Knowing and Growing – Sanctified – what is the believer’s part?
Vern Peterman · Aug 20, 2017
Knowing & Growing, No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49266537763

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

In our series here, we go through each of the ways in which God is carrying on a process. We have being transformed, being conformed, growing, and now sanctified. And then within each of those, we start off with what is it? What's the definition of the word? And then what's God's part and what's our part? So here we're sanctified. What is the believer's part in that? So just to bring us up to speed, some review here. So we previously did sanctified, what's God doing? It focused on what God has already accomplished in our position. That is, in what he has made us to be from the moment we believed. and made to be true.

So one of the things we looked at there, taking Stan's joke here, God has totally set apart from all that is created, that's part one, and second, God has totally set apart from all that is sinful. And so those are key things about when you say sanctified, most people say, well what?

It's a word we don't use. Sanctified, sanctification, sanctify, all the variations on that. We just generally don't use them. So if we substitute set apart, we could add that set apart for holy purpose, right? But set apart conveys the idea of being sanctified, right?

So 1 Thessalonians 4.7, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification, in set-apartness. That's what sanctification is. So while sin separates the believer from God in terms of what? Does that mean you've lost your salvation if a believer sins? By the way, that brings up the prior question, can a believer sin? Yes. A believer can sin, does it cause a separation in terms of relationship? No. In terms of relationship, no. In terms of fellowship, yes. So that's a distinction we make between relationship and fellowship.

Example that I typically give, my son Randy, you know, opened the door for us as we walked in here. He's been my son for, next month it'll be, you know, 40 years, 40th birthday. He's been my son, that relationship is there. I've been his father for all that time, so we have that relationship.

But it is possible that I might do something that would cause a disturbance in his household, and he might call me up and say, Dad, after what you did, or didn't do, or whatever it was, We just have to take time to cool off the need to have you not come over for a few weeks while we cool off about this.

So that would break fellowship. It wouldn't change the relationship. And so we can get in a situation with the Lord where our fellowship with the Lord is broken. And by the way, does it take a few weeks to reestablish? No. So that would be something about the analogy that doesn't quite fit, does it? How long does it take to re-establish the fellowship with the Lord?

Yeah. Pardon? Yeah, in other words, it can be that the moment we realize, oh, I'm out of fellowship with the Lord and we agree with God, because it's a sin that's in the way, right? And by the way, God is not all obsessed about sin. He just wants it out of the way so he can have fellowship with us.

So that's really the key. Yes? Isn't that where 1 John 1-9 comes into play? Yes, and by the way, that is translated, if we confess our sins, the word actually means agree. So it's not that we sit there and list our sins. It's simply a matter of agreeing with God about them.

Right? So our returning to fellowship doesn't mean, well, if I've had ten sins and I need to go and confess them and take five minutes to cogitate about each one, there isn't any of that. All I have to do is agree with God about it and God says, that's it. Back in fellowship. Right?

So it can be that fast. It does not have to be time where I've got to sit there and think about it and meditate on the sin and do penance and all these other things that Christians have concocted over time. Yeah. That was basically my question. How do you resolve that? Because God already knew that you were going to do it and he's already forgiven you for it. So what's your part there? Just to acknowledge it and Yeah, it's not just acknowledgment, it's agreement. The translations just say confess it, which sounds like you just go, okay, I'm finally going to fess up, right?

And that implication is there in our language. In fact, what John originally wrote, says, I agree with God. And that's a different message. That if I confess it, but I don't agree with God, I haven't really dealt with it, have I? I might say, oh yeah, I guess so.

But if we don't agree with God that this is sin and it's in the way of our fellowship, then we really haven't dealt with it. It isn't just listing it. We can be listing it, we can list everything that we're aware of, but if we don't agree with God, that doesn't resolve the issue. It's not simply a matter of, okay, I've listed it, I've written it down or spelled it out with my voice, but agree with God about it, and then God says, that's it, I'll take it from there.

I'll take it from there. So anyway, those are very good questions because they're very real and practical questions. So then we have partway down the middle of the page there, 2 Corinthians 5.21. In this one I'm going to insert a couple of words not in the English translations typically, but on good basis.

2 Corinthians 5.21, He made him who knew no sin to be a sin offering on our behalf.

The reason that I put that in there is because quite literally it's contracted and doesn't have the word sin offering, but it's the exact same structure as is used dozens of times in the Law of Moses for presenting a sin offering. And it makes more sense. It isn't that Christ became sin for us, but he became a sin offering for us. That makes good sense. He became a sin offering, and it just so happens that it fits the exact structure of how sin offerings are spoken of in the Greek Old Testament, but dozens of times. So this isn't some, you know, one of Verne's play on the words. This is something well-founded in Scripture.

So He made him who knew no sin to be a sin offering on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Does that make sense? So if you're a believer, you are a saint. Why? How could you possibly be a saint? What's the definition of a saint? Alright, remember what is sanctified, set apart, and saint, and sanctified, and holy are all related words. In our thinking they're not a family of words, in the Greek they are.

Yes, Stan? You have to perform at least two miracles, right? I see, yeah, I'm in trouble. Yes, get him documented, right? Which these days includes photo documentation, in movie format, MP3 format, submitted in triplicate. Yes. God says when we're saved, we are sealed and seated with him in righteousness. Yes. These are truths of our position, and if God does it, he's the one who accomplishes it, right? All we did was believe. Yeah, Kim? Set apart just means, or I mean, saint just means set apart. A set apart one. And I think that's the thing.

A lot of times we think, well, saint, you know, and we'll use an expression, oh, you're a saint. Well, a lot of times we mean something different than that, and in some denominations of saints something special, you know, not everybody gets called it, but that's not the way the Bible uses it. What's interesting, and we're going to see it this morning in today's Acts passage, the term the saints is used three times, it's twice in the passage that we're looking at here in the book of Acts, right? The saints, thus set apart ones, meaning specifically it's referring to those who are believers, who are in the church, right? So Acts, it's only three times, twice in today's passage, but in the rest of the New Testament, dozens and dozens of times, the Apostle Paul regularly addresses the believers in the churches as saints. All of them, not special ones. Right? Not specially selected. No, there's none of that.

In fact, typically what they'll do is they'll declare some saint as having accumulated sufficient merit to sidestep purgatory or whatever. But really, the Bible uses it for all who are saved by faith. Every single one. And do they have to wait a certain period of time after they believe? No. They are immediately called saints and disciples and brethren, and referred to collectively as the church, whether it's a smaller group or a larger group. The Bible doesn't put a delay time after you believe in this.

So what we have there, here's the believer's calling is the next thing. So we have the positional truth in full view. We need to bring the focus to the believer's responsibility of living a sanctified third-part life. So God's expectation of the believer is that he or she live like a saint in this world because he or she is a saint. So how does that work? This is where many believers can get bogged down. However, the scripture is clear about our responsibility.

Here is Ephesians 4.1. It says, I therefore a prisoner of the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. This verse calls our attention to God's calling on the believer's life.

So, let's look at I therefore, so why does he put therefore therefore? Why is therefore there for? Right, and so Typically what happens, these therefores are often kind of pivotal points looking back and then beginning to lay things down for what's next. So based on everything he's spelled out, and this is 4.1, so everything in the first three chapters, right?

Based on everything else in the first, therefore, having said all these things, I therefore a prisoner of the Lord urge you, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. Did he call you up on the cell phone? What is this? What's the calling to which you've been called?

A saint. Alright. And what does that look like? Living righteous, okay, alright. And I believe you're correct. In view of what we've been looking at here, to be sanctified is what? set apart. So that's what he's ultimately looking for here. And yes. I was going to say, so none of this really works except for the fact that you have to have the fellowship. Because if you have the fellowship, then through that fellowship, Christ is able to enable you to walk toward your calling that he wants you to do. Whereas the Jews, You could kind of say they had fellowship with Moses, and so Moses gave them the law.

Yeah, here it is, just do it, right? It was the Nike solution. Right. It's just do it. That's the law. Christ is the one that we follow. But to understand that, we have to be able to understand his word, and have the relationship, and the fellowship.

Well, and so the relationship we would say is established is the fellowship particularly, he's looking at, in writing to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he right off talks about, you know, you are sanctified, and then he talks about called him to fellowship with his son. See, this is what God really has in mind, is your fellowship with him, right? And specifically, fellowship with His Son. Who's the Son? Christ, right? Fellowship with His Son.

So that is what God is looking for. And so we're set apart to go to church. We're set apart to be nice people. Set apart to fellowship with His Son. Yeah, this is our calling. This is what God has called us to. A lot of times people get the question, well, what's your calling? And we're oftentimes looking for something vocational. You'll even have people talk about a pastor and say, have you been called? And we use calling as if there's some specific thing that you have to discover.

But that's not the way the Bible uses it. Yes? Is that synonymous with ministry? Well, if you look at it, yeah, in other words, we'll use it that way, but the truth is the Bible speaks about our calling in terms of everybody, not just this guy or that person, and not the specific OK, this person is called to make copies of the bulletin every Sunday, and this person is called to teach this Sunday school class, and this person is called to hand out bulletins and handouts for the main servicer. We oftentimes think about that as our calling, but scripture talks about our calling in terms of applying to all believers, and it begins with our fellowship with Jesus Christ. Yes? So how does spiritual gifts fit into that? Ah, okay. Spiritual gifts is an entirely different category. And here's what's interesting.

The Apostle Paul writes to all believers and says that all believers, and this is 1 Corinthians, right? The first chapter, first nine verses, says all believers have been set apart, done deal, and all believers have been called into fellowship with the Son. Are there any exceptions to that among us who believe? There are no exceptions to being called into fellowship with the Son. There aren't any.

So could you say, Vern, that our calling is to live in that second circle and not in that first circle, where you have the two ellipses and the new person, and so basically we're supposed to live in that new person, that new kind of person, in that second circle. Yes, and how does that happen?

It is fellowship with the Lord, that's what we're called to. And so people will talk about, well I need to discover my calling, or I have discovered my calling. and look at it in terms of some special thing that this individual or that individual has done.

But the Bible doesn't really use the word calling in that way. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a calling to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's your calling. Have you discovered your calling? Just this morning, right now, if you didn't know before, your calling is to fellowship with Jesus Christ. You don't need to go out and discover it and find out what it is and get some mystical revelation that says, oh, now I know my calling. Your calling is to fellowship with Jesus Christ. It's that simple. Can you imagine that? Have you discovered your calling? Yeah, a long time ago.

I think one of the most important words in this verse is worthy. If I don't walk in a worthy manner, if I don't walk according to the concept of the world, or live in sin, I'm not walking in a worthy manner. Okay, so if you are going to walk worthy of the calling to what you've been called, what have you been called to? Fellowship with his son, okay? And so he's calling for a walk worthy of that fellowship with his son.

And let's ask this question. What about if I just said, you know, I'm a Christian, today I've decided I'm going to walk worthy of the calling to which I've been called. Am I doing what God wants? It's a trick question, isn't it? I think it depends on who you're depending on to be worthy.

Can I go out and say, you know, I just started reading Ephesians 4.1 and I'm just absolutely certain today I'm going to walk worthy of the calling, and at the end of the day I'll check in with the Lord and just see how I did, and I'm sure He'll be real happy with me. The Lord there is I. Okay, yeah, I, I, I, I, I, you know. Does the Lord intend for us to walk worthy apart from fellowship with His Son?

No. It's that simple. Is Christianity really complicated? There are some things about it, but this is real simple, folks. Do you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Did He die for your sins? Buried? Rose again? Do you believe that? You're called into fellowship with His Son. Now, is walking worthy something who doesn't believe that Christ died for their sins, was buried and rose again, can even be expected to do? No. Is walking worthy something that can be done independent of fellowship with Jesus Christ?

No. It's that simple. We said it, we asked the question in less than a minute. Yeah? Doesn't Revelation say the lamb was the only one worthy? He was the only one that was worthy. He was worthy for what? For opening the seals. It took particular qualifications to open those seals. But for us in our situation now, I put these things together. I am a saint, a set apart one, because I believe that Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again. That's it. I didn't do anything else to be a saint, I said a part one, to be sanctified. I didn't do anything else. There was nothing else I could do, there's nothing else I should do. And this walking worthy is not something that God wants, desires, or expects of anyone who does not believe, so as to be saved, and who is not having fellowship with his Son.

Because that's our calling. Yes? Can a Christian walk in an unworthy manner? Oh, okay. What's that? Every day. So let's ask this, when it says, I urge you to walk, what's that giving us a clue about? Choice. So whenever you see in the Bible, I urge you, I exhort you, those kinds of things, whenever you see those kinds of things in New Testament letters and things of that sort, that is calling you to make a choice. Am I choosing to be in Christ? Trick question, right? So am I choosing to be in Christ today? Really, how did I get to be in Christ? I believe, that's it.

So here's the Apostle Paul, he writes to the Corinthians, they've got all sorts of issues, but 1 Corinthians 1.30, he says, by God's doing you are in Christ Jesus. It's that simple. God did it. I didn't. I can't do anything to enhance it, make it better, improve upon it, make God impressed. Nothing I can do.

Yeah. This is all part of being conformed to the image of Christ. He's doing the conforming. Is that correct? Now, God works all things together. He does it, right? to the end that we are conformed to the image of the Son. He does all the conforming. Right? Yes. So going back to the Revelations thing, you said it was a condition that he could open the seals.

So couldn't we also say that all believers are worthy to have fellowship with him? Yeah, and on what basis? On what basis can I have fellowship with Christ? If you're a believer, then you're worthy to have fellowship with Him, right? So walk worthy of the calling that you've been called, that you're called into fellowship. You've already been made saints, set apart ones, right?

It's a done deal. In the condition that you're a believer. Are you a believer? Yep. Are you called into fellowship with the Son? Do you believe? Yep. Then you're called into fellowship with the Son. That's it. Have you discovered your calling? I know my life calling! You know? It's that simple. Yes?

I thought it was viewed as an ambassador. Like a foreign ambassador comes over here. You know, he represents the country from which he came. Right. We're in Christ, so we are called to be ambassadors, as God says. And it's our choice whether we live to be ambassadors or not. We can be a bad ambassador, or we can be a good ambassador. Okay, yeah. And we have in our country's history, people who have been ambassadors to the United States, and some have done well, and some not so good, right? But yes, we're called to be ambassadors, but can we be ambassadors, but just kind of set aside fellowship with Christ as that sort of a give or take, maybe yes, maybe no deal. Can we do that? Is that what God has in mind?

No. Yes. Could we say there is a primary calling and a secondary calling, or a general calling? Ah, OK. So when we use the word calling here, as we're using it here, this is a general calling. Now it doesn't mean that God won't specifically have things for you to do, right? But I'm just saying that the way the Bible uses the word calling in a general sense, as we see in here, in that general sense, That is spelled out in scripture and it's true for every single believer. We won't go into it in detail here, but yes there is an individual will for each believer. It is not to be found apart from the will for every believer, that is to fellowship with his son. And that our walk that he calls everyone to, that our walk is worthy of the calling to which we've been called. Then God will say, OK, now I've got individual things that I want you to do, and I want you to go here and do this and do that.

And this also relates to the question that Pat had before. The Apostle Paul talks about the calling that they have and that they've been set apart, sanctified in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians. He waits until chapters 12, 13, and 14 to address the spiritual gifts. So it's all in scripture, it's all inspired, right?

But it tells us, priority-wise, one of the things for us to get straight is to understand we are set apart once. If we believe we are set apart, our primary and priority calling is to have fellowship with His Son. and our walk comes from that calling that is fellowship with the Son.

Something like Stephen, when the eunuch was trying to figure out what Isaiah said. And Stephen just was called, that was his calling, to be there to explain to the eunuch, Isaiah, to baptize him. And then he was off to another calling. So the fact that Stephen was a believer had the fellowship. And then he was called to this particular incident, which he carried out well. And then he went on to the next one.

And isn't that similar for all of us? I mean, a lot of times we walk into a situation, we look back on it and go, whoa, what was that all about? But it was how you reacted in that situation that's important. Yeah, you know, we oftentimes walk into situations where we don't understand what God's doing, and we don't understand why God's doing it, and, you know, it may take us quite a while to figure it out. Or it may be one of those deals where we walk through heaven's gates and go, Oh! And have this great discovery. But the truth is, the truth is that God had something in mind when we, you know, step into every situation we come across.

And it starts with, if you're a believer, do you believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again? Okay, that's it. I'll take it from there. And it includes within that, you're a saint, you're set apart, and that you have, every single believer, a calling to fellowship with his son. And then, here's this Ephesians 4 One, to walk worthy of that calling which is to fellowship with the Son. So what happens if we choose to not walk worthy? If we just disregard fellowship with Christ, we believe in Him, so we have fire insurance, and we don't care about anything else.

Alright, so this is essentially a fire insurance mentality. I'm saved. I've had people put it, well, it's my job to sin and God's job to forgive me, right? And some people express it that way. What's wrong with that viewpoint? Bad examples, yes, certainly that, right? Well, and if you're in Belgium, you're not going to feel so much like sin. Okay, yeah, sin has its appeal from the sin nature, and not from the Holy Spirit, right? Yes. And it's not focusing there. Right.

Isn't that what the Pharisee said to Paul when he was talking about that grace is greater than all your sins? And then he said, well, maybe I should just go out and sin more and I'll get more grace. Yeah, he was kind of working through the logic. Oh, well, if I sin and there's even more grace and grace abounds, then I'll just go and sin a whole bunch more and then I'll have even more grace come at me. Paul said you're exactly right. And Paul said, it may never be. So he cuts that one off. He says, that's false logic. False logic. To even think that it's my job to sin. Well, wait a minute.

Where does that come from? I think Mike calls that spiritual insanity. Yes, and I think that's the thing. The Bible presents spiritual sanity. If we gravitate away from what scripture spells out, then that's spiritual insanity. It is understanding the spiritual realm in such a way that doesn't make good sense. It's not recognizing the facts. That has to do with being divided and therefore... So one of the things, one of the questions I could ask is, if I believe, who am I? If I believe that Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again, then who am I?

You're a saint. You're a saint. Which means you are? Set aside. And what else am I? Holy. Pardon? Holy. Sanctified. Those are all different ways of saying I'm set apart. What else am I? Righteous. Pardon? Righteous. You are made righteous. As a matter of fact, the word justified means declared righteous. Now I include within that that we're declared righteous because we've been redeemed and forgiven. But, yes, righteous, and we're declared righteous. Why? It's because we have the righteousness of Christ only by faith. Right? Righteousness of Christ only by faith. Yes.

It's easy for me to fall into the situation that if you see yourself failing in your calling, then the first thing you want to think about is that I've lost my salvation, not that I've lost my fellowship. So I think that's an extremely important point to me anyway, that I always have to remember that it's not losing my salvation, but it's getting back into fellowship, getting back into 1 John. None of us can ever complete the calling perfectly. Right, so let's continue on.

If I believe that Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again, who am I? God's son, Jesus' brother. Okay, so we are God's son, and Jesus' brother. By the way, does God have any grandchildren? Isn't that interesting? Nancy and I are grandparents. We've got 11 grandkids. I love them. That's wonderful. God has no grandchildren. Everyone who believes has a direct relationship with the Lord. And we are Christ's brother. We are sons. And we are Christ's brethren. And what else? What else is true? Yes, we're joint heirs. We're heirs with whom? Joint heirs with who? Christ. Joint heirs.

How did I get there? Well, it wasn't by my doing. Yeah, we're adopted. That's another entirely different thing. And by the way, that means more than is commonly perceived. We're adopted, which means that we're brought out of the history in our old family and brought into the new spiritual history in our new family. All debts and all crimes of the past life are now expunged and gone. Most people, if you think that someone's adopted, you're going to be loved a little bit less. It's the opposite of that.

This is loved all the more, special privilege. Yeah. I've taken care of a couple of relatives' sons, and I got to love those boys as if they were my own. Four of our eleven grandkids are adopted. We also have full access to the throne room of God. Full access.

And by the way, is that, I show my pass at the door, or what kind of access is this? Boldly go in. Boldly go in? I don't have to say, you know, show the pass at the door and wait for clearance to get through and, you know, wait for some... But I can't emphasize enough, to me anyway, that I have to keep visualizing that I'm supposed to be living on that second circle. I gravitate to the condition of a first circle, but what God wants me to be is in that second circle, the new person, living in a new kind of person. spirituality, even though I don't know it's there, to stop focusing so much on here and now, but there in the here and now. Now, are we done with all the who I am? No, we're not.

As a matter of fact, we don't have enough time to cover all the other things that are true of me from the moment I believe. But we know that God did it all. Some of the others, the bride of Christ. Some of the others, the sheep of his pasture. I'm a new creation. All the different things that are true of me, we haven't got enough time today to even list them, much less talk about them. We have a phenomenal set of things that are true of us. The unfathomable riches of Christ.

That's what we have here. Let's go down the middle of the page here. This is page two. So in the middle is believers. We have a great calling. When God saved us, he separated us and called us to himself. According to 1 Corinthians 1.9, what have we been called to? This is the one I've been making reference to. God is faithful by whom you were called in to fellowship with his Son. Should be HIS, right? His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So this is an astounding thing.

Were these Corinthians worthy of the calling? Only because they believed. So only because in their position they were worthy to be called into fellowship, not because of the way they behaved. So we don't behave in order to be worthy, we are only worthy because of our position.

God doesn't say, I'm going to have you as my son, you're going to be sanctified, all those things, and once you guys pull that off, then you're worthy to have fellowship with me. But he does say, you will be disciplined. Yeah, you know, so this is the thing, God, if we blow it, does God say, I'm sorry, you're toast and I'm done with you. What does God do? He will discipline a believer with the intent to put them back on the path of fellowship with the Lord and with other believers. discipline the believer who is out of fellowship so that they return to fellowship. That's what discipline is for. Is that the same as punishment? No. Punishment is something else. And do we as believers get punishment? No, we don't. Isn't that something? We are not punished, but we can be disciplined. Hebrews chapter 12.

Alright, so now, let's look here at 2 Timothy 1.9. It talks about, "...who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began." Whoa! When was it given to us? Way long ago. Before creation. No, here's an amazing thing.

I talked to Nancy, I said, you know, we could spend a whole year and a whole elective on just, you know, who I am in Christ. But we could also spend another elective, and I'm thinking about this one for next year, is God, time, and eternity. What are all the things that God did before he said, let there be light? He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, right? So He says, I pick you. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world and it says here, grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. This is astounding. God said, OK, I'm going to give grace. Now, let's create the world.

And why do that first? Why not say, hey, you know, these guys sure need a lot of grace. It's pretty apparent. Why do this first? You get everything done at the first meeting and check it off. One thing is for us to understand that God doesn't come along and say, boy, these guys sure need a lot of help, and then try to concoct something.

He knew what kind of help we were going to need, and it wasn't just a hand here and there. Way, way before He said, let there be light, He knew what kind of help we were going to need. And He says, let's do it now. If they'd known it, they would not have crucified the Lord. Yeah, so imagine it. We're thinking, okay, when was I born? I was born this day, and this happened, and this happened. By the way, Nancy and I have been married 15,976 days today, just so you know.

But anyway, so all those things, and that's the way I look at things, but God doesn't look at things that way. He looked back and said, you know, boy, all these people are sure going to need a lot, and they're going to need this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and let's just take care of that right now. Let's ask this question. Before God said, let there be light, did He know what you needed? Exactly. Because He planned this. And I think that's the key, what Carol said. He needed to have a plan before everything started. And that's what his plan was. Do any of us have needs that God has not already provided for? No. We don't have needs that God has not already provided for. This is just case in point. Do we need grace?

Lots of it. And if it isn't amazing, you don't understand it yet. And if you think you understand it, you probably don't yet. So this word worthy comes from another Greek word that means to weigh. To weigh is the idea of equity and balance. Being in balance and equal. So now we're on the top of page three and we have nowhere near enough time to run through it all. To walk worthy means that our walk, our life, should be balanced and equal with our calling.

What's your calling? Fellowship with who? Fellowship with our brother, our joint heir. Fellowship with him. And so then our walk needs to be balanced and equal. It's the idea of scales, right? Balanced and equal with that fellowship with his son. So let's ask this question. Do you need a checklist to walk worthy? What's wrong with having a checklist? Why not have a good Christian checklist to walk worthy?

It would never work because every individual is different. One is everybody is different. Why else? It's not our doing. If I'm looking at the checklist, I'm looking at who? I'm looking at the checklist and me. I did this, I did that. He wants fellowship.

One of the illustrations that I'll use is, you know, Nancy wants fellowship with me too. We have a relationship, you know, called husband and wife. I've told you how many days we've had that for. But in that, Nancy does not want to have a relationship with me that says, OK, kiss Nancy seven times a day. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Check. Give her three hugs. One, two, three. Check. Is that the kind of relationship she wants with me? Is that the kind of relationship the Lord wants you to have with Him? No. It is a relationship that is dynamic. It is a relationship that is personal.

Checklists are fine if you've got some procedures to do and you're working with a machine. You know, it's with various devices, you know, they'll have, here's how to maintain this thing. Some instructions that once saw for, here's this swing set, oil it every week. Put together the swing set for the kids, oil it every week. Oil it every week? Whoa, but that's a part of the checklist because it's a machine, right? It's mechanical, it's physical. Relationships don't work that way. They're personal, and they're dynamic. But they do need attention frequently. Yes, they need attention frequently, but a checklist won't do it.

That's why God doesn't say, well, okay, look, here's your laws, and you do these laws, and you'll be cool. And follow these rules, and follow those, and these other ones over here, and this one here, and do this, and make sure you do that. You got the list. Because it starts with not, here's a list of things to do, but it starts with, you're called into fellowship with the sun.

Relationship is dynamic, it's a real relationship. If you just had to follow the checklist, you could have a robot. Sure. Yeah. When I say the thing about it, robots follow checklists just great. You just program it in. As long as it's programmed in, that's what the robot will do.

And, you know, if it's about knowledge of scripture, my hard drive knows more than I do. I've got a gazillion files, right? And so I've got all sorts of things about language and history and culture and things about the Bible. I've got 250 files on the culture and history of Rome. Does that make my hard drive holy? No. No. And if I took all the things that are on my hard drive about Rome and packed it in my head, would that make my fellowship with the Lord better? What's the Lord looking for? He's looking for us to have fellowship with Him.

And if we don't understand fellowship with Him, walking worthy isn't possible. Because it has to be equal. So our walking worthy is equal to our fellowship. If we don't understand fellowship, we're not going to understand walking worthy. And we might even try to use a checklist or laws to make sure we're walking worthy. And that's not what God has in mind.

Amazing. So, we've run out of time with two pages left to cover, but thoughts, questions, comments? Yeah. My brother and I had a good talk. That's what God did with Israel. He gave them a checklist, basically, of the law. Yeah, here it is. Yeah, how'd they do? Yeah, they did terrible. Was the law righteous and holy and good? Yep. The law is righteous and holy and good. This is Romans chapter 7. What's the problem with the law? Is the law bad? No, the law is righteous and holy and good. That's what the Apostle Paul said about it. So what's the problem? We can't live it out. Yeah, I'm not up to it. So I'm not even thinking of trying to walk worthy of the law, but worthy of the calling to which I've been called. What's my calling?

Fellowship with the sun. Ah, that's a real different deal. That is a very different deal altogether, because living worthy then is based on fellowship being lived out, and I'm having fellowship, and my walking is based on that fellowship, rather than, here's your checklist, the Jews had 613 of them, 365 of them were things not to do. Isn't that something? You get really good at doing not things, or not doing things, but no, that's what they got. And didn't work very well with them.

As a matter of fact, here's Moses. He had just given them the law prior to their entering the land. And you know what God told Moses before they even entered? They're not going to do this. That's what he told them. He says, you know that you spent dozens and dozens of chapters in Deuteronomy going through all this stuff, and you went through all this stuff, and you've given them to this before. So that's why it's Deutero II, giving of the law. You've given them to this before. Now you've given them the whole law all laid out before they walk in the promised land.

And I'm telling you, they are not going to do it. So how well do you think you're going to do? Like not. But called into fellowship with the Son. Cool. Cool. By God's grace I can do that. The neatest thing is the fact that now we can ask for forgiveness at any time, any place, and when we see the need. But back then, they had to wait for the appointment. They had to wait every year for that one special day. We don't have time, but let's ask this question.

Do we have to ask for forgiveness? Okay, so we confess, which really means, in the Greek it's, I agree with God, He is faithful to do what? Forgive. So my place is not to ask for forgiveness, but to agree with God, and then He'll pull off the rest. Let's pray.

Thank you, Lord, for what you've laid out. Really, what you have here is not complex, although we spend weeks and weeks and weeks of Sundays talking about it, what you have in mind for us is really rather simple, and you just want fellowship with us. That's why you established the eternal and permanent relationship. We thank you for what you set out before you said, let there be light, because you loved us, you cared for us, all the way on into eternity. Thank you for that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.