sin. I never did see it as sin for a long time. I never thought about confessing it.

Not only that, I'm mad. And it's interesting, I think if there's anyone in the whole universe that can handle being angry at, it's him. The whole world is angry at him. They are. So he encourages us to confess our sins, because really sin is the issue, isn't it? Isn't that the issue? Every time it's my sin, And it may not be that I robbed a bank or did something like that, but I'm angry at him. Is that a sin?

Sure it is. Sure it is. But he let me stay there for a long time. Longer than I would have liked it. Why? And it never dawned on me I could confess this, or maybe I did try to confess it, but I'm still mad. You know, it's like somebody says, I'm forgiving you, but I'm not forgetting. Forget that dance. Which means they didn't forgive you in the first place.

So I think we try to play a lot of games with God a lot of times. And He's put in place fairly simple, easy ways to be restored. And we just won't go there. Because our sin nature has got a hold of us and we can't get free. Even though we are positionally free.

I was thinking, didn't Myles say something about you can walk away when you know you can't? I called him up one day and I said, Miles, kind of in this line of thinking, I said, Miles, when am I going to be able to just walk away from me? He says, you'll do it when you know you can.

And he hung up. That was his big trick, you know. He'd give you an answer, or he wouldn't answer you and he'd hang up. He'd say, oh, that's a tough one, brother. I've been worrying about that myself. Bye, click. But that made so much sense to me. Did you know you could fix this early on? I didn't with my brother. I did not know. Well, even if I had known, or if I had thought about it that way, I probably wouldn't have wanted to fix it.

That's right. I liked being mad. I was at a stage where I really had to go through that. Yeah, I agree. And I think you have to. So, let me ask you another question that comes to mind as we talk about it. Let's say you have a close spiritual friend that's dealing with that. And you know it. What do you do?

Didn't start quoting a bunch of verses, Adam. That'd really work. She's stubborn. It wouldn't have worked with her. Ruth mentioned to me one time, more than once probably, that somebody told her, oh, you can't be mad at God. That's a horrible thing. And then other people say things similar.

And I think it's really freeing. to reach a point where we understand that God is a whole lot bigger and able to deal with whatever we feel and think and go through and our emotions. We don't minimize Him physically. We don't make Him smaller. We can't damage Him. And being able to let Him know that we feel that way and we can't stop feeling that way.

It kind of helps get it out, maybe. Sometimes. We don't have to defend God. No, we don't. I'm always saying, oh well, he took my son because, and have a good reason to explain to another person. Sure. I still can't explain. Sure. And some things we'll never be able to explain except to believe and trust what he tells us. Sure. Yeah, it's interesting too because when you get down to the end and if you understand what we've been talking about for a year, positional truth, what do you discover?

One is that whatever the sin is, he's already taken care of it. Because everybody in this room, our sins were future at the time of the cross, weren't they? So there's nothing that sin we will ever commit as believers it has not been paid for. And as non-believers too. Is that sin paid for? Absolutely. It has to be. Because the sin issue was an issue between the father and the son.

My contribution to the cross was I put him there. I had nothing to do with the work he was doing there. So that's what I discover if I'm taught what positional truth is. At the end I come out and I think I'm taught through the Word and through others. Well, I've been sitting in my pity pot for months, years, but it's already been done by Him.

He doesn't look at me. As a matter of fact, He's kind of ignored me, and I'm upset about that too. He hasn't responded to my flesh. Why would He? If he did, it would indicate that the work wasn't completed, that I really didn't die, that I can do something in the flesh that would cause God to respond. Wait a minute. I can't get Ben King to respond to me today. Why not? He's not here anymore. He's home with the Lord.

So am I. That's why positional truth is so critical for us to understand, that there's nothing that is being done from a conditional standpoint that hasn't already been accomplished from a positional standpoint. We're growing into what we already are positionally.

Does that make sense? And if you kind of know that going in, it helps you understand some of the circumstances that the Lord allows you to be in and to go through, so you'll trust Him. Because otherwise you would be ignorant about it and your emotions would be the controlling factor rather than the word of God. Okay? You alright with that?

Quick thought I had. I think there's different degrees of floundering obviously. There are very difficult ones and there's those daily flounders that we all struggle through. We have our own little versions of those. Some of the things that cause us to maybe wake up from that floundering have to do with what is the reality of what's happening right now.

So I'm not in fellowship. I'm not able to have fellowship with my father. I think one of the things that Miles mentioned here that really struck me, in addition to not having fellowship with my father, I'm actually a burden to others in the same sense. And so I'm not able to be useful to others. I'm actually unuseful to anyone else around me, including my wife, my children. And so my sin not only produces a lack of fellowship with the Father, but also creates a burden to those around me. And so recognizing those consequences may help spark in my mind the need for fellowship because of not so much that I want to have fellowship just so I'm not a burden to others, but I'm literally not useful to him in this state.

That's a great point. Because we're here to serve Him. We're not here to be self-centered, satisfied. And I do that so much. We all find ourselves loving to flounder for a time. All the time. But it's helpful to be reminded that it's not just you and the Lord that are suffering from this decision. It's also those around you. Yeah. You understand that? Because most of us, well, let's say it that way, we're here We're here to edify the body of Christ, to walk with them, and to serve the Lord, and to lift them up. We've studied the spiritual gifts. How many of them are for me?

None of them. They're all for the body. All of them are. They're not for me. And we're to serve. Why? Because that's what the Lord Jesus does. That's what He's done. And He continues to do it. We've got to learn how to do that. And the biggest detriment to it, I think, is, oh, woe me. You know, what's cooking? Lots.

Actually, we went to, one of the thoughts I'll share is, we went to a memorial for a young guy yesterday. His brother works at camp and his dad used to be on the board. How old was he? Thirty-six. Thirty-six. And what do you say to him? His brother and his dad.

One of the things I brought up, and they seemed comforted by that, is He was a believer, so he's face-to-face with the Lord. Yes, he is. What it comes down to us, and I told him that, you know, right now, that it's the testing of our faith. Do we believe that? Yeah. That's what, you know, the testing, going through it. Do we believe that? If we believe that, he's face-to-face with the Lord. You know, and that is a joyous thing. And, you know, it's testing, do we believe that? And it's like, you know, they kind of went, wow, you know, that, yeah, if we believe that, this is, this is good. We'll miss him. Absolutely. And, you know, his service was tremendous, you know, and, you know, we'll miss him. But it comes down, you know, he uses this to test our faith.

Do we believe all these things? Do we believe he's with the Lord? Well, it's like I asked earlier, do you really believe your life is hid with Christ and God? Do you really believe that? In other words, really, I hate the word really. Do you believe it or not? It isn't really. You know, when somebody says, well, they're really a Christian, what does it mean? If you're not really, you aren't one? You either are or you're not. You either believe or you don't. And the issue is, the issue is, your life is hid with Christ and God or is, what's this guy's name? Nate, is he standing, is he sitting in Christ before the Father right now? Yes or no? Yes. Is your life hid with Christ and God right now? Yes or no?

Well, I don't feel it. What's my response to be? It's the same every time. I'm to believe him and trust him, no matter how I feel about it, what the circumstances are, how difficult it is. that's been mulling around. It's like when they're saying being offended.

We choose to be offended. And we all do this in the floundering part. We choose to not believe and flounder. That's our choice. And I think of the rational thing. The rational thing is peace and rest is by believing. And we choose not to believe. And we flounder. And he uses that. He uses it in all of us. But it's our choice.

We choose not to believe and choose the peace and rest. And from an engineering rational sense, that doesn't make sense to me. But we all do it. How about you choose to believe in In spite of, you know, I believe you even though I may not ever be restful about it or have peace about it, but I believe you. But then you have peace and rest.

Well, I find it interesting that the example I'm going to use is the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's saying to the Father, you know, can't we do this another way? And he said, you know, I know, I guess not, so let your will be done. I think over the next several hours, how much peace and rest did he have?

He was okay in front of a conscious pilot, but the things he was suffering, he wasn't cruising through those things. There can be terrible conflicts, and I know that, like Gail was talking about, I know in your experience and mine, there are times that you know this side, And you know this side, and that Galatians 5 is in play.

The spirit has strong desires against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. They're contrary one to another, so I can't do what I want to do. I want a fellowship. I want to. But boy, this war is going on, and I'm stuck. And I'm not the trigger, necessarily, to make it work. Am I? Or am I? That's the thing.

But you have to understand that believing doesn't mean the war ends. No. Does that make sense? There's rest in believing. Sure, there is rest in faith. That's the thing. Paul, when you look at all of Paul's, when he goes through his litany of all the things he did, or Peter, he's in a prison. How did he fall asleep? He knew. He believed. And all the things that were going around, he didn't choose to be anxious or worried or whatever. He knew. And he believed. And that's where he could fall right asleep. Question.

Are peace and rest emotions? Ah, good question. Hear that? Everybody hear that question? Are peace and rest an emotion? It's the fruit of the spirit of those emotions. Joy, joy, peace, rest. I mean, it's a great question. I think this is the argument we get into a lot of whether that's emotion or not. I think they are. But they are fruit of the spirit. It's said, you know, peace, rest, joy, all the things that fruit in the spirit. But that's not... It's right there. It's the facts and the tracts. Oh, you put a cheat sheet up there, I didn't see that. Nancy made that for you. So I put it in here instead of taking it home, so I can always reference it here.

Maybe a more accurate question would be, is it positional or conditional? Good question. Is joy positional? Or conditional? Or both? Could you say it's the life? Well, when you think about it, it's not fruits of the Spirit's fingers, it's fruit. So they're all in play at one time. Let me ask you this, is it possible, probable, to be spiritually focused and minded and resting, that joy is part of the spiritual aspect of my Christian life and not necessarily emotional? You could even ask, is it physical? There's no question.

I'm thinking through your circumstance with your son. There may have been times where you were in that process of trusting the Lord, maybe towards the transitional stage. you had peace and rest, but in your physical, emotional state, you were turning, just churning. But positionally, you were coming to a place of understanding where all of that was with the Lord, and your condition was working itself out over time, in order to align with that positional understanding.

Do we dissect it like this? Sometimes it's hard, because We can, when we're frustrated, we're floundering, and we finally recognize, I do sense that there's a great deal of peace and rest that comes in my heart about a matter, but it still might be very difficult emotionally and physically for me to continue for a time without, I mean, before those two things align themselves. It doesn't always happen like that. Right, it doesn't. This is, even if you believe, it may take you time to get through.

Yeah, I'm resting. I'm resting. Yeah, right. But, you know, so I think it's a process. And he uses all things, and it's a process. And he allows these things to grow us. And that's the considerable joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. That's the thing. doesn't necessarily happen overnight or in a day, but that's the process, is to get to the point where, okay, I trust you. And that may take years, it may take days, it's a process. But the end result is the fruit of the spirit, which is peace and rest.

Right. All right, we have to stop. Next week's the last class, you know that? There'll be a test. There'll be a test. 150 questions, multiple choice. And if that's not right, it's gone. I had an algebra test once, and I failed it. And all you had to do was spell the word Thanksgiving. A couple of days before Thanksgiving, all you had to really know was to spell the word Thanksgiving. The answer to number one was fee. I liked it. We got the smartest engineers in this. Father, how we thank you for your word and how we thank you for for your carefulness in which you grow us up into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you use everything, and we're thankful for that. We pray in your Son's precious name, Amen.