Introduction to God's ongoing processes in the believer

So this handout starts like this. Once a person is saved by faith, believing that Christ died for his sins, was buried, and rose again, that person is new and kind, a new creature, as Paul writes to the Corinthians and to the Galatians, and has an eternal position in Christ that is untouchable, unchangeable, and fixed in the heavenlies. That believer can look forward to an eternity with Christ in a new body like Christ's, that is like Christ's body, free of pain, sorrow, and mourning. But between the time that the believer is saved and the time that that believer goes to be with the Lord, and the rest of the page is filled with questions.

Now, why would I ask so many questions? Because I have the foggiest idea what the answer is? No. And I'm hoping you can help, right? Okay. The reason, at least at this point, is to put those questions out there to get you thinking and to look at how do we get some clear, definitive answers from Scripture on these, right?

So the first question, why does the Lord have the believers still remain on earth? Why not take everyone home just as soon as they are saved? Why doesn't the Lord just say, OK, that person believed, whoop, they're gone. Right? Why doesn't the Lord do things that way?

Dan. Well, there's ministry here on earth to make sure that we do the Lord's work in bringing other believers to faith. OK. So there is continuing need for ministry, including bringing other believers in. The question should be asked, how does someone become a believer if there's no other believers to bring it to their attention?

Right? All right, good. Why else? Yes? Well, then I guess I have a question about that. All right. A question about the question. Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. So even if there were no other people to minister to other people, isn't it God that still is calling people? Yeah. Let's take a look to address that question. Yeah, suppose there were no people. Isn't it God who is calling people working in hearts? So why does God have other people involved? Yeah?

Well, there's teaching ministry and there's the gifts of the Spirit that we live out here. There's discipleship. There's fellowship. There's a lot of other things that tie in with the gifts of the Spirit. Okay. Any other thoughts on that? I think there are many ways that the Lord uses, and a lot of them I think have to do with glorification of Himself. He uses multiple ways. He uses us. He could do it by Himself, but He doesn't need to. He wants to use us.

Towards the end of the Q&A elective, one of the questions we had was, why does God even have us pray? It's not like God needs us to inform him of what's going on, right? It's not like God somehow is incapable of acting unless we express our opinion. So why does God have us pray? In order that we be involved, in order that God uses prayer even to change us. God does not need us in the sense of absolutely requiring us, but he has chosen to involve us. See the difference there? He's chosen to involve us. Does God need us for his glory? No, not really. But what's interesting is he chooses to share his glory with us.

He chooses, in answer to Holly's question, he chooses to use us as instruments, not because he needs us and would somehow be deficient without our presence, but he has chosen to have us be as, not just as instruments, but as enabled, empowered, indwelt instruments. I guess you could say two of it. God created man, he created him for fellowship, and he put him here on this earth.

Yeah. Because he created the earth for him. And so he's always... Yeah. Beings created in his image, able to fellowship with him. You know, God made all sorts of fascinating creatures. You see some of these nature movies and it's like every one of them is awesome. Because these creatures and the creation God made is fascinating. but we alone are a being designed to fellowship with Him uniquely.

Next question. What is God doing in the life of the believer between the time the believer is saved and the time the Lord takes that believer home? Pardon? Okay, there's a conforming process going on. What do you mean conforming to the image of Christ? Okay. Becoming more like Him. And we'll be taking, in fact, a whole month just looking at that word, being conformed. So that's one of, and in fact, that conformity is an important, but not the only thing that God's doing.

So does that change positionally as well as conditionally? Ah, that's a question, matter of fact we're going to ask that question. If we have an unchangeable eternal position in Christ, what's changing? What part of the believer is changing? If there's something that's unchanged, and then there's something that's changed.

Which part is which? Right? Which part is which? Hmm. So that's a question we'll be taking a close look at. It's interesting, we talk about growing in Christ. Well, that's change. Is my position growing? Hmm. No. So we'll be taking actually a very close look at what's changing and what does not change. And scripture in fact lays those things out. And so we'll examine that carefully to see what is God changing? God isn't changing and the position that we have in Christ is not changing. So what's changing?

Part of me is changeless and part of me is changing. That's very interesting. Is there a transforming in there? What I don't have, maybe I should have put on the back side here, is what's the schedule for the next quarter? And we'll be looking at, is basically for the rest of this month, what is the spiritual anatomy of a believer? Because then that will allow us to look at what changes and what doesn't. Because there is a part of a believer that does not change, and there's another part that does change. And I believe once we get through over this next month here, that will be very clear.

What part's changing, what part isn't. And also there are several different processes going on at the same time. And believer not conforming and transforming are not the same. They're two different things. Though they are headed in the same direction to the image of Christ. See that? So we'll be talking about that over the next few months as well.

What part does God have in those processes and what part does the believer have? Does God just conform you and transform you and what you do doesn't have any impact on whether you're conformed or transformed? Is it all up to God? Or is it all up to you?

Or is there another answer? C. Pardon?

C. C, yeah. C, yeah. There we go. Here's what's interesting. God is not just turning a crank and cranking out conformed, transformed, spiritually grown Christians. That's not what God's doing. We do have a part. But the other mistake is to think it's all up to me. because ultimately it is God who does the conforming, it's God who does the transforming. So one of the things for us to look at real carefully is what is God doing and what are we to do?

How does that happen? Yes, that's my reason for asking these questions. We're wanting to get actually very specific about this. We want to have clear understanding. Oftentimes, as Christians, we'll adhere on being conformed and being transformed. I'm growing spiritually. I'm maturing. And we don't necessarily have clear, what's God doing? What are we doing?

What part of me is changing and what part isn't? And what I am aiming towards is that we have a very specific understanding of each of those things by the time we're through here. And also, just like if you were to go take an anatomy and physiology class, you'd learn about all the different parts of the human physical anatomy. What we're going to be doing is looking over this next month at all the different parts of our spiritual anatomy, because that's going to give us the understanding of what's being conformed That's a change, right?

And what's being transformed and what's growing and what's being sanctified and what isn't. Otherwise it almost sounds contradictory. Well, I have this eternal position, changeless, and then I'm growing and changing and being conformed and being sanctified. How do I mix that up? Well, I think scripture actually has a very clear answer and we'll be looking at exactly that. How are we doing so far? Everybody handling my weird voice?

It sounds like I've been smoking for 40 years, but really I haven't. What part of the believer has changed in comparison to the unbeliever? There are two kinds of changes that take place in the believer. One, at the moment that that believer is saved. Think about this. Here is this person. He is in Adam. He has the old man. He has the sin nature. And the old man, with that sin nature, has no zero inclination to believe in Christ. Is in nature eager to believe in Christ?

Not so much, right? By a work of the Holy Spirit, this is Gospel of John, okay? By a work of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit working upon the will of that unbeliever, that unbeliever has the last act in the old man, the last act in Adam, he believes. Not because the sin nature and the old man have any inclination in that direction, but as a work of the Holy Spirit in convicting that person.

Never again is that person in Adam. So we'll be taking a look at that. That's one change. The other is once a person becomes a believer, all kinds of things change. But then there's a progressive change. And that's what we're really wanting to focus on here. So we will go through each of those steps looking at who were you? Who have you become? Who are you becoming?

And Scripture actually has very clear answers to all three of those. Yes? I presume you're going to have a handout Exactly. Exactly. Yep. Everything. We will cover it in detail. And a part of our doctrinal statement is that this elective will have handouts. Right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's this is this is one of the most certain things, you know. OK. Yeah. What we will want to do is, over the rest of this month, to answer exactly those kinds of questions. What's a spirit? What's a soul? What part does my physical body have? What part does the spiritual side have? We will answer those questions, and I would say very specifically. And I think it will be quite clear when we're done here.

What part of the believer does not change once the believer is saved? So we'll be looking at that. There is in fact a specific part of the believer that does not change. And there is a specific part of the believer that does change. And we will see from scripture what part changes and what part doesn't. What is the character and direction of the change that take place in the life of the believer? What kind of changes take place in the part of us that changes, and what is the direction of those changes? If we say that we are growing spiritually, being conformed, being transformed, What's the nature of those changes? And to answer the question earlier, what part of the believer is doing the changing?

Next question. Is it possible for a believer to change in ways that are not what God intends? We're going to be talking about what are the changes that God brings about in the life of the believer. That's the title here in the class. Is it possible for a believer to change in ways that are not what God intends? Can that happen? I think so. I think it can, but it does not. I think God lets you do that. That's something we'll be talking about, and that is, what does God will and predestine? And how is that different from God allowing things? Is it possible for God to predestine something, and yet in the short term allow a different direction?

Does that have something to do with a fellowship with Christ, or bringing about a fellowship? I would say so, and we'll talk about that. In other words, if God's intent is that we fellowship with the Lord, and the Lord uses that to change us, then if we're out of fellowship, what happens? Yeah, in other words, if you look at it, actually, I think, again, as we look at these questions, what we want to end up having is a very clear understanding from Scripture what the answers to these questions are, including, you've got fallen from grace, don't be conformed to this world.

That seems to me to imply that you can have believers that are headed in the wrong direction. Substantially. And by the way, that word conformed, do you mean I'm predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, but there is a hazard of being conformed to this world? So could it be that in the ultimate I will be conformed to the image of Christ, but in the short term I might be conformed to this world?

It would seem that God does not sovereignly dictate, you're going to be conformed no matter what, and you can't do anything. That doesn't seem to be the case, does it? So God is predestined in the ultimate, not that every little breath we take, not that every move we make is all predetermined and predestined. But what he is predestined is in the ultimate who we will be conformed to. Not that every move we make is just like God's big machine in the universe, and you can't change it, you can't do anything.

Yes? So are you saying there's a difference in free will conditionally and free will positionally? Yeah, that's something we'll be talking about in terms of God's will, essentially the way we've described it here in the past, and we'll do it again. God has three wills, in quick summary. One is his sovereign will. His sovereign will is that you ultimately are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. His sovereign will is that you ultimately will have a new body and a fellowship with Christ and be like Christ, face to face. That's his sovereign will. You're not going to change it.

God also, inside of that, we draw three concentric circles, God has a moral will. that he has revealed to us that Christ's life lives out as, but he does not dictate that we absolutely must do that. Is it possible for us as a believer to go against, to make decisions against God's moral will? Yes, right? It is possible. So that's not a part of God's sovereign will. It is a part in which he actually does give us a choice and the latitude of will to choose against what he wills.

And then there's God's individual will for each believer. And we'll go into that in more detail. Does a believer have any part in or influence upon whether or not he or she changes in ways that God does not intend? So this is another way of getting to the question Does God just, you know, conform us and transform us and grow us and there's nothing we can do about it?

Or, do we have a part? I hate to think that I have a part man, because I'd just mess it up. I think here is what is interesting, and we'll see this. We will see that God has a sovereign will and that there are things that he is absolutely going to make come to pass. And in God's sovereign will, we can take great comfort. But the other part is in those things where he has given us the latitude to make a choice, even a choice contrary to his will. He has given us, as we'll see in this elective, he has given us a great number of resources to carry this out.

It is not God's intent that we be delegated the things to do. God doesn't come to us and say, okay, Vern, I'm going to give you this stuff to do, and I'll check back with you in a few years, or we'll see you when you get home. you know, and then we'll see how you did. That's not the way God operates. God operates by having continual fellowship with us. God operates by having crucified us with Christ so that His life might be lived out. On my own, I'll blow it. His life won't. Right? If I am the one who has to carry it out, I will blow it. his life doesn't blow up. Right? Big difference. Can we thwart or corrupt what God has predestined, either temporarily or permanently?

Any of you know someone who, at one point in time, you were pretty sure they were a Christian, and then they kind of walked away, and it's like, you know, oh, I don't believe that junk anymore. or words to that effect. Anybody know anybody like that? Yeah, probably so, right? So if you know someone like that, what's happening? What's taking place? What's going on spiritually with that person? There is that question. There is that question.

However, and that's something we'll take a look at, the reality is God is the one who knows hearts. And what's interesting is 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says that we will judge angels. I hope you're getting ready for that. That we will judge angels. What's interesting is I don't see that we will be judging the salvation or lack of for people. And so, in the end, it is not my responsibility to decide for, in the eternal sense, whether someone is saved or not. And that's really good.

But on the other hand, it is possible for someone to, as 1 Corinthians 3.15 puts it, that they be saved even as through fire. The way I jokingly state it is some people will enter heaven naked and smoking. that they will be saved eternally, but have little to nothing to show for it. Okay.

So for those believers that walk away, is there a sense of them conforming to the world? Yeah, ultimately, yeah. If you look at it, if they are in that process, and this is one of the things we'll look at, if they're in that process of being conformed to the world, they're not being conformed to the image of Christ. They're not in that process of being conformed to the image of Christ. They're letting the world do the conforming. They are not being transformed either. What's interesting is they will ultimately, if they're truly believers, they will ultimately be conformed to the image of Christ.

But there will be no rewardability in eternity and there'll be no fruit here as a result of that. So something will be lacking. One way you could put it is they will be determining negatively the quality of their eternity. And by that I mean their capacity to glorify the Lord forever will be diminished. They'll still glorify the Lord to 100% of their capacity, right? For eternity. But the rewards, as we examine them, the rewards appear to be a capacity to glorify the Lord forever. You started to have a question?

No. So in other words, Satan can keep people from being he can also have an effect on the believer positionally, because he can keep us from getting certain rewards and being effective here on earth, right? So if we live under deception, in his deception, even though he has no power as a believer, we can still be affected eternally by that.

That can happen. Let me get a drink of water here. The question is, those believers who step aside from the faith and maybe even overtly reject it, it is possible that the Lord can take a believer home early who is in that position. I'll share a personal circumstance.

There was a fellow who was a pastor friend of mine some decades ago. And I remember there was a fellow who was in church that was kind of being raised up in towards a leadership position in the church. And then all of a sudden he just snapped and was very outspoken. about his rejection of the gospel and he didn't just leave the church, he stayed around and kept speaking out in negative ways. And he didn't stop talking to the other leaders in the church either. Well, at one point in time, this rebellious saint, I'll say, this rebellious saint was going down the road.

This pastor friend of mine was in the driver's seat. This rebellious friend was in the passenger seat. They were in a VW bug of the earlier version. And just going down the road, a truck came from the oncoming traffic lane, came across, out of control, and hit the passenger side of that VW bug and instantly killed the rebellious saint. The pastor who was sitting next to him came with a few scratches.

That would be kind of a case in point. But I think, yes, it is possible for the Lord to say, you know, you're not doing any good, and I don't see you doing any good in the future. You're coming home. You're coming home. That can't happen. Yes? Yeah, in other words, we talk about what is God doing in the life of the believer. The ultimate conformity is predestined, but the process does in fact depend in part on the believer's response and interaction, or as we put it, fellowship with the Lord. Lack of that means that this conformity process is not taking place here on earth, here on this planet. And so, did that answer your question? Yeah, ultimately it's possible for a person in the short term and here on earth to not be in the process of being conformed, to not be being transformed, but then ultimately to be conformed in the image of Christ as he walks through heaven's gates.

What he does is not rewardable. What he does is not fruitful. I say he, he or she, is not rewardable in eternity. It's not fruitful. There is a temporary earthly consequence and there is an eternal consequence to that choice that they've made. And it's a sad one.

One of the appeals on the second or third John is, you know, don't lose the reward that's coming to you. And what's interesting is, if the Lord is motivated to reward us fully, That's what the Lord wants to do. One of the last things Christ says in the last chapter of Revelation, I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me. He wants to reward us to the full.

But Christians can do or fail to do things, and ultimately it has to do with am I fellowshipping with the Lord or not. They end up shortchanging that believer's eternity. Be careful what I say in the recording, but someone close to me was actually of that kind, a believer, openly a believer, used to even lead me in Bible studies when I was younger, and then turned away and tried to dissuade me from faith in Christ. It's turned out really bad for his life. A lot of sad things have come of it.

I do believe he'll walk through heaven's gates, but like I jokingly say, naked and smoking. Yeah. Are we saying that we're not totally confirmed until we reach, until we die? Yeah, in other words, what's going on is we are going through a process. That process continues.

One of the ways that Paul put it in Philippians, he says, here's Paul the Apostle, right? Here's a guy who was taught by the Lord. Here's a guy who wrote scripture. Here's a guy who presented truths that were presented, or at least not explained, anywhere else.

And yet there in Philippians, there he is under house arrest in Rome, and he's saying, I've not reached the final point yet. I still reach forward And so he's still growing. Paul was still growing. He was still being conformed. He was still being transformed. Even though he had founded many churches, led other believers to Christ in great numbers, written scripture himself, spent personal time being trained by the Lord, he wasn't done growing. He wasn't done being conformed and transformed. How did he write it? We all, himself included, right? With open face beholding. He included himself, right? He was still beholding, still being transformed.

I think that's the brief answer. We'll get into more detail. But that's, I think, the answer to the question. Yeah? Scripture says that we are more than conquerors. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, in practical fact, lots of shortcomings among Christians, lots of shortcomings in Christendom. That's the reality. However, if you look at it, if we were to say we are more than conquerors, let me ask you this, is that in our position or our condition? Now what's interesting is that we are more than conquerors.

Where? How does the rest of the verse go? Yeah, through Christ Jesus. So another way of looking at it may be, if it's not through Him, we're not conquering anything. That in Christ, with Christ being the active agent we're more than conquerors. Without Him, we can do nothing. So it is position. Yeah. In fact, positionally we're more than conquerors. In terms of our daily life, that conquering is only through Christ. It's not because we got the to-do list and pulled off most of it. Somebody else had their hand up. Steve?

So are we only going to be talking about the church here or post-cross? Or are you going, well I guess the question is, is the goal the same for pre-cross as it is post-cross? I mean as far as the transformation and the growth and the process which we're talking about, was it the same before Christ came as it is after?

One of the things we'll be focusing on here is when we say the believer, this is a believer who is a part of the church present on earth from Acts 2 to the rapture. What is spiritually true of Jews prior to that Acts 2 experience, that Acts 2 event, that's an entirely different thing.

So we'll be looking specifically at church believers. Let's put it this way. The Jews in the Old Testament, we're reading about, you know, here's Israel, and one of the things we said is they were baptized into Moses. We're baptized into who? Christ. So here's Moses who gave the law, and here is Christ who gave us grace. We're baptized into Christ. They were baptized into Moses. They lived under law.

We live under grace as the reigning principle. how Christ did go and release those people. I think the thing is, what you have to look at is our position, our place as a saved people group is in the church. But then, and that's specific to the church, and that's what we're going to be focusing on. Let's ask this question.

How are people saved throughout all time? By faith. How is Abraham saved? By faith. How was Noah saved? By faith. Isaiah? By faith. Daniel? By faith. The thief on the cross? By faith. Right? Everyone here is saved by faith. And that will be true until the last person born on this present planet. Always saved by faith. So to say by faith is universal. How God deals with one people group versus another, however, can be quite different, as we're seeing in this Law and Grace series. Here they are baptized into Moses through the water and under the cloud. Here we are baptized into Christ.

We'll see here in this morning's message, they're told, don't you dare, don't you dare come close to that mountain. If you come close to the mountain and touch it, anybody who touches the mountain Even an animal is to be shot through or stoned to death. But make sure when you're doing that that you don't touch the mountain too. Death is threatened.

And by the way, you're talking about close to God, forget it. There's one guy that gets close to God and that's Moses. Everybody else dies. So try it. Here we are and we're told we have access. Draw near to God and He'll draw near to you. We're invited to be.

In the one place, here's Isaiah in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 6, he is scared to death. He says, here I am, I'm a human being and I'm looking at the heavenly scene. He says, I'm going to die. What was me? I'm in deep trouble. Paul turns around to the church, who by the way, they had problems.

He told them a few chapters later, stop stealing and stop lying and all that. They had problems. but he tells them you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, where? In the heavenly places. Next chapter, you're seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

Okay, now that you know that, let's talk about your stealing problems. This is amazing stuff. Under the law, the stealing and the lying are going to get you a debtor and a doornail. Under grace, we'll deal with the stealing and the lying, but first let's talk about where you're seated. Let's talk about where you're blessed. See the difference there? So while salvation by faith is universal, how God deals with one group of people and how he deals with another may be quite different. See that? That make sense? Okay.

Does how the changes take place or the degree to which they take place in the life of the believer now have any impact upon the believer's present life? And if so, what is that impact? The next one, does how the changes take place or the degree to which they take place in the life of the believer have any impact upon the believer's eternity? And if so, what is that impact? Does the extent to which you're being conformed, the extent to which you're being transformed, the extent to which you're growing, the extent to which you're being sanctified, do any of those things impact your present life? And do they impact your eternity?

Yes. Pardon? Yes. The answer is yes, right? And how do we know the answer is yes? That was the answer last semester. Yeah, okay, that was on the final exam, right? It impacts, for example, our fellowship with the Lord. It impacts our relationship with Him right now. It continues to come back to fellowship with the Lord.

One of the things I've said, and boy, people can really misunderstand me, hope they don't, is in one respect God doesn't care about sin. Now, before you throw rocks at me or hymn books or something, in one respect God doesn't care about sin. God's not obsessed with sin. In the end, what God is obsessed with, if obsessed is the right word, is fellowship with you.

And He just wants the sin out of the way so that the fellowship can continue. That's the reason for concern over sin. Not because God's just all wrapped around the axle about sin, but it just gets in the way. In the end, He really wants fellowship with you. That's what He's aiming for. That's what He delights in. For the joy set before Him, Christ endured the cross. Not just so that these people would not go to hell, and they'd go to heaven, and isn't that a nice place? I sure like the gold streets.

But that we have fellowship with him now and on into eternity, and that the fellowship that we have with him now has an impact upon eternity. And now. Right? So we'll be taking a look at that. Is there a difference between spiritual relationship and spiritual fellowship? Are those just synonyms? Yes. No. Our relationship is in Christ. Okay. Are we in or out of fellowship? Okay. Let's ask this.

Was Moses in Christ? Was Moses in Christ? No. No. He wasn't. Now, so that's something that's changed. We are in Christ. Moses was not. As a matter of fact, the way we saw it here from our prior passages is we are in Christ. The Israelites who were with Moses were baptized into Moses. He was the one in whom they were baptized.

One of the ways that I've heard expressed, I can put it this way, I've used this example. Randy is my son. And lots of things could happen, he would still be my son. So that's relationship, right? But if I were, let's say I went over to their house and I did something that was just profoundly offensive to Randy's family. And Randy might call me up and say, You need to just stay away from the house for a while because, you know, what you did was just terrible or was sad or whatever it was. That would damage our fellowship. It wouldn't change our relationship. He's still my son. I'm still the father. The relationship is still there, but the fellowship can be broken or re-established, right?

So there is, yes, there is a difference and important to know the difference between those two. Does God care about how we live, behave, think, or feel? Which of these matter the most? Does God care about how we live, behave, think, or feel? Which of these matters the most?

It goes back to that chart you handed out about the different aspects of the human being, heart, soul, mind, body, consciousness. Our culture has taught us to found things upon how we feel. I would generalize saying that's been the growing message to our culture, from our culture, since about World War II. Increasingly so, people are told your feelings are the basis for various things. And so we're taught that, that feelings are the foundation. Feelings are the pivotal criteria.

And the reality is scripture gives a different perspective. Ultimately, faith in the facts. Faith in the facts. with feelings as a by-product, not as the ultimate criteria. Yeah? I think he cares about all of them in that he's intimately involved in our lives, but how we think, it permeates every aspect of our lives. Yeah. So how we behave. Yeah.

You see, if we see scripture as, this is revealed truth that we are to believe, Faith in the facts, if that's the perspective, then the message of scripture is because all of scripture is inspired by God. If we put feelings as foundational, the temptation is to see what is inspired is only what we feel inspires us. See the difference? So, faith in the facts, feelings, does God care about them?

Yes, but not in the sense that he uses them as a primary tool. They're more a by-product of how we're to walk, walking by faith. Do we walk by faith in the facts or faith in the feelings? Okay. What part do circumstances have in what God is doing in the life of the believer? Are we to live irrespective of circumstances? Yes? No? Yes? No? Yes? Yes? No? Yeah? Is God responsible for those circumstances? Pardon? Is God responsible for those circumstances? Okay. Can you turn that question into a statement? I can. Okay. Is there a basis for saying God is responsible for circumstances? Right. And what's he doing in those circumstances? And what is he trying to accomplish? Yeah, this Romans 8, 28, 29.

He works all things together for good, which is a very different thing from saying that all things are good. Not everything that happens is good. When you and I can look at things and say, that's not good, that was really bad, right? And we can honestly say that. Nonetheless, God will use all things for good. This is a different statement. So you're saying there's responsibility in allowing circumstances, because he has to be responsible for all circumstances. before the sin-based circumstances, ultimately.

What's interesting is another person may make a decision which is profoundly sinful, and it may have an impact upon us. Even though we look at it, is that good what that person chose to do? Absolutely not. It's horrible what that person chose to do, and that may impact us.

What God does is that he works all things together for the ultimate good that we're conformed. Even the person making the very bad choice, God is going to use for the good that we're conformed in the image of his son. Yeah? I was thinking about that when you gave the example of the rebellious guy that got hit by the car. It doesn't seem like any good came out of it. Well, let's ask that question.

The Lord knows some things we don't. Perhaps this fellow was never going to turn around. Perhaps he was, within his lifetime, going to continue to aggressively cause damage in the church. The good was that the church, the good for the rest of the church anyway, was that the church would be relieved of this fellow who was aggressively undermining the faith and fellowship of the believers. Another good may be that the Lord says, well, look, you're going to be conformed.

Why don't we just do that sooner? That ultimately, I mean, ultimately, all of us are going to walk through heaven's gates, some sooner, some later. And if the Lord comes today, we'll all get there at the same time. And that would be great. I would be happy to have us never have another class, if that's the way it works out.

But the Lord can, in fact, take someone home sooner and accomplish good through that, partly from diminishing the damaging effect of someone like that. And maybe even good for the church because maybe that helped the people in the church kind of recognize when people are starting to go in the wrong direction and maybe they're not going to deal with it in the future.

Yeah, I think one of the things, I mean this gripped the church. I believe it was Diana, and she's a pastor, and he's got a band-aid on his head, and that's all. And the other guys instantly wiped out, taken off the planet. This got people's attention, because everybody knew what was going on. Believe me, that got people's attention, and people began to see, whoa, you know, the Lord can, in fact, deal fairly radically with people and problems in the church. He can choose to do so.

What part does God's word have in what God is doing in the life of the believer? You see, apart from God's Word, we're stuck with our own thoughts and perceptions. That's it. If God does not reveal anything, what do each of us think? And that doesn't turn out very well. We need God's revelation to accomplish a number of things, and so we'll be taking a look at that. So part of this, we'll be looking at what is the impact of God's Word in the life of a believer.

So we'll be looking at that too. Okay, we have two buzzers. I'm beginning to see some noses press against the glass, so we probably better pray and call it good. Okay? Lord, we thank you as we examine your word as we begin to ask these questions. We thank you that you have good and clear and in fact valuable answers for us to these things. And we give you thanks for that. We do pray as this year begins. As this elective begins, we just pray entrusting everything into your hands and asking, yes, Lord, come quickly. We hope it's today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.