Deeds of the Flesh

Galatians 5, 19-21, Deeds of the Flesh. Not good, not bad. I don't know if, Roger, you assign me to this because you wanted an expert witness. Oh yeah, okay. No, no. I think we all can... And then the good guy next Well, you're in luck, because I'm the man. You get the deeds of the flesh. I couldn't handle this one. Yeah, you've never encountered them.

So, after the Galatians are commanded to stand fast, therefore the liberty which Christ made them free, Paul tells them in 5.1, He anticipates what the legalists are going to say. Well, if they're free from the law, they're under grace, they're going to go hog wild. What's to stop you from sinning and taking out all these fleshly passions in your life?

So, he goes on and reminds them which he had been doing since Chapter 3 about the indwelling Holy Spirit. the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and they are to walk by the Spirit in verse 16 of chapter 5. But now he must define the deeds of the flesh, what the deeds of the flesh are. And that's the bad news for today. Next week is good news, where we contrast those to the fruit of the Spirit. So here's 19. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident. immorality, impurity, sensuality, adultery, sorcery, empty strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.

And the list goes on, right? Yes, it moves on, right? So, deeds is aragon in the Greek, Note that, that's plural, I think I have that right, right? Right, that's plural. And then the fruit of the spirit, we've been told many times, is singular. Right. And some, I've been lazy in the past of saying it's this fruit of the, the bad things are fruit too, and the fruit of the spirit comparing fruit to fruit, but that's not correct. They're deeds of the flesh and fruit of the spirit. So if I've ever said that in the past, I apologize for that.

So for the flesh to do Aragon is to work, or it's labor. It's labor that produces a product, just like you'd think in business. What do we get paid if we engage in this enterprise of 1920 and 21? What's the pay you get, the paycheck? The wages of sin are death. So if you engage in those, death will come. So sin is the wages one earns.

In Romans 6.23, Aragon too is characterized, I found this interesting, it's an enterprise, it's even art or industry.

So think about that, you can make an art out of that list. An industry. We do. You can get really good at it, right? Is kind of what it says. Think about the golden calf. So they were doing Aragon, their industry, their art was making this golden calf. And that was, that was, and, oh, and that was, probably came out really nice too, right? Very beautiful, a golden calf. And that's where we get our work, ergonomics. Oh, yeah, okay. Which is, is that movement though? Something, or, yes, it's something like, yeah. What is that when you sit at a desk and, There is, yeah, okay.

That's cool. So, and these Aragons' deeds are evident, so they're outwardly present, openly known, or made plain. That's our word for evident. And then someone else said, I forgot who it was, that these 15 things, only the Holy Spirit could publish these, only he knows these things. Here they are.

We're going to do a taxonomy of the decent flesh, a scientific word. And if you remember in school, taxonomy is classing things, order. genus, species. So, and I know a lot of Merriman and everyone, Mike and you, have classified these. So, the first group is sexual sins, immorality and impurity, sensuality, That's the taxonomy of those. The religious class is idolatry, sorcery. The societal class, so deeds of flesh that affect society. are these empty strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger. So you can see where these fall into these categories and who they affect, right? These sins, these deeds.

So on with the societal, there's disputes, dissensions, just from the verse 19 through 21 here, ending factions, And then there's addictions and excesses. So those are drunkenness and carousing. So yeah, many commentators. And Verne, everyone kind of groups these into these four, I don't know if they're kingdoms or phylums I like this, Merriman in his commentary, what happened in the King James.

So, he calls those sensual passions, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, then religious passions, idolatry and witchcraft. By the way, witchcraft, does anyone know the Greek word for that? Pharmakaia? Yes. Pharmacy, right? Yeah, so it's...

And I was thinking, why is witchcraft How about drug addiction? Shakespeare, there's three witches, right? They're at a big cauldron and they're mixing and they're putting in rat's tails and they're making curses or spells, right? in Shakespeare, and they're witches, and they're doing this pharmacological kind of thing, so that makes sense. So, destructive passions, he calls it, hatreds, variances, and these are Old Testament terms, emulations, wraths, strife, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, hedonistic passions, drunkenness, and revelings.

Yeah, and I have a problem with the revelings because the other week, up in Telluride, for a fundraiser for our choral society, we had a line dancing thing. So we learned a line dance. And it was like reveling. I don't know if that counted, but it raised money for us. And it was fun. It was sort of like learning these group dances. It was pretty fun. So there they are, the Deeds of Flesh. But it goes on if you really wanted to. Why don't you tell them the origin of this? It was at Harry Schaeffer.

Actually, there's a verse for each one of these. Oh, okay, yeah. He just went through and found everything in the Bible that had this list. If that's not enough for you... There's a page, too. I mean, yeah, the flesh is just a very active man, your old man. Now, these two in the middle, where I highlighted, a lot of these are from our verses today. But only those two sort of correlate, and the rest aren't really in there. It's amazing. It just goes on. You can see it.

What if these were, remember the Star Wars, where it's scrolling? at the beginning. Imagine if this list was scrolling. You'd be there for two hours. So on the right there's desires. People have desires to be popular and there's a whole bunch of stuff in there. It's just really amazing. So the deeds of flesh.

I think my dad and you, Roger, as... Do you see any of these that you personally identify with? OK, thanks. Or it's best a wife should fill out a list of what she recognizes. Or the husband should recognize. Yeah. Probably not. Score them. Probably not. That wouldn't be the recipe for a happy marriage. No, it wouldn't. It would be a lot easier if I checked off what I didn't identify with.

Yeah, they're very recognizable, right? But some aren't. Thank the Lord. Some aren't. Well, society, you just look at the news and you see these things every day, right? You don't even have scams on here. Scams. Scams. Scamming. Yeah. And that would probably fall under lust for, oh, it's got to be excess power. It's in there somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. OK. It's just, oh, it's bad, isn't it? Takes advantage.

And in a lot of other classes they would break down some of the sins and go into those. I won't do that this morning because we have to move on. spend too much time because that would be where our focus is, I guess. What it makes me think of is how great grace is. Right, yeah, you look at this list and then you think of what Christ did on the cross to remove these. And what he continues to do, right? Yeah, yeah, forever and on into eternity. It's humbling.

So, we'll move on from the list of deeds of the flesh, Aragon. So Paul goes on to say in 21, of which I forewarn you, just as I have in the past forewarned you, that those who practice such things the bad list, will not inherit the kingdom of God. So that's a big finish to the section because in the next verse, he moves on to the fruit of the spirit. So this is an often overlooked postscript will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And I would have just blown past, kind of said, oh yeah, that makes sense. But thanks to Bob, he gave a warning a couple, a week and a half ago or so, two weeks ago, that was coming up. And I was like, whoa, okay, that's a big, That's a big phrase. So we're going to look at it, and no one else has really looked at it, I don't think, in detail in classes past at Holly Hills. So we'll spend our time there this morning. So it's a loaded phrase.

It's sandwiched between the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. These are two exceptional doctrines. Number one, the flesh versus spirit and the war. between them, and the other doctrine is walking by the means of the Holy Spirit to cast off that flesh. And that's what he pauses in verse 24.

And it correlates to Colossians 2.11, that circumcision of the flesh, you are circumcised with circumcision made without hands. In the removal of the body of the flesh, So that's good news. May I ask a question? Yeah.

For me, to contrast or understand the deeds of the flesh versus the deeds of the spirit, in my mind I'm saying, if you take the sum whole of all the deeds of the flesh, what would you call that individual? Well, first you get a novel. Oh, what would you call that? If you saw somebody that just had all of those emotions, what would you say about that person, as opposed to someone who has the deeds of the Spirit? Of the Spirit, yeah. I would say, first, they would...

Well, it's obvious, an unbeliever, but then if they're a believer, they're a carnal believer. There's spiritual believers and carnal believers. So if it's a believer, carnal, and if it's a non-believer, just a politician, yeah, a regular guy. Anyone else, right?

Yeah, yeah. Couldn't we say then that all of the beads of the flesh, the total sum of all of those equals an unsanitized person? As we discovered that believers identify with some of those or all of those. All of those, yeah. So it can because we all have...

So it could have referenced the whole of believers, but when it comes to believers, it's those believers who are trying to live their life under their own power. Yeah, and that's going to lead, that power is going to lead you to... The thought I was trying to come up with is... Living in those things. If a believer indulges in the deeds of the flesh, does that mean he's no longer a Christian or a saint or not? A saint or what? That's what I'm trying to make of that statement. Yeah, that's a good... but hold the thought, because I think we'll get there, because that's the whole kind of... quandary of today, I would say. But first, it's a wonderful truth, a wonderful reality that these diesel flesh, and they're toxic, and we saw the list, have been dealt with, as we discussed, fully at the cross, by the cross.

So they are not who we are anymore. We're gone from them, right? They're in our past. They're in our past positionally and hopefully. But you know, that's part of the problem is that people who, if they know you're a believer, and they see you doing or saying any of those things, then they go, oh, well, they're not really a believer. They don't understand that yes, we are, but sin is still here and it's going to act out all the time.

It's trying to act out all the time. And it's warring, right? That's right. It's warring against the spirit. So yeah, it's a battle. But we're given the weapon to counteract that by walking in the spirit. I call it a curse, the curse being people who practice these things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Maybe curse is not the right word, but those who make in their body, presently and actively make it their proso, is the Greek word, to practice these things. It's their business enterprise to practice these things, works done continually and repeatedly. And that's where you get into the, well, are these unbelievers or believers? So we're going to look at that. And the natural question arises, do we fall into this horrible category? And we could, because we recognize them.

After he gives the command to the Galatians to keep on standing in the freedom by which Christ made them free, they're free like a caged bird with the door open. They can fly away from the bondage of the law. You remember in chapter four about Hagar and you're under bondage to the law. being a child of Hagar, but you're not that, is it Hagar? Yeah. And then, but you are children of Sarah, children of the promise.

So he, I said this before, but he anticipates this question, this objection, what's to keep them from going hog wild with all these sins without the tether of the law. And he says in verse 13, he gives them a warning, he says, do not use this as a forward base of operations to launch out an all out sinful pleasure boat cruise for the flesh, and give in to all these passions. It's a very serious warning.

So don't do it, and they have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will, and the the way out of this grave situation is to, he says, live by the Spirit, walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, and as present active, continually and habitually, every moment by the controlling power of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit is able to deliver you from the flesh's power, because Spirit is greater than that power. Moreover, there's life-giving good news ahead in verse 24.

They belong to Christ and they've been crucified. It's a possibility of making it their continual enterprise, being a slave to the flesh and its desires. Moreover, they've been crucified and that old man, that fleshly nature is completely done because it's aorist.

So, that's a positional fact. So, they have all these resources that are available. But this hitch arises that I've been looking at and is very interesting, and we've kind of hit on it this morning, is does it correlate And I think it does. Some commentators don't think it does, but does it correlate to 1 Corinthians 6? flesh. But he goes on to say the ones practicing these are, he makes it clear that those are unrighteous. But now you, the Corinthians, are washed and sanctified. So the problem is, is there a correlation between verse 21 of Galatians 5 and this 1st Corinthians 6, 9-11 verse. And it's how you define those.

You see the those up there in verse 21, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Are those believers, those? Or are those others? Are they unbelievers? And so that's the issue. And which is it? And what is the kingdom of God that we won't inherit? And that's a big question. I've been spending a lot of time on it. But here's this verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers and adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers. This is a hard list to get through. Nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Kind of the same to the Corinthians and the Galatians, same sort of concept. And he says in verse 11, such were some of you, but you were washed and you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of God. So it's much more clear with that verse 11 there that they were formerly, now they're they're washed in the blood of Christ, basically.

So he's setting up the former. Just because someone says that. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Quick comment. Those were some of you, but the interpretation in Galatians, in verse 21, is those that we say are practicing these things. Now, this whole issue of practicing, we have human judgment about what this practicing looks like, right? Clearly, Paul is talking to believers in Galatians 5, is he not? Whereas in Corinthians, he's divided this, but we know from the Corinthian church that they're still practicing a lot of these things, even though he said they won't watch. So we've got to make sure we rightly divide the world here. In this little phrase, that's the whole, you've said it in a nutshell.

Andrew? Yeah. Isn't the passage in Galatians, before and after verse 21, we're comparing those who walk in the spirit and those who walk in the flesh. We're not comparing saved and unsaved. Right. We're talking about believers. Right. Those who walk, yeah.

But my point, Corinthians, is that despite the fact they've been washed, their behavior reflects that they are still practicing some of these things. So they're carnal. They're carnal Christians. Wouldn't practicing mean, you know, take a doctor in his practice or a lawyer in their practice? Careful there. They're indulging in it fully and completely and committing themselves to it not as passion, but as lost people."

Could that be a Christian? There's something, I think we talked about this a little, Andrew, or I messaged you about it, the grammatical structure there in, where there's those who practice such things, it's a present, particular, participle. Yeah, okay, yeah, go on. You want me to comment on that? Yeah, comment on that. the present tense verb, and we say this is continual action in the present time.

But when it's a present particular participle, it has the sense of those who are this kind of person. So you might say those who are the fleshly kind of person, you would say the old man. As believers, we can walk according to the flesh, but we are no longer that kind of person like in the first Corinthians 6 passage, such were some of you. You can still walk according to the flesh, but you are no longer this kind of person. Yeah.

I was wondering myself, but I don't have the Greek tool set about the genitive and the dative, and maybe it's clear if you look at it. down to that level. But you can see the two theological options here. One defense of making it a correlating verse to the 1st Corinthians 6 is I just simply skip down to verse 24. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have been crucified, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So that kind of correlates to verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 6, but now you're sanctified. So then it's, those two together now show up. Parallelism, I would say. So I ask myself, are they parallel verses? I'm saying what we've just been discussing in the class.

Are they referring to, is he referring to habitually carnal believers? While 1 Corinthians 6 is talking about both unbelievers and believers. And I just, go into this part here where there is a school of doctrine, mainly from, I think it's Hodges, right, who say inheritance, because they will not inherit the kingdom of God, so they're believers, and if they go on to practice such things, inheritance, while it's positional, and they're saved, there's a conditional aspect to the inheritance of airship with Christ and reigning in the millennial kingdom.

And you have there the kingdom of God in verse 21. So there's, am I making that clear? There's, you can lose your ability to reign with Christ in the kingdom. But Andrew? Based on 21. Yeah. It should be noted According to Ephesians chapter 1, we have an inheritance that Christ has given us in Him at our salvation. which is eternal, we can't lose it no matter what we do. Yes, yes. And did I, oh, I have that in the first bullet point there.

At least Ephesians 1.11 as to this inheritance is positional and it comes with believing on Christ for salvation.

And then the first Peter 1.4, I think that's, what is that? That's, yeah, inheritance, incorruptible, and it's yours, it won't fade away. What about in the Old Testament, when they were first born, received the inheritance, the double portion?

They were still believers, but there was more. Oh, that's a good question. I hadn't thought about that. And the Israelites, when they did what the Lord told them to do, they inherited the land. Got something extra. where you are there, you're in the Old Testament, and it's God's relationship to the Jews, which is a covenant relationship, and yeah, because the Old Testament is always that, can I say that, a carrot, a stick, and God's trying to trying to get them, it's so different.

But yet the word inheritance is used. Yeah, and you could I think the guys here who have this kingdom inheritance view would say that, right? And to make the inheritance a level for a believer today, right? Are you trying to say that we have this guaranteed inheritance, but possibly there's an additional heirship or blessing? that comes with our walk in Christ? I'm not saying that, but this school is saying it, right? Is that? That's what Hodges teaches. Yeah, the Hodges. And is it Shaffer too? Is it Andy Woods as well? Yes. Okay. So yeah, so they teach it. So yes.

So does everyone kind of track that view? a believer not inheriting? We can't lose our salvation. No. What we lose is our fellowship with the Lord and even other believers. That's really what we lose if we go down that road. Yeah, right. But we don't lose our salvation. Right, exactly. That's an assured thing once you're a believer.

Galatians 5.21 says we lose the inheritance So what does that mean? Well, the Kingdom of God can be defined in multiple different ways. Right. Yeah. The Kingdom of God is all of the above, right? Right. And the Kingdom of God is manifested in our daily lives. You could say the Kingdom of God is where Christ is. Wherever He is, there's the Kingdom. It could be millennial Kingdom. It could be this, that, and the other. Eternal Kingdom.

But isn't Galatians 5.21 speaking about a future kingdom, not the kingdom today? Is not the kingdom of God manifested in the believer as he walks by faith? Yes, it is. If you're walking in the flesh, you're not manifesting that kingdom.

But in Galatians 5.21, it speaks of losing something in the future.

Well, that could be this afternoon, right? So you can see how this is, where my mind has been in the last two weeks here, because this is it. But let me take this view here. this presentation, I'm going to agree with, for argument's sake, with the Hodges and the Kingdom Inheritance guys.

Let's assume that's true. That those who practice such things, they're a believer. They will not reign with Christ to the extent who doesn't carry out these deeds of flesh continually, who aren't carnal, okay? So, I'll make that assumption, just like they do. So, here I am, and it'll be me. I'm a believer who's lost in these deeds of flesh. I can't escape it. I can't. I've just gone hog wild. I'm like the guy who shot up that Rhode Island hockey game. Let's say he was at one time a believer. So very bad.

But the test case I think is, the immoral man in 1 Corinthians 5. What does Paul do? He says, remove him from the assembly so that his leaven of evil doesn't spread to the rest of you all for my bad behavior. I could drag you into some of it. So he gets out of the assembly. Then, Paul did this, he gave him over to Satan. He gives such a one over to Satan. Now, I don't know if anyone can do that except Paul, but that's what he did. And then, what does Paul say? his flesh and those deeds would lead to his earthly destruction and Satan would have his way with him.

So think of that being physical death. If you engage in these things, you'll go to prison for many of them. you'll lose your job, you'll lose your husband, your wife, just this downward spiral. My dad had this chart that had a downward spiral, right?

And eventually, you'll take your life. So, in other words, that judgment, is it not from God to give you over to those things? down here on earth, you'll be judged for those things. Now, the man in 1 Corinthians 5, yeah, and he's mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2, 6 through 8, he's restored. Well, Paul commands him to be restored. Imagine that. He's a real bad man. And he's restored to the fellowship.

But what if I'm not? What if I just continue on and I end up just like the guy in Rhode Island? I'll suffer all things here in the flesh here on earth. It'll just be miserable for me. But if I'm living, think of this, I'll be liberated from this flesh.

And Paul says, now I say this to you, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. And that's 1 Corinthians 15, 51 through 53, he says, in the moment of an eye, in the twinkling of an eye, I'm liberated from the deeds of the flesh, and I'm given the perishable and immortal body, same as what the Lord Jesus Christ has. That flesh, that nature is gone, the deeds are gone. So what is that? That's the rapture, isn't it? The liberation of the presence of the And even the physical body is gone. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And that occurs at the rapture. You're in a new heavenly scene at that point.

That man, I'm now together one, perfected with all of you have been raptured. We're all perfected in unity. in the Father. That's our reality now. And think of John 17, 21 through 24, this oneness of the body of Christ. We are his bride in that present moment. Romans 12, 5.

So, we're up there now in the rapture. We've been raptured. There's a Bema seat judgment. Down here on earth, They're going through the tribulation. But for us, it's a marriage with Christ up there in the heavenlies. And we'll be rewarded for our service. The good things we do in the body, in the service of the Lord, are lasting. They're gold, silver, precious stones. The bad or the worthless are burned up and discarded.

And then we, with Him, as a body, as a body together, as his bride return, Revelation 19.14, with him in glory to the earth for 1,000 years. And that's, so there you see I'm arguing their point, that millennial kingdom, We go with him, so wherever he goes, we go. Whatever he desires us to do, we do. If he wants us to judge between the nations or whatever, he's got that figured out, whether we, you know, with the nations down here, the Jewish nation. Yeah, let me defend.

Is that part of the rewards? What are the rewards? The rewards, gold, silver, precious stones of the Bhima. Of the Bhima? Yeah, yeah. What it says, gold, silver, precious stones. You mean I'm going to have a gold bar in my pocket? Yeah, you'll get crowns, and crowns are rewarded, right? You get a hundred crowns. There's seven, seven crowns that are available to you. Oh, so you're saying, are they?

Gold, silver, are they? The precious stones, gold and silver, isn't that illustrative of something? Oh, that's a good question. I don't think we'll actually have gold bars and silver. But there's a lot of gold up there, isn't there? Isn't the eternal depth, New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, gold. Pearl Gates, real Pearl Gates.

I guess what I think and what Hodges would say of those rewards would be the privilege of reigning with Christ. Okay. Yes, and that's the kingdom inheritance view. I think we're all missing the boat here. Multiple verses, but let me just give you a couple. Romans 14, 17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. What's that? That's me. That's you. That's Margaret. That's Heidi. That's all of us.

The kingdom of God is living in each one of us. And if we're living by the flesh, ultimately who cares about the future kingdom? It's now. The kingdom of God is being manifested in the believer. That's the best interpretation in context that you can come up with. Not projecting what the future kingdom is going to be. The Kingdom of God is living in each and every one of us, day in and day out, which is spirit-led, as Paul said, to the Romans. And I have multiple other verses where the Kingdom of God relates to the believer in his or her walk. I think go out and left field someplace. I have a question. I'm just, I'm just raising a different.

Kathy. Kathy. Kathy. Yeah. Um, that a gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble. Isn't that the works that the believer is doing? Right. Divine good or human rubble. Yep. Once done. Things you do for the service and probably not, yeah, because now I'm thinking, what if I get actual hay and stubble? Well, it gets burned up, right? It's burned up, so who cares?

But here's what I think, my summation of it is it is, It is Christ's reign in the millennial kingdom and His eternal kingdom, that's the point. The flesh that now easily besets us ends at the rapture. That's our blessed hope, as the verse says, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. So, after that, the occupation And I'm just putting up reams and reams here of things I think we'll be doing in the Millennial Kingdom.

Jesus shall reign where the sun doth his successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moons shall wax and wane no more. To him shall be endless prayer be made, and praises throng to crown his head. Blessings abound wherever he reigns.

The prisoner leaps to loose his chains. And it just, every creature shall rise and bring peculiar honors to the king. Angels descend with songs again, and earth repeat the loud amen. Behold the lamb. And here's a list for your refrigerator. He fills the throne above. It fills without song, the object of the Father's love.

You know, so all this, I think this is where we're going to be at in the kingdom. The millennial kingdom will be a body with him. will be here, but if he goes back to heaven, we go with him. And you can read through all these. And it's all by grace, free grace, which bounds us to the road till we behold the Savior's face and the city of our God. Those are... Yeah. If we're talking about the eternal kingdom that we're all a part of right now, That means that if I, as a believer, continually walk according to the flesh, then I'm not part of that kingdom anymore.

According to Galatians 5.21. Yeah, but that would be taking one verse, one verse out of a whole body of truth, right? And making a theology of it.

Right. Well, that's what we're doing with all these scenarios. Right. I think this in context here, Paul is talking to believers. It's very clear throughout the whole letter of Galatians. These are Christians. Yeah. He's right. Down in verse 24, he says, those who belong to Christ. He owns you. You belong to him. Yeah. That's not changing. Never going to change. He'll never let go of you. Right? Yeah.

So what is his warning to them? in verse 20 and 21. I take this as he's telling them, don't walk in these things, because these are the deeds of those who will not inherit the kingdom. Not the deeds of the leader. You can, you may, otherwise you wouldn't have to warn them about that. But this isn't who you are in Christ. Right, yeah. And I see it that way. But the other option they They bring out some scripture, and I reference it in that one chart. And it's, yeah, it's an option.

Was it your dad who said, and I'm trying to remember who said this, that all believers are going to inherit the kingdom, we're going to be with the Lord. But those who actually walked in the Spirit here, will have a closer connection to him up there. And those who didn't, they're there, but they're way away. I mean, they're not right there with the Lord, I mean like right next to Him. So their inheritance will be more so. But they still are there. Yeah, oh yeah. And that's what we all agree with. They're still there.

It's just we're wondering about what we'll be doing up there and what we will have. We're still all going to be praising the Lord, I think, no matter where you are. But some will be closer. to the Lord. Mike Doyle has said, the closer you are to the Lord here on earth, the closer you're going to be to Him in heaven. But we're still all there.

Yeah, right. That's the thing. No matter how you're living here, even though we know what we, quote unquote, have been promised, but some people still are carnal. I don't, yeah, I don't know. Because they're dead spiritually. Everyone is making up. They are, but they don't lose their salvation.

Everyone is projecting what you know here and what's sort of unclear to what you'll be doing there. And it's, it's, I don't know if you can say, it might be that some people, they're going to have eternity, trillions of years to come to know. Maybe you start out further, closer to enjoying it right there when you're raptured. Some people won't, some people will wonder where they're at, right? And they'll have to come along. Maybe we should tell the rest of the church that we're not going to be in the morning service because... We're going to have to. We've got to stop.

Yeah. One more question. Just one comment. That just strikes me as being works-based. It does. That's the problem. Do we work harder to get a better position in the kingdom? Is that what we're about? Right. There you have the conundrum. You see it? It's good to go through this because I've grown a lot in this little study. Who knew? I thought I was just going to come here and present the deeds of flesh.

Ten minutes and then I go to the donut. You better hurry to get your for your your word which is so rich and just unfathomable and that we can't grasp it all at once here on earth, and we just depend on you to show us these things. Some of them are hard to understand, some are very easy, and it's just so much there that you've done. Your works are just everlasting. We thank you that we're in Christ, in Jesus' name, amen.