Be Established And Settled In The Truth

I wanted to go over with you the letter that we sent out this past week. I'm pretty sure that most of you got it, although I don't know that Jesse and Bill got it because I tried to send it. I mean, I sent it and then you think, well, surely it went. But then if you get a reject, saying, didn't go through, you try to figure out what to do, and I tried something else and that didn't work either. So nonetheless, I wanted to cover some of the parts of the letter that was sent out from the home office this past week. It is important for us to understand this, and yet, as you could tell from the volume of information provided, if you've read everything that was sent, I surely haven't. I read most of it. I didn't read the Trinity booklet, which was 65 pages.

There are some maybe very more concise areas that you can read and thoroughly know what it is that we were wanting to pass on. But I think it was really good to get this letter in that I think it points out something that all of us know. We all understand to certain degrees. I mean, all of us continue to grow in understanding as we go along. And yet, the significance and part of the focus that is on this letter is just asking us how well we understand, how well we are grounded in the way that the Father, God the Father, and Jesus Christ exist in their divine family. And clearly, that's extremely important for us to understand that. And in many ways, you know, I want to read, I'm going to read some of this letter, actually, I may read quite a bit of it, because it's important for us in a number of ways. It's important not only for the church in general, it's important for our message, because our message is about the kingdom of God, about the rule of God, about the government of God that's coming to the earth. But it's about how the Father and the Son exist, and how that they want us to exist with them in a similar way. And so, to a degree, it talks about not just understanding the nature of God, which would be a summary of what was pointed out, but the type of relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father and our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. See, that's what's important, and that's what we want to continue to thrive in and grow in. Even this first paragraph, if this letter says the purpose of this letter is to encourage all of us. So, it's to encourage us. It's not to discourage us, it's to encourage us, because we have known and understood much of what is presented here in this letter for a long time. But, of course, Satan would like to confuse. He would like to cause us to be disconcerted. He would like people to wonder what is of concern. And yet, really, the relationship that you had with Jesus Christ, our Savior, and with our Heavenly Father, because, of course, he pointed us to the Heavenly Father. He taught his disciples, how do you pray?

Pray our Father, who art in heaven. Now, there are so many clear explanations of what, perhaps, we've always known, and yet things that need to continue to be reinforced. But, it says the purpose of this letter is to encourage all of us to continue to fight the good fight of faith and to be settled in the faith. See, in a sense, I think that would be a title to what I even want to say today, that we need to be established and settled in the truth.

That's what every one of us needs. That's what I need. That's what I want. That's what I want for each of you, because I love you. I'm interested in you and in your growing and developing, but I'm interested in me growing. I want to understand things better. But some things, you know, we are established in, and we just simply need to be settled in what it is that God teaches us. This goes on to say here in the Northern Hemisphere, if we're entering a time of a long, hot summer, it's a time when there can be a letdown in our spiritual lives. You know, and I read that and think, well, sure, you know, you could write that at any time, perhaps. Any time could be a time when we let down. There's often a lot of activity. You know, there are distractions. There are people going on vacation, people traveling. Gas is cheap right now, about as cheap as any time. And yet, you know, we don't want to overlook the need to be close to our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to be away from that at any time. And sometimes we are. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that. Sometimes we want to remember that we have been established in the Word of God. We've been established with an understanding of the truth, and we want to be settled. Settled is a remarkably good word. In 1 Peter, it talks about that. I don't have it written down, so I'm not going to turn to it and find that I'm in the wrong book. But 1 Peter talks about the trials and tests that Christians go through, and it talks about how that's inevitable. You know, again, we don't like trials. We don't like things going badly. We don't like to hurt. We don't like trauma and difficulty, but it's necessary. It's necessary for us to be tried and to be tested because of what God is doing with us. And he says after we are tried and tested for a while, then, you know, we are given a relief from God. And he talks about that being a soundness and a stability and a settling that he provides. And so we're the ones who benefit from all of us. It also mentions, of course, that we need to be reminded to be renewing the inward man on a daily basis.

See, it talks about the renewing of our mind, and that should be in a daily, in a daily way. Let me see if I can find that. 2nd Chronicles, who's what I was looking for. Not Chronicles, but 2 Corinthians 4. It says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, So don't lose heart, even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner man needs to be renewed day by day. See, that statement should take on more impact as we understand what's really important about our lives and about our relationship with God. See, we need God. We need to be renewed day by day.

But sometimes there's days that I'm not as renewed as others. I might be somewhat neglectful.

You know, I think myself, and I think, you know, God knows what kind of a character I am. He knows that I put stuff off. He knows I'm a procrastinator. He knows that things don't always come together like I might like. And he knows that I'm neglectful at times. But rather than any of us who can afford to be neglectful about being renewed each day. Each day, we can be renewed. We can be renewed each day. Each day, we need to be renewed in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

And Jesus says, you know, it's in my authority, in my name, that you come to our Father.

And so, it's a reminder, you know, that we have been granted a tremendous privilege of understanding the truth. And it mentions, of course, that the Church of God is the pillar and ground of the truth. And then this letter points out, and this is something that, of course, was not just sent to the ministry, but is sent to all of us from time to time. Some brethren have become troubled by sermons or conversation in which they get the idea the Church might change a doctrine.

See, now, that's something that would be very unlikely. As far as, you know, when you read through the rest of this, you'll see, you know, that's not going to happen.

So, let's be reminded of the process necessary for changing the official doctrine of the United Church of God. So, actually, they're going to give us explanation of what it takes to actually make any kind of change or any kind of alteration from what we've always understood, what we really do know. See, I could say I didn't understand the nature of God, the nature of God in Christ, and even how the Holy Spirit works in us. I didn't understand that as well 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. At any time, I had a certain understanding of that, but I didn't understand it like I think I do today. Certainly, as I know God wants us to grow in understanding.

But see, what He says about His nature, what He says about the way He is, what He says about the way that the Father and Son or the Eternal God and the Word, whatever words we want to describe. There are a lot of different words that describe God. Our relationship with God needs to continue to grow. It needs to continue to expand.

And so, He says in this letter, again, this is for Mr. Kubik and Dr. Ward, you know, we're told, of course, our ministry and everyone who's speaking ought to be remembering the admonition. We've gone over some of this in the last few weeks, even, about how we are to pray doctrine and how we are to, you know, teach what we've been taught. And maybe we could even go to that here in Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1.

In verse 9, this was Paul telling Titus as a young minister, I'm leaving you there in Crete. I want you to appoint elders in every city. In verse 9, he says, he must, in talking about those who are going to be teaching, he must have a firm grasp of the Word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching so that he may be able to both to preach with sound and sound. Both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who can contradict it. See, that was what Paul's directive to Titus was, to hold the faithful Word as he has been taught.

And we've, I think we've gone over that not too long ago. And so that was a good thing for us to be covering. But we have been certainly in the Church of God, as all of us look back throughout our lifetimes and going back into the 30s, last century, you know, we have been entrusted with a sound doctrinal heritage.

Our message is to God, people should always be grounded in the truth of Scripture and the doctrinal teachings that we hold. That's what, you know, we not only want to pass on, that's what we're required to pass on. It says, when the United Church of God was begun, or began back in 95 or so, and its administrative structure was developed, a rigorous process was outlined to protect the core teachings of the Church.

You know, at that time, those teachings were under attack. There was a great deal of misinformation going on. There was a lot of confusion. Even, you know, at that time, it was partially involving even a misunderstanding of the nature of God. And so, obviously, you know, this is a very important topic to correctly understand. But as this says, the Constitution of the United Church of God identifies 20 fundamentals of belief, and they're listed in Article 2 of the Constitution of the United Church of God.

So, and again, I think most of you are aware of that. You're familiar with, you know, those core teachings. Obviously, they have to do with different of our doctrines regarding the Sabbath or tithing or other issues, what we understand about Satan and what the eternal life is. But the very first ones have to do with the nature of God. They have to do with God the Father and the one He sent to the earth, Jesus Christ.

And so, it is listed, actually, I think in the attachments that we sent in the letter, the very, I think, the first one about the fundamentals of belief regarding the Godhead. Well, we believe about God. You know, that's two pages, and if you studied that, it would take you more than one day, because there is, you know, there are, I didn't count them, you know, there's got to be 50 or 80 scriptures on those two pages, probably even more, maybe 100 or 120, because you go throughout the Bible and you have additional information that God provides about what He's doing, about who He is, about how He functions, about how He and the Word, the Eternal God and the Word, how they function.

And see, that's what's really important, because that's how we're to function. We're to function in a similar way. Now, you could describe that way, perhaps in a lot of different ways, but ultimately it's going to be described as love, because that's what God is. It's going to be described as being in a unison, being in agreement, being in support and respect of one another, and that's exactly what He expects of all His children.

If we're going to be the children of God, then that's what I have to conform to. I have to conform to what Jesus clearly did when He was here on the earth as a human. He showed us the perfect example of how to approach God. He says, I'm not taking credit myself, I'm not trying to get everybody to look at me, although obviously they did, because the things He did were so extraordinary, nobody could really believe them.

They had to watch. They had to wonder when He healed people and when He spoke parables that, you know, they're trying to figure out, what is He talking about? He was representing the Father, and He said, even the works that I do, it's the works the Father is doing through me. The words that I say, the words that the Father gives me. So, all the examples that we have throughout the Bible is, they are wonderful to point out how God is and how He wants His children to be. And so, let me go on to much of what is in this letter.

It says, at this time we believe it would be helpful for all of us to briefly review our doctrinal or our doctrine review process. And we hasten to add that we welcome the submission of doctrinal and prophecy papers and members to further advance our understanding of the Word of God. See, we want to grow and understand, but there's a process that we're going to follow in doing that.

And He says, we have a process for submitting doctrinal and prophecy papers. If you saw that as an attachment, you could read through that. It was only a couple of pages, but of course, it said exactly what needs to be followed, if there's anything that anyone would like to have reviewed. And it says, we have a process that was approved by the Council of Elders in 2013.

This clearly defined process is attached. Of course, it was an attachment in the email that we were sent. While we protect what we have agreed to, we want to make certain that any modification to our current doctrine are done decently and in order. The foregoing policy lays out in a systematic way how members and ministers should go about submitting any paper. And here is an overview of the process to be followed by those who wish to submit a paper, which must be done in writing and submitted electronically. So again, there are certain instructions here, and you can read these in your own letter. Explain the traditional teaching of the Church. Show where the traditional teaching is wrong or lacking. Write what the correct teaching should be, why this is a more accurate understanding. Then the path for approval is stated in the policy as first going through the local pastor and the regional pastor, and if they believe the paper has merit, that they will then submit it to the Doctrine Committee of the Council of Elders. There are also appeals provisions along the way so that no one is summarily cut off. This process continues on to the Council of Elders and culminates with the final point of the process, which he describes here is, if the Council of Elders receives and approves by a two-thirds ballot of the full Council a paper that would alter a current doctrine outside of the fundamental beliefs, it must be presented to the General Conference of Elders for consideration. The General Conference of Elders will be provided with 90 days to study the paper, ask questions prior to being asked for a ballot. Paper must be approved by the General Conference of Elders as prescribed by the governing documents of the Church. And as a reminder, an amendment to the fundamental beliefs requires the approval of three-fourths of all of the Elders of the General Conference of Elders as it is constituted at the time of the ballot. So one can really see or readily see that a rigorous review process is in place. This is what was set up 20 years ago, more than 20 years ago. This is what we have followed, striving to maintain our doctrines and being able to review other information should we need to. What is important is that any proposed changes be done in a way that it honors the commitment of the Church to hold the biblical truth while we continue to grow in grace and knowledge. And so this is a very extensive process that anyone could follow if they had something that needed to be reviewed. It goes on to say it's very important that anyone submitting a paper should not be teaching his suggested changes until the paper is approved by the General Conference of Elders. The Church's current belief stands throughout the process to do otherwise creates confusion and division. So again, that's pretty much common sense that, you know, I don't just teach whatever I happen to think. I want to teach what the Bible says, what we teach as a Church, understand what we are grounded in, and what we are settled in. That's what all of us as ministers are required to do. But that's what we want to do. That's what we want to do to cause a deeper understanding of our relationship with the Father and the Son. Then it asks a question, do you understand what we teach regarding God the Father and Jesus Christ?

And see, that may be a question you think, well, why would we even wonder about that? Well, that's one of our main teachings. That's one of our main doctrines. That is, certainly something that was under fire whenever the Trinity concept was introduced some 20-25 years ago, where that was beginning to be embraced. And clearly, a misunderstanding of the whole working of the Holy Spirit was generated. And it caused a lot of disconcert for all of us. And clearly, I think we understand that better today, perhaps, than ever before. And yet, how the Father and the Son work together in, as I said, unity, agreement, support, and respect. That's an important part of what we want to do as well as members of the Church. So it asks a question. Do we fully understand what we believe and preach on this subject? How long has it been since we've reviewed that? The nature of God and Christ was one of the topics of controversy that led to the formation of the United Church of God. As I mentioned, the questions surrounding the nature of God have been debated for centuries. This is not a new topic. This is a topic for the last at least 2,000 years, probably, has been...maybe that's pushing it too much. It says centuries here. So at least for the last several centuries, looking back in the last five, we have more information, perhaps, than we might have prior to that. But that has been a point of discussion and debate for a long time. And, of course, the only valid source we have is the Bible, and we must use sound principles of exegesis in reaching our conclusions. And then it provides a listing, and this is what we had as attachments to the letter that was sent to us. Our fundamental belief, number one, has to do with God, has to do with the God-hit, has to do with the way the Father and the Son exist together. And so that is...that was reprinted, or we were shown that we could focus on that. As I mentioned, the Trinity booklet, other booklets that we have, either about Jesus Christ or about who is God, the nature of God in Christ as a study paper, there was a lot of information that was provided. And it says, it is our sincere desire that we be one in faith and hope and love and doctrine, and that we are able to fulfill the great commission that God and Christ have given us at this critical, crucial juncture in human history. And we have a job to do. We have a proclamation to make of the kingdom. That also focuses on coming to see who Jesus Christ is, coming to see Him as not only our Savior and as God, but also as a coming King. And how it is, then, that He relates to the Heavenly Father. See, both of them are to be correctly understood. And I think the information that we have here helps us in being able to do that. Again, it points out that we need to put on the whole armor of God. Fight the good fight of faith, because, you know, the book of Hebrews tells us, I believe, that we're not to draw back.

But we want to go forward. We want to go forward in proclaiming the message that God has given us to give to the world. And so, we can do that. You know, we've, in this letter, there's a whole lot of exhortation for us to not only study and understand, but, as I said, to be established and settled in our understanding of the truth and in the relationship we have with our Father.

All of us, as this points out, should know how our doctrine is established and how changes are addressed. I mean, this is what this is explaining to every one of us. It should be none of us who would not understand that there's an extensive process that would actually go into any kind of change that might occur in the teaching of the Church. But, whenever you have, you know, different questions about the nature of God, you know, they need to be reviewed and they need to be thought about, and then they could be determined as to whether anything is, in any reason, different than what we've always understood. You know, I thought about this a lot, especially as I was driving over here today, and it's soothing to me to be reminded of what we read here in John chapter 17. John, of course, is a book that the Apostle John wrote, and you find, you know, it's different than the other gospels. It doesn't follow, in a sense, the same pattern and going through every detail of Jesus' life, of his birth. It goes through, you know, a lot of the things that he said and did, and the relationship that he had with the Father and with his disciples.

And we're familiar with chapter 13, because we go through that same process at the time of the Passover every year. We go through a foot-washing service, and then the taking of the bread and the wine that connect us to Jesus Christ. And yet, Jesus is also pointing to the Father, and he's actually saying in chapter 14 and 15 and 16 and 17, that whole section where Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he is telling them, I know, you know, this is not going to be easy on you, but I'm going to die. I'm not going to be here like I've been the last few years, and I want you to realize that I'm not leaving you alone. I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit, and you are going to be comforted. You are going to be helped. You are going to be given the necessary equipment, if we want to say of it that way, to be close to God. See, we have been given a gift, a gift of the Holy Spirit. And actually, it talks about this a lot in chapter 14 and 15 and 16, but I'm not wanting to read all of that. Probably we'll read some more of that next week or the week following. But here in chapter 17, you see the focus that Jesus had, knowing that he was shortly going to be taken, shortly going to be betrayed, shortly going to be crucified in this next day. But in chapter 17, it says, after Jesus had spoken these words, what he had said to the disciples, what we see recorded in the book of John, Jesus had spoken these words. He looked up to heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you. See, what did you learn from that statement? Well, it's very obvious that Jesus was in unison with the Father. They were in complete agreement. They were in complete harmony. And he says, Father, glorify your Son, so that the Son that I may glorify you, since you have given him the Son authority over all people or all things to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. See, so this starts talking about an understanding of the fact that people, like the disciples or like us, had been drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ, and they are in unison, they are in cooperation, they love one another, they could be personified as just love. That's the way they are. That's the unison that they have. That's what we want to promote here and now. And clearly, that's what the whole church needs. And he says in verse 3, this is eternal life. That they, the people that have been drawn by the Father to know Jesus Christ, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. See, that's important. If we're going to have eternal, everlasting existence, then we're going to need to know the Father and the Son. Or prior to that, if they were recognized as the Eternal and the Word. That's the descriptions that you have with God. And so here he says in verse 3, this is eternal life. That you know, or that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And he says in verse 4, I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. And so now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. Before the world began, you know, I had glory with you, and I was willing to relinquish that as we read in Philippians chapter 2. I was willing to relinquish that, and then I asked that you return me to that glory. And see, and rather than that, that's the glory that God is offering us to be a part of. He wants us to have the glory that He and the Son have.

But He wants us to be in agreement with Him. He wants us to truly know Him and know Jesus that He sent to the earth. If we back up to chapter 1, John chapter 1, you see John's beginning to this book, which is in a sense another very revealing section. John chapter 1, the first several verses here describe something about the existence of the one who would become Jesus Christ when He came to the earth about Him existing prior to that time. In verse 1, in the beginning, was the Word.

And down in verse 14, it says, the Word became flesh. And so, this is talking about Jesus Christ in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

See, again, all of you believe that. You've read that. You understand that. You know that that's what the Bible teaches. It talks about the Eternal God always having existed. It talks about the Word having always existed. Uncreated, they have both existed. And again, whenever I read, you know, you inhabit eternity. That doesn't have any beginning. That doesn't have any end. That's the way God is, whether we're referring to the Father or to the Son. But it describes that here in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And He was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being through Him.

And without Him, not one thing came into being. And what came into being in Him was life.

And the life was the light of all people, and that light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. See, John is making a statement here about not only the pre-existence of Jesus as the Word, but he's saying that it was through the Word that everything was created. The Father and the Son, as we would later be able to differentiate them, were the ones who created everything. They are the great Creator God.

And in verse 10, He was in the world, talking again about Jesus, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world didn't really know Him. He came to what was His own, His own people. They didn't accept Him. But to all who received Him, who believe in His name, He gave power to be the children of God, who were born not of blood or the will of the flesh, the will of man, but of God. Again, somewhat familiar Scriptures to us, and yet we want to be reminded that, well, we became a part of God's divine family through a belief in Jesus Christ, through an acceptance of His shed blood and broken body for our sins, to be reconciled to God. And of course, in verse 14, it says, The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. See, that's what Jesus represented when He was here on the earth. That's what He obviously still represents at the right hand of God today. And, as I've said, they work together in unison. They work together in harmony. And they have been existing that way far longer than any of us. You know, whenever we think about God, we think about, like I said, the eternal God and the Word. That would be one way to think of it. We can think about it as the Father and the Son, both of whom were not created. You know, they were uncreated. They have always existed. They are all powerful, all-knowing, always present.

And there are many biblical statements to understand how God describes Himself. And that's what we find in our, say, our fundamentals of belief regarding the title of it, God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. That's what we need to understand. And yet, I also want us to go to 1 Corinthians 1, or excuse me, I guess it would be verse 2, chapter 2, 1 Corinthians 2. Because here, and my purpose is not to try to go through all the information that we've had provided to us, but it is important for us to be established and to be settled in the truth that we have about the existence of God. See, we believe God exists. We believe He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And we believe all the words of the Bible. Whenever we read them all over the Old and the New Testament, it contributes to understanding of how it is that the Father and the Son exist together in complete peace. But I want us to look here at 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, because it starts talking about the fact that the Corinthians were somewhat divided.

They were struggling with each other. They were not in unison as they should have been. And Paul addresses that in chapter 1 and in chapter 2.

But here in chapter 3, more so, but in chapter 2, he says in verse 7, You know, we speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages of our glory, and none of the rulers of this age have understood this.

See, for people in general, really understanding, they may have a concept of God, concept of some kind of being. Often they describe it in somewhat unusual terms.

Often they describe God in kind of a not knowing way. And yet, we look to God as Jesus, described as our Father, as our spiritual parent, as the one that we want to relate to, and we can relate to Him by what we're going to read here in the remainder here of chapter 2.

It says in verse 8, None of the rulers of this age understood this, but if they had, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. See, if people really knew what they were doing, you know, they were obviously out of control whenever the religious leaders were giving up Jesus to the Romans, whenever they were abusing and then crucifying Him. You know, Paul says, well, they wouldn't have done that if they knew what they were doing, but they didn't know what they were doing. They, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They are completely, they don't comprehend the plan of God. See, how important is an understanding of the plan of God? How important is an understanding of the way the Father and the Son work together in unison? How important is it for us to understand that we can be a part of that same divine family like we read there in John 1?

Well, he's going to describe that here. He says in verse 9, as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard, nor the human heart has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him. The incredible plan that God is working out in our lives as we do His work. See, it's amazing to me whenever you think about how ingrained in Jesus, even as a little child.

We have a reference in Luke about Him being 12 and going to the temple and, of course, in a sense baffling the doctors there because, you know, looking at Him as just a little kid.

How does He know everything? How does He answer all our questions? How does He ask questions? We can't even answer. That's clearly what He was doing with the Pharisees. Later on, He'd ask them questions. They'd have no clue how to answer. Jesus had been with the Father. He understood. He had existed as the Word before He came to the earth.

But here you see Paul mentioning, you know, what God has available in the plan of God is so incredibly comprehensive. It is, in a sense, mind-blowing. It is beyond the human norm to understand. And he says in verse 10, these things God has revealed to us.

He's revealed to us through His Spirit. See, this is what Jesus had talked to His disciples about. Well, I'm going to send you the Spirit of God. That Spirit is with you. It's going to be in you. You are going to be the children of God. And see, that's what the plan is, that God is working out. And so these things God has revealed to us through His Spirit, that the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. And I guess that would be a good description of when we talk about the nature of God, and we talk about a divine nature, or we talk about becoming like God, and becoming and having the type of nature and character that He has. You know, that's certainly deep. The depths of God are incredible. But he says in verse 11, what human? What man knows what is truly human except the spirit in man, the human spirit that is within him.

See, man has been created in the likeness and image of God. He's been created male and female. We have a similarity to God, and yet we're not all there. We need more. We need to relate to God in a much closer way. And so he says, what? How does a man know the things of a man except the spirit of man that's in him? So also, he goes on in verse 11, no one comprehends what is truly God's except by the spirit of God. See, God's Holy Spirit has been extended to us as a gift. You know, we don't deserve to have God's Spirit. We want to turn from our sins, and we want to be forgiven, and we follow God's instructions, and he says he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit that's going to lead to eternal life. But he says, no one knows the things of God except by the Spirit of God working in us. Brethren, we have to have the Spirit of God. We have to be stirring up that Spirit. We have to be asking God to grant us a closer relationship with him. And that's something that only you can do, only I can do for me. And yet, he says in verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but we have received a spirit that is from God.

We've received something that there is no other way of us having, except God would extend it to us as a gift. We have received the spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

It's not because of our brilliance or our high intellect or our great capacity or our nobility, it's because of the Spirit of God that God has granted us as a gift, that we can come to know the things of God. And we speak of these things, and words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. For he says, those who are unspiritual, do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. See, that is God's working in us. That is God granting us with the help of his Spirit and understanding of the things of God, I think is the way the New King James or King James states it. Knowing the things of God are truly understanding how the Father and Son have eternally existed, how they want us to exist with them for eternity in the future.

And that's going to be possible by the help of the Holy Spirit.

And so, I think whenever we read through these type of things that it ought to be something that is, it should motivate our thinking, it should motivate our desire to be close to God.

I have read some of the letter that was sent to us so that all of us are aware of what we can study that would help us, that would stabilize us, that would strengthen us. And yet, as this letter said in the very beginning, we want to be established and settled in an understanding of the nature of God, but in our entire understanding of God's purpose in working in our lives, His plan of salvation. So let's close here in the book of 1 Peter. We referenced this earlier, but I will simply summarize what we've been able to cover today.

And what Peter was telling in chapter 5 of 1 Peter, what he was telling the church in verse 6, humble ourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time. Cast your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Discipline yourselves. Keep alert.

Like a roaring lion, the adversary of the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour, but resist him steadfast in your faith. For you know that your brothers and sisters in the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering. But in verse 10, what I referenced before, after we've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Jesus Christ will Himself restore, He will support, He will strengthen and establish you and to Him be the power forever and ever. See, that's what all of us want. That's what all of us need. As this is being presented to all of us, it's being presented in order to stabilize us in the truth of God and in an understanding of His purpose and of what He has blessed us with in giving us the Holy Spirit that allows us to understand the things of God. And so we will continue to cover other of this information. Again, there's lots of information there. We will continue to cover more of that as we go forward here in the next few weeks. But I wanted to cover this letter with you. I again know all of you can easily read it. You know what it's pointing out. But understanding the relationship that God has created for us, enhancing that relationship and expanding and growing in that relationship is what God expects of each of us as His children. And so He is working in our lives. He will continue to guide and direct us. We can be established and we can be stable in our relationship with our Heavenly Father and with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.