Yes, We ARE on Trial!

"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.)

Transcript

Owen: 0:05

Welcome to We Are Near, Episode 6."Yes, we are on trial." Let's plow through some scriptures, shall we? And we're still using that word, dokimazo, as a key to help us understand the kind of trial and the kind of testing we are undergoing, and that we need to participate in and cooperate with God in to do on ourselves. We are co workers with him, and the thing that he's building individually with each of us is a character that is proven to be reliable under every circumstance. That's what we're building, and we need to work with him to accomplish that. We have to understand that that's what he's after, We have to read the Bible to understand what kinds of character qualities he's looking for. We need to talk about it with other people so that they can learn from us and we can learn from them, other Christians. We need to talk to people in the world and try to help them understand how great a God we all have. And not just great, but good and kind and loving and really wise and really just. He really cares about everybody, the poor, the underprivileged, the downtrodden, the victims of sin and death, the meek. It's the meek who are going to inherit the earth, and they won't all be from the church. Most of the ones who inherit the earth will be the meek of the world of mankind, and they will inherit the earth when the kingdom of Christ is established, and the church is at Christ's right hand, helping to lead the world. That company of humans forward into everlasting life on Earth. So, the purpose of We Are Near is to establish things that Christians can agree on, and I recognize that some of the things that I've been talking about in this discussion are not things that sound normal and familiar to you. For example, the, the thesis of today's presentation, We are on trial. Yes, we are on trial. Have you ever heard that from the pulpit before? Probably not. What you've probably heard is, once you agree to be a Christian, there's no more judgment. You're in. You're in. Nothing that you can do can change that. You are in and you will not fail and pity the poor people who aren't in. That is the way we are usually hearing it. from the pulpit these days, but I'm going to argue that there's another way to read the Bible that makes much more sense and is much more in harmony with the facts of how Christians throughout this period of time called the Christian era or the gospel age or whatever you want to call it the time from Jesus till now the the time that we're living in right now is a time for the testing and the development of and the teaching of the students in the School of Christ. When you go to school, hopefully you're not going there without the with the idea that you're not going to change. Hopefully you're not going there with the idea that you are all ready to graduate. You're going to school with a blank tablet, a ready pencil, open ears, and you're ready to learn, and you're going to be tested Every week, there's going to be a quiz. Every few weeks, there's going to be a midterm. And at the end, there's going to be a final test. And you need to be able to pass that test, and that is why we are on trial. And that's why Documadzo is such an important word to understand, because it implies that what we are doing as Christians is allowing our character to be drawn on a black basalt marketplace centerpiece, right under the gold, the pure gold of Jesus character. So that anybody who looks at it can, can see exposed what the character is, what the reality is of that person, what are they made of, how do they respond under pressure. And that's what we are learning in our walk with Jesus. And in our classroom with our other Christians with whom we fellowship. I'd like to start in on a pile of scriptures and we're going to race through these. I'm already 8 minutes in and we're trying to get through this in 25 30 minutes. So, here we go. The first scripture I want to look at is 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 to 28. 1 Thessalonians 5. And actually the verse that I'm gonna focus on is going to be verse 21. So let's hit a couple points to get context, and then we're gonna go into verse 21. Now, when he starts chapter 5 in 1 Thessalonians, he's writing to Greeks. Some are Jewish, have a Jewish heritage, and many of them have have come straight from the pagan world, and apparently all of these brethren in Christ knew already some things about what the times and seasons of the plan of God were going to be. They knew some things about this, and he says in the first verse of chapter five, concerning the times and seasons brethren, and it means brothers and sisters, you have no need to have anything written to you. And then he says, you already know fully, you're fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. In other words, when Jesus returns He's writing at the beginning of the time when Jesus has left and they're all looking forward to the time when he will return. He says that when they return, he's going to sneak in. It's going to still be nighttime. He will be back while it's still nighttime and he, when he comes, he's going to be like a thief. And thieves don't usually announce their presence. They sneak in, right? He wouldn't be a very good thief if he You know, made a lot of noise and attracted a lot of attention and people started turning on the lights. And then he starts describing some of the things that we'll see as backgrounds. He says that that when the people will be saying there's peace and security, sudden destruction is going to come upon them. He's talking about the destruction of aspects of our worldly system, of our peace and tranquility, In the political and material world that we're in, the, the governments, the kingdoms, all of those things, he's saying that there will be destruction that will come like labor pains upon a pregnant woman. Okay, so now, that tells you something about the kinds of trouble and pain that the world is going to experience. In the night time, while Jesus has returned before he, Fully reveals himself in the Apocalypse and he calls it the labor pains upon a pregnant woman. So what he's saying is, is that the trouble that you're going to see around you in the world is going to be cyclical. It's going to, first there's one pain 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 pain cycle, the pain becomes more intense, and the frequency, the distance between pains, shortens. The frequency increases, the distance between pains decreases. Shortens. And so, you know, all of you who have gone through this process know that near the time when the baby is ready to be born, the pains are a minute apart or less. And that pain is the, actually the harbinger of something good that's going to happen. It's, it's a squeeze to the body and it hurts the wife, but it pushes the baby out. And what's the baby? The baby is all the promises of God for the entire world of mankind. And he's saying that nobody who's involved in you know, as, as the body politic, the pregnant woman, nobody is going to escape the pain. It's going to touch everybody in the world. It's not saying that nobody is going to live. It's saying that nobody's going to escape the troubled times that are going to afflict the entire world as they, as the birth of this new period of time, the new age happens. And then he says, but you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. He's saying that you, because you've been listening to me, Paul, you know some things. You know what's going to happen. And so, he, he encourages the brethren, he's writing to, not to be sleepy, and he doesn't mean sleepy in the sense that, you know, he's not saying don't sleep every night, he's saying don't sleep during the daytime, don't be oblivious to what's happening in the world around you, watch, keep awake and be sober spiritually. And then he goes on, and we'll skip down through, and he says one of the things that we are to do with our Christian brethren is to encourage one another and build one another up. And he says, you're already doing this, and he's glad. And then he says, he also asks them to respect those who labor among you. In other words, he's saying, Recognize who the actual leaders, who is feeding you spiritually, and listen to them, and recognize that they have an important job, and don't make it hard on them, is what he's saying. And he's also saying that they are there to admonish you. In other words, you have things you need to learn. And he says, to esteem these leaders, these teachers, very highly in love because of their work. It's work to teach. And then he says, be at peace among yourselves. In other words, what he's really saying is, when you're learning and your brethren are learning, you might not learn at the same pace. That's going to create conflict. You're going to have differences of opinion and differences of ideas. Be at peace among yourselves. Learn to accept the fact that there's going to be different growth patterns and different levels of awareness within the body of Christ. And then he says, To admonish idle folks, in other words, help them see that they need to be responsible, not just for spiritual things, but also temporal things, things that are temporary in our lives. And then, he says, don't act like the people in the world do, repaying one another, evil for evil. This is not the way we're learning. The thing that we're trying to learn here is to treat people the way Jesus treated people. And how did he treat the people who mistreated him? He was forgiving. The high priest servant comes and attacks him. Peter cuts off his ear. He turns to Peter and says, Put up your sword, and then he heals the guy's ear. So, the whole purpose for having the sword there was to show that we are not swordsmen who are going to fight using temporal violence. We're not going to do that. Christians are not going to be doing violent stuff. And then he says, he talks about don't quench the spirit, don't despise prophecies, which is what our other podcast is about, by the way, prophecies. But it also doesn't mean prophecies, it means prophecies. Public speaking. In other words, the talking about. There's a lot of talk that goes into being a Christian. A lot of public discussion and talk. Don't despise that. It seems like a lot of work and it sometimes seems fruitless. It's necessary to work on understanding these things. Test everything. Hold fast what is good. And that's the verse we wanted to focus on. Documadso. So when you hear all these discussions, these prophecies, that doesn't mean telling the future. Prophecies usually means just talking about the future. Spiritual stuff. He's saying, instead of having a cynical, questioning outlook and kind of rejecting everything, don't despise those things, but test So he's asking for a middle ground. He's saying, I don't want you to have an attitude that resists any kind of new idea or any kind of discussion of spiritual truths. He's saying, Don't despise it. Don't categorically reject what people say to you. But, don't just be gullible either. Don't just listen and accept everything they say. He says test everything. So the context here is the ideas about what could be true about current events. about the nearness of the return of Christ, for example. That was on their minds way back then, and it should be on our minds right now. It should be one of the top of mind things that we're thinking about. What are the signs of Jesus return? So he's saying everything thing that people in the church offer to you as information, he's saying smile, listen, but test it. Be a skeptic in that sense. And then he says, hold fast what is good. Now hold fast means to possess and hang on to. So if you find something good, put it in your fact pocket. And if you'd find something that's interesting, put it in your opinion pocket and keep testing it. So. The other thing that, that hold fast can mean, it's often used in, in a maritime situation, to describe the work that a, a captain or the first mate does at 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 in the distance. They are trying to hold onto a course. To keep moving in that direction, and the wind is blowing a different way, and the waves are pushing a different way, and you have to struggle to hold that wheel and keep the boat, it's going to turn, it's going to veer off, and you're going to have to turn it back, keep it going back into the right direction, that's what he's saying. When you are, when you see something good, it's usually in the distance, it's something aspirational, and you're looking forward, he's saying, hold fast to that what's the word, that bearing. Hold fast on that bearing and keep going in that direction, if it's a good direction. So, That was Documento, test everything, hold fast what's good. Documento together is, is is an idea that means putting things to the test and recognizing and clinging to the good stuff that we find when we are evaluating things. Okay. Now let's look at the next verse. I'm going to stay in Thessalonians here. Here it is. Now I'm going to go to 1 Thessalonians 2, and we're headed for verse 4. In, in chapter one, he, he, he talked a little bit about the presence of, of Christ and the times and seasons. And chapter five was also talking about the times and seasons. So this is the context. All of Thessalonians is kind of talking about the times and seasons and the signs of the times that you're living in, how to interpret. He says that you yourselves know, brothers, that our presence with you is not in vain. But, though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak. Not to please man, but to please God, who tests our hearts. Alright, so here's Dakamadzo again. Just as we have been approved. Now the word The word I forgot to flip it to the screen so you can see it. Here it is. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. Okay, so here is Dakemazo again. Now, in this verse, verse 4 of 1 Thessalonians 2, he says, Just as we have been approved by God, and it's a kind of mouthful. He's added a few syllables at the beginning and the end of this word, dokimadzo, and the full word is didakamosmetha. Didakamosmetha. Wow, that's a mouthful. And, in a nutshell, those little beginning and endings, are just a way of adding some precision and insight into what he means by this word. And, in essence, these letters are added to it to show that it's something that is in process, it's not a finished thing, and it's, the letters are added to show that it's middle voice. In other words, that the approval process. It's something that affects the one who's doing it. So it's, it means that the actor is also involved in approving things himself. Okay, so what does that mean? How do we understand that we have been approved by God when he says we have been approved? I think what he's, by God, what I think he's saying by putting it in middle voice, he's saying we are engaged in the process of approval with God. This is a team effort. And so when he says he's been approved by God, he's not saying I had a dream brethren and God has told me that I have the truth. This is not what he's saying. He's saying, I have been laboring working hard at understanding what is pleasing to God. And God has shown me in the struggles in my life, When I'm on the right track, and when I go through a tough experience and I have really labored to try to understand what God is trying to tell me and what, what is pleasing to him and what he wants all of the Christian brethren to, and sisters to participate in, in terms of their character and their life. He's saying, I have learned this and God has been the active 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 the idea that we're in partnership with God. And when we are feeling approved by God, it's, if we, if we're doing this the right way, if we're living the right way, we're transparent with God, we're open with Him in prayer, we're, we're listening and we're, we're participating with Him in the process of living our lives. And he shows us little things, little signposts that tell us that we're on the right track. And now he's speaking as the aged Apostle Paul to these brethren in Thessalonica. And he's saying, if I've been entrusted by God through this, this dynamic tandem process of me with God working, and you are engaged in the same kind of work yourself, It allows a growing body of people to be entrusted with the gospel. It's not just me. It's not just you. But we're growing together and we're moving forward in becoming entrusted. You know, tested and approved. That's what Dakemazo means. Tested and approved by God. Tested and approved in our own conscience. It's all happening at the same time. Middle voice. Okay, and then so he says, So we speak, not to please man, but to please God. Alright, that's a very important part. He's saying, what I'm trying to do here is not to please man, not to please man. Oh, wow. Think about all the Christian ministers that you've known who ought to read this verse a few times and think about it. Their goal is not to please man, but to please God. That's the goal of everything that we do in our lives. Not to please man, but to please God. Not to please man, but to please God. Okay, so, and here is where the, the real rubber hits the road and is the main title of our lesson today. Yes, we are on trial. Why? Because God is the one who is actually testing us. Our hearts. What is our heart? Let's start there. You see, God is not so interested in what your fingers do. He's not so interested in what your feet do, or even what your brain does. Because He knows that you're working with a brain, a operating system, that's a little bit bent out of shape because of having, being in this earthen vessel, a human body. You know, you're subject to the shame that you felt from things that happened in your childhood before you can remember. You're subject to the attractions and, and deceptions of a world system and even a devil who is trying to trick us. He understands all of that. We're going to make mistakes of thought 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 righteousness that's white that covers all of those sins. But he's testing our hearts because you see, when it comes down to it, our hearts are the thing that we want to do. We got to make sure that what we want to do is the right thing. We've got to be sure that what we want to do is the right thing. What is pleasing to God? What has been commanded by God? What is, represents obedience to God? What do we want? What do we care about? What do we work toward? What do we wake up thinking about? What do we go to bed worrying about? What do we dream about? That's our heart. That's where our heart is. And so, what did the I think it was Solomon who said this, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. This is true not only of Christians who are aspiring to be spiritual beings in the future, involved with Jesus in the governance of the of the entire planet, and even beyond in a future ages to come. But right now, we, along with every human being on the planet, have a heart to deal with. And we know that God has said, in the future, He's going to give a new heart to all the people. He's going to give them a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone. So all of the hardness of heart that we see around us in the world system, has All of the hardness of heart we see in our political discourse, all of the hardness of heart that we see in the different countries of the world, dictators and, and terrible rulers. Yes, there's a lot of hard heartedness in the world. But, Jesus died to make it possible. For God to wipe away the past and let people have a new start in life, just like we got, very similar to the way we got a new start in life when we came to Jesus. We had our come to Jesus moment in this life, and that is a great privilege. But everybody else is going to have a come to Jesus moment in a future age, right around the corner, I believe. So, when that happens, they will have their heart of flesh given to them, and they will be able to now obey the Solomon and keep their own heart with all diligence. They're still going to have to learn some things in the millennium. They're still going to have to start over and build a new character that's based on righteousness. And we will be there to help them. Because we will have gone through the process ourselves in this age. And that's what we're doing. And that's why God is testing our hearts. So that we will be able to help other people cultivate healthy hearts of their own in the Millennium. That is the big picture of the plan of God. So there it is, right there in black and white. God tests our hearts. It's our hearts on trial right now. The rest of the world, is not on trial. Let me just give you a proof text for that before I go back to the other Documento text that I want to get to. Remember what Jesus said of himself in John 3. 16? He said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish. Parish means die, by the way. Go out of existence. He says that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's a wonderful promise. It begs the question, does that mean that if people don't accept Jesus, that they are going to perish and they'll go out of existence forever? Jesus answers that question. that we might be thinking in the next verse, John 3, 17. He says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn, and that word condemn doesn't mean, it's not docomazo. What it means is to set up a trial and have a court set up and hear evidence and come to a decision about somebody's guilt or innocence. He says, God did not send his son to set up this trial and make the world stand as guilty before God. That's not the purpose of this period 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 we've experienced in life. He left them in place. He left Satan there to trick anybody he could. He left ignorance planet wide. Why? Well, because that creates obstacles and headwinds for us that we have to fight against so that we can learn to have our hearts pass the test in the midst of this trouble. But he said, back in John 3, 17, he says, God didn't send the Son to judge the world, but that the world might be made safe and sound, is what it says literally in the Greek. He sent Jesus so that the world might be made safe and sound. The world has already been made safe and sound. They have, their salvation has been paid for. Their bank account has been filled. They haven't drawn on that bank account yet. That'll happen in the millennium. But that, but the money is there. They have a, They have a college fund waiting for them that was paid for at Calvary. And so what he's saying in John 3. 17 is the purpose of God sending Jesus into the world in John 3. 16 is so that anybody who does believe in him in this intervening time will have eternal life. And that's what we have. We are already promised this. We already are experiencing this as followers of Jesus. We aren't totally, finally saved. He says, Be thou faithful unto death and you will receive a crown of life. So we're, we still have to be faithful until death. And that's what this podcast is about, the process of helping Christians. Whatever their background, whatever their eschatology is, to be faithful unto death and to understand what the requirements for life are. And the requirements for life are very clear in the Bible, aren't they? The standards of righteousness are among the clearest things that the Bible talks about. Eschatology, not so much. That's not so clear. It's, I think, left intentionally difficult to grasp. And it takes a lot of sorting, and it takes some, some almost good fortune to be, like, I was born into a family that recognized some of these things. And so, that's, That's the only reason I'm sitting here talking the way I'm talking, because I've had, I've been exposed to an underculture within the Christian movement that, that recognizes some different things that most folks haven't learned about yet. And I'm grateful for that. And I'm also realizing that I'm no better than anyone else. I just happen to be lucky enough to 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 Corinthians 13. Here it is, 2 Corinthians 13, and we're going to be looking for verse 5. Now, 2 Corinthians is complicated. I'm not going to wade into the weeds here. It's a very difficult passage, but let's look at verse 4. He says, is that 4? 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 surging that he experienced and then 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 to him to break his legs. They didn't have to break his legs. So he was crucified in weakness. The weakness of being a human being. With all the weakness that implies. But he lives, that is he's been resurrected, right? He was resurrected on the third day. He lives by the power of God. For we also, now he's, now he's comparing it to us. We also are weak in him. He's saying that being a Christian As a human being following Jesus, we are weak, but we are weak in Him. But in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. So he's saying that we aren't there yet, but we will live with him. We will also experience a resurrection to spiritual life, just as Jesus did. And that will come, just as in Jesus case, as a result of the power of God. In one of his epistles, Paul calls it the mighty power of God, to give what Peter called the divine nature to the likes of you and me. So, with that amazing honor in front of us, what does he say to do? He says, examine, examine yourselves. He's not saying examine yourself in comparison to your brother or 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 to reach for it to help them get it removed? Oh, well, first you better notice that in your own eye you have a beam, not a splinter. You have a beam in your own eye. It's much closer to you and it's just as hard to get at as that splinter in their eye is that beam in your eye. It's, try to grab that beam. It takes finesse. It takes precision of movement. It takes plenty of water to kind of splash on there to wash it out. That's what he's saying. Examine yourselves. Dakimazo. And again, Dakimazo doesn't just mean be down on yourself, be critical of yourself. It means test yourself against a righteous standard and then approve what's good and disapprove what's not. That's the whole idea in that one Greek word. Test yourself. And God, we read in the previous verses, God is doing that with us. That's the process he's putting us all through. We need to cooperate with him and do that ourselves. And he says, when you do it, he gives us a little encouragement. Here's a little coaching encouragement. He's got us in the corner. We're sitting down after being slugged a bunch by the opponent. And you know, there's, there's blood coming out of our nose and, and our lip is getting fat from being punched. And he says, do you not realize this about yourselves? That Jesus is in you? Jesus Christ is in you. So he's saying, don't be so hard on yourself that you can't see the good that you have. There is good in you. Find it. Find the good stuff that you've got in there and try to reinforce that. And. You will move forward. You will make progress. And then he says, unless indeed you fail to meet the test. In other words, if you stop testing yourself and you stop holding yourself to a high standard, what's going to happen? If you stop reading the Bible and being challenged to be stronger in faith and more complete in knowledge, if you stop doing that, What are you saying? Are you saying that you are, you failed and you're not ready to, to graduate and you've given up? Are you gonna drop out of school? You're gonna drop out of the school of Christ? No, he's saying, nah, I don't believe that you're gonna fail to meet the test. I trust, I, God picked you, God called you, God invited you. You can't believe in Jesus without God, entering into your heart and your mind, you have been given a gift. Just keep going. Put one step in front of the other and just keep going. He's saying, aspirationally, he's confident, we can do this. We know that there is no other creature that can get in the way of us being successful in Christ. There's really only one creature. One creature can get in the way. Amen. And that's ourselves, but even Satan can't get in the way and actually block us from being from 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 1st Corinthians 3. 1st Corinthians 3, 1 to 17. So I'm going to look at 13. Verse 13 is the target. Now, when he talks to the first Corinthians, he's got some issues. And so he says, I couldn't address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh. Paul is kind of reading the riot act to the church in Corinth. They've got some serious sins of the flesh. We're talking sexual immorality and things like that. These are serious things that the 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't address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh. As infants in Christ, you know, he says, I fed you with milk, but not solid food for, you're not ready for it. You're not ready to keep moving and advancing into an understanding of how to live as a Christian because you're stumbling on some of the most basic principles of human behavior that really even ordinary humans recognize are standards they need to, you know, you need to have one partner, you need to be committed to that partner, Things like that. Those are obviously questioned now in our culture where everything is falling apart and the world system is awash in, in you know, it's just breaking down. It's falling apart. But in the Christian world, that shouldn't be happening. In Christian families, that shouldn't be happening. So he says, You weren't ready. You're cause you're still in the flesh. For while there's jealousy and strife among you, aren't you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? Ooh, now it's getting a little closer to home, isn't it? We're finding at times in the Christian world today where Evangelicals are, are jumping in with both feet and both hands into the water, the muddy water of politics, aren't they? Isn't this a big issue? With Christian people having strife and jealousy and, and backbiting and, and, and belligerency between them over What, political candidates? Government policy? We shouldn't even be talking about that. We shouldn't even be worrying about that, should we? Those are the things that are going to be passing away. That's going to be replaced. I mean, as good as the United States has been in years past, it's not the salvation of the world. It's not the the kingdom of God. So, we should be Focusing on our own hearts. And getting those better and then talking about that in a way that's humble to help others also learn how to be a better shepherd of their own heart. Okay, so then he uses that as an example of the kind of mis applied thinking misdirected energy, when he says someone in the group says, I follow Paul and another, I follow Apollos, you know, he says, are you not merely being human when you do this? You know, it's like saying I follow Trump or I follow Biden. I follow Republican candidates or I follow Democratic candidates. Brethren, this is not something we should be doing or thinking about at all. This is irrelevant to the Christian world. What then is Apollos? Now, Paul and Apollos, they were not political candidates. They were teachers. They were speakers in the Christian church. Apollos was probably a little bit more of an evangelist. Paul was a little bit more of a pastor 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 on trying to build up and, and, and discipline and, and encourage and strengthen the ones who had accepted Christ. And he talks about in Romans that he was, or no, it wasn't Romans, one of his epistles, he says, I'm thankful I didn't baptize any of you. In other words, I wasn't the guy that brought you into this thing. You know, I'm here as a pastor and as a teacher to help you move beyond that where you started, wherever you started. But here he comes into Corinth and they're like little babies. And spiritually speaking, they are, they're arguing about, You know, who their loyalties are to in the, in the church, which speaker do they like the best? Which pastor do they enjoy the most? Which books are they reading? And so forth. So he says, who are Paul and Apollos? They are servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. In other words, let's get this in perspective here. The Lord is in charge and he assigned servants to each. And each servant does what they're supposed to do. So he says, I planted, Apollos watered, right? It's a farm. It doesn't matter who operates the tractor to do the planting. It doesn't matter who operates the machinery to distribute the water. They're just servants. And one does watering, and one does fertilizing, and one does weeding, and one does planting, and one does harvesting. They're all servants of the bigger goal, which is God's goal, the development of a church of Christ. So then he says, So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one. They're one and the same. They're on the same team. They have the same goals. And each will receive his wages according to his labor. Now he introduces a new idea here. This is an interesting idea. He's saying, you know, we, we always think about Christianity as being, and, and the opportunity to be a Christ, a Christian. We always think of that as being something that happens by grace. It doesn't happen through works. It happens by grace, right? Well, let's go back to this verse again and notice what it says. He who plants and he who waters are one and each one will receive his wages according to his labor. Now, wait a minute. You mean there's wages associated with being a follower of Jesus? Yeah, actually there are. There are wages. And those wages are a result of the way in which we participate and cooperate with God in the testing and development of our hearts, our desires, our innermost motivations, and our character fruitage. We are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, he says. You are God's field. God's building. So he's using multiple metaphors, isn't he? In one sense, we're a field, which is just a bunch of dirt that somebody externally adds seed to and adds water to and fertilizes and develops a plant. And we might be the plant, but we are only developing because God did all the things necessary to make that plant grow. Or, the other metaphor is a gill, a building. You know, he clears the field, he digs a foundation, and that foundation is Christ. And on that foundation, which is a solid rock, he brings stones that he's cut years before in a, in a quarry. And he brings those stones and he starts assembling them. And we are We are a part of that building, and in another sense, we are the building. He's building us up, and then he's building each of us together into a superstructure. A bunch of, a bunch of stones together that become a temple where he lives. So I'm headed for Verse 13, According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He's the foundation of the building. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold or silver or precious stones, those are the good things. The things that are not going to be burned up if there's a fire that sweeps through. Or, wood, hay, and straw. Which are other building supplies that many people have lived in for time immemorial. But he's saying, be careful because if you build your building out of wood, hay, and straw, when the fire comes, when the troubles of the end of the Christian era come, you're gonna find some of the things that you built maybe getting burned up. So what did you build with? What did you, what did, what did you put your Christian energy into building? And is it something that will stand the test of time? He says, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. And here's the, here's the magic words. The fire will test. It will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. That's what's going to happen. The fire will test, the fire will test, Dakemazo. The fire, the difficulties, the trouble that we experience in our church, in our world, in our family, in our own minds, that fire will put to the test all of the character that we've been trying to develop throughout our Christian walk. It's a daunting idea, isn't it? It's kind of a scary idea, but it is a reality. We've got to recognize that God is perfect. And in one way, he is a perfectionist. And in another way, he's not. The way in which he is a perfectionist is that his goal and his plan and his energy is put into making a bunch of people perfect. Perfect spiritually, and then perfect as leaders on planet earth in the nation of Israel, and then eventually everybody else, perfect citizens of a happy, joyous world. That's the perfectionism of God, looking at the end product. But he's not a perfectionist when it comes to your daily growth process. He's like a loving, fun loving, playful dad when it comes to the way he treats us while we're growing. He doesn't look at little children and say, Oh boy, look at those imperfect adults. He's not looking at us that way. He knows that we have to make mistakes. He knows that we are going to make mistakes. He knows that we are going to think wrong thoughts. He knows that we're going to ask stupid questions. He also knows that we're going to ask a lot of really important and valuable questions, and he's right there and ready to help us learn the answers to those questions the best possible way. Sometimes he'll give us a few words that explain it. Sometimes he'll say, you'll find out. He just knows the best way to get us coached up and built up and raised up to be good followers of him. Okay, Dakimadzo. There it is again. The fire will not only expose and point the finger at. It's not that kind of testing. The fire will try it and compare it to a perfect standard. And the fire will also show how close to gold it is. It'll, it'll approve it. It'll help us approve ourselves. It'll help us approve our brethren. And, and encourage them when we see something good that they're doing that maybe they're down on themselves about, we'll help them get through it. That's the, how the fire is working to test and approve at the same time. Alright, we're almost done with this list. Hebrews 3, 9. He says, Therefore, holy brothers, this is verse one, you who share in a heavenly calling, okay, so again, this is aimed at Christians who have answered the call that was given in our first text that we've spent so many weeks on, Romans 12, 1 and 2. The calling is, offer yourselves a living sacrifice that's holy. That God gave you the ability to do. So if this is the heavenly calling and if we are obedient to that calling and we answer it and we, we say yes, then we have all of the resources of God at our disposal to learn this thing and to make it through life to a point where we are honorable, valuable, mature children of God and brothers and sisters of 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 faithful to him who appointed him. Jesus was faithful to God, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. As much more glory as the builder of a house has much more honor than the house itself. Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son and we are his house. If indeed we hold fast our confidence and are boasting in our hope. Here's the same metaphor again. We're part of a house. We have other members that are also part of the house, and we need to do our part. If we're a beam a, a two by four in a wall, we need to hold that wall up. We need to stay in contact with the, the drywall and the, and the shingles on the outside. We've gotta do our part to help support the house that we're a member of. Okay, so we're headed towards verse nine today. If you hear his voice. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. Here we are talking about hearts again, aren't we? Don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion, which he's talking about, you know, things that happened back when the law was given by Moses, on the day of testing in the wilderness. Testing. There it is again. Testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test. Now the word testing here is not Doc Amadso, but when it says, but where your fathers put me to the test, that is Doc Amadso. He's saying that the, the fathers of the Jewish people put God to the test. They scratched God on that basalt. And I don't know what their gold standard was when they put God there, But, apparently, They didn't have the right standard because it says they saw his works for 40 years. What he's saying is, if you're going to put God to the test, understand that He's going to be faithful and He's going to come out showing you where your standards of testing are mistaken. If you're going to put gold down below something else, He's going to, He's going to show you in your life experience. That what you thought was gold wasn't, and what, and what you put on the, on, on the rock to compare 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 critical thinking mentality, and this is the. This is the, the thing that's holding up this door of entry into the temple of God. This is the, the door of salvation. This is the way of progress as Christians into the realms where God lives and breathes. And where we are being trained to live and breathe the same air and, and be able to converse and, and, and live with and enjoy the company of the Supreme Ruler of the universe and His love. glorious son who we will be married to in the coming age. Okay, so we're not going to go there today, but Romans 1, 28 uses the word dokimazo and another word that's a derivative of that word and it uses it to make a point about not the Christians of the world, but the un Christians in human history. That's what we'll look at in our next episode. So, episode seven will be Romans 1. That's a really tough passage to look through, and we're going to try to shed some light on what the argument of the Apostle Paul really was when he made the statements that he made in Romans 1. And we'll look at most of Romans 1 all the way through to the 28th verse and a little beyond. Thanks for listening and remember, we are near. All Christians are approaching the end of the world. of the Christian era and the end of their own process of growth, testing, and development. So, stay the course, focus on maturity, focus on spiritual matters, read the Bible, study the Bible, fellowship with other believers, pray to the Lord, and listen carefully to what He says when you are praying. God bless you.