Law is Blessing Lost - Part 2

Today is really, I think, one of the key sections of Scripture, albeit two verses. And it's not the second verse we're going to do today, it's the first. And so let's kind of lead in the Galatians 4, 19 to 20, by beginning in verse 12. And Randy, I'm going to ask you to read 12 down through 20 for us today. Twelve to 20.

I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you But you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time, and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel or messenger of God, as Christ Jesus himself.

Where then is the sense of blessing you had? but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and only when I am present with you, my children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. But I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. Thanks very much, Randy. So, interestingly enough, here's a church that Paul has visited for the second time and then a third time to follow, and he addresses them as his little children, or technon, or born ones. Why is this? When he had expected them to be growing strong in the Lord, it looked like a fallback. A fallback? There you go. Kind of regression.

I think that's more accurate. Let's turn to 1 John 1-2. Thus Paul is addressing them with great tender and care. These are newborn babes, and notice the verse is, for whom I labor and birth again. We'll come to that in a second. 1 John 2-1. Newborn saints. Anyone who gets that.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that you may not, and if any man, that ye sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, All right, so what's John's message here, and to whom is it intended? Remember, John addresses three different groups of people. What are those groups? Does anybody remember?

Little children, which is what we're dealing with here. These are newborn babes in Christ, and you know, do we have to be told to sin not? I mean, not that we're on a metric of performance, but I mean, I think This class here is well-founded enough in the fact that as believers we're not to sin. I mean, this is kind of elementary Christianity 101. What's the second group in John? Young fathers, right? And the third? the more experienced senior men, so-called, but believers. So these are the three groups John is addressing.

And we're using the same Greek term here that Paul is addressing the Galatians. I think Tom hit it right on the head in terms of the nature of who he's addressing and why. But you know, it's interesting to look at this. If you look at Technon in the scripture, You find that Paul also uses, we don't have to look at these verses, but in context, both of these to Timothy and to Titus address them as small children, but as Paul's own small children. These are not people who are ungrown in the ways of the Lord. These are people who Paul has adopted as his young ones. Basically, I think Paul here is do not as I, but as Christ kind of thing, and these are young children he's gathered unto his own fold. So you have to, I think, look at this in various sections in context to interpret it the way it is.

Labor in birth. So Paul says, my little children in Galatia, you guys are out in left field someplace right now, for whom I labor in birth again. That is literally just that. So you women who have born children can perhaps relate to this as I look around the room. There are some, but not many here. Yes, Tom. Donna? We were just hugging. You were not hugging back there, Tom, at least as far as I can tell.

It's kind of like Paul, in essence, just before he left Galatia the first time, must have seen metaphorically the line sloping upward in terms of developing a closer relationship with the Lord, more consistent from day to day. And then to come back and see this, That was just kind of a jaw-dropper to Paul. It shouldn't have happened. Well, look at verse 14, and Randy read this, "...and my trial, which was in my flesh, he despised not, nor rejected, but received me as the angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." So here's a relationship Paul had had, and I think well stated, Tom. He left being uplifted by that, and the way they received him. And now, this is like a woman giving birth. I mean, he's seeing and hearing what's going on back in Galatia, and he's extremely stressed about that. The motive.

So 1 Corinthians 4.15 reads, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, okay? Boy, isn't that something? I mean, the magnitude of the ministry in Christ, in fact, could be 10,000 instructors.

By the way, think of the path we walk every day about the people that touch our lives, that either impact us with the Christ nature and we see that to God's glory. Alternatively, God's using that to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we're not going to spend too much time here. Yet, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. And I think that's why, you know, his relationship to Timothy and Titus are very special. These are his own young children and he's hoping and wishing the Galatian church would be much like them. All right.

Again, that reflects his first visit and we took a lot of time on that last week and Galatians 5.21 reflects on the fact that there had been a previous visit. We don't need to turn to that further now. Now the meat of today. until Christ is formed in you. The Greek term morphou, a late and rare verb, rarely used, of being formed. Let's look at this in more detail. This is used only here in the New Testament, this term of being formed, or formed in, or created in.

And the figure is literally the embryo developing in the child. Okay, so Paul's wish and prayer for the Church of Galatia was that as a newborn fertilized egg was maturing throughout the various stages of embryogenesis, growth and development, that ultimately that's what was expected here. What happens after pregnancy once the fertilized egg's implanted? Well, it continues to grow and mature, right? And so this is very much a kind of an in uterine kind of analogy, if you will, in terms of the growth of the fertilized egg implanted to the fully live birth of the baby.

Paul boldly represents himself as, again, the mother with birth pangs over them. Again, hard for us guys and some of you women to identify with this, but yet we know plenty of women who have. I just talked to my daughter, Kristen, who had a baby a couple of weeks ago. She'll do it again.

Bonnie, do you want to speak to that? So this is Tracy. You want to speak to Obama? You want to speak to that? So funny. Mark, the first one, the first one. So somebody says we're getting close up. We have practiced the laws together. And so, yeah, she she's breathing. I'm coaching. I like the coach job myself. So we get to the very difficult part and she says, Roger, I won't tell you how bad this is. I'll tell you how bad it is after it's over. And there were more to come. He won't tell you how bad it is.

Also, what really struck me about this passage, talking about this, He had an intimate relationship with these believers. We all have a relationship with fellow believers in Christ, but it seems like he's saying, I really have a great bond with you, and it just impacts me negatively to see you guys. What are you doing? Why are you going? I have to go back again to help you come farther than this. You know, it has something to do with, I think, what happens after salvation. I mean, all the aisle walking that's taken place around the world for centuries on end is, you know, salvation.

But how many of those were true births or how many of that was an emotional experience? And I've heard people that you all know well, and I won't mention them by name, saying that Our biggest failure as believers is really to bring a new birth unto live birth and growth and development. And that's where Paul, I think, is really distressed here. He borne them into truth about the differences between grace and legalism and now they've gone astray and have not continued to be nurtured and brought up in that truth. And at a distance in the day in which Paul lived, it must have been very, very difficult for that nurturing to go on without mature believers locally.

So part of our ministry is being founded, Here is the Body of Christ at Holly Hills, is ultimately to encourage and develop new lives in Christ through these growth truths that are so very, very important. So now we're going to drill down. We're going to look at what this issue is of having Christ formed in us. This is so critically important. And we're going to begin by looking at the verb tense because I think this opens up this verse to some degree of discussion.

So I'm using the Blue Letter Bible here, which I find a really great help. It's a free online resource that just does a great job in almost every sense that you could examine. There is tense. The Blue Letter Bible lists three things. This tense is characterized by its emphasis on punctiliar. Now, interesting term, punctiliar. It took me a while to find that in a dictionary. and I don't know who had input in the Blue Letter Bible, but I finally found, I think in Wikipedia, actually. It wasn't in Merriam-Webster, it wasn't in Oxford. Anyway, this is relating to a point of time. Punctilier. It puts its emphasis on a punctilier action relating to one point in time. So, eris tense means is formed. So, we're going to come back to this. When was that point in time?

OK. Secondly, that is the concept of the verb is considered without regard for past, present, or future. But the third point, there is no direct or clear English equivalent for this tense, although it is generally rendered as a simple past tense in most translations. Randy, Roger, you OK with that? OK. So, aorist tense. We're not sure when it was.

It's typically on one occasion. And, you know, it's a concept that the verb is considered without regard to a particular time, although it's typically used as a past event. The passive voice is this voice represents the subject as being the recipient of the action. So that's important.

This isn't something we decide we're going to be formed in Christ. In fact, this is an act of God, if you will, in each and every one of us at one point in time. And finally, the subjunctive mood. And this is the mood of possibility and potentiality. And the action described may or may not occur depending upon the circumstances.

Now, until Christ is formed into you, let's first of all say that you have nothing You may live nothing but Christ is kind of the concept here, and think nothing but Christ, and that's well represented in Galatians 2.20. Crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, and not I, but Christ liveth in me. This is the process or the event of being formed in Christ. And again, we're looking at this as occurring at one point in time. And we're to glory in nothing but Him and His death, resurrection, and righteousness. Before we get into more discussion about the verb tense and how it's applied, let's really substantiate this scripturally.

So Tom, Philippians 3, 7, 10. Donna, Colossians 1, 27. Elisha, Romans 8, 28, 29. Margaret, Romans 13, 13, and 14. Randy, Ephesians 4, 17 to 24. We could go on and on, but these verses will, I think, convincingly demonstrate this type of process. Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and you count them but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. or excuse me, Colossians 1.27?

Yes. 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. Okay. Then let's see, we have the Romans passage. And we know that all things work together for a good to them that love God, to them who are the call according to his purpose. For when he did foreknow, he also did predestine, predestinated, to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Thank you. Margaret.

Romans 13, 13 and 14. Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, and not in strife and envy, but put beyond the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Thank you. Okay, Rand, I want you to read this section really quite slowly and clearly. Ephesians 4, 17-24, and we're going to key in on one verse here particularly, but go ahead, Rand.

Thanks. So this I lay and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.

And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Okay, if we look at that section in Ephesians, which really is right in the truth in which we're discussing today, I pick that one verse that is often, I think, short-changed, that I think is so critically important. Why were the Ephesians, as is the Galatians, walking in error and not in truth? They have learned, not Christ. That's the issue.

I'll never forget this section being taught in a former church I went to that was ultimately steeped in legalism. And we went through this passage and there was no ownership for the new man or the identification truths or positional truths preceding the life. It was all a matter of us pleasing God with the things we were doing, thinking, and saying. And so this section was taught, and it just kind of got brushed over, and the meat of it is the shortest first, and ye have not so learned Christ. And this concept of being formed in him, the new man, empowered by the Spirit, the purpose of God is conforming us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ is Christianity 101. But again, what we said before, that truth had not reached the Galatian believers. They came to salvation and knowing their sins had been forgiven and positionally they were accepted by God. But that's where it ended.

The question you and I ask every and all days is, in fact, how do you live the Christian life? And it's not by trying harder. It's this principle of being formed in Christ. Not being told to put your left unformed leg here, or your right unformed leg there, or back and forth, and do the hokey pokey. and shake it all around, isn't that what it was? It happened that way in real life with an embryo of an easel. Isn't it true?

But yet, we're going to come back to this. What's the process? So the first question I have to ask the class, what about the verb tense here? Let's go back. So, aorist tense, passive voice, subjunctive mood. What about that whole scenario about being formed in Christ? Well, being formed is passive. That's being formed in us, but not by us. It's a past action. Okay, so it's done by God. There's no disagreement here. This is an act of God forming us, making us be filled with Christ. The passives are the easiest part here. Let's maybe go to the subjunctive mood secondly, because then this point in time we can reflect on the subjunctive mood. Possibility or potentiality?

What does that mean? Well, you have to have faith and belief. one thing, and what the Lord has promised. Okay, so think about this in terms of these verses in context. What was going on in Galatia? I mean, first of all, this is a passive act, so it has nothing to do with them, but yet it may or may not occur depending upon the circumstances. What are your thoughts here? If this is an act of God, why should it be subjunctive in terms of the nature of this interaction? Donna, it seems like you've got something to say.

Okay, was the Galatian Church acting by will and saying we don't want these truths? I mean I'm not, I don't necessarily have answers for you, I'm just trying to get some thought about this because this eros passive subjunctive here I think is critically important in terms of how we view this this type of biblical truth. teachers who were not teaching the truth. And so that was a choice they were making to follow those incorrect teachers. Alright, so then it is an act of the will, if you will.

So the paths of being done, this is done by God in the life of the believer. This may or may not occur based on, I think, exactly what we were reflecting in terms of the teaching of the Ephesians passage at a church I went to before. versus what was not happening in Galatia in terms of these people being matured in the nature of the truth. Now, how do any of us get to the point where we're seeing that Christ being formed in us and all things work together to conform us to the image of his Son? How do we, each one of us, individually get to that point? I can share from my own experience, but what are some of yours? Tommy, it looks like you're...

It's kind of like, you have to know what it means to attempt to do things and then find out that's not helping. That's not helping one bit. Lord, help me. I call it coming to the end of ourselves. And I know personally, you know, after I've shared this before, coming to salvation and coming to the end of myself, I'm just about getting it done. There must be more to this. This can't be this.

And that's why the joy of the Christian life is really having the theology we have about this process. The subjectiveness is our ability to accept this as part of the truth. It may or may not occur. And in Galatia, it wasn't occurring. Donna? Well, and I think, you know, Mario was saying that you believe, but then there's a transition there that you not only believe the facts, but they're important to me. There's a personal relationship that I think the Spirit develops in you where you look to the Lord Jesus and think, wow, you know, it's profound at that point. up to that point it can just be facts. Spiritual growth happens, you know, Mike, one Sunday, and this has resonated since you read it out of the green letters, there was a section where it said spiritual growth happens when you recognize or reckon what is true, you and Christ, already. That formation is a conditional sense where you have Where, where, who's the one forming you?

I took a pottery class the semester, Jessica. Let's try to stay on the topic. I took a pottery class and it's one of those things where I'm reminded if you don't constantly form and mold the clay while it's on the wheel, gravity takes hold. And it has a way of making your clay do some interesting things.

But in the same way, they're being formed, but they said, hey, we don't want the hands of God forming us, we'd like these Judaizers' hands, and the clay was doing some, it wasn't being formed into Christ, it was being formed into legalism, and it was a terrible, obviously devastating for Paul scenario. Okay, I think you've answered the aorist tense, but tell us why you've answered that and what you just said. once only, right? When did this occur? Well, Bob, you know, there's actually terrorist attempts which are successive until your actions. I'm just saying about the blue letter. I'm not saying this is. It is a candidate. I would say this is a candidate for that.

Because the story you have here is you say, well, Is there a time in the past which conditionally I Christ formed in me, but positionally that's already happened? That I think is my point. Positionally this has already occurred and is totally complete. The seductive fact is have we grasped it or not? And the passive thing, this is something that God has done on us. By the way, I had a thought.

Let me make sure I can clarify this. It seems to me that because the context before was also the kids and the adults, it seems to me that at some point of life in everybody there is that, I mean, and you cannot put your finger on it, but at some point you sort of are adult and you are not coming back to your childhood. And I think maybe in Christian life, if you agree with me, this adulthood comes when you realize that he loves you and you love him eventually but I mean it needs to be on the personal level not only like how you love parents but you know how you love another person okay and now and then he's formed as you know as as person and from that point it's harder to go back to you know the you know being babies again and I have to you know give birth to you again So from that point, you can sort of walk on your own. Okay, two thoughts. One that I dismissed and now have been revisited. Thank you, Lord. This is not a second blessing. In other words, the people have taught this as if you kind of come to get saved and you understand the basics.

In other words, I have eternal life and my sins are forgiven. And by the way, that really is Christianity 101 minus. I mean, it's clearly... And by the way, I would suggest that Maybe 90% of the churches, I mean, my sins have been forgiven and I have eternal life. I'm going to be with Christ forever. And by the way, what about that middle part, you know, that's being formed into the image.

And as Thompson nicely put, this isn't the left leg saying what it wants to do or the right arm saying what it wants to do. This, in fact, is a process that is initiated by God that's passive. The Erdos tense, Roger, I really think is God sees this as having happened and he has enacted upon our behalf the process of being formed in Christ.

The subjunctive mood is where we fall short because we're not all realizing this truth in our life. Are we pretty much okay with that? Yeah, Donna. I think in the world there's a real logic that appeals to the old man, the logic of the world. And I think that's always pressing in on us because The facts of what the Word tells us of who we are in Christ does not logically compute with who we are in heaven. And that's the principle of grace, is that it? Yes, Tom. Thanks, Donna. That was nice. We're fine. We've got time.

Two verses today, although this is taking... There's a process that's going on, and it's kind of like when this kid was asked, what are the four cardinal directions? And the kid would say, sit up straight, no talking, Listen carefully, write legibly. And when you see that same learning process happening, when you're really paying attention to what God's Word is saying and what God is saying directly to you, just you, not church in general, not groups of people in general, but right at you, then growth is possible. Great.

So, my best interpretation for you today, and let the Spirit work to change that if needed, Aristence is when we were saved, we were given this process of Christ being formed in us. This is part of our existence. And that reflects back on what Elisha had read about in Romans 8, 28 and 29.

The purpose of God in our life is to conform us to the image of the Son, and that's Christ being filled in us. The passive attempt is God's gracious act on each and every one of us to make this truth available and ultimately the subjective mood known. It is our responsibility as believers to seek out the truth. And by the Spirit leading us in truth, this can be nothing but clear. and fellowship, who we hang out with, and when we're seeking the process by which I described and Tom so nicely articulated, coming to the end of ourselves. We can't please God through our self-righteous decision-making, as the Pharisees, woe unto them, had been attempting for years.

Other thoughts about this before we go on? All right, now the questions of the class. The verb test we've just kind of dealt with, and I hope that that sits. And if it's not accurate, I'm very willing to be, and Roger may have a point. This could be the heiress test. I'm not sure, so I'm not going to go off.

I like the fact that this principle of God for the believer was done once and for all, and the fact that we need to just subjunctively come into that truth. Well, that's having been saved, being saved, and will be saved. That's that same process. And that in a sense is it, but I still think that's okay to interpret being saved in that way, which is often used scripturally in the perfect tense kind of thing. But if it is still founded on once upon a time, this is God's will for us to be formed in Christ. I mean, it seems okay to me anyway.

The second question, how are you doing? And we can tie that into the third one. What's the process? And I kind of discussed that a little bit already with you. Is this something that When we try to put a metric to this in our own lives, we get kind of bound in legalistic terms, don't we? I mean, this isn't something I think we measure for ourselves. How am I doing? Well, I think you can kind of respond personally to how you're doing in the grace principles.

In other words, was that act or thought or deed falling back under a legal system in some way? And by the way, if it has been that, you confess it and move on. I mean, it's not something you dwell on. And the process is clearly won by faith, and we'll end today by looking at that process in terms of the way to make this truth known.

Any other thoughts? Well, we kind of said it already in class, it's basically abiding, walking with the Lord, realizing who you are in Christ. And as you do that, conditionally you become more like your position. and you realize what you have in Christ. Even though you know that at a later point in time, you continue to remind yourself and walk in those truths and realize when you don't walk in those truths. crucified with him, dead and buried, risen with him in newness of life. That's the concept that's being played out here.

Galatians 4.20, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I have doubts about you. Goodness, is that a surprise? So, I'd like to be present with you now reflects on the warm feelings I think Paul had for them in the past and we read that today and I'll read it again in 4.18. But it's good to be zealously sought always in a good thing and not only when I'm present with you. So, Paul has reflected back on when I'm present with you, things are going well.

And something's happened here. And so the idea here is I've kept on asking the tense of the verb, imperfect, active, indicative. It's factual, it's imperfect, it continues to be done, and it's active. Paul's doing this all the time, asking on their behalf, how many times have we prayed for something repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly? That's what Paul's doing here.

I'm concerned about you guys out there in Glacier and this is something I've been taking to the Lord often for you because it's not the same scenario that I left four years earlier. To change my voice or tone or voice and to speak not severely as a letter might sound but tenderly.

I mean a letter might be kind of critical. Reminds me of the email error of the age. We talked about this a little bit yesterday about that phone call I got from the head of obstetrics about that issue at the university. You get an email that's somewhat disconcerting or in your face or wrong or something and the standard act of the atom nature is to do what? No, it's not the right term.

It's react. So reactions are always, I wouldn't say always, but I would have to qualify, but I mean almost always of the flesh. It's not when we react to something that's personally damaging or something we disagree with. The response, I think, is that you take a big step back. This is even in the flesh.

You let it settle. And what this woman did yesterday about something I'm involved with administratively is called me up and made her wishes known so she did not get into an email battle over these kinds of issues. So Paul's letter may have, in fact, reflected this disappointment. And he's kind of apologizing for that a little bit here, if you will. I think that maybe he's going a little bit too far.

I'd like to be with you and to change my tone. His tone was probably not one that was overly uplifting, but maybe a bit more accusatory too, but really trying to challenge them in the truths of what young babes should be knowing about growth and the Christian walk.

There's been a number of times when I've disciplined Abigail. Randy, if I could take you back. I'm going to take this a different direction. But what I have told her so many times is I would rather be having fun with you and talking with you and growing with you than disciplining you. That sounds pretty mature. I really wish that we were having a different letter.

I really wish I wasn't spanking you, but instead that we were doing other things. And that's, you know, my parents always told me growing up, I really hate to discipline anybody. This hurts you more than anything. Yeah, always. That's a good kind of move. I thought they were liars. 100% lying. There's no way. You must get some secret pleasure out of this.

And then I disciplined my daughters for the first time each. It was like, oh, man, do I understand what they meant now. When you're receiving this message, this letter this way, I wish I was writing a different letter. The longing to grow up again with the truths we now have.

Although most of us don't want to go back, do we? I think too, along with what Randy is saying, the desire for the face-to-face with the people that you know, with whom you believe in such love, right? to have to do it by letter and not have a, you know, a responding. In fact, the way I responded to the physician at the University Hospital yesterday, who's the new head of obstetrics and gynecology, was that we're planning a face-to-face meeting so we can look each other in the eye and discuss these controversial issues and come away all understanding that we've shared and we've reconciled the differences. I mean, I'm not a great administrator, but the point is that these Face-to-face meetings.

I do a lot of kind of virtual stuff now where I have a camera or something and you're part of it or on teleconferences. People are working on their email and not paying attention. I must admit I'm guilty of that myself. These hour teleconferences where you're maybe needed for five minutes.

I'm there and then somebody goes, Bob, what did you think about that? Can we restate the question? The idea of us experiencing the teaching of God's word in a classroom and we see each other's emotions and interest and enthusiasm or lack thereof. It's a whole different ballgame and that's what Paul's really reflecting. I'm writing you a letter of my concern and I wish we could be together and be back where we were before. Maybe there'd be better understanding. under those circumstances.

So I have doubts about you. Paul's perplexed. He does have doubts. But what he hears about what he hears and fears and ultimately he himself is in fact concerned with fear about their future. I'm going to turn to Ron Merriman here now to address this a bit more detail.

Their inconsistency puzzled him. Their immaturity grieved him. Their positiveness, which is by the way not in the English dictionary, to his detractors and those who taught false doctrine was an agony. And their lack of in-depth identity with his teachings on grace was baffling. So that's what Ron used as kind of a, if you will, a further explanation of this distress Paul was sensing. Anybody have any trouble with any of those comments? I thought they reasonably well hit the spine.

Do we in any way sense this frustration with our brothers and sisters in the Lord? And I sense we do, and I think the caution here is becoming kind of self-righteousness and grace. Of course, that's an oxymoron, isn't it? I feel particularly humbled by the fact that we can gather today together and frequently just to share the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he is in our lives. And this is not an arrogance. It's not a superiority. It's not a second blessing. It's none of these things. It's gospel truth.

It seems to me also that it's very important that he writes to them and then he sort of commands on what his feelings and emotions are. You know, when I have friends who come to know the Lord after me, and so I sort of feel like their mother, and when I see them, I used to do it like, you know, I would just give them the information and everything, and I would just be like... Is this after salvation or before? After. And then I was thinking, you know, it's important to give the information, because they need to have it.

But if they already have it, it's fine to just sort of remind, but then not to push on them, and just pray about them, because it seems to me that sometimes It's better than to let the Holy Spirit do it, if they know the situation, than to tell them. But this is, it seems to me, a different situation because they were, they didn't have email. They didn't have the New Testament, so it needed to be written clearly, but right now I bet everybody... I'm not quite sure how to respond to that, based on our previous conversation about email this morning.

Well, the thing is that with the process of spiritual growth, I don't know how many truths in scripture I read, you know, as I read through the Bible. I was exposed to every single one of the truths. I've learned probably more clearly in the last six years that we've been in Colorado. I read them. I have the information, as Alicia says, but you do have to wait for the Holy Spirit to say, okay, this truth fits right here, do you get it now? And then it's like, oh man, why have I missed this for years? And sometimes it's the Lord saying, because you needed that.

It's the process implies that you have to have that state where you have less so that you can have more. As far as understanding is concerned. For this lie deflation, which is but for a moment, worketh forth a far more eternal and exceeding way to glory, while we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen, for the things that are temporal, or things that are seen are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal.

That kind of verse took life when I lost my first wife. It became reality. Okay, and then we turn back to ourselves and we're humbled. So there's no arrogance here, there's no cockiness, there's nothing but humility in this truth being played out in the believer. We want our brothers and sisters to grow in grace. We have to exemplify that by our active faith on a day-to-day basis. And we have to be willing to share, as much as sharing Christ with the unbeliever, we have to be willing to share about this process of confirmation. I find, very importantly, when we make a mistake before the world, we need to be very prompt in asking forgiveness for that mistake and move on. I was in error, and I try to find to blame Tom or to blame Bud for it. I mean, it's easy for me to maybe blame Margaret, but I wouldn't want to blame Bud or Tom. Tom, Bud, I'm fine with you guys. No, I'm fine with Margaret too.

So, I thought this was kind of appropriate setting the stage for what's going to follow. Roger's teaching in the next three weeks, but this is really kind of sweet. This is in the Schofield Bible. And it's the allegory Galatians 4, 22 to 31 is, and that's what Roger's going to be teaching, is addressed to justified but immature believers who, under the influence of legalistic teachers, desire to be under the law. There's the Galatian error. Remember Galatians 1, we dealt this other gospel thing. And has therefore no application to a sinner seeking justification. It raises and answers for the fifth time in this epistle the question, is the believer under law?

And we don't necessarily need to take time to look at all these, but let's look at Galatians 2, 19 through 21, which are verses we know well, but I think Margaret's favorite verse is 21, and we often quote 20. So let me read that for you. Galatians 2 19-21.

For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not make void the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Oh, boy.

I mean, just returning to these principles makes the crucifixion seem helpless and hopeless. I mean, that's just not where the life's at. The life is not living under the legal principles despite being perfectly holy and righteous. We're failing it day in and day out.

And I think that's the principle of coming to the end of ourselves, is recognizing God's great grace for all that's worth. So in closing, our entire mission by His grace and our response by faith, notice there's a qualification. We have to subjunctively be in the mood by faith to accept what God has revealed, is to have Christ formed in us. And it's all to His glory, not our own.

And notice the way this enters the screen. Keep looking down. Okay, Roger, close us in prayer, would you please? Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for our time. We thank you for your marvelous Word and for the marvelous truths we have in the Lord Jesus.