[0:00] no technically he could have said father walski and that would be true that would be true hey uh you have a bible don't you can i see it all right i like those red ones too and off red sort of red i didn't see it in the back all right thank you very much brown ones black ones just so the inside from cover to cover is a king james bible then you got it right i turn to philippians chapter 2 i'm going to be there in a minute greetings from the great red state of idaho and we did notice that when we crossed over into oregon fairly quickly it everything turned a little blue and coming on down through nevada bluer and then getting across to california whoa real blue we did notice also that the price of gas increased as we came down paid uh 459 when we left thursday morning and paid in mammoth lakes we paid 689 and that was a shock to my system first time i put a hundred dollars in a car i don't like to do that i really do not like to do that anyway but it is what it is right what are you gonna do uh by the way we uh we have a lot of californians up by us we see a lot of california plates yeah well they're coming they're just coming in droves driving the uh the housing market up because of it selling down here and buying up there paying cash all that kind of thing so that's hurting younger people especially trying to buy a house because everything goes higher um so we're not necessarily fond of those that are coming uh but if they're conservative we don't mind that uh we had my daughter joy who's over in nepal and she sent me something this is a welcome to idaho you know sign on the side of the road so it says this she said i don't she sent it to me sometime but i don't think it's a legitimate one i don't think it's real but they do they do look like this but what's underneath it says welcome to idaho remember to vote conservative if liberalism worked you'd still be in california so as we say ain't that the truth ain't that the truth so there's one good thing that's moving our way from california possibly a good thing in and out burgers in and out is coming up our way in uh boise they're supposed to get one or meridian i forget maybe meridian so you have boise on the east and meridian next to it right next to it and that's where the church is that we go to treasure valley baptist and then we're about 10 miles away in nampa and then there's another one uh further out caldwell and that's four of them along the highway going out that way so yeah the the for the locals that area has really expanded now nothing compared to what you've got here that's for sure but there's one highway one interstate going through it it's not the maze of things that you have here but it is good we're glad to be here and uh we counted a privilege to be able to come be able to uh preach and fill the pulpit in that sense too uh we're glad for it glad for any opportunity uh we were afforded the opportunity because i teach up in the bible institute that we have and that we finished up a couple of weeks ago maybe two weeks ago so that freed me from about four classes and evenings but also i taught sunday school class an adult one of the adult sunday school classes through the year and last week was our last week and i thought it was this week so i didn't plan anything vacation
[4:02] this is the summers of time if we're going to get away we get away and so i talked to my son and we talked about coming down maybe we worked something out so that's the reason we're here we skipped out because they cut it a week shorter than i thought so i'm kind of glad for that from here we're going to get to go over to if you know who mitch service is over in las vegas and we're going to go over to see him he's a friend of mine that church supported us all the years with his father-in-law that is uh pete mckenzie that uh had been there before until he passed away in the pulpit and i hope that's not going to happen today i don't want to shock my wife my son my grand my grandkids here and have that happen but hey if it does i know where i'm going and you don't have to worry about me whatsoever what's right i hope it doesn't ruin your picnics still go out there and enjoy a meal and play ball and whatever else you're going to do all right so let's have a word of prayer and um we'll get started our father and a god want to ask you and pray that you'll bless your word this morning help us to see some things that'll be an encouragement to us lord i know this is basic foundational truth but father it's necessary for every christian to understand these truths today and i pray father that it'll be brought across with simplicity uh but also the power of the word of god and we ask it in jesus name amen i trust this is mine okay just yeah just so it wasn't somebody else's before that's all all right so we're in philippians we're going to look there in just a minute but i want to bring a series or a series i'm going to bring a a single lesson today on what i have as a series i put this together in poland uh it's not something that i came up with whatsoever if you look into larkin's material on rightly dividing the word and you look into schofield has a book along that same line a small one and they'll they'll deal with this issue the standing and state of a believer the standing and the state of a believer and the only thing is they're very short you have a couple of pages and then boom you're done and so i looked into i had a particular reason and i think i'll get to that later on this morning why i put together a study and i ended up putting it into not only did i teach it and all there in our church but i put it into polish and i had a fella uh touch it up and everything for me and translate it better than i would have and so i have a book about 100 pages on it so there's more involvement to it to try to get in depth on this particular study um it's in polish it's not in english so i don't have any on a book table and back there you know to sell you unless you know polish let me know and i'll work something out and i'll send you one uh but this is uh an important area of the christian life it's like i said in prayer it's it's a basic doctrine it's a foundational doctrine when you understand your standing and your state these two sides two parts of your salvation i don't carry i don't carry coins with me anymore it seems like but if you have a flip side if you you know you have a front and a back you have two sides to this book you got the front and you've got the back salvation in essence has two sides to it there's a doctrinal side to it and then there's a practical side to it and that doctrinal side is what god did for you and i that's our position new position that we have in jesus christ but that doctrinal side produces a practical side and that practical side is now what we do for christ because of our standing because we're saved it's it's you know what god has done in our lives it produces a desire to do something for him it should and to serve him two sides two sides and when we when we nail this down in our christian lives now again some of you
[8:06] sitting here and say well brother i've been saved for 10 20 30 40 whatever years uh this january was my 50th uh new birth birthday and i'm glad for it i'm extremely glad for it but that's going back 50 years i hope i've learned something and there's a lot of things i don't know and i'm still learning as we all ought to but you may be sitting there and you say well i've been saved so many years and i understand these aspects well good maybe this will help you define it in a better way so you can also tell others about it the deal is this if you understand you're standing in christ you nail down eternal security i mean this study here gives you the basis for eternal security now if i if i asked you about eternal security you might be able to say well listen i understand and i have a verse over here and i have a verse over here and that's great you ought to but do you know the basis for it and also the other side the flip side is the state do you understand how how works fit into the christian life you know that's a big problem where we were overseas in poland for those almost 20 years the people over there they just can't get a handle on how you can be talk about being saved without works you know faith without works is dead that's their favorite verse that's about the favorite verse of mormons too faith without works is dead i've had both of them you know tell me that very same thing use that verse as their keystone verse to end all but listen anyway we get going you're going to see that your works have a valuable part in the christian life it's just not over on this side where you're standing is there are two different parts so let's look in and you know we don't have a lot of time to run through 100 pages of material but we're just going to give a kind of a synopsis a glimpse into the study so look at philippians chapter 2 with me for a second and we're going to see an example of what i'm trying to talk about look at verse 14 and 15 chapter 2 of philippians 14 and 15 paul admonishes those believers in philippi do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless and harmless the sons of god without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world now on the surface it's just fine it's just paul talking to these people how they ought to live their life and whatever but paul reveals your standing and your state in these verses and you're standing that position that you have in christ he says this he says the sons of god that's who you are if you're saved this morning you're a son of god you're a child of god now if you're if you if you're a female and you don't care for that particular description of a son of god uh you wait hold on and we're going to see what's going to happen in heaven but regardless of the fact you're still a child of god and by the way we're we're not going to get into the gender discussion at all as far as because i mentioned women and i i think i have a handle on what a woman is even if supreme court justice doesn't have that handle at all uh and i have a handle on what a man is and whatever else that's not an issue with me and i hope it's not with you i don't think it is but look what we have here what we have is god says paul says under the inspiration of the holy spirit that you believers here in silmar in california like these believers in philippi are sons of god that's your standing in christ that's what god did for you that's who you are in christ but he also says on that basis he says these other things in verse 14 do all things without murmurings and disputings why because you're a son of god you should be blameless and harmless why because you're a son of god you live in the midst of a crooked and perverse a nation among whom you shines and shine as lights in the world why because you're
[12:10] a son of god because of your standing that should have that should produce a particular state in your life for instance when you got saved what happened to you what happened to you a ton of things happened to you i mean you're saved but you received forgiveness of sins you re you were reconciled with god you were redeemed you were born again you became a new creature in christ your sins i've already said your sins are forgiven uh you were uh you were given eternal life you have a new home in heaven you were given an inheritance in heaven that's reserved so a variety of things happened to you the moment you got saved now let me ask you a question did you do anything to get saved you believed on christ as your savior you believed on his work on calvary to save your soul but once you did that god just checked the boxes for you right down the list now whether you go vote and you you know the the old machines i think the old machines used to be you know you could either vote in individually or you could just vote republican i'm not even going to give you the other option but you vote republican and it just clicks them all the way down so god said saved click they all happened you are automatically reconciled automatically redeemed automatically justified etc etc all those things took place automatically and you receive that new position in christ right and when we read in our bibles things like paul says uh you are redeemed or you are saved and every time he says these things regarding our position in christ our standing in christ it's all what in what tense it's all in the past tense why it's in the past tense because it already happened if you claim hey i'm a believer i'm a child of god and then all those things happen and so however far back it was if it was a day ago it happened yesterday if it was a week ago it happened last week it was a month ago a year ago 50 years ago it happened in the past and therefore you are saved you are justified past tense you are redeemed past tense those things have occurred now on the other side the flip side is your state every president since i'm not sure when it started exactly i can't say if it went all the way back to washington maybe it did uh in january after they take office they have what they call the a speech right in front of the house and the senate and the house to everybody there and it's called the state of the nation right so the state of the nation what's that mean it's it's the it's where it's a condition our nation is in and what what's going on now and what my plans are for that nation that's the state of the nation and so the standing is something that already occurred in the past but the state is what you're doing now present tense and every time we see paul talk about our state uh he's talking about you know walk in love you know walk in newness of life um old things are passed away that's your standing all things are become new it's always in a present tense or a future walk but it's what you're doing now for christ standing in the past already took place your state what you're doing now for christ those are the two sides of the coin um what i want you to understand is simply this
[16:17] and for our eternal security this standing is always the basis for the state the standing is the state rather is always the fruit of the standing and it never switches it's the standing it always brings forth the state the state always derives from the standing and it can't go the other direction and this is where we get ourselves grounded in eternal security i know i probably there's probably not one person here that's not seen a waterfall anybody here that's never seen a waterfall all right good so what's your favorite waterfall yosemite okay i've never been there yet uh beautiful i've seen pictures obviously of it anything else pardon rainbow falls where's that oh and mammoth well we didn't see that we were up in mammoth lake mammoth lakes okay well that's why we didn't see it that's exactly why we didn't see it uh ever ever heard of niagara falls uh snow quality pardon yes well from yeah either that or from also from the new york side either which way snow quality snow squalmy i think it's called up in washington very pretty falls up there we have one that's about two hours away from us in twin falls uh east of us and it's called uh shoshone falls and it's a it's a good size falls uh very pretty especially if all the water is running we haven't shut it off for irrigation then it fills a lot bigger area but we all understand the concept of a waterfall and you know the water on top comes off and then it falls the off the edge and it produces a pool on the bottom or the river or stream or whatever's on the bottom it's always works that way right it's always the water on top falling down and producing the water in the stream of water or pool of water down below there's a little place uh our toby and his family and uh joy and her family our daughter that's in nepal now uh first time i think you came out we went over to um jump creek canyon there's a little place not too far from where we're at and uh it's the oahe mountains it's on the edge of it it's a small little slot canyon um it's only probably a quarter mile or so to walk back in there but when you get to the end of it uh there's a pool of water at the end and you look up and there's of course a waterfall and i can't say if it's 50 75 more feet or whatever that it's coming down so it's what do you have here the height it's at least as high as this if not more um anyway so it's falling down and the kids could all go in there and they could go jumping around and of course rock climbers uh climb up a little bit and jump off and get the grandkids to do the same thing and whatever and they're swimming around water you know so you get the concept it's the water on top is producing the pool of water down below it just doesn't go the other way that water on top is your standing that's who you are in christ and that who you are in christ produces your state what you do for christ so that water on top is always responsible for the water down below and it doesn't work the other way the water down below is not responsible for the water above you can't flip it it just doesn't work that way it's not physics doesn't work that way it's not unless you have a pump that pumps it back up again it's just not going to work it's always going to go one direction you know that's what salvation is it works in one direction you get saved and then you do something for christ it doesn't work the other way around listen before you were saved you had a
[20:23] particular standing before god you were dead in trespasses and sins that was your standing before god and because of that standing before god paul says you know there's none that doeth good no not one you could god wouldn't recognize any of your goodness or good works as far as he was concerned you had no good works so you're lost in your sins and you couldn't please god that's your standing before god and your state when you were lost but when you trusted christ as your savior everything changed you became a new creature in christ now you're not that lost sinner anymore you're what you're in christ you're not in your trespasses and sins in ephesians 2 where it talks about that in the same context few verses down verse 10 it says that you're in christ and because now i'm seen by god in christ that has an effect and now i can do something for christ i can please him now i couldn't please him before i couldn't do anything that he would acknowledge before but guess what now he wants me to do good but my doing good doesn't produce my standing it doesn't work that way you can't get the pool of water down here back up on top it always flows in the one direction your standing produces your state your state never produces your standing and see that's the problem the world has when it reads the bible see the the world will look at the same portion of scripture that we just looked at and they'll say this do all things without murmurings and disputing okay that's what i'll do that you may be blameless and harmless okay that's what i'll do and they read it as and by doing this you'll become the sons of god okay i'll do those things and i'll become a son of god but that's not the context and that's not how the bible talks about things you don't become a son of god because of what you do when we would try to when i would be on the streets uh with street work in poland and trying to get people to understand the concept if i had the opportunity you know with tracking and preaching and witnessing to people and they'd stick around and we talk we open up the bible and uh if i'd be able i try to explain it this way and i said listen you know you're saved by faith and not by your works it's by your faith in christ that saves you and then god wants you of course to do good works i explained it this way i said well listen we have three kids they're in the states and occasionally our kids do just do things for us you know they'll call us on the phone uh they'll send us pictures uh they'll they'll send us presents whatever the case is you know different times of the year and whatever else they do different things and just you know the off-the-cuff phone call and whatever else things that you know warm our hearts and whatnot so i ask the question so for instance if your pastor if toby were to say hey dad i got a present for you today nothing wrong with that is it kind of encouragement here isn't it no so say say he just say he just off the cuff called me on the phone and just say hey dad just want to call you talk to you say hi that's a good thing communication so i ask the question now listen if they if my kids try to do good things for me or my wife their mom do they do it in order to become our child or because they are our child so it's a pretty simple thought do they do it because they're already our child or do they do it in order to become our child now because of the reaction that some of you had and don't get me wrong if you didn't react verbally that's okay too i understand you're hearing me uh but it's pretty obvious now i can say the same thing in another
[24:27] language in polish and i don't get that reaction i just get a blank look honest over and over and over and over it's like you're not getting what i'm saying it's not it doesn't compute there's so much they're so embedded in i have to work to do this but so i try to give them a simple illustration how do you become a child of your parents birth birth so you have a neighborhood kid that keeps coming to your house knocks on the door and after a while just says forget about knocking i'm just walking in at some point asks you hey do you have something cold in the fridge that i can drink and then after a while maybe they just start reaching in and themselves what are they doing they're trying to act like they're your child are they your child no they can do whatever they want to do to act like they're your child maybe they like you better than their own parents and they they'd like to be part of your family but buddying up to you or doing whatever doesn't make them your child birth i understand adoption also in adoptions adoptions of selection you know our kids i don't mean to say we were stuck with our kids that's not we love them dearly and i but the story is you know when kids get you know they're adopted and then they find out they're adopted or other kids find out and they try to make fun of them and then they talk to mom and dad and say well listen you know those kids their mom and dad they didn't have any choice they just had to take what they were given and said but we had a choice and we chose you see so that's a heartwarming thought but adoption we're adopted in god's family we're born into god's family uses both terms right but that's what it takes let's go back in time to like for instance in poland and european countries where they had a king and a queen so if you're the child if you're the son of a king you're called a prince and a daughter a princess just in case again not to offend anybody here so if you're a prince or a princess and that means that means simply that you're the child of a king because of that position it's placed you in that because of that connection that relationship it's placed you in that position you're that prince for instance if i might be a male chauvinist if you're that you're that prince why because your dad's a king that's the only reason now you could have somebody in the realm around you whatever else that might act more princely than you do they could they could be a better example than you you should reflect uh the values of the kingdom you should have a testimony because what you do does reflect upon the king and the kingdom etc when you you know we know that they're despots and whatever else and they're despicable princes and whatever and they don't act like they should and whatnot and yet they could become the king one day but listen if that fella that's been a neighbor down the road someplace acts more princely than the prince does that doesn't make him a prince he's still just an average joe he didn't he wasn't born a prince and listen that's what it is with salvation you're born into god's family the new birth places you into god's family now because you're in god's family there should be in it in any of our homes there are certain uh we have parameters within any home things that we allow things that we don't allow hey we don't allow lying we don't allow stealing a bad attitude or whatever so those are things that are are not acceptable behavior in our home but if the child lies or steals or has bad attitude did that negate who they are no doesn't negate who they are
[28:32] they're still a child of that parent or those parents they should they're if we're sons of god we ought to act like sons of god that's the bottom line but that standing produces the state that position in christ produces that conduct as a believer in christ and it's not the other way around it's not like i've said what the world seems to think that as long as i act like a child of god if i do these things the bible says then i'll become a child of god it doesn't work that way so let's let's just look at a couple of things um we have a little bit of time here so let for instance i alluded to it so go back to ephesians chapter 2 for a second ephesians chapter 2 ephesians chapter 2 you see the verse uh one it says and you hath he quickened who were what dead in trespasses and sins that was your standing before you were saved god saw you and he saw you in your trespasses and your sins but now slip on down to verse 8 and 9 paul says this for by grace are you saved past tense you've become saved you are saved when you trusted christ through faith that not of yourselves the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast so your faith in christ by grace through faith your faith in christ has produced salvation it's given you salvation that's a free gift and you didn't do anything for it it's a free gift not of works lest any man should boast but look at verse 10 verse 10 now talks about our state for we are because we're saved we are his workmanship we're his workmanship because i've been created a new man in christ you're his workmanship created in christ jesus not in trespasses and sins anymore now god sees you in christ jesus unto what good works well he just said in verse 9 not of works so your standing's not based on any works but now that you're saved god says come on i want to i want to see some good works i want to see that new man inside of you producing good works to glorify me and be a testimony for me and be that light shining in this dark and evil world flip stay here in ephesus we're going to come back here i want you to look over to titus chapter uh two for a second titus chapter two there are there are multitude of different verses and of course i have them in my notes that i use but we don't have time we're just touching on a couple of uh peaks here but look at uh titus chapter two for a second and we see the same thing in verse the context where we're seeing our standing and our state within the same context so in philippians 2 we saw our standing sons of god and then our state how we should behave in ephesians 2 we see our standing we're saved by grace through faith and then we also see our state that we are created in christ to unto good works so in titus chapter two look at verse 14 the context is about the grace of god that saves you in verse 11 verse 14 says in context again jesus christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity that's our standing he gave himself to redeem us from all iniquity all sin but the state is and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works so because you're redeemed it should produce a new creature
[32:36] in christ that has a desire for good works so go back please to ephesians standing and my state my position in christ and my conduct in christ or what i do for christ what god did for me and what i do for him if i have these things solidified in my mind and i see how the progression is i don't have any problem with eternal security because that's all what god did for me it's you know from day to day our experience changes your conduct your behavior in christ changes from day to day you're up you're down you're living for christ you're drifting away from christ it can change from day to day it can change from moment to moment but this thing over here that doesn't change that's never changing if if you trusted christ as your savior god justified you and gave you the righteousness of christ and guess what never changes now tomorrow you may not feel like it you just might not feel like it it might be because of uh illness it might be because of uh crankiness it might be because of uh you know something going on in relationships it might be as simple as your ball team lost and your wife rubs it in because her ball team beat my ball team and we're both from the same town so just like you can have here you can have the dodgers playing the angels and you know if you're for one or the other and all that kind of stuff so this thing never changes now look with me we're in um ephesians chapter one for a sec ephesians chapter one look at verse 13 and 14 this is where to be honest with you this is where god showed me and taught me eternal security when i first got saved 50 years ago i didn't have i had no idea what this book taught no it sat on a shelf we had a catholic bible sat on the shelf never read it never touched it never looked into it you only knew stories because everybody knows stories about knowing the ark and david and goliath and all that type of thing but i had no concept so but i got saved and i knew god did something inside of me and i knew my life was changed and changing but i didn't know that it was something i had for eternity i just didn't know what was going to happen or how things would happen look what he says in verse 13 the context is jesus christ the last word in verse 12 in whom you also trusted so you trusted in christ he's talking to believers after you trusted after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation whom also after that ye believed so these people heard paul preach they received what he said as truth and they believed it and what does paul say and you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise sealed however you want to illustrate sealing if it's the letter where you lick it and then you put like kids i don't know if they do it now they'd have that wax and a stamp on it and it would seal it and only you know should be sent in the mail only the person it's sent to gets to open it up if that's the way you want to look at it the illustration you've been sealed and guess what you're on your way to glory and god's going to be the only one that gets to open it up but you're going there so look with me keep going you're sealed with the holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory so that holy spirit
[36:37] that god sealed you with is now called your earnest as a kid when i got saved at 21 i'd never bought a house bought a brand new car whatever i had never put money down on anything so i didn't really know exactly what earnest was looked it up big old webster thick dictionary in the library and of course it tells me it's a down payment all right i understand all that i mean i understand but it also used this expression it said archaically it was it was used as a term for god's penny so in olden times that if there was a transaction this guy said i'm going to buy this horse this mule i'm going to buy this wagon this cart whatever and i'm going to give you this coin as an earnest as a down payment of what i'm going to pay later i'm going to pay the full price later on but i'm giving you this and this is my pledge that i'm going to be giving you the rest of it so it's god so god's penny i'm giving it to you in the sight of god so you know people were uh they could make transactions on their word not like today of course even if you have contracts you rip them up anyway so the point was this god gave me the holy spirit he said i'm sealed with that holy spirit and that holy spirit he sealed me with is my is the down payment on the fact of my the redemption of the purchased possession if that's not good enough to get me to heaven then there's nothing else good enough to get me to heaven that showed me that this thing over here this standing that i have in christ is for good now i want you to turn back to um go over to oh galatians galatians for a second and we'll conclude with this galatians look at verse um look at verse seven paul says this in galatians 5 7 ye did run well who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth well wait a minute is he talking about our standing you ran well who's going to hinder you you've fallen off the wagon sort of speaking no he's not talking about our standing because the same author said that you've got the holy spirit you're sealed he's your down payment until you get the glory but he says hey as far as your behavior as far as your conduct as far as what you do for christ well you ran better before and you're not doing so well right now that thing changes and can change from day to day but even if on a bad day you don't feel like you're saved guess what you are saved and you should focus on that to help you get through those low times or sometimes where you get distracted away and turn away from things all right so we're going to close here again it's just a kind of touching on the doctrine that gives you an idea of it but you can find verses all over the place that'll show you that your standing is a past situation it's what occurred and it's past but it stays with you forever because it's eternal and this thing over here is what you should do or what you do do for Christ it's the present condition of your walk with Christ what you're doing now are you close are you drifting that's your state that can change but that changing doesn't affect that because that's change less our father ask and pray you bless your word this morning help us to see these things understand these things and help it just concrete us in the word of God in our salvation in our faith and spur us to do something for you and live for you and we ask it all in Jesus name amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen
[40:39] amen amen amen amen