Colossians Lesson 6 Week 4

Alright guys, so we are going to finish today. Because Courtney is chomping at the bit over there. And I don't want to hear anything about me going longer than that. You no longer can harp on Courtney for being the longest winded teacher in this class. I am officially that person. Alright. So we ended up with question 7 last week, and we have 8 through 11 today. So I will follow suit with number 8.

Let's review the verse here real quickly. We're talking about verse 23. Chapter 1, verse 23. Actually, let's just read 22 and 23 since it's a continuation of the previous verse. So read along with me Colossians 1, 22 and 23. Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Verse 23, If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. Okay, so we move from the reconciliation passage that we talked about last week, the fleshly body, talking about how it had to be his human death that provided reconciliation, and we went into great depth with that term, and what a wonderful truth it is to know that we're reconciled, and so we got to dig into that on Easter Sunday. This week, we have a passage that moves us into some questions.

And that question, number one, or number eight rather, it says, what does if you continue in the faith, in verse 23, mean with regards to security of your salvation? So what is this if thing going on, this if continuing? Let me ask you this, has anybody ever struggled with security of salvation? Don't raise your hand. You're the only one. I'm just kidding.

I'm going to shut this door here real quick. You know, that's something that I think every young believer struggles with. It's fun that I can talk back here and you can still hear me, huh? Maybe that's what I should do. Stand back there. I think security of salvation is something, I mean, if you haven't wrestled with it, you probably had a really sound, solid Bible teacher in your life, okay? But it's likely that we've all wrestled with it.

And so this is one of those verses that sends us into a bit of an instant tizzy, doesn't it? I mean, especially if you don't have the Greek speak and you can't get into the verse and really understand it. And so I think, Mike, coming up with the question, if you continue in faith, what does this mean with regards to your salvation? What do you guys think? Is this talking?

If be since. If be since? Since instead of if in that case. OK. So you're saying this isn't a hypothetical if? Right. So if you'd like to go to dinner later, maybe we can schedule that and get it going. So I don't know if the answer is true or not. But it's actually interesting. In this passage, the if here isn't assuming to be true. It's not a hypothetical if. So Paul's not asking a question here. He's not presenting a situation. that is not the case.

And that changes everything here. And the only reason I bring up the whole security of salvation, we have a lot of verses that have been taught out of context that would cause somebody to get really frustrated about that situation. And again, we've all been there. But, in this case, it actually is solved quite simply by just understanding exactly what you mentioned, that this is a sense, assuming that it's already true. And so, we move into this aspect of continuing.

What does this mean? Did you guys look up that word and get a sense of what's going on there? Verse 23, if you continue, if indeed you continue in the faith. The word is actually you continue in, that's the whole word there. Thoughts? Well, you keep on keeping on. Keep on keeping on, okay.

It's a matter of your nature has been changed. As far as keeping up with your faith, the Holy Spirit is there to guide you and direct you and cause you to grow. And that's exactly what he's doing. Whether you think you're being the one who's promoting the spiritual growth, it's the Holy Spirit's job. Okay. Did you guys hear that? Does that make sense? Let's put it back up here. I probably erased it too soon.

Conditional, positional. Is this a positional or a conditional continuance? I actually looked at this word a little more closely. Is it positional? I looked at it a little more closely. One way of translating this word could be abide, abiding. And the reason I like that word is because, especially for this group, it has the sense of placing your faith somewhere and resting somewhere. So this doesn't necessarily have this active, and not to pick on the term, keep on keeping on, but we might use that in our culture to say, man, pull up your bootstraps and get her done, you know, that kind of thing. But this has an idea of actually abiding, so continuing to abide. And we know what happens conditionally when we don't abide, right? We start to doubt things, we start to get fleshly, right?

Flesh enters in, and Paul is concerned about that because he talks about not being moved from somewhere, and that's where we're headed in this verse. So, I think you're right. I think that this is an abiding in your position. This is an abiding in who you are in Christ. And then Paul goes on in this verse to talk about what does that mean? Where are you placed?

So we look at the next part of that verse, if indeed, assuming that it's already true, you continue, and it's true that you are, this is indicative, so it's a fact that they are doing this, in the faith, so the faith, I think we can quite specifically say that the faith is what?

The gospel message. We can at least say that. We know that throughout scripture the term the faith is used of the system of doctrine that is taught in the New Testament that one might refer to as the Christian faith. Here in the context it seems that the faith refers specifically to the gospel because that's what Paul is talking about. But whether it's the larger the Christian faith or the faith of the gospel, both would still remain true here.

So, if you indeed, assuming that you are continuing and you are in the faith, firmly established and steadfast. What is this firmly established and steadfast? Well, if it's positioned, You can't leave it, it's never going to leave you, so you don't have to worry about it. Can you imagine even being conditionally firmly established and steadfast? Now these words, established, did anybody, you've got it. So I'm going to wrap that up with your thought there, but what are some other ways of maybe communicating the word established and steadfast? Well, I just wrote down, to continue in faith is proof of the reconciling work of Christ on our behalf. Okay. It means we're complete in Christ. Completeness? Established? Any other words that just could help build the picture of what that means?

Well-rooted? What does it take to get you un-rooted? Un-well-rooted. I mean, this established here, this is a grounding. This is a foundational thing. And Paul is referring to the fact that when these Colossians heard the Gospel message, they were established, they were well-rooted, they were grounded in something. And then not only that, but they were steadfast. And I looked at that word, this idea of settled or seated. I really like seated. You can imagine why. So you're grounded and you're seated in something here.

That is the actual possession of these Colossians that he's speaking to. If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established or grounded or well-rooted and steadfast and seated and not moved away, could you be moved away conditionally? Can you be moved away positionally? Well, we're done with that question. Doesn't that mean something, Dennis? It is accomplished and you could put it behind you because it's been totally accomplished to be grounded and established. You don't need to work on it anymore, it's there.

So these Colossians were dealing with a situation where the Gospel wasn't enough. That's what they were being told, right? You had the false Gospels creeping in and challenging them as to the completeness, the capability of the Gospel and the truth of the Gospel to fully reconcile them. They said, well it's not just that, it's something else.

Do we hear that today? So, in the same situation where the Colossians were being challenged to add to the pureness of the gospel message, so we are also being challenged in many ways to constantly be moved away from where we were firmly established, well grounded, rooted, seated, and it doesn't mean that you are going to lose your faith if you are moved away. Paul is warning against that kind of situation because they have already heard it, they've already believed it, they've already been established in it, and so this is all assuming that you do, you're continuing to, you're not, you know, this is not the case now, but he's just saying that because of who you are in Christ, we could say it that way, there's no reason to be moved away from the hope of the gospel.

Thoughts? We were just talking about those words are passive. Yep, that's a good point. I didn't bring that up. So, established and steadfast, is it you that's doing the establishing? No. That's a great point. Christ is the one that did your establishing on your behalf. You don't establish yourself in the gospel by being able to repeat it through a tract or share it door-to-door with your neighbors. I mean, however you might find in your past that someone would communicate, well, you're really a believer if... This is passive. Once you believed in the gospel, Christ did the establishing.

He placed you into himself, and in that, you are grounded, well-rooted, seated, and immovable. So the idea of moving away from the hope that they have in the gospel is spiritual insanity based on the truth that they have, right? And it's the same for us. But yet we find ourselves being challenged in that way.

But here Paul's talking about, if you understand who you are and where you've been placed and where you've been grounded and where you've been seated, there's no reason to not have a hope in the gospel. Even though these Gnostics or whomever are telling you otherwise, the Word of God says that you're grounded and established.

I was just wondering about these people. What if Paul hadn't reminded them and they had gone off? Are they still positional? So the question is, what if believers... So you have a situation where you have those that, and this is always the case, where you have professing believers who have not actually believed they've heard, and that's the next question. You have those that have heard the gospel and may be sitting right here with us, but they haven't actually believed it to be true.

Meaning, I see my death on that cross in Christ as being a substitute for me. The death, burial, and resurrection applies to my sin. It pays for it. You can hear that and not believe that you died there with Christ and He was your substitute. You can hear that and not believe that. It's hard to believe. It's hard to believe, really. Because on Wednesday we were talking about, remember, you're crucified with, and I'm thinking I'm sitting here, I'm not up there, and so that's hard to understand. You have to really delve into the Bible to get it finally. I think every person has maybe a different level of challenge with believing.

For some, like for, let's say for my son, you know, who's five now, He hasn't been introduced to all the other options out there, right? And so when he hears and he believes, he's not carrying unbelieving baggage. But when you come to faith at the age of... older age, let's just say that age over there. Whatever that age is, how much baggage have you had a chance to store up over time? And so now when you think about changing your mind, which is kind of the flip side of belief, we talk about repentance and belief being kind of two sides of the same coin, and we see them all as one action. You know, I used to believe this, well there's so much that I've packed up over the last 30, 40, 50 years, and now you're asking me to believe this? That's a lot harder for me because it means that I was wrong for umpteen years, right?

And so that's a challenging thing for someone at a different age. But the situation is that one is not more or less saved, and the Gospel is not more difficult to believe in any instance. It's a matter of your unbelief is more challenging than the Gospel. Your unbelief has become such a great friend to you. And so for certain people, the more they actually warm up to the unbelief that they have had before, believing in the gospel, it's harder to leave that behind, right? But for others, it's not necessarily the same. So, it doesn't take... I mean, I think what we saw last week, if you were in the main service with Vern, that is the gospel.

He presented it probably 30 times. You know, he said it probably 30 times. And if a person sitting in the audience had heard, it is just this simple. It is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ on your behalf. He satisfied what you could not. If they heard and believed that, then at that moment they are saved.

And so it's not that belief isn't, it's not that it's difficult to believe, it's difficult to turn your mind or change your mind from where you've been. Thoughts? I think the difficulty here is the fact that the Gospel is presented with an entirely new operating system which is grace. Everything else that we learn from the cradle forward is based on a performance system that I have to do something to survive, to achieve, to be acceptable, I have to be educated, I have to whatever, I have to work. And here comes the gospel on a totally grace basis which is I think the hardest thing to accept that all of this is done for me and I don't have to do anything other than believe it and believing is not a work on my part and not only does it start that way it continues that way and in this verse he talks about the hope of the gospel which is the finish, what the whole package is when we're done. And it's all based on grace, faith, and God doing everything.

I mean, is there anything harder to accept than that? Well, why is there... Why is that so hard? I mean, we can get pretty philosophical about it, or we can simply say, I think, that sin is all about self, right? So, because you are or were formerly alienated, hostile, an enemy, is it hard to accept that now God, who you are an enemy of, is going to do something on your behalf and make all things right between you and Him for you, by grace, through belief in the Gospel?

That's hard to believe because sin is standing in the way. But the message is not hard. It's so awe-inspiring when you think about it. You know, it's all washed away and unaccepted. You know, it's hard. It's our human nature, you know. If you invite me, I have to invite you, kind of garbage. But it's such a gift that it's hard to wrap your head around it sometimes because of our human nature. But it's such a gift, it's unbelievable, really. I agree 100%.

We've all struggled with believing the truth, right? How do we cure this? If we're struggling with unbelief, if some of our days We're like, it's so hard to believe that I'm actually seated in the heavenlies, that I've been ascended, seated with Him, that I possess every spiritual blessing. I mean, golly, you go through Ephesians and you're like, what else do I need? Do I really have all that? How do you combat that?

You just read the Bible and say it. That's exactly what I was going to say. It goes back to beholding the Lord through His Word. This is not a matter of you convincing yourself of something that's written down and it's a lot of words and you're taking great notes and having a great margin on your new Bible so that you can write all this conversation that you're having or thoughts that you're having. This is about you spending time with a person. Your belief can be strengthened. It's not a matter of whether or not you're saved or not, but you can grow in belief by beholding Him through His Word. Again, we're talking about a person here. you spend time with him and you start to think the way he thinks. We talk about Christ doing the living, well he starts doing the thinking. This is the mind of Christ kind of thing.

And all of a sudden now, as you grow in that, we're all growing in that, we're all in different degrees of conditionally experiencing our position. It's called spiritual growth, right? We're all in different places and we all need each other. And we all need to encourage each other. But we all need to encourage one another to get back to that personal intimacy and conversation with the Lord, because that is the only way that you're going to grow in the unbelief that you may struggle with.

It is our spirit of Christ in us who is alive, working to reveal himself. I think of that when you say these things, that it isn't I change my mind, He changes mine. Did you understand that? So instead of us sitting there saying, I want to change my mind to this, because the Lord dwells in our hearts, we see that in Ephesians 3.16, that's a parallel passage to this firmly rooted and established stuff, Because He dwells, He is the one that is changing us. We're not changing our mind to align ourselves with Him. He is changing us from the inside out. Because we have His Spirit dwelling in our lives. So, this is a restful place. Again, this isn't something where unbelief is real. We all struggle with different aspects of it in our Christian faith. But again, it's back to spending time with the author and perfecter.

Well, it dawned on me one day, too, that if this is truth, if I don't believe it, that's a shame on me. I mean, I can unbelieve it, but it doesn't make this not true. This is true. Can you change truth by your own belief? No. And that's the nature of a final authority, by the way. If we take the Word of God as the final authority of all, then our struggle with it is simply that, but it doesn't change the truth of what is said. Well, I think of all the years of Bible study. It makes me want to cry, really, because only here, Did I hear? Or was it presented about grace? Help? So I'm going to agree with her.

We were both Southern Baptists. Well, no way. I was Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal. That's my family, my church family. I mean, we emphasize grace and security of the believer. Very, very much. But at the same time, you also are spending time going up to the front of the church. I mean, at least that's what it was for me.

I grew up Southern Baptist as well, and I was up at the front. I was altar call all over the town, all the time. I had something to talk about all the time, and I struggled. We talked about eternal security on one hand, and the other half the time I was shackled to the pew. Now, I'm not blaming Southern Baptists for that.

It just depends on who and where you're being. But what I want to say to this is, first of all, isn't it wonderful that you are in a place of grace now? So that is a joyful tear. What is probably accompanying that is all the years that you didn't get to experience that. And man, I wish I could go back and have heard this before. However, that's not what God had for you.

And we need to recognize that we need our needs. Every single point in time that you were switching from Lutheran to Catholic to, and I've gone through a lot of, I've got my own checklist here too. You say, yeah, but you're younger and you have longer-term experiences. You know what? He is going to be just as rich in your life as he's going to be in mine because he has perfectly planned every single step of your journey And He is causing all things to work together for good in your life. And so you needed all of those things.

I don't know why. I could speculate. Maybe you needed to know what they all said and how they didn't work so that you could finally rest in grace. I don't know. But He does. And every single one of those things that happened to you, and we've all got that. We've all got our story. And I'm not trying to minimize yours. I'm just saying we've all got our lost causes that we think, wow, goodness, if we had just known earlier, if I had just believed earlier, I mean, if we all went through that bit of information in this room, we may not want to talk to each other as much anymore. And I don't want to be critical because I certainly admire Wanda that she kept on pursuing it until she got to this point. Oh, you're not. I didn't take it that way.

Well, what's interesting is the Word of God is beautiful, and it sets free, doesn't it? And if we can take the time to do what we're doing in a class and spend time in it together and behold Him together, we've got nothing but a greater intimacy for the body, and for you individually with Christ. And so, I'm thankful for where the Lord has me today, but I'm also thankful for where I've been. Because I needed to know the ends of my own self in order to know the full sufficiency of Christ. Otherwise, I might still want to do my own thing, which I do at times.

You believe it? I'm surprised. You know, I'm cleaning baseboards and I'm thinking, thank you God for just accepting me. You know, I believe in Him, but you know, it's so much just to be thankful for that He's entered you, that you have the Holy Spirit in you, and I just can't get over it sometimes.

You know, Vern says, Vern talks about how, you know, we have this idea of how God views sin, and it's just like, my kids have told me, God hates sin. And I said, okay, well, let's talk about that a little bit. God loves you, and He does not want sin to be in the way of having a relationship with you, an intimate fellowship.

So really, God's not so worried about your sin as He's worried about you. Sin is just standing in the way. And Vern says that, and often I hear people shuffling in the pews, like, well, God does not worry about sin. Well, it's not that He's not worried about it. It's not sin that's the problem in total.

It's the fact that He wants to be with you. He wants it out of the way so that He can spend time with you. And so when you're cleaning the baseboards and you're thanking the Lord for accepting you, it's not just acceptance, it's the fact that He loves you and He doesn't want anything to stand in the way between the two of you so that you can continue to know His peace, His rest. The fact that you are firmly established, you're seated, you're steadfast.

I mean, these are reckoning truths, aren't they? And that's really all we can do, because our condition, so long as we have this earthly flesh that we're contained by, we're going to be challenged to believe these things, yet we have the Spirit who allows us to believe and reckon on the truths that we have, and that is something to be thankful. A thankful believer is one who knows the Word of God. If there's an attitude that comes out of spending time with the Word, it's a greater degree of thankfulness, isn't it? Part of the issue, I think, with growing believers is not only learning the Word, but learning how God does things. He operates on a grace basis.

We come to him and say, well Lord, what must I do to wake up or to enter into this truth or to do this, you know, we're asking him the what and the how questions. And it takes his spirit quite some time to teach us just to sit and believe him and do nothing else. And let him do the work in terms of persuading us. And he has principles in place by which he grows us up. Those are as important to learn as the objective doctrine is. He has methods. He creates need in a person's life. They have to go to him. All of that is purposeful.

That's a change of mind and attitude that you learn by learning how this new operating system of grace functions. When God talks about that he works all things together for good. Well, that's a nice phrase, but he's not kidding about that. No. What about those trials and what those trials are designed to do? I mean, we were looking at the book of James and James talks a lot, this is pre-Paul, but he talked a lot about the purpose of trials. So how does God bring you to a place of spiritual growth? He's going to start working in individual lives, in individual ways, in individual needs, in individual trials. And guess what? Time is one of His creations and He uses it for spiritual growth. And for you, your time was different than mine, but it was uniquely designed for you.

We can't compare. We can't really truly understand what the Lord is doing in order to spiritually grow us. But we can be very sure that everything that's going on and everything that's happening is designed for your spiritual growth. And that brings peace to the situation regardless of how challenging it is. I mean, in our family we have said this term over and over and over. We need our needs. We don't like it. It doesn't feel good. This doesn't seem right. But this is exactly what we need so that we go to Him.

You thought? Well, first of all, I don't want Francis to think that I'm being critical because even though I have heard of grace, I mean, and even sing the song and all that, but until God reveals that to you, or if it's taken this long, I'm thrilled. I think we can both be at rest with the reality that we can have two identical people, two people sitting in the same identical pew, at the same identical sermons, but the Holy Spirit is working different to convince each of those people at different levels. We want every person to come out. I want you to hear what I have to say, and I want you all to walk away having heard exactly what I said, and I want to believe that you understand it all. That's not true.

Because what's going on in your mind, sometimes the Lord causes you to hear something from His Word, and you start going through, and you start, your mind, the mind of Christ starts to challenge you about something. You don't hear the next 30 minutes that I say because you're so thankful for something that the Lord revealed to you. Well, that last 30 minutes did something else to someone. The Word of God did something else in their heart at that point.

And so when I walk out, I hear this guy telling me, man, that really hit me. And I'm like, great. But I didn't hear anything else. This other guy or gal, I heard this. And I'm like, well, I didn't even say that. You ever been in that situation? Like, thanks for teaching me this. Goodness, I didn't even say that. That was not a part of my lesson plan at all. Why?

The Lord was working on your heart uniquely at that time. And so, there's no cookie cutter here. And He is working uniquely, even through the exact same message, even through the exact same passage. His Spirit is going to work uniquely to spiritually challenge you in the areas that you need challenging. So, you guys are growing in different ways, and you've experienced similar situations, yet, something happened recently for you where the light bulb went off. And you're excited about that. And that is exciting. So, we have nothing but thankfulness for that. Let's go to question nine, because on this pace, I am going to be here next week. And I know, I've heard a number of times, nobody wants that. Just kidding. So, number nine.

Is it... wait, is that right? Yeah. Is it enough to just hear the gospel? I think this is pretty straightforward, and I think we can probably bring out a number of verses. So, instead of... well, answer the question. No. Okay, so what's the answer? You need to act on it by believing. Okay, believing.

So where in the Word does it talk about this? If we're going to say something, let's back it up. Well, it does say in the Bible that faith comes by hearing, hearing the word. It does say that. Where does it say that? I don't know. It says it on the stairway. It says it on the stairway? Oh, yeah.

Acts 16.31 says, believe on the word of Jesus Christ and not shall be saved. Okay. You're right. It does say it all throughout. Acts, Romans, all the epistles refer to believing, faith. They all communicate this.

And we could create a pretty long laundry list. I did a search for that, and the list of believing and salvation, the combination of those things, is quite long. But I thought you might have some of your own favorites that you'd want to share, just to help ground and establish this truth. Any others? He who believes in me has eternal life, and he who does not believe does not have eternal life. What verse is that? John. John.

So, what's the question? Is it enough for belief? Is it enough to just hear the gospel? I think, for a non-believer, that's the only thing, the first thing you need to hear. Correct. So yes, but for belief, they need to believe. Maybe I should rephrase the question. Is it enough in order to receive salvation to just hear the gospel? No. You must believe. Well, getting back to the baptism, if you hear it and you go forward and you accept Jesus, boy this is confusing. If you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you're safe. Let me read you a verse.

Ephesians 1.13. In Him, who's Him? In Christ, you also, now I'm talking about you here, you can personalize this.

You also, after listening to the message of truth, what's that? the gospel of your salvation, which he says, he makes clear, so it's listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, there's an also there, having also believed, you were sealed in him. Sealed in who? Can you be unsealed? Is there anywhere in the scripture that says, if you unbelieve in the message of truth, I will unseal you And take away my spirit, and take away my promise.

Because that's what this verse says. I'll read it all in one. You also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, that's the key here, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Jim, I think where the confusion sort of slips in so often with so many different backgrounds, we've been taught that not only must you believe, but you've got to do this, this, this, and this, and all the add-ons don't work. What we do is just believe, and then the Holy Spirit comes in alongside of us, and he becomes the motivating factor on, am I going to read the Bible? How often am I going to read it? Do I believe everything that I read? Do I have questions formulated from that reading?

But the actual basis of belief just comes from believing His Word and then just going with it. I'd agree completely. I think there too, the believing becomes a personal thing, right? I mean, it's like the hearing. You hear personally what Christ did for you personally. And I think that's when it becomes a relationship. The gospel has to get personal for you, for you to believe it. Otherwise, you're not hearing the gospel. Because you're not saved by the gospel, you're saved by the Savior.

That's a really good point. There's a means. The means is the message. But the agent, the author, The object is all Christ, and He is our Savior. When we're sharing the Gospel, there's a very interesting combination of the message and the Holy Spirit convicting a person of the true reality of Christ in a person's life. And you have experienced that, and you believe that. But it was based on the truth of the Scripture.

But it was the Savior. Go ahead. But what about right here in Colossians? Those people had heard that. They had heard it and they had accepted it. And then someone else comes along and says, you know, there are all these angels and all that kind of stuff.

But aren't they saved? If you're saved, you're sealed. Absolutely. Were they sealed? They were sealed. They were saved. In fact, it's indicative, the fact that they were established in the faith. The people that he's talking to were established. And it goes on to say, so that you may not be moved away from the hope. Have you been removed away from the hope even as a believer? There are times, I think, that you are removed conditionally from the hope. You get wrapped up in all the stuff that we talked about. There's belief plus this, this, this, and this. And we all have our plus list, right?

And that's getting moved away. And he's saying, no. You need to continue, or abide in, the established, seated place that you are in Christ. It's not more than the gospel. Let's come back to the basics here. You've added a bunch of stuff to this, or you're being challenged to do that.

So, to set your mind at ease, these were believers, and he is not suggesting that they are... He's not concerned at all with them losing their salvation. That's not anywhere in this passage. He is more interested that they continue in the gospel message.

If we were to lose our salvation, the work that God has done would have to be undone. That's right. Like the Holy Spirit in us, the indwelling of Christ, the new creation inside of us. All of that would have to be removed, and only God can remove that. That's right. No, he can't. He would have to, but he can't. He can't remove it, is that what you're saying? He can't go backwards. No, he can't.

See, I think that's what always goes back when we started this about assurance and salvation and all that. You know, before I really understood the identification truths, there was always that little doubt in my mind occasionally. You know, I said I'd always go back to John 10, 28, you know, in his palm and he can't get out. I think that's the importance of understanding the identification truths.

I think salvation is still very simple. Understanding who Christ is, the death, burial, and resurrection. Very simple. You don't have to have all the terms and all the different things. There's millions and billions of people who are saved. But I think the identification truths, I've never doubted it ever since I said that. of the Romans 6 were co-crucified. How do you get back from death?

We've been separated. Ever since I've understood that, there's been no doubt. I can't go back. I can't. I've been crucified. Positionally, how God sees me, I've been positionally crucified. So there's never been a doubt ever since that time because I can't undo that. I've been separated. And there's never a doubt now. I can't go back. It doesn't mentally... I can't figure that out. And once I'm placed into Him, how does Christ ever die? He can't. And I'm in Him. And if you understand you've been placed into Him, there's no doubt ever, ever again.

That assurance is just so clear to me. I mean, that's just my personal. Once I understood that, there's never been a doubt. And that's the change. You understand that. I can't get back. Well he said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And that's settled.

But it is important for me when we're studying this because if I want to speak to someone else who doesn't believe and I have some relatives that are coming to visit next week They don't, none of them believe. And so what do they need? It's interesting, they actually need love. And love is a truthing in love. They need the love of Christ. They need your love.

You don't want to start out and say... You may not. People used to say, are you saved? Have you been born again? I mean, that is a turn off. There's different ways to approach different people. I think we have to acknowledge that there's not a cookie cutter approach to sharing the gospel with people. But the content needs to get across. And it's not a matter of convincing them. Remember we talked about it's not our job to convince. But when we do share the truth, and if they reject it, they're not rejecting us. We're ambassadors, they're rejecting the Savior. So it's not personal to me. It's personal between them and the Savior.

If there's just a way, and I hate to take up everybody else's time, but if there's just a way that you could explain grace, The gospel is the message of grace. So the death, burial, and resurrection, that's grace. Everything else we learn about grace stems from that. So you start with the gospel, and then grace has a foundation to build on. But without the gospel, you can't talk about grace at all. It doesn't mean anything without the gospel. Many people think they have to work for it, and they have an understanding that it's the unmerited favor of God. You cannot work for it. You just have to believe in it.

That's right. That's grace. Absolutely right. Doesn't it take, regarding Wanda, that 1 John 12 says, but to all who believed in and accepted him, he gave the right to become the children of God. And I think so. Like when in the Baptist Church, it says they say accept Jesus as your savior. That's the kind of verse that I mean, all we have to do is believe in Jesus. But there's a verse that says that we believe and accept it. You know what I'm saying? Not so much. Just. Mike, I think one of the things she went for to receive Christ and I'm reading out of the Living Bible because the Internet works. But basically, there are scriptures about receiving Christ.

There's a lot of synonyms for belief. Faith, belief, trust. believe, receive, repent is a close synonym to believe, just because it has the aid of changing your mind. Anytime you believe something that you didn't believe before, you're changing your mind. So that's a part and parcel to the same thing. So let's just simplify it and say, the scripture only requires belief, trust, faith, whatever you want to call it, whatever word you like to use the best. changing of the will. It's called volition. You choose to believe something you didn't choose before because the Holy Spirit has convinced you of its truth. So once you've believed, you're saved, you are sealed, you are every bit of what Courtney was talking about as our position in Christ. You're fully identified. You can't, as was mentioned earlier, you can't reverse that whole thing.

So Don't worry about asking questions like that because you are bringing something to light that a bunch of other people are thinking too. So don't you worry about taking up anybody's time. These are things that we need to work together as a body. We're here to support and encourage one another, so anytime you've got something, you feel free to come out with it. And when we refer to what you have said or asked, we're referring to something that we're collectively growing together with. So I'm excited you're here and I'm excited that you're talking about this because salvation is at the heart of the message of grace. I mean, anything about grace has to start with the gospel message.

So, if we're clear here, we can grow in grace. Okay? So, I'm going to move on to verse 10, not because I don't feel like we could spend a lot more time with this, but because I think that we're going to in future classes, there's no doubt. So, question 10, has the gospel been proclaimed in all the earth?

Yes. No. Yes. No, yes, no, yes. Uh-oh. This is not what I was hoping for. All right. Let's go with Mike first. Yes. Yes. Okay. Why? Because it says so. Okay. Mike is right. The word is right. The word is right because... Mike is right because the word is right. Because he just quoted the scripture. It didn't offer anything else. So let me ask you this. I'll say, what does all the earth mean? Here. Does it refer to every single human being on the earth? This says every creature under heaven. So let's go to Verse 23. So I'll read verse 23 here. Because we're talking about the second part of the verse.

So, if indeed you continue in faith, firmly established in steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, that you have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister. So we want to ask ourselves, has the gospel been preached to every... in all creation under heaven? That's what Paul says. The question is, what does all creation under heaven mean? It means what Paul thought it meant. I mean, he didn't know about every other country, did he?

Well, let's read Acts 2.5.

Someone read Acts 2.5 quickly.

For you quick flippers, read me Acts 2.5. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem without men from every nation under heaven.

Is that Acts 2.5?

Are there other references to... So now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. Did that include every South African? Did that include every aboriginal? In Romans it says that everybody is without excuse. Okay, there's the Romans 1 that we know.

Is that the Gospel though? Yeah. But it is enough to convict a person. Right. I don't understand then, because Jesus is not going to come back until every ear has heard. So, this says every ear has heard. Does it not? But I hadn't been born yet. You hadn't been born yet when this was written. What about the United States? Yeah, what about all the world? It was the gospel in the Bible and so forth and New Testament is mostly about the Mediterranean world. That's not saying that people are without excuse because they could look at the heavens and see all the creation of God.

Yeah, but that's not the gospel. In this case we're talking about the gospel. Yeah. Yeah, I see. So in Acts 17, 23, it's like Paul even penetrates people's unbelief and lack of knowledge of God. So they pray to the unknown God and He declares the God to them that they don't even know. But is that the Gospel? Well, it's not the gospel, but I'm just...

So, I think we've got two things going on. We're not going to get it answered today. You get to pick up with this one. Courtney, I'm going to pass the baton on this. So, we've got the Lord in Romans 1 and also in that Acts passage, He convinces of His divine nature and the fact that men are without excuse. No one can stand before the Lord at the great white throne and say, I didn't know you.

I mean the apostles went all over the place to spread it. So there was always somebody that knew and they would then spread the word. So that's probably why everybody now knows about it. I don't think everybody does know. So I just want to ask this as a final thought.

Is this a figure of speech with regards to the universality of the gospel? It's true to all men, but not all men. have believed because they haven't heard. Will the gospel be preached to all creation? Yes, before Jesus returns, you mean? Yeah. So, I personally take this as a figure of speech referring to the universality of the gospel. Does that make sense? Now, I don't believe that there's any other way to take it. However, you might try to go that route. I do know that the apostles were told to go out to the entire creation and preach the gospel. Did they accomplish that fully themselves? They didn't.

But the gospel continues to spread. It's present here right now. And so with regards to time and location, this is referring, in my understanding, to the universality of the Gospel. It will be universally proclaimed under all creation. And it was true at that time, and it's true at this time. For the children unborn, they will hear. Number 11, how does one become established, steadfast, and immovable?

Really quickly. It's very simple. Resting? Resting. Wow. It's not about you giving up. It's about resting in the one who can't give up. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay, resting in Christ? That's right. He is immovable. He is steadfast. He is where you want to be. You want to be in Him. Because that's where you're immovable. That's where you're steadfast. That's where you're established. Let's pray.

Lord, we have a lot of questions and that's the nature of getting to know someone and Lord, we thank you that you have answers and that we can come to you with questions and we can not worry about the place that we all are in. We're all in different places of spiritual growth and we can be confident that we're exactly where we need to be and you have the exact answer to convict us and draw us to yourself in a more intimate way. We thank you that you want to be with us that way, that you want us to come to know you in greater degrees as we grow in trust and faith. So we thank you for your word, we thank you for it yourself, and we thank you that you have such a wonderful desire, based on grace, to do the living through us. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.