Knowing and Growing – Being transformed – not conformed to this world

Some interesting things, as I've been going through Acts, I've been noticing that there's a family of words related to this beholding the Lord through his word that shows up particularly in today's passage in the book of Acts. And so that's been certainly an interesting thing for me to explore here and get further insight and definition of things.

So anyway, one of the things, there are only two passages in the New Testament that speak of believers being transformed. That's it. Just two. These are quoted here with emphasis, with bold italics on the portions of the passages that will be our focus today. So one of them is Romans 12, 1 and 2. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. which is your spiritual service of worship, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 3.17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

So we previously, in the last few weeks, have been exploring what it means to be transformed, 2 Corinthians 3.18 being the primary passage, one we just read here.

We're going to turn from there to the meaning of being transformed that's in Romans 12.2. So there are a few points here to lay out at the outset, to make this clear.

1 is transformed as 2 Corinthians 3.18 is the same process as in Romans 12.2. They are both referring to the same process and using the exact same Greek and English words, even though the words surrounding them differ. We'll shortly see why and in what ways the surrounding words differ. So we'll take a look at that.

Next, the transforming process in 2 Corinthians 3.18 and Romans 12.2 that 2 Corinthians 3.18 and Romans 12.2 refer to are the right spiritual alternate to being conformed to this world. So think about this. We've talked about being conformed to the image of Christ. And we've talked about being transformed, and what we're discovering here is the world has an alternate to those two.

Yes, the world has an alternate to those two. So let's ask this question. If a believer is unaware of what these passages are saying, what is the likely spiritual outcome for the believer? If the believer is unaware of what these passages say. I think it would be, maybe you would have more of a struggle in your faith life. Yeah, and there was one thing that would be more of a struggle, spiritually speaking, because essentially being ignorant of something that's going on is going to be difficult.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Much more of a temptation to law, especially as we saw that 2 Corinthians 3.18 passage, we all with unveiled face that is not veiled by the law. Let's ask this question, is the law inspired? The law is inspired by God. God, as Stephen points out, God gave the Jews the law, and this is one of several passages, through the administration of angels. People get real focused on the ten written on stone by the finger of God, but guess what? The ones written on stone by the finger of God, where did those go?

Where did those tablets go? Where did the Jews put them? in the Ark of the Covenant, right? They're in the Ark, right? So who's looking at them? Nobody's looking at them, right? But what is in there was also passed along and put in the Law of Moses and written down. And who gave Moses those laws? God did, using angels. Angels, right? That's what's revealed in Galatians and Hebrews, Hebrews 2. Galatians, you have to look it up. So Galatians, Hebrews 2, and then in this passage it was Stephen that we're looking at right now. Yes?

So the law is inspired but not applicable to us. So here the law is inspired, it's not applicable to us directly. Can we learn from the law? Yes, and that's one reason, here's the Apostle Paul, he's not wanting to put the Corinthians under law, but he has 1 Corinthians 9 and 10, he talks about the Old Testament, even the Old Testament law. Why?

There are things that we under grace can learn from the law, and we need to do that. But, those who don't understand that and try to directly apply the law, will run into real difficulty when it comes to being transformed. The law and being transformed do not work together. Trying to live by the law and being transformed just absolutely do not work together.

Suppose I said, hey, let's put a half gallon of fine sand in your engine. How's that going to work? Not for very long, right? It won't be long and your engine will be shot. I discovered many years ago, now I had heard just sort of incidentally about alcohol dragsters. So I decided putting straight alcohol in my go-kart would be a fine experiment. You know what happened? It went WHAAAAAAA BAM and never worked again.

Right? So the thing is, can it be powerful? Yes. Is it God's revealed word? Did God inspire it? Yes. Are you supposed to live by the law? No. But you're absolutely right. People can try to operate by the law and that will actually thwart the transforming process. If we try to operate by the law, inspired, holy, righteous, and good, Romans chapter 7, it will actually thwart and run counter to, and not aid in one bit, the transforming process.

Okay, you've always said that the word glory of the Lord refers back to the Shekinah glory. I think that's usually what you refer to. Yes. Okay, but in this particular passage it says being transformed into the same image. And then it says from glory to glory. Now that glory to glory can't be referring to the Lord's Shekinah glory, right? Because they're talking about glory.

The Shekinah glory is particularly in reference to the law. Yes, specifically in reference to the law. Specifically in reference to the law. This is the glory of the Lord and the Shekinah glory, that was an Old Testament word specifically in reference to the law. So, just to not use code here, remember what is the definition of what is glory?

The radiant essence of who Christ is. The radiant essence of who God is, and of course that comes through Christ, and God is sharing his glory with us. So it's increasing through us. Yes, through us. His glory directly from Him is increasing through us as we behold Christ through His Word. And it is increasing and it's also changing us as we behold the Lord through His Word.

And that word for change, in this case, is being transformed. So here's the alternate. The world has an alternate to our being conformed to the image of Christ. Romans 8, 28-30, right? And the world has an alternate to our being transformed by beholding Christ through His Word. The world's alternate is that you become formed to this world.

Now what's wrong with this world? I mean we're, you know, most of us probably had breakfast, you know, and we got here and vehicles, most of us, and we put on clothing that's ordinary for this culture, and we sit in a building that we try to abide by the laws, and it's been constructed according to the laws that were in application at that time. So what's the problem? When I think of being conformed to the world, I think of being conformed to the sin principle that it operates on. Yeah, so hold that thought for a second. It's a world system.

So here we have the world, probably a description of both the individual's inclination under the sin nature and then the world system description, that would be Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. But we, before we were believers, were dead in our trespasses and sins, right? And it talks about, in that passage, we walked. That's an individual ordering of one's life according to the sin principle, right?

But it also talks in the latter part of that passage about this world system. And it's interesting, the word walk is a Jewish term. Noah walked with God, Genesis. Enoch walked with God. So walking is a Jewish term and it's individual ordering of one's life according to a spiritual principle. Either good, like with Noah and Enoch, or bad, Ephesians 2, 1-3. So that's a walking, but then the word for living is an interactive living. So this is a part of the world system. And the word for living in that passage, Ephesians 2, 1-3, is an interactive living, a part of the world system. And so this is, and who's the world system under, according to this passage?

Satan, ultimately, is the one who orders things. Now, does Satan know everything? No. Satan doesn't know everything? Is he all-powerful? So there is a tendency among some Christians to elevate Satan above a level that it should be. But it's also a danger that we dismiss the influence of Satan and we dismiss the influence of the world. And the bottom line is, if we don't intentionally look at being conformed and being transformed, the world has an alternate for us.

And that's world confirmation. Now, let's ask this, is the world's conformity cookie cutter? Is everybody being asked to be conformed, does it all look the same? No. As a matter of fact, in different cultures, it'll have different expressions. So it isn't cookie cutter, but in the big picture, the world's got a system and it wants to press you into it. That comes from the tree of knowledge and good and evil, doesn't it? So there is good and there is evil. Yeah. And so the world has things that are neutral.

We come here and I'll say, you guys are wearing clothes. Get those off. We've got these other clothes over here and they've got to be white and they've got to be made of this. We don't have some alternate thing. So we have a culture with all sorts of things, many of which are neutral. But also, then there are other things. What are some things of the world culture that are not neutral? Those things that say you have to indulge in sin, or even entice you to indulge in sin. Yeah.

We're living increasingly in a world where what's moral and what's legal are two different things. So the world will allow you to do things that are not necessarily wise or moral or anything of the sort, but it's legal. And what's funny is that you go even from one state to the next, and what is legal and what is illegal from one state to the next is amazingly different. One of the things, we used to live in Carson City and of course there's all sorts of crazy things that go on there. What we found was that what was illegal in Nevada was legal in California and vice versa. It is absolutely forbidden to have a state lottery in Nevada. It is, you cannot have animal raising in the Vatican.

So anyway, yes. OK, so if we go back to Romans 12, 1 and 2, and Paul saying that this happens through the renewing of your mind. So I would say that's a pretty good statement to justify reading scripture and attending church services. Because if you're renewing your mind, In other ways, like reading the Quran, or maybe going to a different church that's teaching you things that are not truthful, then this whole process is going to be hammered, or possibly stopped. So the key to this whole thing is what we put into our mind.

Yes. Yeah, and how do churches deal with things in the world. I got an email just last night from someone in Arizona who was asking, you know, how's your church dealing with all these millennial issues with gay marriage and a lot of the different things that are out there. And I said, well, we do have to deal with them. I said, you know, fortunately, really a lot of the issues that our culture is moving towards were already well entrenched in the Roman Empire. First of all, you could buy a slave and do almost anything with the slave. Sexual and physical abuse were fine. Sexual and physical abuse of children was just fine. A man could slaughter his children at any age. It was legal in the Roman Empire.

They didn't have gay marriage, so far as I'm aware, but all sorts of gay combinations and variations were present and accepted. That's why the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 lists 10 different things that people were, and some of you were, and it's translated typically effeminate.

That's a man taking on the female role in a homosexual relationship. And then the next one is homosexual, and that's a man taking on the man's role in a homosexual relationship. He's dealing with it. And so this is the world. The world is having more and more of a, here are your options out there, and even promoting that.

And the idea that you'd be so narrow as to be heterosexual is just, you know, you must be out of your mind, right? Now, so let's look at the bottom of page four and that will take us into the diagrams. The two points about our spiritual anatomy, this is something we talked about previously. We talked about it in April of this year. So part one is the part of the believer that is transformed is the spiritual part of the continuity of person or continuing person. The spiritual part of the believer that continues from before he or she was saved by faith. Let's take a look at that in the next diagram.

And then Romans 12.2 makes clear, being transformed involves the renewing of the mind, which in this case is referred to as the spiritual mind.

So it's not just the gray matter, right? The physical part, which is an aspect of the soul of the believer. So let's look at the flip side there. We have two charts. One of them refers to this continuing person or continuity of person in the believer. So on the left side of the chart you have in Adam and on the right side of the chart you have in Christ and in Adam the old man is all of who you were before you believed and that old, all of who you were, old man had a sin nature, that is, had a nature that is thinking and mentality and inclination to sin. And then, think of what continues on as a person becomes a believer.

In my case, I'd say I was four and a half. Here I was, I started the day in Adam. And that day, my folks had told me to wait, and I woke my mom up that night, knocked down the hallway, and said, how did you become a believer? And I insisted, I'm done waiting. And so what happened, I was in Adam, so that night I was made to be in Christ. Now, some things change radically.

But other things remain the same. One of them, I had the same body. I had a scar on the inside of my left ankle and I still do. Bicycle accident. Anyway, and I still do, right? And so if Vern didn't like certain foods or like certain foods, he's probably still, after believing, dislike certain foods and like certain foods. One of the joking things I've heard is if someone's a bad cook before they become a believer, they're probably still going to be a bad cook afterwards.

So there are things that continue on, but there's also a personal identity. or sometimes called an essential identity. So we have three points here over on the right-hand side. A key part of the continuity of person is each believer's personal identity, also referred to as one's essential identity. So that's part one. Part two, the continuity of person was what allowed the Apostle Paul to say, I was or I did. regarding his life as an unbeliever. Twice in Acts, as we're going to go through it, we're going to see that the Apostle Paul describes his life before he became a believer. And he's going to still use the word I. There's something that continues there, even though he's been radically changed and transformed.

And thirdly, the Apostle Paul refers to the spiritual aspects of that continuing person of the believer as the inner man, That is the use in Romans 7.22, 2 Corinthians 4.16, and Ephesians 3.16. The inner person of the believer, that's this continuing person. So now, the renewing of your mind, that's the key thing we need to look at. Let's turn to page 3 here.

So Romans 1.28.

Romans 1.28 says, And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind.

Here's this passage we referred to earlier, Ephesians 2. And you were, so this is referring to those believers in Ephesus, which applies to us as well, before they were believers, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we, too, all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. And then Ephesians 4, 17 and 18.

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

Yes? Back to the inner man, is that sometimes what we think of as conscience? Ah, that's a very good question. And so let's have it be clear. The inner man is a part of what is being changed. And so conscience may be an aspect of it, of the inner man, that continuing person, but that's only one part of it. So it's more than that. But part of it, yes, and that is also being transformed and conformed. Yeah?

I was thinking of something while you were making continuity of person, that something that continues from old to new is our likes and dislikes. But those are being changed. Yeah, that could very well be changed, and often radically so. Imagine, we're going to be looking at the Apostle Paul and actually even taking a side trip looking at his conversion.

Here's a guy who just loves the law. He's been brought up under Gamaliel and has more violent inclinations than Gamaliel, but still he loves the law. And he thinks that his loving the law is loving the Lord. Even to the point where he persecutes Christians and every time he has a chance he votes for death.

I mean, it's not like this. Take it light with these people. We're going to see in today's passage in Acts. He starts, he's leading the persecution against the Christians and he's breaking up households. Men and women are being killed. Husband and wife, both of them. So he's not just taking the men or something. No, he's breaking up the whole household. But my kids, my kids. Don't worry, we'll take care of them. You're going to die. Right? Somebody else is going to raise your kids because it's not going to be you.

His zeal for thinking that he was serving the Lord is just amazing. Yes, and you can imagine he was going through a radical change of mind. I want these people dead. He's turning around and quickly arguing with the Jews about who Christ is and what he came to do. And that happened quickly. But you can imagine this sort of radical turnover going on in his head in terms of, I hate these Christians. They're my brothers and sisters. And Christ, I hate that guy. I've talked to him, and we've come to an understanding.

Well, his zeal to obey God's law forced him to just try and eradicate Christianity altogether. Yeah, here's an example. Gamaliel. We know a lot about Gamaliel because Gamaliel was probably the premier rabbi of that century. So the Jews, even in subsequent centuries, recorded things about him. He had about 1,000 disciples.

The Pharisees were supposed to get married. He delayed that marriage. People asked him, why aren't you married? And he said, it's because I'm so in love with the law. So here's Paul's mentor. Paul likes everything Gamaliel says, except that he's cranked way over on the violent side against these Christians, whereas Gamaliel urged restraint. So here's Paul, who was going to write the Messiah. This is Ephesians chapter 2. The Messiah took the law out of the way. Imagine, these people are mind-blown. What a radical, huge transformation. Paul, did he believe in the Messiah? Yeah, but he was quite certain that Jesus Christ was not him. And did he believe in the law and the Old Testament scriptures? Most certainly he did.

But it's a complete, radical turnover that goes from, I want those Christians dead, all of them, as fast as I can get it done, to, I'm going out and living my life, not just for Christ, but by his power and enablement, and the one I persecuted, I now know him. And all the stuff that I used to consider of value and great importance is now scoobalong. It's rubbish. This is a radical change of mind. So your point is very well taken, that what he liked and disliked is in the process of being changed.

And a lot of it was radically changed overnight. But over time, even more of it changed. Paul was not simply radically changed and then nothing happened after that. He was radically changed and continued to be radically changed. But he continued getting further and further revelation, too. Yeah. Here is this guy who is all about the law, all the way to the point that any place not about the law, kill him. Well, not one of them applies to you. And grace? Oh yeah. God's going to be showing us his grace on into eternity.

Ephesians 2.7 This is such a radical transformation, it's just astounding, amazing. Yeah, Stan? Okay, so going back to the inner man question, could one say that that's what's being talked about in Hebrews, I think it's 4.4, where it talks about the difference between soul and spirit, and joint and moral. So joint and moral is like the physical aspect of a person, and soul and spirit is like the spiritual aspect of a person. So isn't that kind of what that's referring to, the inner man?

What you see on page two, the second chart, which I made minimal reference to at this time, but we've actually returned to it several different times, and that is the change that God is taking place is in the spiritual realm. What this particular chart doesn't make any difference about is what the items that are shown in the upper diagram. That is, it doesn't talk in this lower chart about the new man. It doesn't talk about where's the sin nature connected, particularly. So there are things that the lower chart reveals to us, but doesn't particularly explain. For example, we have this says physical realm, spiritual realm.

And there are things about, for example, mind, emotions, and will. All three of those things have both an unbeliever's perspective of mind, emotions, and will. On the spiritual side, that mind, that active mind, is what we find there of the unbeliever in Ephesians 2, 1-3. So there's a mind that is evil. What is the emotion of the unbeliever? Paul describes that in Galatians 5 as the flesh. And then the will, there's also the will of the flesh. So these are all things, we call it biblical psychology.

And that's why I have a couple of different diagrams here to get the full picture across. OK, so let's look at. Let's look at Ephesians 4, 17-24, Expanded and Explained, which begins on the bottom of page 3, very bottom of page 3. So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk, remember this is walking is what kind of term? It's a Jewish term, right? coming out of Genesis. So this is an ancient Jewish term, that you walk, and that's why I describe it, ordering your life step by step, no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. ordering their lives step by step in the spiritual and moral futility of the under-deemed mind.

So here is the diagram on page two that talks about mind, emotions, and will. So this describes the mind of the unbeliever. There's a futility about it. What does futility tell us? It's a mind that doesn't go anywhere spiritually. It can make no spiritual progress. So here it is, the futility of their unredeemed mind being darkened in their understanding since they lack spiritual senses. Remember, there's five spiritual senses repeatedly spelled out in the New Testament. We saw three of them repeatedly in the book of Hebrews. There's sight and hearing are some prominent ones. So there's five spiritual senses.

Excluded, that is, separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and they having become callous, having no special sensation, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. but you have not actively learned from Christ the Messiah as a disciple in this way.

Why do we say actively learned? Because you don't want to just sit back and have a professorial view of something, but it has to become part of your living process. Yes, and one of the reasons for bringing it out is because in the Greek the word there means active voice. So it's an interesting observation, learning in the New Testament is almost always presented as active voice. So it isn't, OK, I'm here at church, teach me. But rather, there is to be an active seeking of the truth that's conveyed. Actively learning. So that's there. Actively learn from Christ the Messiah. So here's a key thing.

Can you learn about Christ? As a matter of fact, there are people who get doctorate degrees from seminary learning about Christ. They'll focus on the Gospels. And study and get a doctorate degree from seminary about Christ. Does that mean that you know Christ?

It doesn't. So you can have great worldly academic qualifications about Christ and not know him personally. This is knowing him personally. And this is key, but you have not actively learned. By the way, this word learned is the Greek verb for disciple. You have actively been a disciple of Christ. So you personally, that's what God intends, you personally have actively been a disciple of Christ. We will have People here at church who will teach in various contexts. I'm not the only one. We have others. There's three different electives going on. We'll have home studies, and you go to those.

And various kinds of things will go on that have the look of discipleship in some way or another. In the end, it's all pointed towards you personally, actively learning from Christ yourself. That's where it's directed. That's what being a disciple of Christ is all about. And if anything goes on at Holly Hills that is in the direction of discipling you, that's where it's pointed. Actively learn from Christ, and it's the Christ, the Messiah, in the grief, And as his disciple in this way, if indeed you have actively heard him and have been taught with a consistent message about being placed in him, just as truth is in the Jesus and only him. So look at this, your learning in him is done how? with our full awareness and cooperation. Yes, it's our intensively doing it.

I'm not just saying, OK, I'm a church, you know. But a full intent to learn from Christ directly. As a matter of fact, one of the things I would say is, I don't want to get in the way. I don't want to get in the way of someone learning from Christ directly.

And what this passage does, if indeed, and this is not an if doubting, but an if wanting you to think through it, if indeed you have actively heard Him, Him, Him, actively heard Him and have been taught with a consistent message about being placed in Him, have you been seeking out the message that you are in Christ? Have you been actively seeking that?

That's what he's talking about right here. Just as truth is in Jesus and only him. The Jesus. That one. Not just kind of Jesus-like stuff. And so this is really kind of an astounding passage, that in reference to your former manner of life, you have laid aside the old self. By the way, this is not, as some translations have it, this is not a, you need to do this, but this is a, it's been done. The old self, or the old man, the old person, There's an allowable understanding there, which is being corrupted in unbelievers consistent with the lusts of deceit. And that you be new in time, renewed in the spiritual aspect of your mind. Notice in the diagram on page 2, this isn't just, I've stuffed Bible stuff in my gray matter, but on the spiritual side of that diagram. on page 2. On the spiritual side of that diagram, page 2, that mind, that you're renewed on that side.

Let's ask this question. What if I had some brain damage? What if I had, and it can happen by various things, accidents, people get diseases at different times, your grey matter can be challenged. Does that mean that being renewed in the spiritual aspect of your mind is somehow stopped. Not necessarily. It could well be that this renewal is taking place even while someone has had, on the physical side, some diminished capacity. Isn't that something? It happens.

Having put on the new self, this is the new man, which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." In Titus 3, 3-7 we read, and this is not expanded and explained as the New American Standard, We also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." So how does that renewing come about? How does that ministry of renewing come about in the believer? Through Jesus Christ our Savior. Well, and notice, directly renewing by the Holy Spirit. It is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. So, whom he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So that being justified by his grace, so by the way, what does being justified mean? No sin. Pardon? No sin. Okay, so justified, the quick definition is declared righteous, right? Declared righteous and built within being justified is being redeemed and forgiven. Being redeemed and forgiven. That's the only way you could be declared righteous, right?

Is the sins were dealt with by Christ on the cross. Being redeemed and forgiven then allows us then to understand that we are justified by faith. justified by his grace, and by the way, was God the Father gracious with God the Son on the cross? There was absolutely no grace when Christ took his sins upon ourselves. It was by every single sin, no exceptions, completely and totally paid for, absolutely No grace, no mercy, nothing.

Because God's justice had to be satisfied. Yes, he poured out his wrath in order that his wrath then not be poured out on us. Not be poured out on us. So God the Father showed no grace and no mercy upon the sins that were placed on Christ in order that grace and mercy might be shown to us.

So that's where, for me, it was a realization that came to me in my late teens, I realized, because I had a huge rage problem. I would just get really angry and start doing and thinking crazy things. But just to realize God has taken care of everything.

There is not one injustice, one sin, sin of thought, sin of action. There is not one injustice that Christ did not die for. Nothing was accepted, including a whole bunch of mine that I never even thought of. It's all satisfied by the Father's absolute demand for justice when Christ died on the cross. Does that make sense? And therefore, when you look at this, it is by His grace, because God's absolute demand for justice has been completely satisfied by Christ's sacrifice. Therefore, he can extend to us infinite grace. If I don't understand how I'm out from under the law, I'll think I just need a little bit of grace, instead of complete, overwhelming, total, massive grace that goes on for ages and ages. And so yeah, the tendency of many people, many Christians even, is to have mini law, or just give me the 10. I'm sorry, you don't get just the 10. Nobody gets just the 10. Nobody. The Jews never got the 10. They got all 613, 365 of them were things not to do. You get every single one.

So if you volunteer for one, you volunteered for them all. That's the message of Galatians. Paul says, if you are even so much as circumcised in order to satisfy God, you volunteered for the whole thing. And James says, if you've broken one, you've broken them all.

So the law is absolute. You don't get to pick and choose. Every single one, the whole thing, or nothing at all. He said it's not going to do it. Completely by his grace. That's the way grace is. It's full on or it's full off. Yes. So here is Paul, the former Christian killer. Here is Paul, the guy who's just rabid about the law. Just rabid.

Just astounding is his insight into grace. Pure, complete, absolute, total grace, full on, full out, mountains and fountains of grace, all the time, forever and ever. And Christ covered it in a few hours one Friday afternoon, April 3, 33 AD, from about noon to 3. Pretty amazing, huh? Pretty astounding. OK.

This is the fourth lesson here on being transformed, not conformed to this world, and how God intends to carry out that transformation process, but just a caution of the world has a conforming process alternate, and we need to be aware of it, and we need to be fully aware of what God intends in our being conformed, in our being transformed. And what gets in the way, the law, right? And not being sucked into the world. And yeah, the law is no fix, is it? The law is not a fix. The law, in fact, gets in the way of what God wants to do. Not one law. Any law, anytime.

Really amazing. So, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you've laid out. Boy, your grace continues to amaze us. We thank you for the processes that you have in place here. You have them in place intentionally. You've revealed a great deal about them. And as we continue on in our study of what those processes are, we thank you for what you have done. We thank you for what you are doing and what you will continue to do on into eternity. And we just give you thanks just with amazement. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.