Knowing and Growing – Growing – what is God doing?

Growing What Is God Doing is our topic and handout. One of the things we mentioned is there are these words that are kind of in parallel, grow and mature. And what's the difference between the two words? Are they just synonyms and mean the exact same thing? Or what's the difference? Do you recall that? Okay, just to refresh our memories because this was a couple weeks back now.

Growing is starting from the standpoint of immaturity and growing towards maturity. So maturity is then looking at or say maturing is looking towards maturity. What's the direction you are headed? Whereas growing is often, what am I growing away from, in a sense? So it's similar, but what is the perspective in terms of where are we growing from and what are we growing towards? So the two words are definitely related, but not straight synonyms.

So we say to grow and mature spiritually would not even be possible if God had not acted out of his mercy and grace to save us. So there'd be no growth, there'd be no maturity, there'd be no conforming, there'd be no transforming, none of that would happen, right?

Everything about each believer's position in Christ and eternal salvation is accomplished by God himself. All we did is believe. So this is looking at God's part in each one of those. So 1 Corinthians 1.30a, the beginning part of it. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus. So what part did we have to do with being in Christ Jesus?

Did we do like a 30% deal? Is it sort of a grayscale, somewhere in the middle? That's it. It's the point we made. All we did was believe. God says, that's it. I'll take it from there. Right? And so just that concept that I summarized in less than 15 seconds, all we did was believe, just as you pointed out. And God says, that's it. I'll take it from there.

And just understanding that, a great portion of Christendom does not have that concept down. It's, you know, all I did was believe and da-da-da-da-da-da, and now I've got to keep da-da-da-da-da-da, you know? So that by itself is a big deal. Okay, we're on to the next one. Ephesians 2, 4 through 9. Yeah, and that's the next part. And yes, yeah, it's not bios. Bios is a word typically used for just physical life. Zoe for spiritual life.

Alright, so Ephesians 2, 4-9, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions. And notice something, okay? It doesn't just say God having mercy. But what's the description? Rich. And matter of fact, we can substitute the word if it helps. Wealthy. We could put that word in there. Wealthy. in mercy because of his, and then here's, it doesn't just say because of his love with which he loved us.

What's the description in there? Great love. So rich in mercy, a wealth of mercy is great love with which he loved us. So God's mercy and his love are not just nominal, right? They're both intense and extreme. and abundant. His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions.

And by the way, let's ask about this. This great love with which He loved us, what kind of love is that? If you guys do this, then I'll pull this off for you. Yeah, in other words, this kind of love is shown to you in context. even when we were dead in our transgressions, right?

And when we say dead, what does that mean? It's separated. That's an important distinction to make, and even Ephesians, the book itself, makes that point, that death is separation. There's a tendency on a lot of people to think, okay, out on a slab, cold, dead, unable to respond, and then start developing a bunch of conclusions, but no, it's dead. being separated, dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

And that being made alive together is done how? By grace. Okay, by grace. And then alive together with Christ. So when were you made alive together? Okay, but when was Christ made alive? At the time of his resurrection, right? It's increasing, it's looking like April 5th, 33 AD, right? So at that time, you were made alive with him.

You see that? Alright, so when did you believe? When did you believe? Centuries later, right? Centuries later you believed, but he already made you alive. How can he do that? I believe February 20, 1974. Okay, so you believed then. How is it that he made you alive way back on April 5, 33 A.D.? And how do you pull that off? I mean, because that seems like that's way out of sync time-wise.

Any of us alive during that time? Any of us remember getting crucified? So this is entirely something revealed and not by experience. It's not by experience. It's entirely revealed. And it is it also makes no time sense from our human time tunnel perspective, right?

So he made us alive together with Christ on the day in which Christ was resurrected And then this is by grace you have been saved which is a phrase actually used twice. It's also in verse 8 Grace you've been saved and that saved is in the perfect tense and We're not inclined to get super-geeky-geeky, but that perfect tense is one that is used intentionally. It's not used that often, so when it is used, it's used very intentionally and purposefully. It means it's a completed past action with ongoing results into the present and on into the future, implying permanence unless the context says otherwise. Was that made effective to the time previous to the cross as well? Well, so let's ask about that. How do you get the idea that it's from a time previous to the cross?

Salvation is by faith. It's always been by faith. Salvation has always been by faith. So what that says is regardless of which group people are in, whether it's the church or Israel or Gentiles or whatever, always salvation has been by faith from the time Adam fell up until the last person born on the planet. So all that time salvation is always by faith.

But by grace you've been saved permanently, totally, completely. Done deal. God doesn't go, ah, you know, that's good for 99% of you, but a few of you have got to work a little harder. God doesn't do that, right? For by grace you have been saved. And by the way, why couldn't it be something else? Why does it have to be grace? If it wasn't grace, it would be works. It would be works. Works don't work. Yeah, works don't work, and especially ours, right? Especially ours. Yeah.

Yeah, the law never saved anybody. Matter of fact, people think of the Old Testament law, even the Jews didn't understand this is never going to save you. It never will save you. It's not designed for that. Deuteronomy 28 says it's for curses and for blessings. It's not for salvation. Never was, never will be.

Yeah? You said the Jews did not understand that? Yep. The Jews did not understand that. They thought of their lineage from Abraham and thought that was going to save them. They thought, well, I keep the law, but this other guy doesn't, so he's a scumbag and I'm a good guy. So they had lots of confusion about that. And even Christians now have lots of confusion about that. The law was never designed to save anyone. It was designed to decide who gets blessed, who gets cursed. and whether it's in the land or not, and it's for Israel only.

That's it. Yeah? You know, because of what Paul said and what Jesus said, it seems like a lot of them believe that because they were circumcised, they were saved. Yeah. Circumcision is, you know, the rabbis saw circumcision as priority. Circumcision is...

How great is the Sabbath? The Sabbath is great, right? Circumcision is greater because while you're not supposed to work on the Sabbath, you could perform a circumcision on the Sabbath. Therefore, circumcision overrides the Sabbath. If it's on the eighth day, that's when you do it, right? You don't say, well, it'll wait till tomorrow. No. Yeah, you don't do it on the ninth day. So that says circumcision is even greater than the Sabbath. And so that's the way the rabbis reasoned. And the reality is, you need grace. Sorry. Not getting there any other way. So think about it.

There could be a person under law. I can't get too derailed here, but there could be a person under law who is saved by faith, but skips in their thinking and picks up a piece of firewood a half hour too late. and be stoned to death. So you could be stoned to death for failing one law one time, but saved eternally by faith. Because the law won't save anybody, but it can kill you.

Alright, so here we have, and raised us up with Him, here again is with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

So, now, first of all, the way that both Jesus and Paul spoke and wrote was that there is this age, in the most intense case, this present evil age, that's from the day that Adam fell. until the time that Messiah comes. That's the present evil age, this age. That's the terminology. And Jesus and Paul were consistent with it. They both used that terminology. Then there was the age to come, which is the Messiah's age. The age to come is the Messiah's age. So the ages to come is when? rolling ages on into eternity, age after age after age on into eternity, past the Messiah's age here on this planet.

He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now, what do you notice about grace? Is it rich or riches? His riches, which is the way to think of that is it means multiple magnitudes of wealth, of grace. Multiple magnitudes of wealth and His grace in kindness toward us. Is God ambivalent, apathetic towards us? No. We talked about mercy, and grace, and great love, and now kindness. And by the way, this isn't the first time kindness has showed up in the Ephesians.

In Christ Jesus, for by grace you have been saved, and that's the same saved perfect tense, through faith. And how did you get saved? Through faith. And how did it come about? By your doing certain things and not doing certain things? By grace and faith. That's it. Not by law. Not by trying hard. Not by, boy, I'm a really great guy and I got this and that accomplishment. Nothing.

And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So what's not of yourselves? The whole salvation. The whole salvation. Actually the grammar, there are folks who will say that the faith is a gift. No, the grammar doesn't work out for that. And nowhere else in scripture does it say that faith is a gift. So, it's not the faith, it is salvation. It is the gift of God. So what's the gift of God? Salvation is entirely a gift of God. not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Can anyone get saved by works? Not happening. Okay? Not happening. Titus 3, 5-7, He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

What's justified mean? Does that mean I have a lot of excuses? Being declared righteous. Okay, you're correct in terms of the short definition of justified as declared righteous. What's behind it? How can God declare us righteous? Through the death and resurrection of His Son. In other words, God doesn't just come up and say, hey, you're righteous. How does He do that? Our sins are paid for by Christ, for everyone on the planet, paid for.

Yeah, but at what point in time He places us in Christ? Because basically it's effective when we believe, placed into Christ, And that justification then includes what? How can God possibly declare me righteous? Me? Burn! How can God possibly declare me righteous?

It's only by the person and work of Christ that your sins are forgiven? that you are redeemed. So that's why Ephesians 1.7, Colossians 1.14, in Him you have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. In Him we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So in Him we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and we are justified, and it all happened by faith. Right? All happened by faith. He was satisfied that the sin questioned him. Yes, he was satisfied that the sin issue had been addressed, therefore God, because God is just, God just can't just shrug his shoulders and say, boys will be boys and Burns will be Burns.

He can't do that. Why can't God just do that? Why can't God just kind of shrug his shoulders? kind of grin a little bit and say that's just the way it is. Yeah, how could God possibly forgive us? It is because every single sin was totally and completely and permanently paid for there on the cross. That's it. That's the only way he could possibly forgive us. And And the only way that I appropriated that is not by anything I didn't do or anything I did do. It's only by faith. That is it. So God will not justify us if we do not believe what our faith wants us to believe. God does not justify except by faith.

This is Romans 5.1.

Therefore, having been justified by faith. Right? But that justification includes redemption and forgiveness. Redemption and forgiveness are an essential part of and a prerequisite for being justified. God does not have the option to just declare me righteous apart from that. So you're correct when it says justified means declared righteous, but we have to understand what's the full definition behind that, so therefore having been justified by faith because I'm redeemed and I'm forgiven, all by faith.

Alright, so, He saved us not on the basis of deeds. So God accomplished everything about our salvation, our position in Christ when we first believed. It is all God's doing that we are in Christ and have the new man, the new nature, and a new history. What do we mean by the new history? What's our new history as believers? Okay, we're a new creation, alright, and actually given a new history that we, again, by ourselves, we wouldn't have that history. Okay, here's Vern. What history does Vern have before belief? Just your own personal history. My personal history, but ultimately, spiritually, my history in Adam. That's the history I have. At the point of belief, then, I have what personal history?

I have Christ's history, now did I have Christ's history when he crossed on the boat after feeding the 4,000 and went across the Sea of Galilee and landed at Magdala? Do I share that history with him? No, so what are the, what is it, pardon? Yeah, so what history do I have with my new history? So that was one, I was chosen in Him, but what new history do I have?

The new history that I have, having been identified with Christ, is the new history as I died and been buried and resurrected and ascended and seated with Christ. That's the new history that I have. The old history is completely gone and displaced. That is completely gone and displaced. Yes?

Now when he says we've been predestined before the foundation of the world, is that part of our history then too? When we look at the predestination, what have we been predestined to? Well, when you look at it, predestination is not a word that's used a bunch of times in the New Testament. In fact, it's specific things in which we're predestined. And one is at the end of Romans 8, and the other there is in Ephesians chapter 1. Right? Well, and specific to those, what's that? We are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's Romans 8, you know, 28 through 30.

We are predestined. So that's what our predestination is not God sits there and makes every single move and breath you take and every move you make and all the decisions. God doesn't predestine that. He predestines the end result. So here is working all things together for good, but the outcome is not in question.

And then we go to Ephesians chapter 1. What's the word predestined used for? Predestined to be what? So Megan got it right on the first one, to be conformed. Open it up. Ephesians 1. What are we predestined to? So this is important because otherwise we can get a real mechanical, you know, boy, God predestines everything. I think I'm making choices, but I really don't. I give up because God's going to do whatever He's going to do. We can end up being fatalistic or even, you know, kind of despondent because we figured God's predestined everything. But He is only predestined certain things. Adoption. And remember what adoption does? It completely wipes out our old history, right? And gives us a new history entirely and a new identity entirely, right? He predestined us for that. So is what is ultimately predestined going to get messed up?

Not a chance. So God is not sitting here controlling every move you make, every breath you take. He is not Verne's going to do this, he's going to do that, he's not going to do that, I won't let him, he's going to go here, he's going to go there, he's going to make this choice, and you know, da-da-da-da. And that's not what he's predestined.

What he is predestined is those two things that we looked at. Scripture is very specific, it's outcomes. But that's not what it says. That's not what it says. And so to look at it, I mean, there's certainly an aspect of this that we can't quite get our mind around.

The idea of Calvinism, God just predestines everything and chooses those who are saved and chooses those who are going to go to hell and all that. I mean, that's ultimately what hardline Calvinism will push. But that's not what Scripture teaches. Scripture just doesn't teach that. When you talk about what's predestined, it's actually very comforting.

Can I blow it along the way? I sure can. And I can blow it repeatedly. But I can't blow the ultimate outcome. And that's fantastic. It's comforting. It should not be a matter of my dread or despondency. But so they're looking at, you know, God's fixed these things in place and He's predestined them. And that's great. That's security. That's comfort for me. Not that I'm somehow now complacent and don't care or become apathetic.

That's not the point. but just a realization that under grace, grace undergirding everything, these outcomes cannot be messed up. And so the processes that are going on are things that have a fixed outcome in those respects. But it doesn't mean I don't have any choices. It doesn't mean that there are no consequences for choices that I make. There are. But the outcome is fixed. That's cool. That's really great.

As his adopted son, my history in Adam has been wiped out. Completely displaced. Completely displaced. Your history in Adam, there's no percentage of it left. It's not a grayscale deal. I owe nothing. You have zero history in Adam. You have 100% and for eternity history in Christ and his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. That's it. All my debts have been paid. All my sins have been repaid. Completely paid. So here's why Christ uses this accounting term on the cross to tell us to die. One word, it's translated often, it is finished, but it means it's all completely, totally, permanently paid. Done deal. And I can't mess it up. Can I mess up? Yes, I can mess up. But there are things that can't be messed up, and that's really good.

I guess you could say that the history has changed, but there's aches and pains in this old body to go back to the past. Yes, and really, you look at it, these bodies, as time goes on, and we can do various things, you know, go to the doctor and try to get this thing propped up and that other thing, you know, so we're not feeling it so much and whatever, but the truth is that a lot of the limitations of our bodies, and boy, they're there, A lot of the limitations of our bodies are intended to cause us to look to the Lord and to look for the new body and the new life with Him. It's on purpose. Let's take a look here. So you see about two-thirds or three-quarters of the way down, you have death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating in the heavenlies. Those are the things in which we share Christ's history.

Now, so God works through circumstances, even the really hard ones, to bring about growth and maturity in the believer. So God is sovereign. This relates back to being conformed, doesn't it? God is sovereign. Even when human beings make choices to think and act contrary to God's moral and spiritual will, God's purposes will not be thwarted.

I can, in the near term, make some spiritually really stupid decision. I can do something that's just really dumb. Is that going to grow me? No, it's not going to grow me. And maybe even some serious earthly consequences for something spiritually dumb that I did.

But in the midst of that, none of that will thwart the ultimate outcome. So we're either in process, or we can even be thwarting and kicking, and I'm mad at God, and running the other way. The ultimate outcome is not going to get messed up. And that's cool. That's comforting. That's security and assurance.

In God manages all of history towards a specific future in which all things will be summed up in Christ this first Corinthians 9 and 10 And he works all things according to the counsel of his will So that's on the page 2 here So while people will make their choices and be free to do so God will make everything from supposed acts of nature to acts of mankind to failures of mankind to act of a planned part of our growth and maturity. So all sorts of things happen. I mean, decisions I make and don't make, fail to make, right? What somebody else does that I know and related to, not related to.

You know, the guy's driving down the street the other way and he's drunk as a skunk behind the wheel. Is that a good thing he's doing? No, it's a really dumb thing, right? And even worldlings will say, that's a really stupid thing he's doing. But if he by his crazy driving hits me, that's not outside of what God has planned for me. Does it mean that what he did was good? No. Does it mean that I look at what happened and say, oh, that was all good? No, we're free to say that wasn't a good thing. But I know that God's going to use it for good. Even though I can look at what happened and say that's really awful. That guy's a really stupid idiot for getting behind the wheel plastered.

Here's James 1, 2-4 expanded and explained. You must esteem it ultimate joy, my Israelite brethren in Christ, so he's writing specifically to Jewish believers, when you encounter various fiery tests with a view to approval. Knowing that the fiery test with a view to approval of your faith produces endurance, patience through and under the circumstances. And you must choose to have endurance, patience through and under the circumstances, generate its maturity-producing result, so that you may be spiritually mature and complete, lacking in nothing that God intends to bring about in your life. When a guy hits you, you can say, stupid guy, but thanks. Yeah, yeah.

You know, one would look at it as, we need what's happening to us. We need what's happening to us and that doesn't mean, I mean, some of the things are really awful and it can be, you know, you look at somebody else that you love and care about, they need what's happening to them too.

So sometimes that can be really tough, a real wrestling point. Especially if it's something where somebody you love and care about is doing something stupid, right? Or they're bearing the consequences from somebody else who did something really stupid. And so those can be tough times. Those can really be difficult. Been there, done that.

But just the same, God does have an intent with these things. So while many have thought that James was very Jewish and legal in his perspective, we have to point out that based on Deuteronomy 28 and related passages, the Jews thought that any earthly trial in a person's life was a result of God's curse upon the person for violating the law of Moses. So is James being legal? No. Just the very start of James, after introducing it, He's seeing these trials, which a good Jew is not going to have those, if he's obeying the law. He says those trials are actually things you ought to be happy about.

Yes? What they've been given, because that was all of the Old Testament law stuff was, if you don't do this, you'll be blessed. If you don't do this, you'll be cursed. So they're not misinterpreting necessarily, except for specific instances of somebody having a problem being cursed. Yeah, in other words...

You can't really blame them for having that mindset? Oh, certainly you can understand it. It's not necessarily a biblical mindset, but you can understand how they get there. And a lot of Christians will get there. You know, I'll run into people who get, you know, things thrown at, oh, the reason you're having a tough time is because you're sinning. Well, not necessarily, you know.

That's not a... foregone conclusion, and because we're not under Deuteronomy 28, right? And so for the Jew living under the law, trials have an entirely different significance than us who are in Christ, in the body of Christ, even if we're Jewish now, right? And I'm not. But even if a person is Jewish now, they're not living under Deuteronomy 28. And by the way, Deuteronomy 28 has the lamb two times in the blessings and two times in the curses, right? And we're not there. So not all things in life though would have to be classified under fiery tests or trials, right?

If you wake up in the morning and you've got a stomach ache, it might be because you had bad pizza the night before. Okay, so let's talk about that because both of those may be true. In other words, if you had bad pizza the night before, is God disciplining you?

Not necessarily, and it may not be because you've sinned that that's come about. Because of sin, in general, people have things like, now I've got a stomachache, or my stomach is upset, or whatever. And our bodies are frail. Right. But I think the thing to look at is there are two categories of things. that happen, and one is that God disciplines believers, and the other is that God brings about trials. Now some of those can appear to have very natural causes.

Like you say, you had bad pizza. It messed up down at the pizza shop, right? So we can have things happen that appear to be a result of natural causes. We can have things happen that appear to be the result of somebody else doing something stupid, right?

And it is still either this is a trial that God has brought about, allowed, whatever words you want to use, in the believer's life to grow from, or It is discipline that the Lord is using us to help put us back on the path. And unless the Lord is putting his finger on something and saying, oh look, this is happening because it's a consequence of this other thing that you did or didn't do, which would be discipline, right? unless the Lord has brought about something, and he's put his finger on something that the believer needs to deal with, that is in fact, has sin as a source. Then it should be looked upon as a trial, and okay, Lord, you want me to continue remaining faithful and believing through the course of this.

Now, so let's ask this other question. What if I'm going through a medical trial, Is it wrong for me to seek medical help? Is that avoiding the trial? No. No. And why not? It might be part of the trial. Because the end results are going to be the same. Yeah, in other words, still I have to look through that trial even if I'm looking for, you know, to get out of it. Because think about it.

First of all, during the apostolic era, people had medical trials and what did the apostles do? Apostles will come and heal. In fact, we're looking at Philip here. He doesn't heal the Ethiopian eunuch like we're looking at, but the previous time when he was in Samaria, he cast out demons and healed people.

So you have that as an example. Here's Paul writes to Timothy. Have a little wine for your stomach's sake here with your frequent stomach illnesses. And so why do you say that? He said that because, you know, here's some source of relief, right, from it. So pursuing relief isn't by itself a problem, but nonetheless even pursuing relief or dealing with it in some way may in fact be something the Lord is looking at. to teach you from.

So here's Nancy and I, you know, more than 20 years ago, kneeling by the side of the bed. She's got whole body, 24-7 itching. That's really intense. I mean, it'd be so intense that she'd be scratching to wake me up. And she'd just claw on her thighs with this thing. And I've got Lyme disease symptoms. It was early on with the Lyme disease.

We'd kneel down and pray. We'd both pray in faith. The Lord heals her before we're through saying Amen. And the Lord says, No Vern, I want you to have that Lyme disease thing to deal with for years to come. That's how the Lord wanted to do it. And I'm okay with that. And it didn't mean that, you know, well Vern, of course you've got Lyme disease and God sent a tick to bite you because you're doing terrible, awful things.

Right? So that isn't an automatic conclusion, is it? And it means all sorts of things and the symptoms change and it's been wild and crazy. It still is. Yes. Could you lump testing in with trials? God causes bad things to happen for either discipline or trials and testing? Yes. So they're both in the same category? No, that's what I'm saying. It's important for us to make the distinction.

If God is carrying out discipline, in our case, we need to look at what is God trying to get us to deal with here. Let's take it for instance, if I have an issue in my life and I don't learn the lesson that God has in mind, but sidestep it in some way, you know what's going to happen? God's going to say, well, you really haven't learned that lesson, so I'm going to bring you back around to the same gate. Because you still haven't learned the lesson, you sidestepped it, but that really doesn't teach you the thing I want you to learn. So, there isn't ultimately a sidestepping. and something where the Lord is disciplining us and it's a corrective and it's intended to put us back on the path of fellowship with the Lord and with other believers.

The trials and testing are just given to us just to help us grow. Right. And by the way, that's what James is focusing on here. This is the fiery tests. These are the fiery tests. And so that's why we bring up this James thing, and especially just to get the contrast also between law and grace.

The law says, well of course you got something bad happen, it's because you did something bad. Here's Jesus healing this man who was born blind, and did he sin or his parents? That was the Pharisees mindset, and God says, no, I've got something else in mind altogether. You guys have not traced this out correctly. So let's look here. So we have a couple of bullets in the middle of page two.

The Christian must come to a perspective of seeing the trials as God's test of the believer with a view to approval by God, not a curse from God. James' friend in the faith, Paul, said that those who are in Christ are blessed unconditionally. So your blessings as a believer in Christ depends upon what? It's entirely God's doing, right? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.

That's it. He's going to wait several chapters to say, okay, now let's talk about your stealing and lying problem. He's going to put that off. Why? Because understanding that our blessings are unconditional is that important. It's that important. He's going to put off, do they have other issues, spiritual and moral? Yes, they certainly do. But understanding that our blessings are unconditional is very important.

And that's why a slipping back into the law-minded concept is a problem, because the law-minded concept is going to have us looking here for blessings and curses, because that's the way the law is written. Deuteronomy 28, you are blessed in the land twice. Deuteronomy 28, starting verse 15 to the end, you are cursed in the land, or regarding the land, twice. Right? Yes.

Too many times we see trials and testing as only pertinent to our existing here in this world, whereas the trials and testing can actually transfer over into our next life as well. And the results of this trial and testing at least will transfer over to our next life, right? Now let's ask this.

There are five crowns that are identified in the New Testament, and there could well be more, but five that we're told about. I mean, I would be fine with myself and others being surprised. Oh, you give a crown for that? Cool, you know. But the ones that are identified include one that is a crown for trials.

So the Lord doesn't say, you know, here's your trial, it's kind of stupid and senseless, but we'll just do it just for fun. Just like me, I used to play with the ants. Take a bunch of ants from this anthill and drop them on the ants over at this other anthill and see what they do. I found out that they fight a lot for a long time. But God's not playing anthill games with us. God's not playing anthill games with us. He instead has an eternal purpose for things that happen in time. And that truth just applies over and over again. He's got an eternal purpose for everything that's happening in time.

Even my marriage to Nancy. We've been married for 15,900 and about 50 days. Lost count a little bit. So, for that many days. But what is that? We live out in time, the eternal romance of Christ and the Church. That's the eternal purpose I get to live out in time, what God's doing for eternity. The trials that I have now are in time, but there's an eternal reward for remaining faithful under those trials. That's cool. That's really cool. So, let's take a look here. Here's 1 Peter 1, 3-9.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

So one of the things we point out here, Peter doesn't say that the trials are just bad things that happen, that we just have to grit our teeth and just get through them. Peter places the trials in an eternal context. And I think that's key in what you're pointing out, Stan, that an eternal perspective is necessary for us to even endure these things.

Otherwise, you'd say, it's just a pain and I just don't like it. I want to get out of it. Because there's no eternal payback if all I see is from here to the day I die. There's no payback. It's like, okay, I'm going through this, why? What good does this do me here now and on this earth and in this life? I kind of get the sense from that passage that salvation is an individual and personal thing and each one is going to be a little bit different. It's not just the fact that you're going to leave here and go to Europe. And so everybody ends up the same. It's like your paper on proportional punishment. This is kind of like proportional everlasting life. Rewards. Here's what's really interesting. It's valuable and important for us to look at what's our position.

You know, Peter in 1 Peter 3, 7, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, but show her honor as what? Joint heirs of the grace of life. So in that, I look at it and I say, Nancy and I have different roles in our marriage, but our position is the same. We have different giftedness and roles in the church body, but our position is the same.

Right? But, eternally, There is a reward that makes our eternity different. Isn't it interesting? There will be no mourning, sorrow, crying or pain. You know, I haven't, boy, sure, you know, beaten myself up. Boy, I sure wish I had done this instead of that.

But nonetheless, there will be, and probably the best measure, the best way to describe it now is a capacity to glorify the Lord that will differ from one person to the next. Because if you look at Jesus' way he left, you can look at that and say, what a failure. Because he was down on a tree. Yeah, you could say Jesus really messed up from some human perspective. But from John 17, in his prayer, you can see that it did have a purpose. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Other thoughts, questions? We've got more material here on the Holy Spirit that we didn't get to. And so looking at the Holy Spirit's involvement, so when we say what does God do or what's God's part, it's the Holy Spirit's involvement.

And I'll have you look quickly at the last Page four, in the middle of the last page, the right food for every level of maturity. Scripture in the New Testament refers repeatedly to different levels of food appropriate, spiritual food appropriate to different levels of maturity. And the first references are to milk, and we have about four references to that. And then five references to meat or solid food. So it's a consistent teaching and it's not just the Apostle Paul or not just Peter. It's several of the Apostle's writings and whoever wrote Hebrews. So we have a consistent New Testament teaching about different levels of spiritual food, referring to the Word of God, for different levels of maturity, appropriate to different levels of maturity. Okay, so let's pray and we'll call it good. And next week, we'll get things in the right order, right? Okay, so let's pray.

Lord, we do thank you as we look at these things. We see your faithfulness as we look at these things. We see that you do want us to understand. Certainly, we won't understand everything. And there will come a day when we'll say, oh boy, now things make sense. Nonetheless, there are things you do want us to have clear. There are things that you do want us to have understanding in.

And so we pray for that. We pray that your word might be made clear to us in its application and understanding. And especially, Lord, as we see what is your purpose in the process? What are you doing in the course of this life? And so we ask, Lord, that you bring understanding and insight through your word and in our hearts and lives through the work of your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.