The Church and ministry of Paul

We're going to look at verses 24 to 26 as kind of a new part of Colossians 1, and I think it's only appropriate to read 20 through, actually through 27. I kind of found that, you know, 27 fit 26 nicely, but Roger's got this challenge of dividing verses based on how long Colossians is and how many Sundays we have, right?

So I appreciate that. So let's begin with verse 20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him, I say whether they be things on earth or things in heaven, and you that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

And the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unprovable and unreprovable in his sight. And if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature that is under heaven, of which I, Paul, am made a minister. Okay, the verses for today, verse 24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. of which I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, and even the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest in a sense, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of his mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Alright, so let's begin at verse 24, I now rejoice and my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church."

By the way, I read this about ten times, and I'm going to come to this in the handout, but I'm going to quote a guy named Johnson, who we quotes to say this is the most difficult verse in the entire book. So we're going to spend five hours on this. Are there more prayer requests? Presumably now, Paul is rejoicing in his sufferings for the church, right?

I think that's kind of a condensed view of this verse. And now is current, and I think implies his imprisonment. Remember, he's in Rome here doing all this. I don't know if any of you get kind of, Dobson sends out his family talk kind of letter each month, and he kind of dealt with this imprisonment of Paul in this month's kind of delivery, which I thought was kind of timely and interesting in that I'm looking at this verse. But anyway, so you know, Paul's in prison, but yet he's rejoicing. What's that all about anyway?

And by the way, that's why we went back to verse 20 to read this. What precedes this really is a necessary foundation for interpreting what, in fact, Paul is saying here. So Lightfoot, we're going to quote him. And Lightfoot says, the underlying nun, or now, seems to be this. If ever I have been disposed to repine at my lot, if ever I felt my cross almost too heavy to bear, yet now, now when I contemplate the lavish wealth of God's mercy, now when I see all the glory of bearing a part in this magnificent work, my sorrow is turned into joy. commenting on the words now I rejoice. So you know in a sense again what we read before I mean verse 23 said, And if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, it was preached to every creature that is under heaven, of which Paul I am made a minister. He's talking about this kind of death unto self and ultimately this life that follows that, that makes you rejoice during trials and tribulations. That's simple.

Is this how we react to these things? Not always, is it? No, it's not. But, you know, it's important, I think Mike said this two weeks ago, I think up front, is that keep in mind the flesh has been condemned. It's still there. I mean sometimes you think, I was crucified with Christ nevertheless, I mean we just, I guess my, did you teach that last week? No, I teach it today. Today, okay, you're welcome to good things to follow here.

Remember, we're crucified with Christ and that's positional, but yet the way we respond is sometimes and often in the flesh, because that flesh, that old sin nature has been condemned, it's not gone. It's kind of like that story in the boat where the captain's been declared guilty of some heinous crime and he's put downstairs, but he's still yelling orders and the crew's following his orders. That's kind of what we are in the flesh, following the old man's orders. But yet, we may not react that way, but we're called to react that way by faith.

It's simply that. And that's not so simple sometimes, is it? Fill up in my flesh what is lacking. This is really kind of challenging. So is Paul saying on his own part, But maybe still not to the extent that Christ suffered for the church. Are you okay with that? So Paul is saying, I'm going to fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. Did Christ's afflictions lack in any way? So where's the lacking, Tom?

He persecuted the church of God and he still probably has leftover feelings about that. Although he knew the sin was for him, the attitude, he still may not need to struggle with it anymore, but he knows he caused a lot of hurt and it's not one of those things you can quickly dismiss once you confess. And what did the Lord say to Saul on the road to Damascus? Why are you questioning me? So Paul has this humbling effect of being taken out of the utmost legality of self-righteousness and the Israeli law and now is in some way in his flesh trying to in fact experience the afflictions of Christ but in part.

I think that's the best here but isn't this identification? It's not like being like Christ or walking in his shoes. Paul is saying, Christ went through afflictions. We're going to get to this in a second. What afflictions are we talking about here? But nevertheless, Paul is saying, in my flesh, by walking in faith in this new nature that I have, I'm still lacking, but yet this is really where the Spirit is leading me. Remember this is the most difficult verse in Colossians. How do the afflictions in the Greek Philipsis of Christ relate here? I promised you this a minute ago. Are these afflictions related to the cross and or those that preceded it? What do you think?

You can't look at your handout. The first affliction is that he came as a man. The triune God that came to earth, that right there was certainly an affliction. Good, leaving the throne an affliction, he became again the truly God man, the truly man God. So again, you didn't answer the question. Was Christ afflicted on the cross? As a human he was. Boy, wasn't he?

For each and every one of us in this room. But we say this Greek term is never used to the vicarious sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Never. And by the way, commentator after commentator in my preparation for today's lesson said the same thing. This is not the cross.

Although we could say this is in fact everything that preceded it. 1 Corinthians, oh by the way I'm jumping ahead a little bit, I'm going to come to this in more detail. So let's go back to the original verse that we're studying here. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, filled in my flesh which is lacking in afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church. And the point I'm making here is not Christ himself the church. And if you look at 1 Corinthians 12, you can kind of make this identification truth here. For as the body is one, and as many members, all of us, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. So in effect, that verse fits the analogy of Christ being the church. And Paul now is suffering the afflictions that in fact is being part of that body that we're all called to based on our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, again, if this is not the vicarious sufferings of Christ, meaning the cross per se, then what is it? And it's all the other things he said. I mean, I didn't go into detail here, but think of all the earthly afflictions that he faced on a day-to-day basis. Gail? Could it have to do with the fact of leaving heaven and entering into a fallen? That's what Margaret said. Yes, I agree with that. That's the initial affliction of leaving the throne.

But remember, he had no sin nature in him. But think of all the persecution he suffered here, all the rejection. Yes, Wayne? Just think of that verse, that he went to his own and his own received him none. Perfect. And we could go back, I was tempted to go back in the gospel accounts and look at many examples of this, but there just wasn't enough time to cover all this. Roy?

In the verses right ahead of this, it says, in the body of his flesh, through death, he took us, we were aliens and enemies, and reconciled us. in his body. He offered his body as a living sacrifice to bring peace within that reconciliation that was lacking. I don't know if that's what he was thinking there, but it's the thought that comes to my mind here. Think of the afflictions that the believer, historically the believer, went through in terms of the new church.

It was both from the Jew and from the Gentile, was it not? Remember, to the Jew what was Christ? foolishness. No, the stumbling block. To the Jew, Christ is a stumbling block. To the Gentile, foolishness. And we, I don't know about you, I deal with this all, almost every day. The foolishness of our faith and what our belief system is. Was there another comment?

I was going to say that all, you know, you think about the church and if Christ in fact is the church, Think of the persecution that's even going on today for the church around the world. Christ has to be so grieved because it's been going on from the beginning of the church. Right. The church, unfortunately, to some extent, is equally as problematic as that outside the church, right?

Okay, now here's what I probably should have put, this is not the church after this next section, but of interest, this guy named Johnson, whoever he was, says that this verse is probably the most controversial in the entire letter, the entire, I put in Data's quote, in the letter. Okay, so Constable in his commentary gives you four possible interpretations of these afflictions. The first is that Christ's afflictions refers to the quota of sufferings the church must undergo corporately before the end of the age. He did not choose that one as the best answer.

And if you look at all these verses, they're totally out of context and not unrealistic. So I'm not being critical of Constable, I'm just saying the verses he... I mean, that's Kingdom Age stuff and 24-6. Revelation 6-11 is, you know, after the church has been raptured. I don't know, you know, all these verses really don't fit, so we're not going to look at those. The second was Paul was saying his sufferings were similar to Christ. Well, that's kind of a weak choice there. Yes, Tom, you're not going to wait for three and four.

Okay, go ahead. Sure. Yeah, well, there was, I forget what book it's in, one of Paul's, but he said, let no one bother me because I bear in my body this. I think you know what you're looking at. Okay. The third option says, sufferance of Christ to which Paul referred are those sacrificial. I'm not sure I understand exactly where that's going. I'm just pulling this out and listing it for you.

And the fourth, which he felt was really what I think is the correct answer. When believers suffer, Christ also suffers because He indwells within each one of us. Well, that was the message to Paul in Damascus Road. When my church suffers... Acts 9.4. You can turn to it. I suffer when my church suffers.

And that kind of, of all those, seems to fit the best. Well, and the idea, I think if you go back here very quickly, I don't want to take too much time, but if you go back here in this idea of fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions, and what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ is not that they were lacking in Christ, they were lacking in Him, but yet still that's what we're called to. All right, so number four was what Constable chose and I think it's probably the best of these four options. These may not be the only options or maybe the best options.

I mean, it reminds me of my role as an educator at times. When I was privileged to serve on the writing exam for the American Board of Internal Medicine, I learned a lot about how to write a question. And so a multiple choice question should have one correct answer and one very good distractor.

And then there was a third question and the third answer that was kind of possible but not very good and the fourth one was absolutely ridiculous. And so every question we wrote was tested and not scored on the accreditation exam. So every question was tested and if it was too easy it got either changed or eliminated, if it was too hard it got changed or eliminated. So in a sense, this would not pass GO. I'm writing questions for the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Anyway, so in Philippians 1.12 it says, but I want you to know brethren that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Isn't that true? Remember, you may be the only Bible people ever see or ever read.

And so the way we deal with these afflictions really represents the spread of the gospel. And I think that kind of relates to the fact that preaching, we're going to come to this in a second, but preaching the word is clearly called for in scripture, but our lives also represent that gospel truth going out to those around us. Macaulay, the sufferings of the believer are seen as a continuation of this world's quarrel with Jesus Christ. Is the world quarreling with Jesus Christ? I would say it's rougher than that. It's not a quarrel.

I think what Carolyn shared is, here's a family that's been brought to their knees to some extent right by this terrible injury, this traumatic brain injury. John Davis used to say, he had an international ministry that was pretty interesting with college students who came to the United States. He was in Laos for a while and had come back. He said, every person asks these three questions. Who am I? Where did I come from and where am I going?

And if you think of most funerals, I mean, the Jewish ceremonies are, you know, everybody when they die are in heaven, right? I mean, that's the world view. While they're upstairs or being with their friends and relatives, not scripturally, not according to what we believe. But anyway, the world system quarrels with Christ at some point, in some way, at some time. So I'm going to turn here, and I think this is worth reading all four verses. John 15, 18, 21. So these are the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. And if you're of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. And if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent me."

I guess the question I would ask each one of us, how often do we go there? How often are we willing to be hated by the world system? I'm dealing with something on the American Diabetes Association board now, or I'm venturing to step into that kind of quicksand, if you will. So often we want to befriend the world, and I must admit some of our better friends are people who are not saved, but yet we have fun being with them, etc. How often do we enter into this being persecuted by the world because of our faith? Maybe I'm just being too transparent here.

Well, the spirit must lead, right? I mean, we all live in an earthly body with earthly circumstances. We have food to put on the table. We have a rent to pay. Ultimately, we have responsibilities to our family. We have a job and the job is typically in the world system and we go to work and we carry out our responsibilities there.

But how often are we put in a position of being persecuted for our faith? Not very often. But that's not of the flesh. Keep in mind the flesh can be self-righteous and want to be persecuted. It's got to be a spirit-led opportunity. I can't tell any of us how to do this, including yours truly. Anyway, Christ's message is pretty to the point, isn't it? The world actually hates us because of our... She's beginning to feel that way more and more. You think so? Bonnie says she's beginning to feel that way more and more all the time.

Alright, any comments about the most difficult verse in Colossians? Good, we made it perfectly clear or very confusing, whichever. Paul goes on to say, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. So, became in the New American Standard is made, and no matter which is used, the tense here is middle component, which implies active. So how do you interpret that? Active meaning the middle component is considered to be active, of which I became a minister. Is he deciding to become a minister or is he called to become a minister? Why isn't this passive? Tom? In a way, you can't point it out as absolutely not passive.

Let's just say it this way. You did not choose me, but I chose you. It was true of the original apostles. It's also true of the apostles and gentiles. He may be trying to deal with that and is expressing himself in that way. It's something that he has to grow into. Alright, that's one point. Is this important? Paul became or is made a minister, but it suggests an active tense, although Tom is going to challenge that a little bit, but that's fine. How many times have you heard, I've been called to the ministry? I've heard that so many times. Haven't we all been called to the ministry? Remember, what's the Great Commission?

In the going. As you're going. All of us are in the going, right? I hate full-time ministry because we're all in full-time ministry. It's just the question is where do you choose to serve that mission role. But anyway, I think this is an interesting discussion. Called to be a minister, we're all ministers. And so in a sense Paul has assumed the responsibility of becoming a minister and he's taken it on by faith. That's my simplest conclusion here. Minister, one who executes the commands of another. Notice commands of the other, that's what Thayer said a minister is. And who's the commander here? The Lord Jesus Christ, right?

According to the stewardship from God. And stewardship or dispensation is the same word in the Greek. And what it literally means is law of the household. Now if you think about stewardship, are you thinking about what's the law of the household here? Would that be the principles that are at work? Okay, so the principles of God really are from Genesis to Revelation, are they not?

But the church is a new age or dispensation in which we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit to lead the new life we have in Christ Jesus. So in a sense the law of the household here is grace. There's no 1, 2, 3. There's no book that tells us exactly how to live the life. It's by faith through the principle of grace that's the law of the household. And that's stewardship. Paul was servant of the church but steward of God.

First Corinthians 4.1. Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Boy, that says it all, doesn't it? Isn't it neat in scripture where you can go from one place to the other and document what you're saying? That's the most fun I have in preparing a class is that I'm continually consolidated through scripture after scripture of how the Bible works together to bring forth the truth. And you know for everything I would put on this slide we could find scripture, hopefully if I'm teaching the truth of the word of God to support these statements. So always question things that are not capably supported by the word of God. Which was given to me for you. Notice the ministry, it was given. Who was it given by? I think Raja already answered that. Who is it given by?

The Lord Jesus Christ. And that creates a stewardship from God. And what's the purpose? Well, the verse says that to fulfill or cause to abound the word or logos of God. And what's logos? It's a written word, it's a living word, it's everything wrapped up in Christ and everything that represents him. So how was or is this done today?

Is it preaching only do you think? I kind of alluded to that before. Preaching only? You probably heard the phrase lead by example. Let's see what Ephesians says about this, 3, 8 and 9. To me, who am less than the least of all saints. Don't you love this verse? Paul is the least of all saints. How you doing? Never mind. No horizontal vision here. It's all vertical relationship. Looking down, not looking up.

This grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. Now what I like about this is that he's saying he's preaching it among the Gentiles and these are unsearchable riches and it's a mystery but notice that it's been since the beginning of all the ages. It's been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. So, this kind of principle of the life has really been written from eternity past to present.

Second Thessalonians 3. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you. Okay, so the word of the Lord, it could be the written word, the pot word, or the life that represents the living word in our existence. Alright, last of the three verses.

The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to the saints, to some extent that relates to the verse in Ephesians that I just quoted a few minutes ago. What's a mystery in the New Testament? Things that were hidden previously and now are being revealed.

Okay. Have you looked at the handout, dear? No, she didn't. I didn't. She's a smart one. She was looking over my shoulder when I was preparing the lesson. I can assure you she wasn't. She's busy doing other things. This is Holly Hill's teaching. You're in the right place. That's right. Alright, so it's carefully and appropriately stated.

It's the reference to a truth previously unknown but now revealed by God. In a sense the Ephesians 3 verse relates to that that we just looked at too. But this also pertained to the secret ceremonies of pagan cults of the day. These mysteries were things that they were doing privately that ultimately nobody was exposed to. So when we look at the term in context, it relates obviously to God's mysteries that he reveals, but it also related to the earthly existence in the pagan cultures of the time. It's been hidden from ages and from generations.

How far back? It was before there were humans. Before whenever, right? Who else said something? Since the beginning of the ages, right? Yeah, well that's way back when, right? Way back when. Well, long ago. Do we want to talk about how...never mind. We can talk about how old the earth is.

I get science magazines and Margaret after I retire there are two journals I'm going to continue to get. Science is really pretty hardcore. Every kind of science is biological, geological, astronomical, et cetera. Physics. Almost every issue there's another finding in evolutionary science that really pins this down. So again, how far back is an interesting conversation. What about that new species of humans? Yeah, new species. This week a new species in the newspaper was identified. Of humans?

This was a much smarter one. The brain volume was larger. So let's look at a few verses that relate to How Far Back. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began. This, you know, eternal covenant that related between the Lord God and His Son and the church to follow really was written before Adam and Eve.

Ephesians 3.5, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.

So why did God wait so long? Why do we have centuries and actually millennia before this mystery was revealed? What do you think? Only God knows. So what's time to God? I mean, Vern was very good in describing this kind of eternity, you know, there's just no time in eternity. That's kind of hard to conceptualize, isn't it, when we think about it. It's getting time for me to close. That's all time. He looks at that. So here we are. So speculate a little bit.

Why did it take millennia or multiple centuries to reveal this? Was it the fulfillment of progressive revelation? So at the time, It could be revealed like the law of dispensation had to come before the grace situation. Why did it take so long for the law to fail?

I would suspect that the length of the time from the time the law was revealed to Moses to the time when Christ took over from there God allowed as many as would receive the truth to pick up on it and gave them all those years. Right, at least one millennium. He gave man every chance he could to come to the knowledge of the truth, one way or another, either through the creation or through direct teaching from those Jews who wanted to win others to the faith. And what was the basis of that right relationship to God, historically, then, through the Old Testament years?

Faith. And what's faith? Define faith. Believing what God has revealed. You do well with this Margaret. I mean Hebrews 11 is beautiful but I think Schofield really did a great job. Faith is believing what God has revealed and what he revealed to Adam and Eve. was what he revealed. But what he revealed throughout the Old Testament period was what he revealed. And do you believe God for what he revealed or not? So I think you're on the right track. It took years of law to ultimately ingrain in the fact that there's something more satisfying to follow.

Wayne and then Tom. There's a relationship involved here. When he created man in the first place, wasn't it? For the relationship that he would have with fellowships? Right. And that fellowship was broken in the garden, right? And that second Adam has followed ever since. core beginning of what God said he will do. And he provided a way for them to fellowship in spite of their recent sin. And then he basically just had to teach them step by step. I mean, this is a sacrifice that you're going to make. This is what's going to happen.

It's not discussed openly in Genesis, but you had the feeling there was only one right way to do this at that time. And if God was faced with wanting to have them have any form of fellowship, it wouldn't be the same as what's coming on later. It was the putting away of that first man, or Adam, to reveal.

Isn't it neat where we read in Hebrews that the sacrifice of bulls and goats can never take away sin? So this was, if you will, an atonement for a period, a long period, but yet it was satisfying to God at the time. We can't question His motives and the time that it's taken to have this mystery revealed, but aren't we thankful today that it has been. The Old Testament is so prophetic in terms of Christ's coming in so many places. It's really exciting in some ways to go back in the Old Testament and review all that prophecy.

But now it's been revealed to his saints. Now, the next question I think is one that can take a minute or two to discuss here as a class. But hasn't it been revealed to everybody? It has, but only the saints believe it. Well, yeah, okay. There's no atheists in Foxholes. There's no what?

I'm trying to think how profound this is. What are the three C's that bring people to salvation? Christ is third, right? That's the first. creation, what's the second? Conscious. Now the problem with conscious, if you lived in central Africa, maybe cannibalism would be okay, if you're hungry enough. Conscious is related to culture to some extent, but I think God puts a conscience in every one of us, in terms of what good and evil is all about. But Christ is the third.

Has the truth been revealed to everyone? It's only really been revealed by faith to the saints, hasn't it? or the chosen ones. So who are the chosen ones? Is this Calvinism per se? The gospel is presented to all men for all time to respond to. The chosen ones are those who enter the book of life. That's each one of us. a decision by faith to be saved by grace and ultimately the chosen ones are the saints of those who in fact this message has been revealed. And remember this is the mystery that's been revealed.

The world system could care less about this mystery, right? I mean there's no desire to understand it further. They're skeptical about it. Remember to the Gentiles this is foolishness. But isn't it interesting how the message of the gospel, Christianity, It's the most hated thing on the planet.

You can choose any religion you want, any belief system outside of Christianity. At some level it's accepted. Oh, that's okay, you can do this. But once you mention Christ, boy, that's... I just wanted to say this. You're seeing it more and more. Once you mention Christ, The discussion is over with many people. You don't get word two out of your mouth. And you're obviously, they tell you all the things, this is what you are.

Isn't that... Well, go ahead. That's what we were seeing, you were showing us how the world hated him, what he does. And John 15, yes sir. I had one of them thoughts go... Go on. Yeah, I know some good neurologist. The thing is, I probably should be there before you.

All right, so Colossians 127, I'm going to read it again. We read it this morning, but it's going to be covered next week. To whom God would make known what is the richest of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So in a sense, Paul kind of answers this question himself in the verses to be discovered next week. You know, I think this is an interesting verse, maybe taken a bit out of context, but I think I kind of liked it here.

Isaiah 53.1, which is a beautiful description of what is to come and did come. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? And in a sense, you know, add a context a bit. I mean, this is the prophecy that's related to the Lord Jesus Christ. But in a sense, isn't that the message, the mystery now being revealed?

And who's believed our report? We all have. Isn't that wonderful? This great carpet of grace? The question is, why did I believe in my relatives, my cousin, my sister? Why didn't they believe? I don't have an answer for that. I thought she was nodding as she had the answer. She's shaking her head this way. I thought she was going this way.

But the chosen ones are those whose names are written in the book of life and those are the ones that are saved by grace by faith. I mean we all come to the Lord by faith. I mean the whole globe is capable of responding by faith. And why some are saved and why are not. What do you think the biggest, we're kind of going a rabbit run here for a second, but what keeps people from coming to salvation? Other than saying simply not hearing the gospel, which is the responsibility of the church, I think you hit the nail on the head.

My brother is a very good example. He was a principal of one of the largest high schools in Cincinnati and knew every kid's name and addressed them by name in the hall with 3,000 students. Can you imagine that? A real legalist in terms of his work and performance. finally got tired of hearing the gospel and didn't want to hear it anymore from me, so I quit sharing it with him, but he felt like he'd lived a good life, and in many ways from an earthly perspective did live a good life, but that doesn't save anybody, right? So pride I think is the biggest barrier to getting saved, if you've been presented with the truth of the gospel for what it is. Other thoughts about that?

What do you think it has to do with recognizing the creator-creation relationship? The creator-creation? The creator-created? Yeah, so you're going back to the original, the beginning, the creator and the creation. And keep in mind the world view is evolution, right? Where there's no creator. It's just happenstance over eons of time. And that's always an interesting discussion.

Actually, Francis Collins, who's the director of the National Institutes of Health, where much of my funding and people in science and medicine, their funding comes from, he is a believer and he wrote a book called The DNA of God. He's a geneticist by training and believes, it's interesting, he's clearly saved by grace and faith. His book unequivocally says this is a saved man. But being a geneticist and representing a world system of science and medicine, he believes we've evolved somehow and the question he deals with in the book that he can never resolve is in this evolutionary pathway when did ape become man? I heard they crossed a monkey with a human and now the monkeys are small We'll talk after class. Any other thoughts about the most difficult person? I find that even as a born again person, pride and self-righteousness is still right there.

What did John say in his epistle? Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life are the three great sins that the body, if you will, the flesh lives out on the day to day basis. Think about it, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes isn't all sexually related, lust of covetousness and all that kind of stuff too.

Yes, by the way, it's part of this condemned nature, right? Remember, that nature is still in each and every one of us. But yet, by faith, as we grow in that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, hopefully these things pass away. And when we struggle to try to get rid of pride and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, we fail even more, don't we? I mean, it's something the flesh can't conquer. And it's something that has to be done by faith.

And that's where position begins and condition follows, right? Any other thoughts today? Alright, let's close in prayer. Tom, close us, would you please? message and what is taught to our souls, that we grow into a greater amount of knowledge and love of your completed work through your son Jesus and from day to day onwards. In Jesus' name, Amen.