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[0:00] Okay, we will return once again to our sheet of Salvation's 33 Blessings. And I cannot tell you how important it is for believers to not only know that they are saved, to not only be saved, but to know that you are saved.

[0:20] And this knowledge, God forbid, is never intended to convey a sense of cockiness or haughtiness or supremacy, that we are somehow better than others because we are saved, even though our position is infinitely better than others who are not saved.

[0:40] But the realization and appreciation of your position and condition in Christ is so multifaceted that we are just beginning to discover some of those things that are true of us that are not true of anyone else who is outside of Christ.

[1:04] How rich we are is just impossible to detail. But we're trying, as much as lies within us, to understand who we are and what it is that we possess in Christ.

[1:19] And this list of 33 blessings compiled by Dr. Louis Berrychafer many, many years ago is something we are just working our way through. And we have arrived down at item number 10.

[1:37] We are not trying to be exhaustive, because in the first place you can't exhaust these things. They are inexhaustible, but we're just trying to increase your sense of appreciation of how rich you really are in Christ.

[1:53] And we come to item number 10, and it says, A believer has been made acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

[2:04] And it's important to note that word, guys, made acceptable. Because apart from that being made, you are not, and I am not, and none of us is.

[2:18] But we are acceptable because we have been made acceptable by the one who is acceptable. And he imparted to us the same acceptance that he has and gives it to us as a gift that you do not deserve and you cannot earn.

[2:40] That is what grace is all about. That's why it is amazing grace. God's greatest gift extended to us on the basis of it being a gift.

[2:53] And all you can do and all you are required to do to accept it is to just take it. Just receive it.

[3:05] Just accept it. There is an objection against that. And the main objection is, well, anybody could do that. Well, that's the whole point.

[3:17] Anybody could do that. It doesn't leave out anyone. So, the lowliest beggar or the richest billionaire comes on the same terms and it is glorious beyond description.

[3:32] There's a verse, I think it's if it hasn't moved. I think it's in John chapter 8 where Jesus said, If the Son set you free, you shall be free indeed.

[3:48] What does that mean? It means exactly what it says. If the Son sets you free, you shall be... And that word indeed means... We can translate it with English.

[4:00] Really, really. Really, really. Truly, truly. It's as much emphatic emphasis behind it as you can possibly get. If the Son sets you free, you shall really be free.

[4:12] And Paul wrote to the Galatians and says it was for freedom that Christ sent us free. But that freedom comes with responsibilities. We are put into a new sphere of freedom, but we are not to allow our freedom to cause us to give way to the flesh because we do not have to.

[4:36] So in Christ we have new powers and new resources the world knows not of. And he has not only given us life, he has given us the ability and the power to live the life that he has given us.

[4:48] And that is just absolutely amazing. We have been made acceptable to God by... And that's a very, very important word.

[4:59] By Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1.6 And he is made righteous. That is Romans 3.22 That means we are not righteous.

[5:10] We are made righteous. And guys, this is a positional truth. And by the way, the extra sheet that you've been given this morning points out the difference between your position and your practice.

[5:24] And it is priceless. Because so many believers, I mean people who have really placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and are going to be in heaven eventually, but they do not have the liberty and the joy and the peace and the security that comes from knowing they are in Christ, wrapped up in Him.

[5:50] He is in you and you are in Him. And because they don't have that, they are people who are always living on the edge because they do not see their salvation as a qualitative thing.

[6:07] They see it as a quantitative thing. And the difference is amazing. Because when we're talking about quantities, we're talking about how much.

[6:20] How much. But when we're talking about qualities, the question is, what kind? Not how much. It's not a question of amount.

[6:31] It's a question of what kind. And if you are dealing with quantities, how much is enough? You don't know.

[6:42] Nobody knows. Have you prayed enough? Have you given enough? Have you been good enough? Have you deserved it enough? Have you done this enough? Have you done that enough?

[6:53] And how do you know when enough is enough? You don't know. And if it's a matter of quantity, how do you know you won't come up two items short?

[7:04] Out of the thousands that are required, you're just two items short. And for you, the verdict is, sorry, you didn't have enough. You didn't make it.

[7:14] Now, off to hell you go. No, ridiculous. In Christ, it is not a quantity. It is a quality.

[7:26] And guys, if you possess the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, how good is that?

[7:38] You can't improve on that. That's the quality of it. Jesus Christ imparted to you His righteousness.

[7:51] And it becomes yours. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. And Paul tells us that He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

[8:19] Man, that is amazing grace. That is as good as it gets. That is as complete as it gets.

[8:30] And this is what Paul meant also when he wrote to the Ephesians and the Colossians. And you are complete in Him. The reason you are complete is not because of what you've done.

[8:44] It's because of what Jesus has done and has given to you. And that's what, guys, that's what grace is all about. And this thing has been around, proclaimed for 2,000 years.

[8:55] Actually, it goes back further. It goes back to Abraham because... But it is still the world's best kept secret. And one of the big reasons is because this gift business, this freedom business, that's not the way the world works.

[9:13] The way the world works is you get what you deserve. Well, let me tell you, if God gives you what you deserve, we're all bound for hell. There's no doubt about it.

[9:25] And it is true, this is not the way the world works. So, this concept of grace does not compute with the world. But, guys, thanks be unto God, it is the way He works.

[9:38] And that is the amazing difference. That's the distinction between our works and Christ's works. And it's just indescribable.

[9:50] We are made righteous, sanctified, and that word sanctified means literally set apart. Set apart.

[10:02] We have been sanctified, we are being sanctified, and we shall be sanctified. Past, present, and future. And this setting apart thing simply conveys the idea, if I may use an illustration, it's just as if here is a whole mass of humanity.

[10:18] All of these people. And God envisioned, if you will, a divine hand reaching down from heaven, and that hand grasps you and picks you up from that mass of humanity, lifts you up, and moves you over here and sets you down in a new group of humanity, that is being sanctified.

[10:55] That is being set apart from the mass of humanity into this new element. And this new element are those who are righteous in Christ.

[11:09] and all the rest of the world is out here living in their unrighteousness. Roger? We can't go back either. No, well, we're locked in. And guys, this too is part and parcel of human comprehension and the way we look at it.

[11:26] Roger says you can't go back. Well, the reason you can't go back, guys, is because Jesus Christ has too much invested in you.

[11:40] You think He's going to let you be lost? Well, what if I do something after I'm saved and I no longer deserve to be saved?

[11:51] Hey, you never did deserve to be saved. You still don't deserve to be saved. That's the beauty of this. And it is not the way the world works.

[12:04] And this is one reason why the world has difficulty grasping this, like Paul said. If our gospel be hid, veiled. If our gospel be veiled, 2 Corinthians 4, veiled so that when people look at it, they can't see it clearly because it's veiled.

[12:25] And Paul says the veil is over their eyes. It's the veil of the unregenerate. And guys, that same veil was over your eyes too before Christ removed it.

[12:40] The veil, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to those who are lost, whose minds, the God of this age, that's none other than the adversary, the God of this age has blinded the minds.

[12:55] Is that blinded? That means blinded the thinking processes that allow you to reason and assess data and reach a right conclusion.

[13:09] Your thinking, as an unregenerate, is all screwed up. Think of that. The totality of humanity functions under impairment.

[13:28] We are intellectually impaired. We are physically impaired. We are emotionally impaired. We are damaged goods. All of us.

[13:40] That's what the fall did. And to prove it, it's going to end in our physical death. But thanks be unto God, our physical death is not the end of it.

[13:51] That's just the beginning of something else. And that's absent from the body and present with the Lord. This is such a glorious concept. And guys, this is above and beyond the way people think.

[14:04] It just is. So really, because we are born in sin and because we are blinded by Satan, hey, do you realize when you're born you've got two strikes against you?

[14:17] Think of that. Two strikes against you. One is you're born that way. And the other is you're born a sinner and your thinking processes are impaired.

[14:31] This is why when you give the gospel to someone and tell them you can come to God and be regenerated, be saved, be cleansed, be pardoned, have a permanent home in heaven simply on the basis of putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ who died and paid the penalty that you owe for your sin so that you are free.

[14:53] That does not make sense to the world. Like I said, that's not the way the world works. The way the world works is you get what you pay for, you get what you earn, you get what you work for, blah, blah, blah.

[15:04] That's the way the world works. That's why this gospel is hidden. And it takes, because there is such an obstacle there, spiritual obstacle there, it takes, for most people, repeated hearings of the gospel before it connects.

[15:26] Because when you hear it the first time, the natural reaction is, oh, it doesn't mean that. Nothing's free. No free lunch. But it is. It is.

[15:37] And guys, the reason it is all goes back to that source. It's because of that incomparable price that Jesus paid when he died on that cross.

[15:54] Don't you ever think about diminishing that so that your two cents worth makes the difference? It's all that Jesus did that makes the difference.

[16:09] We get the benefit. Guys, you don't get any credit. You don't deserve any credit. You get all the benefits. What a deal is that?

[16:19] You get the benefits. Jesus gets the credit. You get the benefits. Oh, I can't. I don't expect to ever get over it. Don't want to.

[16:30] Don't want to. Sanctified positionally, 1 Corinthians 1.30. Perfected forever in his standing and position. Guys, you know.

[16:42] You know there's nothing perfect about you in your performance. I mean, that is as obvious as it ought to be.

[16:55] Anybody who is counting on their performance is sunk from the get-go. It is not a matter of performance. It's a matter of position.

[17:07] And when you are positioned in Jesus Christ and he is in you, man, that's as good as it gets. And that's why we've got this wonderful gospel to proclaim.

[17:18] And that's why the world as a whole tends to reject it, particularly upon the initial hearings, just like most of you. And I don't know how many times somebody has said they had to hear the gospel over and over and over again and finally, ah!

[17:38] I get it! It kind of sinks in finally. You mean, that's what, yes, that's what that means. Wow. That's just, oh my goodness.

[17:52] Perfected forever in his standing and position. A couple of references here. And guys, we're just not going to flip pages and turn to these, but I trust you can do it and we'll do it at your leisure.

[18:05] 1 Corinthians 1.30 And I'll throw these references out for the benefit of the audio audience because they don't have a sheet in front of them, but they can look the references up just like you can.

[18:16] And we're talking about Ephesians 1.6, made righteous. Romans 3.22 Sanctified, set apart positionally. 1 Corinthians 1.30 and 6.11 Perfected forever in his standing and position.

[18:29] Hebrews 10.14 And made, accepted in the beloved. Colossians 1.12 And item number 11. A believer has been justified.

[18:43] Best definition I've ever heard of being justified is justified if I'd never sinned. Think of that. That's how justified you are.

[18:56] That's how righteous you are. Because when God looks at you who are in Christ, He sees you covered with a blanket of Jesus Christ and you are under His righteousness.

[19:13] righteousness. That's what makes you acceptable. We are accepted in Him. What's the opposite of that? It's rejected. Rejected.

[19:24] But in Christ we are accepted. If you do not have the covering of Jesus Christ over you, you are rejected.

[19:35] You are in a sphere of rejection. and the only way that can be removed is by coming to faith in Christ and you are moved from rejection to acceptance because of what Jesus did for you.

[19:50] Guys, I cannot overemphasize the importance and the completeness and the sufficiency of the price that Jesus paid.

[20:04] He paid it all. Jesus paid it all. He didn't pay most of it. He didn't even pay 99% of it.

[20:16] Well, he's got to leave something for you to do. Nope, not even 1% because as I've told you before, if Marv Wiseman had to chip in with his 1%, I'd find some way to screw it up.

[20:30] I'd find some way to mess it up. But the death and the efficacy and the sufficiency that was in Christ when he died for our sins was more than enough, more than adequate.

[20:46] I tell you, this is marvelous stuff. And justified, he's declared righteous by God's decree. Guys, it doesn't mean you are righteous performance wise, of course not.

[21:02] But you are righteous position wise. That's your official state. And hey, this is what provides us with assurance.

[21:14] This provides us with a no-so rather than a hope-so salvation. And it gives us more boldness in proclaiming it to others.

[21:27] And if all we can tell people is you really should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved so that you can have eternal life. Why should I do that? Is that what you did? Well, I hope so.

[21:42] I think so. What kind of assurance is that? What kind of a gospel is that? Guys, we preach a no-so gospel. Not a hope-so or think-so or maybe-so gospel.

[21:56] There isn't much that this world has to offer that is of a certainty. We all live on the edge whether we realize it or not.

[22:09] We're all one three second car crash away from eternity whether we realize it or not. So in this world Jesus said you're going to have tribulation.

[22:23] You're going to have problems. But be of good cheer. And the reason you should be is because I have overcome the world. Wow. I tell you.

[22:34] Hallelujah. What a Savior. Declared righteous by God's decree and a believer is made nigh.

[22:46] Ephesians 2.13. This is a takeoff from where from where the Gentile, the non-Jew is apart from Christ.

[22:57] Paul describes them in Ephesians 2. He says you were separate from God, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, lost, dead in sin, trespasses.

[23:09] That was your state. But as a result of coming to faith in Jesus Christ, you are made nigh. that means you are a bosom buddy.

[23:24] You are brought up to him and you are in him. You are made nigh as opposed to you who once were afar off, Paul says, have been brought nigh, brought near, by, through, via the blood of Christ, the death that Christ died for you.

[23:47] Made nigh. A close relation is set up and exists between God and the believer. And item number 13, a believer has been delivered from the power of darkness.

[24:04] And boy, it is powerful too because the darkness obscures and covers everything so that light cannot be seen.

[24:16] Colossians, 113 and 213 through 15, a Christian has been delivered, rescued from Satan and his evil spirits.

[24:30] Yet, he must continue to wage a warfare against these powers because if there is anything that the devil hates more than this, I don't know what it would be.

[24:44] and that is a believer who knows who he is in Christ and has a gospel to share with others. You are the most deadly thing walking on two legs that Satan has to contend with.

[25:00] is a God's and that's exactly what a believer in Christ who, especially if he is filled by the Spirit, dedicated to the cause, you are a weapon that Satan desperately wants to neutralize and take out of action.

[25:21] and the best way he can do that of course is to cause you to not know what you and who you are in Christ and to defeat you and to keep you down so that you will not have a reason to share your joy with others.

[25:37] And this is standard fair and so many, so many believers have fallen prey to this. And I think every one of us has had our tender spots, of, I've described the Christian life as two steps forward and then one step backwards.

[25:59] Because guys, we don't do this thing, even though our position is perfect, our performance has got a long way to go.

[26:11] And as I've often said, I've been on this thing now for over 60 years and in all of those years nobody has ever yet mistaken me for Jesus.

[26:26] You know why? Because the difference between me and my performance and Jesus still has been. Marv, you've got a long way to go.

[26:37] Nobody's going to worry about confusing you with Jesus. Well, oh my. Yet, we continue to wage a warfare against these powers.

[26:48] Item number 14. A believer has been translated into the kingdom. This is Colossians 1.13. This is a spiritual kingdom, not to be confused with the kingdom that John the Baptist and the 12 priests, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[27:08] We are not in that kingdom. And the word kingdom here literally means also sphere or area. we have been removed.

[27:19] I gave you the idea, the mental picture before about being picked up and moved over and placed here in this new group. That's exactly what we are. We have been translated out of the sphere, the spiritual sphere of darkness in which this world is enveloped and we have been set aside into this new smaller group over here called the body of Christ, the ones that are dwelling under that light that comes from above, that separates it from the darkness.

[27:54] That is the sphere or the territory of light. And a believer is planted on the rock, Jesus Christ.

[28:06] 1 Corinthians 3 verses 9 through 15. Jesus Christ is the foundation on which the believer stands and on which he builds his Christian life.

[28:18] You know, I trust that you're getting the impression as we go through this, it's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus.

[28:29] If you missed that, you missed everything. It's not about you. It's all about Jesus. And what he has done for you.

[28:41] Planted on the rock, Jesus Christ. Someone said that insofar as materiality goes in this world, you won't hardly find anything that is stronger than a rock.

[28:57] And it is so formidable. if you get a rock that is as tiny as you can make it, we would call it a pebble and put it in your shoe and walk with it for a while.

[29:19] You know how difficult and how ornery and how painful that little thing can be. It's just a little pebble. but it's part of a big boulder.

[29:33] You know, and it's a rock. And when the psalmist was looking for something to compare with stability and strength, he came to a rock.

[29:46] And boy, Jesus is a rock in a weary land. And that's a beautiful analogy to use regarding him. Christ is the foundation on which the believer stands and on which he builds his Christian life.

[30:02] Jesus gives a parable about the man who built his life upon sinking sand. And you put a foundation, on sand, and it isn't long until it starts sinking and getting away and collapsing.

[30:18] But what you need is a rock solid, we call it bedrock, a rock solid foundation so that what you build on it will stand.

[30:31] Because, not of the building so much, but because of the foundation on which it stands. And Jesus Christ is our foundation.

[30:43] What else can you ask for? Christ is the foundation on which the believer stands, on which he builds his Christian life. And a believer is a gift from God to Jesus according to John 17 verse 6, 11, 12, and 20.

[31:04] He, Jesus, is the Father's love gift to Jesus Christ that is a believer. You never thought of yourself, we think of ourselves as being gifted, we receive a gift, but how many of us think of ourselves as being a gift?

[31:23] Well, in reality, we are. We are God the Father's gift to Jesus. Jesus. Jesus paid for us, and we are the gift that he paid for.

[31:40] And sometimes I know you probably, you may feel like I do sometimes, I think Jesus got a raw deal. If we are the gift that he paid for, boy, I don't know about that.

[31:53] You know what? He was willing to accept us warts and all. He accepted us not without our sin, he accepted us with our sin, but he loves us too much to leave us in our sin, so he starts a cleansing process, and he cleans us up.

[32:17] Jesus loves us, and he took us warts and all. That reminds me, reading a, who was it? Sir Oliver Cromwell, yeah.

[32:32] Sir Oliver Cromwell, back in England, I think in about the 1500s or 1600s, he was an upper echelon guy, and close to royalty and all of that good stuff in Great Britain, and he was posing one day for an official portrait, white, and the painter had been commissioned by the king to paint the portraits of certain people, and Oliver Cromwell was one of them, but the problem was, if you could call it a problem, is that Oliver Cromwell had a very distinguished face, and it was distinguished because he had warts all over his face, forehead, and chin, and cheeks, ugly, noticeable, warps, and as he sat for the posing two or three times, and the artist, painter, had finished the picture,

[33:42] Cromwell wanted to see it, and the man brought it up, and he boldly, proudly, put it there in front of Cromwell, and Cromwell looked at it, and it was a clear face, had no warts on it at all, just a clear, smooth, straight face, and Cromwell looked at the painter and said, do it over, and this time, paint it warts and all.

[34:13] What was he saying? What you have produced is not real, it's not true. Take it back and make it true.

[34:24] Paint me the way I am, warts and all. You know, when Jesus Christ saved you, he didn't say, well, I'm thinking about it.

[34:38] I'll tell you what you do. You clean up your act. You've got some sin in your life, you've got this weakness and that weakness, and I'm ashamed of this, and you should be too, and when you clean those things up, you come back and then I'll talk to you.

[34:53] Nope. Jesus saved you warts and all. And then he cleaned you up to his liking.

[35:06] He's not waiting on us to clean ourselves up to make us acceptable. In the first place, that's impossible. But what he's saying is, hey, I'm not leaving the cleaning up of you to you because you'd make a mess of it.

[35:21] I'm going to clean you up in a way that I will be pleased and satisfied with you. And Jesus cleans us and he makes us every whithole. I tell you, this is, he, okay, let's look at item 17.

[35:35] A believer is, oh my, this is different. A believer is circumcised in Christ. Colossians 2.11 He has been delivered from the power of the old sin nature.

[35:50] Now, for those Jews, or for those who have a Jewish background, we are aware that circumcision was an absolute necessity for that baby boy who was born and on the eighth day, not the seventh day, not the ninth day, on the eighth day, that baby boy is going to have a sharpened stone flint knife, not a surgical knife, not a razor knife, a flint stone sharpened and he is going to have the loose skin on the end of his penis extended and sliced off by that sharpened flint stone and he is going to bawl and wail and cry a ton and everybody who is there including all the family and the neighbors and relatives have come in for a big celebration, they're all going to cheer and clap and laugh and dance because of all the pain that this little baby was subjected to and we say well how cruel, how barbaric can you be?

[37:09] Well you know what, in about 10 or 15 minutes that little baby, the bawling and the crying has descended to just a mere whimper and the next thing you know he's smiling and the deed has been done but he's been circumcised and he has made an official member of the covenant that God established with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and without that, without that badge he isn't he's an outsider he's just like a Gentile so as much as we would think in terms of especially a mother a mother can you imagine a mother saying you're not going to do that to my baby boy no, because she was educated and understood that that momentary pain is absolutely essential for her son to have the acceptance that is needed not only by

[38:14] God but by the rest of the community as well and it was a celebration of great joy now what happens when somebody who isn't a Jew comes to faith in Christ and has never been circumcised guys we can't imagine this as being the big issue in this first century but it was and the question is alright so now you've got these people who are not Jews they're Goyim Goyim which is Gentiles otherwise known as uncircumcised and dogs which is what they called non-Jew called us dogs and the reason they called us dogs is because a dog would eat anything and that's the way these

[39:15] Gentiles are you know what a Gentile will eat pig hog pork a Gentile will even eat a part of a pig and a Gentile will even eat a catfish catfish are not kosher catfish don't have scales it's got to have scales to be kosher catfish you skin you take the skin off they're bottom feeders and they're unacceptable and shrimp lobster oh you can't eat those things they are unclean yeah well try telling that to the folks that read lobster because you know what when that sheep came down let down from heaven in Acts 10 and Peter was told in his vision rise Peter kill and eat this happened three times Peter says no nothing doing no way

[40:17] I would have anything to do with it and his voice said what God hath cleansed don't you call that unclean now Peter you may call it unclean and under the old regime of the law of Moses it was unclean but now it isn't what God has cleansed don't you call unclean and now he's saying these animals represented Gentiles and Jews together and the most amazing thing that anybody could imagine was going to come out of this God is going to take Jews and Gentiles and put them together in one group and call it the spiritual body of Christ so that there is neither male nor female bond nor free Jew nor

[41:17] Gentile you are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ the world had never heard such a thing in all the born days this was a dynamic of the first century and it's still something that puzzles a lot of people so we are circumcised in Christ and Paul talks about this in Colossians and he says with a circumcision made without hands what kind of circumcision would that be it's a spiritual circumcision think of that that means how can it be how can it be a circumcision if it isn't physical well there are two elements in this world we live in guys one is physical one is non-physical what do we call that non-physical we call that spiritual you can't see it taste it touch it or feel it but it's real we don't have any difficulty with the reality of the physical but there is a reality of the spiritual also and it is that spiritual part of our being that is more important than the physical and I'll tell you why because that's going to live on forever somewhere the physical has an end in this world and I'm not sure what part it's going to play in the next world we know for believers what that will be in glory but I don't know about the rest of the world it's something the jury is still out on so item number 18 a believer has been made a partaker of the holy and royal priesthood 1st

[43:09] Peter 2 verses 5 and 9 he is a priest because of his relation to Christ the high priest and will reign on earth with Christ during the millennium the 1000 year period after the tribulation this is future stuff but it is just as certain as if it had already occurred and we all have a priesthood in other words a priest Jesus occupied three offices he occupied the office of a priest and he occupied the office of a king and the third one he occupied an office of scapes million million anybody can help me feel free pardon prophet yeah thank you prophet priest and king those are three specific offices in the

[44:21] Jewish economy and no one was allowed to occupy more than one if you were a prophet you would not be a priest and you would not be a king if you were a king you wouldn't be one of the other two so prophet priest and king and the prophet represented God to man and the idea was he would receive his information from God and proclaim it or prophesy to humans so a prophet was a spokesman from God to people but a priest was one who represented the individual to God so we've got just the reverse and we have a high priest according to Hebrews Jesus Christ is our high priest and he has made us a priest unto God as well so we we in and of ourselves possess this go between between us and God in that you do not have to have a human priest to represent you to

[45:47] God you stand as a legal rightful representative in and of yourself with your volition and you may exercise that and go directly to God you do not need a priest and this is just one of many ways where we differ from our friends who are Roman Catholic who see the Catholic priesthood as a continuation of the Jewish priesthood and they see that as a necessity for continuing that and the Protestant view and by the way the word Protestant means a protestant but we're not protesting anything we're just different you know we we possess the ability and the freedom to go to God directly and we do not need to go between and that means well that means a lot guys I meant to leave some time for Q&A and I'm sorry the food's here and I blew it again but anyway while she's distributing that has anybody got a question that's just bugging them that they want to talk about

[46:56] Dan the statement that you made earlier where you said do not allow freedom to give away to the flesh isn't that the whole struggle of life I'm sorry repeat that you said do not allow freedom to give away to the flesh yeah yeah isn't that what it's all about yeah guys that that means we are saved by grace grace does not mean does not mean you therefore have the liberty and freedom to live any way you want because you're going to heaven so it doesn't matter go out there and raise hell doesn't make any difference because you're secure in Christ no no listen when you come to faith in Jesus Christ by grace you have an enormous responsibility you are put into a sphere where you are accountable to God in a way that you were not accountable before when you were in your sin because now you are enlightened and now you have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to draw upon so in a very real sense you are more responsible now than you were before and you are not to use your liberty and your freedom as an occasion to the flesh and that's exactly what some were charging

[48:17]  Paul with doing oh well you're saved you're saved by grace doesn't make any difference how you live hey it makes a lot of difference how you live because now for the first time you have the power and the potential to live the life you want to live because you are in Christ so don't blow it that's what he's saying that's what hey guys thank you for being here this morning and and and and and and