The Trial of Your Faith

To become a Christian, we face the simplest of tasks. And the most profound: to present our body as a "living sacrifice". Continuing in the theme defined by Romans 12:1 and 2, we now turn to 1 Peter 1 to discover another, even more detailed corroboration of what our life entails, what obedience will require, and what rewards and blessings we might hope for at the end. The answers are stunning, exciting, and sobering. It turns out that faith comes as the result of growth, and growth comes as a result of allowing God to change the way we think and act. It is a team effort: us and the Heavenly Father. 

This will be an in-depth study of 1 Peter 1:1-9.

This new podcast is meant for serious Christians -- people who are focused on following Jesus faithfully, until death. The trials are real, but the joys are beyond expression. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard ... the things God has been preparing for those who love him supremely.

The more we pay attention to the terms of discipleship and predictions of the actual deeds of Jesus' truest followers, there have not been many humble, meek Jesus followers who made it into the pages of history. Most genuine, obedient Christians have been laboring in anonymity, ignored or even hounded by the powerful forces of the outwardly respectable, "orthodox" Christian geopolitical system.

For the most part, the true followers of Jesus were not famous, they did not have official recognition, they did not seek or gain political power, and often they were oppressed, persecuted, neutralized in this life. Probably, few made their living as "ministers of the gospel". They were like the ancient prophets of old
-- men and women who suffered for their faithfulness-- "of whom the world was not worthy."

But the future era will be different. Jesus will exalt his obedient followers. They will be revealed by him as having been victorious in his eyes. He will promote them to places of power and influence in his future "government of the world, when the times are ripe for it." (Ephesians 1:9,10 -- Weymouth translation.)

Transcript

Owen: 0:00

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Welcome to We Are Near. We've been swinging open a door that was given to us in Romans 2, and the hinge of that door, we've discovered, is The word dokimazo, it's the word that has to do with being tested and found genuine. It's the word that's used to describe what we do in evaluating our thoughts, evaluating our character, and learning to think in spiritual ways that are the way Jesus would think. And when we do those things, we We put our actions and our thoughts out there. We put them on this black basalt in the marketplace, in the public life in which we live, and we make it, we, we scratch it on that rock right next to the gold standard. And when we scratch our thoughts and our actions against the gold standard, and we compare them ourselves, then we are motivated to improve. improve and adapt our thinking and try to elevate it, try to bring it up to the standard that we see it next to. This is not what Jesus would do. This is not what the Apostle Paul or the Apostle Peter would do. We can do better by God's grace, with God's help. It's also a way of putting the experiences in our life Up to, or up against our own expectations, our own wishes, our own secret longings, at least in the flesh. And You know, when we come up against things that are disappointing to us, Paul talks about in Romans 12, verse 2, he talks about learning to put to the test and, and understand what is the perfect will of God. So, we might not like what comes our way, what happens, the, the vicissitudes of our life, we might not like those things, but we learn to say, ah, that's from God, That's part of the all things that he says he will take care of in our lives. We need to kind of put that gold stamp of approval, divine approval, on the imperfect situations that we find ourselves in. So that we can be positive, that we can be courageous, so that we can be patient, so that we can be, um, deeper thinking and develop some character fruitage that just wouldn't grow naturally without that little stimulus that God gives us by the way he teaches us in our lives. So that's the hinge upon which this whole doorway of salvation, personal salvation and growth hinges. That's what it swings on, that hinge of dokimadzo, to test and approve, to put our ideas to the test, our beliefs to the test. Our character to the test and approve, try to agree with God, try to think the way God thinks and, and work with him to be a co worker with God. As, as Paul describes it in First Corinthians, the third chapter part of the very building that God is building, part of the very crop. of fruitage that God is growing, we cooperate, we, we work with God to achieve those things. That's what the Christian life is all about. So, I've called this episode, the trial of your faith. And that's a phrase that we're going to look at in another verse that also uses the word dakemazo. So let's go to let's go to 1 Peter, the first chapter, the first chapter of 1 Peter. And I'm going to start reading at the, at the beginning of the chapter. It says, Peter, An apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. So those are the regions which Peter is writing to and he's probably visited all these places. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ. So you notice it's in the foreknowledge of God or the prearrangement of God, the pro orzo of God. It, it means, it doesn't necessarily mean destination like it's decreed that you're gonna be this way, but the arrangement of God is for the sanctification of the spirit of his people. And he has certain things that are set as a standard, as a aspirational goal of each of God's people. And that is certain character qualities. that he insists upon in all those who will be considered the overcoming followers of Jesus, the saints of God in the final picture, in the final analysis. But notice what he says. He says that this according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the spirit, sanctification means a, a process of first setting apart and second transitioning and changing. Improving, distilling, crystallizing the spiritual dimensions of each individual Christian. And also, he's also working for the entire body. He's working to crystallize a temple, a structure, a building, a body of Christ. The Bride of Christ. This, this this mystical body that is going to be composed of many individuals. Just as the stone temple back in the days of of King Solomon and later of, of King Herod. That, that, that temple was built out of stone. That had already been cut in David's case. He had already cut the stones in the quarry, and he knew exactly how they would fit together. And he, he, he did all the hammering and all the chiseling on each individual stone in its place where it was sitting in the middle of the rubble, in the middle of the quarry. And then he carefully transported each one and he knew where each one was going to go and when he assembled it all at the end it says that he assembled it, Solomon assembled all those stones without a sound of a hammer. They just slid into place quietly and that's a picture of how the, the Church of Christ as it is completed, as each individual member of the Church of Christ passes on beyond. The veil, they die, and then they are now going to be in the spirit realm. And when the assembly of the spirit realm church begins, it all happens silently. Nobody can hear it. Nobody can even see it. It's in the spiritual realm. Okay, so that's what he's talking about when he says the sanctification of the Spirit. It's a process that begins on the very first moment that we give our hearts to Jesus, and it goes all the way till the moment of our death, our last breath, and then we are prepared. There's not going to be any real changes to us after we die. We're not going to suddenly magically become more patient, more kind, more loving. More self controlled, whatever it is that we take into the grave is what is going to be our quality, our spiritual quality. that we have when we are assembled into the spiritual building, the temple of God in Christ. Okay, so so he says, it's, it's in the sanctification of the spirit, that's the setting apart and the making holy of the spirit for Obedience to Jesus Christ. That's the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of our spiritual growth is so that we are obediently following and being disciples of Jesus. We're acting as Jesus would act. We're walking as Jesus would walk, so that we have are a really useful team. We're not somebody that he has to worry about. You know, he can send us on a mission and we will do it, and he knows. He knows us so well. He knows how we will do in the future when we have these spiritual opportunities. We will be faithful to death under really difficult circumstances. And that means that he will be sure that we will be faithful in life, in eternal life, in spiritual life. In the Celestials. Notice, that's what it says next it says, And for sprinkling with his blood, and that's a reference to the sacrificial work that in a certain way we participate with, and we'll come back to that in a, in a future episode, May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Now he's talking to the audience in these various towns, Cappadocia and so forth. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be, it says born in this translation, but the word is ana ganao. Ana ganao, and it means re begotten, re begotten, begotten again, many translations say. I mean, that is not referring to the The being born, when we're born in the spirit, all the gestation work is done. We are a, we are a finished spiritual being and we are ready to live in the spirit realm. But being begotten again or begotten as though, you know, this is not the, but be ghetto that we experience as a human. Now we're being begotten again into a spiritual realm and this happens the moment that we give our hearts to, to God by committing ourselves to the Lord Jesus. We accept Jesus as our brother, and we accept God as our father, and that's the moment at which we become children of God in the Spirit. And so we are begotten again to a living hope. You notice it's a hope. It's not a reality yet. It's something that isn't guaranteed. It's something that isn't fact yet. It's something that we can envision. We have promises to buttress us. We are told that we can do it. But we have to cooperate in the process. And, The biggest proof that this is going to be a reality is that this, is that Jesus himself experienced the same thing himself. He, as a human being, he gave his heart to God and he had this spiritual, divine being this divine nature began developed in him as a, as a leader of the pack. He is the first fruits. He is the, the four the leading member of the church of Christ. He's the first one. He's the, he's the top cornerstone of this temple. And we all conform to the lines that he established. What is it that we're gain? We're going to get, it's going to be through a resurrection of the dead, just like the resurrection that Jesus had from human death to spirit life. It's an inheritance he says. That is imperishable. That is, it can't, it cannot perish. It cannot be corrupted. So if you were, if it was a metal, it could not rust. If it was a piece of bread, it could not get moldy. If it was a, if it was a being, a living being, it could not die. It could not die. It's not capable of dying. It's immortal. It's undefiled. It means it's perfectly clean. It's perfectly fitting. And Righteous and, and it's, it has sobriety. It has, it has all the qualities and virtues that the apostles and Jesus talk about. You know, the mercy and the, the patience and the love and the forbearance. All of those things make it undefiled. It's unfading, means that it'll never, you know yellow. If it's white like linen, it won't, it won't get yellow around the edges. If it's blue or red, like the threads that are, that are woven into the temple covering, they won't fade. They won't, the, the the dyes will last forever. It's, it's a, blue stands for faithfulness, red stands for sacrifice. It'll never fade. This is a garment that will never fade. And then it says, look, it's kept where? Where's it kept? In heaven for you. So, each person who has seriously allowed Jesus to become the Lord of their life and has committed themselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is a very reasonable, Sacred kind of service. That person is, has a, has a destiny that is reserved, prepared, a seat with their name on it, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith, through faith for a destination. That is to be revealed in the last time. Guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So this is, this is telling us that it's something that is in heaven. This is where the, all the idea of heaven came from in the New Testament. We've established that this whole Christian hope is in heaven, and we've established that it involves a lot of transformation in the spiritual realm. We're now talking about the unseen qualities of the Christian character that we have, and that we can hope to gain through the experiences God gives us in life. These are things that will happen to us as a result of everything that happens to us. It comes to us through our spouse, our children, our work. environment, our church experiences the witnessing that we do, the, the reading that we do, the study that we do, the prayer, everything that is a, a service that we do to people, the forbearance that we show to people who are hard to live with, the the fears that we experience by watching, say, the political process or, or other things that are not. actually part of the spiritual realm, things that we should not try to meddle in, things that we should not try to get engaged in. We need to look at the lives that we live as dedicated lives focused on a future age. Not on the current age. Our, my kingdom is not of this world, Jesus said. And so this, this role that we have as Christians is is always looking like Abraham to a city that has foundations. Something that is going to go on into eternity. The new Jerusalem. Not the, not the world that we have around us today. It will come down to earth. It will rule this world. It will help the people, the human race, who who will stay in the human realm and be resurrected and will live on this planet. But the spiritual realm that the Christian is called to is way above and way beyond the human realm. And, and, and the, the idea of early Christianity was that heaven would come to earth and the Messiah would would return from heaven. He went to heaven when he died. He returns to from heaven to earth and when he does he's got his church with him. They have been assembled in heaven and they will come down and they will establish a government along with very trusted, useful, helpful, supporting people here on the planet and and the people of the world will have a really great government for the first time. In their history, people who cannot be corrupted, people who cannot be tempted with, with, you know, sordid gain. These will be, all be people who are patient, loving, kind, and righteous. And that's what, that's, that's what will be happening. And Jesus told his disciples that. He said, You know, when we, when I set up my kingdom, you're going to be sitting on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And judging didn't mean, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. That wasn't, that's not what judging meant. Judging meant helping, making, helping people, coaching people up to make better decisions, providing what they need. That was judging. Teaching, setting a good example, solving problems. And making everybody work together as a healthy society. That's what judges do. They are saviors. They are blessers. They are servants of the human race. Okay. So. Now. We've read, we've read down to, let's see, kept in heaven for you. We've read down through verse four, kept in heaven for you. Now I'm going to read the fifth verse, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. This foundation of Christians has not really been revealed. Except by faith to the church, to the, to the, when I say the church, I don't mean the mega church, the geopolitical church, I mean, I mean the actual servants of God who are a small little flock, Jesus said. So that church, the true church, Which it could be from any denomination and no one knows who they are. They are, all we know is that they're good people, really nice people. Okay, it says they, those who, um, they, they're, they're kept through faith, that is, they're kept doing this stuff that they need to be doing, just through believing the word of God and, and following the obedient, obediently the plan and purposes of the Bible. That are laid out for the Christian and there's a lot of commandments and a lot of things that we have to try to focus on to be good at this and the salvation is ready to be revealed. Who's going to be revealed to? It's going to be revealed to the entire world of mankind. Everyone is going to see what happens here. They're going to discover that there's this spiritual body that they had no idea that's being prepared. And, you know. All the people that they thought were the victims, all the people that they thought were the martyrs, all the people that they thought were the losers in the conflicts, those are the people who, it turns out, are going to be the ones who really were the good guys. They really will be the leaders. And that will be revealed in the last time. And that's, our other podcast is, It Is Near, that's what we're talking about. That, that we are in, almost in the last time, and so that will be revealed then, in the very near future. Verse six, in this you rejoice, he's talking to Christians, he's not talking to the world of mankind. He's talking to serious Christians who have obeyed the commandment of Romans 12, Presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice. He says, In this you rejoice, though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. Okay, so notice two things that we should learn from this. And I'm gonna, I, let me switch to the, what I've been reading. I was reading off my screen, but you didn't get a chance to read it on your screen. In this, you rejoice, though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved. You have been grieved by various trials. Notice two things. He says that it's for a little while. What is the little while? It's your lifetime. Your lifetime, and my lifetime. are a little while. I'm 71 years old now. I've lived 51 years in marriage, 54 years as a consecrated follower of Jesus. I followed Romans 12, 1 and 2 when I was 17 years old. It's been 54 years. That seems like a little while to me now. And the amount of time I have left is an even littler while. So, He's saying, if a little while, and then he says, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. Okay, well, is it necessary? In one sense, absolutely. It's necessary for everybody. Because Jesus said, how did he put that? Well, he said, if you suffer with me, you'll reign with me. Paul said, if you suffer, if we suffer with him, we will reign with him. I'm gonna come back to this. It'll probably pop into my head. I know there's a verse where it says that everybody who follows Jesus is going to suffer for him. There's, there's no such thing as being a Christian who really is faithful in following Jesus, who doesn't encounter some difficulties, and the difficulties come from three sources. This is another teaching that is very clear in Paul's writings, they come from the devil himself. There is an intelligent being who God is allowed to shadow and, and tempt and oppose and mock. and try to discourage the church, the followers of Jesus. So you have the devil to deal with. And that's a real thing, a real being. He's very intelligent. But we have to put our emphasis on dealing with Jesus, not dealing with the devil. We shouldn't be praying to the devil, talking to the devil, worrying about the devil. All we can really do with the devil is resist him and just pray to him. Put our nose to the grindstone and focus on the things that Jesus and God have given us to do. There's many things we can do to fill our time. So we have the devil. We also have the world. We have the world system, which is, they aren't necessarily as evil, although increasingly there's, there's a lot of rampant evil in the world. And much of it is aimed at people who are trying to be righteous, trying to be good. And a lot of that worldliness has rubbed off into the church itself. So a lot of the people who you meet with in the church are, you know, have their garments dirtied and sullied by the world. So we have to overcome the devil. We have to overcome the world, and the world is often in the church. And then there are, thankfully, members of the Church who are encouraging to us, and, and they, they, we need to be with them so that they can help build us up. And then there's one more thing we have to overcome, and that's the, in some ways, the biggest thing of all. We have to overcome the flesh. And that's the tent, as Paul calls it, that this spiritual entity lives in, you know. We have a brain. That's the flesh. Inside the brain, we have a mind. That's the spirit. The spirit lives in a brain, and the brain is housed by a body, and that brain and that body are damaged goods. One passage calls it, or several passages call it an earthen vessel, a clay pot. It's something that is of the earth and earthy. It has hormones that tempt it to do things that aren't necessarily on the list of things that we want to be doing as spiritual students. Jesus and his way of acting and thinking and speaking. There's all kinds of temptations. We get angry, we get discouraged, we get tired, we get hungry, all of the things that flesh goes through, we have to manage, we have to learn to overcome. Why would God allow this to happen? Well, because it's such a great opportunity for us to face the real enemies, the real enemies, and mostly that's our own shadow, our own dark side, the, what the flesh has to offer. Not very many of us are people who are just by nature, human beings on a human level. Above and superior to all the passionate activities of the human world. Very few of us, most of us are pretty much capable of doing anything that anybody is capable of doing. If we, if we stop feeding Ourselves, the good, the good input. If we stop obeying on a daily basis, if we could stop asking for help from God, and, and if we stop confessing our faults, one, one, one passage says, confess your faults one to another, so that you may be healed. You know, if we, if we stop being accountable to our brethren, And our close friends in the body of Christ, we will stumble. We will fall. We will fail. We will, our ardor will be dampened. Our joy will be sullied. We will, we will get discouraged. We will become isolated. We will, we will, we will. Fall by the wayside. It's very possible. I would say a majority of the people who get into this, this task fall by the wayside. That's the lesson that Jesus gave us in the very first parable of that he gave. There are seven parables in the book of Matthew in chapter 13. The very first one is the parable of the sower. And what happens to the good seed that's sown? If it goes into the ground and, and there's water there and it, and it, and the sun shines and it, and it puts roots into the dirt. That is the good seed who obey. and start growing, and all along the way it's easy for those, those little seedlings to get sidetracked. Too much water can come. Too little water can come. A bird can come and eat the seedling. Somebody can step on it. Somebody can trample it. There's all kinds of things that happen to these seeds. And that's just the ones that get in the dirt and start growing. There's, most of them don't even get that far. Most of the seed goes under the sidewalk and the birds eat it. It goes into thorny ground where it's smothered by, by weeds. It goes into dry ground where it never gets any water. So, certainly, it's, it's, it's certainly true that the majority of people who become Christians don't stay the course, don't follow on to become. There's an interesting book this is an aside about this, that was written by George Barna, who I met at at a writer's conference, and I ended up befriending him, and he asked me when he wrote this book to talk to him about doing you know, some video work. To help do a study guide for that book, to go along with that book. And we talked about it for a while and then he decided not to pursue that project. But it was great to hear, to read the book and to hear his thinking about what was behind it. And the book is called Maximum Faith. He wrote it, I can't remember, sometime in the last 10 years, and he said that he did more research on that book in terms of market research of Christian people survey research than he had done on any other of his projects. He studied to try to see what makes Christians grow. And. He looked at all sorts of indicators, the quantitative measures that he could use to try to figure out well What what makes a Christian grow? Is it time spent in church? Is it money that they give? Is it teaching a Sunday school class? Is it the amount of time they spend reading the Bible? Is it whether or not they go to seminary? Is it whether or not their spouse is a Christian? Is it the amount of time they spend in serving others? He could not find a single correlation between people who became persistent and who had a life trajectory that led them to two destinations that he thought were quantifiable, loving God and loving your fellow man. To get to a crystallized place of loving God and loving our fellow man, he didn't see any tie in to any so called scriptural or spiritual activities. And he said he really actually became discouraged in the research. And then he suddenly stumbled on the idea, Well, maybe the teaching isn't coming from our own choices and our own time that we spend. Maybe the teaching is coming from God. Maybe God is using something besides Christian activities to teach us how to love Him and our fellow man. And he came to the conclusion that, yes, that's true, that's true. And so he looked for five setbacks, what Peter calls here various trials. Let's underline it. Various, whoops, got my thing right. Various trials. I'm going to circle it. What are the various trials that George Barna identified? Well, divorce, major illness, death of a loved one, bankruptcy, and bankruptcy. Those are the five things that George Barne identified when he made his list of things to test for. And when he started doing that, he found that there were points, there were cyclical points, there were crossroads and growth spurts that started happening with Christians. And when they had these setbacks, some of them, It was a deal breaker for them, and they went back to either nominal Christianity or not even being a Christian at all anymore. But those who grew from it, those who were stimulated, actually stimulated spiritually by the trial, those people became more and more godly. more and more resolved, more deep, more caring, more loving, more patient, and they moved forward and forward. And he concluded in his book that only three to five percent of the Christians who start on this course persist all the way through these multiple layers of, of challenge into the point where they are delivered. Really, overcomers. And so that brings us to Doc Umozzo in our passage. He says, these various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith. That's what he, that's Stacchi Manzo. The tested genuineness. He's, now here, this is not the testing that we do. This is the testing that God does. And the genuineness, this is not the agreeing and, and, and positive evaluation, the acceptance that we do. This is the genuineness. is, this is God's evaluation of our growth and faith. When we accept God's guidance in our lives, and we, we, yes, we have to agree with it along the way. We have to, we have to allow ourselves to be tested. But when we cooperate with that, when we're co workers with God in this, it's God who makes the final determination that, yeah, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord. That's what he's saying. And then he says that this tested genuineness of faith, which is something that God is going to do when, as he looks at our life and our life experiences, he says, it's more precious than gold, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. That's kind of a linkage. She's thinking, I think, here, of what it says in the book of Malachi. It says in Malachi that, that God will purify the sons of Levi, who are a picture of the church. You know, the, in the Jewish economy, the sons of Levi were the priests. In the church? Comes along and they are a priesthood, also a royal priesthood with Jesus as their high priest. He's the anti typical high priest, and we are the anti typical under priests. And so we participate and do things in the same realm with him, you know, taking care of the candlestick, take keeping the coals from the altar in place on the, on the incense altar, bringing bread in taking old bread out. All of those things we participate in in the holy of the tabernacle or the larger compartment of the temple, which is also called the holy place. It's gold all around, it's divine, it's spiritual, but there's work to be done and it's the work that we do while we're here in the flesh, you know, with our robes, our white robes covering our bodies. We, our bodies are washed, and our, we're wearing white robes, and then we're doing these spiritual services as priests. And we're offering sacrifices on, not only on behalf of our own, ourselves, but we're offering sacrifices on behalf of the entire world. And that's what We're doing in this process of being, becoming a footstep follower of Jesus, the great high priest. And he says that it's more precious than gold that perishes. When, when, when Malachi says that he's going to purify the sons of Levi, he says he's going to purify them like gold and silver that's brought into a crucible and melted down and then the guy, the the the guy working on the, on the metal, the goldsmith, he He takes a little scraper and he scrapes the dross, which is just dirt and other metals that aren't gold. They're floating on the top of this molten gold and he scrapes it off. And he wants to make it completely pure. That's testing gold by fire. And he's saying that the gold, the, the the light, the fire that we go through in our faith life is more precious than that. The gold that we, once he cools that gold down, it's pure. It's 24 karat. It's amazing. And it's the most valuable metal of all ancient times and right up into modern times. It's, it's, by common consent, it's, it's among the most valuable substances on earth. And he says that it's the, the trial of your faith and my faith is more precious than that. Now, he says, here's something really important that we want to end with in this passage in Peter. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Oh, I skipped a verse. Though it's tested by fire, it's more precious. It says, it may be found, it will be found. That's the promise. If we're faithful, it will be found. If we do our part, God will absolutely do his part. We will be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revealing. The revelation of Jesus Christ is something that's right around the corner. He's going to be revealed to the world. That's what apocalypsis mean. Everybody thinks apocalypsis. Oh, that sounds awful. That's going to be a big, a big disaster for their world. No, it's not. It's going to be the time when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world with the church. They will all be complete at that point. The praise and glory and honor will come to the church when they are revealed along with Jesus to the world. Okay, so then we go to this verse, Though you have not seen him, you love him. Now isn't that a profound statement? We don't get to see Jesus until we see him. So the only ways we see him now is through that eye of faith that God has given us, granted us the ability to have. Amen. Amen. And yet, even though we can't see him, we hear him only. We hear his voice, and we see representations of him, glimpses of him, in the things that we see among the saints that we rub shoulders with. And we see it in the scriptures and in the great heroes of faith in the past. Sometimes, even in our own lives, we see a moment of, ah. That's progress. I've learned something. I'm, I, I didn't do the thing I used to do when that happened this time. That's a sign that God is working with us. And so we can, we can love the quality that we saw in our friend, our neighbor, our wife, our brother in Christ. That is a glimpse and an inkling of the character that we want to have and we work towards having. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of souls. Now it says your souls here, but there's no your. Yeah. There's no you're in the Greek. In this phrase, the word is in the genitive, so it is a possessive, it is a possessive of the word souls. But, I still would argue that the salvation of souls does not just refer to our own. Our motive, for serving Jesus, following Jesus putting up with difficulties in dealing with Jesus. Our motive is not for what's in it for us. Yes, it is a great and glorious thing to aspire to. And it almost seems comical sometimes to read it and say, Oh my gosh. Yeah. When you read the things about what it says, that will be the inheritance of the church. It sounds, like a megalomaniac's dream, but no human being would ever have thought of this. This is not a megalomaniac who thought of this. This is a something that was handed down by God to his son and to all of those who follow in his son's footsteps. It was, it was established by the most earnest and righteous men the world has ever seen and women. that the world has ever seen. It was established on the pages of the New Testament, and in type and in picture, it was established on the pages of the Tanakh, the Old Testament. This is a real thing, a real hope that has been given to followers of Jesus. Don't take it lightly. Don't discount it. Amen. When it says that this great power and glory that's been offered and honored is as a means of honoring you and a glory to you. The thing that Jesus prayed for the night before he died for his disciples, which include us, in John the 17th chapter, that's a prayer for you if you're a Christian. That prayer is a prayer for you. Read it. John 17. He's asking for glory and honor and immortality to come your way. So, this is the salvation of your soul, but it's also the salvation of souls. Because it's the opportunity for all those who are gathered together. to be spiritual servants of Jesus in the, in the heavenlies, the celestials. They will become part of the temple itself. They become the temple of God, the, the, the place where God lives, and the, they then turn and invite the entire world of mankind to join in this temple. That is what will happen next. So the salvation of souls does not stop with those who become members of the body of Christ, members of the bride of Christ. The salvation of souls expands and it includes everyone who ultimately will be saved, which is the vast, I believe, the vast majority of the human race. I think there will be very few folks. Who do not become sheep as opposed to goats in the thousand year reign of the Messiah with his, with his bride, with the people who are now learn, now being assembled to follow him and be his, his companions in the administration of the, of the world's leadership and governance and, and encouragement and life giving. There's a lot of work to be done to, to raise how many 10, 20, 40, 50, 60 billion people. A lot of work needs to be done. And that's why he wants lots of people from every different culture of the world who understand and sympathize and love and are harmonious can be, can, can show people. how to overcome the many ways in which humans can sin. Okay, so, I thought that we would go through several more Dakimaza scriptures today, but I felt like we needed to establish another hinge for that door, that salvation door that you're invited to be part of when you're a Christian. And I think 1 Peter 1, 1 through 9 was a great way of making that promise more tangible and more real and more underscored for you. So we'll pick up where we left off with that. And I've got a list of other scriptures that use Documento. And again, talk about testing. being judicious, being almost kind of a skeptic in many ways, mostly skeptical of our own virtue. That's the, that's the most important thing we can be is skeptical of our own virtue. And when we can be a little skeptical of our own virtue, we can put ourselves to the test and we can allow ourselves to be corrected by whoever wants to correct us. You know, we can be, we can learn a lot from every opponent we have. And when we do, we will become more like Jesus. Thanks for listening. This has been Episode 5 of We Are Near. That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, I see.