2 Peter, 1:10-11

Second Peter, oh boy, this has been good, hasn't it? What subject would you think that we would put to this first chapter for the most part so far? Any particular thing that you'd call it? Be all things. How about how to be all things? Well, Christian growth is a great subject and certainly to be, you know, how to be, and what's our resources, you know. So, we are coming down to verse 10 today, 2 Peter 10 and 11, and let's take note of these verses.

Therefore, brethren, that includes us, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you For as long as you practice these sayings, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you." Well, you know the word therefore, what it's there for, don't you? You've heard that enough from, you know who?

These speakers that you've had, these wonderful Bible teachers here. Before I go on, I want to say this. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be able to teach here. Yet not I, but I trust the Lord. I thank Him for the opportunity to work with Brother Verne and with these other teachers here to dig into the scriptures. I've really never dug in as much as I have since I've been at Holly Hills. You people have provoked me to love and good works. I tell you. And so, but Vern has given me so many resources.

He's so helpful when you teach here. He just, I mean, at any time I can go to him, you know, and he helps. He's very helpful. And he has a gift of teaching and helping. That was very kind, but thank you for biting your tongue. Humility. Humility. Then I have gleaned a lot from Dr. John Mitchell's tapes.

He's with the Lord now. He's a dear man of God. What I like about his teaching, he was one of the founders of Multnomah School of the Bible, and I was able to teach in their music department for a year. He had such a relationship with the Lord and he always was inspiring people, the kids, this way. Read your Bibles. Read your Bibles. You just don't read your Bibles, he would say to them when they couldn't answer questions.

And then Vern has put me in contact with Chester McCauley. And I promised tapes to a few of you people from him. And I have some extras of those. If any of you are interested, if you have a tape player, some of you are so state of the art that you don't even have a tape player anymore. So don't get too advanced because some of us are still back in the dark ages. And we might have to give you some materials that come from those ages.

Anyhow, and then so, and then the Greeks, the man who's really into the Greek, Edmund Hebert, Vern got me onto his book, and it's been very helpful, and some other resources. Just, you know, thank God he's given the gift of teaching. and preachers who teach, and it's for the body, it's for us. So thank the Lord for all the studies and the depth of the scripture that's gone on before. And yet the Lord has to enlighten our eyes, doesn't He?

So that there's something for us, and something that's meaningful for us and real in our lives. Well, Peter says here, therefore. You know, the consequences of for this reason is what it means. And he has been talking about these things from verses one through nine. And he is wanting us to, on the basis of what he has said, these incentives that Peter has mentioned, to realize that we've got some wonderful Now what do we have?

We find that we see a divine person, the Lord Jesus. We find him right from the beginning of this book. Peter is writing to those who have received a white precious faith from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking to those who have this faith, and this faith is the faith that's once delivered to all the saints. What is it?

That Christ died for our sins. It's the gospel. It's the gospel of our salvation. He died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again the third day. So, as he goes on here in this first verse, he's telling us that grace and peace are multiplied to us through the knowledge of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And he speaks here in the beginning verses of the divine power. First the divine person, now the divine power. He says, this will come as we see that by his divine power he has granted us or given us everything that pertains to life and godliness through our being placed in Christ. So all that the Lord has done for us and because of and for his own glory and excellent character, he wants us to be able to to see these things, to realize what God has done for us. He's emphasizing, really, our position in Christ.

You know, He doesn't come out and use the word position. And I don't think you see the term in Christ here. But He starts us off in 1 Peter, being born again, not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible. He, right from the beginning, talks about our source, our new source, the old source, the corrupt seed from Adam, and then the incorrupt seed from the Lord.

And that's a position, folks. Sometimes I think I may have said this. I'll ask young people if I'm teaching young people. Now I get to teach older people. We don't have too many young people here. But I'll say, where were you when Adam sinned? Very hard question for some, you know, to get that. And how would you answer that? Anybody? Surely you know the answer. We're in Adam. So when he sinned, we were in him, in his seed, in his loins you might say. And so we came from that corrupt seed. So anyhow, Peter understands. He understood and he understands position. And it's there.

So, the Lord has done wonderful things for us, and it's something that he's done for us in Christ. We have these eternal assets that are given to us. And we said last week, there's nothing for us to do but take hold of these assets by faith. Now, you believe facts, right? Facts are for you to believe. And so, that's what we're talking about here. Believing the facts. A belief of the truth.

Now, he's going to go on and tell us some things we've got to do, but right here at the beginning, these assets, our position in Christ, this divine power, this divine person, he speaks also of divine promises, and he speaks of a divine nature. It's a wonderful thing here.

Because of his own glory and excellent character, he's granted us precious and magnificent promises. I call them divine. And then it's a divine nature that He wants us to display. He wants to display these things through His Son, through us, I should say. And it wants to be done, and He wants it to be done in this corrupt world that we're in.

So, all of our provisions are in Christ. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it, to know that? So, now we saw in verses 5-9, that Peter deals with our eternal position. So he says, now for this reason, in other words, because of the Lord's glory and excellent character, we are to be diligent to supply by faith these qualities that he's going to list. And so we have our faith, which is salvation, and this is the foundation of these assets. And, of course, found in Christ. Here he says moral excellence. That's the first thing he brings out. Moral excellence. Remember what moral excellence was?

Do you have any definitions? Do you remember any? Without looking at your sheet? Well, it's not an easy thing to get over. You remember the King James says virtue. OK, well, moral goodness is one thing that we brought out. And it's an interesting thing that in the Greek, in the classical Greek, I don't have this in your notes, but in the classical Greeks, when they want to describe something that fulfilled its design purpose, then they use this word virtue, like a horse that was smooth riding was called virtuous. It's a land that you purchase that is very productive. It's a fruitful land. It's a virtuous land.

So anything that perfectly fulfills the design purpose for which it was made is virtuous. Now, what's God's purpose for us? Come on, we've got to wake up now and participate. What's God's purpose for us? You know it. Yeah, Romans 8, 28 and 29. To be conformed to the image of Christ. Yes, that's great. You got it. I'm going to keep you. She's a keeper. That's my wife, Angie. Did you read the notes?

So having the moral courage that is not intimidated by the world that is corrupt, to be able to allow Christ to live in and through us in the midst of a corrupt world. So, you know, this means there's a negative side to this in a way, too. I mean, there's a positive side of living these things with excellence, but it means being separated from the world. It means being separated from sin, having excellent choices in our lives instead of the negative things.

Think of Solomon. Here's a man with great wisdom and knowledge. And what did he do? He tolerated something that was not morally excellent. What was it? What? Riches. Yeah, he accumulated riches. How about all those wives, the wives and concubines? And, you know, and then how about he he did something else. What was it? You remember?

He started collecting horses, multiplying horses, and that was against what the king was supposed to do. He was just not supposed to multiply horses. And he did that. And I don't know. They're the accepted and allow them to have those. He allowed them to have their gods.

So we need to realize that what we tolerate in our personal life can not be sometimes those things of excellence. Wrong moral choices can ruin a person, as we've seen in this well-known pastor that has fallen from grace, so to speak, in the last year or so. He's gone from the top to the bottom, you may say. by allowing, evidently, his thought life, or somewhere, allow it to drift. You know, he's tolerated something that was not excellent. So, now, so we need to realize there's some things that the Lord hates, and we don't allow them. Seven things does the Lord hate. Six things he hates. Seventh is abomination. What are those seven things? Do you know? Have you ever memorized those? Proud look. Watch me, you can memorize them. A proud look. Okay, you got that? A proud look and then a tongue that lies. A tongue that lies. Then hands that shed innocent blood. Got it? Proud look. Lying tongue. Take your tongue out.

This is walk through the Bible. Hands that shed innocent blood. Feet that are swift and run to evil. Then you come back to your mouth. A false witness that speaks lies. And he that sows discord among the brethren. You know, got them? Proud look. Lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood. Feet that are swift to run to evil. How many is that? Anybody counting them for me? That's four. And then I said he that is a false witness, that speaks lies. What was it?

Isn't it a haughty spirit? A haughty spirit is the same as pride. Wouldn't you call that, yeah, it's sort of similar. Yeah, yeah. And he that sows discord. At least we got six of them down. Okay, it's over there in Proverbs. But, you know, knowing those things that we should not tolerate, you know, that's good for us to see that negative side.

You know, for years, I was brought up in a church situation where I memorized scripture. We had sword drills where you flipped from one verse to another. And, you know, with other young people, you're singing all these hymns. And, you know, I could be sitting there in the choir and have some of these things happening and these things the Lord's hate. And I did have it happening.

And therefore, I was not putting first moral excellence. Therefore, I didn't grow in Christ. I had some knowledge and I had some great experiences in my, you know, hair raising experiences and walked the aisle many times. and got emotionally involved, but I never did really submit my heart in a way that the Lord wanted. My son, give me thine heart.

And I kind of was holding back. I was tolerating some thoughts. And to be honest with you, do you know where it started? When I was a little boy, after my father died, I didn't have a dad. I remember my mother was a widow, and somebody had a book that had some bad pictures in it. And I let myself, just one day I remember looking at that thing and instead of walking away from it, I stared at it. And that affected me for years.

And I have to say that I still have to put that off. It's there. Those things, you know, put off the old man and put on the new man, you know. So, I want to say that You know, people, you see somebody not growing, they're feeding on something, they're tolerating something that's holding them back. And that held me back for years, just because of tolerating something.

And you know, you don't have to let something get out on you to sin, it can be in your heart, you can just walk around with it. Now, he says here that we need to add knowledge, and we know that. It's got to be in its right place after virtue, after moral excellence. And I think that comes as we see that moral excellence. Let me summarize it. What I've found is when I realize it's got to be not Ivor Christ, it's His Excellency.

Today, Lord, I can't do it. Lord, by faith, I'm going to put off the old man. By faith, I'm going to put on the new man. Lord, you motivate me. And you work through me, because I can't do it. And that's where we are. We're putting off that old man and new man. OK, anything you have to add about moral excellence? We've got to get that one down. That's a priority. Knowledge. Okay.

2 Timothy 3.16. All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for what? Doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be mature.

When you see that word perfect there, it always speaks of maturity. I think it's artios. It means complete. We're complete where? In Christ. and thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So the Scriptures are there, are here, thus knowledge is also we can know Him and know that we're complete in Him. And we start out from this completeness, by the way.

I think we one time had a little thing up there where you see a circle and here's Christ. You know, in the circle, we didn't have a picture of him, but just the name Christ. And so we're in Christ and we come working out from there. And so that's what Peter's talking about. We're working from a position of perfection or not really perfect, but maturity, seeing that our maturity, our completeness is in Christ already. We're coming out from there. And so this knowledge we learn from scripture. And we learn our maturity in all that we have in Christ, our completeness. Then he says self-control, which is, we brought out the ability to control by his power, the senses, the things that we like and dislike.

You ever watch the Dog Whisperer? Any of you, the Dog Whisperer? He's on the cable channel. We like to watch that on Friday nights, our vice. But when he has his dogs in training, He won't let them begin to focus on anything else. If they're starting to want to bark at another dog or bark at a person, he won't let, he gets them right at the very first, he gets that dog, no, you know. And whereas the owners have allowed the dog to lead them around, you know.

So are we going to be led today by the Spirit of God or by the old nature, you know? So this control is that, you know, the new self, you know, letting the Lord guide us in the new man. And so it's the fruit of the Spirit, you know, temperance, self-control. And fruit is something you just kind of pick, you know. And that comes from the Lord. But it's not going to come if we don't first have virtue, Moral excellence, putting those things, getting those things out of our heart that we're tolerating that are bad stuff and allowing the Lord to have our heart, you know, so to speak, as believers.

So then he brings out patience. Oh, man. Any of you like that one? Oh, my. You know, not you, Bob. No, not you. OK, the ability to carry a load without collapse. Oh, my goodness. I collapsed so many times. Do you ever collapse in a day with, you know, the traffic's not going the way you want it and you're hitting every light and. You know, this responding here, this patience, is something that we do. We respond to the life's difficulties under the Spirit's control.

We're realizing that Romans 8.28 is true, and that these things are going to happen for good. Yesterday we went down to Springs, and I was all concerned.

We're going to our granddaughter's birthday, and here we're going, and we got a little bit of a late start. Like, in my mind, 35 minutes later than we should have started to get there on time for the party. Well, thank the Lord. We made it only five minutes late, and nobody else was there for the party but us and the grandbabies. But the only reason we were five minutes late is because my wife really noticed I started to say speed. Sanctified speed. We went right by a road patrolman and he didn't arrest us, so she must have been doing right.

But anyhow, responding to difficulties. You know, we can get so upset over little things, can't we? Oh my goodness. Just little things can just, you know. So our patience is often tested in just little things. Did you know that? Little things. And so what is it that works patience? We know tribulation. Have you ever been with a brother or sister that prays for you to have patience? Stop the prayer right there, because you're going to get tribulation if they say, Lord, don't answer that prayer.

OK, yes. I want to know, we've talked about this many a time, but it seems like it's the little problems that drive you crazy and get you down, and not the big things, the big problems in your life. Yes, I think you're right. You're finally seeing the light, brother. Okay, I think you got it. I think you got it. I think you're right on. Is there anybody else that raised their hand? Is that right or am I wrong? They're not all answering. What?

Well, there was one particular instance in the week when I had to die. I can't say it was a little problem that caught me. It was something that had to do with me being able to do my job and not being able to because suddenly the supply was cut off and it stayed cut off for two weeks. We were just insisting on recycle this, recycle that, and try to keep things moving. And then, even so, there was this diminishing amounts of material to work with to do my job. If it doesn't happen in the supply department, it isn't going to happen with me.

So I was feeling that way. Yes. So, all I can say is, this first speaks to me over the big thing. Yes. Yes, so what these brothers have said is that basically it's the little things that can get us down and can throw us off and then we're not patient.

And so... Why is it all the big things? We don't have that much problems. Because we say to the Lord, I can't handle these boys, and we get on our knees, and they work out, because those are my kids. We try to take care of those little things. Things that don't matter, they'll be. Yes, yes, so we tend to get upset, she's saying, over the minor things instead of really what might be the major things we should be more concerned about. I think of, you know, if we can just see adverse circumstances as a blessing in disguise.

And think of Stephen, the terrible adverse circumstances for him. And yet, how patient he was in that death, how patient he was. How much Christ could be seen through his patience with those who were killing him, stoning him. And you can see other examples in the life of other believers in the scriptures.

Let's go on with this or we won't get to our regular verses. I was just trying to review a little bit why he put therefore there. Now he's reminding us of godliness. It's a right. It's just true worship in spirit and truth. So it is seen in an excellent spirit. Godliness with contentment is great gain. So this is godliness is toward God and in respect to others. concern for others. Now, brotherly kindness. We learned that that's affection for brothers and sisters in Christ. And this is seen in our service to others, bearing one another's burdens as we have opportunity to do good to all men. Then agape love. This is the crown of it all. This is the crown of all these qualities. This genuine love of Christ to be seen. This love that is the kind that reaches, sometimes it should reach out to the unsaved, really. So these qualities in our life will lead to a productive and fruitful life, Peter is telling us, and a true knowledge of the Lord Jesus. And this is a full discernment, epinosis.

A believer who fails to develop these qualities is short-sighted and suffers from spiritual myopia. This person is forgetting that he was once purged from his old sins, and in verse 10, now he states that the presence of these things is evidence of salvation. The development of each of these qualities is not the same in every believer. Some people are more patient than others, and some may have more knowledge of the Lord than others.

The question is, do we see in ourselves a faith response to these promises? Is there a growing affection for the Lord, for His promises? Is there a development of these qualities that Peter's listed at all? If there is some kind of a development, then we can say, as Peter says, that this is evidence of our salvation. You know them by their what? Their fruits. They're fruit.

OK, now he goes on from brethren. Now he calls therefore brethren. He says a brother. Now, this speaks of those who are near or remote. This description draws Peter's readers with him into a circle of intimacy and affection. He had a bond of affection with those he was writing to and to us. He's writing to us. There is a Christian brotherhood to which all of us belong in Christ. It's wonderful to be able to take a trip, go somewhere and visit a good Bible fellowship and find fellowship there. I mean, it's just wonderful.

And so then he says here, Brethren, be all the more diligent. Spoudazo, that's the Greek word here for diligent. To make effort, be prompt or earnest, one translation says, wherefore, the rather brethren give diligence. This is the King James Version, by the way. There may be others that say it that way. The aorist imperative is here. Be diligent or give diligence. It gives a note of importance to what's being said.

We are to be earnest to make every effort to guard against the spiritual negligence that was pictured in verse 9, where we see this person with spiritual myopia. They're so short-sighted. All they can do is see the worldly, earthly things they can't see, and they don't have eternal values in view. And so, then he goes on to say, be more diligent to make, poeo.

That's the Greek word. This is in the present tense, middle voice. The idea of the middle voice is that the subject is doing something with the action coming back upon himself. The present tense suggests that this is an ongoing, lifelong responsibility.

And don't you find it that way? It's a daily fight the good fight of faith, and then adding to faith these things. Yes, Brother Bud? I think it's a very valuable thing, that when we get to the place where we are removing the big beam out of our own eye, before we try to help our brother.

We have enough discernment to not be too quick to speak. You know, most of us tend to be too quick to speak, to give people solutions to the problems that they're not ready for, or they don't want it. And so, we need to have that kind of discernment. And we do that as we get in the Word. That's the only place to get it. Discernment. And then, seeing how the Lord has worked with us. Very good. Thank you. So, we need to have spiritual discernment. I believe that's what you were saying. Not just knowledge, but really a spiritual discernment about things.

Now, here he's telling us to make certain. Certain. This word is bebalios, which means sure. The certainty is subjective confidence. We're the subjects. The certainty is subjective confidence. So Peter is saying to make yourself sure. In other words, obtain assurance for yourself that you're among those who are called and chosen. I'm sure all of you have experienced friends and relatives possibly, and you wonder, well, are they really saved? Have they made certain? But first of all, am I certain? That's the first step.

And then hopefully the Lord in His timing will allow us to be able to be able to talk to these dear ones in the right timing with spiritual discernment to help them to come to the place that we have of assurance. So this does not mean that we can by our own efforts make God's call and choosing more sure. It does mean that we base our personal assurance of salvation on the evidence of spiritual growth in our lives, spiritual growth is the outward response over time to the Lord's working within us. These qualities that Peter has listed as seen in our life, should be seen, if seen in our life, they give us an assurance that God has called us and He's chosen us.

Now, he goes into these words here. He says, be certain about your calling and His choosing you. Calling is an invitation and choosing is selection. chosen, or election. God's calling is that calling of the Lord that is done through the preaching of the gospel. The message is to all, and upon all them that believe.

He says in Revelation 22, 17, the Spirit and the bride say come, and let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost. So the invitation is to all. And so we read from Paul in Romans chapter 10, 9, 10, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And he goes on in verse 13 to say, for whosoever to call on the name of the Lord will be saved. So our message is, whosoever will may come. We preach the gospel to all. And so the choosing now that he's talking about is that the Lord does what He does. It's certain to everyone who's a believer by the mere fact that he believes the gospel. We are chosen because we're in Christ.

So never make the mistake that if somebody's calling on the Lord and wanting to believe on Him that God is not working in their life. He's there. If there's any desire for the Lord, that is the fact that He's never sent away His day of grace. Okay, he goes on here.

Actually, you could say the summary of verse 10 is, be sure that you're saved. So we know that our adversary, the devil, is the one that would have us to not be sure about our salvation. He seeks to devour and to resist our faith, and so we're to resist him how? Steadfast in the faith. So now, we go on.

Peter says, for in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be abundantly supplied to you. Now, this is a winner's entrance, you know, and I don't think it means you have to be first place. It means you just finished the race, you know, and Paul talks about that race, doesn't he? So he says the word in this supplied. Now, this word is the same word that we had back in verse five. It means to furnish beside. In other words, to be fully supplied. Near the beginning of this process, we saw this, and the verb tells us the action that we are to take.

So 2 Peter 1.5, now this is what it says, Now for this very reason also apply all diligence to your faith. Same word. means to supply lavishly. So this is an effort word. Here's the effort.

Here's what we're to do to supply these things that he's mentioned. If we supply these qualities, Peter mentions then in verses five through seven, we're going to have a reward. Scripture says in all labor there's profit. The mere talk lends the penury. But, you know, effort is required.

So you may ask, well, if I put effort in this effort, and it's changed for my effort, he's rewarding me, isn't this contrary to grace? Well, it is true that, let me ask this question, is it true that human merit will not get anything from God? Yes, you know, it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saves us. So salvation is not by human merit. But is it not also true that God rewards us for our obedience?

Yes, it is true. He does. And so how does this fit in with grace, you may say? Well, why isn't this just an appeal to self-effort? How are these to be reconciled? Well, now, let's look at what Peter says. In 2 Peter 1, 2, and 3, he says, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

So, now, sometimes a passage may be looking at the human side of something, And sometimes it speaks of our responsibility. And these passages where we're to furnish these things that have been listed, it speaks of our responsibility. So this does not exclude all the verses that give us the true picture of God's initiating grace and His divine empowerment.

In other words, we've got to learn to compare Scripture with Scripture. And this is where we have that spiritual discernment that you're talking about, Brother Bud. I almost called you a bird. You know, that's that comparing, you know, because Peter doesn't tell us, use the words in Christ, for instance, but we know what he's talking about. And we as we compare it with what Paul has said. And so as we look at the scriptures and compare things, We see what Peter is saying. Therefore, this is what he's saying.

Peter would agree that if we are diligent in these things as a faith response to the Lord's grace toward us, it's because we love the Lord. And if we love the Lord, it's because He loved us. He's the one that initiates love and grace. He is the one who is the initiator and empowerer of the godly life, of moral excellence, and all the things that are listed. God does not ask us to do anything for which He has not already provided ample basis in our eternal position for which He has promised to empower us on the basis of His infinite resources. His divine power has already granted us everything needed to express His life in our lives. The magnitude of divine power, 2 Peter 2, 3, that is available to us is the power of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

Isn't that wonderful to know? And greater is He that is in you than He is in the world. So in His provident strength for every day, as your days are, so shall your strength be. Look at Ephesians 1, 18-20. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? And what is the surpassing greatness of His power into us who believe?

This word, ice, here, is a primary preposition, and it means into. Isn't that a wonderful thought? I'm going to read that back. I'm going to go back. So, what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward Or into us. That word toward means into. Into us. Boy, it's good to know that he works in us. And he says, to us who believe.

These are in accordance with the working of his strength, of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him up from the dead and seated him at his own right hand in heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. And every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

So now as we get to the end of this lesson, now we're getting toward the end of this particular study, and Brother Vern will be picking up next week and going on. And is there anything that you, through this study, that has encouraged you or some new thoughts or something you want to share with us? Maybe it's been over here or over here. That was all old stuff, huh? Good. So it's provoked you to love and good works at home. You're talking about moral excellence. Good. Yeah. And how can we help and encourage our loved ones to see this?

Yesterday, when we were down at one of my son's home, I gave him a copy of this study that we were doing today. And then another son had just written me and asked me, he has two friends that have turned strongly into the covenant camp, Calvinistic. And he was asking me about it. So I sent him this lesson. And I sent him a few other things too.

But, you know, it's very simplistic what we have here. But, you know, really the business of being called and chosen is simplistic when you put it in the context. Because let's face it, folks. Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord, but those things which are revealed are for us and for our children. And God hasn't told us all about what He knows ahead of time. We do know He knows who's going to be saved. And we do know that He's called us. It's His calling. And He's the one that is the initiator of everything. And He's provider. So we need to see here then in this passage that what God rewards for us is our obedience, that is, dependence on Him upon who we have been made in Christ, which is all by His doings.

1 Corinthians 1.30, But of Him are you were, in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So God rewards us for what He does in and through us.

And that old saying my mother used to have on the wall, I think I told you about it, and it glowed in the dark. It was a cross that glowed on the dark and said, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Well, we're going to sanctify that saying, OK? So this is the way I like to say it. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done in Christ will last. Do you have another way of saying it? Only what's done in Christ. What? Only what's done by Christ. By Christ, too. That's good. That's good. And so by His enabling. That's what He's going to reward. That's not going to be anything. What He does is not going to be wood, hay, and stubble.

And you know, all the Lord requires is faithfulness. You know, whether it be housework, taking care of children, or teaching, or taking care of accounts, Whatever you do, do heartily to the Lord. He rewards faithfulness, that faithfulness that he's empowering us to be faithful. We're going to talk about faithfulness a little bit in one of our hymns this morning. This is really going to be good.

Any thoughts, any further thoughts on this? Jack? How did you describe that? I missed that last statement. Monumental, these things that we're studying. I think that we that these thoughts. Yeah. He really makes it practical, doesn't he? I mean, he gives us some practical things to do to add a list. You know, we need to memorize this. By the way, I told Bev last night we were going to Colorado Springs.

I said to her, OK, would you like to learn those seven things? Have you ever learned them before? She had not really memorized them. She's driving the car, but she's not going to read anything. She's my chauffeur. She's my chauffeur. So I says to her, well, OK, would you like to learn? Yeah, she's a very teachable person.

So I say, OK, now let's see if I can remember. So let's see if we can remember those things. Now, this is the way I taught her. What do you call an acrostic, Brother Verne, when you say a word, you make up a sentence so you can memorize something. Is that acrostic? That sounds good to me. All right, you'll take that. Man, I'm getting so smart. V, valentine. Think valentine. OK, for V, virtue. OK, we'll use virtue. That's because that's the way I learned virtue. And then the next is K for knowledge.

But valentine's keep to what? Remember what it is? People glued by love. Valentine's keep two people glued by love. Say that. Valentine's keep two people glued by love. Now, this is not inspired. All right. Valentine's. What's the word for Valentine's? Virtue. Valentine's keep. What's keep? Knowledge. Two. What's that? The word for the two. Temperance. People. What's the word? Patience. glued godliness by brotherly kindness, L, love. Okay, isn't that wonderful? All right. Valentine's keep two people glued by love. Now you may have a better way of learning that, but you best learn it. Because we're going to test you on it, aren't we, Brother Byrne?

We've got two more teachers coming to emphasize these truths, these feeble efforts, but the Lord is able to do them exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think. I hope you'll pray for the teachers here and for each of us. Pray for each other that we can apply these things and not be just simply hearers, but doers of the work, the work, There's our responsibility.

Let's thank the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for this good time, for the way that you have been leading us, and we thank you that where we're weak, even in our teaching, that you can be strong, that your word will not return void. We just thank you for the divine person of your son. We thank you for the divine promises, for the divine nature. for all these wonderful assets that you've given to us so generously, that you're great and wonderful to provide everything that we need for life and godliness in Christ. And Lord, give us the motivation to learn and to apply these things, we pray. In the precious name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.