Faith - lesson 6 week 2 Start Lesson 7
Mike Doyle · Mar 22, 2015
Faith, No. 11
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926459106707

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

We are in lesson six and we have worked our way through question seven. We've been talking about in Acts 5.31 and Hebrews 2.10, Acts 3.15, these words like prince of life, originator, a founder, a leader, a captain.

Acts 15.31, as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel. or leader and Hebrews 2, 9 and 10 that Jesus is the author of our salvation, he is the originator of it, he is the author and the originator of life. So in Hebrews 12, 2 says, fixing your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith and there is a definite article in front of the word faith there. So what have we discovered about a definite article in front of the word faith?

Hello? It's a body of belief. The word the in front of anything does what? It points to something specific. The example we used last week we could say well there's all these houses on the street And if I say, yeah, but there's the house, I'm talking about one specific house. When we're talking about the faith, we're talking about something specific. Is it the reality of what God is? That's more along the lines of what the essence of faith is.

Hebrews 11.1. So now, one thing I wanted to point out was, if you're Abraham, and you're accounted righteous because that you believe, you could say, well, Abraham believed the faith.

What did he believe? He believed specifically what God told him. He didn't know anything about the cross and that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, would become a man and die for the sins of the world. He didn't know anything about that. But the specificity of what he believed was what God told him. And that it's only one God? Well, he told him he'd make him the father of many nations. He even took him outside and said, listen, look at those stars up there, count them if you can. That's how many offsprings you're going to have. Specific.

This is what I'm going to do with you. And Abraham, and we were talking about it on Wednesday night, it was kind of cool. Let's look at, turn to Romans chapter 4. Because I thought it was kind of enlightening about an issue there. Verse 18, I'll read it.

Through contrary to hope, in hope, believe so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken so shall your descendants be and not being weak in faith he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb he didn't waver at the promise of God through unbelief but was strengthened in faith giving glory to God. You know what's cool about that? Abraham looked at the circumstances He looked at his body.

It's not, oh, I'm just going to believe God and everything's going to be cool. No, he was awake. He said, well, I don't know how God's going to pull this off because I've got nothing going here and Sarah's not so cool. How are we going to do this because we don't have any descendants? So he considered the visible option that was in front of him.

We all do that. The problem is a lot of us are ignorant of what God says in spite of this. You see that? And so again, what do you use your will for? Why do you have one? To believe. Because when you're presented with issues, you're either going to believe God or you're not.

Well, wasn't it Sarah that laughed? So she saw the circumstances and she didn't have a lot of faith, but God didn't like, you know, condemn her because of it, right? No, God's got a great sense of humor. You know what the word Isaac means? Laughter. So every time Abraham and Sarah called out their son's name, it reminded them of her laughing. So it's kind of interesting what God did. God wasn't deterred by her unbelief. But it's cool that Abraham considered everything, like we do.

Here comes a circumstance in front of us and we're not quite sure what God is doing. Do we consider it? Yeah, we do. And most of us are looking for open doors, closed doors, feelings or some rather than. What does God say about this? And he has something to say about every circumstance you find yourself in. every circumstance. And so it comes down to an issue of do you believe him or not?

Hey, wasn't it Abraham that they got the other woman to... Hagar. Yeah. He wasn't like totally... Guess whose idea that was? Sarah's. Sarah's idea. Oh, and by the way, we've never done anything like that, have we? Because God says, here's what I'm going to do in your life, and you go along for a while and you think, well, it didn't happen fast enough, maybe he needs some help.

And so here you go, you know, and then all you're doing is creating a train wreck. It's true, you have to have endurance. Well you just have to trust them. God sometimes, he's not in a hurry and he's dealing from eternity and he's dealing from completed facts. We're the ones that just haven't entered into them.

The great thing about faith is, it is the vehicle through which you see what God's up to. That's the cool thing about faith. Lesson 8 that's back there is going to be totally on the things of God. That's what the whole lesson is going to be about. 8 and 9 will be about the things of God.

Who he is and what he's doing and what he's done. And if there's anything that contemporary Christianity is lacking in, it's information about who he is, what he's done. I mean, think about it. Pull out the hymnal when you've got five minutes and go through the songs and look at how many of them beg God to do something that in his word he said, well, I already did that. I've already taken care of that. Why are you asking me? Why don't you just trust me? We think because we haven't entered into it that it isn't real.

So maybe we could change that what would Jesus do into what did Jesus do. That's really right. So the conclusion is Hebrews 12.2 fixing your eyes upon Jesus the author and perfecter of the faith.

So if you could draw a little diagram or a little sentence you could say the faith equals the essence of faith plus personal faith. Why don't you write that down under that question. Put down the faith equals the essence of faith plus personal faith. Both of these things I think are talked about the perfecter of the faith, because he's revealing to us the essence of faith and at the same time he's growing you in your personal faith. And I don't think you can really separate personal faith from the essence of faith, because personal faith is resting in the essence of faith, they're tied together. much problem with question one. That's right.

And as we spend time now going forward, if you learn nothing else in this class, I think the most important thing that we'll learn is a real understanding of Hebrews 11.1. What is the essence of faith? What is it? And the essence has nothing to do with you, but it's designed specifically to give you the focus of your personal faith.

The word finisher means a completer or perfecter. One who completes and perfects a thing. One who brings through to the final attainment or brings to a goal. The question is does the Lord Jesus bring to a goal the faith and the essence of faith and personal faith. So the Lord Jesus is the one who completes or perfects a thing, right? He's also the one who originated it. which puts the focus on him and not you. He also brings to final attainment, he brings it to the goal.

Essence of faith? Absolutely. Because it's God who reveals to you what the things of God are. And he's the one that persuades you that they're true and settles you down in the facts. God does that. Does he perfect your personal faith? Yeah, he does. He does.

So, when we talk in a verse like Hebrews 12, we're talking about all of the essence and personal faith when we talk about the faith, because they have to go together. And I know we spent a lot of time when we were talking about the essence of faith to keep you from thinking it has something to do with how you feel or think about it, that personal faith is not part of what essence of faith is, but the essence of faith is designed to be such a thing that your personal faith has an object to focus on. Does that make sense? Well, let me put it another way.

When it comes to the essence of faith, Hebrews 11.1, that faith is the substance of or it's the reality of the things of God and it's the proof of the things not seen. Does it matter whether you feel, know, or have any relationship with that at all? No, it doesn't.

Because it has to do with what God is doing. and faith in and of itself, its essence. Once you kind of get that in your mind and how that functions, then now you have an object which you personally can focus in and believe on. Because now you realize, well it doesn't matter whether I believe it or not in terms of its reality and truth and its veracity, because it's there. And so my reaction or emotion about it is irrelevant in terms of what it is. You see that? What does that do? It allows you to continually begin to focus and rest your trust on what God has revealed rather than how you feel about it. It's no good for us to to tell God, now look, here's how it's going to go. I've got this problem and you're going to fix it this way and I believe you can do it. That's nothing to do with the essence of faith. It has nothing to do with personal faith or the faith. It only has to do with my faith.

And we'll talk about that as we go forward because that's what we really do, don't we? We have a circumstance. We don't like how it looks. We want it changed. So we tell God, look, Here's my faith, and I believe you can fix it, and here's how you're going to do it.

Or you could do it a different way, and that would be okay too. Rather than, God says to us, here's the essence of faith, here's the things about me, and these are the object of what you should believe in. See that? It's different, isn't it? a turn totally away from, you know, so many things can happen sometimes that seems overwhelming to all of us. I mean, that happens. And then faith is still there, but my feelings are different. Okay. That's great. Can you verify any facts of God by how you feel about Him? No, you can't. Some people teach that you can. So your feelings about the facts of God have nothing to do with their veracity, whether they are true or not, because they are God's things.

God has gone through great pains and continues to go through to reveal to us exactly who He is and what are the things about Him. And so as they come our way, our involvement is only one thing. Do we believe him or don't we? Do we buy what he's selling or don't we? These circumstances are so big, how can I possibly turn away from them and believe God? The whole world is going to heck in a handbag, you know, and I'm just overwhelmed. But God says, so what's it going to be? And that's what he does. He sets it up so that you literally are forced to trust him. That's too bad, isn't it?

And that seems like the definition of what it is that we died with Christ on the cross. It's like, boom, that's it right there. If we try to keep begging and hoping and feeling and all that stuff, it's like, no, you are dead with Christ on the cross.

All of this is only to, everything that you go through is only to increase your faith. The Lord comes to you in the word and he informs you that sin isn't going to have dominion over you anymore because you were crucified, co-crucified with Christ. Fact.

But over here is sin raging. What's it come down to? Every time you fight sin, you lose, so that's not working out too good for you. What do you do? Over here, take God at his word. He says, I have crucified your old man so that your sin nature will be put out of business. Trust me about that or not. And that's the sin nature. you know, all the feelings and all the... Bruce?

While we can set aside and not rest on any feelings or emotions, certainly once we believe, we can start having experiences that confirm the basis on which we believe. Everybody understand what he's saying? It isn't that faith is without experience or feeling, but you must start with the Word of God. When you enter into some truth of the Lord by faith, there is going to be an experience, but your experience doesn't verify the fact that it's God's truth and your faith is enough.

Yeah, he's going to have a follow-up, but the minute you jump over that line and say, oh, this has got to be true because I feel so good about it, you jumped off the rails. You got it backwards. What does God say? It's the most important thing. Kind of different philosophies on this. Is it you ask God one and you're done? Say that again? One and you're done. I asked this one time and I never ask again.

There are some people who say that because you're begging. Or you're not trusting. Or you're not trusting. Or, you know, is it okay to keep bringing something before the Lord and asking Him? You know, there's two schools there that, you know, I've heard both. One and done, if not, you're begging. If you have a burden for something and you keep bringing it up, you know, you're begging. I have my opinion, but I'm curious what yours is. You want to hear mine? I want to hear yours.

Paul did all the time. Yeah, that's my point. He prayed constantly, continuously for people. It doesn't seem like God would get mad at us if you're still after us. What is God after with us? He's after fellowship. Yeah, you're going to the right person. Those of you who read The Hungry Heart this morning had a lot to do with suffering. Well, when you're suffering, our immediate attitude is, well, I shouldn't be doing this. I'm a Christian. Christians don't suffer.

Really? Mike, I think it's also the attitude when you go there. I fully, you know, Paul prayed continuously for all the churches, all the different things. He says that. So I think the one and done philosophy is out. I think it's it's the peace, understanding his answer that it can be yes, no, maybe wait and all that, that you have peace in his answer, that it's not that I want this. I think the Lord can put that on your heart and have you keep going on that. But as long as you have peace in his answer.

Well, there's a trust in that he's going to work it out, circumstantially, the way he wants to. And he's going to influence everybody who's in the sphere of influence as he works it out. He's going to cause them to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. And it's not a problem, I don't think, to be visiting with him about a lot of things. But with the understanding, I trust you, I know you're working this out, here's where I am with it, and I think he really enjoys that interaction.

I think that's fine. But I don't mean going to God and say it's time for you to show up. Or like you said, take care of this. Is not the basic premise behind prayer Not to tell God what we want, but rather to join in fellowship with Him and acknowledge that we need Him to work out the circumstances that we don't know what it's to be. I think we get our prayers from Him. I really do. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if I could just tell this story. My wife and I had worked at Lockheed in California.

We moved here. and we'd just gotten saved like six months earlier. I thought, when you buy a house, you don't really ask God, you get a realtor. So we went to, I would see a house and I thought, this is it. And Monica would go, are you kidding? We didn't even have a dining room. So we went to like 10 different houses and Lucky gave us 30 days to find one.

So I had not prayed once. And so Monica was locked in the bathroom mad at me. I was in bed crying and going, God help me. And the phone rang. And word lived in that house. And my father said, hey, there's this house. I finally said, I don't know what to do. There's a bromide that Miles put out early on when I met him. He said, as a young believer, we will pray and God will answer our questions. He'll take care of it early on because we're young. But then there comes a day when we pray and nothing happens. And we pray some more and nothing happens. And what God is up to is not to maneuver the circumstances.

He's going to change you in the middle of them. So that no matter what happens, you're steady. That you don't need circumstances to verify your faith. That you trust Him in spite of what's going on around you. Right. I think the thing that comes back in the answer is in Philippians 4, in verse 6, be anxious for nothing, but in everything. And that's where I think we get this, we can only ask in this narrow window, that it's only this. I think in everything. I agree. I think in everything.

That's the intimacy of God. Daddy, I can go to Daddy with anything and any request, anytime, anyplace. That's right. And everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request, anything, be made known to God. And the result is, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension that guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That's where, I mean, you can go to Him with anything, anytime, anywhere, all requests. Understanding that he's listening, he knows. But what's best where you're tied with your love and everything, that's where you get the peace. Because you can come to it.

Let me challenge you there. Let's say that I go to them and I don't get the peace. What do I do now? Pray. Okay, I pray. I laid it out in front of them. You need to trust a little bit, Mike. Like I'm going, where's the peace? You need to trust. Trust in Wayne. It comes back to the faith. It comes back to faith. It's his. Back to Hebrews and what? It's his. Have patience? Well, I don't have patience. Guess what he's working on. You laugh at that, but I don't have patience. You know why? Because I live in the one who is patient. It isn't me who's patient.

It's him. Good one. So all of those attributes, they better be his, because if they're mine, they're fleshly. So the point that I'm making is that what we learn from Hebrews 1, 11, 1 and 2, and 2 is a really important verse, because if you believe God, he will verify it in your soul. He will confirm what you believe.

That's where the rest comes from. So it's all God's working. So you don't go into faith looking for the warm fuzzies. You go in because you trust God with who he is and what he's doing. And he will confirm your faith and he won't confirm it if it's fleshly. That's the cool thing. And you can thank him for that. But that doesn't mean he stops working. He's working all the time to get us lined up right.

And that was the end of that verse. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ. In Christ. That's the key. Again, that goes back to identification. All those different things. It's Him. It's not our flesh. It's always back. And you know the difference. Yeah.

Well, just looking at this one, it talks about whenever I hear the word finished or, you know, it's like the best question. I think of when Jesus said on the cross, you know, I did a sentence. And when you're talking about the prayers, you're talking about where you're frustrated. You can look at that, and that's where my piece comes from, because I have to rest in that. I have to rest in it's already done. It's a done deal. This is where I stand to stand there.

It's really interesting because there are times like I used to say this all the time, well, Lord, I know that I have been separated from my sin nature, but can you explain to me that every time the music starts, my feet are moving? How come? They shouldn't be. In other words, I shouldn't be going for the sin every time it raises its ugly head. And it comes down to the same thing.

You trust me or don't you? Do you trust your feet moving in the music or do you trust me? I have a tendency to think that you feel bad about doing something, but it's not you, it's not your work, it's finished. Again, it isn't how you feel. If you feel bad about yourself, it's yourself.

I was thinking too about believers that are killed for being believers. cancer or, you know, there's a lot of things that we pray about that are really uncomfortable for us. For the flesh. Yeah, being human. Yeah. But the essence of faith, wow, that's really who we are. Yeah. And there's a difference there.

Oh, you know, you talk about believers and the flesh, you know, a believer's getting close to going home to be with the Lord, and we're all praying really hard that they don't go. dumbest thing. There are two great days in a Christian's life, the day they are saved and the day you get to go home. We don't belong here. We are not from around here. We belong in heaven with the Lord Jesus. And when he says, okay, it's time to come home, we should be joyous about that. bad for the people that are left behind.

Not if they understand. Well, okay, a little bit. I mean, I'm really excited that Doug Hallam is home with the Lord. I'm really excited about that because I have just a glimpse of what... I mean, give the choice. Over here in a VA assisted care facility, nursing home, or in heaven with the Lord? It's just tough when it's somebody like a kid Even a kid.

The Lord took my brother home at 42. I was mad at him because he didn't. One, because he went before me and I'd been a believer longer. And two, he was my best buddy in the world. And it's tough. I forgot. That would be important. Okay, you ready? We're moving on.

Romans 10, 1-9, Paul desires that Israel be saved. What information does he give them in order for them to be saved? So somebody who is a good reader, read Romans 10, 1-9. Now understand what this part of the Romans epistle, who is it written to? 9, 10, and 11 are written to the Jews in regards to the first eight chapters are the salvation chapters in Christ and the next logical question to ask is well gee if God has done all of this now with the Gentiles in the world what about all those promises he made to the Jews? That he's just going to kick them to the curb? Or does he intend to fulfill them? And so that's what 9, 10, and 11 are really all about. So read 9, 10, 1 through 9 has to do with salvation. So somebody read them. I'll give it a stab. Go.

Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For God is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who participates or practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Now, the question that I asked was, what information does Paul give the Jews in order for them to be saved? Pretty simple. He tells them that Jesus Christ, or put it this way, that Jesus is the Christ. Do you understand what I mean by that? Christ isn't Jesus' last name. Christ means something. What does it mean?

Savior. He's the Messiah. He's the Savior, not only of the Jews, of the world. And he's the eternal Son of God. That's the other information he's telling them. And he came into the world, and he came as a man, and he's both man and he's both God, and he went to the cross and he died. He paid the penalty for the sins of the world. That's the information that's in there. So, he's saying to them, if you believe that, if you believe that information, God will save you. Right? Simple. Simple. He does verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. He sets them up for the information.

Tells them that, well, you know, you can't find any righteousness in the law. That righteousness is something in Jesus Christ. This is a little off track, but I was kind of thinking about it the other day that also with the law is that it doesn't provide an opportunity to forgive. Like, you know, if you break the law, you get penalized. So the Jewish people, in their law, not only did you couldn't keep the laws, but the people who enforced the laws had to enforce them. They couldn't say, oh we're going to let this one go, or we'll have forgiveness, or you know, yeah. It makes it awful all the way around.

Oh yeah, and that's why when you study Hebrews it talks about why did those priests have to offer sacrifices for themselves? Because they were sinners too. And it contrasts that with Jesus being a high priest has entered into the heavenlies. Sacrifices are over. Yeah, it's interesting because When you discover in the Mosaic Law System that the sacrifices system was for sins committed inadvertently.

If you committed one straight out, I don't care what it says I'm going to do it, there wasn't any remedy for you. You got a rock off your head. This is further off the track, but is this where the MacArthurites get their lordship salvation? Yes. That's where they get it. That what? The lordship salvation. Want to talk about that? Probably the one guy that's the, and Pink is also in this category.

They believe that in order to be saved, that you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life. That believing just the simple gospel from 1 Corinthians 15 isn't enough. That you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life. And what's that mean, make Jesus the Lord of your life? That means you make him the boss. Their statement is, if he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all.

Sounds real good. The problem with that is this. Salvation is by grace through faith. It's not of yourself. It is a gift of God. Making Jesus the Lord of your life is something you do. That's the problem. So you can go to God and say, hey, I did my part. I made you Lord. And he's saying, oh, I'm really happy about that. Thanks, buddy.

So when it says, confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, doesn't that mean that he is God, like the eternal God? What does that mean right there? What's the word confess mean? means to agree with. Agree with what? With what God says. So he's saying if you Jews will agree with me about what?

Jesus is God. Yeah, he's God. He is who he says he is. Then what will he do? He'll save you. And so the gospel is really about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did. See, that's what it's really about. Okay? All right. Well, what is a confession in, like, the Catholic Church?

That's a funny baloney. Well, I've been down that road. So have I. I was raised down that road. We were at dinner Friday night with some people, and this guy's wife was raised a Catholic, like I was, and went to Catholic schools, and we did a high five at the dinner. Made it through?

Well, the Catholics say that they put all the power in the priest. So you got to go in and tell him your sins and then he decides whether you're forgiven or not. So in 1 John 1.9, which is the verse that Christians want to hold on to, if I confess my sins, God is faithful and just to forgive me my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. So I guess if I don't confess them, they're not forgiven. Is that right? No, because did Jesus pay the price for the sins of the whole world on the cross? And does it matter if I confess them or not in terms of my eternal salvation? No, but it does matter in terms of my intimacy with the Lord Jesus.

The word confession means to say the same thing. So I go to God and I say, okay, I'm confessing my sins. And here's the list of the 3,212 I've done since last Wednesday. That's not what it means. What it means is, look, I'm confessing to you, I'm saying the same thing you're saying about me. Who am I? You say that I'm a son and that I was co-crucified with you on the cross. I was buried and resurrected. I have been living as though that information was not true. I've been living out of the flesh. I confess that you're right and I'm wrong. What happens?

That doesn't mean you don't enumerate your sins, but if you're like me, if I go to the Lord about my sinfulness, I get about one out of me and then I'm restored and I forget the rest of them. He does not want us to spend any time in our sinfulness. He wants us enjoying Him. You see that? And you don't have to leave here and go do a penance.

When you come before the Lord, is that more of a confessing? Because when I'm messed up about messing up, it's because I'm putting it on myself and saying that I'm the one that needs to fix it and I can't. You can't. And that's kind of what you're confessing, isn't it?

Well, and as Courtney said, how many times have you gone to the Lord about that issue over and over and over and over again until the Spirit of God shows you? and then you rest in what God has provided. I was thinking of that Miles thing, to be disappointed in yourself is to have trusted in yourself in the first place.

That comes from Newell's. Chapter 6 of Newell's Romans. It comes from what? Newell's Commentary on Romans. William R. Newell, N-E-W-E-L-L. A person, William R. Newell. N-E-W-E-L-L. So he's written a book about Roman. He's written the best commentary ever about Roman. He wrote it in 1936.

Well, what do you think about Stott? John Stott? He's got a lot of handcuffs. He's a very legal guy. I'll get rid of the next book. Everybody ought to have a copy of Newell's Romance. It is a quintessential book on the Romans. It's really good. And you can buy it on Amazon for about 16 bucks.

I was thinking along that same line as far as confessing. I mean sometimes you don't even I realize that you're sinning, you know, until the Lord kind of thinks just like that. I'm disappointed. Oh, gosh. I was expecting something like that. You know, the confession too, the only thing I think in that whole thing is the loss of intimacy. God is done with all your sins. It's done.

What are we worried about? You know, the only thing we're confessing then is the loss of intimacy. I'm not acting who I am. And I'm not having that fellowship with you. That's the confession. It's just to restore the intimacy with him. I've turned around and looked at the world and done my fleshly thing. I'm not acting who I am in Christ. And I lose that intimacy. I think that's the real key.

They tend to beat themselves up on sin. And it's like, but God is done with it, why aren't you? That's my question. God's done with your sinfulness, how come you're not? Because God gave you a brain and sometimes that pops back in your head, so then what do you do? Okay, okay. What's more important, your brain or your faith?

He gave it to us, it's working. Yeah, but did he give us a sin nature? Well, obviously he did. We got the sin nature from our father Adam. And the sin nature permeates your thought process. Because there's a difference between the garbage that goes through your mind and what the Word of God says. But as you grow into conformity to the image of Christ, you begin to think God's thoughts after him. You begin to think like what the Word of God says. And that's the spirit of God.

And you will find, well I got a brain. I remember when I first went down to the ladies in Parker, and there was a lady down there who was all about, I asked them what the word repentance meant. And I said, how many people, show of hands, think that repentance includes feeling sorry for your sins? And about half the class raised their hand.

And so I said, do you think that God is forgiving those of you who are sorry faster than he's forgiving those who are not sorry?" And they said, yeah. I said, nonsense. I said, God doesn't forgive you based on you. Why are you forgiven? Because of Christ, not you.

He already took care of it. He wants you to confess because he wants you in fellowship, like Courtney says. That's assuming that you know what fellowship is. that there's an intimacy of walking with the Lord Jesus moment by moment. If you're just beginning on that road, let the Spirit of God take you down that road, through the Word, and you'll begin to understand, oh wow, I'm walking with the Lord quietly, He's enabling it to happen, I'm not doing anything, I'm just trusting Him. And this intimacy starts to show up.

Wow, the God of the universe is really excited about me knowing him. He's more excited about it than I am. And so he's working that way all the time. And he took care of absolutely everything that's a barrier to that. On that cross it was all swept away. There's nothing between him and me now, except my ignorance and my lack of faith. You're right. OK, but I'm not ignorant.

But once in a while, one percent pops up occasionally when I'm reading. I'm thinking, good grief, what the heck was wrong with me? So you were you came from Adam like the rest of us. Okay, so that happens to you sometimes? Well, you're German, that makes it even worse. You know, even when you said it's my ignorance and it's my, what, lack of faith? You know, maybe that isn't even it because we're putting it back to my, it's kind of like my resisting what God wants from me.

It's interesting, when the word of God comes to a person, whether you're a believer or not, if you're a non-believer, when the word of God comes to you, you have to decide now. What do you have to decide? Do I believe it or not? As a believer, when new information from the word comes to you, you have to decide. Do I believe it?

Is that the second buzzer? But it's kind of too late. We resist it. Well, I'll just think about that later. You've decided. Yeah, exactly. The decision wasn't like, I decide no. The decision is like, I'm just going to wait. Sure. You've decided. Rather than say, okay, I trust you. I believe you. Oh, I'm going to go cook something. I have no feeling or anything. You said it. It's good enough for me. I buy it. I believe you.

Well, we'll pick up with question two. In lesson seven, it's called, Dear Father, how thankful we are for the grace that we live under. How thankful we are that you are busy causing us to grow in the knowledge and grace of your Son, the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his precious name. Amen.