March 19, 2024 • 48 mins
To become a Christian, we face the simplest of tasks. And the most profound: to present our body as a "living sacrifice". Continuing in the theme defined by Romans 12:1 and 2, we now turn to 1 Peter 1 to discover another, even more detailed corroboration of what our life entails, what obedience will require, and what rewards and blessings we might hope for at the end. The answers are stunning, exciting, and sobering. It turns out that faith comes as the result of growth, and growth comes as a result of allowing God to change the way we think and act. It is a team effort: us and the Heavenly Father.
This will be an in-depth study of 1 Peter 1:1-9.
This new podcast is meant for serious Christians -- people who are focused on following Jesus faithfully, until death. The trials are real, but the joys are beyond expression. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard ... the things God has been preparing for those who love him supremely.
The more we pay attention to the terms of discipleship and predictions of the actual deeds of Jesus' truest followers, there have not been many humble, meek Jesus followers who made it into the pages of history. Most genuine, obedient Christians have been laboring in anonymity, ignored or even hounded by the powerful forces of the outwardly respectable, "orthodox" Christian geopolitical system.
For the most part, the true followers of Jesus were not famous, they did not have official recognition, they did not seek or gain political power, and often they were oppressed, persecuted, neutralized in this life. Probably, few made their living as "ministers of the gospel". They were like the ancient prophets of old
-- men and women who suffered for their faithfulness-- "of whom the world was not worthy."
But the future era will be different. Jesus will exalt his obedient followers. They will be revealed by him as having been victorious in his eyes. He will promote them to places of power and influence in his future "government of the world, when the times are ripe for it." (Ephesians 1:9,10 -- Weymouth translation.)
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Episode Transcript
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Owen (00:00):
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch
like me.
Welcome to We Are Near.
We've been swinging open a doorthat was given to us in Romans
(00:23):
2, and the hinge of that door,we've discovered, is The word
dokimazo, it's the word that hasto do with being tested and
found genuine.
It's the word that's used todescribe what we do in
evaluating our thoughts,evaluating our character, and
(00:48):
learning to think in spiritualways that are the way Jesus
would think.
And when we do those things, weWe put our actions and our
thoughts out there.
We put them on this black basaltin the marketplace, in the
public life in which we live,and we make it, we, we scratch
(01:11):
it on that rock right next tothe gold standard.
And when we scratch our thoughtsand our actions against the gold
standard, and we compare themourselves, then we are motivated
to improve.
improve and adapt our thinkingand try to elevate it, try to
bring it up to the standard thatwe see it next to.
(01:35):
This is not what Jesus would do.
This is not what the ApostlePaul or the Apostle Peter would
do.
We can do better by God's grace,with God's help.
It's also a way of putting theexperiences in our life Up to,
or up against our ownexpectations, our own wishes,
(01:58):
our own secret longings, atleast in the flesh.
And You know, when we come upagainst things that are
disappointing to us, Paul talksabout in Romans 12, verse 2, he
talks about learning to put tothe test and, and understand
what is the perfect will of God.
(02:19):
So, we might not like what comesour way, what happens, the, the
vicissitudes of our life, wemight not like those things, but
we learn to say, ah, that's fromGod, That's part of the all
things that he says he will takecare of in our lives.
(02:39):
We need to kind of put that goldstamp of approval, divine
approval, on the imperfectsituations that we find
ourselves in.
So that we can be positive, thatwe can be courageous, so that we
can be patient, so that we canbe, um, deeper thinking and
develop some character fruitagethat just wouldn't grow
(03:01):
naturally without that littlestimulus that God gives us by
the way he teaches us in ourlives.
So that's the hinge upon whichthis whole doorway of salvation,
personal salvation and growthhinges.
That's what it swings on, thathinge of dokimadzo, to test and
(03:22):
approve, to put our ideas to thetest, our beliefs to the test.
Our character to the test andapprove, try to agree with God,
try to think the way God thinksand, and work with him to be a
co worker with God.
As, as Paul describes it inFirst Corinthians, the third
(03:44):
chapter part of the verybuilding that God is building,
part of the very crop.
of fruitage that God is growing,we cooperate, we, we work with
God to achieve those things.
That's what the Christian lifeis all about.
So, I've called this episode,the trial of your faith.
(04:07):
And that's a phrase that we'regoing to look at in another
verse that also uses the worddakemazo.
So let's go to let's go to 1Peter, the first chapter, the
first chapter of 1 Peter.
And I'm going to start readingat the, at the beginning of the
(04:29):
chapter.
It says, Peter, An apostle ofJesus Christ to those who are
elect exiles of the dispersionin Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia.
So those are the regions whichPeter is writing to and he's
probably visited all theseplaces.
(04:50):
According to the foreknowledgeof God the Father, in the
sanctification of the spirit forobedience to Jesus Christ.
So you notice it's in theforeknowledge of God or the
prearrangement of God, the proorzo of God.
It, it means, it doesn'tnecessarily mean destination
like it's decreed that you'regonna be this way, but the
(05:13):
arrangement of God is for thesanctification of the spirit of
his people.
And he has certain things thatare set as a standard, as a
aspirational goal of each ofGod's people.
And that is certain characterqualities.
that he insists upon in allthose who will be considered the
(05:36):
overcoming followers of Jesus,the saints of God in the final
picture, in the final analysis.
But notice what he says.
He says that this according tothe foreknowledge of God the
Father in the sanctification ofthe spirit, sanctification means
a, a process of first settingapart and second transitioning
(05:59):
and changing.
Improving, distilling,crystallizing the spiritual
dimensions of each individualChristian.
And also, he's also working forthe entire body.
He's working to crystallize atemple, a structure, a building,
(06:23):
a body of Christ.
The Bride of Christ.
This, this this mystical bodythat is going to be composed of
many individuals.
Just as the stone temple back inthe days of of King Solomon and
later of, of King Herod.
That, that, that temple wasbuilt out of stone.
(06:45):
That had already been cut inDavid's case.
He had already cut the stones inthe quarry, and he knew exactly
how they would fit together.
And he, he, he did all thehammering and all the chiseling
on each individual stone in itsplace where it was sitting in
the middle of the rubble, in themiddle of the quarry.
(07:07):
And then he carefullytransported each one and he knew
where each one was going to goand when he assembled it all at
the end it says that heassembled it, Solomon assembled
all those stones without a soundof a hammer.
They just slid into placequietly and that's a picture of
how the, the Church of Christ asit is completed, as each
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individual member of the Churchof Christ passes on beyond.
The veil, they die, and thenthey are now going to be in the
spirit realm.
And when the assembly of thespirit realm church begins, it
all happens silently.
Nobody can hear it.
Nobody can even see it.
It's in the spiritual realm.
(07:52):
Okay, so that's what he'stalking about when he says the
sanctification of the Spirit.
It's a process that begins onthe very first moment that we
give our hearts to Jesus, and itgoes all the way till the moment
of our death, our last breath,and then we are prepared.
There's not going to be any realchanges to us after we die.
(08:14):
We're not going to suddenlymagically become more patient,
more kind, more loving.
More self controlled, whateverit is that we take into the
grave is what is going to be ourquality, our spiritual quality.
that we have when we areassembled into the spiritual
(08:35):
building, the temple of God inChrist.
Okay, so so he says, it's, it'sin the sanctification of the
spirit, that's the setting apartand the making holy of the
spirit for Obedience to JesusChrist.
That's the ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal of ourspiritual growth is so that we
(08:55):
are obediently following andbeing disciples of Jesus.
We're acting as Jesus would act.
We're walking as Jesus wouldwalk, so that we have are a
really useful team.
We're not somebody that he hasto worry about.
You know, he can send us on amission and we will do it, and
he knows.
He knows us so well.
He knows how we will do in thefuture when we have these
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spiritual opportunities.
We will be faithful to deathunder really difficult
circumstances.
And that means that he will besure that we will be faithful in
life, in eternal life, inspiritual life.
In the Celestials.
Notice, that's what it says nextit says, And for sprinkling with
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his blood, and that's areference to the sacrificial
work that in a certain way weparticipate with, and we'll come
back to that in a, in a futureepisode, May grace and peace be
multiplied to you.
Now he's talking to the audiencein these various towns,
Cappadocia and so forth.
Blessed be the God and Father ofour Lord Jesus Christ, according
(10:04):
to his great mercy, he hascaused us to be, it says born in
this translation, but the wordis ana ganao.
Ana ganao, and it means rebegotten, re begotten, begotten
again, many translations say.
(10:25):
I mean, that is not referring tothe The being born, when we're
born in the spirit, all thegestation work is done.
We are a, we are a finishedspiritual being and we are ready
to live in the spirit realm.
But being begotten again orbegotten as though, you know,
(10:48):
this is not the, but be ghettothat we experience as a human.
Now we're being begotten againinto a spiritual realm and this
happens the moment that we giveour hearts to, to God by
committing ourselves to the LordJesus.
We accept Jesus as our brother,and we accept God as our father,
(11:10):
and that's the moment at whichwe become children of God in the
Spirit.
And so we are begotten again toa living hope.
You notice it's a hope.
It's not a reality yet.
It's something that isn'tguaranteed.
It's something that isn't factyet.
It's something that we canenvision.
We have promises to buttress us.
(11:32):
We are told that we can do it.
But we have to cooperate in theprocess.
And, The biggest proof that thisis going to be a reality is that
this, is that Jesus himselfexperienced the same thing
himself.
He, as a human being, he gavehis heart to God and he had this
(11:53):
spiritual, divine being thisdivine nature began developed in
him as a, as a leader of thepack.
He is the first fruits.
He is the, the four the leadingmember of the church of Christ.
He's the first one.
(12:13):
He's the, he's the topcornerstone of this temple.
And we all conform to the linesthat he established.
What is it that we're gain?
We're going to get, it's goingto be through a resurrection of
the dead, just like theresurrection that Jesus had from
human death to spirit life.
(12:38):
It's an inheritance he says.
That is imperishable.
That is, it can't, it cannotperish.
It cannot be corrupted.
So if you were, if it was ametal, it could not rust.
If it was a piece of bread, itcould not get moldy.
If it was a, if it was a being,a living being, it could not
(13:02):
die.
It could not die.
It's not capable of dying.
It's immortal.
It's undefiled.
It means it's perfectly clean.
It's perfectly fitting.
And Righteous and, and it's, ithas sobriety.
It has, it has all the qualitiesand virtues that the apostles
(13:22):
and Jesus talk about.
You know, the mercy and the, thepatience and the love and the
forbearance.
All of those things make itundefiled.
It's unfading, means that it'llnever, you know yellow.
If it's white like linen, itwon't, it won't get yellow
around the edges.
If it's blue or red, like thethreads that are, that are woven
(13:45):
into the temple covering, theywon't fade.
They won't, the, the the dyeswill last forever.
It's, it's a, blue stands forfaithfulness, red stands for
sacrifice.
It'll never fade.
This is a garment that willnever fade.
And then it says, look, it'skept where?
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Where's it kept?
In heaven for you.
So, each person who hasseriously allowed Jesus to
become the Lord of their lifeand has committed themselves as
a living sacrifice, holy andacceptable to God, which is a
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very reasonable, Sacred kind ofservice.
That person is, has a, has adestiny that is reserved,
prepared, a seat with their nameon it, kept in heaven for you,
who by God's power are beingguarded through faith, through
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faith for a destination.
That is to be revealed in thelast time.
Guarded through faith for asalvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time.
So this is, this is telling usthat it's something that is in
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heaven.
This is where the, all the ideaof heaven came from in the New
Testament.
We've established that thiswhole Christian hope is in
heaven, and we've establishedthat it involves a lot of
transformation in the spiritualrealm.
We're now talking about theunseen qualities of the
Christian character that wehave, and that we can hope to
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gain through the experiences Godgives us in life.
These are things that willhappen to us as a result of
everything that happens to us.
It comes to us through ourspouse, our children, our work.
environment, our churchexperiences the witnessing that
we do, the, the reading that wedo, the study that we do, the
prayer, everything that is a, aservice that we do to people,
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the forbearance that we show topeople who are hard to live
with, the the fears that weexperience by watching, say, the
political process or, or otherthings that are not.
actually part of the spiritualrealm, things that we should not
try to meddle in, things that weshould not try to get engaged
in.
We need to look at the livesthat we live as dedicated lives
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focused on a future age.
Not on the current age.
Our, my kingdom is not of thisworld, Jesus said.
And so this, this role that wehave as Christians is is always
looking like Abraham to a citythat has foundations.
Something that is going to go oninto eternity.
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The new Jerusalem.
Not the, not the world that wehave around us today.
It will come down to earth.
It will rule this world.
It will help the people, thehuman race, who who will stay in
the human realm and beresurrected and will live on
this planet.
But the spiritual realm that theChristian is called to is way
(17:10):
above and way beyond the humanrealm.
And, and, and the, the idea ofearly Christianity was that
heaven would come to earth andthe Messiah would would return
from heaven.
He went to heaven when he died.
He returns to from heaven toearth and when he does he's got
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his church with him.
They have been assembled inheaven and they will come down
and they will establish agovernment along with very
trusted, useful, helpful,supporting people here on the
planet and and the people of theworld will have a really great
government for the first time.
(17:52):
In their history, people whocannot be corrupted, people who
cannot be tempted with, with,you know, sordid gain.
These will be, all be people whoare patient, loving, kind, and
righteous.
And that's what, that's, that'swhat will be happening.
And Jesus told his disciplesthat.
(18:13):
He said, You know, when we, whenI set up my kingdom, you're
going to be sitting on 12thrones judging the 12 tribes of
Israel.
And judging didn't mean, you'rewrong, you're wrong, you're
wrong, you're wrong.
That wasn't, that's not whatjudging meant.
Judging meant helping, making,helping people, coaching people
up to make better decisions,providing what they need.
(18:37):
That was judging.
Teaching, setting a goodexample, solving problems.
And making everybody worktogether as a healthy society.
That's what judges do.
They are saviors.
They are blessers.
They are servants of the humanrace.
Okay.
So.
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Now.
We've read, we've read down to,let's see, kept in heaven for
you.
We've read down through versefour, kept in heaven for you.
Now I'm going to read the fifthverse, who by God's power are
being guarded through faith fora salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time.
This foundation of Christianshas not really been revealed.
Except by faith to the church,to the, to the, when I say the
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church, I don't mean the megachurch, the geopolitical church,
I mean, I mean the actualservants of God who are a small
little flock, Jesus said.
So that church, the true church,Which it could be from any
denomination and no one knowswho they are.
They are, all we know is thatthey're good people, really nice
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people.
Okay, it says they, those who,um, they, they're, they're kept
through faith, that is, they'rekept doing this stuff that they
need to be doing, just throughbelieving the word of God and,
and following the obedient,obediently the plan and purposes
of the Bible.
That are laid out for theChristian and there's a lot of
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commandments and a lot of thingsthat we have to try to focus on
to be good at this and thesalvation is ready to be
revealed.
Who's going to be revealed to?
It's going to be revealed to theentire world of mankind.
Everyone is going to see whathappens here.
They're going to discover thatthere's this spiritual body that
they had no idea that's beingprepared.
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And, you know.
All the people that they thoughtwere the victims, all the people
that they thought were themartyrs, all the people that
they thought were the losers inthe conflicts, those are the
people who, it turns out, aregoing to be the ones who really
were the good guys.
They really will be the leaders.
And that will be revealed in thelast time.
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And that's, our other podcastis, It Is Near, that's what
we're talking about.
That, that we are in, almost inthe last time, and so that will
be revealed then, in the verynear future.
Verse six, in this you rejoice,he's talking to Christians, he's
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not talking to the world ofmankind.
He's talking to seriousChristians who have obeyed the
commandment of Romans 12,Presenting their bodies as a
living sacrifice.
He says, In this you rejoice,though now, for a little while,
if necessary, you have beengrieved by various trials.
(21:35):
Okay, so notice two things thatwe should learn from this.
And I'm gonna, I, let me switchto the, what I've been reading.
I was reading off my screen, butyou didn't get a chance to read
it on your screen.
In this, you rejoice, thoughnow, for a little while, if
necessary, you have beengrieved.
You have been grieved by varioustrials.
(21:58):
Notice two things.
He says that it's for a littlewhile.
What is the little while?
It's your lifetime.
Your lifetime, and my lifetime.
are a little while.
I'm 71 years old now.
I've lived 51 years in marriage,54 years as a consecrated
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follower of Jesus.
I followed Romans 12, 1 and 2when I was 17 years old.
It's been 54 years.
That seems like a little whileto me now.
And the amount of time I haveleft is an even littler while.
So, He's saying, if a littlewhile, and then he says, if
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necessary, you have been grievedby various trials.
Okay, well, is it necessary?
In one sense, absolutely.
It's necessary for everybody.
Because Jesus said, how did heput that?
Well, he said, if you sufferwith me, you'll reign with me.
Paul said, if you suffer, if wesuffer with him, we will reign
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with him.
I'm gonna come back to this.
It'll probably pop into my head.
I know there's a verse where itsays that everybody who follows
Jesus is going to suffer forhim.
There's, there's no such thingas being a Christian who really
is faithful in following Jesus,who doesn't encounter some
difficulties, and thedifficulties come from three
sources.
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This is another teaching that isvery clear in Paul's writings,
they come from the devilhimself.
There is an intelligent beingwho God is allowed to shadow
and, and tempt and oppose andmock.
and try to discourage thechurch, the followers of Jesus.
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So you have the devil to dealwith.
And that's a real thing, a realbeing.
He's very intelligent.
But we have to put our emphasison dealing with Jesus, not
dealing with the devil.
We shouldn't be praying to thedevil, talking to the devil,
worrying about the devil.
All we can really do with thedevil is resist him and just
pray to him.
Put our nose to the grindstoneand focus on the things that
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Jesus and God have given us todo.
There's many things we can do tofill our time.
So we have the devil.
We also have the world.
We have the world system, whichis, they aren't necessarily as
evil, although increasinglythere's, there's a lot of
rampant evil in the world.
And much of it is aimed atpeople who are trying to be
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righteous, trying to be good.
And a lot of that worldlinesshas rubbed off into the church
itself.
So a lot of the people who youmeet with in the church are, you
know, have their garmentsdirtied and sullied by the
world.
So we have to overcome thedevil.
We have to overcome the world,and the world is often in the
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church.
And then there are, thankfully,members of the Church who are
encouraging to us, and, andthey, they, we need to be with
them so that they can help buildus up.
And then there's one more thingwe have to overcome, and that's
the, in some ways, the biggestthing of all.
We have to overcome the flesh.
And that's the tent, as Paulcalls it, that this spiritual
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entity lives in, you know.
We have a brain.
That's the flesh.
Inside the brain, we have amind.
That's the spirit.
The spirit lives in a brain, andthe brain is housed by a body,
and that brain and that body aredamaged goods.
One passage calls it, or severalpassages call it an earthen
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vessel, a clay pot.
It's something that is of theearth and earthy.
It has hormones that tempt it todo things that aren't
necessarily on the list ofthings that we want to be doing
as spiritual students.
Jesus and his way of acting andthinking and speaking.
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There's all kinds oftemptations.
We get angry, we getdiscouraged, we get tired, we
get hungry, all of the thingsthat flesh goes through, we have
to manage, we have to learn toovercome.
Why would God allow this tohappen?
Well, because it's such a greatopportunity for us to face the
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real enemies, the real enemies,and mostly that's our own
shadow, our own dark side, the,what the flesh has to offer.
Not very many of us are peoplewho are just by nature, human
beings on a human level.
Above and superior to all thepassionate activities of the
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human world.
Very few of us, most of us arepretty much capable of doing
anything that anybody is capableof doing.
If we, if we stop feedingOurselves, the good, the good
input.
If we stop obeying on a dailybasis, if we could stop asking
for help from God, and, and ifwe stop confessing our faults,
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one, one, one passage says,confess your faults one to
another, so that you may behealed.
You know, if we, if we stopbeing accountable to our
brethren, And our close friendsin the body of Christ, we will
stumble.
We will fall.
We will fail.
We will, our ardor will bedampened.
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Our joy will be sullied.
We will, we will getdiscouraged.
We will become isolated.
We will, we will, we will.
Fall by the wayside.
It's very possible.
I would say a majority of thepeople who get into this, this
task fall by the wayside.
That's the lesson that Jesusgave us in the very first
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parable of that he gave.
There are seven parables in thebook of Matthew in chapter 13.
The very first one is theparable of the sower.
And what happens to the goodseed that's sown?
If it goes into the ground and,and there's water there and it,
and it, and the sun shines andit, and it puts roots into the
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dirt.
That is the good seed who obey.
and start growing, and all alongthe way it's easy for those,
those little seedlings to getsidetracked.
Too much water can come.
Too little water can come.
A bird can come and eat theseedling.
Somebody can step on it.
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Somebody can trample it.
There's all kinds of things thathappen to these seeds.
And that's just the ones thatget in the dirt and start
growing.
There's, most of them don't evenget that far.
Most of the seed goes under thesidewalk and the birds eat it.
It goes into thorny ground whereit's smothered by, by weeds.
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It goes into dry ground where itnever gets any water.
So, certainly, it's, it's, it'scertainly true that the majority
of people who become Christiansdon't stay the course, don't
follow on to become.
There's an interesting book thisis an aside about this, that was
written by George Barna, who Imet at at a writer's conference,
(29:22):
and I ended up befriending him,and he asked me when he wrote
this book to talk to him aboutdoing you know, some video work.
To help do a study guide forthat book, to go along with that
book.
And we talked about it for awhile and then he decided not to
pursue that project.
But it was great to hear, toread the book and to hear his
(29:45):
thinking about what was behindit.
And the book is called MaximumFaith.
He wrote it, I can't remember,sometime in the last 10 years,
and he said that he did moreresearch on that book in terms
of market research of Christianpeople survey research than he
had done on any other of hisprojects.
He studied to try to see whatmakes Christians grow.
(30:09):
And.
He looked at all sorts ofindicators, the quantitative
measures that he could use totry to figure out well What what
makes a Christian grow?
Is it time spent in church?
Is it money that they give?
Is it teaching a Sunday schoolclass?
Is it the amount of time theyspend reading the Bible?
Is it whether or not they go toseminary?
Is it whether or not theirspouse is a Christian?
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Is it the amount of time theyspend in serving others?
He could not find a singlecorrelation between people who
became persistent and who had alife trajectory that led them to
two destinations that he thoughtwere quantifiable, loving God
and loving your fellow man.
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To get to a crystallized placeof loving God and loving our
fellow man, he didn't see anytie in to any so called
scriptural or spiritualactivities.
And he said he really actuallybecame discouraged in the
research.
And then he suddenly stumbled onthe idea, Well, maybe the
(31:14):
teaching isn't coming from ourown choices and our own time
that we spend.
Maybe the teaching is comingfrom God.
Maybe God is using somethingbesides Christian activities to
teach us how to love Him and ourfellow man.
And he came to the conclusionthat, yes, that's true, that's
(31:34):
true.
And so he looked for fivesetbacks, what Peter calls here
various trials.
Let's underline it.
Various, whoops, got my thingright.
Various trials.
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I'm going to circle it.
What are the various trials thatGeorge Barna identified?
Well, divorce, major illness,death of a loved one,
bankruptcy, and bankruptcy.
Those are the five things thatGeorge Barne identified when he
(32:17):
made his list of things to testfor.
And when he started doing that,he found that there were points,
there were cyclical points,there were crossroads and growth
spurts that started happeningwith Christians.
And when they had thesesetbacks, some of them, It was a
(32:38):
deal breaker for them, and theywent back to either nominal
Christianity or not even being aChristian at all anymore.
But those who grew from it,those who were stimulated,
actually stimulated spirituallyby the trial, those people
became more and more godly.
(33:00):
more and more resolved, moredeep, more caring, more loving,
more patient, and they movedforward and forward.
And he concluded in his bookthat only three to five percent
of the Christians who start onthis course persist all the way
through these multiple layersof, of challenge into the point
(33:25):
where they are delivered.
Really, overcomers.
And so that brings us to DocUmozzo in our passage.
He says, these various trials,so that the tested genuineness
of your faith.
That's what he, that's StacchiManzo.
(33:46):
The tested genuineness.
He's, now here, this is not thetesting that we do.
This is the testing that Goddoes.
And the genuineness, this is notthe agreeing and, and, and
positive evaluation, theacceptance that we do.
This is the genuineness.
(34:08):
is, this is God's evaluation ofour growth and faith.
When we accept God's guidance inour lives, and we, we, yes, we
have to agree with it along theway.
We have to, we have to allowourselves to be tested.
(34:31):
But when we cooperate with that,when we're co workers with God
in this, it's God who makes thefinal determination that, yeah,
well done, good and faithfulservant.
Enter into the joy of the Lord.
That's what he's saying.
And then he says that thistested genuineness of faith,
which is something that God isgoing to do when, as he looks at
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our life and our lifeexperiences, he says, it's more
precious than gold, moreprecious than gold that
perishes, though it is tested byfire.
That's kind of a linkage.
She's thinking, I think, here,of what it says in the book of
(35:16):
Malachi.
It says in Malachi that, thatGod will purify the sons of
Levi, who are a picture of thechurch.
You know, the, in the Jewisheconomy, the sons of Levi were
the priests.
In the church?
Comes along and they are apriesthood, also a royal
priesthood with Jesus as theirhigh priest.
(35:37):
He's the anti typical highpriest, and we are the anti
typical under priests.
And so we participate and dothings in the same realm with
him, you know, taking care ofthe candlestick, take keeping
the coals from the altar inplace on the, on the incense
altar, bringing bread in takingold bread out.
(36:00):
All of those things weparticipate in in the holy of
the tabernacle or the largercompartment of the temple, which
is also called the holy place.
It's gold all around, it'sdivine, it's spiritual, but
there's work to be done and it'sthe work that we do while we're
here in the flesh, you know,with our robes, our white robes
(36:21):
covering our bodies.
We, our bodies are washed, andour, we're wearing white robes,
and then we're doing thesespiritual services as priests.
And we're offering sacrificeson, not only on behalf of our
own, ourselves, but we'reoffering sacrifices on behalf of
the entire world.
(36:43):
And that's what We're doing inthis process of being, becoming
a footstep follower of Jesus,the great high priest.
And he says that it's moreprecious than gold that
perishes.
When, when, when Malachi saysthat he's going to purify the
sons of Levi, he says he's goingto purify them like gold and
silver that's brought into acrucible and melted down and
(37:05):
then the guy, the the the guyworking on the, on the metal,
the goldsmith, he He takes alittle scraper and he scrapes
the dross, which is just dirtand other metals that aren't
gold.
They're floating on the top ofthis molten gold and he scrapes
(37:27):
it off.
And he wants to make itcompletely pure.
That's testing gold by fire.
And he's saying that the gold,the, the the light, the fire
that we go through in our faithlife is more precious than that.
The gold that we, once he coolsthat gold down, it's pure.
(37:50):
It's 24 karat.
It's amazing.
And it's the most valuable metalof all ancient times and right
up into modern times.
It's, it's, by common consent,it's, it's among the most
valuable substances on earth.
And he says that it's the, thetrial of your faith and my faith
(38:12):
is more precious than that.
Now, he says, here's somethingreally important that we want to
end with in this passage inPeter.
Though you have not seen him,you love him.
Oh, I skipped a verse.
Though it's tested by fire, it'smore precious.
(38:33):
It says, it may be found, itwill be found.
That's the promise.
If we're faithful, it will befound.
If we do our part, God willabsolutely do his part.
We will be found to result inpraise and glory and honor at
the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(38:54):
The revealing.
The revelation of Jesus Christis something that's right around
the corner.
He's going to be revealed to theworld.
That's what apocalypsis mean.
Everybody thinks apocalypsis.
Oh, that sounds awful.
That's going to be a big, a bigdisaster for their world.
No, it's not.
It's going to be the time whenJesus Christ is revealed to the
(39:16):
world with the church.
They will all be complete atthat point.
The praise and glory and honorwill come to the church when
they are revealed along withJesus to the world.
Okay, so then we go to thisverse, Though you have not seen
him, you love him.
(39:37):
Now isn't that a profoundstatement?
We don't get to see Jesus untilwe see him.
So the only ways we see him nowis through that eye of faith
that God has given us, grantedus the ability to have.
Amen.
Amen.
And yet, even though we can'tsee him, we hear him only.
(40:01):
We hear his voice, and we seerepresentations of him, glimpses
of him, in the things that wesee among the saints that we rub
shoulders with.
And we see it in the scripturesand in the great heroes of faith
in the past.
Sometimes, even in our ownlives, we see a moment of, ah.
(40:25):
That's progress.
I've learned something.
I'm, I, I didn't do the thing Iused to do when that happened
this time.
That's a sign that God isworking with us.
And so we can, we can love thequality that we saw in our
friend, our neighbor, our wife,our brother in Christ.
(40:48):
That is a glimpse and an inklingof the character that we want to
have and we work towards having.
Though you do not now see him,you believe in him and rejoice
with joy that is inexpressibleand filled with glory, obtaining
the outcome of your faith, thesalvation of souls.
(41:13):
Now it says your souls here, butthere's no your.
Yeah.
There's no you're in the Greek.
In this phrase, the word is inthe genitive, so it is a
possessive, it is a possessiveof the word souls.
But, I still would argue thatthe salvation of souls does not
(41:36):
just refer to our own.
Our motive, for serving Jesus,following Jesus putting up with
difficulties in dealing withJesus.
Our motive is not for what's init for us.
Yes, it is a great and gloriousthing to aspire to.
(41:56):
And it almost seems comicalsometimes to read it and say, Oh
my gosh.
Yeah.
When you read the things aboutwhat it says, that will be the
inheritance of the church.
It sounds, like a megalomaniac'sdream, but no human being would
ever have thought of this.
This is not a megalomaniac whothought of this.
(42:19):
This is a something that washanded down by God to his son
and to all of those who followin his son's footsteps.
It was, it was established bythe most earnest and righteous
men the world has ever seen andwomen.
that the world has ever seen.
(42:40):
It was established on the pagesof the New Testament, and in
type and in picture, it wasestablished on the pages of the
Tanakh, the Old Testament.
This is a real thing, a realhope that has been given to
followers of Jesus.
(43:01):
Don't take it lightly.
Don't discount it.
Amen.
When it says that this greatpower and glory that's been
offered and honored is as ameans of honoring you and a
glory to you.
The thing that Jesus prayed forthe night before he died for his
(43:22):
disciples, which include us, inJohn the 17th chapter, that's a
prayer for you if you're aChristian.
That prayer is a prayer for you.
Read it.
John 17.
He's asking for glory and honorand immortality to come your
way.
So, this is the salvation ofyour soul, but it's also the
(43:47):
salvation of souls.
Because it's the opportunity forall those who are gathered
together.
to be spiritual servants ofJesus in the, in the heavenlies,
the celestials.
They will become part of thetemple itself.
(44:09):
They become the temple of God,the, the, the place where God
lives, and the, they then turnand invite the entire world of
mankind to join in this temple.
That is what will happen next.
(44:32):
So the salvation of souls doesnot stop with those who become
members of the body of Christ,members of the bride of Christ.
The salvation of souls expandsand it includes everyone who
ultimately will be saved, whichis the vast, I believe, the vast
majority of the human race.
(44:53):
I think there will be very fewfolks.
Who do not become sheep asopposed to goats in the thousand
year reign of the Messiah withhis, with his bride, with the
people who are now learn, nowbeing assembled to follow him
(45:14):
and be his, his companions inthe administration of the, of
the world's leadership andgovernance and, and
encouragement and life giving.
There's a lot of work to be doneto, to raise how many 10, 20,
40, 50, 60 billion people.
(45:35):
A lot of work needs to be done.
And that's why he wants lots ofpeople from every different
culture of the world whounderstand and sympathize and
love and are harmonious can be,can, can show people.
how to overcome the many ways inwhich humans can sin.
(45:59):
Okay, so, I thought that wewould go through several more
Dakimaza scriptures today, but Ifelt like we needed to establish
another hinge for that door,that salvation door that you're
invited to be part of whenyou're a Christian.
And I think 1 Peter 1, 1 through9 was a great way of making that
(46:23):
promise more tangible and morereal and more underscored for
you.
So we'll pick up where we leftoff with that.
And I've got a list of otherscriptures that use Documento.
And again, talk about testing.
being judicious, being almostkind of a skeptic in many ways,
mostly skeptical of our ownvirtue.
(46:44):
That's the, that's the mostimportant thing we can be is
skeptical of our own virtue.
And when we can be a littleskeptical of our own virtue, we
can put ourselves to the testand we can allow ourselves to be
corrected by whoever wants tocorrect us.
You know, we can be, we canlearn a lot from every opponent
we have.
(47:05):
And when we do, we will becomemore like Jesus.
Thanks for listening.
This has been Episode 5 of WeAre Near.
(47:28):
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now amfound.
(47:50):
Was blind, I see.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch
like me.
Welcome to We Are Near.
We've been swinging open a doorthat was given to us in Romans
(00:23):
2, and the hinge of that door,we've discovered, is The word
dokimazo, it's the word that hasto do with being tested and
found genuine.
It's the word that's used todescribe what we do in
evaluating our thoughts,evaluating our character, and
(00:48):
learning to think in spiritualways that are the way Jesus
would think.
And when we do those things, weWe put our actions and our
thoughts out there.
We put them on this black basaltin the marketplace, in the
public life in which we live,and we make it, we, we scratch
(01:11):
it on that rock right next tothe gold standard.
And when we scratch our thoughtsand our actions against the gold
standard, and we compare themourselves, then we are motivated
to improve.
improve and adapt our thinkingand try to elevate it, try to
bring it up to the standard thatwe see it next to.
(01:35):
This is not what Jesus would do.
This is not what the ApostlePaul or the Apostle Peter would
do.
We can do better by God's grace,with God's help.
It's also a way of putting theexperiences in our life Up to,
or up against our ownexpectations, our own wishes,
(01:58):
our own secret longings, atleast in the flesh.
And You know, when we come upagainst things that are
disappointing to us, Paul talksabout in Romans 12, verse 2, he
talks about learning to put tothe test and, and understand
what is the perfect will of God.
(02:19):
So, we might not like what comesour way, what happens, the, the
vicissitudes of our life, wemight not like those things, but
we learn to say, ah, that's fromGod, That's part of the all
things that he says he will takecare of in our lives.
(02:39):
We need to kind of put that goldstamp of approval, divine
approval, on the imperfectsituations that we find
ourselves in.
So that we can be positive, thatwe can be courageous, so that we
can be patient, so that we canbe, um, deeper thinking and
develop some character fruitagethat just wouldn't grow
(03:01):
naturally without that littlestimulus that God gives us by
the way he teaches us in ourlives.
So that's the hinge upon whichthis whole doorway of salvation,
personal salvation and growthhinges.
That's what it swings on, thathinge of dokimadzo, to test and
(03:22):
approve, to put our ideas to thetest, our beliefs to the test.
Our character to the test andapprove, try to agree with God,
try to think the way God thinksand, and work with him to be a
co worker with God.
As, as Paul describes it inFirst Corinthians, the third
(03:44):
chapter part of the verybuilding that God is building,
part of the very crop.
of fruitage that God is growing,we cooperate, we, we work with
God to achieve those things.
That's what the Christian lifeis all about.
So, I've called this episode,the trial of your faith.
(04:07):
And that's a phrase that we'regoing to look at in another
verse that also uses the worddakemazo.
So let's go to let's go to 1Peter, the first chapter, the
first chapter of 1 Peter.
And I'm going to start readingat the, at the beginning of the
(04:29):
chapter.
It says, Peter, An apostle ofJesus Christ to those who are
elect exiles of the dispersionin Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia.
So those are the regions whichPeter is writing to and he's
probably visited all theseplaces.
(04:50):
According to the foreknowledgeof God the Father, in the
sanctification of the spirit forobedience to Jesus Christ.
So you notice it's in theforeknowledge of God or the
prearrangement of God, the proorzo of God.
It, it means, it doesn'tnecessarily mean destination
like it's decreed that you'regonna be this way, but the
(05:13):
arrangement of God is for thesanctification of the spirit of
his people.
And he has certain things thatare set as a standard, as a
aspirational goal of each ofGod's people.
And that is certain characterqualities.
that he insists upon in allthose who will be considered the
(05:36):
overcoming followers of Jesus,the saints of God in the final
picture, in the final analysis.
But notice what he says.
He says that this according tothe foreknowledge of God the
Father in the sanctification ofthe spirit, sanctification means
a, a process of first settingapart and second transitioning
(05:59):
and changing.
Improving, distilling,crystallizing the spiritual
dimensions of each individualChristian.
And also, he's also working forthe entire body.
He's working to crystallize atemple, a structure, a building,
(06:23):
a body of Christ.
The Bride of Christ.
This, this this mystical bodythat is going to be composed of
many individuals.
Just as the stone temple back inthe days of of King Solomon and
later of, of King Herod.
That, that, that temple wasbuilt out of stone.
(06:45):
That had already been cut inDavid's case.
He had already cut the stones inthe quarry, and he knew exactly
how they would fit together.
And he, he, he did all thehammering and all the chiseling
on each individual stone in itsplace where it was sitting in
the middle of the rubble, in themiddle of the quarry.
(07:07):
And then he carefullytransported each one and he knew
where each one was going to goand when he assembled it all at
the end it says that heassembled it, Solomon assembled
all those stones without a soundof a hammer.
They just slid into placequietly and that's a picture of
how the, the Church of Christ asit is completed, as each
(07:30):
individual member of the Churchof Christ passes on beyond.
The veil, they die, and thenthey are now going to be in the
spirit realm.
And when the assembly of thespirit realm church begins, it
all happens silently.
Nobody can hear it.
Nobody can even see it.
It's in the spiritual realm.
(07:52):
Okay, so that's what he'stalking about when he says the
sanctification of the Spirit.
It's a process that begins onthe very first moment that we
give our hearts to Jesus, and itgoes all the way till the moment
of our death, our last breath,and then we are prepared.
There's not going to be any realchanges to us after we die.
(08:14):
We're not going to suddenlymagically become more patient,
more kind, more loving.
More self controlled, whateverit is that we take into the
grave is what is going to be ourquality, our spiritual quality.
that we have when we areassembled into the spiritual
(08:35):
building, the temple of God inChrist.
Okay, so so he says, it's, it'sin the sanctification of the
spirit, that's the setting apartand the making holy of the
spirit for Obedience to JesusChrist.
That's the ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal of ourspiritual growth is so that we
(08:55):
are obediently following andbeing disciples of Jesus.
We're acting as Jesus would act.
We're walking as Jesus wouldwalk, so that we have are a
really useful team.
We're not somebody that he hasto worry about.
You know, he can send us on amission and we will do it, and
he knows.
He knows us so well.
He knows how we will do in thefuture when we have these
(09:19):
spiritual opportunities.
We will be faithful to deathunder really difficult
circumstances.
And that means that he will besure that we will be faithful in
life, in eternal life, inspiritual life.
In the Celestials.
Notice, that's what it says nextit says, And for sprinkling with
(09:42):
his blood, and that's areference to the sacrificial
work that in a certain way weparticipate with, and we'll come
back to that in a, in a futureepisode, May grace and peace be
multiplied to you.
Now he's talking to the audiencein these various towns,
Cappadocia and so forth.
Blessed be the God and Father ofour Lord Jesus Christ, according
(10:04):
to his great mercy, he hascaused us to be, it says born in
this translation, but the wordis ana ganao.
Ana ganao, and it means rebegotten, re begotten, begotten
again, many translations say.
(10:25):
I mean, that is not referring tothe The being born, when we're
born in the spirit, all thegestation work is done.
We are a, we are a finishedspiritual being and we are ready
to live in the spirit realm.
But being begotten again orbegotten as though, you know,
(10:48):
this is not the, but be ghettothat we experience as a human.
Now we're being begotten againinto a spiritual realm and this
happens the moment that we giveour hearts to, to God by
committing ourselves to the LordJesus.
We accept Jesus as our brother,and we accept God as our father,
(11:10):
and that's the moment at whichwe become children of God in the
Spirit.
And so we are begotten again toa living hope.
You notice it's a hope.
It's not a reality yet.
It's something that isn'tguaranteed.
It's something that isn't factyet.
It's something that we canenvision.
We have promises to buttress us.
(11:32):
We are told that we can do it.
But we have to cooperate in theprocess.
And, The biggest proof that thisis going to be a reality is that
this, is that Jesus himselfexperienced the same thing
himself.
He, as a human being, he gavehis heart to God and he had this
(11:53):
spiritual, divine being thisdivine nature began developed in
him as a, as a leader of thepack.
He is the first fruits.
He is the, the four the leadingmember of the church of Christ.
He's the first one.
(12:13):
He's the, he's the topcornerstone of this temple.
And we all conform to the linesthat he established.
What is it that we're gain?
We're going to get, it's goingto be through a resurrection of
the dead, just like theresurrection that Jesus had from
human death to spirit life.
(12:38):
It's an inheritance he says.
That is imperishable.
That is, it can't, it cannotperish.
It cannot be corrupted.
So if you were, if it was ametal, it could not rust.
If it was a piece of bread, itcould not get moldy.
If it was a, if it was a being,a living being, it could not
(13:02):
die.
It could not die.
It's not capable of dying.
It's immortal.
It's undefiled.
It means it's perfectly clean.
It's perfectly fitting.
And Righteous and, and it's, ithas sobriety.
It has, it has all the qualitiesand virtues that the apostles
(13:22):
and Jesus talk about.
You know, the mercy and the, thepatience and the love and the
forbearance.
All of those things make itundefiled.
It's unfading, means that it'llnever, you know yellow.
If it's white like linen, itwon't, it won't get yellow
around the edges.
If it's blue or red, like thethreads that are, that are woven
(13:45):
into the temple covering, theywon't fade.
They won't, the, the the dyeswill last forever.
It's, it's a, blue stands forfaithfulness, red stands for
sacrifice.
It'll never fade.
This is a garment that willnever fade.
And then it says, look, it'skept where?
(14:06):
Where's it kept?
In heaven for you.
So, each person who hasseriously allowed Jesus to
become the Lord of their lifeand has committed themselves as
a living sacrifice, holy andacceptable to God, which is a
(14:29):
very reasonable, Sacred kind ofservice.
That person is, has a, has adestiny that is reserved,
prepared, a seat with their nameon it, kept in heaven for you,
who by God's power are beingguarded through faith, through
(14:54):
faith for a destination.
That is to be revealed in thelast time.
Guarded through faith for asalvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time.
So this is, this is telling usthat it's something that is in
(15:14):
heaven.
This is where the, all the ideaof heaven came from in the New
Testament.
We've established that thiswhole Christian hope is in
heaven, and we've establishedthat it involves a lot of
transformation in the spiritualrealm.
We're now talking about theunseen qualities of the
Christian character that wehave, and that we can hope to
(15:35):
gain through the experiences Godgives us in life.
These are things that willhappen to us as a result of
everything that happens to us.
It comes to us through ourspouse, our children, our work.
environment, our churchexperiences the witnessing that
we do, the, the reading that wedo, the study that we do, the
prayer, everything that is a, aservice that we do to people,
(15:59):
the forbearance that we show topeople who are hard to live
with, the the fears that weexperience by watching, say, the
political process or, or otherthings that are not.
actually part of the spiritualrealm, things that we should not
try to meddle in, things that weshould not try to get engaged
in.
We need to look at the livesthat we live as dedicated lives
(16:25):
focused on a future age.
Not on the current age.
Our, my kingdom is not of thisworld, Jesus said.
And so this, this role that wehave as Christians is is always
looking like Abraham to a citythat has foundations.
Something that is going to go oninto eternity.
(16:47):
The new Jerusalem.
Not the, not the world that wehave around us today.
It will come down to earth.
It will rule this world.
It will help the people, thehuman race, who who will stay in
the human realm and beresurrected and will live on
this planet.
But the spiritual realm that theChristian is called to is way
(17:10):
above and way beyond the humanrealm.
And, and, and the, the idea ofearly Christianity was that
heaven would come to earth andthe Messiah would would return
from heaven.
He went to heaven when he died.
He returns to from heaven toearth and when he does he's got
(17:30):
his church with him.
They have been assembled inheaven and they will come down
and they will establish agovernment along with very
trusted, useful, helpful,supporting people here on the
planet and and the people of theworld will have a really great
government for the first time.
(17:52):
In their history, people whocannot be corrupted, people who
cannot be tempted with, with,you know, sordid gain.
These will be, all be people whoare patient, loving, kind, and
righteous.
And that's what, that's, that'swhat will be happening.
And Jesus told his disciplesthat.
(18:13):
He said, You know, when we, whenI set up my kingdom, you're
going to be sitting on 12thrones judging the 12 tribes of
Israel.
And judging didn't mean, you'rewrong, you're wrong, you're
wrong, you're wrong.
That wasn't, that's not whatjudging meant.
Judging meant helping, making,helping people, coaching people
up to make better decisions,providing what they need.
(18:37):
That was judging.
Teaching, setting a goodexample, solving problems.
And making everybody worktogether as a healthy society.
That's what judges do.
They are saviors.
They are blessers.
They are servants of the humanrace.
Okay.
So.
(18:58):
Now.
We've read, we've read down to,let's see, kept in heaven for
you.
We've read down through versefour, kept in heaven for you.
Now I'm going to read the fifthverse, who by God's power are
being guarded through faith fora salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time.
This foundation of Christianshas not really been revealed.
Except by faith to the church,to the, to the, when I say the
(19:21):
church, I don't mean the megachurch, the geopolitical church,
I mean, I mean the actualservants of God who are a small
little flock, Jesus said.
So that church, the true church,Which it could be from any
denomination and no one knowswho they are.
They are, all we know is thatthey're good people, really nice
(19:43):
people.
Okay, it says they, those who,um, they, they're, they're kept
through faith, that is, they'rekept doing this stuff that they
need to be doing, just throughbelieving the word of God and,
and following the obedient,obediently the plan and purposes
of the Bible.
That are laid out for theChristian and there's a lot of
(20:05):
commandments and a lot of thingsthat we have to try to focus on
to be good at this and thesalvation is ready to be
revealed.
Who's going to be revealed to?
It's going to be revealed to theentire world of mankind.
Everyone is going to see whathappens here.
They're going to discover thatthere's this spiritual body that
they had no idea that's beingprepared.
(20:27):
And, you know.
All the people that they thoughtwere the victims, all the people
that they thought were themartyrs, all the people that
they thought were the losers inthe conflicts, those are the
people who, it turns out, aregoing to be the ones who really
were the good guys.
They really will be the leaders.
And that will be revealed in thelast time.
(20:49):
And that's, our other podcastis, It Is Near, that's what
we're talking about.
That, that we are in, almost inthe last time, and so that will
be revealed then, in the verynear future.
Verse six, in this you rejoice,he's talking to Christians, he's
(21:11):
not talking to the world ofmankind.
He's talking to seriousChristians who have obeyed the
commandment of Romans 12,Presenting their bodies as a
living sacrifice.
He says, In this you rejoice,though now, for a little while,
if necessary, you have beengrieved by various trials.
(21:35):
Okay, so notice two things thatwe should learn from this.
And I'm gonna, I, let me switchto the, what I've been reading.
I was reading off my screen, butyou didn't get a chance to read
it on your screen.
In this, you rejoice, thoughnow, for a little while, if
necessary, you have beengrieved.
You have been grieved by varioustrials.
(21:58):
Notice two things.
He says that it's for a littlewhile.
What is the little while?
It's your lifetime.
Your lifetime, and my lifetime.
are a little while.
I'm 71 years old now.
I've lived 51 years in marriage,54 years as a consecrated
(22:18):
follower of Jesus.
I followed Romans 12, 1 and 2when I was 17 years old.
It's been 54 years.
That seems like a little whileto me now.
And the amount of time I haveleft is an even littler while.
So, He's saying, if a littlewhile, and then he says, if
(22:40):
necessary, you have been grievedby various trials.
Okay, well, is it necessary?
In one sense, absolutely.
It's necessary for everybody.
Because Jesus said, how did heput that?
Well, he said, if you sufferwith me, you'll reign with me.
Paul said, if you suffer, if wesuffer with him, we will reign
(23:00):
with him.
I'm gonna come back to this.
It'll probably pop into my head.
I know there's a verse where itsays that everybody who follows
Jesus is going to suffer forhim.
There's, there's no such thingas being a Christian who really
is faithful in following Jesus,who doesn't encounter some
difficulties, and thedifficulties come from three
sources.
(23:21):
This is another teaching that isvery clear in Paul's writings,
they come from the devilhimself.
There is an intelligent beingwho God is allowed to shadow
and, and tempt and oppose andmock.
and try to discourage thechurch, the followers of Jesus.
(23:44):
So you have the devil to dealwith.
And that's a real thing, a realbeing.
He's very intelligent.
But we have to put our emphasison dealing with Jesus, not
dealing with the devil.
We shouldn't be praying to thedevil, talking to the devil,
worrying about the devil.
All we can really do with thedevil is resist him and just
pray to him.
Put our nose to the grindstoneand focus on the things that
(24:06):
Jesus and God have given us todo.
There's many things we can do tofill our time.
So we have the devil.
We also have the world.
We have the world system, whichis, they aren't necessarily as
evil, although increasinglythere's, there's a lot of
rampant evil in the world.
And much of it is aimed atpeople who are trying to be
(24:29):
righteous, trying to be good.
And a lot of that worldlinesshas rubbed off into the church
itself.
So a lot of the people who youmeet with in the church are, you
know, have their garmentsdirtied and sullied by the
world.
So we have to overcome thedevil.
We have to overcome the world,and the world is often in the
(24:51):
church.
And then there are, thankfully,members of the Church who are
encouraging to us, and, andthey, they, we need to be with
them so that they can help buildus up.
And then there's one more thingwe have to overcome, and that's
the, in some ways, the biggestthing of all.
We have to overcome the flesh.
And that's the tent, as Paulcalls it, that this spiritual
(25:14):
entity lives in, you know.
We have a brain.
That's the flesh.
Inside the brain, we have amind.
That's the spirit.
The spirit lives in a brain, andthe brain is housed by a body,
and that brain and that body aredamaged goods.
One passage calls it, or severalpassages call it an earthen
(25:36):
vessel, a clay pot.
It's something that is of theearth and earthy.
It has hormones that tempt it todo things that aren't
necessarily on the list ofthings that we want to be doing
as spiritual students.
Jesus and his way of acting andthinking and speaking.
(25:59):
There's all kinds oftemptations.
We get angry, we getdiscouraged, we get tired, we
get hungry, all of the thingsthat flesh goes through, we have
to manage, we have to learn toovercome.
Why would God allow this tohappen?
Well, because it's such a greatopportunity for us to face the
(26:23):
real enemies, the real enemies,and mostly that's our own
shadow, our own dark side, the,what the flesh has to offer.
Not very many of us are peoplewho are just by nature, human
beings on a human level.
Above and superior to all thepassionate activities of the
(26:46):
human world.
Very few of us, most of us arepretty much capable of doing
anything that anybody is capableof doing.
If we, if we stop feedingOurselves, the good, the good
input.
If we stop obeying on a dailybasis, if we could stop asking
for help from God, and, and ifwe stop confessing our faults,
(27:09):
one, one, one passage says,confess your faults one to
another, so that you may behealed.
You know, if we, if we stopbeing accountable to our
brethren, And our close friendsin the body of Christ, we will
stumble.
We will fall.
We will fail.
We will, our ardor will bedampened.
(27:32):
Our joy will be sullied.
We will, we will getdiscouraged.
We will become isolated.
We will, we will, we will.
Fall by the wayside.
It's very possible.
I would say a majority of thepeople who get into this, this
task fall by the wayside.
That's the lesson that Jesusgave us in the very first
(27:54):
parable of that he gave.
There are seven parables in thebook of Matthew in chapter 13.
The very first one is theparable of the sower.
And what happens to the goodseed that's sown?
If it goes into the ground and,and there's water there and it,
and it, and the sun shines andit, and it puts roots into the
(28:16):
dirt.
That is the good seed who obey.
and start growing, and all alongthe way it's easy for those,
those little seedlings to getsidetracked.
Too much water can come.
Too little water can come.
A bird can come and eat theseedling.
Somebody can step on it.
(28:37):
Somebody can trample it.
There's all kinds of things thathappen to these seeds.
And that's just the ones thatget in the dirt and start
growing.
There's, most of them don't evenget that far.
Most of the seed goes under thesidewalk and the birds eat it.
It goes into thorny ground whereit's smothered by, by weeds.
(28:59):
It goes into dry ground where itnever gets any water.
So, certainly, it's, it's, it'scertainly true that the majority
of people who become Christiansdon't stay the course, don't
follow on to become.
There's an interesting book thisis an aside about this, that was
written by George Barna, who Imet at at a writer's conference,
(29:22):
and I ended up befriending him,and he asked me when he wrote
this book to talk to him aboutdoing you know, some video work.
To help do a study guide forthat book, to go along with that
book.
And we talked about it for awhile and then he decided not to
pursue that project.
But it was great to hear, toread the book and to hear his
(29:45):
thinking about what was behindit.
And the book is called MaximumFaith.
He wrote it, I can't remember,sometime in the last 10 years,
and he said that he did moreresearch on that book in terms
of market research of Christianpeople survey research than he
had done on any other of hisprojects.
He studied to try to see whatmakes Christians grow.
(30:09):
And.
He looked at all sorts ofindicators, the quantitative
measures that he could use totry to figure out well What what
makes a Christian grow?
Is it time spent in church?
Is it money that they give?
Is it teaching a Sunday schoolclass?
Is it the amount of time theyspend reading the Bible?
Is it whether or not they go toseminary?
Is it whether or not theirspouse is a Christian?
(30:29):
Is it the amount of time theyspend in serving others?
He could not find a singlecorrelation between people who
became persistent and who had alife trajectory that led them to
two destinations that he thoughtwere quantifiable, loving God
and loving your fellow man.
(30:51):
To get to a crystallized placeof loving God and loving our
fellow man, he didn't see anytie in to any so called
scriptural or spiritualactivities.
And he said he really actuallybecame discouraged in the
research.
And then he suddenly stumbled onthe idea, Well, maybe the
(31:14):
teaching isn't coming from ourown choices and our own time
that we spend.
Maybe the teaching is comingfrom God.
Maybe God is using somethingbesides Christian activities to
teach us how to love Him and ourfellow man.
And he came to the conclusionthat, yes, that's true, that's
(31:34):
true.
And so he looked for fivesetbacks, what Peter calls here
various trials.
Let's underline it.
Various, whoops, got my thingright.
Various trials.
(31:56):
I'm going to circle it.
What are the various trials thatGeorge Barna identified?
Well, divorce, major illness,death of a loved one,
bankruptcy, and bankruptcy.
Those are the five things thatGeorge Barne identified when he
(32:17):
made his list of things to testfor.
And when he started doing that,he found that there were points,
there were cyclical points,there were crossroads and growth
spurts that started happeningwith Christians.
And when they had thesesetbacks, some of them, It was a
(32:38):
deal breaker for them, and theywent back to either nominal
Christianity or not even being aChristian at all anymore.
But those who grew from it,those who were stimulated,
actually stimulated spirituallyby the trial, those people
became more and more godly.
(33:00):
more and more resolved, moredeep, more caring, more loving,
more patient, and they movedforward and forward.
And he concluded in his bookthat only three to five percent
of the Christians who start onthis course persist all the way
through these multiple layersof, of challenge into the point
(33:25):
where they are delivered.
Really, overcomers.
And so that brings us to DocUmozzo in our passage.
He says, these various trials,so that the tested genuineness
of your faith.
That's what he, that's StacchiManzo.
(33:46):
The tested genuineness.
He's, now here, this is not thetesting that we do.
This is the testing that Goddoes.
And the genuineness, this is notthe agreeing and, and, and
positive evaluation, theacceptance that we do.
This is the genuineness.
(34:08):
is, this is God's evaluation ofour growth and faith.
When we accept God's guidance inour lives, and we, we, yes, we
have to agree with it along theway.
We have to, we have to allowourselves to be tested.
(34:31):
But when we cooperate with that,when we're co workers with God
in this, it's God who makes thefinal determination that, yeah,
well done, good and faithfulservant.
Enter into the joy of the Lord.
That's what he's saying.
And then he says that thistested genuineness of faith,
which is something that God isgoing to do when, as he looks at
(34:55):
our life and our lifeexperiences, he says, it's more
precious than gold, moreprecious than gold that
perishes, though it is tested byfire.
That's kind of a linkage.
She's thinking, I think, here,of what it says in the book of
(35:16):
Malachi.
It says in Malachi that, thatGod will purify the sons of
Levi, who are a picture of thechurch.
You know, the, in the Jewisheconomy, the sons of Levi were
the priests.
In the church?
Comes along and they are apriesthood, also a royal
priesthood with Jesus as theirhigh priest.
(35:37):
He's the anti typical highpriest, and we are the anti
typical under priests.
And so we participate and dothings in the same realm with
him, you know, taking care ofthe candlestick, take keeping
the coals from the altar inplace on the, on the incense
altar, bringing bread in takingold bread out.
(36:00):
All of those things weparticipate in in the holy of
the tabernacle or the largercompartment of the temple, which
is also called the holy place.
It's gold all around, it'sdivine, it's spiritual, but
there's work to be done and it'sthe work that we do while we're
here in the flesh, you know,with our robes, our white robes
(36:21):
covering our bodies.
We, our bodies are washed, andour, we're wearing white robes,
and then we're doing thesespiritual services as priests.
And we're offering sacrificeson, not only on behalf of our
own, ourselves, but we'reoffering sacrifices on behalf of
the entire world.
(36:43):
And that's what We're doing inthis process of being, becoming
a footstep follower of Jesus,the great high priest.
And he says that it's moreprecious than gold that
perishes.
When, when, when Malachi saysthat he's going to purify the
sons of Levi, he says he's goingto purify them like gold and
silver that's brought into acrucible and melted down and
(37:05):
then the guy, the the the guyworking on the, on the metal,
the goldsmith, he He takes alittle scraper and he scrapes
the dross, which is just dirtand other metals that aren't
gold.
They're floating on the top ofthis molten gold and he scrapes
(37:27):
it off.
And he wants to make itcompletely pure.
That's testing gold by fire.
And he's saying that the gold,the, the the light, the fire
that we go through in our faithlife is more precious than that.
The gold that we, once he coolsthat gold down, it's pure.
(37:50):
It's 24 karat.
It's amazing.
And it's the most valuable metalof all ancient times and right
up into modern times.
It's, it's, by common consent,it's, it's among the most
valuable substances on earth.
And he says that it's the, thetrial of your faith and my faith
(38:12):
is more precious than that.
Now, he says, here's somethingreally important that we want to
end with in this passage inPeter.
Though you have not seen him,you love him.
Oh, I skipped a verse.
Though it's tested by fire, it'smore precious.
(38:33):
It says, it may be found, itwill be found.
That's the promise.
If we're faithful, it will befound.
If we do our part, God willabsolutely do his part.
We will be found to result inpraise and glory and honor at
the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(38:54):
The revealing.
The revelation of Jesus Christis something that's right around
the corner.
He's going to be revealed to theworld.
That's what apocalypsis mean.
Everybody thinks apocalypsis.
Oh, that sounds awful.
That's going to be a big, a bigdisaster for their world.
No, it's not.
It's going to be the time whenJesus Christ is revealed to the
(39:16):
world with the church.
They will all be complete atthat point.
The praise and glory and honorwill come to the church when
they are revealed along withJesus to the world.
Okay, so then we go to thisverse, Though you have not seen
him, you love him.
(39:37):
Now isn't that a profoundstatement?
We don't get to see Jesus untilwe see him.
So the only ways we see him nowis through that eye of faith
that God has given us, grantedus the ability to have.
Amen.
Amen.
And yet, even though we can'tsee him, we hear him only.
(40:01):
We hear his voice, and we seerepresentations of him, glimpses
of him, in the things that wesee among the saints that we rub
shoulders with.
And we see it in the scripturesand in the great heroes of faith
in the past.
Sometimes, even in our ownlives, we see a moment of, ah.
(40:25):
That's progress.
I've learned something.
I'm, I, I didn't do the thing Iused to do when that happened
this time.
That's a sign that God isworking with us.
And so we can, we can love thequality that we saw in our
friend, our neighbor, our wife,our brother in Christ.
(40:48):
That is a glimpse and an inklingof the character that we want to
have and we work towards having.
Though you do not now see him,you believe in him and rejoice
with joy that is inexpressibleand filled with glory, obtaining
the outcome of your faith, thesalvation of souls.
(41:13):
Now it says your souls here, butthere's no your.
Yeah.
There's no you're in the Greek.
In this phrase, the word is inthe genitive, so it is a
possessive, it is a possessiveof the word souls.
But, I still would argue thatthe salvation of souls does not
(41:36):
just refer to our own.
Our motive, for serving Jesus,following Jesus putting up with
difficulties in dealing withJesus.
Our motive is not for what's init for us.
Yes, it is a great and gloriousthing to aspire to.
(41:56):
And it almost seems comicalsometimes to read it and say, Oh
my gosh.
Yeah.
When you read the things aboutwhat it says, that will be the
inheritance of the church.
It sounds, like a megalomaniac'sdream, but no human being would
ever have thought of this.
This is not a megalomaniac whothought of this.
(42:19):
This is a something that washanded down by God to his son
and to all of those who followin his son's footsteps.
It was, it was established bythe most earnest and righteous
men the world has ever seen andwomen.
that the world has ever seen.
(42:40):
It was established on the pagesof the New Testament, and in
type and in picture, it wasestablished on the pages of the
Tanakh, the Old Testament.
This is a real thing, a realhope that has been given to
followers of Jesus.
(43:01):
Don't take it lightly.
Don't discount it.
Amen.
When it says that this greatpower and glory that's been
offered and honored is as ameans of honoring you and a
glory to you.
The thing that Jesus prayed forthe night before he died for his
(43:22):
disciples, which include us, inJohn the 17th chapter, that's a
prayer for you if you're aChristian.
That prayer is a prayer for you.
Read it.
John 17.
He's asking for glory and honorand immortality to come your
way.
So, this is the salvation ofyour soul, but it's also the
(43:47):
salvation of souls.
Because it's the opportunity forall those who are gathered
together.
to be spiritual servants ofJesus in the, in the heavenlies,
the celestials.
They will become part of thetemple itself.
(44:09):
They become the temple of God,the, the, the place where God
lives, and the, they then turnand invite the entire world of
mankind to join in this temple.
That is what will happen next.
(44:32):
So the salvation of souls doesnot stop with those who become
members of the body of Christ,members of the bride of Christ.
The salvation of souls expandsand it includes everyone who
ultimately will be saved, whichis the vast, I believe, the vast
majority of the human race.
(44:53):
I think there will be very fewfolks.
Who do not become sheep asopposed to goats in the thousand
year reign of the Messiah withhis, with his bride, with the
people who are now learn, nowbeing assembled to follow him
(45:14):
and be his, his companions inthe administration of the, of
the world's leadership andgovernance and, and
encouragement and life giving.
There's a lot of work to be doneto, to raise how many 10, 20,
40, 50, 60 billion people.
(45:35):
A lot of work needs to be done.
And that's why he wants lots ofpeople from every different
culture of the world whounderstand and sympathize and
love and are harmonious can be,can, can show people.
how to overcome the many ways inwhich humans can sin.
(45:59):
Okay, so, I thought that wewould go through several more
Dakimaza scriptures today, but Ifelt like we needed to establish
another hinge for that door,that salvation door that you're
invited to be part of whenyou're a Christian.
And I think 1 Peter 1, 1 through9 was a great way of making that
(46:23):
promise more tangible and morereal and more underscored for
you.
So we'll pick up where we leftoff with that.
And I've got a list of otherscriptures that use Documento.
And again, talk about testing.
being judicious, being almostkind of a skeptic in many ways,
mostly skeptical of our ownvirtue.
(46:44):
That's the, that's the mostimportant thing we can be is
skeptical of our own virtue.
And when we can be a littleskeptical of our own virtue, we
can put ourselves to the testand we can allow ourselves to be
corrected by whoever wants tocorrect us.
You know, we can be, we canlearn a lot from every opponent
we have.
(47:05):
And when we do, we will becomemore like Jesus.
Thanks for listening.
This has been Episode 5 of WeAre Near.
(47:28):
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now amfound.
(47:50):
Was blind, I see.
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