Great Doctrines of Salvation

I think we got through four. Is that correct? Where is the change to take place? Oh, I know. There's another thing I wanted to address because Carol came up to me and asked last week and she asked after the class. Remember what question two was? Distinguished between reconciliation or patents and conversion? What those were.

Mark Banks had that great paragraph in there where he put it where Whereas repentance presents a change of mind which the sinner has about himself and about God when the Holy Spirit convicts of sins. And conversion pictures the change of direction which comes when the believing sinner turns towards God. Reconciliation shows us the change which is wrought in the heart, of which the heart feared now has peace. So, repentance is change of mind, conversion is change of direction, and reconciliation is a change in heart. Carol came up to me afterwards and said, what does it mean, change in heart? What is the difference between mind and heart? What's a change of heart, a rotten heart? It's your soul. Your soul? Any others? What would you think? I know what I think, but I'm trying to see what you think. That you're convinced. Huh? That you're truly convinced. Truly convinced?

If you have a change of heart, you're going to default to the change of heart. You won't default to anything else like that. Good. Once you have a change of heart, that's where you always go to, instead of being bantied around like in James, like the waves of the sea.

Others? I'll speak at once. Head knowledge is not always transferred to heart knowledge. Excellent. That's kind of where I think a lot. There's head knowledge and heart knowledge. And there's a difference. I can know a lot of facts about things, but it's a different thing to know it in your heart.

And whether, Monique, like soul, I like that word, what you default to, convicted, you're fully convicted of. And that's a difference. I mean, it's something that you believe in, and I like that, you will default back to. That's where you will revert to, or that's the thing that you trust in.

That's something that is not just a fact. I know lots of engineering facts, but unless you, except from the engineering side, you know a lot of facts, but unless you truly understand it, which I think is in my heart, truly understand how you apply all those facts, it doesn't mean anything.

You just have a bunch of facts. And so I think that's it. There's head knowledge and heart knowledge. And I think there's a huge gap a lot of times between here and here. You can know a lot of facts. People can know a lot of facts about the Bible, but have no belief in it. Well, you're making reconciliation sound like that's something that we do. A change in heart, but I thought God did the reconciling. Well, you weren't here last week. So I don't know. Yes, that is true. Yeah.

Well, mind seems to be more of a decisiveness, reasoning. And I think the heart is more of an internalization of conviction. I don't know if I'd say it's more on the level of feelings or not. I don't think it's feelings. We all have feelings. A lot of people have fuzzy feelings about a lot of things. I'm not talking about fuzzy feelings.

I'm talking about something about conviction. It's an internalization, where your mind is understanding things and changing its direction. Yeah, I think it's, to me it's like taking those facts and either being convicted or believing those facts, where you just, a trust in those facts is where that is. And yes, the reconciliation is on God's part.

In the Old Testament, doesn't the heart refer to the mind? In the Old Testament? I don't know. Is that the mind? I thought mostly the heart was always the conviction or the belief. It seems like I've heard that. Yeah, I haven't heard that, that in the Old Testament the heart is the mind. I was trying to think of a couple of passages, but I don't recall that that would be mine. Heart either to me is referred almost as the soul or the essence of a person, where all your beliefs, your trust is.

Your whole being. Yeah, but it's kind of acting on the facts that you know. You have to have a knowledge of something before. And that's why the change of mind You understand that mind, the change with the facts, but then the reconciliation is in the heart. And yes, it is God. I want to go back to that. That's a very good point. Yeah.

I was looking at one of the definitions I have, and it says to change thoroughly from the change wrought in the sinner when he believes the gospel. So I think you can have a change of mind and believe the gospel, but then there is a subsequent and a continual change that goes on within the believer, which is a fellowship restoration kind of a thing, where he is persuaded over time that it's much more than just changing your mind, it's something that God does, to return us the change in our heart towards God, that He affects, not us.

Is it related more to your character? Well, I don't know that character. I think it's almost elusive in a way. Well, I maybe put it this way. I think a person can have a change of mind like about the gospel and about his relationship to God and believe the gospel and be saved.

Positionally, he's been reconciled at that point, but there's a conditional part that goes on in which God persuades him over time that his change of mind and his faith has restored him to an intimate fellowship with God that he didn't have before. Changing his whole attitude towards God from one of being at odds with God to one of being loved by Him and returning to life. I want to go back, actually, the point being too is reconciliation and I think that was question four is, I think that's where it is. No. Well, three, does God himself need to be reconciled to man? No. No. The reconciliation is on God's part. He has the change of heart based on what? He doesn't have to change. He has the change reconciled. He reconciles.

Let me where is the verse. Romans 5, 10. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Who does that? God does. God does. God does the reconciling. Correct? Right. So the reconciliation is on whose part? God's part. I guess that's what I mean. The reconciliation is on his part. God is the one who does it. Then we looked at another verse in there.

Colossians 1.19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. So again, in that one is the aorist, active, infinitive. So it's a past completed action. God is the subject providing the action. And it's a statement of purpose or result for that one on reconciliation. OK, let's go.

Does everybody feel OK on the heart? Because Carol said that, and I didn't know. We always say a change of heart and what that means. Where's the heart? The definition in this, the back of the Bible says it's the mind or seat of the emotions. The mind or seat of emotions. Say that again? The heart is a mind or seat of emotions. Of emotions. Now the emotions are engaged. Yeah, but I mean is that only feelings? Emotions to me seem like just feelings.

And to me it's more like the conviction part. It's finally being convicted of something. So, I mean, emotions just to me seems more, I feel it, which is part of it, but because you're convicted of it. So, I mean, it was a great question. I was like, we use this term all the time, like, you know, change of heart, you know, in my heart, you know, I have this heart knowledge and head knowledge, and I hadn't really, you know, wanted everybody's thoughts on that, because to me it was like conviction and, you know, head and heart. I mean, the head is just facts. And this is, it is partly emotion, it is a feeling, but it's based on your conviction of the facts.

Yeah. I think the heart, the heart feeling, feelings, it's something you can't help. You know, God does that, and your heart changes without you knowing, without you doing anything. It's something you can't help, and your mind changes. You change your mind about many things, but the heart you cannot help.

Well, I think that's where, and who does the convicting? The Holy Spirit. Right. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us. So like Debbie was saying, it kind of defaults back. Because now the Holy Spirit is controlling. What's that? Because the Holy Spirit is in your heart controlling it. Yeah, controlling it.

But I think it's finally taking, but you have to have a knowledge first. You have to have facts first. But your facts change. Yeah. You get different information, but what you cannot help is what your true feelings are. Right. Yeah. But that, and again, that's, as you said, it's not, it's the Holy Spirit convicting you. Yeah, it just happens. It just happens.

Would it not be like, when I believed, that was in my mind. I made a decision that Christ died for me and in forgiveness of my sin, but as I was taught grace and knew more and more and became identified in Christ, my heart was changed. Yeah, but see I think that's with more knowledge, facts first, and that is the Holy Spirit through the Word, which is the facts, and then the Holy Spirit convicts you of those facts. And that's the heart change. I don't know if it's always facts first. My experience is kind of like the The change came first, and now I'm building up the facts. I don't know.

But you had to have an initial thing to believe in, an initial thought. You didn't just suddenly, without anything, go, Jesus Christ died for me and my brother. You had to have some kind of facts about that. Otherwise, the squirrel that died for me, you had to have some kind of knowledge first. And then you build upon that, and that's where I think is spiritual maturity.

As you grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, 2 Peter 3.18 or whatever it is, that's where you grow in the knowledge of that. But you have to have some kind of knowledge first. And then you grow in that knowledge. I mean, are we talking about salvation or growth?

Yeah. Because the Holy Spirit provides the want, the need. The desire. I mean, the desire. I mean, you're convicted to become saved, too. Yeah. He works first and you find the facts after that. Yeah, from that, from salvation, I mean, but he's bringing you the facts to a point where you have to make that decision.

You can't, you weren't just sitting there one day and went, oh, I believe, you know, there's things that come through you, bring somebody to you. gets you into the Word. It brings you a need. It brings the need that you need to have something. You may not know what it is, but you need something. And He draws you to the Word. But you have to have the facts initially.

But then there's growth beyond that. Maybe that's a good distinction between salvation and then growth. Growth is spiritual maturity, that you start learning more and then having a change of heart about those things. is the need, like the, you know. No, that's well done. No, I appreciate it, because when Carol said that, you know, we use this term a lot, and really, you know, I banty out this, you know, change of heart, and it was like, you better explain what heart is.

So, actually, there are two here. Go ahead. Well, he makes another part of the statement here where he's, our hearts with love for him. So on that level. I've been with you, Mike, at lunch, and you'll be talking about something, but then some tears weld up in your eyes about something you were referring to, or even here in class many weeks ago. Well, that's not mind, that's heart. It's not emotion. I think that somewhere that's on the heart level. where something is touching us internally. There is some emotion to it, like your definition, this seed of the mind or mind of emotions or whatever.

There is some of that in there, because I think as you're convicted about some of those things, I mean, there are emotions involved with that. It's not just emotions, but it is involved with it. you know, that there's a conviction that you're convicted, you understand what Christ did for you. I mean, that is very, you know, when you think about what he did, that he went to the cross, he took all your sins, you know, and what he does moment by moment for you. I mean, there is an emotion evoked from that. And it stirs you, I think. Yeah, but it's not, and when you get away from it, it's just not all feelings. It's not all feelings. It's the conviction based on facts and your realization of that.

When you track down in the book of Romans, you get to 3 and you get the gospel of salvation, and then an explanation in 4 about the grace. What's interesting in 5, it talks about a position we have, and then Paul says that the love of God is yet abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This is the first time the Spirit is mentioned. So I think that there's a change of mind, there's a faith in the gospel, There's a change in direction because of that, but there's a confirmation that comes along about my position, about my assurance, and the fact that God's attitude towards me has changed because of the cross.

He has changed His attitude towards me because He's reconciled me back. So He opens up the door for the Spirit of God to shed abroad the love of God in my heart, which totally changes my heart towards Him. Right, I mean, the reconciliation is on his part as far as reconciling us, but it has a change of heart in us too. But the reconciliation we talk about here is really him reconciling us, but that does change our heart about him, who he is, definitely.

Okay, but wait a minute. He, God, is now looking favorably on you because you are interested in him. Because I'm in Christ. It's solely based on Christ's work on the cross. Because now it's been paid for. We have been reconciled to him. He now looks at us through Christ. So, he has a change of heart. We're in Christ now. If he looks at us in Adam, he still sees us in our sins.

I would say one thing there though, that because of the work of Christ, he's reconciled the whole world. And by doing that, his attitude towards the world is different now. because he doesn't look at the whole world as, he looks at it now as savable, where it wasn't before. And so now, he hasn't changed, but through the work of Christ, a position has been created by him, where he can now save the world, and he can now look at man as savable when they weren't before.

As I said a week or so ago too, the only question that remains now is, who is Christ? That's the only question. The sin question has been taken care of for everybody. The only question remaining for any human being is, who is Christ? And that's it. And really the gospel, just believing in that, that's the only question, because sins have all been paid for. So, yeah, I guess from that point, he looks at it that it is, having thought about that, that it's savable now.

Was there something else? I was thinking from the standpoint of discernment, you know, 1 Corinthians talks about the natural man, but then about the spiritual man, and the only reason he can understand is because they're spiritually discerned, and there's something that's within that man that makes it impossible, and that's the Holy Spirit, which that reconciliation takes No, we're new creatures in Christ. Totally, you can't understand any of this until you have that new being. And then we have the mind of Christ. We have all the other things. Our life is life, fullness.

And that's the one that can discern and understand these things. But I think it is a good point. Between salvation and then growth, He brings you facts and before, and then you come to that point where you accept those and you believe. And then beyond that, I think it's, you know, it's, it's, he may bring you through things to draw you to something. So maybe what your point is, you don't know the facts, but something's happening to you, but he draws you to that. He convicts you. This Holy Spirit is working on you to convict you of something. So you may not know the facts beforehand, but he's drawing you to those facts.

So to rod that change, so. Other thoughts? Sorry, that was a tangent, but it was a good question. I was like, you know, we try and cover all our terms. I mean, we redefine these terms, make sure we go over these things. And then Carol came up and it was like, explain the heart. So we have to go over it again next week when she gets here? Yeah, no, no. No, you guys are all going to fill her in, right, when she's back.

It's on the team. Five, I believe, right? Did I say five? Were we five? Does reconciliation come because man desires this thorough change? Were you on the tape? They're all shaking their head no. Nobody's willing to say no. Yeah, no, God himself took the initiative. Remember in our identification class what our condition was in Adam. What was that? What's our condition in Adam? Dead. Dying. We would never take the initiative to change our hearts towards God. We would never do that in Adam. There is nothing, no not one, when you get into Romans 1-3, kind of tells us who we are. Not a good picture, not a good picture.

We can look at 2 Corinthians 5, 18 and 19. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he committed to us the word of reconciliation. So in 18, God who reconciled us to himself And then in 19, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

It's God doing it, not us. It's from his part, not us. We would not take the initiative to, and again, I think there's some in salvation and growth. He will, through the Holy Spirit, with our new creature in Christ, we're able to discern these things and have a change of heart as he convicts us. But it's always him taking the initiative. You weren't here on Friday night. We missed you a lot. It's my daughter's birthday. We had 31 people out at our house.

Anyway, what we talked about was Romans 8.3 that God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemns sin in the flesh. And then if you go down to verse 7 in Romans 8, it says that the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, which dovetails into this question because man could not, because of his position in sin, could not be reconciled, he wouldn't be, because his sin is an enmity unreconcilable. Yeah, I was trying to get up here. You know, and I think it's in Romans 3 that basically goes over us.

I mean, there's no, no, not one. You know, we're all desperately wicked. Viper is a tongue. You know, it basically explains who we are in Adam. There's nothing in us. There's no, not one. That we want to. Yeah, that want to. I mean, we're totally at enmity to God. All right. Question 6.

In 2 Corinthians 5.17-20 there are three changes spoken of. What are they? I'll read this and then see if you can decipher three changes that are talked about in this passage.

Begin at 2 Corinthians 5.17.

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. So what is the first change? New creation. Oh, he gets ahead of me. Oh, you're looking at the old notes, right? Is that positional or conditional? Positional. What? Positional. Who says conditional? Who says positional? Positional? Right. It is positional. It's structural.

He's a new creature. And that is, if you look in the Greek, it means new in quality and kind. It's not a refurbished Adam. It's not a buffed up one, kind of taking the nicks and the nastiness out. It is new in kind. This goes back to, again, an identification. When you put it all together, you had to get out of Adam. to be a new creature. So a lot of people want to try and make Adam better. And as we were just talking about, Adam is a total enmity to God. Wicked. Never would be reconcilable. So we had to get out of Adam. We did that through the cross, the co-crucifixion, Romans 6, and then we died, resurrected in Christ.

And that is the new creature, new in kind, new in quality. So it's a structural change, and that's as we were talking several weeks with Holly, I was telling you, and maybe this is the default, the conviction going back. I always go back to that position now, I can't lose my salvation, I can't change, because if that has been wrought, I'm a new creature in Christ, His life is my life, there's no way I can get out of that. So, you know, that is my default position now. So, okay, so the first is structural, it's positional. The second change, anybody want to take a stab at that, what the second change is? I have it out of 19, verse 19. namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

What was the change there? Clean slate. Clean slate? So what did that mean between God and us? We had fellowship now with him. So it was a change of what? Our position. Well, position, but change of relationship is what, it's a new relationship now. And again, think of how all this goes together too. You have the first positional change, which allows what? A change in relationship. So without that, could we have this relationship with God? Without that structural change? No, you can't.

So, again, the way scripture fits together again is, one, you have the change of position, second is the change of relationship. We have a general, well, the second change is that of a general relationship, or the basis on which salvation may be offered to all mankind. Okay, so it's a change of relationship. Then the third one, what would be the third one? I have that out of verse 20.

Would you say it's for ambassadors, not for Christ? Is that it? Yeah, we're ambassadors. So what is that? How can I do this? I'm giving away what I'm trying to get at here. So we have a change of position, change of relationship, and then what would that be a change in? Citizenship. Citizenship? I think that would be in our position. That would be a position where we're in a new citizenship, which is in heaven.

Change in action. What's that? Yeah, you're getting to where I was trying to get at. Other thoughts? The third change is a mental attitude or the trust of the individual heart when one sees and accepts the value in the death of Christ for him. So it's really a change in mental attitude. Now we become ambassadors for Christ. It's a change now.

No, I agree with you. We would have never have been ambassadors of the reconciliation. We wouldn't have told anybody until the changes brought in us by God. And then we begin to tell people about the fact that God has been reconciled, or the world has been reconciled to Him. The sins are no longer an issue.

See, and again, I love the way scripture is laid out. Position, your relationship, now what do you want to do? You're an ambassador. What are you talking about? Talking about Christ and what Christ offers. So first the position, then the relationship, and then I have a complete different change now. I want to talk about Christ. I want to tell everybody about Christ.

It's a different mental attitude where it is before, what was your general attitude before that positional change? You know, God was, you know, you were enmity to God. And so your attitude was completely different than when you are in Christ now. You have a completely different attitude. You couldn't have gotten to this being ambassador of Christ unless you have the two steps before it.

Change of position, change of relationship. Yeah. has given us the ministry of reconciliation. What's that saying to us? You know, I think it's, in going on, it's namely that God was in Christ reconciling. It's what follows in 19 and 20. That's the ministry, that we're ambassadors for Christ. We are to tell people that, as Mike says, their sins are no longer an issue with Christ, in Christ. They're sinners and that they need salvation. We are now the ambassadors of Christ. That's our ministry of reconciliation.

Any other thoughts on that? I mean, I basically take 18 and then 19 and 20 are more of an explanation of that. When the full understanding of, on the one hand, that the condemnation that the world sits in because of our increased knowledge of who God is, you recognize He's inflexible when it comes to condemnation. That the world is going to be condemned and is condemned, and persons that you care about, no matter what they say or what they do, they're going to be condemned. It's interesting, at the end of verse 20 it says, we beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Your attitude now is because you're saved and you know there's a way out, If we were all in a burning building, and we're all family, and one of us found the way out of the building, we wouldn't keep quiet about it. We would be yelling, this is the way out, this is the way out.

And that's the change of attitude, I think, that grows in a believer, especially as he grows in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. Yeah, it's interesting, too. I keep thinking about this. We were talking about this, actually, on the way in this morning. And it's a different, it's kind of a different thing.

A friend, well, it's my son's old roommate, who came to know the Lord. And the guy is just on fire right now. We were just talking about his sister, who is a friend of our daughter. And he has witnessed to her, and she's come to know the Lord. And he's trying to tell everybody he can't. He's going to Ecuador on a mission trip.

And this is just from last year. You know what I wonder about that? The zeal of it. I remember when I became a believer. Boy, I was merciless on my family. You know, I just could not stop. Why do I not have that zeal? And I thought about this when I read this verse when I was studying for this. I thought, we beg you. Do you still have that zeal?

I think as you mature, When you first become a believer, you're so excited you want to tell, and it comes out of your mouth. And as you mature, it just comes out of your being. We hope. People see it through you. That's the idea of growth. Where they can look at you and just see how you are in the world, and you don't have to say anything necessarily. Yeah, there was a song there I love. I'd rather see a testimony than hear one any day. You know, and I think that is true our life, but you still have to tell people to be available.

But then you're relying on the Lord to bring them to you. Oh yeah. You know, and so you're not out there talking of yourself. It's the Lord knows who he's going to bring to you and why. Well, and this goes, Monique, and I'll identify with this one. You know, I get really, really exercised in politics.

Why am I not as exercised to tell people about Christ? You know? I mean, the distractions of the world. And yet, why am I not? I can, you know, boy, you give me a, you know, a talk show that tells me about all this stuff, and I get fired up. Why am I not the same with Christ?

And, you know, I just, you know, I keep saying it's, you know, it's like watching a football game. It doesn't mean anything. But I get excited about that. And I think, you know, if I watch or listen to politics, what if I was in the Word during that time, you know, really drawn to it, you know, and I don't want to make it mechanistic, but if I was so excited about the Lord as much as I was about politics sometimes, or whatever, my job, name whatever your worldly distraction is, you know, I wonder how much, you know, the intimacy we lose with the Lord, all those things, and that maybe we would be more fired up, or, you know, wanting, you know, people would be more drawn to us because it just shines through us because we are so, so intimate with the Lord. You know, it's like Moses, you know, had to put a bag over it, you know, because it was shining so much, you know. Yeah, anyway.

I think that there's, with a lot of believers, there's an initial enthusiasm about salvation. and they become tremendous recruiters. But then there's a lot of lessons to be learned along the way and probably the primary lesson is that God saves people, you don't. So you have to learn to trust Him and live by faith rather than your enthusiasm. And it appears from a worldly viewpoint that that the fervor in the believer cools, but I don't think it does.

Aaron's right. I think what happens as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, just who you are speaks volumes out to people and you stop making a career out of saying the right thing to the wrong people and you wait for God to do. Now, having said all that, There are individuals that have the spiritual gift of evangelism and they open up their mouth to somebody and they fall over like dominoes.

I have an old friend, Sam Dalton, who is just that way. I would go to the supermarket and people would just come out and they would just fall. He'd be talking to the checkout lady and suddenly he was explaining the gospel to her. It was like she just had to know. Yeah. And to some degree, there is things too, Aaron, which you're saying.

As I've said many times, I type A go after 20 years of doing programs and different things and getting the flat forehead from hitting the wall at the end of the programs if they fail. What I now have is a lot more peace, rest that I talk about. And people notice more now. than when I was going out trying to slay dragons and slay the world.

They're attracted to that piece. It is. I go back to this guy, Bill Fay, who was the guy, story I think I've told, he was involved in all these different things. I just remember one time he said he had all the worldly pleasures he could have, everything the world could offer him he had. And some guy, a Christian, came to him one time, and he said, you know, I have a piece that you don't have. And, oh, yeah, I have everything. Well, later everything fell apart, and he was in a jail cell waiting to be tried and all this stuff, and that came back to him. He says, you know, I want that piece. And that's what drew him to the Lord, was that one guy who said, I have a piece that you don't have.

And, you know, I do that even on, you know, I'm out on drill rig, you know, tough crowd, you know, the words, you know, just, But, you know what I find? If I don't engage them, or they know that I'm different, it brings the whole tenor down. You know, they suddenly start changing their tone, changing their words. They know something's different about me. And I've had more conversations now, because I'm not out trying to beat up the world, that they just know something's different. And, you know, I have much more conversations now than I ever had before when I was out trying to beat people up.

Because I just, you know, there's something different about you. you know, a new crew and I come on and they're like, what's with that guy? You know? And so there is a, I agree, it's a different type. It's not as that first aggressive, you just have to let it out to a difference they're drawn to you. And I think as you mature, that becomes more that people are, there's something different about you.

And I want that in a turbulent world that we're going through right now. I think it's, it's critical. I was going to say, that's what James is about. I mean, it becomes a life and then, We're admonished to be able to give an answer to every man who asks what that's about, which is kind of a result of a life that they say it's not a...

I used to fear about that I had to have all the right words. That's where I said I had to memorize scripture. I just had to memorize scripture because I used to kill myself over that. When I finally relaxed that it wasn't about doing that, I know more scripture now than I ever have. Not because I had to do it. And because I was worried about, you know, if I said something to somebody, they're going to ask me and I won't know that scripture, you know. God doesn't care. God will use you in the way and he's in control of it. He'll use you for your part in working that believer's life or the unbeliever's life.

You know, I think it's difficult to be, to talk to people about the word. I've done that with my mother and my sisters. My sister says, well, that's what you think. And my mother has now, she is better, but she has peripheral knowledge, but she does believe in Christ through her full shoulder in Him. But you know that hurts.

You really try and, oh, here comes the preacher. I mean, what's that all about? You know what, sometimes you just have to relax. It's not your job. You know, that's what I, in my family, and more people in my family have come to know ever since I relaxed. You know, because it's not my job. You're not doing the slaying anymore. I'm not doing the slaying anymore. You know, and I have my part. Everybody has a part in it, you know. He may use me for this little part in somebody's life. And he's going to use Mike for this little part, and you for this little part. And I just find that when you realize it's not you, burden's off. You don't care. They'll come to you because of it. And then you say, after you give up trying, that's when they'll start asking you questions.

We were saying that in 17, if anybody is in Christ, pointing out our position, but you jump down there to 19 and it's showing us where God is in Christ, performing this work of reconciliation. Yeah, he was working through Christ. That's pretty amazing. We're in Christ, God's in Christ, and that really focuses on Christ himself. Oh yeah, I mean that's, when you, and that's why I implore you, look at all the in Christ, in hymns, and what that means to you. I mean, yeah, God in Christ, the three parts of the Godhead, you know, we're in Christ, well what does that mean?

Woo, everything but deity, you know, and you look, I look at John 17, and you look at the intimacy between Christ and God the Father, and yet all he does is say, I want the same thing for you. all of us. Man, you know, look at the intimacy expressed there, and we have that same intimacy. He says, I want that same intimacy for them, that is between us, God the Father and God the Son.

Man, just grab a hold of that for a minute. I mean, yeah, those are the things that just absolutely change you. But you want that for the others. That's the hard thing. You want it so badly for them and they just give it to them. But it's not your job. If you feel that and you're employed, yes. But you just have to relax in the fact that God is the one doing it. You remember that God wants them too. Yeah.

You know, that's the hard part is that I had, you know, the more I relaxed with my family, the more they, you know, my sister came to know the Lord. It wasn't me. I mean, I jumped all over my family, but it was another guy that talked to her. And I'm like, you know, I was beating myself up and, you know, trying to do everything I could.

Once I relaxed, he brought somebody else in and she came to know the Lord. You know, he may use you, he may not. And he may use you in a part. It's just you got to realize that it's God doing the work. You have the heart for your family, as all of us do for members who don't. Because you know what it means for them not to be in Christ. Here's this gift that's just waiting to be accepted. And they don't accept it. Why don't you see that? Why don't you understand that?

But it's God and the Holy Spirit convicting them. It's the Holy Spirit convicting them. And you just have to rest in that. And he's in control of these things. He's using the Holy Spirit in the Word, and other people, and you. I'm much more relaxed in these things because it's not up to me. I'm to be available for him, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit to be used, but it's not my job. We are really going to be... Question a week. Yeah. Well, we got to. We got to. Do you want me to try and finish next week or you want to. OK. Yeah. So well, actually, we have a question set nine. So. We'll pass out nine.

If I can get well, that means probably two more weeks if we get through two questions at a time. Next week, we won't get off on the heart issue. If you have any more thoughts about that, I'm curious about that. That was a good question by Carol. We will finish up eight next week. And then if I finish, then we'll tag team and have Mike do nine. So read chapter nine on propitiation, and then look at the questions for Mike. All right, why don't we close? Right there. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you just for this time, Father.

I thank you just for what all this means. Reconciliation and also just a change of heart and what that means in individuals. Thank you for just the Holy Spirit who does convict us. And Father, just what it means to be in Christ. And Father, just that through us we will be ambassadors for your son.

Father, we thank you for all that you do moment by moment. We thank you that we just rest, and we operate from a position of rest. And we thank you for just what peace that you provide, and as you said in your scripture, that surpasses all understanding. Father, as the turmoil of the world goes on, and all the different circumstances, we can have that peace that surpasses all understanding, just knowing that you're in control. And Father, that we just rest in Him. And Father, we just thank you again just for this time to study your Word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.