Knowing and Growing – Christ’s disciple - what is the believer’s part?
Vern Peterman · Sep 17, 2017
Knowing & Growing, No. 35
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492666456045

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

All right, so we have been going through a series of things having to do with what are the processes that God has in place. And we started the first three months of the year looking at passages having to do with knowing the Lord. And now, since April, we've been moving through what are the processes that God has in place. And we've looked at being conformed, being transformed, And we looked at growing and maturing and being sanctified.

And so we've begun to step into being a disciple. What is the process of discipleship? And one of the key things that we have in there is Christ's disciple. The point we make with that is that the term disciple gets used for different things in the Bible and among people. The biblical intent for church believers, believers in the body of Christ, is ultimately that we are Christ's disciple. That's what it's aimed towards, that we're Christ's disciple. And one of the passages that we started off with, way back in January, remember that? It's John 15, 1-9. And let's see. So I have from that some of the pictures and whatnot, and we won't be majoring in that, but just to kind of have it up in front of us. So let me read John 15, 1 through 9 here. I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit. 6 For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love.

Now, previously, many months ago, we went through this passage in detail, just focusing on that with respect to knowing the Lord. Our outline, as we go through the processes that God has in place, is to start with, OK, what is it? We talked about what is being conformed, and what is being transformed, and what is growing and maturing, and what is being sanctified. And here we have, what does it mean to be Christ's disciple? And so we first talked about what's the definition of that. Now we look at what's God's part in our being Christ's disciple.

Using this analogy, which is the vine and the branches, who is Christ in this analogy, in this illustration, if you will? Christ is the vine. It's just that simple, right? Christ is the vine. Is there anything more we need to know about the vine from here? Christ is the vine. Okay, so the vine is where the roots are connected, right? So that's where you have roots. Where's the vine? The vine supplies nourishment and life to the branches.

Right. And one of the things, I mean, people will question different things in this parable, if you will. People, you know, what about this and what about that? But let's ask this just basic question. Do any branches that aren't connected to the vine, do any of those keep going? No. So very clearly, the continuing connection to the vine is what's needed. So the starting point, if we ask what's God's part, Christ defines Himself, in this parable, in this illustration, Christ defines himself as the vine.

He doesn't go into a lot of detail, although we can see, as some of you mentioned, for example, the roots. We talked about nourishment. As a matter of fact, let's ask this question. What do the roots provide? Could you just have a vine that's just sitting on the ground? No. So what do the roots provide? Food and water. You get nutrients coming up from the soil, and in fact, how do they come up from the soil? They come up from the soil because of what? The water. So you've got roots that go down, pulling up water and nutrients from the soil. And without that, you just don't have a vine. If you cut the vine off at the ground, it's not going to work. So when he says, I'm the vine, it assumes also the roots and getting the nutrients and everything else up in through the vine. So that's Christ, he's the vine.

And is that the only picture of God's part? Does God have any other part besides Christ as the vine? He says that the Father will prune the vine dresser. So what does it say about the Father first though? You're right. The Father is the vine dresser. So one of the things that we see in there is the Father is the vine dresser. So let's figure this out. If Christ is the vine and the Father is the vine dresser, What does it mean for the father to be the blind dresser?

What does that mean? How does that get interpreted in the big picture, spiritually speaking? Maybe that he's a judge. Okay, you say maybe a judge? He judges us as we go along. Okay. Ah, the father perms for fruit production. You bring up the point that a judge is good. What kind of judge? Is this a judge that puts down the gavel and says, you know, you're guilty, you're done? What kind of judging are we talking about? One that has our interest at heart in the things that we produce.

In terms of this parable, what is the father looking for? He's looking for fruitfulness. That's what it's all about. He's looking for fruitfulness and so he does the vine dressing. So one of the things as we look at this, one of the reasons for looking at what's God's part is we see here Christ is the vine. and the father is a vine dresser. Are Christ and the father just the same?

No, they are distinctly different. Let's ask this, does the father and the son, do they have a relationship? Do they have fellowship with one another? Yes. And so we put that together. The father and the son are not at odds any more than the vine and the vine dresser are at odds with one another. The father's looking for fruitfulness. So let's ask this question, because this is really, this kind of leads into next week, but it's still an important issue.

Can I help the vine be a vine? I can't. So apart from me, you can do nothing. So I can't detach myself from the vine and get anywhere. That doesn't do anything. So I need to be, as a branch, continuously connected to that vine. Can I help the vine and enhance the vine in any way? Not really. Does the vine need help? No. Does Jesus need my help? No. Does Jesus need my help? No. He doesn't need my help. How much does the branch need the vine? 50%? More or less? Entirely and completely, right? So can the branch take a vacation for a couple of weeks? No? No. So I'm learning about the vine. I'm learning about my relationship with the vine. The vine doesn't need any help being a vine. But I, as a branch, am completely dependent upon that vine.

Why is the Father the vinedresser and Christ is the vine? Could they switch? Is it arbitrary to switch places? Why specifically is Christ the vine and why specifically is the Father the vinedresser? Well, there seems to be a hierarchical relationship and order, even in the Trinity. Yeah, we talk about the Trinity, which is, the Trinity is not admittedly a biblical term, but it's a biblical teaching, correct? And so, one of the things you see is there are different roles there, aren't there?

Let's say, what happens, can a vineyard do without the vines? Not at all, right? You have a bunch of branches and here's the vine dresser and he goes out and... It would just be a yard, it wouldn't be a vineyard. Yeah, it wouldn't be a vineyard. It would be a yard, not a vineyard. And it would be a yard full of a bunch of sticks. And the sticks would very soon be all dried up, right? So you can't have a vineyard without the vine. And let's take another scenario.

Suppose you just say, OK, I got a vineyard, and then see you next year. One of the things we pointed out is, when we went through this, that this parable reflects two different pruning seasons. There's a spring pruning and a fall pruning. So two different pruning seasons are reflected in this parable, and that was actually the vineyard practice. So two different pruning seasons.

Now, so the father does some pruning, right? What happens if you just say, well the father's, you know, I'm gonna go on a trip, you know, I think I'll go to Cyprus and spend the next months there. What happens to the vineyard? Yeah, it goes crazy. Now, so let's say about there's a spring pruning And then there's a fall pruning.

And that's standard business practice with the vineyard for any healthy vineyard, period. And what happens when you just say, well, I'm not going to do any pruning this year or next? No fruit. Ah, no fruit. And what happens to the condition of the vineyard?

Get the leaves in. Yeah, so some of the things that kind of went later on, I think I won't take time to go through it, but for example, the little sprouts come up from the base, right? What does the vine dresser do when the little sprouts come up from the base instead of up higher? He cuts them off. And if you don't cut them off, what happens?

You end up taking all the energy and nutrients and water and everything goes into these little sprouts that are non-productive. And if they do happen to produce any fruit, the fruits hang low and unsupported, and the fruit goes bad, and the leaves go bad, and the branches go bad. And they get rotten bugs all over them. So the sprouts at the bottom have to be dealt with. And they need to be dealt with in the spring. That's when they start coming up and you've got to snip them off. And if you don't snip them off, what happens is you reduce the fruit production. So then how about farther up?

Can I have the branches kind of starting to get out of kilter? What can happen to the branches? Some of the things that can happen is one, you break, you get breakage. And what's better, breakage or pruning? It's better to have things pruned than to just happen as they happen naturally. So there's a pruning process there on purpose. And it's for the health of the vine and the branches. And so there's a need to prune along the way. And so that pruning happens in the spring when things first start to grow.

Make sure we don't get any suckers coming up from the bottom. Make sure all the branches that are there are growing in such a way to be productive. And what happens if branches start hanging down low? What do they do with them? They lift them up. And so what they would do in those days is they would either put a stick underneath it to help it for that season, or they put a rock underneath it. Israel, by the way, had lots of rocks, plenty of rocks, no shortage of rocks. So they do something to lift up the branches that are hanging down too low, so that you maximize fruitfulness. And then if you get Branches that are kind of going off to the side a little wild, you may need to snip some of those back in order to get good healthy growth and fruitfulness.

Yeah? When you have the wires along and you take the branches and you basically train them to follow, to be supported there, and so you're in the process of training as if we were being trained. Yes, so in modern vineyard practice, as has been done for some times recently, you'll have wires that go along. They have wires in the New Testament time.

They didn't have the wires and so what they would do is each plant was individual and they didn't have the wires as sort of a trellis. But instead they would use sticks and rocks and things like that to support it because they didn't have the wires in place. But the same idea is, you would still want to, each plant would still need to be trained up, pruned in the spring to make sure that what was starting to grow was headed in the right direction to maximize fruitfulness, and at the end of the season, after the harvest was done, to go and say, okay, in order to prepare for the next season, here's what needs to be trimmed back and cut.

In verse 3, what is the word clean? You are already clean because of the word. Alright, so the terminology of New Testament times was when they went in to prune something, the term was it would be cleansed. So that's when he says you're already clean, essentially he's saying you've been pruned by my word. So let's think about this.

The father's the vine dresser. So let's ask, how does that vine dressing happen in real terms? How does the vine dressing happen? I just sit in my house and the father comes by and knocks on the door. I let him in and he comes in and snips off a few fingers. How does this happen in life? How does it actually take place? How does the cleansing, which is a very good question, how does the cleansing, how does the pruning take place? Yeah?

It seems to me it would be an ongoing process, and I would be learning and studying and just It's not a one-time thing, it's a continual process. So one of the things, do you have a thought or a question? Yeah, I was just relating, like you said, the cleansing is the pruning, and perhaps since we are cleansed by the washing of the world, as we receive God's Word, it's the pruning process.

So yeah, I think, here's a part of what we look back, and one of the reasons for covering discipleship being Christ's disciple after the other things? Is our being conformed, as we studied in Romans chapter 8, 28, 29, 30, is our being conformed a part of the fine dresser's process? are being conformed to the image of Christ as a part of the bind dresser's process. It's put into another illustration, but it's what the Father is doing, and what are we being made into? We're being made into the image of Christ. We also talk about being transformed, and that matches with the Word of God, or at least runs in parallel with the Word of God being one of God's instruments. Let's take, for instance, suppose I said, you know, I don't know about this Word of God stuff.

Vern talks about it and other guys talk about it. I think I'm just going to take a vacation from all that for a year, just kind of clear my head. Is that going to be helpful? So you're shaking your head no. Why isn't it going to be helpful? to catch up than it is to get behind.

So God's Word is a part of the pruning, cleansing process as well. And our setting it aside would be equivalent to saying, well, I don't need the bind dresser. I don't need the bind dresser. Because God's word is, in fact, one of God's instruments. And as Christ prayed in the garden, John 17, thy word is truth, right? You, the Father, your word is truth. Yes?

And sometimes I think the mind tracing process also comes Yes, exactly. So what's going to happen, think about it, is the Father's pruning process is not simply one thing. Just like the vine dresser's job isn't just to go snip everything off, right? The bind dresser is going to look okay and I cut off the suckers and the spring and I'm going to go in here and this branch here is headed off in the wrong direction and I've got to snip that off. It's miscellaneous. And the truth is that God has several different things in place. to carry out that pruning.

One of the things that God's Word does is we're sharing here about God's Word. Why? It's because God's Word gives us insight and understanding. If I'm going through a trial, and we will, if I'm going through a trial Having God's perspective on those trials is essential.

Otherwise, if I don't have a biblical understanding about these trials, what am I likely to think? Could I blame God for them? Yeah, I could turn around and, you know, God, you're supposed to keep me from having trials, and you're not doing a very good job. Or, so I might blame God for them. I might think, well, this is really inconvenient and I just want to get out of this thing and sidestep it as quickly as I can. So I go about life just simply avoiding hassles and sidestepping them. Yeah?

The clean, you are clean, so that's present active indicative, but because of the word I have spoken, that's perfect. So in other words, it happened when he spoke the word to them, they became clean, and they were clean, and so they're continually clean because of that.

One of the things to look at is that God's word is intended to have continuing effect. one of the pictures from that, to have continuing effect. And for us, you know, let's ask this question, do I go through life continuously having to relearn the same truth over and over and over again? It can be the case. Is that what God intends?

That's not God's ideal for us, but for us to take what we have learned and be able to move forward with it, rather than continually coming back to the same lesson. This is the Israelites out in the desert, right? You guys are going to spend 40 years here, and no, your shoes won't wear out, right? But there will be a few things about this you won't like, right? Yes? And it's in an emperor plane, which I think is helpful. In scripture, it's pure. Pure, to be purified, right? And so let's ask this question, is all pruning pleasant? No. Oh, and here's another thing, is it my job to self-prune?

So this is one of the reasons why we ask, what's God's part, and what's our part? That's just a very important question, a set of questions to ask, and also what's the sequence? It is the reason why we go through this, what's God's part first and then our part. Because unless we understand God's part first, the tendency is for people to either try to take over God's part and take responsibility for God's part, that's a problem, right? or to be completely ignorant of it, and to be unaware of what God's doing, and to even fail to recognize that I have any part at all. So they're both errors possible if we don't understand clearly, here's God's part, here's my part. Alright, so we have this pruning process so that we're fruitful. The truth is that God doesn't use just one thing.

He will use circumstances, and sometimes the circumstances are out there. Have you ever had a time when your body's not cooperative? Oh, my body's not doing this and it's not doing that, and I sure wish it would do this. When our body becomes uncooperative, those are circumstances that hit a little closer to home, don't they? So those things are there as well. Sometimes there are circumstances out there, sometimes they can hit pretty close to home.

What about, can God change your spiritual circumstances or impact your spiritual circumstances? Not just out there, but how about spiritually? Where nobody can see it, nobody is looking on the outside. You can't take a picture of it. Can God impact things spiritually? Yes.

And one of the reasons why we take a look at the Word of God is, in Hebrews 4.12, it's intended to impact us deeply spiritually, to the dividing line between soul and spirit. It's intended to impact us deeply. What happens if God's Word is not impacting us deeply? So remember we said being conformed is a matter of both physical and spiritual circumstances, sometimes out there and sometimes real close to home, but being transformed is a matter of God's Word, and it doesn't happen any other way. The Bible does not indicate some other mechanism for that to happen. It happens through God's Word.

Hebrews 4.12 describes the Word of God like a sharp two-edged sword. It's alive, powerful, and it goes deep. If I don't have that, then I don't have the impact from God's Word. and nothing's going very deep. Let's ask one more question. Is being impacted from God's Word a piece of cake and just happens real naturally or is it more difficult than that?

It's more difficult and it's It takes continual effort, I believe. The more you study, the more you understand. You read something and say, yeah, that's true. I know that. But to understand it might take days or years to really get the full impact of it. Maybe never can you get the full impact. Those are some very important insights and points. Here is Paul writing to Timothy. He says, you know, be diligent. King James has studied.

To show yourself approved, a workman, right? Regularly handling, as the New American Standard has it, the Word of God. Is that your effort or is it the Lord's effort through you to be diligent? Well, that's what you said a couple of weeks ago, that imperative tense is an act of the will. So it's kind of both together. You know what you're supposed to do, but it's a matter of doing it. It's kind of like I asked earlier, if you're just going to hear is one thing, but if you're going to hear and apply, that's an altogether different thing. So, let's suppose I were to say, Lord, I know you want me to spend time in your Word.

So, I'm going to do that. I've got it on my schedule. I'm going to spend a half hour every day. I've got it on the schedule. I've even got my smart phone set up to remind me. right, the right day and the right hour, every day I've got this time scheduled and a time slot and so I'm going to study your word from this time to that time every day and have it on the schedule and I'll study your word and I'll be real diligent and, you know, at the end of, say, a month or something like that, I'm sure you'll be real pleased with my efforts. Is that what the Lord wants? What? That's being diligent. It's an act of will, isn't it? And I would say, how's that working out for you? Yeah. Yeah.

So what's wrong with this picture? Why isn't the Lord saying, hooray? What's wrong with that? Well, you're pleasing yourself, but like with the law, that's what happens. The I becomes the most important part. Yeah, in other words, this gets all me-centered.

Now, is there something wrong with studying the Word for a half hour a day? So what's the problem? Or every Tuesday between 12 and 1.30? Yeah, every Tuesday between 12 and 1.30, or whatever other schedule you have on it. And you can do it with a group, and you can do it, you know, by yourself, and you can do it, you know. But what's the problem with my own diligence? Yeah. It's why you're doing it. It's why I'm doing it? Okay. The attitude is an issue. Okay, the attitude is an issue? Yeah.

It just becomes a religious practice and without me you can do nothing. Without me you can do nothing. Without me you can't study the Bible on your own. Without me you can't go to church and have it be a productive time for you or anybody else. We can do things that look good to everybody else. They may even, as we look in the mirror, look at it and say, that looks good to me. But all of that is, without me you can do nothing.

So what did I accomplish if I say, boy, I'm going to spend this week, I mean, today is the first day of the week, I'm going to put it down on the calendar in my smartphone, and it's going to remind me, and I've got a program to automatically pull up my Bible app. And I'm going to study the Word of God, and I'm going to go from here to here, and I'm going to do that, and boy, I'm going to get her done.

So what happens at the end of the week? Yeah, here you are looking at God's Word, but apart from you, you can do nothing. Apart from me, it doesn't matter how good it looks to you, it doesn't matter how good it looks to everybody else. Yeah, we make a lot of apparent progress, but in the end, nothing.

But you know, and I know what you're saying, but it's said in Isaiah that the Word will not return void. And I would much rather see my sister who's in her new age reading the Bible than some science and mind teacher. She's going to gain something from that because that's the way the Lord works. Here's what's interesting is sometimes the Lord can deflect people away from what would ordinarily be a fruitless thing, but often, in this case, it's a matter of someone who really isn't a believer, is that correct? And so if they go to the Word and happen to see something, that may be the way in which the Lord reaches them.

And that can be the case. But for us as believers, it does become a matter of, is this my reliance upon Christ? Is this the vine abiding, excuse me, the branches abiding in the vine? Or is this just I'm going to make myself happy, or make other people happy, or I think I'm making God happy? So, yeah, sometimes the Lord does something in spite of people's intent or lack of it, right? Yes?

It's more like we're trying to make God know us rather than us know Him. So that should be the motivation is to know him better rather than trying to make him look at us and say, oh aren't you great? Yeah, he knows us pretty good. Ever hear the admonition, know thyself?

Uh oh. Yeah, it's knowing him. That's why we started off the beginning of this elective. Three months of knowing him. That's where it's headed. not the worldly admonition, you know, know thyself. Yeah. Yeah. Let's take a look at the next thing. We are going to run out of time before we run out of material.

The only reason it makes sense for us, here I have two sides of one sheet of paper and we're not going to get through it all, but the only reason it makes sense for Christ to say, abide in me, that's a matter of what we say is our condition, moment by moment, condition, it has a basis in our position. which starts with we are in Christ in our position, correct? And that's the only reason that he can say abide in me, in my condition, because in my position I'm already in him.

And so the next section we have here is talking about just our identification with Christ and scripture uses different terms for that. These teachings about our being in Christ can be found in passages like John 15 and John 17. It's significantly in the letters of the Apostle Paul, where we find most of the teaching on that, even though you can find it also, for example, in 1 Peter. Here are some of the terms that are used in the New Testament, largely with Paul.

One is being in, being in Christ. In, being placed entirely in so as to share an identity. With, ultimately joining action and consequence. And then together with, very similar, with together underscoring the same identity and action. united with, united implies a oneness, so a spiritual oneness is communicated, and then finally baptized into. Baptized means to be immersed or entirely placed into, so as to be permanently changed by the immersion or the entire placement.

So one of the things we look at is this being in Christ, being identified with him, united with him, made to be together with him, spiritually, who did that? Did I, by my best efforts, work and work and work towards it, and I finally got to be in Christ? How did that happen? We believe in God did it all. Yeah, we believe in God did the rest, and getting that straight, getting that clear in our thinking, is exceedingly important. It's not complicated, but it's exceedingly important.

In the book of Ephesians, only six chapters long, the believer is said to be in Christ 36 times. In six chapters. So that's a lot. And it's expressed in Christ, in whom, in him, in the beloved. Those terms, but the same expression 36 times. Let's turn to the top of page two. And let's talk about in what particular things were we identified with Christ. So let me take an example.

Christ was born in what town? Bethlehem. And he was born of who? Mary. And the human being taking the role of the father, not the biological father, but taking the role of the father was who? Christ. Were you identified with Christ in those things? No. No. Now here's, I mean, you think about it, we'll in a few months have this big celebration, right? Hey, Christ was born and all that. And we weren't identified with him in that. Is it a wonderful thing? Is it God's accomplishment that Christ was born of Mary and even delivered from the horrible things that Herod had planned? Yes.

But, we weren't identified in that. Here's another instance. Here is Christ on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee. He feeds 4,000 on that east shore. he and the disciples get in the boat, and cross in the boat, and land in the region of Dalmanutha, which happens to be Magdala. That's where Mary Magdalene is from. And was this a wonderful and miraculous and Gospels-reported set of events?

Yes. Were you identified with Christ in those things? No. So one of the things that we point out here, we were identified with Christ and his crucifixion, and therefore death, and his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, and seating in the heavenlies, those five things, and nothing else.

I was asked one other question, can I just scramble the order, does it matter? What if I'm seated in the heavenlies, and then I'm crucified, and then I'm ascended, and then I'm buried? Can I mix those up? No. So it's really important for us to get clear that the sequence matters, and only those five things. The sequence matters, and only those five things. I was identified with Christ in those things.

Yes. So to talk about a previous question, when all that happens in your claim, right? Okay. You say when all that happens. When you go through that identification process. Okay. Alright, so let's walk our way through it. Alright, so what did I do in order to be identified with Christ? I believe.

One of the things we have right below there is 1 Corinthians 1.30, and we don't even quote the whole verse. But by His, that is God's doing, you are in Christ Jesus. That's it. How much did I help? Did I contribute 10%? Is it a grayscale sort of thing where I contribute part, God does a part, and depending on how much I'm willing to pitch in? No. We believe.

That's it. And you do the rest. We were identified with Christ in these five things entirely by God's doing. So now, does that mean that I never have to concern myself with anything else after that? I can just go along and do whatever happens in life and everything is covered.

So what we're talking about is the position, there's nothing we can do to touch it or enhance it or anything, but there are processes, that's what we've been looking at, processes along the way. and there is a moment-by-moment issue, are conditioned, and those things do matter and are not fixed and set in place. Otherwise, Jesus wouldn't be saying, abide in me. In our position, are we in him? In our position, we're already there, it's a done deal. So I don't have to worry about anything? I don't have to concern myself with anything. I'm just in Christ and that's just it. Isn't that great? Yes, the reality is that it's a problem if that's all I understand. That having been said, most of Christendom doesn't understand it, right? That we are in Christ in these things. Yes.

So in other words, when you become clean, you become adopted, you become a member of the family, you have a relationship, and all these other things that you talk about, ongoing. But the fellowship is the thing that you need to develop, right? And so what happens, we believe and God does all these things, right? And by the way, did we believe all the things that are true of our position in order to be saved? Everything?

Did we understand that we are identified with Christ in our death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding before we were saved? I think from Romans 10-9 it was saying that we believe that Jesus died and was raised from the dead. Or if you look at it, what is the gospel to be believed? Then God says, that's it, I'll take it from there. But the truth is, we spend the rest of our Christian lives catching up to what God has done. We believe the gospel, and God says, that's it, you believe, and that's it. And we're going to see it in today's main service, where here's the house of Cornelius.

Peter is talking to them, and right in the middle of talking to them, all of a sudden, BANG! That's it. They're saved. The Holy Spirit is given. It all takes place because they've been presented what they need to know and believe. But do they have a lot to learn after that? They most certainly do. Much to learn. As a matter of fact, as we're going to see as we go through the book of Acts, Peter has a lot of things to learn.

But, all it takes to believe and therefore be saved is to believe that Christ, the Son of God, died for your sins, was buried and rose again, that's it. God says, that's it, I'll take it from there. And then all these things become true of us, in our position. But we're not done, hence Stan's very good question and very good point. We're not done because there is the rest of life that we still have to learn about. That's why we're meeting here. There are still things we have to learn and understand.

Because walking by faith is not simply a matter of walking around on a cloud or in a fog. Walking by faith is knowing truth and then by faith walking in it. Knowing truth and by faith walking in it. That's one of the reasons we would even meet here. Yes? Would you say that believing is the first step and that's a one-time thing, but then growing is a constant, continual, never-ending and understanding and growing? Probably an understanding. An understanding. Alright, so let's ask this question.

Once I believe so as to be saved, is that the end of believing? No. No. As a matter of fact, what it means is, is once I understand enough to believe it and be saved, and that's exactly what's going to happen in the house of Cornelius here, in our maid service, I'm saved and all these things are true of me, But all the rest of the Christian life, which has a purpose, all the rest of the Christian life, I need to understand much more in order to walk in faith in what I now understand. And by the way, there's a certain point, like once you're a Christian for 50 years, are you done? No. I've been a Christian for over 60 years and I look at it and I think, Boy, just starting. Just starting out. Just scratching the surface. And so, the truth is, is there some point when you're complete and done? No, the Lord takes you home. He says, now you're done. The process is complete. Thoughts? Questions? Yeah, Stan?

I think it's interesting when, to sum all that up, Paul came to the place in his life where he said, to live is Christ, to die is gain. So he simplified the whole thing that he had been going through, and learning, and processing, and writing, and all these other things. And he came down to the conclusion, to live is Christ, to die is gain. When Christ was put into the grave, Did he believe that? That to live is Christ and to die is gain?

Not that day, huh? So there was a lot that he didn't realize. So he first needed to be saved, but that was a radical transformation. But was Paul done when he believed? Was he what? Done. No. Was he? No. He had a long way to go. I press on, right? I've not arrived yet. is a guy who talked personally with the Lord by revelation, but he wasn't done. It wasn't done. Neither were we. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you as we look at this. You have done it all. And as we look at it next week, we'll see our part in what does that involve. But so very importantly, to see what you have done and who you are. So we entrust everything to you and I ask that you would guide us and lead us and teach us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.