Principles of Position Lesson 22 Week 3

So we've got just a few more questions to go and then if we have some time I've got some really hard questions to ask you that you didn't get prepared for. Last week we were down to eight and the question was, what does our Father encourage us to do when we are laboring under a load of unconfessed sin disqualified from fellowship with our Father and usefulness to others and a burden to all.

I know that when you're sinning, you don't really think about the fact that you're disqualified from fellowship, that there's no usefulness to others, and that you're a burden to all. What does the Father encourage us to do? Confess. Because confession does what? It restores us to fellowship. It restores us to fellowship with the Father, which qualifies us to some degree to be useful and not be a burden. So I don't know about you, but I really like the fact that the Father has put in play a really simple solution to our laboring under sin.

Confession. Now, explain to me what confession in this sense is. To agree with him. Agree with him about what? Well, what you've done. That you're a dirty rotten dog? I agree with him about this load of unconfessed sins I have. I agree that I'm the creature in Christ. I'm not being that person. I'm being the old man. My agreement is that I'm following the dictates of old nature and that's not me anymore.

Right. I think that's the critical part right there. Confession, yeah, the fess up to the burden of sin, but that's the minimal small part of it. The big issue is to reckon on what God says is true of you. That's where the real restoration comes from. And so you make a decision, don't you? You make a decision whether to believe and labor under this load or to believe what God says about it. I think that's really important for us.

He would not have us in any sense abide in a sinful condition under any circumstances for any period of time. It cost him too much to get us in Christ and that's where he wants us to hang out. Even though we think, well, I need to suffer for my sins to some degree. That's an old Catholic thing, that you have to do penance, and you've got to feel sorry, and all that other nonsense. So why are we not to abide in our present sinful condition, counting upon help from Him in heaven for our walk and service? Why are we not to do that? That's not who we are. Yeah. How do I say this? Are we to count on him to help us? I got a yes. I got somebody over here that may have the courage to say no. We'll do 75% and you can do the 20%. You said the other day that the answer is no. The answer is no. Why is it no?

Because it's God living through us. If God has taken care of everything, why would he help us? I thought in the I have written down that because we are to be conformed in his image. Is that helping us? Well, it could, sure. You're depending upon him. Really, would you say that the help from him in heaven is the ministry of the Holy Spirit? That's okay. Let me read what he wrote and see if you agree with this. He says we are not to abide in our present condition. That's not a problem.

Counting upon help from him in heaven for our walk and service. Just the opposite. He has shown us our position in order that we may abide in our risen Lord, in the light and presence of our Father. It is from that vantage point that we become involved in the needs of this world. You see the difference in mindset? I can tell this on Ben King because he's home with the Lord now.

He used to say to me, I'm always praying to the Lord, Father I believe, help my unbelief. And I used to say to him, if you're Jewish, that's a pretty good prayer, but if you're a believer, that prayer doesn't make any sense at all. You're the believer, you don't. How would God help you believe?

If he has shown you the provision and everything that he's done, everything, and it's a completed work, is your unbelief based that you just don't believe what you know and see? And that's what you're asking for help for? Or is it because you just need a little boost? What is it? Courtney's always banging on me about they got to believe. Belief is a thing. You got to have faith in what you know. He's right, you do. So what if you find out you just don't have the faith?

I'm just thinking our mindsets... a lot of times earthly, so asking for some help, you know, help me lift this box up here. That's where our thinking always comes from. So anything we do that we don't feel like we can accomplish, we're asking for help to do that. And I think that's what we need to get out of our thinking. Yeah, it's a very interesting thinking. If we ask God to help us, the first question I would say, a better question is, who's doing the asking? Is it the new man in Christ? Or is it the old man trying to accomplish and get down the road? I think it's the old man. Does the new man need any help? But it just sounds strange, doesn't it?

I mean, I think it does, because we're always going to the Father and soliciting Him for something. But I think more accurately, in terms of positional truth and understanding, is to just trust Him. Is there anything that He hasn't taken care of when it comes to sin? So play devil's advocate for a minute. I think about Christ in the garden.

Yeah. He prays. that the father would take that... Come up with plan B. Yeah. Because of the extreme physical, right? I think he prayed because of the spiritual issue. And the spiritual issue? The separation that was going to happen. He knew that was coming. So isn't that... I mean, it's not necessarily asking for help, but I think sometimes there are situations Or like Peter, you talked about your buddy Peter being in that device. I mean, he is talking to the Lord. He is.

They put him in this device. I asked him, I said, how long are you in that thing every day? He said, ten minutes. And it's a mass thing that they put him in on a table so his head and neck won't move. And they target the radiation. And he said, it's claustrophobic.

I said, how are you dealing with that? He said, I'm praying the whole time. So then I would say to you, the Father would have us pray about everything, regardless of, you know, you don't want to say, oh, I'm not going to pray about this, because that would be, that's my old man, because intellectually I understand my position. With prayer and supplication, make all your requests known.

It is a growth process. Sure, yeah, absolutely. But I think the idea is, the idea that Miles is trying to get across here, is that you don't ask him for help out of the old man. You don't ask him to assist your weakness. What he would have us do is trust in his provision that he's already put in place. So that's real subtle. It is very subtle.

And it's, you know, the idea, and we haven't talked much about this in this class because it wasn't the subject, The idea of reckoning is a really interesting concept. Reckoning is more than just faith. Do you agree with that? Reckoning presupposes that you have the information and that you already believe it. And now you have resistance to your faith. What are you supposed to do about it? You're supposed to reckon. On what? On the position that you already know that you have. Does that make sense? Reckoning is not begging God for help or even asking Him for help. Reckoning is acknowledging that he's already handled the situation and you're trusting him. Does that make sense?

When he says in Romans 6.11, Reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God. Are you asking him, help me be dead unto sin and alive unto God? No. You're acknowledging that you are dead and alive. Now there may be a time in there when you think, gee, am I really dead? Am I dead enough? Am I alive enough?

But faith has to do with resting on the facts. What are the facts? The facts were covered in the first ten verses of Romans chapter 6. Reckoning is a word, it's an accounting term that means to, you know, I'm counting on this to be true because, you know, I know there are, you know, ten marbles in the jar because I counted every one of them so I reckon there are ten. So the Lord in Romans 6, 1-10 talks about my old man being crucified, my being buried, resurrected to newness of life, that sin is not to have dominion over me, a lot of information that's all positional, And then he says, okay, based on what I've just told you, here's what you do about it.

Well, when the first time you read it, I don't think you can reckon. Do you agree with that? The first time you learn the identification, because you can't reckon them to be true, because you don't know what, it's such wonderful information, but you don't know what it's like in experience.

Reckoning comes from experience, and it's the same thing with sin. This isn't the first rodeo we've ever had about sin. We've been fighting and dealing with sin since the day that we were saved. And so reckoning should be an automatic for us because we discovered, and then the Spirit of God worked into us, our position.

And so we can reckon it to be so, rather than begging for help. I think that's the point here. Okay. You want to play more advocate? No, so then reckoning really is a work or is able to be done because of the work of the Spirit? That's a great point. I think that's right. I think that's exactly right. The procedure, again, I agree, it's the growth process.

It's just, you know, we were talking almost last week, it's insane not to believe in what's already true, but we do it. We don't believe a lot of James Watt, again, considered it all jokingly, whether in any kind of various trials, the testing of your faith produces endurance and without endurance there's no result, you may be perfectly complete. It's a process, and he's taken us through that process, so it's not out of any surprise that he takes us through it. The procedure is, he takes us through the trial to test our faith. Do we believe it? And so it is, I think it's a growth process, it's spiritual growth. And when you say test our faith, I don't think you mean that he wants to see if we're going to make it or not.

No. He's trying us to approve us. We're being tested so that we'll come out in the end like he has said that we are. That's going back to the two things that rest on it. He's sovereignly in control and he has an eternal love for us. Yeah. control of it, and it's not out of malice, it's not out of anything else, it's out of love to bring us into the fellowship that we have with you, that we already have.

He's just bringing us to that point where we're growing in that fellowship. Yeah, it's interesting how people talk about the Lord. I know the Lord loves me. Well, how do you know that? Because it says so in the book. Yeah, that's how I first find out about it. But the work of the Spirit of God in revealing Christ to us is to reveal His character of God to us too. I know He loves me because He has demonstrated to me personally that He does.

And He does it more through trials and dealing with sin than He does through the good times. Today is the hungry heart. Once we become aware that our sovereign father is reigning and is in full control, our faith becomes a set attitude and we are able to honor him by resting in his faithfulness under all circumstances. And it goes on, Joseph gives a wonderful example of a man who does not know what God is doing, yet who by faith cooperates with him in every step of the way, each phase of his experience, even when perhaps it is most bewilderment. Joseph gave God his cooperation which he requires for the fulfillment of his purpose.

The relationship can only come by faith. It does not necessarily entail an understanding of the procedure of things. But it certainly cannot be given unless we are absolutely convinced of the Father's supreme control over all. You see the difference? It's interesting when you read about Joseph.

You never once see him asking God for help. Never once. What's he doing? He trusts God. The circumstances don't matter. He trusts Him. And so whatever is coming his way, he trusts Him. And he ends up telling his brothers, you know, what you did to me was meant for evil, but look what God did. He turned it to good. Well, Joseph knew that when he was down in the hole and they were bargaining to sell him. He knew that principle. And he never says, Oh, Lord, help me. It's cold in the hole. Never. Do you see that? When Potiphar's wife has him thrown in jail, you don't ever see him begging. or being weak about that. Circumstances are terrible. But what is he doing? He's trusting God through it.

The whole reason that positional truth is so important to a believer is because you find out who your father is and what he said. And so, circumstantially, even with the struggle of sin, the issue is already resolved. It's already done. My job is not to ask for help. My job is to believe him.

In that Hungry Heart this morning, it's interesting, the last little paragraph is one of the great paragraphs, or little sentences, that you believe. I'm paraphrasing. If he's going, go ahead and read it. Well, the last two are pretty good. I'll finish it up.

The man who imagines that things have gotten out of the Father's hands, that they are not working out as he intended, or that Satan or his agents are really in control, is the man who is not in a position to give the Father the required cooperation in at all. He's also the man that's asking for help. Yeah. This is unbelief.

And unbelief is the greatest hindrance we can offer the Father's working. This cooperation is a matter of a hard attitude, of spirit. It means that we go quietly on, cheerfully and faithfully glorifying the Father where we are, not fretting or praying to be moved somewhere else.

The strength of the vessel can be demonstrated only by the hurricane, and the power of the Gospel can only fully can be fully shown only when the believer is subjected to some fiery trial. If the Father would make manifest the fact that He giveth songs in the night, He must first make it night. Isn't that interesting? He's got to make it night first, so you know what the songs of the night are about.

And the cooperation that God wants from us is simply to believe Him. If you don't know what to believe, you certainly don't know who to believe in. And if your faith is based on circumstances, as soon as the trial comes, how do you learn that circumstances are not really the food of faith? Because he'll put you in a circumstance where your circumstance didn't solve anything, and that's where the begging and the pleading comes in, when in fact the issue is, who am I? What has God already done and I know this is true and I trust Him. So here's the sequence, this is the last question. From the following verses, create a formula for fellowship and service. So let's do this.

Bob, you get to look up Romans 6.11.

Donna, you can do Ephesians 2.6 and Wayne, you do 1 John 1.7 and 9. So this is a formula. Now watch how this formula works.

Okay, Romans 6.11. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. Okay, step number one. Step two.

Ephesians 2.6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Step 2.

Step 3. 1 John 1.7 But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. Do 9 also. to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So is that a good formula? Think about the formula. What's the first thing? You reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God. Can you do that in the middle of sinning? Sure you can. What's the second part? I've been raised with Him? Have I been? Is that true or not? Do I have fellowship with him? Yeah.

And if I don't, here's the really easy thing to do. I confess. He's faithful and just to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. All of those things have to be in play for us to understand. There's no place in any of those three verses or four verses for asking God for help. They're all statements of fact. Am I right with that? Or is that just too hard?

Mike, I like 1 John 1 verse 3 better than the 7 and 9 because it talks about how we have fellowship with Christ. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard that you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. I think the 7 and 9 talk about, well at least verse 7 talks about fellowship with each other. But verse 3 talks about fellowship with the Father and the Son, which I think is really cool. Yeah, I think so too. I think fellowship is really critical for us as believers. I would say that a growing believer begins to appreciate more and more what fellowship really is.

I have this back and forth dialogue on the web with this guy for maybe five years. I think he lives in Northern California someplace. And he's pretty savvy, he's one of those guys that listens to Holly Hill stuff and laments that he can't find the kind of church like us, you know, or he doesn't have it. And so his deal, here's the question he asked me this week, he said, what do you do?

Oh, the first question was, how long a time have you spent at any given period walking in the Spirit, walking in the flesh? And there's a problem with the question. What's the problem? Who cares about the time? The time is not the issue. If you're walking in the Spirit and having fellowship, you're not watching your watch. Are you? Or here's the self-thought. How am I doing? It ain't about you. It's about the Lord Jesus. And it's about the Spirit doing the work. It's about Him causing and creating fellowship.

So we went back and forth two or three times and I ended up saying to him, I said, well, you know, I remember years ago when I would call up Miles and ask him, well, you know, how about this and how about that, my spiritual growth and that kind of thing.

He was the king of the simple answer and the short sentence. You know? He said one time, he said, if you're concerned about your own spiritual growth, you haven't figured it out yet. What haven't I figured out? The focus is on you rather than the Lord. That's right. The focus is on me and my spiritual growth rather than the Lord Jesus. See? It's really interesting, isn't it?

That's exactly why he said that. And think about, which is in Colossians 3, it is a command. Why would he do that? Because he knows and has given us the information and has given us the spirit to do exactly that. And there's the walk and there's the fellowship. And you know what? You can't do it, so what do you have to do? You have to trust him to do what he says he's going to do, or did.

We count ourselves to have died to sin and are alive unto God in Christ Jesus. We accept our position in the light when we know ourselves to be new creatures in the risen Lord. That's Ephesians 2.6. We accept that. We believe it. That's who we are. We enjoy his blessed fellowship as we judge ourselves in confession of our sins.

What's self-judgment? agreeing with God about my position and I'm agreeing with Him about my condition at the time of sinning and there's a process there for restoration and it's instant. Then it is that our Lord can work through us in our lives and others to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and they may receive forgiveness of their sins. and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Now, you know what's interesting?

As it becomes less and less about you, me and my, or you, spiritual growth, where does your attention go? It goes to him, and then from there, where does it go? It goes to the body. You know why? Because if you're in love with somebody, I hate that term, in love. If you love somebody dearly, one of the things that happens to you is you really get interested in what they're interested in. You start doing stuff you've never done before. Right? Well, you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. At some point in that process, you begin to think, well, I wonder what He's interested in. What's He doing? What is He doing? He's ministering to His body. Guess what you get involved in doing? Ministering to the body.

He includes you in the process. All of that means that there's no focus on you. That's the cool part about it. And you don't think about if you've got up or down or sideways circumstances. Your focus is on somebody else. You find yourself in a position that somebody you really care about in the body of Christ is stuck in sin. Do you know how to walk beside him and bring him out of that? Sure you do. Sure you do. Your focus is on them, it's not on you. If the focus is on us, we're not walking in fellowship. Okay with that? Okay.

Now, true or false, and I've got more than one. In our position in Christ, our Father has already perfected us, made us complete in Him. In our walk, He by His Spirit is fashioning us after that blessed pattern. Is that true or false? True. You sure? You absolutely certain? Would you reckon it to be so? Yeah. Keep looking down for your life is hidden with Christ and God. True or false? True.

You ever think about that? As a matter of fact, we have We have a, our house is a two-story house, and we have the steps coming down from the second floor, and when you come down, there's like a blank wall right in front of you. So Donna and Alice put that up there. So, walking from the second floor to the first floor, we're looking down.

If we turn from our position of rest to fight against sin, we have stepped off the rock of grace into the swamp of self-effort. True or false? If we turn from our position of rest to fight against sin, we have stepped off the rock of grace into the swamp of self-effort. True or false?

Yeah, you can't go off. I don't think you can go off. Then you never sin? Just go back to the beginning. I'll read it again. If we turn from our position of rest to fight against sin, we have stepped off the rock of grace and into the swamp of self-effort. True or false? Absolutely true.

And it isn't my fight anyway. It's not my fight. What is my fight? I'm to fight the good fight of faith. What's faith in? Positional facts. I'm not to deal with sin, I'm to fight the good fight of believing what God has told me. At rest in our position in the Lord Jesus, we cannot depend on... Oops, what happened to the rest of that? I lost it. I have more. So, the first review question, ready? Explain to me what positional truth is, in 25 words or less. What is positional truth? Rely on Christ? What's the most important thing about positional truth? It's unchangeable. It can't be changed. It can't be changed. They're facts. And you have to look at the source of those facts. Our position is based on source. Who's the source? God is the source, right? So the facts are true.

Now how does that relate to my having a position? He placed you into Christ. So by placing me into Christ, did he also place me into the position of the facts? Yes. Are all those facts true of me? Yes. Yes they are. And could you also say that position is reality? Yeah, that's another good way to look at it. Yeah, position is my reality as a believer. Yeah. You've got an idea floating around in there. Principle of position? Yeah. Principle. It's a principle. Oh, and what is a principle? It's a principle, that's what I was trying to say. What is a principle?

The way things work. Yeah, and it happens the same way every time. So there are spiritual principles and one of them is position. I am in Christ and everything that's true of Him is also true of me. It's not only the fellowship with the person, but it's all the facts involving who He is.

So who is He today? But who is he right now? He's a savior. He's a savior. He's our advocate. He's an advocate? He's a life savior. He's life. Where is he right now? He is God and he will never be God. That's true. That's a basic thing we have to not gloss over. Yeah, that's true. He is deity. That is a big difference.

Other than that, is there anything about him that's not true of us? No. Everything that's true of him except for deity is true of me. I'm positioned in Christ in the heavenlies. All of the work that he accomplished on the earth is true of me. Everything that's true of him now is true of me. That's who I am. He's the source of this new creation. And he's the source. We're a new creation. You know, you got up this morning and you turned on the news. What were you watching? New Creation News? You know, New Creation News is not news. It's history. It's already true.

You see that? You alright with that? I think it's important as you spend time reading your Bible that you identify as you go through especially Paul's epistles and James and Peter and John. Am I reading position or is this condition? Is this true of me or am I hoping it will be true of me? Am I dealing from my condition or am I walking in my position? What is condition? One more question. What's the key thing about my position? It never changes, right? So like Donna says, it's reality. How about my condition? What is that? My everyday walking around experience, right? So, is it reliable, my condition?

Not yet, not until it lines up with their position. I've got to tell you, all you people that were sweating this election, you were really being conditional. Yeah, and when we're really conditional, it's very oppressive. Yeah, condition is oppressive, but think about what the Spirit of God The Lord Jesus is our advocate in heaven and the Spirit of God is our advocate here.

What are they trying to accomplish? What are they working on? Their ultimate goal is to conform to the likeness of Christ. Okay, to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. So put that in position and condition terms. What does that mean? Aligning our condition with our position. Yeah, so that our condition will become lined up with what our position is now. Not when we die and go to heaven, not when we leave the planet, but right now. Why is that so cool? Because the life of the Lord Jesus is to be manifested to the world in a fellowship within the body by every one of his sons, every single one of us. All based on position. All based on position.

Alright. In John 13, 10. You don't have to go there. He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you. The Lord Jesus is at the Last Supper. He's going around, he's washing his feet. And he gets to Peter. I love Peter. Peter was the ultimate condition guy. He says, you're not going to wash my feet. And the Lord says, okay Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you don't have any part with me.

And the Lord says, he's clean already. He who's already bathed, who's already clean, only needs to wash his feet, but he's completely clean. And you're clean. Clean what? What is he telling them? You disciples, even before the cross, you're positioned. You're clean. But you've got to have your feet washed.

What does that mean? It must mean your sins must be confessed, as you're talking about. That's exactly what he means. That's exactly what he means. I think that's right. If we're walking around on the earth, especially with the flip-flops on in Palestine, and walking around on the streets, what part of your humanity is touching the earth? It's your feet. It's an example.

It's an example of why this confession is needed to be, because we walk around on the earth every day. every minute. Don't you have a sense in which to be heavenly minded is to be apathetic? Well, if I walk around heavenly minded, they're going to bring the guys with the white coats and haul me away, right? So there's a reality here that the Lord Jesus even talks about in John about the disciples and their feet being dirty, but that they were already clean.

Isn't that cool? Let's look at Hebrews 10-12. Somebody read it. sat down at the right hand of God. So how many, I mean, you've committed more than one sin, right? Maybe two? Three, four? So it says he only sacrificed for sin one time. In my case, did he leave three out? He only got one out of four? He paid the penalty for all the sin of all time. And as a believer, not only did he do that, he took care of the issue of my sin nature. And after he had done all of that, what did he do? He sat down. Why did he sit down? Because it was done.

You know, I've said this a thousand times, if you go, if you have a tendency, we were in some place in Amish country in Pennsylvania, and there's this place where you go where they have a replica of the temple, the Jewish temple and the Holy of Holies. You know what's interesting about inside the Holy of Holies? There aren't any chairs in there. There's no place to sit down. There's no place to sit down in accord either. Why? Because they're constantly dealing with sin. Done with. The dealing with it is done. Hence, position. So, the last question. Hebrews 10 and I'll read it. You don't have to look it up. 10, 19 through 22. Some of my favorite verses.

We are to enter into the holy of holies by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water. Where are we to abide? Where are we to hang out and live? According to Hebrews 10, we're to be through the veil into the Holy of Holies. Why in there?

That's where the Lord is. That's where God is, that's right. So we have access Romans 5 tells us we have access into grace and Hebrews tells us where the location of this place is. So we have access into the Holy of Holies which was taken care of by the work of the Lord Jesus when he died.

The doors open. You know, you're seeing all the stuff on TV now about Trump having all these visitors to Trump Tower. All of those people have access. They've been invited. He wants to talk to them about something. You and I have access to the God of the universe. Not only do we have access, we've gone up the elevator and we ain't coming down. We're staying. It's permanent. And Trump says, well my sons are going to take over my business because I really trust him. What does God say about you being one of his sons? You're involved in my business and I trust you.

And having a high priest over the house of God. Who does a priest represent? He represents the people before God. So here we are in the Holy of Holies. We've got a high priest who's there. who represents us, so we're in him, so all that's true of him is us.

Then it says, and this is the cool part, let us draw near. You don't go up the elevator and go into the Trump suite and stand inside the coat closet. You go into the boardroom, wherever that is, or the living room, and you sit down, draw near, with a true heart, in the fullness of faith. How do you draw near? Courtney, how do you draw near?

By faith. It's the only way you do it. You have to believe what he said. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. What are we just talking about the last three weeks? Conscience. And sin. Is it taken care of? Yeah. The blood of Christ has taken care of that conscience. And our bodies washed with pure water. Trust me, we would not be there if all of the impediments that keep us from being there had not been taken care of. So if Trump calls you up this afternoon and invites you down to the Trump Tower, will you take a shower before you go?

Well, some of you will. You're perfectly acceptable. And that's what focusing in on your position really is. It's a lot of truths, but think about it in a concrete example that Hebrews lays out in terms of location. and where we are and what we're invited to do, you know, to enter in. And once we get in there, we stay there. You don't get to leave. You don't want to leave. Okay, that's close.

Thank you for the class. It was a good class for me anyway. Father, we thank you again for your word and your truth and that we might be able to rest in all the provision that you've given us in your Son, the Lord Jesus, and where he is. And we pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.