March 20, 2024 • 57 mins
"God trieth our hearts." "The trial of your faith is more precious than gold that perishes". "He shall purify the sons of Levi". "When I am tried, I shall come forth as gold." There should be no debate: Christian character is going to be tried in the crucible of God's oversight and training. But how often do you hear that from the pulpit?
In this presentation we will examine seven scriptures that teach this principle of Christian character growth. Though the trials often feel intense, we can rest assured that God is teaching us in love, challenging us for our good, and protecting us with his grace so that our hopes for success can be rooted and anchored in his promises of safekeeping.
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Owen (00:05):
Welcome to We Are Near, Episode 6.
"Yes, we are on trial." Let'splow through some scriptures,
shall we?
And we're still using that word,dokimazo, as a key to help us
understand the kind of trial andthe kind of testing we are
(00:25):
undergoing, and that we need toparticipate in and cooperate
with God in to do on ourselves.
We are co workers with him, andthe thing that he's building
individually with each of us isa character that is proven to be
(00:48):
reliable under everycircumstance.
That's what we're building, andwe need to work with him to
accomplish that.
We have to understand thatthat's what he's after, We have
to read the Bible to understandwhat kinds of character
qualities he's looking for.
We need to talk about it withother people so that they can
(01:11):
learn from us and we can learnfrom them, other Christians.
We need to talk to people in theworld and try to help them
understand how great a God weall have.
And not just great, but good andkind and loving and really wise
and really just.
(01:32):
He really cares about everybody,the poor, the underprivileged,
the downtrodden, the victims ofsin and death, the meek.
It's the meek who are going toinherit the earth, and they
won't all be from the church.
Most of the ones who inherit theearth will be the meek of the
(01:54):
world of mankind, and they willinherit the earth when the
kingdom of Christ isestablished, and the church is
at Christ's right hand, helpingto lead the world.
That company of humans forwardinto everlasting life on Earth.
So, the purpose of We Are Nearis to establish things that
(02:17):
Christians can agree on, and Irecognize that some of the
things that I've been talkingabout in this discussion are not
things that sound normal andfamiliar to you.
For example, the, the thesis oftoday's presentation, We are on
trial.
Yes, we are on trial.
Have you ever heard that fromthe pulpit before?
(02:39):
Probably not.
What you've probably heard is,once you agree to be a
Christian, there's no morejudgment.
You're in.
You're in.
Nothing that you can do canchange that.
You are in and you will not failand pity the poor people who
aren't in.
That is the way we are usuallyhearing it.
(03:01):
from the pulpit these days, butI'm going to argue that there's
another way to read the Biblethat makes much more sense and
is much more in harmony with thefacts of how Christians
throughout this period of timecalled the Christian era or the
gospel age or whatever you wantto call it the time from Jesus
till now the the time that we'reliving in right now is a time
(03:27):
for the testing and thedevelopment of and the teaching
of the students in the School ofChrist.
When you go to school, hopefullyyou're not going there without
the with the idea that you'renot going to change.
Hopefully you're not going therewith the idea that you are all
ready to graduate.
You're going to school with ablank tablet, a ready pencil,
(03:53):
open ears, and you're ready tolearn, and you're going to be
tested Every week, there's goingto be a quiz.
Every few weeks, there's goingto be a midterm.
And at the end, there's going tobe a final test.
And you need to be able to passthat test, and that is why we
are on trial.
(04:13):
And that's why Documadzo is suchan important word to understand,
because it implies that what weare doing as Christians is
allowing our character to bedrawn on a black basalt
marketplace centerpiece, rightunder the gold, the pure gold of
(04:34):
Jesus character.
So that anybody who looks at itcan, can see exposed what the
character is, what the realityis of that person, what are they
made of, how do they respondunder pressure.
And that's what we are learningin our walk with Jesus.
(04:55):
And in our classroom with ourother Christians with whom we
fellowship.
I'd like to start in on a pileof scriptures and we're going to
race through these.
I'm already 8 minutes in andwe're trying to get through this
in 25 30 minutes.
So, here we go.
The first scripture I want tolook at is 1 Thessalonians 5.
(05:19):
1 to 28.
1 Thessalonians 5.
And actually the verse that I'mgonna focus on is going to be
verse 21.
So let's hit a couple points toget context, and then we're
gonna go into verse 21.
Now, when he starts chapter 5 in1 Thessalonians, he's writing to
(05:41):
Greeks.
Some are Jewish, have a Jewishheritage, and many of them have
have come straight from thepagan world, and apparently all
of these brethren in Christ knewalready some things about what
the times and seasons of theplan of God were going to be.
(06:02):
They knew some things aboutthis, and he says in the first
verse of chapter five,concerning the times and seasons
brethren, and it means brothersand sisters, you have no need to
have anything written to you.
And then he says, you alreadyknow fully, you're fully aware
that the day of the Lord willcome like a thief in the night.
In other words, when Jesusreturns He's writing at the
(06:25):
beginning of the time when Jesushas left and they're all looking
forward to the time when he willreturn.
He says that when they return,he's going to sneak in.
It's going to still benighttime.
He will be back while it's stillnighttime and he, when he comes,
he's going to be like a thief.
And thieves don't usuallyannounce their presence.
They sneak in, right?
(06:47):
He wouldn't be a very good thiefif he You know, made a lot of
noise and attracted a lot ofattention and people started
turning on the lights.
And then he starts describingsome of the things that we'll
see as backgrounds.
He says that that when thepeople will be saying there's
peace and security, suddendestruction is going to come
upon them.
He's talking about thedestruction of aspects of our
(07:09):
worldly system, of our peace andtranquility, In the political
and material world that we'rein, the, the governments, the
kingdoms, all of those things,he's saying that there will be
destruction that will come likelabor pains upon a pregnant
woman.
Okay, so now, that tells yousomething about the kinds of
(07:30):
trouble and pain that the worldis going to experience.
In the night time, while Jesushas returned before he, Fully
reveals himself in theApocalypse and he calls it the
labor pains upon a pregnantwoman.
So what he's saying is, is thatthe trouble that you're going to
see around you in the world isgoing to be cyclical.
(07:52):
It's going to, first there's onepain and then several minutes
later, there's another pain.
And then, several minutes later,there's another pain.
And each time there's a new paincycle, the pain becomes more
intense, and the frequency, thedistance between pains,
shortens.
The frequency increases, thedistance between pains
(08:13):
decreases.
Shortens.
And so, you know, all of you whohave gone through this process
know that near the time when thebaby is ready to be born, the
pains are a minute apart orless.
And that pain is the, actuallythe harbinger of something good
that's going to happen.
It's, it's a squeeze to the bodyand it hurts the wife, but it
(08:34):
pushes the baby out.
And what's the baby?
The baby is all the promises ofGod for the entire world of
mankind.
And he's saying that nobodywho's involved in you know, as,
as the body politic, thepregnant woman, nobody is going
to escape the pain.
It's going to touch everybody inthe world.
It's not saying that nobody isgoing to live.
(08:57):
It's saying that nobody's goingto escape the troubled times
that are going to afflict theentire world as they, as the
birth of this new period oftime, the new age happens.
And then he says, but you arenot in darkness, brothers, for
that day to surprise you like athief.
He's saying that you, becauseyou've been listening to me,
(09:20):
Paul, you know some things.
You know what's going to happen.
And so, he, he encourages thebrethren, he's writing to, not
to be sleepy, and he doesn'tmean sleepy in the sense that,
you know, he's not saying don'tsleep every night, he's saying
don't sleep during the daytime,don't be oblivious to what's
(09:41):
happening in the world aroundyou, watch, keep awake and be
sober spiritually.
And then he goes on, and we'llskip down through, and he says
one of the things that we are todo with our Christian brethren
is to encourage one another andbuild one another up.
(10:02):
And he says, you're alreadydoing this, and he's glad.
And then he says, he also asksthem to respect those who labor
among you.
In other words, he's saying,Recognize who the actual
leaders, who is feeding youspiritually, and listen to them,
and recognize that they have animportant job, and don't make it
hard on them, is what he'ssaying.
(10:22):
And he's also saying that theyare there to admonish you.
In other words, you have thingsyou need to learn.
And he says, to esteem theseleaders, these teachers, very
highly in love because of theirwork.
It's work to teach.
And then he says, be at peaceamong yourselves.
In other words, what he's reallysaying is, when you're learning
(10:45):
and your brethren are learning,you might not learn at the same
pace.
That's going to create conflict.
You're going to have differencesof opinion and differences of
ideas.
Be at peace among yourselves.
Learn to accept the fact thatthere's going to be different
growth patterns and differentlevels of awareness within the
body of Christ.
And then he says, To admonishidle folks, in other words, help
(11:08):
them see that they need to beresponsible, not just for
spiritual things, but alsotemporal things, things that are
temporary in our lives.
And then, he says, don't actlike the people in the world do,
repaying one another, evil forevil.
This is not the way we'relearning.
The thing that we're trying tolearn here is to treat people
(11:29):
the way Jesus treated people.
And how did he treat the peoplewho mistreated him?
He was forgiving.
The high priest servant comesand attacks him.
Peter cuts off his ear.
He turns to Peter and says, Putup your sword, and then he heals
the guy's ear.
So, the whole purpose for havingthe sword there was to show that
(11:51):
we are not swordsmen who aregoing to fight using temporal
violence.
We're not going to do that.
Christians are not going to bedoing violent stuff.
And then he says, he talks aboutdon't quench the spirit, don't
despise prophecies, which iswhat our other podcast is about,
by the way, prophecies.
But it also doesn't meanprophecies, it means prophecies.
(12:12):
Public speaking.
In other words, the talkingabout.
There's a lot of talk that goesinto being a Christian.
A lot of public discussion andtalk.
Don't despise that.
It seems like a lot of work andit sometimes seems fruitless.
It's necessary to work onunderstanding these things.
Test everything.
Hold fast what is good.
(12:34):
And that's the verse we wantedto focus on.
Documadso.
So when you hear all thesediscussions, these prophecies,
that doesn't mean telling thefuture.
Prophecies usually means justtalking about the future.
Spiritual stuff.
He's saying, instead of having acynical, questioning outlook and
kind of rejecting everything,don't despise those things, but
(12:58):
test So he's asking for a middleground.
He's saying, I don't want you tohave an attitude that resists
any kind of new idea or any kindof discussion of spiritual
truths.
He's saying, Don't despise it.
Don't categorically reject whatpeople say to you.
But, don't just be gullibleeither.
(13:21):
Don't just listen and accepteverything they say.
He says test everything.
So the context here is the ideasabout what could be true about
current events.
about the nearness of the returnof Christ, for example.
That was on their minds way backthen, and it should be on our
(13:42):
minds right now.
It should be one of the top ofmind things that we're thinking
about.
What are the signs of Jesusreturn?
So he's saying everything thingthat people in the church offer
to you as information, he'ssaying smile, listen, but test
it.
Be a skeptic in that sense.
(14:05):
And then he says, hold fast whatis good.
Now hold fast means to possessand hang on to.
So if you find something good,put it in your fact pocket.
And if you'd find somethingthat's interesting, put it in
your opinion pocket and keeptesting it.
So.
The other thing that, that holdfast can mean, it's often used
(14:28):
in, in a maritime situation, todescribe the work that a, a
captain or the first mate doesat the tiller of a boat.
They have to hold fast.
They have to set a course.
They've got a compass.
They've got a sextant.
They're looking at the stars inthe distance.
They are trying to hold onto acourse.
(14:50):
To keep moving in thatdirection, and the wind is
blowing a different way, and thewaves are pushing a different
way, and you have to struggle tohold that wheel and keep the
boat, it's going to turn, it'sgoing to veer off, and you're
going to have to turn it back,keep it going back into the
right direction, that's whathe's saying.
(15:10):
When you are, when you seesomething good, it's usually in
the distance, it's somethingaspirational, and you're looking
forward, he's saying, hold fastto that what's the word, that
bearing.
Hold fast on that bearing andkeep going in that direction, if
it's a good direction.
So, That was Documento, testeverything, hold fast what's
(15:36):
good.
Documento together is, is is anidea that means putting things
to the test and recognizing andclinging to the good stuff that
we find when we are evaluatingthings.
Okay.
Now let's look at the nextverse.
(15:57):
I'm going to stay inThessalonians here.
Here it is.
Now I'm going to go to 1Thessalonians 2, and we're
headed for verse 4.
In, in chapter one, he, he, hetalked a little bit about the
presence of, of Christ and thetimes and seasons.
And chapter five was alsotalking about the times and
(16:19):
seasons.
So this is the context.
All of Thessalonians is kind oftalking about the times and
seasons and the signs of thetimes that you're living in, how
to interpret.
He says that you yourselvesknow, brothers, that our
presence with you is not invain.
But, though we had alreadysuffered and been shamefully
treated at Philippi, as youknow, we had boldness in our God
(16:40):
to declare to you the gospel ofGod in the midst of much
conflict.
For our appeal does not springfrom error or impurity or any
attempt to deceive.
But just as we have beenapproved by God to be entrusted
with the gospel, so we speak.
Not to please man, but to pleaseGod, who tests our hearts.
(17:01):
Alright, so here's Dakamadzoagain.
Just as we have been approved.
Now the word The word I forgotto flip it to the screen so you
can see it.
Here it is.
For our appeal does not springfrom error or impurity or any
attempt to deceive, but just aswe have been approved by God to
(17:21):
be entrusted with the gospel, sowe speak, not to please man, but
to please God who tests ourhearts.
Okay, so here is Dakemazo again.
Now, in this verse, verse 4 of 1Thessalonians 2, he says, Just
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as we have been approved by God,and it's a kind of mouthful.
He's added a few syllables atthe beginning and the end of
this word, dokimadzo, and thefull word is didakamosmetha.
Didakamosmetha.
Wow, that's a mouthful.
And, in a nutshell, those littlebeginning and endings, are just
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a way of adding some precisionand insight into what he means
by this word.
And, in essence, these lettersare added to it to show that
it's something that is inprocess, it's not a finished
thing, and it's, the letters areadded to show that it's middle
(18:24):
voice.
In other words, that theapproval process.
It's something that affects theone who's doing it.
So it's, it means that the actoris also involved in approving
things himself.
Okay, so what does that mean?
How do we understand that wehave been approved by God when
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he says we have been approved?
I think what he's, by God, whatI think he's saying by putting
it in middle voice, he's sayingwe are engaged in the process of
approval with God.
This is a team effort.
And so when he says he's beenapproved by God, he's not saying
I had a dream brethren and Godhas told me that I have the
(19:13):
truth.
This is not what he's saying.
He's saying, I have beenlaboring working hard at
understanding what is pleasingto God.
And God has shown me in thestruggles in my life, When I'm
on the right track, and when Igo through a tough experience
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and I have really labored to tryto understand what God is trying
to tell me and what, what ispleasing to him and what he
wants all of the Christianbrethren to, and sisters to
participate in, in terms oftheir character and their life.
He's saying, I have learned thisand God has been the active
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agent in teaching me this.
He's saying, it's a mouthful,but that's what he's trying to
say, I think.
He's trying to get across theidea that we're in partnership
with God.
And when we are feeling approvedby God, it's, if we, if we're
doing this the right way, ifwe're living the right way,
we're transparent with God,we're open with Him in prayer,
(20:18):
we're, we're listening andwe're, we're participating with
Him in the process of living ourlives.
And he shows us little things,little signposts that tell us
that we're on the right track.
And now he's speaking as theaged Apostle Paul to these
brethren in Thessalonica.
And he's saying, if I've beenentrusted by God through this,
(20:41):
this dynamic tandem process ofme with God working, and you are
engaged in the same kind of workyourself, It allows a growing
body of people to be entrustedwith the gospel.
It's not just me.
It's not just you.
But we're growing together andwe're moving forward in becoming
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entrusted.
You know, tested and approved.
That's what Dakemazo means.
Tested and approved by God.
Tested and approved in our ownconscience.
It's all happening at the sametime.
Middle voice.
Okay, and then so he says, So wespeak, not to please man, but to
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please God.
Alright, that's a very importantpart.
He's saying, what I'm trying todo here is not to please man,
not to please man.
Oh, wow.
Think about all the Christianministers that you've known who
ought to read this verse a fewtimes and think about it.
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Their goal is not to please man,but to please God.
That's the goal of everythingthat we do in our lives.
Not to please man, but to pleaseGod.
Not to please man, but to pleaseGod.
(22:11):
Okay, so, and here is where the,the real rubber hits the road
and is the main title of ourlesson today.
Yes, we are on trial.
Why?
Because God is the one who isactually testing us.
Our hearts.
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What is our heart?
Let's start there.
You see, God is not sointerested in what your fingers
do.
He's not so interested in whatyour feet do, or even what your
brain does.
Because He knows that you'reworking with a brain, a
operating system, that's alittle bit bent out of shape
(22:54):
because of having, being in thisearthen vessel, a human body.
You know, you're subject to theshame that you felt from things
that happened in your childhoodbefore you can remember.
You're subject to theattractions and, and deceptions
of a world system and even adevil who is trying to trick us.
(23:17):
He understands all of that.
We're going to make mistakes ofthought and mistakes of action
and mistakes of word.
All of us are going to do that.
That's covered.
It's under the blood of Christ.
There's a robe of righteousnessthat's white that covers all of
those sins.
But he's testing our heartsbecause you see, when it comes
(23:40):
down to it, our hearts are thething that we want to do.
We got to make sure that what wewant to do is the right thing.
We've got to be sure that whatwe want to do is the right
thing.
What is pleasing to God?
What has been commanded by God?
(24:02):
What is, represents obedience toGod?
What do we want?
What do we care about?
What do we work toward?
What do we wake up thinkingabout?
What do we go to bed worryingabout?
What do we dream about?
That's our heart.
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That's where our heart is.
And so, what did the I think itwas Solomon who said this, Keep
your heart with all diligence,for out of it are the issues of
life.
This is true not only ofChristians who are aspiring to
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be spiritual beings in thefuture, involved with Jesus in
the governance of the of theentire planet, and even beyond
in a future ages to come.
But right now, we, along withevery human being on the planet,
have a heart to deal with.
(25:04):
And we know that God has said,in the future, He's going to
give a new heart to all thepeople.
He's going to give them a heartof flesh instead of a heart of
stone.
So all of the hardness of heartthat we see around us in the
world system, has All of thehardness of heart we see in our
political discourse, all of thehardness of heart that we see in
(25:25):
the different countries of theworld, dictators and, and
terrible rulers.
Yes, there's a lot of hardheartedness in the world.
But, Jesus died to make itpossible.
For God to wipe away the pastand let people have a new start
(25:45):
in life, just like we got, verysimilar to the way we got a new
start in life when we came toJesus.
We had our come to Jesus momentin this life, and that is a
great privilege.
But everybody else is going tohave a come to Jesus moment in a
future age, right around thecorner, I believe.
So, when that happens, they willhave their heart of flesh given
(26:09):
to them, and they will be ableto now obey the Solomon and keep
their own heart with alldiligence.
They're still going to have tolearn some things in the
millennium.
They're still going to have tostart over and build a new
character that's based onrighteousness.
And we will be there to helpthem.
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Because we will have gonethrough the process ourselves in
this age.
And that's what we're doing.
And that's why God is testingour hearts.
So that we will be able to helpother people cultivate healthy
hearts of their own in theMillennium.
That is the big picture of theplan of God.
(26:53):
So there it is, right there inblack and white.
God tests our hearts.
It's our hearts on trial rightnow.
The rest of the world, is not ontrial.
Let me just give you a prooftext for that before I go back
to the other Documento text thatI want to get to.
Remember what Jesus said ofhimself in John 3.
(27:17):
16?
He said, God so loved the worldthat he gave his only begotten
Son that whosoever believes inhim shall not perish.
Parish means die, by the way.
Go out of existence.
He says that whoever believes inhim should not perish but have
everlasting life.
(27:39):
That's a wonderful promise.
It begs the question, does thatmean that if people don't accept
Jesus, that they are going toperish and they'll go out of
existence forever?
Jesus answers that question.
that we might be thinking in thenext verse, John 3, 17.
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He says, God did not send hisson into the world to condemn,
and that word condemn doesn'tmean, it's not docomazo.
What it means is to set up atrial and have a court set up
and hear evidence and come to adecision about somebody's guilt
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or innocence.
He says, God did not send hisson to set up this trial and
make the world stand as guiltybefore God.
That's not the purpose of thisperiod of time that we're living
in right now.
God left the world system alone.
He left all the awful kings and,and governors and emperors that
(28:44):
we've experienced in life.
He left them in place.
He left Satan there to trickanybody he could.
He left ignorance planet wide.
Why?
Well, because that createsobstacles and headwinds for us
that we have to fight against sothat we can learn to have our
hearts pass the test in themidst of this trouble.
(29:09):
But he said, back in John 3, 17,he says, God didn't send the Son
to judge the world, but that theworld might be made safe and
sound, is what it says literallyin the Greek.
He sent Jesus so that the worldmight be made safe and sound.
The world has already been madesafe and sound.
They have, their salvation hasbeen paid for.
(29:32):
Their bank account has beenfilled.
They haven't drawn on that bankaccount yet.
That'll happen in themillennium.
But that, but the money isthere.
They have a, They have a collegefund waiting for them that was
paid for at Calvary.
And so what he's saying in John3.
17 is the purpose of God sendingJesus into the world in John 3.
(29:53):
16 is so that anybody who doesbelieve in him in this
intervening time will haveeternal life.
And that's what we have.
We are already promised this.
We already are experiencing thisas followers of Jesus.
We aren't totally, finallysaved.
(30:14):
He says, Be thou faithful untodeath and you will receive a
crown of life.
So we're, we still have to befaithful until death.
And that's what this podcast isabout, the process of helping
Christians.
Whatever their background,whatever their eschatology is,
to be faithful unto death and tounderstand what the requirements
(30:37):
for life are.
And the requirements for lifeare very clear in the Bible,
aren't they?
The standards of righteousnessare among the clearest things
that the Bible talks about.
Eschatology, not so much.
That's not so clear.
It's, I think, leftintentionally difficult to
grasp.
(30:58):
And it takes a lot of sorting,and it takes some, some almost
good fortune to be, like, I wasborn into a family that
recognized some of these things.
And so, that's, That's the onlyreason I'm sitting here talking
the way I'm talking, becauseI've had, I've been exposed to
an underculture within theChristian movement that, that
recognizes some different thingsthat most folks haven't learned
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about yet.
And I'm grateful for that.
And I'm also realizing that I'mno better than anyone else.
I just happen to be lucky enoughto know some things and I'm
trying to share them with you.
Okay.
After that digression of John 3,17, I want to go to 2
(31:42):
Corinthians 13.
Here it is, 2 Corinthians 13,and we're going to be looking
for verse 5.
Now, 2 Corinthians iscomplicated.
I'm not going to wade into theweeds here.
It's a very difficult passage,but let's look at verse 4.
He says, is that 4?
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No, that's 5.
Yeah, let's start with four.
He was crucified in weakness.
That's Jesus.
Jesus was crucified in weakness,right?
He was a human being.
He the ev it between the surgingthat he experienced and then
(32:24):
being nailed to a cross.
It took it all out of him.
Disco, urging during the night,and then six hours on the cross,
and he was done.
He was dead when they came tohim to break his legs.
They didn't have to break hislegs.
So he was crucified in weakness.
The weakness of being a humanbeing.
With all the weakness thatimplies.
But he lives, that is he's beenresurrected, right?
(32:46):
He was resurrected on the thirdday.
He lives by the power of God.
For we also, now he's, now he'scomparing it to us.
We also are weak in him.
He's saying that being aChristian As a human being
following Jesus, we are weak,but we are weak in Him.
But in dealing with you, we willlive with him by the power of
(33:09):
God.
So he's saying that we aren'tthere yet, but we will live with
him.
We will also experience aresurrection to spiritual life,
just as Jesus did.
And that will come, just as inJesus case, as a result of the
power of God.
In one of his epistles, Paulcalls it the mighty power of
(33:29):
God, to give what Peter calledthe divine nature to the likes
of you and me.
So, with that amazing honor infront of us, what does he say to
do?
He says, examine, examineyourselves.
He's not saying examine yourselfin comparison to your brother or
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sister, is he?
He's saying examine yourself.
It's just like when Jesus said,Oh, you see a splinter in
somebody's eye and you want toreach for it to help them get it
removed?
Oh, well, first you betternotice that in your own eye you
have a beam, not a splinter.
You have a beam in your own eye.
(34:14):
It's much closer to you and it'sjust as hard to get at as that
splinter in their eye is thatbeam in your eye.
It's, try to grab that beam.
It takes finesse.
It takes precision of movement.
It takes plenty of water to kindof splash on there to wash it
out.
(34:34):
That's what he's saying.
Examine yourselves.
Dakimazo.
And again, Dakimazo doesn't justmean be down on yourself, be
critical of yourself.
It means test yourself against arighteous standard and then
approve what's good anddisapprove what's not.
(34:56):
That's the whole idea in thatone Greek word.
Test yourself.
And God, we read in the previousverses, God is doing that with
us.
That's the process he's puttingus all through.
We need to cooperate with himand do that ourselves.
And he says, when you do it, hegives us a little encouragement.
(35:18):
Here's a little coachingencouragement.
He's got us in the corner.
We're sitting down after beingslugged a bunch by the opponent.
And you know, there's, there'sblood coming out of our nose
and, and our lip is getting fatfrom being punched.
And he says, do you not realizethis about yourselves?
(35:39):
That Jesus is in you?
Jesus Christ is in you.
So he's saying, don't be so hardon yourself that you can't see
the good that you have.
There is good in you.
Find it.
Find the good stuff that you'vegot in there and try to
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reinforce that.
And.
You will move forward.
You will make progress.
And then he says, unless indeedyou fail to meet the test.
In other words, if you stoptesting yourself and you stop
holding yourself to a highstandard, what's going to
happen?
If you stop reading the Bibleand being challenged to be
(36:22):
stronger in faith and morecomplete in knowledge, if you
stop doing that, What are yousaying?
Are you saying that you are, youfailed and you're not ready to,
to graduate and you've given up?
Are you gonna drop out ofschool?
You're gonna drop out of theschool of Christ?
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No, he's saying, nah, I don'tbelieve that you're gonna fail
to meet the test.
I trust, I, God picked you, Godcalled you, God invited you.
You can't believe in Jesuswithout God, entering into your
heart and your mind, you havebeen given a gift.
Just keep going.
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Put one step in front of theother and just keep going.
He's saying, aspirationally,he's confident, we can do this.
We know that there is no othercreature that can get in the way
of us being successful inChrist.
There's really only onecreature.
One creature can get in the way.
(37:24):
Amen.
And that's ourselves, but evenSatan can't get in the way and
actually block us from beingfrom being successful as
followers of Jesus.
Okay, now we're going to go to,we were in 2nd Corinthians 13.
Now we're going to go to 1stCorinthians 3.
1st Corinthians 3, 1 to 17.
(37:47):
So I'm going to look at 13.
Verse 13 is the target.
Now, when he talks to the firstCorinthians, he's got some
issues.
And so he says, I couldn'taddress you as spiritual people,
but as people of the flesh.
Paul is kind of reading the riotact to the church in Corinth.
They've got some serious sins ofthe flesh.
(38:08):
We're talking sexual immoralityand things like that.
These are serious things thatthe Corinthian brethren are, are
stumbling into, and they're,they're stuck in the weeds and
in the mud right now.
And so he says, I couldn'taddress you as spiritual people
but as people of the flesh.
As infants in Christ, you know,he says, I fed you with milk,
(38:28):
but not solid food for, you'renot ready for it.
You're not ready to keep movingand advancing into an
understanding of how to live asa Christian because you're
stumbling on some of the mostbasic principles of human
behavior that really evenordinary humans recognize are
standards they need to, youknow, you need to have one
(38:52):
partner, you need to becommitted to that partner,
Things like that.
Those are obviously questionednow in our culture where
everything is falling apart andthe world system is awash in, in
you know, it's just breakingdown.
It's falling apart.
But in the Christian world, thatshouldn't be happening.
In Christian families, thatshouldn't be happening.
(39:15):
So he says, You weren't ready.
You're cause you're still in theflesh.
For while there's jealousy andstrife among you, aren't you not
of the flesh and behaving onlyin a human way?
Ooh, now it's getting a littlecloser to home, isn't it?
We're finding at times in theChristian world today where
Evangelicals are, are jumping inwith both feet and both hands
(39:35):
into the water, the muddy waterof politics, aren't they?
Isn't this a big issue?
With Christian people havingstrife and jealousy and, and
backbiting and, and, andbelligerency between them over
What, political candidates?
Government policy?
(39:56):
We shouldn't even be talkingabout that.
We shouldn't even be worryingabout that, should we?
Those are the things that aregoing to be passing away.
That's going to be replaced.
I mean, as good as the UnitedStates has been in years past,
it's not the salvation of theworld.
It's not the the kingdom of God.
(40:19):
So, we should be Focusing on ourown hearts.
And getting those better andthen talking about that in a way
that's humble to help othersalso learn how to be a better
shepherd of their own heart.
Okay, so then he uses that as anexample of the kind of mis
(40:42):
applied thinking misdirectedenergy, when he says someone in
the group says, I follow Pauland another, I follow Apollos,
you know, he says, are you notmerely being human when you do
this?
You know, it's like saying Ifollow Trump or I follow Biden.
I follow Republican candidatesor I follow Democratic
candidates.
(41:03):
Brethren, this is not somethingwe should be doing or thinking
about at all.
This is irrelevant to theChristian world.
What then is Apollos?
Now, Paul and Apollos, they werenot political candidates.
They were teachers.
They were speakers in theChristian church.
Apollos was probably a littlebit more of an evangelist.
(41:25):
Paul was a little bit more of apastor than an evangelist.
He was both.
Apollos probably was both too,but mainly Apollos was focused
on the, the the new folks.
And Paul was mostly focused ontrying to build up and, and, and
(41:46):
discipline and, and encourageand strengthen the ones who had
accepted Christ.
And he talks about in Romansthat he was, or no, it wasn't
Romans, one of his epistles, hesays, I'm thankful I didn't
baptize any of you.
In other words, I wasn't the guythat brought you into this
thing.
You know, I'm here as a pastorand as a teacher to help you
(42:09):
move beyond that where youstarted, wherever you started.
But here he comes into Corinthand they're like little babies.
And spiritually speaking, theyare, they're arguing about, You
know, who their loyalties are toin the, in the church, which
speaker do they like the best?
Which pastor do they enjoy themost?
(42:30):
Which books are they reading?
And so forth.
So he says, who are Paul andApollos?
They are servants through whomyou believed as the Lord
assigned to each.
In other words, let's get thisin perspective here.
The Lord is in charge and heassigned servants to each.
(42:52):
And each servant does whatthey're supposed to do.
So he says, I planted, Apolloswatered, right?
It's a farm.
It doesn't matter who operatesthe tractor to do the planting.
It doesn't matter who operatesthe machinery to distribute the
water.
(43:12):
They're just servants.
And one does watering, and onedoes fertilizing, and one does
weeding, and one does planting,and one does harvesting.
They're all servants of thebigger goal, which is God's
goal, the development of achurch of Christ.
(43:33):
So then he says, So neither hewho plants nor he who waters is
anything, but only God who givesthe growth.
He who plants and he who watersare one.
They're one and the same.
They're on the same team.
They have the same goals.
And each will receive his wagesaccording to his labor.
Now he introduces a new ideahere.
(43:53):
This is an interesting idea.
He's saying, you know, we, wealways think about Christianity
as being, and, and theopportunity to be a Christ, a
Christian.
We always think of that as beingsomething that happens by grace.
It doesn't happen through works.
It happens by grace, right?
Well, let's go back to thisverse again and notice what it
(44:15):
says.
He who plants and he who watersare one and each one will
receive his wages according tohis labor.
Now, wait a minute.
You mean there's wagesassociated with being a follower
of Jesus?
Yeah, actually there are.
There are wages.
And those wages are a result ofthe way in which we participate
(44:42):
and cooperate with God in thetesting and development of our
hearts, our desires, ourinnermost motivations, and our
character fruitage.
We are God's fellow workers.
You are God's field, he says.
You are God's field.
(45:04):
God's building.
So he's using multiplemetaphors, isn't he?
In one sense, we're a field,which is just a bunch of dirt
that somebody externally addsseed to and adds water to and
fertilizes and develops a plant.
And we might be the plant, butwe are only developing because
(45:26):
God did all the things necessaryto make that plant grow.
Or, the other metaphor is agill, a building.
You know, he clears the field,he digs a foundation, and that
foundation is Christ.
And on that foundation, which isa solid rock, he brings stones
that he's cut years before in a,in a quarry.
(45:49):
And he brings those stones andhe starts assembling them.
And we are We are a part of thatbuilding, and in another sense,
we are the building.
He's building us up, and thenhe's building each of us
together into a superstructure.
A bunch of, a bunch of stonestogether that become a temple
(46:10):
where he lives.
So I'm headed for Verse 13,According to the grace of God
given to me, like a skilledmaster builder, I laid a
foundation, and someone else isbuilding upon it.
Let each one take care how hebuilds on it.
For no one can lay a foundationother than that which is laid,
(46:31):
which is Jesus Christ.
He's the foundation of thebuilding.
Now, if anyone builds on thefoundation with gold or silver
or precious stones, those arethe good things.
The things that are not going tobe burned up if there's a fire
that sweeps through.
Or, wood, hay, and straw.
(46:52):
Which are other buildingsupplies that many people have
lived in for time immemorial.
But he's saying, be carefulbecause if you build your
building out of wood, hay, andstraw, when the fire comes, when
the troubles of the end of theChristian era come, you're gonna
find some of the things that youbuilt maybe getting burned up.
(47:15):
So what did you build with?
What did you, what did, what didyou put your Christian energy
into building?
And is it something that willstand the test of time?
He says, each one's work willbecome manifest for the day will
disclose it because it will berevealed by fire.
And here's the, here's the magicwords.
(47:37):
The fire will test.
It will become manifest for theday will disclose it because it
will be revealed by fire and thefire will test what sort of work
each one has done.
That's what's going to happen.
The fire will test, the firewill test, Dakemazo.
(48:04):
The fire, the difficulties, thetrouble that we experience in
our church, in our world, in ourfamily, in our own minds, that
fire will put to the test all ofthe character that we've been
trying to develop throughout ourChristian walk.
(48:26):
It's a daunting idea, isn't it?
It's kind of a scary idea, butit is a reality.
We've got to recognize that Godis perfect.
And in one way, he is aperfectionist.
And in another way, he's not.
(48:46):
The way in which he is aperfectionist is that his goal
and his plan and his energy isput into making a bunch of
people perfect.
Perfect spiritually, and thenperfect as leaders on planet
earth in the nation of Israel,and then eventually everybody
(49:09):
else, perfect citizens of ahappy, joyous world.
That's the perfectionism of God,looking at the end product.
But he's not a perfectionistwhen it comes to your daily
growth process.
He's like a loving, fun loving,playful dad when it comes to the
(49:33):
way he treats us while we'regrowing.
He doesn't look at littlechildren and say, Oh boy, look
at those imperfect adults.
He's not looking at us that way.
He knows that we have to makemistakes.
He knows that we are going tomake mistakes.
He knows that we are going tothink wrong thoughts.
He knows that we're going to askstupid questions.
(49:55):
He also knows that we're goingto ask a lot of really important
and valuable questions, and he'sright there and ready to help us
learn the answers to thosequestions the best possible way.
Sometimes he'll give us a fewwords that explain it.
Sometimes he'll say, you'll findout.
He just knows the best way toget us coached up and built up
and raised up to be goodfollowers of him.
(50:18):
Okay, Dakimadzo.
There it is again.
The fire will not only exposeand point the finger at.
It's not that kind of testing.
The fire will try it and compareit to a perfect standard.
(50:39):
And the fire will also show howclose to gold it is.
It'll, it'll approve it.
It'll help us approve ourselves.
It'll help us approve ourbrethren.
And, and encourage them when wesee something good that they're
doing that maybe they're down onthemselves about, we'll help
them get through it.
(51:01):
That's the, how the fire isworking to test and approve at
the same time.
Alright, we're almost done withthis list.
Hebrews 3, 9.
He says, Therefore, holybrothers, this is verse one, you
who share in a heavenly calling,okay, so again, this is aimed at
(51:23):
Christians who have answered thecall that was given in our first
text that we've spent so manyweeks on, Romans 12, 1 and 2.
The calling is, offer yourselvesa living sacrifice that's holy.
That God gave you the ability todo.
(51:44):
So if this is the heavenlycalling and if we are obedient
to that calling and we answer itand we, we say yes, then we have
all of the resources of God atour disposal to learn this thing
and to make it through life to apoint where we are honorable,
valuable, mature children of Godand brothers and sisters of
(52:10):
Jesus Christ.
who will be a part of his bride,part of his very body.
And so he says consider Jesus,the apostle and high priest of
our confession, who was faithfulto him who appointed him.
Jesus was faithful to God, justas Moses also was faithful in
(52:32):
all God's house.
For Jesus has been countedworthy of more glory than Moses.
As much more glory as thebuilder of a house has much more
honor than the house itself.
Now, Moses was faithful in allGod's house as a servant, to
testify to the things that wereto be spoken later, but Christ
is faithful over God's house asa son and we are his house.
(52:56):
If indeed we hold fast ourconfidence and are boasting in
our hope.
Here's the same metaphor again.
We're part of a house.
We have other members that arealso part of the house, and we
need to do our part.
If we're a beam a, a two by fourin a wall, we need to hold that
wall up.
(53:16):
We need to stay in contact withthe, the drywall and the, and
the shingles on the outside.
We've gotta do our part to helpsupport the house that we're a
member of.
Okay, so we're headed towardsverse nine today.
If you hear his voice.
(53:37):
Today, if you hear his voice, donot harden your hearts, as in
the rebellion.
Here we are talking about heartsagain, aren't we?
Don't harden your hearts as inthe rebellion, which he's
talking about, you know, thingsthat happened back when the law
was given by Moses, on the dayof testing in the wilderness.
(53:57):
Testing.
There it is again.
Testing in the wilderness, whereyour fathers put me to the test.
Now the word testing here is notDoc Amadso, but when it says,
but where your fathers put me tothe test, that is Doc Amadso.
He's saying that the, thefathers of the Jewish people put
(54:20):
God to the test.
They scratched God on thatbasalt.
And I don't know what their goldstandard was when they put God
there, But, apparently, Theydidn't have the right standard
because it says they saw hisworks for 40 years.
What he's saying is, if you'regoing to put God to the test,
(54:43):
understand that He's going to befaithful and He's going to come
out showing you where yourstandards of testing are
mistaken.
If you're going to put gold downbelow something else, He's going
to, He's going to show you inyour life experience.
(55:03):
That what you thought was goldwasn't, and what, and what you
put on the, on, on the rock tocompare it to, that was the
gold.
That was the gold.
God is the gold.
So, we've looked at this word,this idea of, of having a
(55:24):
critical thinking mentality, andthis is the.
This is the, the thing that'sholding up this door of entry
into the temple of God.
This is the, the door ofsalvation.
This is the way of progress asChristians into the realms where
God lives and breathes.
And where we are being trainedto live and breathe the same air
(55:48):
and, and be able to converseand, and, and live with and
enjoy the company of the SupremeRuler of the universe and His
love.
glorious son who we will bemarried to in the coming age.
Okay, so we're not going to gothere today, but Romans 1, 28
(56:12):
uses the word dokimazo andanother word that's a derivative
of that word and it uses it tomake a point about not the
Christians of the world, but theun Christians in human history.
That's what we'll look at in ournext episode.
So, episode seven will be Romans1.
(56:34):
That's a really tough passage tolook through, and we're going to
try to shed some light on whatthe argument of the Apostle Paul
really was when he made thestatements that he made in
Romans 1.
And we'll look at most of Romans1 all the way through to the
28th verse and a little beyond.
Thanks for listening andremember, we are near.
(56:58):
All Christians are approachingthe end of the world.
of the Christian era and the endof their own process of growth,
testing, and development.
So, stay the course, focus onmaturity, focus on spiritual
matters, read the Bible, studythe Bible, fellowship with other
(57:20):
believers, pray to the Lord, andlisten carefully to what He says
when you are praying.
God bless you.
Welcome to We Are Near, Episode 6.
"Yes, we are on trial." Let'splow through some scriptures,
shall we?
And we're still using that word,dokimazo, as a key to help us
understand the kind of trial andthe kind of testing we are
(00:25):
undergoing, and that we need toparticipate in and cooperate
with God in to do on ourselves.
We are co workers with him, andthe thing that he's building
individually with each of us isa character that is proven to be
(00:48):
reliable under everycircumstance.
That's what we're building, andwe need to work with him to
accomplish that.
We have to understand thatthat's what he's after, We have
to read the Bible to understandwhat kinds of character
qualities he's looking for.
We need to talk about it withother people so that they can
(01:11):
learn from us and we can learnfrom them, other Christians.
We need to talk to people in theworld and try to help them
understand how great a God weall have.
And not just great, but good andkind and loving and really wise
and really just.
(01:32):
He really cares about everybody,the poor, the underprivileged,
the downtrodden, the victims ofsin and death, the meek.
It's the meek who are going toinherit the earth, and they
won't all be from the church.
Most of the ones who inherit theearth will be the meek of the
(01:54):
world of mankind, and they willinherit the earth when the
kingdom of Christ isestablished, and the church is
at Christ's right hand, helpingto lead the world.
That company of humans forwardinto everlasting life on Earth.
So, the purpose of We Are Nearis to establish things that
(02:17):
Christians can agree on, and Irecognize that some of the
things that I've been talkingabout in this discussion are not
things that sound normal andfamiliar to you.
For example, the, the thesis oftoday's presentation, We are on
trial.
Yes, we are on trial.
Have you ever heard that fromthe pulpit before?
(02:39):
Probably not.
What you've probably heard is,once you agree to be a
Christian, there's no morejudgment.
You're in.
You're in.
Nothing that you can do canchange that.
You are in and you will not failand pity the poor people who
aren't in.
That is the way we are usuallyhearing it.
(03:01):
from the pulpit these days, butI'm going to argue that there's
another way to read the Biblethat makes much more sense and
is much more in harmony with thefacts of how Christians
throughout this period of timecalled the Christian era or the
gospel age or whatever you wantto call it the time from Jesus
till now the the time that we'reliving in right now is a time
(03:27):
for the testing and thedevelopment of and the teaching
of the students in the School ofChrist.
When you go to school, hopefullyyou're not going there without
the with the idea that you'renot going to change.
Hopefully you're not going therewith the idea that you are all
ready to graduate.
You're going to school with ablank tablet, a ready pencil,
(03:53):
open ears, and you're ready tolearn, and you're going to be
tested Every week, there's goingto be a quiz.
Every few weeks, there's goingto be a midterm.
And at the end, there's going tobe a final test.
And you need to be able to passthat test, and that is why we
are on trial.
(04:13):
And that's why Documadzo is suchan important word to understand,
because it implies that what weare doing as Christians is
allowing our character to bedrawn on a black basalt
marketplace centerpiece, rightunder the gold, the pure gold of
(04:34):
Jesus character.
So that anybody who looks at itcan, can see exposed what the
character is, what the realityis of that person, what are they
made of, how do they respondunder pressure.
And that's what we are learningin our walk with Jesus.
(04:55):
And in our classroom with ourother Christians with whom we
fellowship.
I'd like to start in on a pileof scriptures and we're going to
race through these.
I'm already 8 minutes in andwe're trying to get through this
in 25 30 minutes.
So, here we go.
The first scripture I want tolook at is 1 Thessalonians 5.
(05:19):
1 to 28.
1 Thessalonians 5.
And actually the verse that I'mgonna focus on is going to be
verse 21.
So let's hit a couple points toget context, and then we're
gonna go into verse 21.
Now, when he starts chapter 5 in1 Thessalonians, he's writing to
(05:41):
Greeks.
Some are Jewish, have a Jewishheritage, and many of them have
have come straight from thepagan world, and apparently all
of these brethren in Christ knewalready some things about what
the times and seasons of theplan of God were going to be.
(06:02):
They knew some things aboutthis, and he says in the first
verse of chapter five,concerning the times and seasons
brethren, and it means brothersand sisters, you have no need to
have anything written to you.
And then he says, you alreadyknow fully, you're fully aware
that the day of the Lord willcome like a thief in the night.
In other words, when Jesusreturns He's writing at the
(06:25):
beginning of the time when Jesushas left and they're all looking
forward to the time when he willreturn.
He says that when they return,he's going to sneak in.
It's going to still benighttime.
He will be back while it's stillnighttime and he, when he comes,
he's going to be like a thief.
And thieves don't usuallyannounce their presence.
They sneak in, right?
(06:47):
He wouldn't be a very good thiefif he You know, made a lot of
noise and attracted a lot ofattention and people started
turning on the lights.
And then he starts describingsome of the things that we'll
see as backgrounds.
He says that that when thepeople will be saying there's
peace and security, suddendestruction is going to come
upon them.
He's talking about thedestruction of aspects of our
(07:09):
worldly system, of our peace andtranquility, In the political
and material world that we'rein, the, the governments, the
kingdoms, all of those things,he's saying that there will be
destruction that will come likelabor pains upon a pregnant
woman.
Okay, so now, that tells yousomething about the kinds of
(07:30):
trouble and pain that the worldis going to experience.
In the night time, while Jesushas returned before he, Fully
reveals himself in theApocalypse and he calls it the
labor pains upon a pregnantwoman.
So what he's saying is, is thatthe trouble that you're going to
see around you in the world isgoing to be cyclical.
(07:52):
It's going to, first there's onepain and then several minutes
later, there's another pain.
And then, several minutes later,there's another pain.
And each time there's a new paincycle, the pain becomes more
intense, and the frequency, thedistance between pains,
shortens.
The frequency increases, thedistance between pains
(08:13):
decreases.
Shortens.
And so, you know, all of you whohave gone through this process
know that near the time when thebaby is ready to be born, the
pains are a minute apart orless.
And that pain is the, actuallythe harbinger of something good
that's going to happen.
It's, it's a squeeze to the bodyand it hurts the wife, but it
(08:34):
pushes the baby out.
And what's the baby?
The baby is all the promises ofGod for the entire world of
mankind.
And he's saying that nobodywho's involved in you know, as,
as the body politic, thepregnant woman, nobody is going
to escape the pain.
It's going to touch everybody inthe world.
It's not saying that nobody isgoing to live.
(08:57):
It's saying that nobody's goingto escape the troubled times
that are going to afflict theentire world as they, as the
birth of this new period oftime, the new age happens.
And then he says, but you arenot in darkness, brothers, for
that day to surprise you like athief.
He's saying that you, becauseyou've been listening to me,
(09:20):
Paul, you know some things.
You know what's going to happen.
And so, he, he encourages thebrethren, he's writing to, not
to be sleepy, and he doesn'tmean sleepy in the sense that,
you know, he's not saying don'tsleep every night, he's saying
don't sleep during the daytime,don't be oblivious to what's
(09:41):
happening in the world aroundyou, watch, keep awake and be
sober spiritually.
And then he goes on, and we'llskip down through, and he says
one of the things that we are todo with our Christian brethren
is to encourage one another andbuild one another up.
(10:02):
And he says, you're alreadydoing this, and he's glad.
And then he says, he also asksthem to respect those who labor
among you.
In other words, he's saying,Recognize who the actual
leaders, who is feeding youspiritually, and listen to them,
and recognize that they have animportant job, and don't make it
hard on them, is what he'ssaying.
(10:22):
And he's also saying that theyare there to admonish you.
In other words, you have thingsyou need to learn.
And he says, to esteem theseleaders, these teachers, very
highly in love because of theirwork.
It's work to teach.
And then he says, be at peaceamong yourselves.
In other words, what he's reallysaying is, when you're learning
(10:45):
and your brethren are learning,you might not learn at the same
pace.
That's going to create conflict.
You're going to have differencesof opinion and differences of
ideas.
Be at peace among yourselves.
Learn to accept the fact thatthere's going to be different
growth patterns and differentlevels of awareness within the
body of Christ.
And then he says, To admonishidle folks, in other words, help
(11:08):
them see that they need to beresponsible, not just for
spiritual things, but alsotemporal things, things that are
temporary in our lives.
And then, he says, don't actlike the people in the world do,
repaying one another, evil forevil.
This is not the way we'relearning.
The thing that we're trying tolearn here is to treat people
(11:29):
the way Jesus treated people.
And how did he treat the peoplewho mistreated him?
He was forgiving.
The high priest servant comesand attacks him.
Peter cuts off his ear.
He turns to Peter and says, Putup your sword, and then he heals
the guy's ear.
So, the whole purpose for havingthe sword there was to show that
(11:51):
we are not swordsmen who aregoing to fight using temporal
violence.
We're not going to do that.
Christians are not going to bedoing violent stuff.
And then he says, he talks aboutdon't quench the spirit, don't
despise prophecies, which iswhat our other podcast is about,
by the way, prophecies.
But it also doesn't meanprophecies, it means prophecies.
(12:12):
Public speaking.
In other words, the talkingabout.
There's a lot of talk that goesinto being a Christian.
A lot of public discussion andtalk.
Don't despise that.
It seems like a lot of work andit sometimes seems fruitless.
It's necessary to work onunderstanding these things.
Test everything.
Hold fast what is good.
(12:34):
And that's the verse we wantedto focus on.
Documadso.
So when you hear all thesediscussions, these prophecies,
that doesn't mean telling thefuture.
Prophecies usually means justtalking about the future.
Spiritual stuff.
He's saying, instead of having acynical, questioning outlook and
kind of rejecting everything,don't despise those things, but
(12:58):
test So he's asking for a middleground.
He's saying, I don't want you tohave an attitude that resists
any kind of new idea or any kindof discussion of spiritual
truths.
He's saying, Don't despise it.
Don't categorically reject whatpeople say to you.
But, don't just be gullibleeither.
(13:21):
Don't just listen and accepteverything they say.
He says test everything.
So the context here is the ideasabout what could be true about
current events.
about the nearness of the returnof Christ, for example.
That was on their minds way backthen, and it should be on our
(13:42):
minds right now.
It should be one of the top ofmind things that we're thinking
about.
What are the signs of Jesusreturn?
So he's saying everything thingthat people in the church offer
to you as information, he'ssaying smile, listen, but test
it.
Be a skeptic in that sense.
(14:05):
And then he says, hold fast whatis good.
Now hold fast means to possessand hang on to.
So if you find something good,put it in your fact pocket.
And if you'd find somethingthat's interesting, put it in
your opinion pocket and keeptesting it.
So.
The other thing that, that holdfast can mean, it's often used
(14:28):
in, in a maritime situation, todescribe the work that a, a
captain or the first mate doesat the tiller of a boat.
They have to hold fast.
They have to set a course.
They've got a compass.
They've got a sextant.
They're looking at the stars inthe distance.
They are trying to hold onto acourse.
(14:50):
To keep moving in thatdirection, and the wind is
blowing a different way, and thewaves are pushing a different
way, and you have to struggle tohold that wheel and keep the
boat, it's going to turn, it'sgoing to veer off, and you're
going to have to turn it back,keep it going back into the
right direction, that's whathe's saying.
(15:10):
When you are, when you seesomething good, it's usually in
the distance, it's somethingaspirational, and you're looking
forward, he's saying, hold fastto that what's the word, that
bearing.
Hold fast on that bearing andkeep going in that direction, if
it's a good direction.
So, That was Documento, testeverything, hold fast what's
(15:36):
good.
Documento together is, is is anidea that means putting things
to the test and recognizing andclinging to the good stuff that
we find when we are evaluatingthings.
Okay.
Now let's look at the nextverse.
(15:57):
I'm going to stay inThessalonians here.
Here it is.
Now I'm going to go to 1Thessalonians 2, and we're
headed for verse 4.
In, in chapter one, he, he, hetalked a little bit about the
presence of, of Christ and thetimes and seasons.
And chapter five was alsotalking about the times and
(16:19):
seasons.
So this is the context.
All of Thessalonians is kind oftalking about the times and
seasons and the signs of thetimes that you're living in, how
to interpret.
He says that you yourselvesknow, brothers, that our
presence with you is not invain.
But, though we had alreadysuffered and been shamefully
treated at Philippi, as youknow, we had boldness in our God
(16:40):
to declare to you the gospel ofGod in the midst of much
conflict.
For our appeal does not springfrom error or impurity or any
attempt to deceive.
But just as we have beenapproved by God to be entrusted
with the gospel, so we speak.
Not to please man, but to pleaseGod, who tests our hearts.
(17:01):
Alright, so here's Dakamadzoagain.
Just as we have been approved.
Now the word The word I forgotto flip it to the screen so you
can see it.
Here it is.
For our appeal does not springfrom error or impurity or any
attempt to deceive, but just aswe have been approved by God to
(17:21):
be entrusted with the gospel, sowe speak, not to please man, but
to please God who tests ourhearts.
Okay, so here is Dakemazo again.
Now, in this verse, verse 4 of 1Thessalonians 2, he says, Just
(17:42):
as we have been approved by God,and it's a kind of mouthful.
He's added a few syllables atthe beginning and the end of
this word, dokimadzo, and thefull word is didakamosmetha.
Didakamosmetha.
Wow, that's a mouthful.
And, in a nutshell, those littlebeginning and endings, are just
(18:03):
a way of adding some precisionand insight into what he means
by this word.
And, in essence, these lettersare added to it to show that
it's something that is inprocess, it's not a finished
thing, and it's, the letters areadded to show that it's middle
(18:24):
voice.
In other words, that theapproval process.
It's something that affects theone who's doing it.
So it's, it means that the actoris also involved in approving
things himself.
Okay, so what does that mean?
How do we understand that wehave been approved by God when
(18:50):
he says we have been approved?
I think what he's, by God, whatI think he's saying by putting
it in middle voice, he's sayingwe are engaged in the process of
approval with God.
This is a team effort.
And so when he says he's beenapproved by God, he's not saying
I had a dream brethren and Godhas told me that I have the
(19:13):
truth.
This is not what he's saying.
He's saying, I have beenlaboring working hard at
understanding what is pleasingto God.
And God has shown me in thestruggles in my life, When I'm
on the right track, and when Igo through a tough experience
(19:33):
and I have really labored to tryto understand what God is trying
to tell me and what, what ispleasing to him and what he
wants all of the Christianbrethren to, and sisters to
participate in, in terms oftheir character and their life.
He's saying, I have learned thisand God has been the active
(19:55):
agent in teaching me this.
He's saying, it's a mouthful,but that's what he's trying to
say, I think.
He's trying to get across theidea that we're in partnership
with God.
And when we are feeling approvedby God, it's, if we, if we're
doing this the right way, ifwe're living the right way,
we're transparent with God,we're open with Him in prayer,
(20:18):
we're, we're listening andwe're, we're participating with
Him in the process of living ourlives.
And he shows us little things,little signposts that tell us
that we're on the right track.
And now he's speaking as theaged Apostle Paul to these
brethren in Thessalonica.
And he's saying, if I've beenentrusted by God through this,
(20:41):
this dynamic tandem process ofme with God working, and you are
engaged in the same kind of workyourself, It allows a growing
body of people to be entrustedwith the gospel.
It's not just me.
It's not just you.
But we're growing together andwe're moving forward in becoming
(21:03):
entrusted.
You know, tested and approved.
That's what Dakemazo means.
Tested and approved by God.
Tested and approved in our ownconscience.
It's all happening at the sametime.
Middle voice.
Okay, and then so he says, So wespeak, not to please man, but to
(21:23):
please God.
Alright, that's a very importantpart.
He's saying, what I'm trying todo here is not to please man,
not to please man.
Oh, wow.
Think about all the Christianministers that you've known who
ought to read this verse a fewtimes and think about it.
(21:47):
Their goal is not to please man,but to please God.
That's the goal of everythingthat we do in our lives.
Not to please man, but to pleaseGod.
Not to please man, but to pleaseGod.
(22:11):
Okay, so, and here is where the,the real rubber hits the road
and is the main title of ourlesson today.
Yes, we are on trial.
Why?
Because God is the one who isactually testing us.
Our hearts.
(22:33):
What is our heart?
Let's start there.
You see, God is not sointerested in what your fingers
do.
He's not so interested in whatyour feet do, or even what your
brain does.
Because He knows that you'reworking with a brain, a
operating system, that's alittle bit bent out of shape
(22:54):
because of having, being in thisearthen vessel, a human body.
You know, you're subject to theshame that you felt from things
that happened in your childhoodbefore you can remember.
You're subject to theattractions and, and deceptions
of a world system and even adevil who is trying to trick us.
(23:17):
He understands all of that.
We're going to make mistakes ofthought and mistakes of action
and mistakes of word.
All of us are going to do that.
That's covered.
It's under the blood of Christ.
There's a robe of righteousnessthat's white that covers all of
those sins.
But he's testing our heartsbecause you see, when it comes
(23:40):
down to it, our hearts are thething that we want to do.
We got to make sure that what wewant to do is the right thing.
We've got to be sure that whatwe want to do is the right
thing.
What is pleasing to God?
What has been commanded by God?
(24:02):
What is, represents obedience toGod?
What do we want?
What do we care about?
What do we work toward?
What do we wake up thinkingabout?
What do we go to bed worryingabout?
What do we dream about?
That's our heart.
(24:22):
That's where our heart is.
And so, what did the I think itwas Solomon who said this, Keep
your heart with all diligence,for out of it are the issues of
life.
This is true not only ofChristians who are aspiring to
(24:43):
be spiritual beings in thefuture, involved with Jesus in
the governance of the of theentire planet, and even beyond
in a future ages to come.
But right now, we, along withevery human being on the planet,
have a heart to deal with.
(25:04):
And we know that God has said,in the future, He's going to
give a new heart to all thepeople.
He's going to give them a heartof flesh instead of a heart of
stone.
So all of the hardness of heartthat we see around us in the
world system, has All of thehardness of heart we see in our
political discourse, all of thehardness of heart that we see in
(25:25):
the different countries of theworld, dictators and, and
terrible rulers.
Yes, there's a lot of hardheartedness in the world.
But, Jesus died to make itpossible.
For God to wipe away the pastand let people have a new start
(25:45):
in life, just like we got, verysimilar to the way we got a new
start in life when we came toJesus.
We had our come to Jesus momentin this life, and that is a
great privilege.
But everybody else is going tohave a come to Jesus moment in a
future age, right around thecorner, I believe.
So, when that happens, they willhave their heart of flesh given
(26:09):
to them, and they will be ableto now obey the Solomon and keep
their own heart with alldiligence.
They're still going to have tolearn some things in the
millennium.
They're still going to have tostart over and build a new
character that's based onrighteousness.
And we will be there to helpthem.
(26:31):
Because we will have gonethrough the process ourselves in
this age.
And that's what we're doing.
And that's why God is testingour hearts.
So that we will be able to helpother people cultivate healthy
hearts of their own in theMillennium.
That is the big picture of theplan of God.
(26:53):
So there it is, right there inblack and white.
God tests our hearts.
It's our hearts on trial rightnow.
The rest of the world, is not ontrial.
Let me just give you a prooftext for that before I go back
to the other Documento text thatI want to get to.
Remember what Jesus said ofhimself in John 3.
(27:17):
16?
He said, God so loved the worldthat he gave his only begotten
Son that whosoever believes inhim shall not perish.
Parish means die, by the way.
Go out of existence.
He says that whoever believes inhim should not perish but have
everlasting life.
(27:39):
That's a wonderful promise.
It begs the question, does thatmean that if people don't accept
Jesus, that they are going toperish and they'll go out of
existence forever?
Jesus answers that question.
that we might be thinking in thenext verse, John 3, 17.
(27:59):
He says, God did not send hisson into the world to condemn,
and that word condemn doesn'tmean, it's not docomazo.
What it means is to set up atrial and have a court set up
and hear evidence and come to adecision about somebody's guilt
(28:21):
or innocence.
He says, God did not send hisson to set up this trial and
make the world stand as guiltybefore God.
That's not the purpose of thisperiod of time that we're living
in right now.
God left the world system alone.
He left all the awful kings and,and governors and emperors that
(28:44):
we've experienced in life.
He left them in place.
He left Satan there to trickanybody he could.
He left ignorance planet wide.
Why?
Well, because that createsobstacles and headwinds for us
that we have to fight against sothat we can learn to have our
hearts pass the test in themidst of this trouble.
(29:09):
But he said, back in John 3, 17,he says, God didn't send the Son
to judge the world, but that theworld might be made safe and
sound, is what it says literallyin the Greek.
He sent Jesus so that the worldmight be made safe and sound.
The world has already been madesafe and sound.
They have, their salvation hasbeen paid for.
(29:32):
Their bank account has beenfilled.
They haven't drawn on that bankaccount yet.
That'll happen in themillennium.
But that, but the money isthere.
They have a, They have a collegefund waiting for them that was
paid for at Calvary.
And so what he's saying in John3.
17 is the purpose of God sendingJesus into the world in John 3.
(29:53):
16 is so that anybody who doesbelieve in him in this
intervening time will haveeternal life.
And that's what we have.
We are already promised this.
We already are experiencing thisas followers of Jesus.
We aren't totally, finallysaved.
(30:14):
He says, Be thou faithful untodeath and you will receive a
crown of life.
So we're, we still have to befaithful until death.
And that's what this podcast isabout, the process of helping
Christians.
Whatever their background,whatever their eschatology is,
to be faithful unto death and tounderstand what the requirements
(30:37):
for life are.
And the requirements for lifeare very clear in the Bible,
aren't they?
The standards of righteousnessare among the clearest things
that the Bible talks about.
Eschatology, not so much.
That's not so clear.
It's, I think, leftintentionally difficult to
grasp.
(30:58):
And it takes a lot of sorting,and it takes some, some almost
good fortune to be, like, I wasborn into a family that
recognized some of these things.
And so, that's, That's the onlyreason I'm sitting here talking
the way I'm talking, becauseI've had, I've been exposed to
an underculture within theChristian movement that, that
recognizes some different thingsthat most folks haven't learned
(31:22):
about yet.
And I'm grateful for that.
And I'm also realizing that I'mno better than anyone else.
I just happen to be lucky enoughto know some things and I'm
trying to share them with you.
Okay.
After that digression of John 3,17, I want to go to 2
(31:42):
Corinthians 13.
Here it is, 2 Corinthians 13,and we're going to be looking
for verse 5.
Now, 2 Corinthians iscomplicated.
I'm not going to wade into theweeds here.
It's a very difficult passage,but let's look at verse 4.
He says, is that 4?
(32:03):
No, that's 5.
Yeah, let's start with four.
He was crucified in weakness.
That's Jesus.
Jesus was crucified in weakness,right?
He was a human being.
He the ev it between the surgingthat he experienced and then
(32:24):
being nailed to a cross.
It took it all out of him.
Disco, urging during the night,and then six hours on the cross,
and he was done.
He was dead when they came tohim to break his legs.
They didn't have to break hislegs.
So he was crucified in weakness.
The weakness of being a humanbeing.
With all the weakness thatimplies.
But he lives, that is he's beenresurrected, right?
(32:46):
He was resurrected on the thirdday.
He lives by the power of God.
For we also, now he's, now he'scomparing it to us.
We also are weak in him.
He's saying that being aChristian As a human being
following Jesus, we are weak,but we are weak in Him.
But in dealing with you, we willlive with him by the power of
(33:09):
God.
So he's saying that we aren'tthere yet, but we will live with
him.
We will also experience aresurrection to spiritual life,
just as Jesus did.
And that will come, just as inJesus case, as a result of the
power of God.
In one of his epistles, Paulcalls it the mighty power of
(33:29):
God, to give what Peter calledthe divine nature to the likes
of you and me.
So, with that amazing honor infront of us, what does he say to
do?
He says, examine, examineyourselves.
He's not saying examine yourselfin comparison to your brother or
(33:53):
sister, is he?
He's saying examine yourself.
It's just like when Jesus said,Oh, you see a splinter in
somebody's eye and you want toreach for it to help them get it
removed?
Oh, well, first you betternotice that in your own eye you
have a beam, not a splinter.
You have a beam in your own eye.
(34:14):
It's much closer to you and it'sjust as hard to get at as that
splinter in their eye is thatbeam in your eye.
It's, try to grab that beam.
It takes finesse.
It takes precision of movement.
It takes plenty of water to kindof splash on there to wash it
out.
(34:34):
That's what he's saying.
Examine yourselves.
Dakimazo.
And again, Dakimazo doesn't justmean be down on yourself, be
critical of yourself.
It means test yourself against arighteous standard and then
approve what's good anddisapprove what's not.
(34:56):
That's the whole idea in thatone Greek word.
Test yourself.
And God, we read in the previousverses, God is doing that with
us.
That's the process he's puttingus all through.
We need to cooperate with himand do that ourselves.
And he says, when you do it, hegives us a little encouragement.
(35:18):
Here's a little coachingencouragement.
He's got us in the corner.
We're sitting down after beingslugged a bunch by the opponent.
And you know, there's, there'sblood coming out of our nose
and, and our lip is getting fatfrom being punched.
And he says, do you not realizethis about yourselves?
(35:39):
That Jesus is in you?
Jesus Christ is in you.
So he's saying, don't be so hardon yourself that you can't see
the good that you have.
There is good in you.
Find it.
Find the good stuff that you'vegot in there and try to
(36:00):
reinforce that.
And.
You will move forward.
You will make progress.
And then he says, unless indeedyou fail to meet the test.
In other words, if you stoptesting yourself and you stop
holding yourself to a highstandard, what's going to
happen?
If you stop reading the Bibleand being challenged to be
(36:22):
stronger in faith and morecomplete in knowledge, if you
stop doing that, What are yousaying?
Are you saying that you are, youfailed and you're not ready to,
to graduate and you've given up?
Are you gonna drop out ofschool?
You're gonna drop out of theschool of Christ?
(36:42):
No, he's saying, nah, I don'tbelieve that you're gonna fail
to meet the test.
I trust, I, God picked you, Godcalled you, God invited you.
You can't believe in Jesuswithout God, entering into your
heart and your mind, you havebeen given a gift.
Just keep going.
(37:03):
Put one step in front of theother and just keep going.
He's saying, aspirationally,he's confident, we can do this.
We know that there is no othercreature that can get in the way
of us being successful inChrist.
There's really only onecreature.
One creature can get in the way.
(37:24):
Amen.
And that's ourselves, but evenSatan can't get in the way and
actually block us from beingfrom being successful as
followers of Jesus.
Okay, now we're going to go to,we were in 2nd Corinthians 13.
Now we're going to go to 1stCorinthians 3.
1st Corinthians 3, 1 to 17.
(37:47):
So I'm going to look at 13.
Verse 13 is the target.
Now, when he talks to the firstCorinthians, he's got some
issues.
And so he says, I couldn'taddress you as spiritual people,
but as people of the flesh.
Paul is kind of reading the riotact to the church in Corinth.
They've got some serious sins ofthe flesh.
(38:08):
We're talking sexual immoralityand things like that.
These are serious things thatthe Corinthian brethren are, are
stumbling into, and they're,they're stuck in the weeds and
in the mud right now.
And so he says, I couldn'taddress you as spiritual people
but as people of the flesh.
As infants in Christ, you know,he says, I fed you with milk,
(38:28):
but not solid food for, you'renot ready for it.
You're not ready to keep movingand advancing into an
understanding of how to live asa Christian because you're
stumbling on some of the mostbasic principles of human
behavior that really evenordinary humans recognize are
standards they need to, youknow, you need to have one
(38:52):
partner, you need to becommitted to that partner,
Things like that.
Those are obviously questionednow in our culture where
everything is falling apart andthe world system is awash in, in
you know, it's just breakingdown.
It's falling apart.
But in the Christian world, thatshouldn't be happening.
In Christian families, thatshouldn't be happening.
(39:15):
So he says, You weren't ready.
You're cause you're still in theflesh.
For while there's jealousy andstrife among you, aren't you not
of the flesh and behaving onlyin a human way?
Ooh, now it's getting a littlecloser to home, isn't it?
We're finding at times in theChristian world today where
Evangelicals are, are jumping inwith both feet and both hands
(39:35):
into the water, the muddy waterof politics, aren't they?
Isn't this a big issue?
With Christian people havingstrife and jealousy and, and
backbiting and, and, andbelligerency between them over
What, political candidates?
Government policy?
(39:56):
We shouldn't even be talkingabout that.
We shouldn't even be worryingabout that, should we?
Those are the things that aregoing to be passing away.
That's going to be replaced.
I mean, as good as the UnitedStates has been in years past,
it's not the salvation of theworld.
It's not the the kingdom of God.
(40:19):
So, we should be Focusing on ourown hearts.
And getting those better andthen talking about that in a way
that's humble to help othersalso learn how to be a better
shepherd of their own heart.
Okay, so then he uses that as anexample of the kind of mis
(40:42):
applied thinking misdirectedenergy, when he says someone in
the group says, I follow Pauland another, I follow Apollos,
you know, he says, are you notmerely being human when you do
this?
You know, it's like saying Ifollow Trump or I follow Biden.
I follow Republican candidatesor I follow Democratic
candidates.
(41:03):
Brethren, this is not somethingwe should be doing or thinking
about at all.
This is irrelevant to theChristian world.
What then is Apollos?
Now, Paul and Apollos, they werenot political candidates.
They were teachers.
They were speakers in theChristian church.
Apollos was probably a littlebit more of an evangelist.
(41:25):
Paul was a little bit more of apastor than an evangelist.
He was both.
Apollos probably was both too,but mainly Apollos was focused
on the, the the new folks.
And Paul was mostly focused ontrying to build up and, and, and
(41:46):
discipline and, and encourageand strengthen the ones who had
accepted Christ.
And he talks about in Romansthat he was, or no, it wasn't
Romans, one of his epistles, hesays, I'm thankful I didn't
baptize any of you.
In other words, I wasn't the guythat brought you into this
thing.
You know, I'm here as a pastorand as a teacher to help you
(42:09):
move beyond that where youstarted, wherever you started.
But here he comes into Corinthand they're like little babies.
And spiritually speaking, theyare, they're arguing about, You
know, who their loyalties are toin the, in the church, which
speaker do they like the best?
Which pastor do they enjoy themost?
(42:30):
Which books are they reading?
And so forth.
So he says, who are Paul andApollos?
They are servants through whomyou believed as the Lord
assigned to each.
In other words, let's get thisin perspective here.
The Lord is in charge and heassigned servants to each.
(42:52):
And each servant does whatthey're supposed to do.
So he says, I planted, Apolloswatered, right?
It's a farm.
It doesn't matter who operatesthe tractor to do the planting.
It doesn't matter who operatesthe machinery to distribute the
water.
(43:12):
They're just servants.
And one does watering, and onedoes fertilizing, and one does
weeding, and one does planting,and one does harvesting.
They're all servants of thebigger goal, which is God's
goal, the development of achurch of Christ.
(43:33):
So then he says, So neither hewho plants nor he who waters is
anything, but only God who givesthe growth.
He who plants and he who watersare one.
They're one and the same.
They're on the same team.
They have the same goals.
And each will receive his wagesaccording to his labor.
Now he introduces a new ideahere.
(43:53):
This is an interesting idea.
He's saying, you know, we, wealways think about Christianity
as being, and, and theopportunity to be a Christ, a
Christian.
We always think of that as beingsomething that happens by grace.
It doesn't happen through works.
It happens by grace, right?
Well, let's go back to thisverse again and notice what it
(44:15):
says.
He who plants and he who watersare one and each one will
receive his wages according tohis labor.
Now, wait a minute.
You mean there's wagesassociated with being a follower
of Jesus?
Yeah, actually there are.
There are wages.
And those wages are a result ofthe way in which we participate
(44:42):
and cooperate with God in thetesting and development of our
hearts, our desires, ourinnermost motivations, and our
character fruitage.
We are God's fellow workers.
You are God's field, he says.
You are God's field.
(45:04):
God's building.
So he's using multiplemetaphors, isn't he?
In one sense, we're a field,which is just a bunch of dirt
that somebody externally addsseed to and adds water to and
fertilizes and develops a plant.
And we might be the plant, butwe are only developing because
(45:26):
God did all the things necessaryto make that plant grow.
Or, the other metaphor is agill, a building.
You know, he clears the field,he digs a foundation, and that
foundation is Christ.
And on that foundation, which isa solid rock, he brings stones
that he's cut years before in a,in a quarry.
(45:49):
And he brings those stones andhe starts assembling them.
And we are We are a part of thatbuilding, and in another sense,
we are the building.
He's building us up, and thenhe's building each of us
together into a superstructure.
A bunch of, a bunch of stonestogether that become a temple
(46:10):
where he lives.
So I'm headed for Verse 13,According to the grace of God
given to me, like a skilledmaster builder, I laid a
foundation, and someone else isbuilding upon it.
Let each one take care how hebuilds on it.
For no one can lay a foundationother than that which is laid,
(46:31):
which is Jesus Christ.
He's the foundation of thebuilding.
Now, if anyone builds on thefoundation with gold or silver
or precious stones, those arethe good things.
The things that are not going tobe burned up if there's a fire
that sweeps through.
Or, wood, hay, and straw.
(46:52):
Which are other buildingsupplies that many people have
lived in for time immemorial.
But he's saying, be carefulbecause if you build your
building out of wood, hay, andstraw, when the fire comes, when
the troubles of the end of theChristian era come, you're gonna
find some of the things that youbuilt maybe getting burned up.
(47:15):
So what did you build with?
What did you, what did, what didyou put your Christian energy
into building?
And is it something that willstand the test of time?
He says, each one's work willbecome manifest for the day will
disclose it because it will berevealed by fire.
And here's the, here's the magicwords.
(47:37):
The fire will test.
It will become manifest for theday will disclose it because it
will be revealed by fire and thefire will test what sort of work
each one has done.
That's what's going to happen.
The fire will test, the firewill test, Dakemazo.
(48:04):
The fire, the difficulties, thetrouble that we experience in
our church, in our world, in ourfamily, in our own minds, that
fire will put to the test all ofthe character that we've been
trying to develop throughout ourChristian walk.
(48:26):
It's a daunting idea, isn't it?
It's kind of a scary idea, butit is a reality.
We've got to recognize that Godis perfect.
And in one way, he is aperfectionist.
And in another way, he's not.
(48:46):
The way in which he is aperfectionist is that his goal
and his plan and his energy isput into making a bunch of
people perfect.
Perfect spiritually, and thenperfect as leaders on planet
earth in the nation of Israel,and then eventually everybody
(49:09):
else, perfect citizens of ahappy, joyous world.
That's the perfectionism of God,looking at the end product.
But he's not a perfectionistwhen it comes to your daily
growth process.
He's like a loving, fun loving,playful dad when it comes to the
(49:33):
way he treats us while we'regrowing.
He doesn't look at littlechildren and say, Oh boy, look
at those imperfect adults.
He's not looking at us that way.
He knows that we have to makemistakes.
He knows that we are going tomake mistakes.
He knows that we are going tothink wrong thoughts.
He knows that we're going to askstupid questions.
(49:55):
He also knows that we're goingto ask a lot of really important
and valuable questions, and he'sright there and ready to help us
learn the answers to thosequestions the best possible way.
Sometimes he'll give us a fewwords that explain it.
Sometimes he'll say, you'll findout.
He just knows the best way toget us coached up and built up
and raised up to be goodfollowers of him.
(50:18):
Okay, Dakimadzo.
There it is again.
The fire will not only exposeand point the finger at.
It's not that kind of testing.
The fire will try it and compareit to a perfect standard.
(50:39):
And the fire will also show howclose to gold it is.
It'll, it'll approve it.
It'll help us approve ourselves.
It'll help us approve ourbrethren.
And, and encourage them when wesee something good that they're
doing that maybe they're down onthemselves about, we'll help
them get through it.
(51:01):
That's the, how the fire isworking to test and approve at
the same time.
Alright, we're almost done withthis list.
Hebrews 3, 9.
He says, Therefore, holybrothers, this is verse one, you
who share in a heavenly calling,okay, so again, this is aimed at
(51:23):
Christians who have answered thecall that was given in our first
text that we've spent so manyweeks on, Romans 12, 1 and 2.
The calling is, offer yourselvesa living sacrifice that's holy.
That God gave you the ability todo.
(51:44):
So if this is the heavenlycalling and if we are obedient
to that calling and we answer itand we, we say yes, then we have
all of the resources of God atour disposal to learn this thing
and to make it through life to apoint where we are honorable,
valuable, mature children of Godand brothers and sisters of
(52:10):
Jesus Christ.
who will be a part of his bride,part of his very body.
And so he says consider Jesus,the apostle and high priest of
our confession, who was faithfulto him who appointed him.
Jesus was faithful to God, justas Moses also was faithful in
(52:32):
all God's house.
For Jesus has been countedworthy of more glory than Moses.
As much more glory as thebuilder of a house has much more
honor than the house itself.
Now, Moses was faithful in allGod's house as a servant, to
testify to the things that wereto be spoken later, but Christ
is faithful over God's house asa son and we are his house.
(52:56):
If indeed we hold fast ourconfidence and are boasting in
our hope.
Here's the same metaphor again.
We're part of a house.
We have other members that arealso part of the house, and we
need to do our part.
If we're a beam a, a two by fourin a wall, we need to hold that
wall up.
(53:16):
We need to stay in contact withthe, the drywall and the, and
the shingles on the outside.
We've gotta do our part to helpsupport the house that we're a
member of.
Okay, so we're headed towardsverse nine today.
If you hear his voice.
(53:37):
Today, if you hear his voice, donot harden your hearts, as in
the rebellion.
Here we are talking about heartsagain, aren't we?
Don't harden your hearts as inthe rebellion, which he's
talking about, you know, thingsthat happened back when the law
was given by Moses, on the dayof testing in the wilderness.
(53:57):
Testing.
There it is again.
Testing in the wilderness, whereyour fathers put me to the test.
Now the word testing here is notDoc Amadso, but when it says,
but where your fathers put me tothe test, that is Doc Amadso.
He's saying that the, thefathers of the Jewish people put
(54:20):
God to the test.
They scratched God on thatbasalt.
And I don't know what their goldstandard was when they put God
there, But, apparently, Theydidn't have the right standard
because it says they saw hisworks for 40 years.
What he's saying is, if you'regoing to put God to the test,
(54:43):
understand that He's going to befaithful and He's going to come
out showing you where yourstandards of testing are
mistaken.
If you're going to put gold downbelow something else, He's going
to, He's going to show you inyour life experience.
(55:03):
That what you thought was goldwasn't, and what, and what you
put on the, on, on the rock tocompare it to, that was the
gold.
That was the gold.
God is the gold.
So, we've looked at this word,this idea of, of having a
(55:24):
critical thinking mentality, andthis is the.
This is the, the thing that'sholding up this door of entry
into the temple of God.
This is the, the door ofsalvation.
This is the way of progress asChristians into the realms where
God lives and breathes.
And where we are being trainedto live and breathe the same air
(55:48):
and, and be able to converseand, and, and live with and
enjoy the company of the SupremeRuler of the universe and His
love.
glorious son who we will bemarried to in the coming age.
Okay, so we're not going to gothere today, but Romans 1, 28
(56:12):
uses the word dokimazo andanother word that's a derivative
of that word and it uses it tomake a point about not the
Christians of the world, but theun Christians in human history.
That's what we'll look at in ournext episode.
So, episode seven will be Romans1.
(56:34):
That's a really tough passage tolook through, and we're going to
try to shed some light on whatthe argument of the Apostle Paul
really was when he made thestatements that he made in
Romans 1.
And we'll look at most of Romans1 all the way through to the
28th verse and a little beyond.
Thanks for listening andremember, we are near.
(56:58):
All Christians are approachingthe end of the world.
of the Christian era and the endof their own process of growth,
testing, and development.
So, stay the course, focus onmaturity, focus on spiritual
matters, read the Bible, studythe Bible, fellowship with other
(57:20):
believers, pray to the Lord, andlisten carefully to what He says
when you are praying.
God bless you.
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