Major Bible Themes
Mike Doyle · Jan 2, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 01
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926222475733

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

This is a very interesting book, as I've been preparing the last couple of months for this. And as we go through the introduction, I think you'll see that one of the things that struck me about this book is that its design. Well, Bruce Barry Chaffer originally wrote it and then it was updated by John Wolford.

And it's kind of academic. It's kind of an academic book in the sense that it's, even though he says in the beginning that it's not really, it's for lay people and not seminarians, it really is. Because, let me tell you why I say that. It does a terrific job of laying out the basic doctrines of Christianity.

But I've always been of the mind that, and maybe it's because I'm a salesman and I'm not an engineer like the rest of the guys around here, that there has to be, in salesmanship there's a feature. As an example, the feature of this chair would be that it's got a cushion in it. But how does that benefit me or you? It's the fact that it benefits you when you sit in it. It's soft. And it feels good. So what you find with this book is that it's full of features, but not a lot of benefits. And so hopefully, as Courtney and Craig and I teach this, we're going to be trying to translate the features into benefit.

Why is it important to you, and how is it going to help you in growing in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus? I think that's as important in teaching the Word of God as any part of it. The doctrine is paramount. The principles that you find in the doctrine are extremely important, but you should always ask your question in your mind when you're studying the Word of God.

So what? So what does it mean? What's the relevance of what I'm reading and studying? What does big deal, I sound a little irreverent by saying that, and that's just the way my mind works. When I read something that, well, Christ died on the cross for my sins. Well, so what? Why is that a big deal? Why does that matter?

And so as we go through this, he'll talk a little bit that way, but I think one of the focuses we're going to do is answering the so what questions. Now, the way the book is set up, which I really like, And open it up to chapter one. And just to show you how he went through this and did it. And I think it's probably at least the way Courtney and I have been teaching forever.

You'll notice at the end of page 15 on page 15, see the list of questions at the end of every chapter is a list of questions that that the author would like the student to go through and answer those questions in order to give the student a more thorough knowledge of what he read. There's tons and tons of Bible verses to be looked up to. Now, we're not going to run the class, at least I'm not going to run my part of it, where all we do is answer like 12 questions on Chapter 1. But we are going to pick out a few and ask you to maybe answer them yourself during the week as you study.

Second thing is, is that there's 52 chapters in this book. And the idea being, oh, you know, in a perfect engineering world, we would do one a week. And at the next year at this time, we'd have all 52 done and everybody would get a gold star. That's true.

Well, we're not going to do it that way, because if we do it that way, it's just going to be a lecture every week and you're not going to get engaged. OK, so we're going to cut it down to probably 38 individual classes, which we have. We need to get together and decide and we're going to combine some chapters, which some of them really do come together and combine pretty, pretty easily. so that there's a lot more time for you to ask your questions and for you, because it doesn't matter if Courtney and Craig and I understand the information, it's important if you understand it. That's the reason we do this, so that you'll walk away from this with a greater understanding of the basic doctrines of the Word of God. So we encourage lots of questions and there is no such thing as a stupid question. None. Some of you people who've been in my class before, you know that you can ask me anything, ask Courtney anything you want.

OK, so written by Roosbury Chaffer. Most of the overheads that I'm going to use are things that Hal Malloy put together I think he did it in 2002. So I'm going to use this to be my first foray into using PowerPoint. But it'll probably work out pretty good, right? Oh, I got this pointer thing to figure out how to work. It's supposed to have this little bean thing.

Is it in the middle? You see this little verse right here? Anybody know that verse from your heart? Anybody know this verse from your heart? 2 Corinthians 3.18. Don't look it up. You know what it is from your heart? Now listen, if you want to polish the apple with the teacher, you've got to know that verse. That's my favorite verse in the Bible. Beholding as in a mirror. the glory of the Lord with unveiled face I'm transformed I'm being transformed into his very image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord that's the Christian growth and you know my buddy Maloy he knew that that verse right there and so that's kind of the centralized verse in everything we're going to do this next part about the textbooks We got them so you don't have to worry about them. If you use a Kindle or something like Craig is, you can download them. I don't know what it costs to do that. It was like three bucks. Yeah, it's not very expensive. What is that? I can't see the board. Do you want to move up here? Second Corinthians 318. OK. All right. Let's see who goes. All right.

Those are all the chapters and you can look at them in your book and you know like right here we have 5 on the Son of God or 6, 7. Well we don't need to do all 7 of those we can combine some of them. So Courtney and Craig and I hopefully will get together maybe this week and put together a curriculum that is less than 52 separate separate weeks, but I recommend, and we'll tell you every week what's coming up the next week so that you can read.

Okay? And you'll find also that there's an awful lot of Bible verses in this. I recommend, I know it's tedious, but I recommend you read every one of them. Because that's really the main book is the Word of God. Okay? And if you've got a software program you can click on them and get to them pretty quickly. Okay? So we'll work through, that's the basic, like man and his creation in the fall. We can do both of those in a week. You see what I'm saying? Okay. Alright, introduction. Why study major Bible themes? Why would you do it? So you could learn. Learn what?

About the Bible. Yeah, the themes of the Bible. The Bible is God's revelation to us. It's all the information that God has determined that he wants us to know. And so he put through the centuries, he creates this work. And the first chapter will talk about the Bible itself, how it was put together and who the authors are. Within the word of God, well, maybe I want to say this first.

We know nothing of who God is if he doesn't reveal himself to us. You cannot discover him. Now he puts himself in his creation so that you can discover him there. He puts himself in your conscience so you can discover him there. But if he doesn't choose to reveal himself to us, we would never know he even existed. But he did choose.

And he did choose to reveal himself to us and the more The revelation that you know, the more of the issue of 2 Corinthians 3.18 takes place in your life, which is conformity to the image of the resurrected glorified Christ.

One of the things I discovered too in studying this book is that although the identification truths are sort of gone by fairly quickly, he doesn't focus in on them. So we might spend a little more time on that. Not like we did in the last class when we had 12 weeks on it. We're going to learn about growth truths, which are mostly Paul's epistles. We'll learn position and condition. Everybody understand what position and condition is? Who doesn't? Basically, the Word of God reveals, in Paul's epistles especially, the position that every believer enjoys. as an example.

You've been crucified with Christ, buried and resurrected. You're not seated in the heavenlies. You're blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. All those things are positions that you enjoy. You may not even know about them, but they're yours.

The only way you find out about them is in the Word of God. And positional truth can never change can never be altered by your behavior because you got it all when you believed in Christ. We had another class two or three years ago in which we talked about the 34 positions that which as we started in the class there were 34 positions that were true of us when we believed and we discovered we got it up to 215 and we were still climbing at that point. So as you read the Word of God you'll find that a lot of these doctrines that we're going to study are positions that are true of you.

Now your condition is your everyday walking around existence which may or may not line up with your position. But your condition can never affect your standing or your position. Never. But your position should influence and be more and more of a controlling factor in your condition.

Is that fairly clear? So, we'll point out, I think as we go, position and condition. And the basic position is who you are in Christ. Who are you in Christ? Believer. Okay. What else? Righteousness of God. And the likeness of God? Righteousness. Righteousness? The very righteousness of God in Christ?

Try my little pointer again. Alright, right here, in Christ. 164 times it's mentioned in the New Testament. Paul mentions it 140 sometimes. It's a really important phrase, in Christ. Because it's your position. But to discover who you are in Christ will change your life. And basic Bible doctrines does that. Identification truths, which we just mentioned. Major Bible themes. The themes are that contribute to your understanding of who you are in Christ. God's eternal purpose for the believer. What is God's eternal purpose for the believer?

To bring him home. John 17, 22. Look it up. Quick, quick, quick. To bring him to himself. To be conformed to him. Is that it? What's John 17, 22 say? That they may be one. and as we are one. Wow, that's cool. Did you hear that? That we might be one as they are one. Can you just conceive in your mind that the God of the universe has said to us, I want you to be one with me. John what? What's it say?

17, 1722. That they may be one Father as we are one, that they may be one in us. Think about oneness with Christ and with God. And so John 17 is Christ praying to the Father and asking Him for certain things to be done. You think the Father said, well, I'll give you 6 out of 7? Or 9 out of 10? No. If you want to know what Christ and the Father intend for you, read John 17.

It's awesome. What God intends for us. And this oneness is what He's after. In all eternity, Once all of this is over and we go into eternity, well I would say once the rapture happens, we get plugged into this triune union of love with the God of the universe. We have everything except deity. We get to enjoy God and be loved by Him on His level and return it back to Him. That's what oneness with God is.

And the Lord Jesus prays it in John 17. Foundation is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3, 10 and 11. Somebody read that. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I lay the foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. So what Paul tries to do is explain the body of Christ in our unity with Him using, in this case, an example of building a building.

The foundation of the cornerstone is Christ Himself. And everything depends on Him. Everything depends on Him. If you pull Him out, the whole thing comes down. So, that's why I think it's important for us to understand as we go through this that the issue is to come to know and be intimate with the foundation, the person of Christ. Okay? They don't look bored yet. Okay.

What should be our response to God's revelation? Whenever God reveals the truth to you, what should you do with it? Thank the Lord for it. More than that. What should you do with it? You just believe it. If the Lord Jesus, if you're reading along in Ephesians and it says you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing and heaven lies in Christ Jesus. What do you say to the Lord? What? Where are they? Where's the Mercedes?

Believe Him and say thank you. See? Once you say thank you, you assume that you believe. Okay? So if you find out through the study of the Word of God, the revelation that He gives you, not only do you believe it, but then what happens? See, after you believe it, then what's the next step? The next step is a step. You walk in it. It's who you are. Yeah, and you change. You change.

It's interesting, we live in an environment of grace, and as we studied grace before, the definition that we've used is It's God's unmerited and unlimited blessing. Unmerited. Can't earn it. Unlimited. Can't exhaust it. Blessing. Is it come and go or is it just me that hears it? Based on the work of Christ. So here we are living under this environment of grace. So here comes into your life this overwhelming abundance of grace. What do you do with it? You take it. You take it. Because you can't exhaust it. You cannot exhaust grace. But you won't take it unless you know it. You won't believe it unless you know it. Right?

So that's why we study the Word of God. Our response in everything we do is to glorify God. What does that term mean? What does it mean to glorify God? Give Him the glory. And what does giving Him the glory mean? What does it mean? She's the only one answering. Come on, the rest of you. Put him first. Put him first? Give him credit. Give him credit? What's the word glory mean? If I said to you, what is God's glory? What does the glory mean? What would I ask you to tell me? I forgot I learned it last week. No, when the last lesson was you, you mentioned it. What was it? You tell us. Give me a quarter.

The infinite number of things that exist and work. Infinite number of things that exist and work. This creation, the complexity beyond any engineer's dream, everything. Okay, that's pretty good. Basic definition is this, I think. It's the sum total of God's intrinsic attributes. It's who he is. He's holy. He's righteous. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He's loving. He's all of those things. So when you say, well, I'm going to glorify God. How do you do that? Here's how it's done.

Back to 2 Corinthians 3.18, as you're conformed to the image of Christ, it's His very life and He's the Son of God.

And that glory that is His, in John 17 tells us that He intends to share His glory with us. He intends to share His intrinsic attributes with us. And they are to manifest through our life and our walk so that who gets the glory? Who gets the credit? God does. So, you can't glorify God by having a lot of great music and a cool band, lots of speakers, you know. You glorify God by the manifestation of the life of the resurrected Christ through you. That's how he's glorified. So that everybody in the earth can see him and he gets the glory that's due him, okay? Grow.

2 Peter 3.18 says we are to grow. in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, does that mean that I'm standing here, knowledge and grace is over there and I'm to grow towards it to get into it? Know what it means? No. What does it mean? Say no. Because he gives you the grace when you believe.

I'm already in the grace. I'm already over here. I'm already in Christ. So why are you standing there then? So as I am in Christ, I grow in Him, because I've already been placed in the grace and in the person of Christ. So I grow in that environment, I don't grow to it. Okay? Make sense? Alright.

And 2 Corinthians 3.18, behold Him. How do you behold Christ? My goodness, He's in heaven, I'm here in Denver. supposed to behold Him? In the Word of God. That's exactly right. The Spirit of God has been sent to the believer to reveal Christ to him.

When you study 2 Corinthians 3.18, it talks about beholding the glory of the Lord reflectively or in a mirror. What do you think the mirror is? This is the mirror. The Word of God is the mirror. So when you study your Bible, You're not there to become a theologian. You're there to behold the glory of Christ, to see his intrinsic attributes. And as you behold them, guess what happens to you? You, by the Spirit of God, begin to be conformed to his image.

That's kind of a cool thing, don't you think? It's better than being a Republican. Right? 2 Timothy 2.15. Look it up. Somebody look it up. Not I, but Christ. The whole goal is that the life we live would be Christ and not us.

Boy, doesn't that sound ridiculous. How can that possibly be? I'm so self-centered it's always about me. It's like the cartoon I saw with the guy standing in front of the firing squad and there's eight guys with rifles and he says to these guys, you know, after all, After all, it is all about me.

No, it's not. After all, it is all about Christ. Not either Christ. And so as this process takes place, you find that Christ becomes more valuable to you than you are to yourself. Is that possible? Yeah. Because it's always in your head, always in your mind. You think about Him all the time. That's right. And it's because you want to.

Or you think that we've been caught in a web and we can't get out. So when you drove from here to New York, that's all you did? You didn't even think about Bruce? You thought about Christ the whole way? I did think about him a lot of times, even more so when I left.

So as the life of the Lord Jesus is produced in us by the Spirit, it does become a life that's not I but Christ. You know, to think that Christ would be more valuable to you than your gratifying your sin nature is a thought, when you put that in your mind, you think, wow, that is really cool. Because if you're like me, you've always thought that sin was so powerful that you couldn't, you were hoping it wouldn't find you this afternoon. But in your heart, when you realize that Christ is more valuable to you than even sin is, it becomes a not I but Christ life.

2 Timothy 2.15, somebody read it. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of truth. It's really important that you read your Bible. Now, what I find difficult is to say to people you should study your Bible and not have it sound like an academic exercise. You know? When you become a Christian and somebody comes up and says, hey Courtney, you've got to do 20 minutes of quiet time in the Word every day.

You know what he's thinking? Do I really have to do that? You know? That is so... But why would you do it? Because it's like a mystery. You can't wait to turn the page. What else? What else would cause you to do it? Because you want to. Because you want to. And why would you want to? Because we're stupid. We want to know more. You want to know him more. Right. It's like the question I've asked husbands, you know, why do you go home at 6 o'clock at night? Because there's a rule on the refrigerator saying you'll be here at 6? No, you go home because you want to hang out with your wife.

Why would you study the Word of God? Because you want to hang out with the Lord and that's where you behold Him. That's where the hangout is, is in the Word. Abide in Christ. What's the word abide mean? I just gave you a very good synonym. Hang out. Just hang out with Him.

Monique was talking about, she and Bruce drove from here to the state of New York. before Christmas, two days in the car, called him up on the phone and said, where are you? He said, where are you, Dayton, Ohio? No, we were in Des Moines when you called. Oh, were you?

Yeah. And he's on the road. Wednesday. Huh? He called on that Tuesday. Yeah. So here they are. Now, you know, I picture in my mind they're traveling. What's Monique doing? What did she just tell us she was doing? Going across I-70 or whatever they were on. She's thinking about the Lord. If you ever have the privilege of teaching a class at Holly Hills, make sure Monique's in it. Because she's the best.

No, but I did think, I really did. Sure. Even when you look at trees in the snow and you know, you think, you just think you get lost. Who, this abiding in Christ, is that your responsibility? What do you think? I don't think so. No, because you're in Him. Positionally, you're in him. Abiding is the conditional part of it. What's your role? To rest in the abiding. And to let him do it. You understand that? But you still have to, I mean, make the time. Make the time? Yeah, I mean, really. You want to give me an example about time? When you were working so hard for that one guy and you said to the Lord, boy, you know, I'm working so hard, I just don't have time to spend with the Lord. Can you fix it? Guess what?

She was fired. Well, she quit and started another job within a month. And the new job required that she take the bus from our house downtown and take the bus from downtown home. Guess what she did both ways? Took the bus. Spent time with the Lord on the bus. But that's what I mean. It's like it's still kind of our responsibility to spend that time. What if you don't have it? What if you're so busy God will make time? Yeah, that's what he'll do. If you ask him, you say, look, I'd really like to spend more time with you. Can you work that out? He will. He'll do it. No question he'll do it. But you know, I used to put the God on the back doing that because I was too busy. And I would think, well, I'll think about it tomorrow, like on with the wind. What's wrong with me? And somebody else did that in literature before you did it. Yeah. I think her name was Scarlett O'Hara. Exactly. Live her life, live that.

But it's true though, a lot of people do that, you know, they're too busy and they'll think about it tomorrow and then they get hit by a bus and get gone. Well they just, tomorrow comes and then it's tomorrow and tomorrow comes and then it's tomorrow. Right. But that doesn't mean the Spirit of God stops working in your life just because you said I'll think about it tomorrow. He'll create a need so that you have to go to him and therefore you begin to like hanging with him and so you'll ask him. He'll do it. Really? I never asked. I mean, he might move you to a different state, but he'll do it. And to walk by faith. How do you walk by faith? How do you do that? Because you've been transformed, so you believe and you believe and you change. You just... I don't know how to say it. Anybody else?

This is a conversation between me No, but because you walk with Christ, you've been transformed, so you want to hang out with people that are like- So what's the faith? Walking by faith, what's the faith aspect? How does that fit in? Taking yourself out of the deal. Well, think about it now. Let's talk a little bit about faith. What is faith?

Just resting in what he's done for us. Resting in what? That's good. Trusting. Trusting and believing. So you walk based on what you know, and you rest in what you do know, which is faith. So is it, it's basically knowing what your position is, and then walking, having that condition, walking, knowing what your position is. Okay. I was just saying not knowing, but trusting.

But you have to know in order to trust, don't you? No. Sure you do. How could you ever trust Christ if you didn't know him? You might trust some thought or opinion you have, but that won't hold you up. So the knowing the position but not the condition. Knowing the position, yeah. And not the condition, and trusting that that's still okay.

Well, if the Word of God says that I was crucified with Christ so that sin wouldn't have dominion over me anymore, Well, if I'm sinning, which one of those is true? The fact that I'm sinning and I can't control it, or what God has told me? Well, you're sinning. You know God, but you're sinning forever. Or how about this one? Sin won't have dominion over you anymore because you're not under law, you're under grace. So you read that, You say, hallelujah, sin's not going to have dominion over me as I begin to be subject to sin. So I'm to live by faith, right?

So what am I supposed to do right then? Be happy. Hang on to the Lord. Hang on to the Lord as you're in the temptation. But see, I think walking by faith is purposeful and knowledgeable. I think you know what you're to believe as you walk. If I live under grace, if I know that I've been separated from the power of sin, then by faith I just acknowledge that that's the case and I trust God with what He has told me. So that when I'm tempted or something comes in my life or something comes in that I don't understand, I know Him well enough to trust that He works all things together for good to those who love Him, which I'm one of them, to those who are called according to His purpose.

It doesn't make me I grew up in Catholicism and Catholicism has this thing, faith for faith's sake. But they never talk about the real issue of faith as the object. What you believe is where all the power is. It isn't the fact that you believe. It's what you believe that matters. It's the object or the focus of your faith that makes the difference.

See that? And to pull this back around to what you were saying earlier, that's why we need to be in the Word. Because that's where we find out what the object of our faith is. Yeah, that's exactly right. Because otherwise, if you don't have the Word, and you run into a circumstance where the Word isn't, you're not equipped to handle what's going to happen to you, you're toast.

You're going to fall every time. See? Because either you were ignorant, or you didn't believe. Well, are you going to listen to the world or are you going to listen to him? So you have to have the knowledge. You have to grow in the knowledge and the grace. Both of them. So that you walk purposefully. You know what's going on. What do you mean you have to walk into the grace? If you already have the grace, why do you have to walk into it? But you abide in it. You live in it. You function in it.

Maybe put it to you this way, it's an attitude that I know that I live under grace. I know I live under the abundance of the blessing of God. And I know specifically what they are because I have discovered it in the Word. And I spend time all the time finding out more because the Word is inexhaustible. The grace is inexhaustible.

You're not going to get the nine principles down and then you got it all. walk in the grace, not walk into the grace. Okay. We're going to go to Hawaii and we're going to snorkel or maybe we'll scuba dive, right? We'll be down under the surface of the water living and functioning in a water environment but we'll still be breathing air because that's the environment we come from.

I live in this environment which appears to be outside of the grace of God and my position in Christ, yet I'm breathing grace all the time. And I'm breathing the word of God all the time, so I can survive here. Because if my tank runs out of air down underneath the water, I'm going to die. So I'm living in this sin-filled world, but I'm a son of God, blessed with all spiritual blessings, living under grace, and my tank doesn't ever run out.

See that? So I think I understand that we're here talking about this puzzling is something like you who have been reading this and sitting at this new mile Stanford personally. And you'll say that you still occasionally stand. Well, here's the here's the disconnect. Another interesting thing is if we are not, you know, no longer controlled by the same nature, you know, at least if we study. Oh, I understand. Do you see what he just did?

When we were studying Romans 6, in 13, 14, 15 in there, we talked about, we have this thing called a will, right? It's not free, but we have it. We can make a choice. What are the two choices that a believer has, and he only has two? He's only got two.

What are you? Obey or not obey? Follow Christ or turn your back. Follow Christ or turn your back. Anybody else? Yeah, believe or not believe. What's that? You have a choice. You either believe or you don't. Nope. That's not what I'm looking for. To walk in the spirit or walk in the flesh. Pretty close.

I only have one of two choices. The basic choice is who's going to control me? because I'm not going to control me. Is it going to be the Spirit of God or is it going to be my sin nature? That's the only two choices I have. So when temptation comes my way, it isn't up to me to get up and fight it, because through the knowledge of the Word of God, what have I discovered? That I'm alive from the dead. That I can yield my members to God as one who is alive from the dead. That's my choice. I can do that. Or I can yield them to sin. The big lie is that I can do something about sin. Right, but you're still a sinner. You're not just occasionally a sinner. I'm not a sinner anymore. He said so. Isn't there a process now that goes on there? Yeah.

And you haven't said anything yet about the Spirit. I think we're totally dependent on the Spirit. for all of us. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we're dependent on the Spirit to implement the truth that we learned in the Word of God. So when I say, when I exercise my will to believe and to allow myself to be controlled, who do I allow to control me? It's the Spirit of God. Or I allow my sin nature to control me.

You see that? And it isn't because I studied Miles Stanford. Miles Stanford isn't Jesus Christ. He isn't the life. He's just a tool used by God to point us to the Word. If there's anything that Miles Stanford was just, I hate to use the word death on, but focused on was the study of the Word of God. Man, he was all over that. He never, ever got away from that.

So what you find out in your life is I can present myself to Christ, my members in my body for Him to use. Or I can present myself to sin. Those are the only two choices I have. Now the problem is that if you're ignorant of how a believer gets to the point that he can't present, or I'm not sure that if I do the presenting is God going to say, okay, I got you, because of my ignorance, you're still growing. You're still learning about the grace.

But once you begin to enter into the grace, when God asks you to believe, you don't think it over. If he reveals something new to you in his word, you don't have to think about it. If he said it, that settles it for you. If he says it, it's okay with me, because he has proven himself to be trustworthy to me. through his word.

So the Spirit of God is as important, well let me say it this way, it always blows me away that all three persons of the Godhead are actively engaged in my spiritual growth and in my beholding Christ. in Him becoming the object of my life. All three of them are engaged in that. If we could just discover how interested Christ is in you and us, it frees us up to be interested in Him. Because the only reason we think about ourselves all the time is because we think we're missing something, or we're short, or we gotta.

But when we discover the intensity with which Christ is interested in us, I'll say this, it's your job to pray for me, So I don't need to pray for myself. Odds are better if I got 12 praying for me than me. But it's my job to pray for you. You see that? That's how we are independent on each other. And it isn't my job to worry about my future, to worry about conformity to Christ. My job is to abide and rest in Christ. So when I was driving, when Bruce was driving, the Holy Spirit made me think of all these things. Sure he did. It wasn't because you got smart. No, it's the Spirit of God operational in your life all the time. He never takes a week off. He's always there. You're the temple of the God of the universe. The Spirit of God lives in you permanently.

That's kind of cool. We got close. So next week we'll tackle chapter 1. Father, how we thank you for your word and we trust you implicitly as we go forward with this study that through it we might all grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. We pray in his precious name. Amen.