Colossians Lesson 10
Colossians · Mike Doyle · Jun 15, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 24
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926431213576

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

Okay, somebody read chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 out loud. As you have begun in the Lord Jesus, My first question is, how did believers receive Christ? By faith. By faith, okay. What did they receive? Spirit with gratitude. Spirit with gratitude, okay. What did they receive? Maybe ask it this way.

If faith is how you began, what was the focus of your faith? What did you in fact believe? I believed the gospel. And what is the gospel? That Christ was crucified and that he was buried in the world again. On the third day, and seen by many. So the focus is on the testimony that the father gives about his son. who he is and what he did. And if you believe that, then you receive, as the word here, receive Christ.

But if you take a look at Ephesians 2.8.9, it says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast. So what's the other aspect of faith or the other aspect of salvation that we didn't mention.

It's by grace. We're going to spend some time talking about it's by grace. Grace is a definition of grace. Anybody? Those of you who went to the grace class, hopefully your memories are strong enough to remember what we defined and that we stole the definition from Chester Macaulay.

It's the unlimited, unmerited blessings from God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. I think it's the best definition of grace there is. It's unlimited and it's unmerited. So salvation comes to us on an unlimited and unmerited basis and we receive it by faith. We receive Christ by faith. And faith is the one act a man can do that he can't take credit for, right? Where's the credit? It's in who and what you believe, it's not in the fact that you believe. So believers receive Christ by grace through faith.

So what's the word receive mean? To lay hold of, to take to yourself, to join oneself. To what? Acquire. Accept and take. It means to be near to. It means to get hold of. It means to take for oneself or associate oneself. with the object to receive it. For you Greek geeks, it's eros active indicative. What's eros tense mean? It means it's a fact. It means it's an indicative mood, which means that it's true and you do it.

It's an active voice. Active voice and passive, I mean it's been so long since I've been to school. I was looking up passive, what is that? Passive voice means that the action is being done to you and all you're doing is receiving it. In this case it is active voice which means you are doing the receiving.

And voice will be important as we go through these verses. A quote from Lewis Perry Chaffer, I thought this was a good one. The character of pure grace is destroyed when the reception of the spirit into the individual heart is made to depend on any human merit, goodness, or personal consecration, whatever. You know, one thing about teaching up here is this floor right here is squeaky. You guys are crazy. Well, you have to stand still. I can't. I've tried doing that. I can't.

So we kind of know what the word receive means. Let's talk about for a minute what it doesn't mean. what receiving the Lord Jesus doesn't mean. You might think that I'm fishing here, but I think in contemporary Christianity what it doesn't mean is really important. Because lots of times the Gospel message or something like the Gospel message is presented in such a way and the words are used in such a way that you might think that this is receiving Christ, but it really isn't.

I'll give you the first one. How about asking Jesus into your heart? Is that the same thing as what we're talking about here? I have a real problem with that, when you question that. I think about I look at this and behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, he can open the door. I will come in to him and will start with him and him with me. And that seems to me like that's receiving Christ in our heart. But he's standing at the door of our heart.

How about this idea? Wouldn't you say that the Lord Jesus comes when you believe the gospel? rather than you asking him into your heart, wouldn't it make more sense to realize... No, I'm not thinking about this. And I'm not kicking at the nap. For us, I think it's on him that I... which says, just now you're doubting his dear Lord. Well, or this idea. And just now, go open the door, let Jesus come into your heart. Wouldn't that give you some credit? Wouldn't that give you some credit in your own salvation? I opened the door. Where in the word of God is that verse?

Revelation 3.20. Where is it?

Revelation 3.20.

It has to do with fellowship more than salvation. What I want to get across here is the fact that there's lots of phrases that we hear in contemporary Christianity that sound like they're salvation but they're not. And asking Jesus into your heart is not the same thing as believing the gospel.

Because what do you have to ask for? Does the gospel require you to ask for anything? It requires you to believe what is already true. You see that? Does that make sense? And that's why I said that as he comes when you believe the gospel, not by asking him in. If you believe the gospel, he shows up in your heart. Not because you asked him, but because you believe the gospel. When you're taking what is given, let someone see you as not giving. Okay.

You know, again, I go back to the identification truths, really. clean this up for me, you know, the asking into your heart, you know that, one, trying to find it in a verse that says asking into your heart and what Mike said, but when you understand the identification truth, the co-crucifixion, that's not just a heart, that's a whole new life, and so it's not asking him into your heart, it's the Romans 6 co-crucifixion, and then we are placed into him, And that's not placed into the heart or anything like that.

It's not anything that has to do about asking or... He places us into Him and Him into us. And it's a whole new life. It's not just a heart or asking into a heart or this asking. Again, it's not an asking. It's Him doing it to us. And I think the identification truths clear up anything about us asking Him into His heart. He's done everything. And it's not us asking. Okay.

What I want you to understand is that the act of faith is really not an asking. The act of faith is taking for yourself something that's true. Does that make, there's a difference, do you see the difference? Yes, because those who received him, those who believed in his name would be able to look right.

Okay, where is that in the word of God? It's in John chapter 1. Who is he talking to? Jews. It's important to understand and make the distinction between being born again into the body of Christ and becoming a Jew. Now when he said to Nicodemus, unless a man be born again he'll never see or enter into the kingdom of God, is that salvation? Or is he talking to a Jew entering the kingdom?

What do you think? You've got to be able to distinguish who's doing the talking and who's the talking to. Here's another one. How about giving your life to Christ? Do you want it? Do you want your dirty old stinky life? He does not want your dead and trespassing, sin and lies. He wants to give you new life. That's all I thought. The guy that led me to the Lord, he kept saying that over and over, give your life to Christ. And later on I learned, what would he want with my life? Well, what about the people who are unsaved? That's who we're talking about. Why aren't they saved? don't accept, right? Well, it's not so much accepting as it is believing.

I mean, it's pretty simple. The gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, you know, in two or three verses there, just lays out what Christ is and what he did, right? And the whole requirement on man's part is just to believe that. But you have to believe. And if you don't believe, you're not saved, right? That's right. So if I say to you, give your life to Christ, is that the same thing? It's not, is it? No. It's not. You may never have heard the gospel and somebody pounded on you and said, give your life to Christ. And you said, okay, I did it. I must be saved. No, you're not. I don't think that's right. You don't think that's right? I just said I don't think that would very often happen.

We do believe in the Holy Spirit and we are trying to turn it over. And we realize it's a gift that we're receiving. And back to what Courtney said about the identification truths, you know I grew up a Catholic, and when you grow up a Catholic everything is give it up to the Lord, right? Give it up to this.

And when you come to realize, wait a minute, he doesn't want any of my old nastiness. He's giving me his very own life, the resurrected life of Christ and that's what he's focused on. And he doesn't want me giving up anything. He wants me by faith to enter into all that he has for me. That's different. Do you see that?

And trust me, I think that the Spirit of God saves men with a minimal amount of information. You don't have to be a scholar to get saved. Folks that have been blessed to go to a church like Holly Hills for a while, or maybe a local church that understands the gospel, We aren't aware that across the country, because our family has lived all over a lot of cities in the United States, visited a lot of churches, tried to find good churches. And you've done research yourself. And it's very, very rare to find a church where just on the gospel issue that you're discussing, there's actually understanding and they have it accurate. Because these different phrases you're going through, repent, you'll probably hit that too.

That one, you know, made Christ the Lord of your life. There you go. That's not the gospel. No, it's not. All these things that you're going over. For folks that have grown up in Holly Hills or maybe another solid church, you would wonder, man, this is basic. It is basic, but it's so screwed up all around the country. See, and that's the point that I'm making.

You may have been in a church that presented the gospel correctly. and invited you to exercise faith in the person and work of Christ. But you're in a rare place that that happened. I was saved through the ministry of Young Life, and their whole dance was give your life to Christ. Now, you know, in the midst of all of that, I got enough understanding about what was going on, so when I did believe, I knew I was saved.

But it took these guys three weeks to kind of get through all of the fog to get down to the issue. In the meantime, I began to sort of look things up in the Bible, which was weird. I didn't know to the right of the index. But it's really interesting.

Once you are a believer and you investigate salvation, it's really cool from a grace standpoint. From a grace standpoint, wow, God did all of this and all I had to do was believe. That was the biggest problem I had. I kept saying to these guys, You're telling me that if I believe and I wanted to know precisely that God will save me for all eternity and I can't do anything, I'd say, you're nuts. We don't do it like that in the Catholic Church. I mean, it's a hard thing to believe because we're so self-centered and we think we're the center of the universe and what we decide is reality.

No, it's not. No, it's not. Ready for another one? I hope nobody gets up and leaves because now they think they're nuts. Go ahead. I was going to say, I think what's important about what you're saying is that there are people who some will say, are you saying, say, well, I believe in Jesus.

Aha, but have you made him the lord of your life? Lordship salvation, that's right. And so they're thinking, wow, you know, I try to do that, I'm not sure I did or I didn't. And so they better go back and check, right? Yeah. We'll get to that one. You know, somebody said, ask me, are you saved? And I said, I must be because I'm so wonderful. How about how about this one? Making a commitment to Christ. What's that?

Billy Graham uses that. Oh, he did it a lot. The Lord has since taken him home, but we had a guy come to our Tuesday group named Charm Sherman, and at one time he was the general manager of Athletes in Action, which is a campus crusade group of basketball players that used to go around the country and play preseason games with the best teams in the country. He's the only coach I ever knew that never won a game and never lost his job because of it.

But I said to him one time, I said, well, tell me what you do. And he said, well, we play the game and our players, you know, interact with their players and then after the game, some of our players will stand up in front of the crowd and they will tell them about Christ. And I said, well, what do they tell them specifically? And he said, well, we tell them that they need to make a commitment to Christ. And I said, when do you give them the gospel? He said, well, we tell them to make a commitment to Christ. I said, when do you give them the gospel?

I said that two or three times. He said, well, that's not the gospel. I said, no, it's not. What is the gospel? He didn't know. You imagine that? Standing up in front of maybe 5,000 people saying, listen, you all need to make a commitment to Christ. Well, okay. What does that mean? I don't know. What does it mean?

It's the same thing as Lordship Salvation. How about turning over the controls of your life to Christ? That's a good one. How about believing plus being baptized? Well what about it? Did you come out of the Baptist Church? I did, but then I joined the Catholic Church. Does baptism save anybody? No, it doesn't. It's grace and faith that saves you. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't be baptized, you should. But baptism is a sign of what already happened. How about believing and keeping the Ten Commandments? How about submitting to Christ's mastery, Lordship, Salvation?

The big proponent of that is our boy John MacArthur. What's the problem with that? That you believe and make Jesus the Lord of your life. To do what? Well, is making Jesus the Lord of your life part of the gospel? No, it's not. It's an addition. How do you even do that? What's that? What does that even mean? You know, to be honest with you, I don't know what it means. I really don't. It's like He isn't Lord unless I make Him that. What does that mean? He takes control of my life? What does it mean?

I mean, I think they wrapped into it repentance, right? So quit sinning, stop sinning, be sorry for your sin, be perfect, and then submit yourself to Christ, He's your active Lord, and then you're saved, huh? Yeah. You see how subtle this stuff is? And the reason it's so subtle, it must be the Lord. The reason it's so subtle, when you think about it, why would those kinds of things find their way into our thinking? It bumps you off, yeah.

It seems like all those things focus you back in on, you're looking at yourself as to how you're doing or how you're measuring up, right? Exactly, and I had something to do with it. The minute you think you had something to do with your salvation, when it gets tough, you're going to question what you did. And one of my friends is wrapped up with the Lordship Salvation, and he says, how do you know when somebody else is a believer? Well, is he the Lord of their lives? If he isn't, if they're living in sin, then they're not born again. I mean, he's looking at them and what they're doing, rather than our Lord Jesus.

So it's based on performance. Do you think that knowing and understanding the gospel, just as it's important for our salvation, don't you think it's just as important for our spiritual growth? Yes, it is. And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why, because the principles are in place. How are you saved? What is he saying here? As you have received the Lord Jesus, you need to be really clear about how all that happened. So walk. Is it important? Yes it is.

Because if you have not received Christ on a grace-faith basis, then whatever you added is what you are going to add to your spiritual growth. And you are not going to walk on a grace basis, on a faith basis. You're going to have this other element in there which was your contribution. And so if you don't perceive that you're growing fast or whatever, it's always going to be your fault. And so you find yourself under some sort of a self-imposed legal system in which if you could just figure out how you're messing this up, then you would grow, rather than functioning on the basis of, I live in an environment of God's grace by faith. If God says it, I buy it. It's like, what do we do? We plant and we water. Who gives the increase? God does. He gives the increase.

I think the Lordship, we can't minimize that Christ is our King. Because when I think of Christ as our King, It makes me think that I'm sitting in front of him bowing down on this subject, instead of me being in him. That's a great point. I'm submitting because I'm a subordinate. No. I'm in him and he's to live his life through me. Living under grace is not a thing of bowing down like a coolie. That's not what grace is. Grace is overwhelming blessing coming to you full on all the time.

When we went down to Cape Kennedy And we got a ride out to that launch pad 39A, where they send off the shuttle. And if you've ever watched the launch of that thing, the power that comes out of the bottom of those rockets is unbelievable. Well, that's what it's like living under graces. It's like being on that pad when they light that sucker off. The grace comes at you like that. And our minds are like, I think I'll move over here and add a little to it. Like, what can you add? You know, you can't. And so if you have begun...

On Judgment, well I hope this isn't off the track, but on Judgment Day, what's God going to be judging? Whether you made a more to your life or not. I mean we're all saved. Now you're talking about the Bema Judgment? I don't know. I just read somewhere. We're all going to show up at this thing called the Bema Judgment. And the Bema Judgment is a place of rewards. Oh, okay. How do you spell that? B-E-M-A. Bema. Yeah. Did I get it right? I thought so. It's a place of rewards. And here's the other part of it that I really like.

Whatever in my life wasn't of the Lord Jesus, gets burnt up in the fire, and it's gone. It's gone. And so I'm rewarded, everybody in this room is rewarded for what Christ was able to do through you. And oh, by the way, in Ephesians it says he created us in Christ Jesus under good works that we should walk in them. How many did he create for you? Do you know?

If it's one, fine. When you get there, you're only going to have one. You're going to get two. or you aren't going to show up with a half. You're going to have whatever he's determined and he's going to reward you for what he did through you. That's a pretty good deal, don't you think? I mean, that's the best deal I've found. So it's a place of rewards. You have to look at the Bema that way. It isn't, oh, you're going to get scolded. Your sin isn't an issue because our sins have already been taken care of, right? Where did that beam up come from? Where is it? In Corinthians? It's not a car. I think it's 1 Corinthians before the judgment seat of Christ. I'm not sure what chapter. It literally just means a raised platform. Raised platform, that's all it means. A raised platform. Like at the Olympics, that platform is a beamer. Yeah, that's right. Whoever wins the World Cup will get to stand up on the platform.

Last one, repenting and confessing your sins. Is part of this, how do I say this, is it a requirement on your part to repent? And what's the word repent mean? To have a change of mind. So in the gospel, I don't see the word repent there. But here's the thing, if the gospel is presented to you and you believe it, did you have a change of mind? You better believe you did. You better believe you did. about who's saving who and what the information is, yes. If it is a repentance fund, is it that requires that you have to have acknowledgement of your sin or state?

Yeah, when I went down the first or second time to teach the ladies in Parker, and we were talking, I forget what the subject was, but I had them so set up, I said, ladies, here's the question of the day. If you feel sorry for your sins, is God going to forgive you faster than the lady over here who really doesn't feel sorry? Raise your hand if you think that's a true statement. Over half of them raised their hand.

That repentance had something to do with sorrow, and that if you were sorry, God was more ready and quick to forgive your sins. And I said, that's ridiculous. What's the reason that your sins are forgiven? Christ died. Yeah, he paid for them. It's what he did that's why he forgives you, not because you did anything. But we have to confess them. Okay, what's the word confess mean? Make a list of the dirty laundry and lay it out in front of them? That's the same thing as giving your life to Christ. About what? About your sin and what else? About what he did about it.

He doesn't want us spending any more time on our sins than is necessary because he wants us in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. He doesn't say, oh you've got 15 minutes to be sorry and then we get back to it. There's none of that. in this age of self-esteem and your own worth and everything, that it's kind of like an obstacle.

Before, like centuries have passed, people recognized their own sinfulness. If you don't have a recognition of sin or how sin exists as a base, there's no interest or no love for the gospel. The kids that were teaching downstairs, I should ask him, he probably knows. We taught them what sin was. You know what sin is? What is it? What's the word? Missing the mark. So we demonstrated that by having them stand over here and we had a target on the wall and they were supposed to throw darts or something to hit the target. Not one of them could hit the target. So they missed the mark.

Does God want you to spend any time on how bad a shot you are? Does He? No, He doesn't. If He identifies you with the death, prayer, and resurrection of His Son, and you're seated in the heavenlies right now, and the whole idea is to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, if you're beholding your sinfulness, you're not beholding Christ. Oh, the non-believer? They don't. They don't unless the Spirit of God convicts them.

Oh no, by the way, that's what he's doing. It says so in John. He's convicting the world of sin. And I don't know how he does it, but it's his job. And also of righteousness. Because Christ is no longer here. I totally leave that one in the Spirit's hands, because I don't know how he's doing it, but he is. He is.

There's nobody, speaking of judgment, at the Great White Throne Judgment, when all of humanity comes before the Lord, not one soul is going to say to Christ, you know what, I probably messed up back then, maybe you would help me now. They're not going to do that. They're going to say, I didn't want you then, I don't want you now, where's the door to hell? That's how powerful this in nature is. They don't want to be with a glorified Christ because they love the darkness. There's no dancing around about that. Okay, I've probably been through enough of those. Years ago I had a friend that was a Christian. Oh, I've had a few friends like that. So I brought my guitar and sang some worship songs.

And one of the girls was just like totally just so nervous and just, I mean, you'd have to see her to see how distraught she was. And I was trying, and I didn't even know Explain the gospel the way we do here. But she just said, you know, the Bible says be holy like God is holy. And she said, I can't do that. She was right. Part of her problem was, I can't meet up to God's requirements.

Like Josiah was saying, this idea of lordship, or any of the methodistic ideas of sanctification, which is an improvement to the next step, or I'm a little holier than, that will drive you crazy. Because it's impossible to do. It's impossible to do. Why do you think Christ had to die? Why didn't he come and say, now look, here's a new set of rules. You guys abide by the rules. You'll be fine. That's right. The flesh profits nothing.

One last, I was looking at over a hundred plus times in the New Testament the Holy Spirit describes the word believe would be the word used to describe the one and only condition of salvation. He didn't use the word ask or confess or submit or give. If the word believe is good enough for the Holy Spirit it ought to be good enough for you and me.

So, belief is the issue. And, having the right facts to believe is really important. If that's how salvation is and that's how it begins, then how do believers walk? As you have begun in the Lord Jesus, so walk in him. Now, the walk, a little grammar. It's imperative, which means it's a command. It's present tense, which means it's going on now, and it's active voice, you do it. And this walk means to walk about, wherever you're going, whatever you're doing, you walk by faith, like that.

Now, how does this happen? It's certainly not the woman that he just described who was trying to be holy. How does this happen? The Holy Spirit is the walkers that be on their way to a destination. And to live a Christian life is to be headed toward a goal of fellowship with Christ. Not too bad. I want you to keep in mind the other element of salvation. What was the other element? Grace. So how does grace work in this walking business?

Because if you spend any time studying the walk, you have to come to the conclusion, what God has called me, the life he's called me to live, I can't. It's impossible for me to do it. Do you agree with that? Do you arrive at the point where you say, are you kidding? I can't live this life. It's totally impossible for me to do it. But you know what? God expects me to do it. I'm really in trouble. Right? So what does God do from a gracious standpoint to implement this life in and through you? How does he do it? He gives you Christ's life. He gives you the life, but just having it isn't enough. Christ lives by faith through grace. Christ lives his life through you. We're missing an element. The Holy Spirit. There it is. That's it.

A supernatural power has to be provided to a believer to execute this superhuman life that we still live under grace. Now, does that mean he gives you the power to do it? Yes, we're dead. And buried and resurrected. Now think about this. Does God come to you and say, here you go, here's the power, it's right in here. You take it and live it. Is that what he does? He performs it in and through you.

See, there's an issue here about most of you who went to the class we taught on the Holy Spirit. You begin to realize that there's a dependency that develops on him to do what the Word of God says he's going to do. And the most important thing is that he's going to live this life I hate to use the word enabler, but that's really what he is. I found this statement that I think says that really well. It says a Christian walks in him, not just with him. He is Lord. In such a presence as us, he redeems, fouls, strengthens, sustains, and transforms our lives. Not too bad. Not too bad. How about this?

Under grace, The all-powerful, abiding and dwelling and sufficient Holy Spirit of God is given to every saved person. Quoting from Schaeffer, there is no aspect of teaching of grace which is more vital than this, which so fully differentiates these teachings from every other rule of life. We have a superhuman rule of life to live and we've been given the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish that life in us.

You have to understand that. Now that doesn't mean that you start putting statues in your kitchen of the Holy Spirit, because that isn't how he works. Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the fact that since God has proposed an impossible rule of life, and provided the sufficient spirit, the believer's responsibility is thereby changed from being a struggle to what? Reliance.

Your Christian life and my Christian life is a reliance on the spirit of God to do what he says he's going to do. Now, it's tough for us, especially as Americans, because we do have a constitution, and we listen to Lindgau, for us to learn that the Spirit of God is making us dependent on Him. So, as you have begun in the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in Him. I think the most important part of learning about this life aside from learning the truths about this life in the word, is the Spirit of God teaching us to be dependent on Him to live that life through us. His life.

Is that okay with that? Anybody want to challenge me there? It's okay if you do. I want to say something, Mike, and I think where I was sort of a confused and a fool before, years ago. You're getting the line behind me. Yeah, I'm not anymore. Just kidding. But what I didn't get before is that once we understand these things, it's not like you said, you know, you did that action with your wallet, my hand is on the wall.

It's not like God gives us his life and hey, now it's up to us to to make it happen, right? And that's where I just didn't get that. It's a daily dependence. Almost like the human salvation experience, where we're daily, we see our flesh, we see the potential for Christ to live through us, but we have to depend on him to do it. We can't just, we don't just take the reins and alright, now it's up to us and run off with these identification truths and become spiritual. He has to do it as we rely. Right. That's really good. And how does he teach you that reliance? I think it's pretty noticeable that I can't do it on my own. How do you learn that? You get out there and try it. And guess what? You get a little bloody. Frustrated. Angry. All of those things. And you learn.

It's very interesting how the Spirit of God is such a thorough teacher. This dependence on him One of the most marveling things in the Old Testament was the fact that Abraham was accounted righteous because he believed God. Now if you study Abraham's life over the next 30 years, he's such a slug. I mean, he blows it every time. But 40 years down the road, God comes to him and says, I want you to take your son up to the mountain and I want you to sacrifice him to me.

He doesn't hesitate. He does not hesitate. And his son, I'm thinking, is probably 30 years old at that point. His son doesn't hesitate either. And off they go. And Abraham's mindset is that my God is a God who gives life. See that? How did he learn that? Because he got an email from the Lord? Forty years is how you learn that. How many years did it take for God to, in essence, kill off all the unbelieving Jews who wouldn't go in the Promised Land? It took 40 years to get rid of those doubters.

So don't be in a hurry. You're like me. My buddy Straub used to say, if the Lord doesn't hurry up, it won't matter. It's not a magic number, but not many people live past that age. You know what's interesting about that? As we learn dependence on the Spirit of God, we recognize that He's been busy working in our lives and working and conforming us and teaching us not only the doctrine but the principles of how to live. And He's working as fast as we can possibly go. Because He doesn't want us to miss any of the experiences of that.

And you know why? You know why I think that is? Because we don't live this life for us, we live it for somebody else. So when somebody else comes up, shows up in our life and we can recognize right where they are because they're coming down the same road you came down, you know exactly what to do and what to say and you know it's going to take a long time and you're okay with that. You see that? That's how you get prepared. I think. I've been working on Courtney for months. Years and years. How are we doing time-wise? We had one buzzer, right?

Describe the walk mentioned here. What did you have? Describe the walk. When you say, first of all, it has to be in keeping with the same principles by which you were saved, right? Is that right? And those principles, two important ones, grace and faith. Is that the buzzer? Okay, we'll pick up with four next week. And we'll probably get through faster now that we've set the tone, I think. Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for the grace that we live under. We thank you for your spirit that abides in us. And we recognize that you are causing us to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, being conformed to him. And then, this life that's pleasing to you will be manifested in and through us, Father. And we thank you. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.