Alright, let's turn our attention
back to 2 Timothy chapter 1 that Brother Joe read for us. I'm going to preach on just a
few verses of this chapter, beginning at verse 8. If you look there
again, let's reread just a few verses. 2 Timothy 1 and verse
8. Paul, the apostle, the elder
statesman of the church, Speaking and writing here to a young evangelist,
a young preacher named Timothy, Paul was in chains. He was bound. And he says to Timothy, he says,
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me, his prisoner. Now that's something to take
note of. Paul doesn't call himself the
prisoner of men. He knows that where he is, he's
there by God's sovereign power and providence. And he knows
that God is going to work it for his glory and the good of
his sheep. He told the Philippian church,
he said, my bonds, my chains, my imprisonment will fall out
to the furtherance of the gospel. And that's a gracious way. That's a graced way of looking
at things, isn't it? And that's what I desire for
myself. And I hope you desire for yourself.
You know, that's how Paul said, I've learned to be content. in
whatever situation God has put me." So he says, don't be ashamed
of the testimony of Christ. Don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner,
Timothy. But be thou partaker. Now that
word partaker means a sharer. The root word is the same word
for fellowship. We're in fellowship with each
other because we're all in fellowship with Christ. And Paul is saying
here, be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according
to the power of God. So we share in the same affliction,
Timothy. That's what Paul's saying. I
preach the gospel and I suffer persecution for it. And he says,
you'll share in that same affliction for your testimony of the gospel,
because by nature, men and women hate the gospel. And our Lord
said that early on in his public ministry when he addressed the
people on the Sermon on the Mount. He said, blessed are you when
men shall persecute you and revile you and say all manner of evil
against you. You know, we act surprised when
those things come, and we shouldn't. That doesn't mean we go out looking
for it. I mean, we don't look for persecution, but it's going
to come with it and we're to expect it. Sometimes we're surprised
by whom the persecution comes, aren't we? That's probably more
so than anything else. But that comes with the preaching
of the gospel because it's such an offensive message to the natural
man. The natural man doesn't want
to hear about his sinfulness and his depravity and his wretchedness. He doesn't want to hear about
the wickedness of his best efforts to please God. He doesn't want
to hear about forgiveness of sin solely by the blood of Christ. He does one thing and one thing
alone, and that's the righteousness of Christ imputed. He's got to
add something of himself, his works, his experiences, something
of himself into the mix. And he doesn't want to hear anything
else. And so back then, Men under the wicked governments that existed
at that time were able to arrest and put in chains the preachers
of the gospel. We'll look at verse 9. Now he
says, this same God, this same God who hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, man's
works are excluded from this calling unto salvation. This
salvation is of the Lord, not of man. And he said that it was
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel, Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and
a teacher of the Gentiles." Now, I've entitled this message, Blessed
Realities in Christ. Blessed Realities in Christ.
And this passage of scripture runs sort of parallel with a
longer passage over in Ephesians chapter 1. And I want you to
be ready to turn back to Ephesians chapter 1 throughout this message. Because I'll be referring to
that too. Because this little passage in 2 Timothy chapter
1 speaks of the whole of salvation. It speaks of the work of the
Father, God the Father, in salvation. It speaks of the work of the
Son in salvation. And it speaks of the work of
the Holy Spirit in salvation. All three necessary works. three blessed realities. That may sound like a strange
title. I want to turn your attention to a bulletin article that I've
got in the bulletin this morning on the back called A Blessed
Reality. When we speak of the death of
Christ on the cross, I'm not going to read it all to you.
You can read. But it fits with what I'm preaching this morning,
obviously, by the title. When we speak of the death of
Christ on the cross, we are speaking of what Christ himself actually
accomplished under the law and the justice of God for his people. Therefore, many times we'll speak
of it as a legal death, a judicial death. What we mean by that is
scriptural, because the scripture says that Christ was made under
law. Galatians chapter 4, God in the
fullness of the time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. That speaks of his person, the
incarnation. He's both God and man in one
person. That glorious, miraculous truth. Great is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. In
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God." John 1, 14, "...the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. What think ye of Christ?" Whose
son is he? They said he's David's son. Christ
said, well, then how come David called him Lord? If he was David's
offspring down the road, how could David worship him? Well,
he's both. You see, he's both God and man. Perfect man in human flesh, body
and soul, united with deity. And that's a necessary truth. That's what they call one of
the cardinal doctrines of Christianity. If Christ is not God, as he said
he was and is, then he was the most foolish madman that ever
stood on the face of the earth. Do you realize that? So to say
that he's not God is to call him crazy in essence. You know,
there's a whole denomination that denies his deity and calls
themselves Christian. I told one of them one time,
I said, I'll tell you what you are. You're an idolater. He said,
what do you mean? He said, I said, well, do you
worship Jesus? And he said, we sure do. Well,
you don't believe he's God. Well, you're not to worship anyone
who's not God. And they said, well, he became
God. That's impossible. When you speak
of God, don't speak of anything becoming. God is. God is the eternal now. That's
what he told Moses. I am that I am. I was, I am,
I will be. You can't speak of it. You say,
Christ is God. And then He's man, perfect man.
If He was not perfect man, He could not have died for our sins
under the law. If He was not man, He could not
have died. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no forgiveness of sins. There's no pardon. Somebody had
to shed blood. Somebody qualified. Somebody
who was willing to do so. And Christ is the God-man. Now,
if He wasn't perfect man, He'd be disqualified to be our substitute. For it had to be an innocent
substitute. And when He went to the cross,
He went there for sins that became His. By imputation, and we've
talked about that word imputation, impute, it means to account.
It means to lay something to the charge of. We ought to know
something about charging in our day and age. It's amazing to
me that people don't understand imputation today. Well, they
do it every day. You go out and use that charge
card, they're going to charge it to you. And, you know, I've
used the illustration about the bank, you know, when somebody
owes money, they can't pay back, don't have the first penny. But
unbeknownst to you, someone comes into the bank president and says,
put it on my account. I'll be responsible for it. And
he pays it in full. And not only that, not only pays
your debt in full, wipes the books clean, but he gives you
a million dollars to the good. Now, that's a good illustration
of what Christ did on the cross. Under the law and justice of
God, we owed a debt to God's law and justice. We didn't have
the first penny to pay that debt. Our tears won't pay the debt.
Our works won't pay the debt. What did we read there in 2 Timothy
chapter 1? Not according to our works. You
see, we need to be saved from sin. We are by nature in Adam
and by practice in debt to God's law. And it demands death. Now somebody's got to pay that
debt. We don't have the wherewithal
to pay it. We don't have the works, the efforts to pay it.
Our tears won't pay it. Our baptism won't pay it. Our
determinations won't pay it. Our promises won't pay it. But
Christ on the cross paid that debt in full for his people.
He said, I laid down my life for the sheep. The debt of his
sheep was transferred legally to his account. That's imputed
sin to Christ. He was made sin. That's how he
was made sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21. No other way. And then we were
made righteous. That is, the merit of all that
he accomplished was laid to our account, the account of all of
God's elect from time immemorial into the future. And they became
righteous, they were made righteous in him by imputation. Now, in
that bulletin article, I made this statement. Now, there seems
to be a confusion among many people of, well, if that's true,
was it real? Well, to me, that's a silly question.
I mean, I don't understand why people would see it as unreal.
For example, I put here the blessed truth that Christ died a judicial
legal death based on the sins of God's elect imputed him in
no way diminishes the reality of what he himself suffered under
death, nor what we as the ones for whom he died receive as the
result of his death. Now, listen to me. Just because
Christ died on the cross. For sins imputed to him, laid
to his charge, that doesn't mean he didn't hurt. Doesn't mean
he didn't suffer. That doesn't diminish that he
experienced in his very soul the agony and the pains of death
and even the equivalent of hell for his people. That doesn't make it unreal.
Listen to me. Now, when God declares something so, now follow me on
this one. When God says it's so, is it
real? If God says it's so, well, I
guarantee you it is. God made His Son to be sin on
that cross. He legally accounted and made
Him responsible for the sins of every sinner for whom He died. My friend, that was real. And
He hurt, He sorrowed, He pained, He suffered, He agonized, He
shed His blood unto death. He really died. And that was
an experience that nobody can even begin to describe. Can you? We can't, as the old preacher
said, we can't even commit to begin to get started on that
one. And that's the truth. We have some idea of it because
the scripture gives us some idea in passages such as Isaiah 53. It said he travailed. His soul
travaileth. woman in childbirth going through
that pain. And we men have no idea what
that's like. But I'm going to tell you something.
That's what they call the death of Christ in the Scripture. It's
a travail. He actually really experienced
the full penalty of all the sins of His sheep laid to His account. And just because we say it's
by imputation, that doesn't diminish the reality of it. Because it
was real. And my friend, when righteousness
was imputed to us, it was real. It wasn't what some call today
a legal fiction. That's what the Catholic Church
used to call it. Do you know that? A legal fiction. Because it wasn't real, they
said, until you experienced it. Now, let me tell you something.
Salvation includes a great, marvelous, miraculous, powerful experience
within. But when you experience it, or
I experience it, that doesn't make what Christ did on the cross
any more or less real. You see what I'm saying? Oh,
I'm telling you. As I said, we can't even begin
to understand the reality of it. But it was all real. Now
let me show you what I'm talking about. Look back here at 2 Timothy
chapter 1. Now, the Scripture is clear that
our connection with, and our acceptance and knowledge and
worship and service to the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
is through Christ. Is that not so? Everything we
know about the Father, we know through the Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and what he accomplished on Calvary. You see, without
Christ performing His duties on the cross to save us from
our sins, God is not our Father. He is nothing more than a righteous
judge who will condemn us forever. Do you know that? Without Christ,
there is no Father. He's the eternal Son of God,
and we're adopted into the family spiritually and eternally through
Christ. Now, that's right. And we're
made sons of God, spiritually and eternally, through Christ.
And then, obviously, everything we know of the Son, the second
person of the Trinity, comes through the Son. We know Him
because we know Him as God-man. He came to this earth. He identified
with us in our name, in our human nature, without sin. He experienced
everything that humans can experience on this earth to the fullest
without sin. That was the difference between
him and us. What he experienced in his sorrow,
in his pain, in his hunger, in his fatigue, what he experienced
in all of that, the human condition, you might say, he experienced
it to the fullest, but he did it without sin. Now, I don't
know what that's like, do you? If you say you do, you're lying,
you just sinned. Because you don't know what that's
like, and we don't either. The only way we know anything
about that is by looking to Christ, and seeing Him, and admiring
Him, and worshiping Him, and serving Him, and seeking to be
like Him. But you see, He's the only perfect
man that ever lived. There are no perfect men here
on this earth. There are regenerate men, and
women, saved sinners, they're saints, sanctified sinners, sinners
saved by the grace of God, that there are no perfect men here
on this earth within themselves. We're perfect in Christ right
now. One day we will be perfect in
ourselves, but that we have to go through what the Bible calls
a change that we have not yet experienced. Now, somebody says,
well, haven't we already gone through a change? Yes, we have.
In the new birth, we've gone through a great, marvelous, miraculous,
necessary change. But I want to tell you something.
There's another change that the Bible speaks of. You see, when
we were changed in the new birth, that doesn't mean we were made
perfect in ourselves. Now, we have the Holy Spirit
within us, indwelling us, who is himself perfect. That didn't
make Bill Parker perfect in himself. Just ask my wife. We're not yet perfect. We have
not yet arrived in ourselves by our own experience. There's
another change that's going to take place. Paul wrote of it
in 1 Corinthians 15. He wrote of it in Philippians
chapter 3. It's the change of this old vile body, this corruptible,
in glory when Christ comes again and we're changed into that new
spiritual body. The glorification then will be
free from even the presence, the effects, the contamination,
the influence of sin in our lives. We don't know what that'll be
like, John said. So I'll tell you, I know some
preachers who think they know what it's like, but the apostle
John said he didn't know. He said, he said, it does not
yet appear what we shall be. You know what that means? It
means it does not yet appear what we shall be. But he said,
we know this. We know that we'll be like Him. We'll be like Christ. For we'll
see Him as He is. And you know that's the purpose
of God. To make His people like Christ. Isn't that right? So
we'll experience that change now. And it's a blessed reality. Now, all we know of the Spirit,
we know by virtue of Christ. For He is the Spirit of Christ.
He applies in our hearts and in our minds and in our affections
and in our wills what Christ has accomplished and secured
for us. That's what this verse says.
And then He shows us Christ. He shows us our sins and He shows
us Christ. He shows us how the blood of
Christ alone washes us clean. From all our sins, he shows us
how the righteousness of Christ alone makes us accepted before
God. And that's the work of the Father,
the work of the Son and the work of the Spirit, and it's all manifested
and all honored. Listen, listen, if you want to
glorify the Father. And honor him, look to Christ. Do you hear me? Look to Christ. The Father said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. If you want to
honor the Son, the eternal Son of God, look to Christ who is
the Son of God incarnate. And listen to me now. If you
want to honor the Holy Spirit, and we do, and worship Him, we
do. We worship the Godhead. We worship
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If you want to honor
and worship and serve the Holy Spirit, look to Christ. Rest in Him. You'll do no more
honor to the Holy Spirit than you can by resting in the person
and work of Christ. Now, the Bible teaches that.
Colossians chapter 2 and verse 9 says, For in Him, in Christ,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. And it adds a word
there. It says bodily. And you know
what that means. That means in the God-man. Christ
the God-man. dwells all the fullness of the
Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit bodily. So that if you
want to know worship, serve, Father, Son, and Spirit, look
to Christ. Look to Christ. For in Christ
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all glorified
and honored. Look at Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. Listen
to this verse. He says, Now listen to this. This is a full verse because
it speaks of everything that we have in salvation. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. We are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now what that means
is this. Everything that salvation is,
we already possess. in Christ, right now. I mean, it's a sure thing. Now,
we haven't yet experienced all the blessings of salvation. For
example, as I said, we have not yet been glorified. We've experienced
some of the blessings of salvation chosen in the Father before the
foundation of the world. Look back at 2 Timothy 1. He
speaks of the work of the Father here. God, who has saved us. And at the end of verse 9, he
says, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
That's the work of the Father. That's the blessed reality of
the work of the Father. Our election in Christ. God chose
a people in Christ. Now listen to me. God didn't
just choose a people. He chose a people in Christ.
You see what I'm saying? There's a difference. We've heard
it said, and I agree with it, that election is not salvation,
election is unto salvation. Our election is in Christ. The
Jews believed in election. Did you know that? They thought
they were God's chosen elect people, but they didn't know
Christ. What does the Bible say about
God's elect? They'll come to know Christ.
They'll come to serve Him. They'll come to believe in Him
and rest in Him. Look back at Ephesians 1. Look
at it again, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us, look at it, in Him. See it? Before the foundation
of the world, Paul told Timothy, this salvation, according to
the purpose and the grace of God, was given to us before the
world began in Christ. God chose us before the foundation
in Him that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will."
Now, let me ask you this question. When God chose you, where were
you? You weren't there, were you? You weren't even born yet. Well, when God chose you, was
it real? Or was it just play-like? Was God just playing games then,
just pretending? No. When God chose you, you were
already in His mind, His will, and His purpose. And the whole
responsibility, listen to it, the whole responsibility of your
eternal salvation was already placed on the shoulders of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You were in the heart of God,
friend. The heart of God. The moment he said it, and we
say the moment, I don't know how to say that, to be honest
with you. Somebody said, well, God lives in the eternal now,
and I agree with that. But I know He chose His people
before the foundation of the world in Christ. And that was
real. That was just as real as if you
had been there in body. You weren't. Nobody was. He said it was before the world
began. That was before even man fell. Hey! Salvation is older
than creation. You say, well, I don't like that.
Well, it doesn't matter if you don't like it or not. That's what the Bible
teaches. You got it to do. You say, well,
I can't explain that. We'll join the club. We'll give
you a card. You'll be a card carrying non-explainer.
Give it to you on the way out the door. God is God and God
is real. And God doesn't think anything,
say anything or do anything that is not real. There are no legal
fictions with God. You see what I'm saying? If God
declares His Son to be sin based on sin imputed, it's real. If
God declares me or you to be righteous based on righteousness
imputed, it's real. I'll tell you what's real. God
is real. We're the fakes. We're the phantasms. We live
in our own little world. God's real. The only reality
we know is God through Christ. Isn't that right? Everything
else is, I'll tell you what, you may be able to touch it,
it may be real, this water may quench my thirst, but it's not
going to last, because I'll get thirsty again. So the only thing
that's eternally real is that which is of God in Christ. Isn't that right? Well, He says
it was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He speaks
of his own purpose and grace back here in 2 Timothy 1.9. He
called us with a holy calling. Now, that's the calling of the
Holy Spirit. We'll talk about that in just a minute. It's not
a call done and is doing for you. And he said it is according
to his own purpose and grace. Now, I want you to turn back
to Romans chapter 8, the passage that I read at the opening of
the verse or the service this morning. This passage that we
quote so often. And we should. And I know we get down, we get
upset, day to day living, every second of the day brings a new,
something new to us, but it's nothing new to God, friend. And
now I'll tell you what, there's a whole lot of things in my life
in the past that have taken me by surprise. How about you? But
nothing takes God by surprise. I've talked to an old preacher
down Albany one time who got upset at something I preached
on TV. And he said, I can't believe you believe that God ordained
the fall of man. And I asked him, I said, well,
what do you believe that Satan sneaked up on him and took him
by surprise? And he said, well, no, he said,
I just believe God knew it was going to happen. You mean God
knew, but he wouldn't change it. It wasn't within his purpose.
It was a, what do you have to do? Execute plan B or what? You
see the silliness of man's reasoning? See, anything that will put man
in control and not God, that's what man by nature wants. But
look here, verse 28. He says, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God. We know that if
we love God, He first loved us. And that's what the Scripture
teaches. There's none of us sitting here today that by nature of
our own free will love God. Love is a gift from God, just
like faith, just like repentance, just like all the graces and
gifts of the Spirit. So those who love God are those
whom God loves and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. And he says, who are the called according to his purpose.
Now, that word called there means summons. It's like the gospel
call. It's a summons to come to Christ. To believe in him and to repent.
So hold on to that thought. Now, it's according to his purpose.
Now, what is God's purpose? Look at verse 29. Well, for whom
he did foreknow, and that word foreknow means foreordained.
That's what it means. Forelove, some writers say, but
literally it's foreordained. And it does mean forelove, because
that's whom God foreordained. And he says he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son. Now, you see that? That's God's purpose. It is to
glorify Himself in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ. And
He does that by saving, redeeming, and justifying a people, and
making them like His Son. And that's the ultimate goal
in salvation. John said it. We shall be like Him, to the
praise and the glory of His grace. We'll look on. He says that He
might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now, the firstborn
there doesn't mean the first one born. The firstborn there
is referring back to the law of the firstborn in the old covenant,
which means he has the preeminence. He's the top. He's the head of
the body. He has the preeminence. That's
what he means by that. And he says in verse 30, moreover
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Now the word
called there is a different word than up in verse 28. The word
called in verse 28 is a summons, like the gospel call. But the
word called in verse 30, said twice here, means named. What he's referring to there
is God's electing grace. God named Him. And whenever God
names something, you know what that means? It means He owns
them. You remember when the angel came to Joseph and revealed to
Joseph that the Christ child would be born, that Mary would
be with child. And he didn't say, now Joseph, go down to the
local bookstore and get you a baby name book and pick you out a
good name. He didn't do that, did he? He said, Joseph, here's his name. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Not Mike. And
his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God
named him. God named him. You know why?
Because he's the son of God. And you see that throughout the
Scripture. Sometimes God will point a certain name to give
to a child. He's showing ownership. And that's
what he's saying here. Them he named. Them he chose. That's what he's talking about.
And whom he named, them he also justified. Now, when did he justify? Now, look back at 2 Timothy 1.
Look there at verse 10. Now, here's the work of the Son
in salvation, the reality of the work of the Son. He said,
but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death. You see that? He abolished death. Now, what does it mean to abolish
death? You say, well, how could he have
abolished death? Because I'm dying. I mean, isn't that reality? We're getting older. So how can
you say he abolished death? Well, what's he talking about?
He's not talking about physical death there in the sense of the
consequences that we have to suffer for sin. He's talking
about a legal death. He's talking about condemnation.
He's talking about eternal death there, spiritual death. Christ,
on the cross of Calvary, when He died, He abolished legal,
spiritual, eternal death. He removed the sentence of death
from off of His people. He removed the condemnation that
they were under in Adam. He established righteousness
and made them accepted before God. That's what He did. Look
at Ephesians chapter 1 again. And look at verse 6. He speaks of, "...to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted." Our
qualification is in Christ. It's based on His blood and His
righteousness, you see. I have no other fitness but Christ. When I stand before, I'm going
to preach on this tonight about the great white throne. When
I stand before God at judgment, in what or whom do I want to
be found? I want to be found in Christ.
I want to be found covered in that perfect spotless robe of
righteousness that Christ gave me at Calvary. That's my only
hope. And that's your only hope, you
see. And if the Spirit has done any
work within you, you'll know that, and you'll testify of that,
and you'll rejoice in it. But he goes on, he says in verse
7, "...in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Now look back
at 2 Timothy 1 one more time. That's the work of the Son in
salvation. And it was real. Christ abolished
death on the cross. What he did is he removed any
legal condemnation or any legal hold the law had on us as to
the ground of salvation. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's Christ. It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather is risen again, seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us, so that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
And then look at verse 10 again of 2 Timothy 1. The last part
of there, it says, he has brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel. Now there he's talking about
the blessed reality of the work of the Holy Spirit. That's the
new birth. Now look back at Ephesians 1. He speaks here in verse 12 that
we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in
Christ. If you trust in Christ, that's
the greatest evidence of the operation and work, sovereign
work of the Holy Spirit in you to give you life, spiritual life. That's the first evidence that
Christ died for you, abolished death for you. That's the first
evidence that God chose you, named you. in eternity and gave
you all this in Christ before the world began. You trust in
Christ. And he says in verse 13, in whom
you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth. How
do you know you're truly trusting Christ? Well, you believe what
the Bible says of him, who he is, what he did, why he did it,
where he is now, what he accomplished, what it means, how it all works
out according to what God reveals. You see, there are many false
Christ, but you see, we heard the word of truth. We heard of
the true Christ, the simplicity that's in Christ. And he says
the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that you believe
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. That is, he
sealed it in your minds and in your hearts. The word of God
is indelibly planted in your heart so that you won't look
away from Christ. And he says, which is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession
under the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit's work in us
is the down payment for glory. That's what he's saying there.
He's the he's the foretaste and him alone. Now, those are the
blessed realities that are in Christ, not fictions, not pretending
and not not some kind of a pipe dream. These are realities for
the believer in Christ. All right.