Faith Lesson 13 week 4

Alright, we are on lesson 13 of the faith class. We blew through one and a half questions last week. I'm looking for a doubling of this week. We just started question eight, which is, should the focus of my attention be on how to live the Christian life? I just wanted to go through and unfortunately I walked in and I was going to write some things on the board and I didn't know who wrote everything up here but Mike wrote all this and I didn't want to erase it so I have this little teeny space up here that I was trying to write up.

I want to go back to the basis of our class and again this lesson is on biblical versus non-biblical faith and so I want to go back to what the essence of faith was because we've kind of gone for a long time without it and what faith is And remember, basically the one that describes what the essence of faith is, is Hebrews 11.1, which is, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Remember what is is, not like Bill Clinton says, but is is, is an essence verb, what it is.

And are we involved in this, the essence of what faith is? No. Do you see anything of us in here? Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for. So, we're not, basically to break it down, faith is, the essence, the substance or reality of things being hoped for and the evidence or proof of things not being seen.

Again, that's the essence of what faith is. So, I want to go back to that. Because we're talking about biblical versus non-biblical. So this is the essence of faith, which is based on God alone. The things of God, the things, the reality, the evidence, the proof. Those are what the essence of faith is.

We then broke it down into not only essence, but then the faith, personal faith, and as a principle, how it operates. So we do get into all the different things, which personal faith, which we always seem to gravitate back to, because that's nearest and dearest to our hearts, is the personal faith. We always try to get that. But I want to go back to just the roots of this, that again, faith is based on God, the things of God. Then we get into the personal faith and all those different things. I just want to get back to that because we've kind of been a long time since we've gone over that. So back to question eight.

Should the focus of my attention be on how to live the Christian life? And I read a thing from, well, I asked the question to begin with, let's ask which comes first, works or the walk? And what do we say? Works or walk? Boy, I'm going to have to go back. Walk. The walk.

Hal had a good statement in his thing on faith. The normal challenges offered by many sermons will be to pray more, study more, give more, to witness more, to surrender more, to minister more, to consecrate more, to commit more, etc. In and of themselves, there is nothing wrong with any of these actions. However, these don't precede our walk, they are a result of our walk. So again, we usually put the cart before the horse. We want to study more, do more of this, but we need to walk first. So, what is our walk based on?

Faith. The latest news from CNN, right? Faith, okay. Ultimately it's faith. It's focused on Christ. Christ, okay. Any others before I move on? Total revelation of God? Total revelation of God. Yeah, in part. I guess mine is, and we'll go through scripture is, it's knowing Christ. Knowing Christ. And if we look at Colossians 2, 6 through 7, Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude." So, the walk is based on what? Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord.

If we look at Galatians 5.25, it says, If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. So the walk is facilitated or the power to have that walk is by the Spirit. It's knowledge of Christ with the Spirit being the one to enact that in us or to manifest that in us.

I also said I wanted to look at Galatians 2.20. I looked at this and I use this a lot. I've been crucified with Christ. I always say that.

Galatians 2.20 and 2 Corinthians 5.17, those are some of the ones that are real identification truths that we have. I bring that up, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live. And I usually kind of leave it at that. When I looked at it this week and I was preparing this, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live.

But Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Again, the walk is based on what? Christ. Knowledge of Christ and the Spirit enacting that. And again, it's by faith. Faith.

Again, as I go through it, I'm compiling a whole thing, which, like I said, we'll get at the very end of this class. All these different things that are based on faith, and just what it means to have faith in God, and what magnificent promises that He has.

Can you distinguish between knowing Christ and trying to imitate Him? We went through that, you know, being conformed or transformed versus imitation. You know, are we supposed to imitate Christ? No, we can't. No, we can't imitate Him. Oh, you can imitate Him. You can try to imitate Him. We imitate Paul, doesn't that say in the Bible somewhere? Imitate me. He does say it about imitating Him, but are we to imitate Christ? Why? Because his life is in us. We don't have to try and imitate him. His life has lived through us. His great life. Manifestation of his life.

But what does imitation do? What do you do in imitation? You're in the flesh, in the old nature. You're doing it yourself. But what do you do when you imitate somebody? If I'm going to imitate whoever, Mike. No, you copied it. You tried to copy it. What do I focus on? What you can't. Yourself. How am I doing? Right. How am I doing? Yeah. So the imitation is more focused on how am I... Am I imitating Mike perfectly? No. No. See? But I'm realizing that. That's not something...

No. But the focus on imitation is how you're doing. So we went into that, but we looked at the scripture about it's the conforming, it's the transforming. And how is that done? By the renewing of your mind? It's a life. It's a life being manifest through you. It's not trying to copy or imitate. Because then you see, how am I doing?

It's again going back to the thought that if our very life is Christ, we'll manifest that life. We don't have to try this, and I think at the end of last week I was talking about that. Did Christ get up every morning, because he says, I'm going to do the will of the Father. Did he get up and get a kitchen list of the five things that he had to do for the Father that day?

Why? He just walked. Why? He had the life. He did the will of the Father, because that's his very life. He didn't get up and say, well, Father, you gave me five things, I'll take care of that. He did it because, one, he'd seen the Father. We look at John 17, where he saw the Father, he knows the Father. All the things that he brings out are from the Father. He says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He also said he couldn't do anything without the Father. He couldn't do anything without the Father.

So this was a life, not a program, not a list, not anything like that. It was a life. And that's when we get into our identification truths that our very life is in Christ. And the manifestation is we get to know Him. That's why it's so important. And I talk about the identification truths and also the intimacy with Him. As you know Him more, as you study the word to know Him, not facts, but to know Him, then you begin to manifest who He is because that's who you are in Christ. And that becomes, you know, it goes back to the adage about a dog. You know, if you're a dog, you bark. Because you're a dog, you bark. That's who you are, you're a dog. You don't meow, you bark. Because that's who a dog is.

Same as with, if we're in Christ and we know him, when we get to understand and know who he is, we become, we will begin to manifest that or walk, provide that or have that walk based on the Holy Spirit and the Word will begin to manifest that. But it's a life. Okay. Clear?

So I said, so from these verses we see that our walk is not focusing on how we walk or live, but based on focusing on Christ and our life in Christ. We manifest Christ because that is who we are in union with him and that is our very life. So the walk is based on his life in us being manifested. So the walk versus the result of works or walk. Walk always comes first before work. Otherwise you're doing it in yourself. Okay? Questions? Yes?

How do you explain, somebody like, Ephesians 5.1 says, be imitators of Christ. How do you explain that? It doesn't actually mean that, but I understand what you're saying, but how do you explain that to somebody? Yeah, if you look at it, I think it's in the wording, actually. Let me see if I can pull that up. Yeah, and I think that's Paul, but let me see here. Well, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Walk in love just as Christ also loved you. So the imitation there has to do with the love of Christ towards the believer, which is impossible by the believer in another's own strength. It actually, if you look at it, the word, Greek, sorry, it's followers. Followers is a better word.

Sometimes it's the translation of the words that get us in trouble. It's like the one that always, I think, is the worst translation. It's about the vine dresser. It says, you're cut off, which people go, huh? As a believer, I can be cut off? horrible translation from the Greek. It's a vine dresser is to lift up the vine. But the translators have said cut off, I think. And it's a horrible translation. So just some of those things when you look at it, unfortunately, if you don't understand, sometimes going back to the Greek helps.

So it's a follower. And again, it is also back. Walk in love. Again, some of the things, the manifestation, I think also that's as you manifest him, you follow her. Okay. Any others? No, that's not sorry. That's good. There's another verse with Paul that he says, being an imitator of him, to imitate him. you know, again, his behavior, his walk, those things, but it's not to be the focus. It's more a procedural, earthly basis, I think. I think what Paul was saying in that verse, I forget what it is, is that, you know, if you want to observe what the doctor and I'm teaching you doesn't really work enough, observe how I live. Right.

It's not that he's such a good guy and a swell dancer, but he really understood that It was the Spirit's work in manifesting Christ through him, and the life of Christ was observable. And all the things he taught was still about the focus on Christ, so it wasn't that take your focus off Christ. You know, that's a nice way of saying it's observable. That really hits the nail on the head, because you can see it.

Well, that's actually from a song, I think it's a Bruce Carroll song or something, and I always love the verse, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I like that. You know, you can talk a lot. if you don't see it manifest. You can get into the James works without, or faith without works and all those different things. But I think seeing, you know, has a lot of impact. So, and I think that's what Paul is basically saying. Here are all these truths. You want to see it implemented, look at this. All right. Question nine. Must I ever strain or strive to gain more acceptance from God?

And the reference verse is Ephesians 1, 6. For context, I'm going to read Ephesians 1, 3-6. So Ephesians 1, verses 3-6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him, In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons, through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

So, again, the question is, must I ever strive to gain more acceptance from God? Courtney, I worded it that way just because the Newton James words it that way, and your translation is a little different. The New King James says that to the praise and glory of His grace by which we have, He made us acceptable in the beloved. So it's a little different.

I also, from mine also, I added Matthew 3, 16 and 17. And I just, about the acceptance, Matthew 3, 16 and 17. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him. And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Okay? The question is, where are we positioned right now? In Christ. In Christ.

So, Again, a lot of identification truths and things like that. I'll read John 17, one of my favorites, John 17, 20 through 24. I do not ask on behalf of these alone. This is the dissertation, the actual, real Lord's Prayer in John 17. And this is after he's explained all about union, one with the Father and Him, all these beautiful truths. He then puts us into the equation where it says, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, that you've given me here, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may be one, even as you, Father, and in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them, 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. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world." Again, union, we're in him. Remember he said, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. So the acceptance of us, is there anything more than being in Christ?

No. Now, Colossians 3, one through four. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then also you will be revealed with him.

Again, I love that verse. And again, our identification, we've been placed into Him. So this double, I think this is double insurance, double delight, is your life, our lives, are hidden with Christ in God. We're in Christ in God. Christ is seated at the right hand of God right now.

We're positionally, remember positionally, well I think I get to that question. Well that's the Trinity, isn't it? Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yeah, but I'm talking about us, for us. We are placed into Him through the identification of Romans 6, our co-crucifixion, our identification, our placement, our baptized into His death. We're placed into Him.

Trying to get at the point that the acceptance, which is what Mike's question was, is about our acceptance. Is there anything more about our acceptance? If we have been placed into Christ, we are positionally in Christ, is there anything more that God looks at for acceptance? No. No, is there something that Christ didn't get up to for the Father for acceptance?

This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. So, so, that's assuming you're a believer. If you're not a believer, what God wants is your belief. You can't do more, but that's what He wants is your faith. John 3.16, that He wants everyone. You know, and it's, you know, the only thing our free will is, is to choose. Who is Christ? That's the only question of importance, that your will, is who is Christ?

So yeah, for the believer versus the non-believer, it's totally different. You know, that's what I was just saying about the memorial I went to yesterday. You know, it's just a completely different feeling. When somebody who knows the Lord and they're in the Lord, it's a joyous day. Hard for the family who remains in this wonderful place.

But for the person, the believer who goes home, it is the second best day of their life, their Christian life, is to go home. And that's really where the testing of our faith is too. I found with believers who go home, that's a real test of our faith, is that do we believe that? Do you believe that those believers, when they pass from this earth, they're face-to-face with Christ?

If you believe it, it's a joyous occasion. Joyous. You know? I keep saying it. Just think of the day. We sit here and we go through this class and we go through all these things and we go through this, but someday we will stand face-to-face in front of Christ. Is there a better day? Anyway, I said, since we're in Christ, can we have any more acceptance than that? Is there anything else required? No. So, my question is, if we have sinned, how does God see us? Same way. Huh? Same way. In Christ. In Christ. Hard concept for believers. Hard concept. We beat ourselves up and we think, oh, I've got to do all these things. Oh, I've got to do all this.

All it is, John 1.9, if we confess, which means we agree that we are not acting as who we are in Christ. I agree. And restore fellowship.

We looked at it in Romans 7.9 where Paul, well, I'll get to that. about what we do when we sin is we just lose fellowship. We lose that intimacy, that fellowship with Him from our side. He's still wooing, still driving, still loving, still doing everything towards us. We turn and sin. But God still sees us in Christ.

Remember that. And has He paid for all your sins? Or forgot a few? You know Tomorrow Sins? He was busy that day. No. No. Thank you. How passionate. No. Yeah. He has paid for all your sins. So what are you worried about? If you sin, just, I'm not acting who I am in Christ. And I want to restore that fellowship, that intimacy that I have with you. But God still sees you in Christ. Only. And How do we know what sins are? We know what sins are through the commandments? We know through His Word. Through His Word. And anything that is not of faith is sin.

Anything that is not of God. Right? That verse? Right. And we know what is of God through His Word. Right. Otherwise we'd have no clue. Right. Absolutely. And that's what we talk about when I scuba dive and I get beat up. The Romans won. I can see his glory. Some magnificent sunsets lately and beautiful things. Nick's been taking wonderful pictures and some amazing stuff photography-wise. Glorious.

See this great, wonderful scene, but can I get the knowledge of Christ through that? No. No. You can see his power, his character, all these things, but you cannot get the knowledge of Christ through a sunset, a beautiful coral reef. You can't do that. It's through his word and through the Spirit wooing us.

What's your question? As you're walking around as a believer, how do you know? Kind of, like let's say you, let's say you're a believer, but you're not really familiar with the Bible yet, or whatever, and you, let's say, don't know something's a sin. Would you lose fellowship? Probably not, because you don't even know it's a sin, but once you know them more... I would say a couple of things here. One is, you've got to know what fellowship is. Because if you don't know what it is, if you lose it, you don't know you lost it. Or then did you lose it?

When a person comes to Christ through faith in the gospel, there is a confirmation by the Holy Spirit in him that he's done the right thing. Not that the experience verifies the spiritual fact, but the Spirit of God is always at work within the believer to do what? To manifest or to show him Christ and who Christ is, and at the same time to restore him to fellowship if he sins and that's why spiritual growth I think takes such a long time because there is this learning process about learning the things of Christ.

If you're one of those people who spend all your time looking at laws and the how-to program, you never really get to what's the price. Well, even what if someone is in another country, you know, let's say missionaries came, they believe but they don't really have a Bible. Well, again, I think it's like the Spirit's job in salvation is to reveal Christ to the whole world.

Well, there's no evidence in my experience that He's doing a good job of that. But He is, because He said He is. That's all the evidence I have is He said He is. The evidence that the Spirit of God lives and dwells in every believer and that He's at work doing His job of the handicaps. I mean the United States of America has more Bibles than any other place in the world and yet we have more carnal Christians than any other place in the world too.

Is the Spirit not doing his job here? No, he is doing his job. And people that live in what we think way over there someplace, they can't hardly be spiritual. Yeah, they can. Yeah, they can. And you know, I think there's, you know, again experience things, you know, I think Again, I go back to, in Him all things hold together. He's the Sovereign One. He will let you go through things to allow you to either, basically to draw you to Him through trials, through blessings, through all these things.

His purpose is, 2 Peter 3.18, that you may grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. He's using all means to do that, which sometimes allows trials. He allows us to fail.

You know, one of those hard things when I, you know, a lot of believers say about Satan, you know, oh, you know, Satan is doing this. If, again, Satan is not omnipresent, but if Satan is going after you, who allowed it? God did. Who? God allowed it. It's really hard to understand that, but he's a defeated foe. If Satan can act independently, we're in trouble. We're in big trouble. Well, we are in trouble. You mentioned about the commandments. It shows us what sin is. I studied doctrine for a really long time and struggled a lot with it. I studied with Miles and with another mentor.

When I started appreciating the stories in the Bible as teaching about God's character. I hate saying God's character because people study God's character. They isolate his characteristics from the stories where they're revealed. The stories in the Bible reveal so much about man's nature, for one thing, but then God's reaction. And I think we absorb a lot of truths about what sin is and how it affects us. if we know how to read the stories and know what to look for. I mean, sometimes people just, you know, do the stories.

So we need those and we need the doctrine. In tribal areas, missionaries go in and learn the language, you know, they say years, learn the customs and the language. And they're in areas where men have multiple wives. And then when they became Christians, in some instances that I heard about, the Christian teachers don't tell them, you can't have multiple wives, you have to get rid of one. They just study the Bible, they teach them God's Word, and pretty soon it dawns on these people, this is sin, I have to do something about this. And they do something about it from their heart because they understand. That helps me understand a lot about how the Holy Spirit works. Do you see what I'm saying?

You know, from the, again, not the feelings or whatever, but I still go back to the world cannot offer you rest, peace, joy. If you're struggling, if you're anxious, you're all this, are you resting in the Lord? And I think He allows a lot of these trials to show, as I was saying, our dependency upon Him. He'll allow you to go through all these things. He allows you to do it. Does that ever separate you from His love? Now, that's the key, that's always what I say, no matter if he allows trials, allows these things to go through, he still loves you and his whole purpose is to draw you to him, to glorify him. And so whatever you go through, if he allows you to sin, I don't see if you're ultimately not going to have rest if you're sinning or you're in the world. Because the world, they can't offer rest. What? Because we're always sinning. But there is no rest in that.

Oh, of course not. Right, and that's all I'm saying. It's almost better if we didn't even know what sin was. Negligence is a good thing. We need to talk for a long time. You know what I'm saying? It's almost like when we learn what sin is and try not to do it, like that, like you're taught this is, if you're taught this is what sin is, having multiple wives or something, and so you say, okay, I'm going to change it, versus having it, the Holy Spirit work it through you to reveal to you what is sin.

No, the Holy Spirit did reveal that. Right, that's what I mean. Yeah, they didn't Like you said, they weren't taught that. So they didn't have the legal, this is what it is. I agree with you with that. I think that the primary thing is not whether I have peace or not.

The issue is, is the Holy Spirit doing his job? He's the one that gives Christ to the believer. He's the one that gives you the peace that passes understanding. He is the one you can depend on to do what he said he was going to do. And whether I have rest about it or not is not really the verifier. The verifier is him. And he's the spirit of Christ. That's his job. And is he going to do what he says he's going to do? Yeah, he is.

I may have to learn it. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'm sorry. I was just going to ask you, feeding off of what these two have said, with the indigenous people, like we read in that one book, Down River, they don't need the actual missionaries because the Holy Spirit will actually provide whoever is needed.

If you have a hungry heart, wanting to know more of the gospel. But the hungry heart is also the working spirit. The whole three act play is the Holy Spirit. He's doing everything. He's bringing the information. He's creating the hungry heart. He's giving you the gospel at the right time, with the right person, all the time. Who gives you Courtney? That's a scary thing. It may not be written, But it will come from the Word of God. That's where it will come from.

Yeah, and again, I think, you know, do we limit God? What about the person in the deepest, darkest part of the world? Can he not get... I wouldn't say Aurora at all. You know, can he not get the Scripture to him? Can he not get to a free heart? And remember in Romans 1, he's showing his power and his creativity for all to see. So they know that there's a God. then, to the hungry heart, you don't think in this... you don't think there's... or do you think there is a place somewhere that he can't get the gospel to him? No way.

Recently somebody said this to me, I've studied the Bible for a long time, I never saw this, and it just... to really understand what you're saying about the Holy Spirit, he said, how long did it take, I don't know how long it took, but how long did it take from the time of Pentecost to the day they had written scriptures? It was all Holy Spirit during that time. I don't know, that was like a revelation to me. Oh, I get the power of the Holy Spirit now. I get it. I mean, it just like brought it to me.

Well, in that book that Bruce is referring to, what was really going on in that village for two or three years was they were learning the language and then they were writing an alphabet to fit that language so that they could write the Word of God in the tribal language. they got to a certain point where they thought they ought to keep going for six more months and the Spirit of God acted through the tribal people who came to them and said, we've waited long enough, you've got to teach us now. Right, you're doing it your way, it's in the Holy Spirit's way, let's go. Whatever you've got, bring it, because we're going to do it now.

Again, no matter where, the Holy Spirit is trying, and to John 3.16, He wants all to come. And he's going to do everything in his power to woo everybody to his son. No matter what. There are no limitations to that. There aren't any, you know, too deep a darkest corner of the world to get to somebody. If there's a wooing, a drawing, it will happen.

And from what I said originally, it shows, in my mind, the power of the law. Because I think that unless we have it written down in commandments or something, we won't know the law and we won't know what sin is. So I just, in my question, gave law a really big power. Yeah, and as Paul said, I would not have known the law or sin without the law. The law said, don't desire. And as soon as it said that, We're looking through all these scriptures and it says about how law was meant to increase sin. It's very contrary to what, you know, we need the Ten Commandments, we need law, we need this, we need this. It was meant to increase and to show and to do.

We are not law based. We are not law-based, we are grace-based. But it's tough to get it out of there. But that's why the knowledge and the manifestation of Him, it's a life, not a law. And that's really the key, the intimacy with Him is to understand that. It's not a law, it's a life. And that takes time, that's growth.

I think you can stand up there and say that, and I think it's correct. But I think a growing believer has to come to the, with the work of the Spirit, come to the point where they say, I can't do this. Everybody goes through that. You have to. It's the perfect spot. But that's why he allows sin and things like that. That's why he allows that.

It's because there's no rest, there's no peace, there's no, you can't, and then you realize, Romans 7.24, O wretched man that I am. That's where you get to. That's the most exciting I've seen you in.

What about that book that we read when we were studying the Holy Spirit? And it was about these people that are in some country. Is that the one? The Downriver book? Yes. And then you did say that those people would have faith even though, you know, like you said, the sunset and all this, the mountains, none of that brings you I thought you said that even if someone hadn't come, they would know that there was a power. Right, yeah, that's what I said earlier. Romans 1 says that he has created this to know that there's a God and he's powerful. And to me, he's very creative. He didn't make it black and white. So Romans 1 says that in nature, all know that there's a God and he's powerful.

Okay, do they go to heaven? No, because... That's not their fault. Yes, it is. It is. Yes, it is their fault. That's what I was... Wanda, you know what I was saying? Why is this? Because it says that they won't honor God as God and they're not thankful. Even though God has revealed himself to them, they reject him. And that's what I'm saying. That's right. He will use that.

And if there's somebody out there in the deepest, darkest section somewhere in Commerce City that... sees the sunset and thinks, you know, and he's going through and there's a God, the Holy Spirit will keep wooing him to draw him to his son. And that will be a process that any hungry heart, the Holy Spirit is trying to woo everybody to try and come to his son. They make the choice of rejecting him. And what I was saying, you don't get to a point where, I guess, you think that God can't provide the word to that person. somehow, some way, that he brings somebody, some scripture that points to Christ, to a hungry heart. I think once there's the hungry heart and the desire, somebody's there with the scripture.

You can't limit him. Mike didn't mention the sun in that verse. I'm confused about this because I'm like, all these people are out there. How are they going to hear about Jesus if there's nobody there with the scripture? There's a thing about that Romans 1 verse.

God requires that all men honor him as God and they be thankful. That doesn't give you salvation. He requires that of every creature. If they do honor him as God and they are thankful, I'm with Courtney, I'm absolutely persuaded he will get the gospel to them.

If they reject him at that point, then the next four or five or six or seven verses in time will show you what happens. They end up in the U.S. Senate. the Supreme Court. Okay, we better stop on that. So I know, one of that answers that we have it, but once there's a heart, I don't limit God.

God can drop it out of a plane, a scripture down to him. He can do anything. There is no way that we can limit him to get the scripture to a hungry heart that started to go to him being wooed to him. He can't be limited. If I have a God that can't deliver the scripture to the person wherever, I'm in trouble. It can be a radio station. It can be anything. It can be a TV show. It can be anything. I'm not talking about before radio. But do you think he was limited because he had to go by horseback or he had to go by whatever? Do you think he was limited by that? No. And I'm sure there are Christians in Saudi Arabia. There are Christians everywhere.

Because God gives the right person to the person that wants to know more. If there is a hungry heart, there will be the scripture given to that person. I think Vern tells the story of someone in Africa that was kind of awakened to the the sunrise, different vegetation, and thought about there must be something bigger or something greater than this, and was led to hear about somebody in a couple tribes over he had to go to to hear the gospel. But it was drawn there. But again, it was the gospel that saved him, not just thinking about God. And thankful.

Our friends who grew up, they were in Africa serving the Pygmies. Got it to the Pygmies in the darkest sections of Africa. Hiked in, stayed with, ministered to the Pygmies. How did that turn out? There are a lot of saved pygmies right now. I have stories from her dad and her family that are pretty amazing stuff. What they eat and things like that. One more story.

I read an evangelistic story like that where a woman one time in her village recognized that God was not the tree in the middle of the village. And she just acknowledged that. And a thought came in her mind that God was going to send somebody, a white person, to her that had the name of the Savior in his pocket. And when this guy walks into the village, she runs up to him and says, what's his name? You can't limit God. All-powerful, in control of all things, Colossians 1.

Just quickly, because we don't have our bell ringer. I'm going along. So, does Christ have to do anything more to be accepted by the Father? No. So, if we are in Him, do we need to do anything more to be accepted by the Father? No. So, is there anything we can do to gain any more favor or acceptance with the Father if we are in Christ and He only sees us in Christ? No. Understand that. So nothing else is needed for eternal life or acceptance with God except life in His Son. All right, we need to close. We didn't get the double bells or anything, so since we're leading and doing the next service, we better get going here. All right.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time. Again, we just thank You as we look into Your Word and see, again, You are a sovereign God, a God all-powerful God. You are in control of all things, and You are You have an eternal love for us as we have studied Your Word and we thank You for Your Word and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is constantly wooing us and directing us to You and the fellowship that we can have with You, the rest, the peace, the joy, all those things You promised us in that You are Son. We just thank You for that and we just thank You for the growth that we have in our intimacy with Christ and we again just thank You As we looked over the word, just there is no more that we need to gain acceptance to you, Father, except that we are in your Son, and that is a joyous position to be in, and one that is eternal, and we thank you for that, that we have life in Christ, and our acceptance is in Him, and it is not any way, shape, or form related to our behavior or anything we have to do. So we thank you, we thank you for this time. We pray also for Vern as he delivers the message in the next meeting. Again, just to accurately give us the word and prepare our hearts to receive it. We thank you for all these things in Christ's name. Amen.