Colossians Lesson 8
Colossians · Mike Doyle · May 25, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 21
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492642912410

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK, lesson eight. And we were down to question four, five, four, four. So this has to do with the last two verses of Chapter one. And as we go over, go on the next couple of weeks, we'll just sort of flow into Chapter two. And they really do, in some senses, go together. But. In the last two verses, somebody read the last two verses of chapter one.

And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power which mightily works within me. So what does it mean to present every man perfect in Jesus Christ? I can see you studied really hard this week. What's that? To be as much like Christ as we can be. Okay, to be as much like Christ. Now he has said, he says, to present every man. When we get to heaven, that's what we want to be. You think that's what it is? You think it's when we go to heaven? We're already in heaven.

You can't talk until you sit down. Well, I want you to know Nancy kept me. Oh, okay. So that they believe. Spiritual maturity. Okay. Is the present the same? Word that's used to present yourself a living sacrifice. You know, I didn't look that up. You know, you're presenting yourself. Yeah. Now notice who's who's doing the presenting in this first. We're presenting ourselves.

Read the verse again. Read the verse. Who's the we? The Apostle Paul and his boys and those that have the information he has taught to faithful men. So if you get to stand up here and replace me, is it your job to present people holy and blameless before the Lord? OK, next question. What's read? Read Ephesians for now. Hold on a minute. Now I'm jumping ahead.

There's a responsibility here of presenting now. I'm going to vary off a little bit from the questions because I've learned some things this week I didn't know when I was putting the questions together. And here's here's a question. Is salvation, the doctrine of salvation, the same as the doctrine of the mystery? Are they the same? No, because then it wouldn't be a mystery. As soon as you say yes or no, you have to explain. Salvation is not Christ in us. Salvation is not Christ in us. What is salvation? What's the doctrine of salvation? What's the gospel? And if you believe the gospel, what happens? You're saved.

Now, where is the mystery mentioned the first time in the epistles? Anybody know? Go to the last three verses of Romans and read those for me. This is the first time it's mentioned. And this is after all of the doctrine of salvation, identification, and all of that has been talked about. There's a reference here to the mystery. Romans, last three verses of the book. Somebody read them. Not to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all nations.

So does it sound like that there might be the gospel of salvation and the mystery are not the same thing? You have to have the doctrine of salvation to start to understand the mystery. Okay. You have to have the doctrine of salvation in order to understand the mystery.

So here's another question. If you are really up on the doctrine of salvation and you got it down perfectly, you understand the book of Romans flawlessly, do you qualify to present somebody holy and blameless before the Lord? Do you have enough information to do that? Yeah, but you can't place... It depends on the person too. No. Because if they don't want what you have to teach them, they will not.

Well, you know, I'm about to ask you to explain very clearly what the mystery is and I bet you can't do it. The mystery is? Christ and you. Well, you can say Christ and you, the hope of glory. What does that mean? What does that mean? That he was resurrected, that he was blah, blah, blah, all those three things. No, it doesn't mean that at all. Christ isn't the human face of God. What's that? That Christ is the human face of God, so to speak. No. When he died on the cross, he was what we thought. The mystery is the church, the body of Christ. That's the mystery. And why is that so important? Why is that such a mystery? And why is it so different than salvation?

No testament they were saved, but not like we are. So here comes the Apostle Paul. Now look what's going on here in the book of Colossians. He's telling these Colossians he's just overjoyed with their faith, right, in the first part of chapter 1. He's telling them that they're really pretty super people, but he's beginning to sound a warning to them which we haven't talked about yet, but the warning is based on the fact that they are not really educated about the mystery.

Salvation is not the issue, the mystery is the issue. I don't want you to leave here today thinking that salvation and the mystery are the same thing. What would make the body of Christ, the church, what makes it a mystery? They didn't know about it before. And what didn't they know? What was the specifics that they didn't know?

That Christ lives in us. Christ lives in us, right? Now let's talk about, for a second, the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here. He was really accepted by society, right? No, he wasn't. He was rejected. And he was crucified. And he left. Didn't he? He's not here now. So if he's not here now and this is not his place, why are you so eager to be here? Why is this place so important to you if the Lord Jesus isn't here? Because we believe in him and he was resurrected and is in heaven. And that answers my question? I thought so. This place isn't so important to us to be in. That's right.

We do have work to do here. He has some tasks for us. Part of the mystery is the fact that there is this thing called a church. the body of Christ. And even though he has been rejected and gone, he's still here as he's ever been. Only he's here in every one of us. Because why? Because we are united to him. We are united to Christ there, even though you're living here. Does that make sense?

The mystery is the union with Christ. That's the mystery. And so what Paul is telling these Colossians, look, we need to spend a lot of time involved in learning the mystery. Because if you don't know and aren't settled down on the mystery, you're in danger of two big problems that are going to show up. Plus, if all you know is the doctrine of salvation, you're kind of useless. spiritually on the earth?

Wait a minute. You are. Well, what about all the people that haven't heard about this? Yeah, isn't that something? Isn't that something about the mystery? Yeah. Yeah, what about them? Well, they're still going to be saved. Yeah, but this is way beyond salvation.

I know, but I'm talking about people that No, I understand Wanda, and here's the thing, we have had so much focus in actually centuries, well I'd say a few centuries, on the salvation that we don't know anything about the mystery. And I got to tell you, if I'm Satan and I want to keep the church handicapped, I make sure they don't learn about the mystery. I'll give them all the salvation dance they want, but if I can keep the mystery hidden, they're not going to be a threat to me at all. So here comes Paul, and not only is he talking about the mystery, he's going to talk about how tough it is to be a steward of this mystery. That it's really difficult because there is real opposition to it. There's a difference between all the doctrines of salvation and the doctrine of the mystery.

And we say, well we know what it is, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Well what does that mean? Exactly what does that mean? And oh by the way, last week I taught and nobody caught me except my wife. I taught that the hope of glory was an individual thing. It's not. It's a church thing. It's the glory of Christ manifested through all of us. Not that it isn't going to be individual, but the focus here is on the body of Christ. So we present everyone, is that the Church's teaching? The Church presents everyone?

And you can't present everyone blameless unless you've got a handle on this mystery. You can't do it. Right. But just the thought that since Christ has been rejected and he lives in us, we too are rejected in this world. Everybody hear what he said? Since we're in Christ and he was rejected, so are we. I don't think so. If we believe in Christ, we're not rejected.

On the earth you are. On the earth you are. How accepted do you think you really are if you understood the mystery and you walked around proclaiming it? Would you be rejected by the people? Would it be an easy thing for you? What's that? They would think you're crazy for sure. To understand that Christ has been rejected from the earth, and you're united to him in the heavenlies and you share the same opinion that the earth has with him they have about you.

But we've watered down this message so much so we can survive around here and people won't throw rocks at us. But there isn't any presenting holy and blameless before the Lord without the understanding of this mystery, without knowing what it is. And it's interesting, when you study the book of Romans, which is Christianity 101, it's all about man's lost, God comes to the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ dies to pay the penalty for the sins of the world, and he includes you in the death.

But notice that Romans never takes the believer off the planet. Understand what I mean by that? There's no language in Romans that says you're seated in the heavenlies. There's no language in Romans that says, seek those things which are above, because it's all of God's work coming to save us.

It's the salvation message, the total salvation message, which includes identification. But the mystery is mentioned in the last three verses, and he doesn't explain it there, but he's going to here, and he does in Ephesians. The mystery is really important. Okay, at least you're the only honest person in the room.

It reminds me, it makes me think of, in Hebrews, I don't know what chapter, where it talks about leaving the foundational things, the basics, and moving on to the meat of the Word. And it kind of lists the basics there of apathetism and so on. And those are the beginnings. Yeah, that's right, that's what they are. So the mystery is one of those things we move on to. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, it is. I still don't understand. Who does the presenting? Is it the teachers or we? What does the verse say? Who does the presenting according to the verse? Paul and his boys. The teachers. Let's look at another verse that may help with this.

Go over to Ephesians 5.25. I'm jumping ahead, but that's okay.

Ephesians 5.25, if you've ever been to any competent marriage counseling, you've heard this verse.

Husbands, love your wife just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all of her glory, having no spot and wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless. He's making a parallel between the responsibility of a husband to his wife and paralleling that with Christ who is the husband of the church. Now, if you come over to my house for marriage counseling, we're going to talk about this first. And I'm going to tell the men, here's your responsibility. You're to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

Now, if you're an honest man, you right away say, well, that's not happening. I can't do that. I don't have it within me to do that, and that's the right answer. But Christ in you does. and then that you're to sanctify her, set her apart, and having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

Your responsibility as a husband is to teach your wife the word. That's your responsibility. Boy, it gets real quiet when I say that. But it is. It's a man's responsibility to teach his wife And with the ultimate purpose to present her just like Christ is going to present the church, holy and blameless, and without wrinkle or spot, to himself. That's a pretty big load, isn't it? You wives ought to be pretty excited that I brought that up. Not really. If you had a husband that that's what his purpose in life was, it would be kind of cool. What about the wife? What is her purpose? Her purpose is to submit herself to her husband as is proper in the Lord. If your husband is like that, how tough is it going to be for you to submit? It wouldn't be. That's right. It wouldn't be. Because your husband is submitted.

He knows that none of this is going to happen unless he is subject to the Lord. He knows that. And all of that is based on his identity and your identity with Christ. So, in this case, the Lord Jesus is going to present the church to himself. But Paul is the minister. He has a stewardship to explain what this is so that you can be presented. When you have a stewardship, you have a responsibility. Now, do Courtney and myself and JD have a responsibility here?

How many say that we do? Let me think. Maybe we don't. I mean, so so we we take that this teaching lightheartedly. So anyway. Yes. The question was raised as to who's doing the presenting. Yeah. Well, based on that verse that we just read, isn't it Christ presenting the church to himself in the final presentation? And so Paul was really including himself as being alive in Christ. He says, we may present...

What's interesting about Paul is he's the first steward of this mystery. He's the first one who understood it and understood why he was doing it. And he also understood that without the understanding of the mystery, the people in Colossae were in trouble. when it came to the danger that was coming, even after he had complimented them on their faith. Isn't that something?

He tells them, oh, you guys are terrific. You have faith and love for one another, and he goes on like that, but why is he warning them? We'll get to that in a minute. I didn't want to believe. A lot of people rejected Christ. Yeah, that's true. There was a lack of faith, but it was also the lack of understanding of what the mystery is. Now I'm going to back up a little and go back to the question.

So what does perfection, question five, what does perfection mean to a believer? What's that? Spiritual maturity. What's the word perfection mean? Complete. It means complete? It means, in engineering terms, if you sat down and you designed a well, and when they built it, it worked perfectly, it worked perfectly, you would say it's perfect. So what is a perfect man? I'll take that back. I don't want to say the word man. What does it mean for the believer to be perfect? It means full grown. What does that mean? Does it mean they get to shave? What does it mean? The way that God designed us, not just individually, but as a group. How did he design you? What are you designed to be? Heaven. What? Are we going to be perfected before we go to heaven? Are we going to be perfected before we go to heaven?

Okay, so the answer is a position-condition answer. Positionally, what are you now? You're in Christ, you're perfected. Conditionally, there's this process going on, right? Of conformity to the image of Christ. The conformity is the perfecting process. Does that make sense? And so when you leave your body and go to be with the Lord, you're face to face with him, you're just like him. Are you perfect conditionally at that point? Absolutely. So I would say that a couple of things.

That verse that you hear a lot of in Romans 8.28, that God works all things together for good, all things, not just some of them, together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose, and those He foreknew, He foreordained, to what? To be conformed to the image of His Son. So you can pretty quietly and without a lot of strain say, you know, God is working every single circumstance, incident, thought, experience to this one goal for me to conform me to the image of Christ. Everything is moving in that direction. Why is it that way? The problem is that we first try to apply our definition of what is good to assist God in understanding what our good is. That's right. And that's part of the Colossian error.

So do you understand that associating the mystery with the purpose that Romans talks about, to conform you to the image of Christ. So what can he do once you're conformed? What's he going to do with you? He's going to present you to himself. Does that make sense? Do the two dots connect? Yeah, that's the whole purpose. And here's the thing, if you're being conformed to the image of Christ, where is Christ? In the heavenlies, right?

How does the earth think about and feel about him? Also they're going to love having you around. I'm not telling you to go look, don't get the megaphone and go down to Coors Field and tell everybody who's coming out they're going to hell. Because that guy thinks he needs to do something so he feels rejected. I don't know. But that's not, if the life of Christ is lived through you, One or two things will happen with every person you meet. They'll be attracted to him or they will reject him.

There's no middle ground. Ephesians 4 is until we all attain to the unity of the faith 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. Question, can a believer be perfected conditionally without a thorough knowledge of the mystery?

What do you think? Not conditionally. That's right. You can't. So is it important we find out about the mystery? I think so. But he would be at the moment of his death here on earth. That's right. Well, your condition and your position match. Right. Right. They come together.

So just for grins, what is the heavenly secret or the mystery? There's two aspects to it. The first one is obviously Christ in the saints and the believer. The second one is that the heavenly glory that's connected with it. Those are the two things that were the mysteries.

And lots and lots of believers don't buy this glory business. What is that glory? I get to ask the question. Yeah, what is the glory? What's the glory connected with the mystery? What is it? And let's talk about it from a body of Christ point of view, which is actually the same as individuals, but the body of Christ. What is that glory that's connected, the hope of glory? Hope is something that we don't have yet, but it's an absolute certainty. What is that? Is it the life of Christ?

Okay, not bad. Is that the glory that's going to be revealed in us according to Revelation? That's right. The whole, everyone will see it. Yeah. That's what creation is groaning, waiting for. For what? The revealing of the sons of God. Wow, who are they? The Democrats? Who are the sons of God? We are, right? And the creation is groaning, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. And when they show up, how are we going to know that they are the sons?

Come on. The glory of Christ is going to come out of them. I used Roy last week. Roy was in the Millennial Kingdom, serving the Lord, and he's walking down Wilcox Street, and some earthly person says, ah, there goes one of those sons of God, a member of the Bride of Christ. How are they going to know? Because the glory of Christ will shine out of him. And all of you, too. The glory of Christ will shine out of him. And all of you, too.

I've given to them that they may be one just as we are. I in them and you in me that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and love me even as you have loved me. Isn't it glory just the unity? We will be sharing, when you say they see us, we will have the same glory. Whatever that entity, that essence of who God and Christ are, we will have that unity, that same one. Whatever they are, we are.

I think it will be visible. Like Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Yeah, that approaches it. Yeah, that approaches it. Yeah, sure does. The world may know you. They will see our glory. He's given it to unity. transfiguration or any of that. They will see it in us. But it's a unity of us with him. It goes back to the mystery of the body and his head and all that. I think that's all tied to it so we get it. They will see us and know just by seeing it. We'll have that same glory. That's mind boggling to me. The unity, the union is the thing that's hard to get your arms around because we have sequential minds that think sequentially and I'm me and you're you.

And then to have the Word of God talk about a oneness in Christ is like, how does that look? How do you get your arms around that? that you and the Lord Jesus Christ, not only individually, but us as a body, will be united, oneness with him. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, three different persons. The body of Christ is one with however many members there will be.

Can a believer be happy, oh I love this word, without the unfolding of the heavenly mystery? They can be happy but not joyful. Joyful. Okay. Don't you know a lot of people that are just happy that their sins are forgiven? Maybe they're joyful. Huh? Joyful. Joyful about their sins being forgiven? Well, yeah. Okay. But if they don't know the heavenly secret, would you say... You argue with everything I say. No, I don't. You do. I'm just not going to say it. I would say, maybe I'll put it this way.

It's not enough just to have spiritual life for you to be the believer that God has called you to be. You've got to know what the mystery is. You've got to understand it. And as you understand it, and all the part of it, then you as a believer will begin to manifest, internally and externally, the joy of the Lord. But if you don't know it, it's like Courtney's says that if you don't understand identification, how can you move forward? You can't. It's the same thing with the mystery.

I would say you can have joy in salvation. You can have that, but you're not growing. There are millions of people who have joy in salvation, but are they still unmilkable? Are they growing? Are they being conformed? Or are they basically in the nursery, as Paul calls it? the milk of the word versus the meat. And you can have joy and salvation. I think there are millions and billions of people who have joy and salvation, but they don't have the growth. And what are they missing? What are you missing? Fellowship.

I think that's exactly right. You really don't know what Christ is and who he is. Okay, but wait a minute. If you are a little bit dense, you're born, you're not all together, and so, okay, maybe you don't understand all of it, but it gives you peace and joy and happiness that you understand salvation. All right, let me ask you this. Without all the other stuff like you said, they might not understand it.

Wanda, I'm questioning her. Does any man born of Adam understand anything spiritually? No. That's right. He doesn't. So the Spirit of God has to illuminate him about information, about, initially, salvation. And there are millions of people who are saved who think that that's all there is, is salvation. And it's not because they're dense It's just no one's around to teach him anything beyond that. Okay, but somehow I'm capable of understanding the depth of the Bible. And how do you understand the depth of the Bible? Even if you read it, you wouldn't maybe get it. Is it because you're a doofus or because why? I think it's the Holy Spirit. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. The Holy Spirit doesn't have to worry about whether you've got an IQ of 160 or 6. Because the intimacy with Christ is not based on your intellect.

Do you see that? It's a journey. It isn't like just, whoa. Yeah, I agree. That's growth. Yeah, it's growth. It is. what I've learned here. Yeah, it is a growth process. And then sometimes you question a lot of things, but then you have friends that say, shut up. No, but seriously, I mean, it's a journey. Yeah, it is a journey. There's no question it is. I've heard the story of this man who was very sick. And he had been a teacher and he said to all his students, I am just now understanding the grace of God. Oh, I feel that way every week. Yeah. Every week. Right.

You know, that's like you don't go from year one to 26 overnight. And it's the same, you know, he goes through the description of being, you know, a babe to meet and all that. And it doesn't happen overnight. And it'll happen through your entire life here. So it's not that, you know, one day you have it all. And I don't know how many times I think I've got it. And then and then he calls me on the phone very quickly. Yeah. Your son's laughing. And then they correct me by using other instruments of the body. The rest. But it is a quote that you shouldn't. Well, it does say on. unfolding.

Can a believer be happy without the unfolding? I was just going to say, it might be helpful to think of salvation in the fullness of the way Scripture presents it, so it's not just being saved from the penalty, which is what happens when we believe in the gospel, but it's also being saved from the power, which is what we're talking about now.

We are saved from the power of sin by better understanding the mystery and understanding being conformed and being transformed. So all of those things that the Spirit is working in us to do over time conditionally is a type of salvation, but it's a type of salvation from the power. The penalty has no effect on you anymore. And eventually he'll be saved from the presence of him. And so salvation has different ways of referring to the believer's life. From the moment of new birth to growth and maturity, which is what we're talking about now, to being presented, perfect, and presence completely being removed. So that might be helpful to just recognize salvation has different... It's not enough to know salvation in terms of the gospel, because you need to know salvation in terms of the power of sin.

How does that affect you today? It's a big deal. I would only add one thing to that, and I'm not challenging you, like Wanda would think I was. I asked this question last week, are you saved by the gospel message? What saves you? Faith. Who said Christ? It's the Savior who saves you. Okay? It's the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who sets you free. He, personally, is the One. And the mystery is about Him. The doctrine and the information is really important, but it's about Him. Salvation is about Him. He's the Savior. He's the one that does the work.

The Spirit of God is the one that conforms you to the image of Christ by doing what? Allowing you to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus. You can't behold the glory of the Lord Jesus if you're stuck in your mind memorizing verses. There has to be a transformation where you have a heart hunger to know Him. Do you see that?

That matters, big time. And that's a big part of the mystery, is knowing Christ. Because the language he uses about who Christ is and treasure, wisdom and knowledge and all these kinds of things, it's about a person. It's a really important aspect. I've said this for a long time.

There comes a time in every growing believer's life when he stops reading the Bible to accumulate information and he begins to read it just to hang out with the Lord. And when that day comes, it's a day of hallelujah rest. I'm just in there to hang with Him, to learn of Him, to know Him. I find it very, very restful for me to think that Christ is in me and I am in Him.

It's a very comfortable place for me. Yeah. Now, Christ in you and you in him, understanding the mystery. Now, try this one on. I'm going to ask this correctly. Where do you get to know Christ? No. Where do you get to know him? Spending time with him. No. No. No. Where is he? Where? He's in heaven. Oh. So it kind of makes sense that maybe that's where we need to be.

So how do you get to know him? By reading the Bible. And what does the Bible do? Give you facts about Him? Yeah. How do you get to know Him personally? Well, because He's in me. But I don't know who He is. Here's another question. What's more important? Christ and you or you and Him? Him. Which is more important? Both are the same. Oh, they're both the same. No, one of them is more important than the other one. Which one is?

We're in Him. That's right. And where is He? So, you read your Bible, and the Holy Spirit does what? Cram your head full of facts? Or does He take you to Him? Where He is. And you can see the glory reflectively. You can see what's around Him. Where you're from, that's your home. It's important to understand This part of the mystery is also an issue of location. We as growing believers always think that, well, Jesus has got to come here and fix whatever's here. And part of the mystery is, no, I've gone there. I'm there. Do you see that? It's really important you see that.

The Spirit of God is about the business of revealing the person of Christ to you, using the vehicle of the Word, reflectively. But where is He? He's in the heavenlies. You're in Him. You're positioned in the heavenlies. That's where you get to know Him. And then, when you come back to the earth mentally, you can be of some use. But if you're always saying, O Lord, come into my environment and fix my deal, you never get to understand who you really are and who He really is.

Does that make sense? Oh, you've got a furrowed brow. I know. I think that sounds wonderful. But I don't know how to do that. Oh, great. You want to make that in the form of a question? How do you do that? How do you do that? Faith I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me. So faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

Right. Where is he? He's in heaven. That's right. That's a concept that, you know, I'm dealing with some because I really haven't had that stress. No, I understand. It's new information. I agree that it is. But part of this mystery is understanding who you are, where you are. It's remembering that he loved me and gave himself for me. Isn't that cool? And I live by the faith of the Son of God.

Faith has to have an object, right? Doesn't your faith have to have an object? Don't you have to have something to believe? Or someone to believe in? The Gospel message is faith in a person. What you're believing is the testimony that the father gave about his son. So you're believing the veracity of God saying, okay, my son, here's the gospel about him. And if you believe it, I will save you. What have you really done? You've taken a person for his word. Right? So as you read on in the word of God, what do you find out?

Well, there's more information about, and who's giving me that information? It's God himself. What do I believe? Yeah, I believe the information, but I also really believe the one who's telling me. Okay, but telling you means reading the Bible. He's not speaking to you. That's right. But my faith is based on the veracity of the one who is communicating the information to me. Who came up with the stuff? God did. Do I believe the words because they're printed in a nice little form there? No. It's because God said them.

It's always about a person. Christianity is about a person, not a religion. It's not about a system. It's a person. That's exactly right. So you're the person. Who's the person? You're the person and you're telling us. No, the Lord Jesus Christ is the person.

Oh, you know, I don't even have to do the last question because I already did it. This is really quick. Wanda, this will go to your question. Do we and Paul have the power and energy to carry out God's purpose here? Only through Christ working in us. That's what I think. That's right. That's the right answer. This is the kind of thing that energy... You know, Paul talks about that he's labors, laboring, striving according to who's working. His working, which works mightily in me. So we must understand as we go forward that all of this is carried out by him. Spiritual growth functions from a position of rest. If you're still trying to make it happen, you're not resting. So spiritual growth happens from rest, because when you're resting, somebody else is doing something.

That's really cool. It couldn't be any other way under grace. Have you ever heard of the quiet Bible? No. I just saw something about reading the Bible and being very Is that what you're talking about? Because there's a mystery here that you're talking about that I don't get it yet.

Okay, well you will before we're done. Let's close. Father, how we thank you. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the mystery and the fact that we are, every moment of every day, continuing to grow in the knowledge and grace of Him so that we might, that He might, present us holy and blameless before Him in love, Father. We thank you for that. We pray in the Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen.