Knowing and Growing – Being conformed – what is the believer’s part?
Vern Peterman · May 28, 2017
Knowing & Growing, No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926557544886

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

We're in our third week of addressing being conformed. So to give a little perspective, we began what's going to be a pattern for several months here of taking about three or four weeks looking at different processes that the Lord has in place for the believer.

So these are biblically revealed things. These are things that are eternally significant. What we're looking at this first one is being conformed. We'll talk about that in a minute. We'll be looking at being transformed. And just before we got started here, Stan had some questions about that.

We'll more fully explore that because what's interesting is being conformed and being transformed are two entirely different processes in the believer. They're not the same. They're not interchangeable. Being conformed and being transformed are two entirely different processes.

What they have in common is they're both in the direction of making the believer into the image of Christ. Both of them. Only of being conformed is it said that we are predestined to be conformed. Our ultimate conformity to the image of Christ is predestined. being transformed is not said to be predestined. And we'll see why and why there's a difference between those two. And they're not the same. They're not interchangeable. So anyway, we'll get more insight as we go through it.

So today we'll be looking at what's the believer's part in being conformed. We first started two Sundays back talking about what is being conformed. What is that? Last time we looked at what is God's part in the believer being conformed, and then this time we'll look at what is the believer's part in being conformed to the image of Christ.

What is fascinating is God's word actually spells this out real clearly, and it's because the reason it's clear is because God does actually want us to know what's going on. There are several things I think that are comforting about this. One of them is it's predestined.

In one sense it's not a matter of complacency, but of comfort in that I cannot ultimately blow this. I can along the way make horrible and huge mistakes, but I cannot ultimately blow it. Why? Why can't I blow it? Because it's God's work, not your work. Yeah, ultimately it's God's work and you're predestined for that, so the ultimate outcome cannot be blown. It doesn't matter what Vern does, I cannot blow the ultimate outcome. I can disrupt and thwart the process along the way, but the ultimate outcome, I can't mess it up.

And some people could take that as a reason to be complacent while it's all going to turn out okay. Yes, it will turn out okay. However, what will be lacking at very least will be the enjoyment of the things that the believer has. Yeah, Wayne. But wouldn't that be part of the informing? I'm sorry, say that again? Wouldn't your disruption of that be part of that conforming to? It could be used as that? Well, okay, so we'll talk about that, because there is a believer's part in it. What happens, and this is something we should probably include in it and go into more detail on, what happens if the believer is not following the Lord.

Do you know someone, and this I'd like to bring up repeatedly because I know the number of us have family members or friends or both who once claimed to know the Lord. Family members or friends who once claimed to know the Lord and now they don't. And so where are you to think about that?

Am I to think, oh, no, they've lost their salvation? And we know people that have come to that conclusion. We don't believe that scripture says that. But there are some who will say, oh, they've lost their salvation. Or the Calvinist answer would be, oh, they never were saved. But that's not really what the Bible teaches. It doesn't teach either one. What the Bible says is that once you are saved, you are always saved, but that a person who is saved may go through some horrific setbacks, they may have chronic issues, they may stumble badly, very badly, but they are still saved.

It is abundantly clear, and one of the best books for that is 1 Corinthians. He writes to them in their second verse, he says, you are sanctified, and by the way, that's another process we'll be looking at down the road, but he gives it in the perfect tense. So it's a completed past action, being sanctified, ongoing results, on into the future, implying permanence. So if you're worried or concerned about someone you know, friend, relative, or either one, both, who once claimed to know the Lord and now does not, and now either that or doesn't live it, that's not reason to be despairing, but simply to pray for them. Let's take a quick example, the Corinthians.

Paul writes this very comforting introduction that starts at verse 1, especially verse 2, and then on to verse 9 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Then he starts, okay, let's talk about your problems. And he lists lots of problems. 1 Corinthians 1.10, the first verse after his introduction. You guys need to heal up your doctrinal differences. No churches have that, right? So anyway, you guys need to heal up your doctrinal differences and quit following a man. Quit following a person and dividing up on that basis.

And then he goes into talking about worldly wisdom There were believers getting pulled into that. By the way, the worldly wisdom that was present in the Eastern Mediterranean from the Greeks, the worldly wisdom was that the resurrection just doesn't happen. And in fact, by the time we get to chapter 15, we find that some of the believers, he didn't say they weren't saved, he didn't say that they didn't believe at one point in time, But he says, some of you are now getting drawn back into the worldly view of no resurrection.

So you go on there, by the time you get into chapter 4, they're having problems realizing that Paul is a steward of the mysteries of God. By the time you get into chapter 5, a man is sleeping with his stepmother. By the time you get to chapter 6, you've got people suing each other, and you go on and on and on. Chapter 11, some are dying.

There is no evidence in any of that that any of these people who are going through belief problems, who are going through moral problems, that they're not saved because of it. So the Calvinists are wrong, and the Arminians are wrong. The Bible is correct. The Bible is correct. Very important to recognize. Yeah, Debbie?

What was the reference again on those? I'm sorry, which ones? What was the reference on what you were referring to, all the examples, was it 1 Corinthians? Yeah, 1 Corinthians, and let me quickly step through the... So 1 Corinthians, and he starts off with, you guys have a doctrinal division problem, 1 Corinthians 1.10, okay?

Immediately thereafter to the rest of the chapter, you guys are dividing up following a man, this man and that man. And we do it with denominational names. We've got the Lutherans, and we've got the Calvinists, and we've got the, oh, Mennonites. That's named after Menno, right? So you've got all these groups that name after the one that they follow. And all that's following after a man. That's what Paul warned against in 1 Corinthians, right?

So next you get to chapter 3, and they're fleshly. You get to chapter 5, and here's a man who is sleeping with his stepmother. Here is chapter 6, the believers are suing one another. Chapter 11. Some of the believers are sinning so badly with regards to the Lord's table that some are sick and some are dying. The Lord is actually bringing about a sin unto death. Chapter 15, Paul writes that some of them are now failing to continue belief in the resurrection.

They once believed, but he doesn't say you've lost your salvation. He doesn't say, oh, you never were saved. So, anyway, very important to look at, and that's not the only book, I did look at the Galatians. You guys have fallen from grace, does that mean they have lost their salvation? No. Calls them saints, right? They outsit. You look at Ephesians, four and a half chapters of here's who you are in Christ, and then he says, now let's talk about your sin problem. Which included lying and stealing and getting violently angry. So, lack of forgiveness.

So anyway, we'll have being conformed, and one of the illustrations we've been using, I think is real helpful, one of the points we make in interpreting the New Testament, especially in those churches where there was significant Roman contact and influence. Obviously the Book of Romans written to the Church of Rome. I would call that significant Roman influence.

But also you go through Galatians. There are five major cities in Galatia, two of them were Roman colonies. Philippi was a Roman colony. Ephesus had a Roman governor stationed there and 3,000 Roman soldiers. So you look at those and you can see the use of military terminology among those people and related. For example, Philippians, three different times reference to heavenly citizenship. Most people only recognize one, but there's actually three.

So here you have, this is a group of Roman soldiers called, they're in a tortoise formation it's called. And so the Roman centurion would give out a command for a different kind of tortoise formation, and they were to quickly switch from one to the next. Some of the tortoise formations, like this one, had no spear or pilum, as they called it.

Others did. And there's a reason for having them and not having them. So very interesting. But one of the things, you see those convex pieces of metal in the middle, that's to allow a hand hold, but still have the hand be protected. And so what they would do with that, you can see that here, where there's the shield in the middle of it, and even with the helmet was made with shaping a metal that started off flat. And how they would do that, they would have a concave end to this piece of wood, They would lay the metal over it and instead of just taking a hammer and going BAP and hitting the thing and making a mess out of it, what would they do? They would go tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, See, that side piece is on the helmet. They'd have another shape to conform to.

But that word conform, that was how it was used practically. And Paul writes to the church at Rome using this word conformed. As a matter of fact, he uses it more than once. We'll see that, I think, when we get into the next lesson. He uses it more than once. And that's on purpose. Because they were accustomed to say, OK, I know what conform means.

So, you have this pattern and they would go with a ball peen type hammer and go tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And this would be a similar thing, you'd have different shapes and sizes. So you could make that concave, convex pattern. But in any case, you would do it tap, tap, tap, tap, tap in different places until the metal conformed to the shape that you had intended for it. OK, so let's look at the handout.

What we did here is our core verse, and we won't just stay there, but our core verse is Romans 8.28-30. And so we have there things bolded and the reason for bolding is to pick up our emphasis.

So in beginning Romans 8.28-30 it says, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these, whom he predestined, he also called, whom he called, he also justified. These, whom he justified, he also glorified." All of these were written with keeping in mind God's actions in the life of the believer, including his actions in the past, present, and future.

So that's our starting point. In fact, as we go through these series of lessons and we talk about conform, transform, sanctified, and growing, and all those words, we look first after defining it, what is this? We look at what God does so that when we look at what's our part, we do it with an understanding of what God has already done or is doing or will do. Almost all of the statements were written about what God does.

The only action that we take in these verses is a responsive action to His love for us. So you ask, what's your part? Your part is to respond to His love for you. That's the responsive part. Those who love God. That's our part. Even those words, it's essential we understand it was God who loved and gave first. So that's the essential perspective to get in our mind. We would respond by loving God and others.

Here's John 3.16. For God so loved the world, and who does that include? Everybody, including us who respond by belief, that He gave His only begotten Son. Did He give or did we give? he gave, that whosoever believes in him, that's our response to everything he's done, will not perish but have eternal life.

Next, Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and 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. What did he do? The Son of God. So what you find here is a pattern.

We're going to see it in the next couple of verses between John 3.16, Galatians 2.20, Ephesians 5.2 and 5.25. You see loved and gave, loved and gave, loved and gave. Four times and it's always on God's end. Yes. So could you say that all actions that God takes or gives are categorized under the primary action of love. Let's put it this way, let's even be more specific.

Why did God send His Son? So that we would be saved. Because He loved us. And then the next three times, Galatians 2.20, Ephesians 5.2, and Ephesians 5.25, Who loved and gave in those next three instances? Christ. Christ loved and gave. So very specifically, after God having given his Son, Christ gave himself and it says he loved and he gave. We also have this additional insight, not quoted here, but to answer your question.

Love drew him to the cross Galatians 2.20, Ephesians 5.2 and 5.25, love drew him to the cross.

Hebrews 12.1 and 2, for the joy set before him he endured the cross.

Where is the joy? Afterwards. It's not, boy, I sure love getting these nails in me. This feels so good. No. This was not an enjoyable event, but for the joy set before him that is beyond the cross, he endured and gave. So the motivations of Christ are love drawing him to the cross, and the joy set before him, fellowship with us for eternity, he looked beyond the cross for that. So that was the same thing that Paul would say, that when he gave the gospel to people, his joy would be in them becoming believers. So that's a sense of love as well. Paul's love for them. Even though they were enemies, just like with Christ. Those who accepted the gospel were his joy. So love is the ultimate. That's what caused him to do all these things. Caused God to give his son, caused Christ to give of himself. in those three times.

We have Ephesians 5.2, and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

And then Ephesians 5.25, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. Now, did Christ love you individually? Absolutely. Did Christ love the church all together? Yes. So this is interesting. This is love with a different component and character. So every single one of us individually and all of us together. Wow, this is cool.

So here's a simple but profound statement in 1 John 4.19.

We love because He first loved us. So those who love God, in Romans 8, is it, oh I'm going to stir up love for God just because that's what I'm going to do, because I'm so good. Or how do we love God? We love in response, because He first loved us. So that's our part. Our part is not to just sit there and try to stir up love, but to respond to His love shown for us. You see the difference there? It's not our work, it's our response to His work. And this is key, because there's a lot of Christendom that gets off track on this. Boy, you better get doing this and better get doing that. And without, hey wait a minute, God's got a process in place here, and my response to His love is central to how this is going to happen.

If I try my best, give my best effort to love God, is that going to carry out Romans 8.28? Not as a process, because my love is not My doing is my response to His love. We love because He first loved us. We respond to His love with love in response.

By the way, that's key in marriage. Really big. That's why Ephesians 5 and a couple of those places relate to marriage. Along those same lines, there's a verse in Ephesians about Paul praying that we would be strengthened, that God would strengthen us. And it sounds like, what's odd to me is, Paul has to ask God to strengthen us? Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't God do that anyway? Well, think about this. Does Paul ever pray for something that is already a stated and given thing? Does he do that? Sometimes he does. He writes to the Thessalonians and he talks about, you know, and may God, you know, do this, and he talks about the body and the soul, you know, being preserved for, you know, this coming day.

And the reality is those things are already given. And so it's praying what is already promised and confirmed into our understanding and into our essentially catching up to what God has already done and is doing. So God is strengthening us. He's the doer. Yes, and by the way, at the end of Hebrews, I forget the exact verse, chapter 13 though, strengthened by grace. Grace is the strengthening factor.

And then we can get into more specifics about how that happens. Here's Apostle Paul, he had a thorn in the flesh, what did God tell him? Instead of, I'm going to take the thorn in the flesh away from you, what does he say? His grace is sufficient. So grace is a strengthener, grace is a sufficiency.

So this is something you can imagine. I was talking to Nancy recently. She says, boy, I just feel like I've just been learning about grace. I said, yeah, that's going to happen forever. The best we can do is barely scratch the surface. Don't worry if you feel like you've got a lot to learn. That's probably the best place you can be, because God's going to be showing Ephesians He's going to be showing us the riches of His grace on into the rolling ages of eternity. So strengthening? Yeah, we're just learning about that. A sufficiency? Yeah, we're just learning about that.

It's because grace is so massive, infinite. Grace is infinite. And He can't possibly show us everything here. So the best we're going to do is just barely scratch the surface here. Here's Louis Barry Schaeffer who wrote a whole book on grace. That's it, just grace. That's it. Guess what?

The book just barely scratches the surface. We won't be getting on into eternity 10,000 years from now, to use the words of the psalm, and just kind of, I've seen that before. It won't be. God's grace will continue to astound us into the rolling ages to come. And that's a really good thing. Are there things you don't understand here? Me too, right? A lot of things we don't understand. And don't worry about it. Grace is so big, it's going to take a while. How about eternity, right? Take forever. Okay, so let's take a look here.

So does that mean that being conformed to the image of Christ is entirely a sovereign process in which we have no part whatsoever? The answer is no. As a process here on planet Earth, it is not a matter of God's total and complete sovereignty, and you have no part in it. Our part in this, and we're going to see that there are different places for different things, So studying the believer's part is not just a matter of, oh, we've just got to respond. But here it is. We're going to see other places where the answer is different. But for this, it is not God's sovereignty, we just can't do anything about it, but rather God's sovereignty brings about a place for you to respond to his love, that's your part, so that the process is taking place.

If someone is unresponsive because of chronic sin, deep sin, unbelief, who has believed initially, that thwarts the process, but doesn't thwart the end result. Now, to get back to Wayne's question, what about, see Hebrews 12 talks about God disciplines those whom he loves, right? So what happens, does it mean that all the trials that I go through are disciplined? Not necessarily, right? So discipline is for the one who's off track, to help get them back on track, and discipline God uses that to do what? To push that person back on track so that they can continue on with the conforming process. So this is how discipline versus trials relates.

I will go through a trial, and through that trial, as I continue to love the Lord and respond to Him, even if I don't understand everything that's going on, God uses that for conformity. Because what am I doing? I'm responding to His love. Even though I don't understand it, you may not even like it. Probably won't.

But, God's going to use that to conform the believer as a process. Discipline is to put the believer back on the path of fellowship with the Lord and with others that continues that process. You see the relationship there? So discipline is to put me back in the place of being conformed. as a process, back in the place of being transformed as a process, as we see, and sanctified in the other things that we look at here. So that God has a purpose for discipline, to return us back to a path of fellowship. God has a place for the triumphs. But it's all tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And one of the points we made previously, still very important as we look through this, there may be some things that happen.

You look back and say, oh, this is terrible. And you're free to say this is terrible. You're free to say what took place was really awful. Nancy and I have seen circumstances where we look at it and say, well, this is really terrible. that this happened, and it may be something even you had no part in, but some outside party perpetrated this mess. And you're free to say it's awful, and you're free to say this is not a good thing, but there is good in God's using it to conform us to the image of his Son. That's how they're still good. Even in a situation, you look at it, this man, this woman, this group of people, whatever they did, was terrible. And you're free to say, that was awful, and that was wrong, right? We don't have to pretend that everything's good.

But we can say that the good that will come out of everything is God's conforming us to the image of his Son. And our part in that is to continue to respond to His love by loving Him in return. Not by our efforts, but by responding to His expression of love. Loving Him in return through whatever God puts us through.

And that's conforming. Make sense? So let's take a look. Page 2. One of the points we've made previously, and we've done it repeatedly, and I think there's good value in it. By the way, this diagram that's on the top, page 2, is a very helpful model for lots of things. Kind of thinking through, you know, we can have things that happen to our physical side that don't necessarily touch the spiritual side, right? You know, roughly a quarter of a century ago, the Lord decided that I needed Lyme disease.

And pretty much most of what comes from that is invisible to everybody else. They don't know that I can't feel certain body parts. They don't know the pains that I go through. I didn't know until things happened that it affected my cognitive function.

All of a sudden, snip! And you don't get no warning. Just snip! A memory is just now gone. A lesson you learned, now it's gone. So there are things like that. Is that a bad thing? Oh, it sure didn't feel very good, and it sure has made for trouble in my life. But, it's a good thing. And it's all in the physical realm, but God had a spiritual intent for it.

So Romans 8.28 and 29 says God works all things on the physical side, and on the spiritual side. to the good that this process of being conformed to the image of the sun takes place. Yeah? So is the brain and the mind different here? No, let's look at the model. And so we have on the physical realm we have a body. A part of our body is the brain. And by the way, this is the one part of this that is not strictly revealed in scripture.

It's something that modern science has determined. In fact, from what we can tell, the ancients didn't understand what the brain did. The Egyptians, for example, would pull out all the body parts and put them in containers, but the brains they would suck out through the nasal cavity and throw it away. They had no idea what it did. So anyway, this is a modern recognition, but nonetheless the rest of it all fits in with scripture. So given that...

So this is the organ. Yeah, what you have is the organ of the brain as a part of the body is there on the physical side, right? And we can have things go on with that brain. Sometimes they're a pathology, something wrong, right? Sometimes it has to do with, you know, boy, I just didn't get enough to eat today and I'm kind of... feeling weak and out of sorts. Sometimes it can be a physical injury. So there's that element, the brain is a part of the body.

On the spiritual side, we have the soul as a part of the spirit. The soul is a part of the spirit. Between the brain and the soul, by the way, between those there's an interface, that's the physical-spiritual interface, they both have an element of mind, emotions, and will, and scripture does refer to those three things. Mind, emotions, and will are a part of both the brain and Yes. So you're saying that the soul is not part of the physical body, but it's only part of the spiritual aspect of it. That's correct. It is on the spiritual side, but there is the physical and spiritual mind is partly a brain component and partly a soul component.

Our emotions are not simply physical things. but they are also spiritual things. And by the way, that's a part of what we studied earlier, being made in the image of God. Being made in the image of God, here's mind, emotions, and will. And by the way, you'll read in scripture about God's mind, emotions, and will. That's a part of being made in the image of God.

So does that answer your question? And we also say that in the physical realm, we have five senses. Not all of mine work completely properly, but we have five senses in the classical sense, sight and hearing and touch and taste, those kind of things. On the physical side, we have in scripture, revealed an analog of those where it talks about spiritual sight, talks about spiritual hearing, and talks about a spiritual sense of touch and smell. In fact, Hebrews is one of the primary books that talks about the senses in the spiritual realm.

It does numerous times. So anyway, so you have that model, that understanding of here's the physical realm and here's the spiritual realm and here's what the Bible reveals about those things. And so what we have here, when we look below here is the believer's will in the all things in which God's work are both physical and spiritual things. So this is something to look at.

God is sovereign. God's sovereignty does not mean, as some Calvinists will tell you, God's sovereignty does not mean that he causes absolutely every single thing to happen and nothing happens without his direct cause. That does not That's not a biblical teaching. What it says with regards to our conformity is God works all things together.

He works physical things together. He works spiritual things together. And all those things interactively, to what end? What's the end result of God's working all things together for good? And what's the good? that were made into the image of Christ. That's the good. We're not forced to claim something that is good that is not. But simply to recognize that it may even be this horrible, awful thing that just took place. This terrible thing does have some eternal good come from it. And that's what we're being made into the image of Christ. Yes? How would you define mind? I mean that's the same thing, I just looked, but that's what Paul talks about in Romans 7, the law of the mind and the law of the memory. Yeah, what's interesting is that's a whole study in itself.

So I could only be a little bit too brief, but the bottom line is, Philippians uses a word, a phroneo, or occasionally a related word repeatedly, every chapter, and sometimes several times a chapter, and it has to do with a mindedness. It has to do with a mindedness. So there's that. There's another word that's translated mind, it's psuche, where we get our word, you know, psychology from the Greek, from that.

So there are different aspects of mind. The one that is used in, about unbelievers in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, uses the mind in a negative sense about the unbeliever. So it's a big study to look at the mind, but realize that scripture, one, does address it. Two, it realizes there's a different mind for the believer than there is for the unbeliever. So that's a key distinction. And why? It's because the soul of the believer is different than the soul of the unbeliever.

Yeah, Wayne? Here's Satan, what did he appeal to? He appealed to the mind and to the emotions. He appealed to the senses. Right? And Eve saw that it was, hey, this looks pretty good. So there was an appeal to those aspects. What was the thing that made the huge spiritual difference? The act of will.

If Adam had said, you know, yeah, that looks pretty good, and boy, I realize you think it's tasty, Eve, we better not be doing this. Right, and so you have, I'm not believing God, and I'm getting pulled into Satan's temptation here, and being subject to those things was not the problem. It was the act of will on him. By the way, it wasn't Eve's problem, it was Adam's problem. The Bible does not split the guilt for that evenly. It was Adam's problem and his failures and his act of will was the eternal pivot point, if you will.

He made an act of will. To have the mind get the concept is one thing. To feel something emotionally is another thing. To act with the will is a different thing altogether. We can have realizations and sensations and all sorts of things. It's the act of will that makes the difference even for us.

Back to Wayne's question. The soul is eternal on both the feet. I don't see it here on the physical side, so it's a spiritual thing. And it's always always will be eternal. One of the points we made is that death is not termination, inability, as it's been mistakenly defined. Death is separation, right? Unless it's a physical, but even a physical death, let's think of what happens. What happens is when someone dies physically, the spiritual side separates from the physical side, right? The body stays here in whatever form it's going to stay, the soul and spirit, that which is on the spiritual side, is separated, but it doesn't end and terminate. Once God creates a soul and spirit, it's forever. Is it conscious? Forever? Yes.

And that's one thing, our brain can get to a place where it's not conscious, right? And we've even, if you've ever been through a surgery, where they put you out, you're not conscious, right? Even sleep is sort of a semi-state in that direction. On the spiritual side, there is no unconsciousness. So there's a difference between those two. There is no unconsciousness. People in the lake of fire will wish They could just kind of, hey, I'm going to flip my switch off here and be done with this. Nope. You don't get that.

So understanding these things, the physical side, the spiritual side, the part where the believers will, we're going to experience all kinds of things. We'll have things introduced to our mind. We will have emotions of all sorts. And that's one of the reasons why I put this diagram up front here frequently. The train and the tracks is like the faith and the facts, right? That those things are together.

The feelings follow because there's a tendency, particularly I would say in our culture since World War II, to put the emotions up there way far ahead. And actually the Bible doesn't do that. The Bible says that emotions are a part of our being made in the image of God.

Is God sad about things? Yes. Does God grieve? Does the Holy Spirit grieve? Yes. God is not immune and untouched by things, but this being made in the image of God says mind, emotions and will are there. As a matter of fact, that's what the Bible talks about, God's will. This is the will of God.

So you could say then, back to Wayne's question, that when Adam sinned, there was a disconnection of the soul from God. Yes. And what you say, that word disconnect, we would use the word separate. And so Adam was separated spiritually from God. He had a place of fellowship with God. and that was broken. And so actually this was merciful so that he would not be continually in the state of unbelief and the state of death fixed. He was driven from the garden not to be mean to him, but to say, okay, God's got a plan for redemption here. And that's going to be carried out. You're not going to live forever in this state. Because I'm going to offer an opportunity for salvation, which is going to be a whole lot better than the garden in the end.

Isn't that great? So let's take a look at the ultimate issue of choice. And this is very, very big. Bottom of page two, while we make choices every day involving and impacting both the physical and the spiritual realm, the ultimate issue of choice for the believer is that of walking in the spirit or walking in accordance with the sin nature. Why do we say that's the ultimate choice? It's the ultimate, the primary choice, it's the choice of priority.

Does it help if I am depending upon the sin nature to try to be very good? No. It's a fruitless exercise. If I do what's perceived to be good, the sin nature will take credit for it. If I do bad, guess what the sin nature is going to do? It's going to beat me up. You lousy, no good. The sin nature is happy either way. Do you do something good? Hey, look what I did! Do you do something bad? Naughty, nasty, horrible, condemned.

That's what the sin nature does. There's therefore now only 1% condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's therefore now shades of gray of condemnation. There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Feeling condemned? Is it God doing it? No, it's not God's judgment. It is the sin nature.

The sin nature loves to sign up to either try to do it on its own or rebel. It will do either one, and it's happy either way. It will do either one, and it's happy either way. It may even do both. Hey, sign me up for that. Oh, I did terrible. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Right? Ever go through that? It's in nature, it just loves to do that. It's happy either way. So that's the ultimate issue of choice.

We have a diagram on the top of page 3 that is Hal's switch diagram that shows the believer either relying on the Holy Spirit or on the flesh. It's important to keep in mind while this is a diagram and Hal being an electrical engineer, this would just fit him wonderfully. It's a diagram and like all diagrams and analogies, there's a point where it breaks apart.

Because in reality, this is personal. That's what the diagram doesn't necessarily bring forward. In the end, it's personal. Very important. This shows the mechanics, if you will. or the electrical mechanics, but the spiritual reality is personal, not simply this is what you do and click the switch over here.

By giving an analogy, in my relationship with Nancy, if I say, OK, Nancy must be kissed seven times today, and if I go in and I kiss her seven times, check it off the list, that's not going to be something she's going to like. Alright, give Nancy three hugs. Okay, you've been hugged. That's not what Nancy wants, is it?

And the Lord does not want us to look at our relationship with Him as mechanical either. But this does connect to, and we won't have time to cover it, this does connect to trials and suffering. This is a connecting point. God works all things together for good. And the trials and suffering can either be discipline, intended to put us back on the path of fellowship and ongoing conformity, or it can be simply trials in the midst of things. We should look at, okay, is it one or the other? I may be going through a trial, and it's just simply God designed a trial, not, you know, I blew it somehow. And I have heard pastors teach that. Boy, if you've got something going on in your life that's difficult, you must have done something wrong. That's what Job's friend said. You must have had something going on. That's not true. That's not a good logical conclusion.

God may in fact have very good purposes for the trial. And what's the ultimate end? What are you going to be conformed to as a process, as a result of the trial? You're going to be conformed to the image of Christ through the trial. And we go through trials that are really big. We go through some that are short-lived. He goes, let's just take a small one. I can't find something. I've got to have my license for a little drive. I can't find my keys. Oh, I found them. OK. And it's over. You get something else.

Boy, this just doesn't go away. And it goes on and on and on. It may even go well beyond what schedule you had in mind for it. So some things are long-term and chronic. Some things are really big. Some things are small. This is what James calls various trials. And the word that is translated, you know, various is the word that we get over polkas and polkadots. Rejoice when you encounter polkadot trials. So different ones. This will be a small one. This will be a big one. This one will be in between. This one will be short lived. This one will be, you know, some cases the trial is out there. Some cases the trial is right here.

But, so various. But what is the ultimate purpose? If God had said 25 years ago, hey Vern, would you like to sign up for some Lyme disease? Oh yeah! I'll do that! Right? No, I'm not going to pass on it. But, God had a good intent for it. Evidently because both Nancy and I prayed at the same time together about the problem, medical problem she was having, and mine. And hers was healed before we said Amen. Mine was not. Does that mean that I didn't believe enough? Does that mean no? It doesn't mean that I had a problem that I needed to get solved? God said no, you need this. Why? to be conformed to the image of the sun.

We're running out of time, but we do have a few minutes left. Questions, thoughts, comments? James has considered all joy. That doesn't always come right off, does it? No. It's a while to learn that. Yes it does. When you think of something that's all joy, you might think this or that happening.

I don't know what is on different people's lists. It can be I made a good recipe and it worked out. In one case it might be this is a really great wedding. Whatever you consider all joy. And he says various trials. It is a realization. Yeah, Steve? And along with that, it seems like joy comes with prioritization. This is very good. Priorities are not in the spiritual realm or in the spiritual direction. then you aren't going to experience that joy or understanding. Yeah, and think about it.

Have you ever been in a situation or have you known someone who is mad at God? And it might even be, if there's a God, I'm mad at him. It could even be that. And so that's what happens if we don't understand what God's doing through the circumstances we have.

Even those things where I've made a terrible decision and I'm going through the consequences of it. I may have made a terrible decision or failed to make a decision because of ignorance. And I'm seeing the consequences of that. A number of different times in the last couple of decades where I thought afterwards, I sure wish I had listened to Nancy on that one.

But we go through these things and in the end is God going to use it all to the end that we're conforming to the Son? Yes. Even if it's disciplined, it's still intended to put us back on the path of being conformed to the Son. Because He loves us either way.

And even if I blow it, there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. If I'm feeling all self-condemned and beating myself up, that's the sin nature doing it, not God. There are people who say, well, I hated being a Christian because I felt guilty all the time. Well, guess what? That wasn't God's idea. That was the sin nature's idea. I've heard people say, well, I tried Christianity, it didn't work for me. You know what? I would say they didn't try Christianity. It's not biblical Christianity.

Yes. And condemnation is a law term, right? Condemnation is a law term. You get condemned by the law. Anybody get condemned by grace? That ever happen to you? If you feel like you're condemned by grace, then your grace isn't amazing enough. Right? Yeah. It isn't grace if it isn't amazing. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for, indeed, your amazing grace. Thank you for what you've provided. Thank you for the insights that we can have because of your word and what a relief it is, what a wonder it is, what a joy it is forever to have things that others get pulled down by and sucked into. And thank you that we can look at all these things that you work together for good. to have a good and eternal purpose, even if they aren't things we'd sign up for. Thank you for that. How comforting, how wonderful it is to know that our position is simply to respond to your love for us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.