Faith - Lesson 4
Mike Doyle · Jan 25, 2015
Faith, No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492645432307

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

Okay, we're lesson four, right? Today's class is going to be somewhat repetitious, but I'm thinking that we really need to get clear in our minds what the essence of faith is. So, we're studying the four aspects of biblical faith. What are they? What's the first one? Essence. The essence of faith, which is what's up here. The principle of faith, personal faith, and faith. When you see faith with a definite article in front of it, what does that mean? It's different. It's important that we get the essence down first. And the reason it's important is because everything else tags off of it. If we get the essence of faith down, then we're going to be able to understand faith in terms of the definite article, we'll have a much greater understanding of personal faith and faith as a principle.

So, as we've talked about in the last week or so, that Hebrews 11.1, faith is the essence or the substance of things hoped for, the evidence or reality of things not seen. And we talked about faith is. And my wife told me I didn't do a very good job of explaining what is is. So we're going to try to say that I brought it up again. Remind me. You know what, it really does matter here. So let's, for maybe some clarification, let's go to John 18, 5. John 18, 5.

And this is the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and the bad guys have come to get him. They want to know where Jesus of Nazareth is. And his answer is, they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth, and he said to them, I am he. And Judas also, who was betraying him, was standing with them.

This little phrase I am He in Greek is called Ego Emi. Now if you were a Jew in Palestine 2000 years ago and somebody said who are you and you said Ego Emi, they would stone you to death because Ego Emi means I am who I am. I am God. Essence verb. I am. There is no difference between me and God. I the man and I God are the same. Ego e me. Faith is reality. Reality is faith. Jesus is God. God is Jesus.

Essence verb. Ego e me. You see that, you don't have to be a Greek scholar, but a lot of times you will see this egoimi if you have a Greek translation. And the Jews, whenever Jesus said that, and he said it a lot, they were going for the rocks. They were going to stone him to death because they knew what that meant. I'm God. I am the preexistent one. I am who I am.

One other example, John 14.6.

John 14.6 says Jesus said to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. I am the way. What do you think I am there is? Egoe me. So essence verb, I am the way, I am truth, and I am life. Life is me, truth is me, and way is me. It defines who the subject of the sentence is. There is a direct connection between the subject and the object. I am.

Does that make sense? Now, I'm not going to say that faith echo any reality because we're talking about the essence of faith. I'm not talking about Christ. But I think those are good examples of what what an essence verb is. You had another example, didn't you? Yeah, but I don't know where it was. Do you know what the verse was? No. She's been talking to me about this.

So an essence verb in Greek tells us the state of something, a state in which something continually exists. Faith continually exists in reality. and it continually exists in the things of God. It's not sometimes, it always is like that. And it ties the subject to the object or the complement. That's as much of grammar as you're going to get. But I want to make sure that you understand that, what an essence verb is. because it changes the way you look at things. Faith is this, and it's not anything other than this. I don't care how you schmooze it, this is what faith is in its essence.

Here's the second part of this, and I'm going to be asking you this in the weeks to come. This has absolutely nothing to do with anybody in this room. I'm going to say it again. This has absolutely nothing to do with anybody in this room. This has to do with what faith is. Well, you could say that a lot about grace and other things, too. It has nothing to do with us.

That's right. In and of itself. Right. Sure. That's exactly right. You alright with that? I want this to be clear. As we study faith, we're going to be, and as you can tell, we're going to be more repetitious, because I think it's important that we get some of these things, because it's very difficult to get past the idea that faith is all about me. No, it's not. When we get to personal faith, it will be, but when you're talking about the essence, it's not. Okay, you alright with that?

They're not responding. Ego and me. E-G-O. That's one word. And the other word is E-I-M-I. E-I-M-I. Ego, is that the same as ego? It's the same thing. I am. Yeah. It's me. And I, you know, it just is I am. But you have to kind of expand on that in English to make you understand it. I am who I am. You know, I am. It makes me think of when Moses was going to go to Pharaoh and he said, Who shall I say sent me? And he said, I am. Ego e me. That's what he said. You tell him ego e me. And Pharaoh understood. Better not be messing with this guy.

And that's how to understand the Trinity to some extent. The Trinity because Jesus is the... Yeah. And so is the Father and so is the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And it's like the sin nature is like, I am. Right? Well, this has to do more with, you know, I am because I am in and of myself. And I think that's what the sin nature doesn't want to tell us to be like, I am, you're not, I am.

So, yes, Hal. I was just going to say the example with the Samaritan woman by the well. Sure. Jesus said if you knew who was talking to you, you would ask of him the bread of life. She spoke further and he said, I am. And she got up and ran into town and said, wow, you should see this guy I just ran into. Mike, I think the hard part is and what, you know, after having, you know, my wife talks to me, too, about all these things, too. The wives are a great check and balance. Yes, they are.

You know, I think the hardest thing is when we say, and I guess what I'm reading between the lines is, When we define what this is, and faith is, and that's the essence, our immediate is to put it into the personal faith. There's nothing about us and trying to apply personal faith to something that is not in and of itself, related to us. And that's the disconnect. I struggle with it, trying to go, okay, my personal faith is, but this is what faith is.

And it's trying to put those gears together, and it's going to take a little bit of time to develop that. And this is the basis. I keep saying, this is what scripture says, and I have to go with it. And yet, you know, as I'm excited about, is all the things that he's called us to have faith in. Right. But you've got to apply this. And that's a really hard concept to get a hold of. So it's going to take some time to develop it. Well, you know, I often wonder, I read Hebrews 11 and 1, and I think, well, why did they make it so complicated in English?

Why didn't they just say, faith is reality? What is reality? Yeah, and what is reality? That's a great question. I'm glad you came today. What is reality? That could take the next few hours. Look at question two. Question two is Hebrews 11.1. From whose perspective does this verse look at faith? Whose perspective does it look at faith?

God's. That's right. From God's perspective, what's reality? God is reality. It's how he views things that matter. So if he says, hey guys, faith is reality, you are in no position to say let's talk it over. He says faith is reality. Faith is real. When Jesus said, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, that's...

A lot of these Old Testament saints, especially if you go through the rest of Hebrews 11, a lot of them were just told something, they never saw it or experienced it, and they took God at His word. I mean, imagine God showing up in your living room and saying, I'm going to make a great nation out of you. Really? And you say, okay. He accounts you righteous because you agreed with Him. You said, okay. I believe you.

What's the difference between what all of the Old Testament saints The information they were given to believe and the information you're given to believe. What's the difference? The cross. Not bad. Close enough. That's not what I'm really after. Well, they didn't have a Bible or anything. Oh, they did. What's that? Berthley v. Helen.

No. What the Jews were pretty much always asked to believe in was something in the future. You and I are asked to believe in things that are already facts. They already are reality. There's already proof. There's already evidence that did Jesus already die on the cross? Yeah, He did. Was He buried and resurrected? Yeah. Were we with Him when that happened? Yeah. Proof.

Faith allows us to enter into the reality of who? Of God. And oh by the way, he says these things aren't seen by who? Who doesn't see these things? The foolish. Or the unbelievers. That's right. That's exactly right. The unbelievers. The unbelievers don't ever see any of this. See? So I think the dilemma we have, and tagging off of what Courtney's saying, we look at this And the evidence we're looking for is a feeling, an emotion, some sort of verification that the reality and the things not seen are really real.

But he says, this is it boys. Like he said something really fast that I think there's repeating and he said like faith allows us to enter into the reality of God. Everybody hear that? He said it real fast, among other things. Yeah. Faith allows us to enter into the reality of God.

So, you're a young believer, and you're saved, and you know, and you're pretty confident about Romans 1-5, and you kind of have it down, and one day you're reading, and it says, My old man was crucified with Him. that the body of sin might be put out of business so that I should no longer serve sin."

And you say, what? What does that mean? What are you supposed to do with that information? That's it. That's it. And you know what? You may not have the full reality of it at the time that you see it, but if you believe it, guess what? You will have the full reality. The Spirit of God will not only persuade you that you are true, but you will enter into it, you will own it.

So that when you get to Galatians 2.20, you can confidently say, I have been crucified with Christ. It's the reality.

And then, I think, I'll go one step further, then I think again the Holy Spirit will put you in these situations where you're going to see it over and over if you are open to it. So I don't think it's just like, okay, you read it and you get it. It's like your life is going to, some things are going to become apparent to you over time. Well, think about this principle.

If you get the essence principle now and you're persuaded about it, then your mindset is going to be, well, whenever I'm confronted with something of the things of God, then faith is the appropriate thing for me to understand about this. And faith in the reality of the things of God which are absolutely certain. In other words, if I read it in the word, there's no questions to be asked. It's absolute certainty.

I may not understand it at first, but it goes against what I think, feel, or experience. It's too bad. It is absolute reality, it's proof and it is undeniable proof of what? Things have gone. Ah, cool. Going back, and I'm sorry I forgot your name. Marla.

Faith allows us what? To enter? To enter into the things of God. The reality of the things of God. Thank you. And that's what the Holy Spirit is doing in us. And you think you've got something licked, and the Holy Spirit will convince you that you don't have it. And he'll go and tell it, you own it, you have the faith. And it's increasing our faith. But I just want to say, that's the process, the spiritual growth. Part of the process, though, is the transference from my faith to the things of God.

Understand what I'm saying? Because I'm looking at it from my perspective. I am the center of the universe, right? Yes. You are, yes. I haven't heard of you. Oh, no, you are? No. No, but I know who is. Papa, you're late. I am. That is all I am. I'm sorry, but that's true. I'm in a mildly hysterical state. But I think, too, what Holly's saying, that's more personal faith, right? It is. The reality is sex. Yeah, and who's the ignorant one here? Me.

And what happens as we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus is that the center of who you are stops being who you are and starts being Him. So that's why, starting in question three, I asked you to define the following. How many of you spent time doing that?

So the first thing that God is, is that He's holy. What does that mean? It means that he is set apart. A holy God is set apart from everything that is not consistent with his essential essence. I'll read it again for you slow writers. A holy God is set apart from everything that is not consistent with his essential essence. And the reason is you can't limit him.

A couple of verses, Psalm 99.9, Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill, for holy is the Lord our God. Or you could say, God is set apart from everything that's not him. is the Lord our God. Or Psalm 77 says, O God, your ways are holy. Where are there any as mighty as you? Challenge. Where are they? I want to see them. Rabbit trail. What do you think of this?

Okay, I have read this somewhere, that God is set apart from from everything that's not consistent with his essential essence, sin is not within his essential essence, which is why the plan from the beginning was to send Jesus to the earth to be the Savior, kind of a separate part of the Trinity, but separate so that Jesus can be in the world rather than God, the Father? Well, the big thing that Jesus came to do was to reconcile, which meant that he was going to take the creation that God made and reconcile it back to himself. so that it would be consistent with who he is. Right, so kind of, yes.

Because God could have done it on his own without Christ. Well, he could have wiped everybody out and started over, which he kind of did with Noah. But the problem is he had all these creatures that had sin natures. So it's kind of like he, with still being holy and set apart, he could wipe everybody out because he wouldn't be dealing with everybody, but yet Christ as the Savior would be able to deal with them. And when we get to his righteousness we'll talk about that because he couldn't do it that way. He could not do it that way.

What I've noticed trying to share Jesus with two atheist friends of mine is that they will say each of them might have read the Bible three times, but if they're not, a new creature in Christ that makes no sense, right? Yeah. I mean, it's like part of it is believing that the Spirit didn't draw you. Why would they even bother to read it three times if they think it's foolishness? It's a lot of reading. So they can say that they're an expert. Were they a Catholic grade school? Right. I don't know how well it ties in, but there's a company called The Teaching Company, and they have great courses. And when I retired, I'd been doing science and math and scripture for over 60 years and thought I ought to learn something about history and literature and music. So I bought a whole bunch of these. tapes and CDs. I was telling you they've been sitting under my bed since I'm moving to assisted living next month. I want to lighten the load. So I got out all the ones that are audio tapes because they're bulky.

And I happen to have 84 lectures on great authors and literature in the Western world, Western tradition, whatever. And the only reason why I'm bringing it up is because yesterday I spent listening to four and a half hours worth of great literature, and of course the Bible comes up, the Hebrew Bible, and particularly analyzed Genesis and Job. And as I listened to that lecture, I thought to myself, this is how the world and I was just triggered by what was just said about reading the Bible over and over again. It doesn't matter how many times you read it, if you keep reading it as a fleshly person, you learn more about, oh, I can find this verse, I can find that topic, I can find this person and his life, but none of it enters into this to me. Because you're trying to do it out of your own rationality, out of your flesh. You're trying to build the Tower of Babel and reach into heaven and bring God down.

And it made me sad to listen to all this learned trite about what the scripture would say because they weren't looking at it from God's point of view. They weren't seeing that God was other. God is holy. We can't get to God because we are not holy. None of that came up. Nothing about sin. Nothing about God being set apart. Just all about the J document and the P document and blah, blah, blah. Well, Courtney's going to Israel and he's going to come back with all kinds of that. Oh yeah, a lot of pictures.

So what does it mean that God is righteous? We've discovered He's holy. It means that He's absolutely right. It's as simple as you can say it. He's absolutely right. Psalm 145, 17 says, The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and kind in all His deeds. The greatest demonstration of God's righteousness was Christ. Because if you're right in all your ways, and like Holly was talking about, the world sinned, the creation sinned against a righteous God. He cannot let that go if he's righteous. He's got to deal with it. He's got to deal with the insult of sin.

Hence, here comes Christ. The cross proved the righteousness of God. Proved it. Do you see why? If God was not righteous, you don't need a cross. He could just say, well, we're going to sweep that under the rug, or we'll do it some other way. Didn't that take us out from under the curse of Adam? The cross? Accepting, yes, what Christ did for us. Christ is a substitute. And the curse of Adam is if the soul that sins it will surely die. Well yes. So Christ died to pay that penalty. Yes.

But then what happened to you? You died too. That's right, I accepted it. Well, you, from a reality standpoint, you did die also. Absolutely. And consequently, didn't that take me out from the curse of Adam? Well, out of Adam puts you in Christ. Right. That's the whole identification truth right there. There it is. And so, it used to bother me when people see a baby, an innocent baby, and that they're under the curse. It took me a long time to finally understand.

Romans 5.12 says we all sinned in Adam. How many of us think if I was Adam I wouldn't have done it? Yeah, you would have. You would have done exactly why? Because you are him.

I guess what she's saying makes me think that Christ was the firstborn among many brethren. I don't know how many times I read that before it even began to dawn on me what that really meant. The firstborn, not only firstborn of the new creation, but also firstborn in position. He's number one in position and first born into the new creation. And the new creation has none of Adam. None. It's important, I think, for us to understand that God has replaced the first man with the new man who's Christ. Mike, the other thing which, you know, talking about that, when we're talking about wiping out, and it shows all these different things, the other thing I think for us definitely is love.

He could have wiped us all out. Sure he could. But he loved us enough to give us his son. You know, and that to me, God is love. You know, our circle that it begins with, God is love. He could have just wiped us all out and started again. Because his righteousness was satisfied. His righteousness was there. And yet, he gave us his son. And when he started putting that, you know, that we can't be separated from his love and all that. But it began at the cross. Yeah. You know, he could have wiped us out, but he he paid the penalty and then he put us into Christ. What better demonstration? No, it didn't begin at the cross. It began in... Yeah, eternity passed. Yes, it did.

And one of the things we'll talk about, the next issue is God is just. It means he's absolutely fair. And I love the fairness people. If God is absolutely fair, then nobody gets saved. Isaiah 45, 21 says, Declare and set forth your case. In other words, come on, let's hear your case. Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from old? Who has long since declared it?

Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a righteous or a just God and a Savior. There is none except me. I am absolutely fair. Again, if God isn't fair, Christ doesn't die. Would you give your only Son to die if you could do it another way? No! He's infinite, which means he's omnipotent. What's omnipotent mean? He's all-powerful. And just an example of that is that how did he create? He just spoke it, and it was there. Genesis 17, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Egoe mi, God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I am.

I just wanted to throw in the Holy Spirit again, because it seems like the Holy Spirit is always kind of associated as power. Yes. So then it shows in the beginning that the Holy Spirit kind of seems to be like Yeah, but he's always behind the scene. The triune God always acts in concert with each other. None of them individually act without the other two. The word Jesus said that means here I never do anything myself. He's on mission, what does that mean?

On knowing? Yeah, and what does that look like? when it says that God is all-knowing. We think, well, He knows everything in the past. He knows everything that's going to happen in the future. Does He know about your life? Does He know about the little tiny nuances of your thought process? Here's the way I view it. God has all knowledge in play right now. And I'm going to say it again, because again, he's in eternity, which means there's no time. That means that his knowledge is in play all the time.

So was Adam's sin something that he had to go whoops about? As a matter of fact, he knew about it ahead of time, and he and the Lord Jesus had worked out the solution before he ever created Adam. Which again goes to the point, I was going to bring that up again, that demonstrates love even greater. He created us knowing that he was going to have to give up his son. That's even a further step. That even before he created us, he knew that he was going to have to give up his son. Who has that kind of plan other than a God who is loved?

God is all powerful. Not it. I mean God is all powerful. Then what about all the evil that's going on in the world? I mean not in the past, but right now. I wish I had a verse, but there's a verse that says that God restrains evil. How does it go? And he'll allow evil if it works out to his purpose. So it's kind of surprising that there's not more evil. Yeah. Well, right now I'm hard to see there could be much more. Oh, there could be. I know. That's true. And think about this.

When the rapture happens, what happens on the earth is that the church is taken out of the earth. All the Christians are gone and the Holy Spirit occupies the church. He goes with him. Now that doesn't mean he's not on the earth orchestrating things, he is. But his influence in the body of Christ is gone.

You talk about some serious evil. Oh my goodness. I never thought of that. It's going to be, for three and a half years, it's going to be, there won't be very many people left on the planet. Second Thessalonians. Is that what it is? Second Thessalonians.

The argument has been posed by philosophers, of course, for centuries that if God is all-powerful, why does he allow sin? If he allows sin, that means he isn't good. So a good God wouldn't allow all the sin and all-powerful God to take it. And again, they're looking at it from the human point of view, not from the reality of God's overarching eternal plan. God is always in the now. He is not the God of dead Abraham. He says, I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I am the God of Jacob. To God, all of us are in the now. In our childhood, in my death, I'm still going to be in God's now. Yeah, Doug Hallam goes home to be with the Lord a couple of weeks ago. He's now in the now.

And so there's no time frame between when he left the planet and we showed up. So when people start talking about if God is good and if God is all-powerful, they're again looking at it from the rationality of humans. Isaiah 55 says so clearly, my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways and my thoughts.

Hold on a minute, Steve. Read that verse. 2 Thessalonians 2, 7. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. Steve, can you refer to that conversation you and I had a few weeks ago regarding Job? Do you expect me to remember this? White God was allowing evil. Oh yeah, I remember.

If God is going to create persons like us, create us as persons, and he's going to give us this ability to choose, because he doesn't want creatures with him for all eternity who don't want to be there or who never had a choice. So he gives us this thing called will. Is that where we're going? He gives us this thing called will so that you have the capacity to actually choose against him.

But you told me what, I mean you told us I'm not the sinner of the world, I know that. But you said there is no such thing as free will. That's true. Adam had free will, and Lucifer had free will, but you and I never did. Because the Bible clearly says we're slaves to sin, before we were saved. Sin decided what we would do, not my will.

So God says, okay, I'm going to give Adam and his whole race, and even the angels, a free will. They're going to either be able to choose to submit to me, their creator, or to themselves. And so when, and being all-knowing, he knows what the results are going to be. He knows that Adam is going to And does that mean that God is causative in the sense that he caused Adam to sin? No, it doesn't mean he's the cause, but when he gives you a creature, a will, then he's got to let them exercise it. And so when it comes to a non-believer...

So, are we making a difference between free will and will? I always argue against free will because a free will means that I can choose to do whatever I want to do. Whatever, okay. We have a will to choose but we don't have a free will. What's your will for? We talked about this last week. Why did God give you a will? Why did he give you a will? To implement things in your life? Your will is only for one purpose and that's to believe. It's the only reason you have it. You exercise your will to believe God or not. Because Christ said to his disciples, which one of you guys by your will can be an inch taller? None of you. None of you. You can't do it. In other words, your will was designed either to believe me or not.

That's really what it's for. We have extrapolated it into this, oh gee, I've got a constitution, I can do what I want. Really, I'm going to come over and put poison in your grass and see how that works out. That's kind of like what Romans 7 is about? For the believer who's exercising his will to implement the Christian life and it isn't working out for him.

I was just, last week Vern's message said, he was talking about the demons. He said, that says in the Bible, the demons believed. That kind of threw me. Like the demons believe... Well the demons know who God is, they knew who Christ was, or is. So there's even that difference between believing in faith or choosing God? I don't know, I didn't hear them, so... Talk to him about it. I think what she's saying is that you and I believe somehow in the Lord Jesus and we're saved.

The angels believe that they don't have that option. Well, they they had an option earlier. And but once there. Once they exercise their will, then their wills get locked into place. You see that? With us, our wills don't get locked into place. And so when you recognize that your will, the capacity to choose, really is right here. Am I going to believe God or not? And as I believe Him, then this evidence and reality and the things of God open up to me. I see them. I didn't see them before. What's it mean that God's everywhere? He's omnipresent. Does he know where you live?

And I couldn't find the verse, but Psalm 139, 17, How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God, how vast is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with you." And here's the verse I was looking for and I never did find it. And I think it's in Job, where he says, when I go to the deep, you're there. And when I go to these other places, you're always where I go.

That's in the psalm. Yes, in the psalm someplace. So God is everywhere. Now, I can't explain that with a finite mind. But I know he is. And so a lot of times Christians attribute that omnipresence to Satan. Satan is not omnipresent. He can only be in one place at one time. So he's not in Denver picking on you. Forget that. You've got a sin nature, he doesn't have to mess with you. I know we're getting close to the end.

What about demons? Because my daughter-in-law helped me move, and she starts talking about demons, and that she's talking to her daughters, my granddaughters-in-law. I said, I don't think kids need to know about demons. Yeah, demons. In the Gospels in the Old Testament, demons are prevalent, you know. But a believer cannot be possessed by a demon because we're possessed by Christ.

But that doesn't mean that my buddy across the street could be possessed by a demon. I mean, I'm one of those people that think that if you're in the Transcendental Meditation and you go do that mantra thing, you're inviting a demon to come and possess you.

That's the same thing with that formation theology. Same thing. But that isn't anything kids should be, that you shouldn't. I agree. You know, the thing with the demons and all that, and a lot of believers say, you know, being attacked by Satan and all that kind of stuff. Believers.

And my answer to that always is, one, Satan is not omnipresent so if it happens to be that day that Satan is attacking you it's a special day because he's not he's not omnipresent but the demons and all that you have to go and understand that they're defeated and if if if something is happening or you think whatever that that you're being attacked you have to go to who allowed that I always go back to who allowed whatever trial or what you think is being attacked.

Who allowed it? God did. Satan is a defeated foe. And he will use trials, he will use any method, not to punish you because you can't be separated from his love, it's to draw you to him. So whatever the trials or whatever you think is being attacked, God allowed it. And that's above whatever you think demon-wise He's in control of all things. Miles used to do it this way, and it made a lot of sense to me.

And it's a visual picture. Imagine yourself in Christ. And there's a boundary. If I get out here, I'm getting close to the edge where Christ is. And on the other side of the boundary is Satan with an attack dog. And why does he get close to you? To drive you farther back into Christ. I always liked that. I thought, gee, that's really great. Because my father is sovereign and he's always looking out for me to be conformed to the image of Christ. And if he has to do something to drive me farther into Christ, I'm open. got upset about his offering being rejected, and the comment of the Lord to beware, if you do right, won't you be okay?

But sin is crouching at your door, and it's this thing of if we go with our thoughts or our actions that are out of character of who we are in Christ, then we're opening a door for the attack to have more effect on us. And we have this in nature that sort of hangs around with you all the time.

Let's see. Still got a ways to go. And I better stop. Second. OK. Next week, J.D.' 's up next week, I think. Yes. Or you can be up. And we still have self-existence and love and immutability and spirit and sovereignty, plus questions four, five and six, so there's a lot left to do. Good thing we have a year. As far as we know, if it takes as long as... That's the way we think too. We're slow and so is everybody else.

Father how we thank you for your son and we thank you that you are this incredibly wonderful God that is all-powerful and all-knowing and the knowing part helps us understand that because you've placed us in Christ our eternal security and our ability and capacity and privilege to behold the glory of your son is there. And so, by the exercise of faith, we rest in him and pray in his precious name. Amen.