Bible Backgrounds/Church History 2012

Just a little note, last week's handout is dated the prior week, so if that confuses you, it's because we had previously planned for Randy to teach in here, and he got sick at the last minute, and the copies were made anyway. So anyway, it says the 16th, but it's last week's study.

Today we'll be looking at spiritual growth teachings and it's real interesting what the pattern throughout church history is. We say the history of spiritual growth teachings and there was a time when such a thing just almost didn't exist, surprisingly. So we'll walk through church history on that topic.

I've never seen that picture before. I've never been to Jerusalem, but I've done all kinds of reading and studying and all that kind of thing. Real interesting, this area in here is the city of David. in here, right about in that location. That's been excavated, you know, starting in around the 1970s.

Here is the temple platform, which was actually not constructed until the time of Herod the Great, who wasn't so great. Prior to that, this was just sort of a rise. They called it a mount, but it really wasn't a mount like anything we'd know of. It was simply a rise.

This is the Dome of the Rock in here, which is either on the location or very close to the location of the two temples that were Jewish temples. So exactly how that will be handled when there is the building of the Tribulation era temple remains to be seen. This wall here was reconstructed because it had been, you know, damaged under Roman attack, reconstructed during the 1400s.

And this eastern gate was previously open. That is the gate. It's believed where Jesus rode through when he rode the donkey. came down from the Mount of Olives across a bridge through the Eastern Gate. That Eastern Gate there is where Jesus will come through again. The Muslims in 1400s heard that the Jewish Messiah would come through that gate, and so they blocked it off, as if that's going to stop Jesus, right? And they put Muslim graves in front of it, as if that's going to help. Right? Okay. So at any rate, yeah, it's a fascinating thing.

Other parts of the city have other walls of different dates and ages, and some of those have been fairly well identified. So, Dr. Leon Rittmeier is probably the world's foremost expert on, excuse me, foremost expert on the archaeology of this Temple Mount area. Mapping things that are underneath the ground, things that were there from different times, etc. But yeah, fascinating picture. It's a panorama picture of Jerusalem and a very critical wall, a wall that will have a prophetic future because of Jesus going through the gate, because of the tribulation period time when there will be a battle in this valley, a huge battle. There will be a new temple reconstructed on this Temple Mount. So this is a very significant place historically and prophetically.

Okay, spiritual growth was not a well-developed concept until later in the history of the church. The Apostles certainly wrote about it and taught about it. The Apostles taught about spiritual growth as applied to the church body and to individuals. We'll take a look at some of those passages briefly. Deviations from scripture and the understanding of salvation and spiritual growth cause the subject of spiritual growth to be lost in chronic misunderstanding for centuries. If you don't understand salvation clearly, then there is a problem with spiritual growth. Even the concept of grace. Do I grow because I have to work towards earning my growth? or do I grow entirely by grace?

That's a big question that the church frankly did not have well settled. In terms of church history, and this is something you have on your handout and I think it's really big, Canon of the New Testament was an earlier issue, the character of the Godhead What's the character of man? And then finally, it wasn't until about the year 1100 that somebody wrote in any continuously maintained and restored way about what's the gospel, which may seem surprising to us. The Bible is pretty clear on it. But it wasn't a settled issue in church history until about the year 1100.

Authority, you know, is the church dictating what's authoritative through a church structure, or is it the Bible? So that's the Reformation-era issue. Salvation. Am I saved by grace through faith, or am I saved by a saving church? Big issue during the Reformation. And then what is the church? Last things and spiritual growth were some of the last things to really be addressed in any large way. Not because the Bible left them at issue, but because the church was preoccupied with other things. So anyway, this is an important outline of what issues and topics came up over time. Looking at the apostolic era, We look at Romans 8, 28 and 29.

We know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God. And of course, this defines what the good is. To those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.

There is a process going on now as we walk this earth. You wonder why, why doesn't the Lord just take me home? You know, just get this thing over with. because there's a conforming process going on, and God is in the process of working all things together for that good, the conforming to the image of his Son. Yes? Does that mean that when he takes someone home, when someone does die and go home?

I think the way to look at it, because there's a lot of people you look at and say, boy, that guy may be a believer, but there's a lot to be desired in the way they live. Ultimately what happens, God does conform us to the image of his son when we walk through heaven's gates. It's not necessarily because the process is completed, but the process that is going on here is something that God intends. for believers, and it happens to varying degrees of different believers. You may have a believer who's going to go through heaven's gates, but he's got not much to show for it. Is he ultimately conformed? Yes. But has he been really conformed as a process? It may be not the case. Yeah.

Well, and I think that's something, you bring up a very good point, and that is the Lord knows things that we don't. I mean, we could look at somebody and say, boy, it sure would be nice, and we may even be, I don't know, Nancy and I have prayed for people, you know, okay, this person's a Christian, but doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

You know, we studied Romans 7, the last part of it, you know, where here's people just stuck in a loop of legalism. And that just doesn't get anybody anywhere. The legalism doesn't help. And frankly, that's most of Christendom. But, that having been said, the Lord knows where someone's heart is. The Lord knows what their future might be.

We can't do that. We can't judge that, right? We certainly know what Scripture calls for, but we do not have the insight and understanding that God Himself does. And so it's a good thing I don't decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell and when people go home.

Right? Yes? So is there like conformed, more conformed, and most conformed? I want to think, and this is ultimately something, I mean we can look at someone and say, well you know that person appears spiritually mature, but ultimately these things are something that God judges. After all, He's the one that works all things together for good, right? The truth is, are there things that happen in our lives that we would say, boy, I sure wouldn't sign up for that, right?

Yeah. Pardon? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but those are things that we at least theoretically would have had some control over. Sometimes there are things that happen in life, we'd look at it and say, looking back on it, would you sign up for that? Well, probably not.

But the Lord is the one who works all things, no exceptions, who works all things together for the good that we are conformed to the image of His Son. And by the way, who gets conformed to the image of His Son? Those who love God. You see, so here's the thing. It's possible that I go around just being mad at God. Does it mean I'm not saved? No. But it means that the conforming process may in fact get frustrated. Anyway, we're getting held back here.

Here's another one, 2 Corinthians 3.18.

In addition to being conformed, there's a process of being transformed. Two different parallel processes, both of which God has a personal and deliberate involvement in, but they are different processes, but towards the same end. Isn't that interesting? We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. The transformation is a work of the Holy Spirit. So here you have, on the one hand, God is using circumstances, working all things together for good, that we be conformed. Here Beholding as in a mirror, there are three times mirrors are referenced, and it's the Word of God. That's out of the book of James. There's a clear revelation on that. By the way, both letters to the church at Corinth talk about mirrors. And it's because Corinth was famous for its mirrors, right?

So anyway, here is a transforming process. It's a different process, but towards the same end. Isn't that interesting? being transformed or being conformed to the image of Christ is something that God has two different processes in place for us. That's why we're not done here. It's why we're not done here. Even more Apostolic teaching. Here's the Apostle Paul.

Philippians 3, 8-11, more than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of a few things, all things, and count them but rubbish, and that may be a polite translation, so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead."

He talks there about a process. He talks there about what's valuable. He talks about this is aimed towards when life is done. There's a process going on now that's aimed towards when this life is over. That's individual because he knows he keeps talking about I, and of course that same thing applies to each of us individually.

Yes? I always have a problem with that, may attain, because it makes it sound like it's conditional. Yes. There are various places where the language of the New Testament is carried across in ways that I would prefer were more definite. For example, use of the word if. If, and the Greek has a structure if and it's assumed to be true, right?

And this may or might doesn't mean possibility, it means accommodating this future thing as a certainty, not as it might happen and it might not. It's not subjective and it's also not possibility-oriented. It's talking about in order that. In order that. And I think it's talking about provision for something to happen, not the possibility that it will happen.

And that's language like may, might, if, frequently gets misunderstood. Yeah? Looks like ahead of that word may, those two phrases ahead of it, It seems like the word may is building based on those developments. Yes, yes. You're right, that word building is a good one. But this isn't to be looked at as a bunch of possibility thinking. You know, this isn't statistical analysis and possibilities. This is talking about provision for certainty. May and might are not intended to convey just possibilities.

Here's apostolic teaching on spiritual growth of the body of believers together. Here's Ephesians 4. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith And those definite articles are meant to be there. And of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. This passage here talks about not just individual growth, which is certainly something that scripture teaches, but growth as a church body.

I think that's something for Christians to keep in mind. Growth individually is God-intended, and growth as a church body is God-intended. God intends both. Both of those things. Here's apostolic teaching on spiritual growth from 1 Peter. Real interesting, Peter uses similar words but uses them in a progression.

1 Peter 2.2, like newborn babes long for, and that's an active imperative. Imperative means you must do it and active means you take a part in it. It's not just something you receive.

The pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation and then the last verse of 2nd Peter but grow and that in this verse is an active imperative in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. So spiritual growth is not only given as an imperative in which the believer has an active part, but the means of that growth is also given.

Yes? So is there a level of maturation that you attain here that's more or less locked in when you get to heaven? Good question. Are you saying that someone is ultimately mature here? No, I'm saying you can't ever be ultimately here, relative to the world you describe, but it's saying there that you may grow, so what's the purpose other than the fact that if you're maturing here and becoming a more mature individual, and then you die, I mean, it must be related to your position in heaven as well later, right?

A couple of things. One is to the extent that we grow and are mature here, that we are more useful here. That's part one. Part two is as we grow and mature here, there is also a church body function where the church body is more useful. Third part, to the extent that that is carried over as something rewardable in eternity, there is reward for living out that growth and maturity eternally.

Maturity is not perfecting the old Adam we know. Absolutely not. It is not maturing in Adam. Yeah. It is trusting and abiding in him. Abiding, trusting in him who is already. As long as we are staying in that trusting mode, then we are maturing. Yes. In our knowledge of what we already have. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Absolutely not. And matter of fact, one of the things we'll be looking at in the next service here is God condemns the sin nature. Doesn't try to do anything to fix it. It's terminal. Sin nature is terminal. Nothing to get fixed there. There's no improving of it. Yes, you got that right. Yes. I kind of brought that up because you see so many people that They use it for life insurance, so to speak, as the common vernacular is.

So long as I'm saved, what do I have to worry about? There's the works of service that it talks about in Ephesians, and your maturation, the things that you're supposed to live out by faith. But still, you're supposed to live them out and not stop at some point and say, well, I've done this, so I'm going to do that. For a good percentage of Christendom, Maturity is not understood at all and basically it's if we get them saved, that's it, you know And and whole churches can embrace that idea where everything's about getting saved and that's all Do you need to be saved?

Oh boy. Yeah however maturing is also something that God intends for the individual and as a church body and the The thing that is possible is for someone to be saved but have nothing as they walk through heaven's gates to show for it. 1 Corinthians 3, 10-15 is one where it talks about rewards for believers and also loss of reward, things that are just burned away, wood, hay and stubble. And the way we jokingly say it is some people will walk through heaven's gates naked and smoking.

Because everything will be burned away, they will have nothing to show for it. Will they be saved eternally? Yes. But there will be no reward at all, even though they're saved eternally. Many Christians get those two things confused. Many Christians get those two things confused. It's not you're earning your salvation or anything of the sort, but there is reward or loss of reward. And it's not what you do, it's what God does through you.

Ultimately, our growth spiritually is connected to being crucified, buried, raised, ascended and seated in Christ. And it is understanding and living out those things that are central to our spiritual growth. Okay, let's look at the apostolic era up until the time Christianity was made legal, Roman persecution time. The understanding of salvation became distorted so quickly after the end of the New Testament era that the understanding of spiritual growth also became quickly distorted. Why does distorting salvation also distort spiritual growth?

Okay, and that's right now, right? Growing right now in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I don't understand my salvation initially, and frequently what that means is that I'm somehow responsible for staying saved, right? And so instead of focusing on growing spiritually, I'm focusing on staying saved. And a good portion of Christendom is still embracing that, you know, I got to work to stay saved mode. Yeah. It's kind of like not getting out of the starting blocks on the race. Yes. Yeah, that's right. You know, how are you going to finish this thing if you don't get started? Yeah, good, good point. Good analogy.

So once the means of salvation deviated from simple faith in the gospel, spiritual growth became swallowed up in meriting one's own salvation through the church. By 220 AD, baptism was seen as spiritually effective. By 220 AD, the Lord's Table was seen as gaining merit. You gained spiritual merit as you took the Lord's Table. That polluted the idea of spiritual growth. Starting 312 to 590. 312 was a time Christianity was made legal in the western part of the Roman Empire. 590 was the beginning of Pope Gregory the Great.

Not so great, in my opinion. Spiritual growth came to be seen as the focal point of the pendulum swing in each time period. You have a supplement, I think it's at the end, that shows this kind of pendulum swing back and forth. It's a generalization, but I think it's constructive to some degree. So, there was also in this time from the 2nd, or rather the 3rd to the 7th centuries particularly, When asceticism and denial of the body was most prominent, what do I mean by asceticism? It's things like, you know, we're going to go on a fast. We can't own this or that. You know, we're going to treat the body severely. I'm going to take a vow not to talk to anybody for a year.

Yes? Where do you think the pendulum might shift to after that? How relative is it? If you look at it, there is huge diversity in Christianity, even right now, in terms of people being charismatic, a real intellectual, or that sort of thing. I'm not sure that I have some kind of an idea as to where it's going to swing next. We've certainly been through a Pentecostal and charismatic swing. Statistics in 1970, 10% of Christians called themselves charismatic. By 1995, the number was 60%. OK, yes.

Well, I would think that if depending on how close we are, you could definitely say that the next step on that pendulum swing would be one world order and the world being at an intellectual paradigm state that they can create. the religion for the world. I think another possibility is, biblically, we are as close as seven years away from the Lord's second coming.

And that cuts off the whole pendulum swing. This is essentially worldliness impacting the church. And that gets ended when Christ comes again. We showed this last week. Basically, it's two extremes. Salvation is totally and causally of God, or the other extreme, salvation is totally and causally of man.

Now, from 590, the time of Gregory the Great up until the beginning of the Reformation, approximately a thousand years, last week we showed this Roman Catholic plan of salvation. And if you didn't see that, feel free to take a look at that. Pretty complex flowchart. Right here is what I'd like to take a look at.

Basically, the Roman Catholic model says that it doesn't focus on spiritual growth. It focuses on accumulation of merit. And this is the cycle, according to Roman Catholicism, that brings about an accumulation of merit. If you have excess merit, then you won't spend any time in purgatory. Such as Mother Teresa, so they say. If you have a deficiency of merit, then you'll have to spend time in purgatory. Bev's shaking her head. What's that? I said that, you know, that's hard to believe.

I just heard that the panhandlers like to hang out around Catholic churches on Sunday because they get really good money there because of their Catholic support. The whole merit thing, in other words, what brings merit, and of course the primary part, what you see in this model, is taking the wafer, you know, and according to the Catholic model, that's Jesus in there. Boy, you get some Jesus in you when you eat that wafer. So, that's the model.

Now, from the Reformation up to 1648, remember Reformation starting in 1517, 1648 being the Treaty or Peace of Westphalia, the end of the Thirty Years War. The Reformation, the Reformers addressed the issues of salvation and authority, but still kept believers under the rule of law.

Why does being under the rule of law cause an obstacle to spiritual growth. What's the problem with law and growth? What does law stimulate? The flesh, the sin nature. Does that help you grow? No. So putting law in place, as the reformers just about universally did, putting law in place, as this is the rule of life, means that spiritual growth gets put to the side.

There isn't any such thing. So the law in place nullifies grace. There we go. Yeah. You end up doing, boy, this is all self-effort. This is a ministry of condemnation. This is a ministry of death. It's not growth. Not growth. Since the law is a ministry of death, 2 Corinthians 3.7, and a curse, Galatians 3.10-14, there was little given with which to grow spiritually. So basically it's, you know, we're saved by grace through faith, and other than that, run for your life. Right? Because spiritual growth is not a part of the picture.

The Heidelberg Catechism, which is a Calvinistic catechism, What's the law of the Lord is one of the questions there. The answer, God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it goes on and starts the Ten Commandments. Yeah, Tom?

There's actually a German song, a folk song, that says, I lost my heart in Heidelberg. And it talked about the war, because it was a romance during college years. It's just the wrong kind of romance here. Yeah, basically it just points to the Ten Commandments.

When biblically, as we saw in Romans 7 last week, last Sunday, what does Paul do to give us his example of O wretched man that I am? What did he do? He just tried to follow one. Just one of the Ten Commandments. And he's a wretched man. And who saves Paul from being that wretched man? Christ saves him from the agony and the wretchedness of trying to follow even one law. Just one. That's all it takes.

Here's the Westminster Confession, rather than being on the main continent of Europe, this is in Britain. This law after his, that is, Adam's fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness. Oh boy. And as such was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments and written in two tablets. The first four commandments contain our duty toward God, our duty, not Israel's, our duty toward God, and the other six our duty to man. So this Westminster Confession, completely legal again. They didn't see beyond it. If you've got law in place, no growth. no growth. Wretchedness, have plenty of wretchedness, no growth. Now, from 1648 to the present, we're going to have to go through this fairly quickly because we're short on time here.

The Wesleyan Perfectionism. John Wesley was a guy, you know it's funny, a lot of these people tried to reform something, it rarely works. He tried to reform Anglican teaching and practice in theology. He established what's called Methodism. The break off from that is the Nazarenes, holiness churches, and actually the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches have their root in the Methodist church and Wesleyanism.

The idea is a believer first believes and then is saved and he has two natures. He has the new nature and the sin nature. To get rid of the sin nature, you have to have some kind of a second worth of grace, total surrender, second blessing, something of that sort. That gets rid of, according to the theology, the sin nature. And then you don't sin anymore. So that's the teaching there. So the question, does a believer have one nature or two? This is a part of your handout there on page four. This is the long-term idea.

Two natures teaching has extended throughout church history. This Wesleyan second blessing one nature-ism is something far more recent. And then the idea that a believer loses his sin nature at The time he is saved, the time he believes is quite recent, in fact, since World War II. Since World War II.

Here is the Keswick teaching, which is similar to the Wesleyan teaching, is that you have this conversion, accept Christ, and then you have this inward rest and outward victory at the point of total surrender, and then you have a victorious Christian life. That's similar to the second blessing idea of the Wesley and Methodist teaching. Next one, Pentecostal perfectionism, since that actually came from the Wesleyan and Methodist roots, conversion, faith in Christ, and then there's the second blessing, gift of tongues, evidencing the Holy Spirit, and then there's perfect love towards God and man, Christian perfection. That's a similar teaching to the Methodist teaching, only it requires gift of tongues under the Pentecostal model.

Reformed sanctification is once you are saved and accept Christ as not only Savior, but this is particularly a MacArthur statement, Savior and Lord at the outset. Otherwise you're not saved. Savior and Lord. Then you continue to grow from that point in time. You are Saved, but you accept Christ as your Savior and Lord at that moment, otherwise you're not saved.

That's the teaching. Lordship salvation is one of the terms you may have heard. Experiencing God, a book that was a couple decades old by now, but very legal. In the following passages, and he quotes Deuteronomy several times, He says the commands are for our own good.

In other words, he doesn't understand that it's for Israel. They are your life. Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 says that the commands are a ministry of death, not life. He is quite mistaken. Page 249, God gave the Ten Commandments. Are you obeying? God gave the Ten Commandments, and if you're not obeying, that's a ministry of death and condemnation. Welcome to the ministry, right? So anyway, quite far off the track, quite far off the track, unenlightened, quite contrary to these passages here that said we've died to the law, the ministry of death engraved on stones, the stones written, you know, there that Moses brought down from the mountain. a ministry of death.

Here is a Schaeferian, that is Lewis Barry Schaefer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary. He died in 1952, the year I was born. John Walvoord, whom I have met, went to his house a couple times. Charles Ryrie, whom I've met. They taught this idea that you are saved by faith and there's that conversion at the time you make Christ Lord which might happen then, but might happen later, then there is progressive spiritual growth. And they teach two natures. So that's the model taught by these fellows. Ryrie is the only one of these three that's alive, so far as I'm aware. And then, so you end up having this one or two natures issue be a big one.

Questions? Okay, yeah. Yeah, I thought he was at Mesa Hills. Okay. When? Many years ago. Okay. He died about 2003. It was 2001, I went to his house a couple of times. But about 2003. The end of the 90s, I think. Yeah, he was still alive at that point in time.

Yes. Real quick, because I don't know, what's the air in this shape here? Is there an error in that? Here's the deal. There was an understanding of kind of once for all. There was actually kind of an error in Greek grammar. They had this kind of once for all idea that you make Christ Lord once for all and that somehow does something. The reality is it's a moment by moment walk with the Lord. And let me see, I think we'll get there pretty soon.

Some two-nature reformed teachers, that is the reformed teachers from John Calvin on to modern times, have had a number of two-nature, that is, you have a new nature and a sin nature. The sin nature is of course terminal, but the two-nature teachings has a long history among the reformed people, although now the tendency is to look at the believer having no sin nature. And then this shows the history, and one of the points being that it's at the end of World War II where the idea that the believer has no sin nature got introduced, and how that tracks. Here is the pattern on the top, largely through seminaries, and here is the pattern that ended up impacting churches and a lot of counseling ministries.

But very interesting, Charles Stanley, whom I'm sure many of you have heard of, taught one nature for a number of years and recently changed back. So fascinating. John Nelson Darby was the one who taught identification truths and taught those clearly and brought those out, that we've been crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated with Christ. That's not one of your slides because it's a little tough to reproduce, but nonetheless, that's the teaching.

You have this pattern here. Let me explain this chart. For the person who says that the believer does not have a sin nature, the question is, then why do believers sin? Where does that sin that comes from believers come from? Yeah, who's doing the dancing? And that's a very important question because the answer to that question ends up deciding where people are coming from. Yes?

Well, Fletch Wilson answered that. He said the devil made them. Well, and that's the charismatic answer is Satan and the demons. The charismatic answer is, well, I just need to find Satan. I just need to go and map the demons. I had one gal of a charismatic background when I was back doing engineering saying, do you have a map of Carson City? I said, yeah, what do you need it for? She said, well, we need to map the demons. Oh boy. I'm not sure how much I wanted to help her.

But anyway, then there's also the psychological issue that those who are really into counseling psychology, well the problem is you just need more counseling. That's why you sin is you just need more counseling. And then the reformed approach is that they typically put it to habits. Residual humanness. remaining humanness, or you've got habits, or something of that sort. And then the answer with, you just need a second blessing.

So there's all these different answers as to why the believer still sins. The problem is they're inadequate. And so that's what this chart shows in the third column, is here's the answer to your problem, depending on how you decide that believers still sin. Now, here is what we believe scripture actually says, that the believer does have, in fact, two natures. The unbeliever does not. The believer does, in fact, have two natures.

We can, as we'll see in this morning's passage, walk in the flesh, or we can walk in the spirit. And as we walk in the spirit, there is, during those times, spiritual growth. That's what we picture here as this kind of rising arrow. Progressive spiritual growth. As we walk in the Lord, as we walk in the Spirit, then there is spiritual growth.

It is not a matter of trying really hard to be a good Christian. It's not a matter of living for Christ. There's a song I was thinking of yesterday, you know, only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. You ever heard that? Bad teaching. Only one life will soon be passed. Truth?

Only what's done by Christ will last. Very, very different message. It's not what I do for Him, it's what He does through me. It is only those times when He is living in and through me that I have this opportunity for growth. My best efforts for Christ do nothing. They are not rewardable in eternity. They are not rewardable in eternity, but His work through me is. Only when life will soon be past, only what's done by Christ will last. Big difference. Big difference. Trusting in Christ, having fellowship with Him, depending upon Him, that's what He wants.

He has prepared the good works that we might walk in them, but that walk is all of His doing and not ours. His life in and through me. That's why we've, on the last verse of the old rugged cross, you know, demands my, you know, all, and no, demands His all. His life. Not my life. His. I got crucified. I'm done. Okay? I'm done. Okay?

Let's pray. Lord, thank You as we look at this, You have in fact revealed what is true. And though much of Christendom, even many Christians who are saved, don't understand these things, we're thankful that you have revealed it. It is clear. It is marvelous truth. And we just thank you that it's not of us, but of you. We give you thanks in Jesus' name.