Amen we gravitate to the children that's where our intellect is but I've talked to a few tonight and I think we're in over our heads I'm sure of it so anyways I have a very specific message tonight and I want to get right into it I'd like to just take a minute with the young people and in the children, primarily the Bible. I mean, we have the word of God. I mean, we're not somebody said one time and I just I always quote other people because I never say anything cool. And if I do, I take too long to say it and it's uncool by the time I say it. But somebody said, we're not, we're no longer looking for the truth, we're looking in the truth. I thought that was really cool. When you open the Bible, you have God's word. And there are so many different study helps. There's so many things you can look at and look for as far as, you know, even commentaries, even definitions defining God's word will define itself. God will define his word better and more accurate than any other resource. So I wanna just take a moment tonight, just wanna throw this out there because I have a heart for the children. And honestly, we have so many blessings in our country, we have had for so long. But all along there's been people, even within our country and other places in the world don't have all that we have. I mean, we can take sometimes a home computer and we can access study helps and different things. You end up some of the, first of all, Mom and dad are buying those and just mom and dad aren't going to be around forever. We're going to be out on our own. Some of you, you're going to get out. You're going to maybe into further education, college, whatever. You're going to be on your own. You're going to be looking for essential things like food and clothing. And sometimes you're not going to have all the kind of resources. And so learn now. And I'm not assuming that you're not learning, that you're not being taught, but just allow the Bible to be everything God intends it to be. And so I want to take you through a couple of things real quick, how to define it. And so you're looking at a word, if you're reading a verse and God will feed you all along, I mean, he'll just feed you. Sometimes you may not have, you may be looking at a verse and not even understanding the entirety of it. God will feed you with what you need fed with. But there'll come a time if you're reading a verse or even a sentence, you know, I like to look at sentences and paragraphs because they're structured all that. And if there's there are words in that sentence that you cannot define, how do you know for sure that you know what that sentence is saying? I mean, I learned this mostly when we had foreign speaking people coming to the church, children, young people. And I could tell when I'm preaching and they're learning, they're learning English. And I'm a fast talker, I gotta be careful, I mean, fast talk, that's kind of, I speak fast. I don't wanna be known as a fast talker, I guess. And so anyways, but I could see when I lose them, or they're trying to process, I'm using a word that they've never heard before, and they're trying to process it, and now they're caught up trying to process that word, and I'm miles down the road. And so it's, because they don't know that word, they're missing everything that I had to say. And so if you're reading a verse or you're reading a passage of scripture and there's a word that you don't know what it means, it would behoove you to stop, get a definition for that word so that you can make sure that you understand exactly what God has to say. And using the word of God to do that is the best way. So what you do is you find that word, whatever it might be. I'm gonna use a couple of them here tonight. One I'm gonna use first is acknowledge, the word acknowledge. It doesn't seem like a complicated one, That's why I'm starting with it. If you were to take the word acknowledge, look it up with just any kind of a Bible program. They've got free ones that are available. And so you say, I want to just everywhere that the word acknowledge shows up and then start going through everywhere that the word acknowledge shows up in the word of God. And what you're looking for is repetition anywhere, any other words that God would use around that the verse before it in the verse or the word, the verse after. And you're looking for that some way that he defines it. And I want to show you this. This was This one, I was sitting in the Sunday school, this was only a couple months ago, and I've been doing this for quite a few years, a lot of years, and the Sunday school teacher was going through and went to Psalm 51. Somebody ask you to go there just real quick, Psalm 51. And he went there for something specific, and it just jumped out at me that word after word was being defined in the context. And I was so excited about it. And so there's some unfortunate parts to that. Number one is I got lost for a second of where everyone else was. And I'm taking notes just as quick as I could. And then I had to kind of, and I know if you've ever done that, you got to kind of put away and say, Lord, I thank you for that, but I need to give this everything. I am very much here and I've been trying this for a long time. I try to give myself 100% to whatever's in front of me. I mean I got a lot of other things that will nag my mind I know you do as well but I cannot be somewhere else and be everything that God wants me to be right here and so I really work hard at that and I have to but the word acknowledge I thought was interesting in Psalm 51 3 and so this is the Psalm of David I wouldn't know that if there wasn't a note there but the idea that so many different Thoughts are coming into this psalm, but when he says in verse number three for I acknowledge my Transgressions my sin is ever before me and there's the two phrases literally say the exact same thing except for different words and why does God use different words and I believe he just he He doesn't I'm not gonna suppose to tell you why God does what he does, but he does it often because people have different backgrounds There's different words. There's different dynamics to the words that make them very specific. I mean we walked in today to a lobby foyer vestibule, narthex, I mean all these words mean the same thing, but somebody from the south has a different, I'm gonna be careful, I'm not gonna tell you what they, and somebody from the west, everybody has it, but we're all talking about the same room. But there's a different word that you would know it as that somebody else wouldn't and so God's put his word together It's just amazing. But the phraseology look at those two phrases. He says first he says for I acknowledge my transgressions So let's just take that phrase for I acknowledge my transgressions. Look at the next phrase put it right underneath there My sin is ever before me transgressions and sin it's the same thing it's the definition you say well what is transgression it's a sin now there's some specific things about transgression other words would define and help you you know that to transgress means to go beyond the border or the barrier and you would learn that by doing the word studies but transgressions and sin are the same acknowledge the the the words My sin, my sin is ever before me. Ever before me is the most used phrase in connection with the word acknowledge everywhere in the scripture. So the word acknowledge means it doesn't just mean to take note. It means to set it ever before me. It's something that I acknowledge. I mean, I said it before me. I'm not moving away from this. And the beauty about that, I mean, in some of the verses I know that become more popular because they have such an immediate impact, but Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, right? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thy own understanding, in all thy ways Acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path. Set Him before you in all of your ways. That's what the word acknowledge means. Somebody says, I know something. Listen, we've had children in our house forever. One of the things about it sometimes is you'll say, don't do that that way. What do you hear? I don't know if you've ever heard it, but I've heard this, Okay, you know. Then why exactly are you doing it? Knowing is one thing. To acknowledge it, totally different. Said it always before you. The word establish. Establish, that's a huge Bible word. This one I mention only because now you're doing a word search on a word that has multiple different spellings or even tenses. So establish, establish, established. Established and so now if you're gonna you look them all up at the same time I have a Bible program somebody gave me years ago I would buy it for anybody that would use it one at a time more than likely but But it so I can punch in actually four or five different words It'll pull it up and I don't study off the program because I'm just I just like the page, you know But I my words you do a word study old school like that you Take forever But every tense of the word will come up, and that helps. But one phrase 15 times that comes up associated with the word established, the phrase, shall not be moved. right there in Scripture, over and over, almost 15 times. Well, I know 15 times. And then other times, you know, unmovable, shall not be moved. And so the word established means that I'm so set in this, I will not, shall not be moved. And it's a Bible word. And what we need to be is established in our faith established in the Word of God. It means we're not going to be moved away from it. So it's really kind of neat. I'll show you another one that's really interesting over in Psalm 19, verse number 1. This one is just classic for the phrases. We're already in Psalm anyways, go left for a little bit. I know I've got to get to preaching here pretty soon, and I plan to, but I don't have a long message so I've got to have filler. So this is like, you know, heavy on the appetizers because the meal may not have all that we were looking for. But verse number one, the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament show this handiwork. Same thing. Take the two phrases. They say essentially the same thing. So you put one up, the heavens declare the glory of God. Write the next phrase right underneath it, the firmament shows his handiwork. And so if you want to define firmament, which for me, firmament, because it has firm in it, always made me think of the ground. But when we first see it back in Genesis, what, the firmament's not the ground, it's what? The heavens, and here he defines that for us. The heavens, the firmament, same thing. Declareth, showeth, or sheweth, I mean, it's really, it's probably how it's pronounced, is sheweth. So declare, and means to shew or to show, to display. The next one is the amazing thing, the glory of God. How does God define it? How would you define the glory of God? How he defines it is it's his handiwork. I mean, that is God's definition of glory, of his glory. It's his handiwork. And really, it's anybody's. I mean, I don't know who built this pulpit. I mean, it's been preached on for a while. So I mean, it didn't come here just recently. But whoever built this, if we were to say, well, here's the person that built this, this would be a display of their glory. what their ability, what they're able to do. Well, the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. The glory of God is defined as God's handiwork. And when you carry that throughout the Bible, I mean, we are to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. We are walking, talking examples of what God's able to do. So I'm just saying just to learn how to, and really I didn't even intend on doing this except for, you know, I was talking to Elaine and we were sharing math tricks. And because she's into the fifth grade math, a little bit farther than me, but we were sharing some tricks. And I thought, boy, you know, I just wanna maybe, a few things that help in the Bible say, define the words, look them up in the Bible, let God define them. Somewhere around that word, he's gonna use another word that's gonna help you understand it. And he'll do that continually throughout there. And so in your Bible study, if you don't understand the word, you're really risking whether you understand the sentence. And that sentence is in a paragraph. And that paragraph has a subject. It has a main idea. And if you can't get to that, then you're not gonna know context. And if you don't know context, you're all over the place and you'll never be settled or established. You will be moved. You'll be moved by everybody that comes along with a different idea, with a different thought. And in one of the scourges of young people, let me just tell you, a lot of young people make the mistake of building their platform being against everything and never truly being established in what they're actually for. A lot of young preachers are doing that. You'll hear them and they'll preach against everything but they don't really preach for anything. And you don't want to be the kind of person that goes around and sees problems with everything. You want to be the kind of person that's established exactly where God wants you to be. And you will be, with God's absolute hand and help and grace, successful at whatever he puts you at. Nobody can take you out of God's will but you. Nobody can stop God from performing all that he has for you, except for you. You're the only one that can do that. Nobody else can do it. Nobody can hinder you. Nobody can hinder him. Amen. All right, so anyways, I didn't tell the truth. I do have a lengthy message, but I'm gonna try to trim her down, okay? I'm gonna share tonight nothing new. The only thing I really am shooting for is perspective. So I'm going to tell you right out of the gate what I'm going to open up a few passages and kind of shoot for. And it would be in the matter of kind of like probably sanctification, but more of our position, our position. Where are we in Christ? OK, and and I want to tell you, there's probably two predominant views of what sanctification is, and they couldn't be more opposite. But people that hold both of them are probably right. But one is better. One is biblical. And it's sure. So it is what is our position in Christ? When does that position take place? And what do we possess the moment that we enter into him and he enters into us? So we are either one of two things, and if I say the church, primarily, I am a Bible believer, I know that. I'm a fundamentalist, meaning that I stick with the Word of God, that's just it. In the broader sense, there are a lot of people that would hold different views in different areas. Great people, saved. We may not see everything the same, but I'm not throwing everybody in hell that doesn't comb their hair the way I comb. I'll just be honest with you. I'm not throwing anybody in hell. Neither is God, by the way. It's only those that reject him that's their choice. But it's one of two perspectives. Either we are working from imperfection or we're working from perfection. We are striving to be made perfect or we are working from a position where we have already been made perfect. And I just want to just break it down a little bit tonight. A couple of verses I think would be great. Probably my favorite one, Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 3. Typically I would just open up and just start and stay right there. I very rarely do I jump around, but since this isn't my church that I'm a member of, not my pulpit, not my Thursday night, not my schedule that wants to be here until midnight. I'm gonna jump around a little bit just for a few verses, but this one is great This is kind of like the as far as I'm concerned the crowning verse of the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ all right now the word blessed used in two forms in two tenses The first one is blessed. What tense is that past present or future? And blessed we are blessed right now Right now blessed blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ when did we get blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places we were blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places the moment that that we were placed in Christ. None of those things come later. Everything that Jesus Christ is is ours the moment we believe, the moment that we put our faith in Jesus Christ. We are indwelt with the Spirit of God and we have everything that God ever has for us the moment we're born again. The moment we're born again. And so, look, just if you would, and I don't want to jump all over the place, but we're going to need to, 2 Peter 1, 1 and 2 Peter are, man, they're so powerful. Mainly, for me, because I'm a man with some similar background as Peter. I'm not a good fisherman. I just go to Burger King for that BK Big Fish with cheese. That's my fishing. But man, he was a hard case a little bit, right? The thing I love about him is that whenever Jesus met him, if you remember back in John 1, we know that Jesus is God, he never was not God. He didn't never cease to be God. So he knew Peter before they met face to face, but Peter never knew Christ. He never he'd heard just a little bit about him earlier that day from his own brothers. Andrew brought Peter to Jesus. But when they when they came to their first face to face meeting, Jesus said something along these lines. He said, thou art Simon, son of Barjona. but thou shalt be called Cephas and it's funny because you think about well what you know what who is Simon son of Barjona well we got to see Simon on multiple occasions right I mean he's the one that's that's arguing with Christ he's the one that actually grabbed him and said not so Lord I mean I look I've even seen a lot of children disagree with their parents I've never seen too many of them that bold even grab their own parents say not so he grabbed Jesus Christ the son of the Living God and he says not so you know and so we know that but Jesus said this is who you are you're that heady high-minded do it all on your own you don't need anybody to tell you what to do you got this you're that person nobody can tell anything to this is where you are now what I'm done with you this is what you're going to be. And 1st and 2nd Peter is when God is, I mean he's not done with him yet because he was, but oh man a totally different man. As a matter of fact the whole 1st Peter is written about suffering, but suffering righteously. It's something about a heady and a high-minded person, they don't know how to suffer righteously. Man they're very aggressive, But here he is, man. God's using him to write it. I love how your pastor said it's amazing that even God, who made sure every word was exactly his, allowed the personality to help us. I think because here we are. It's just God allowing that personal touch, because He made us with a personal touch. We're not robots. You know, we're unique, you're unique. Every time somebody says that to me, I'm like, hmm, you're unique, thanks. Right. But anyways, here he was, you know, and God said, but when I'm done with you, this is what you're going to be. And then so he teaches about suffering righteously. And then and then you see him with such care as he opens up and he's telling them by the time the end of first Peter, how how the pastors ought to care for the people and things. It's just such a different heart. And then the very last words that God uses in the writing of second Peter is but grow in grace. in the knowledge of God. He's a totally different man. So this is really an amazing, amazing thing. So 1 and 2 Peter. 1 Peter deals primarily with salvation and suffering. 2 Peter mostly with sanctification and the second coming of Christ. It's just noted out there. I'm not telling you anything that you haven't already maybe discovered on your own. But the amazing thing about 2 Peter, starting out in verses 1 and 2, great introduction. But verse 3, primarily according as his divine His divine power hath given, what tense is that? Past tense, hath given unto us. Who are the us, do you believe in 2 Peter here? I mean, for some of you that have already read this and you already know this, you preach these things and teach them and you've read, who are the us? That's the church, it's the believers, right? So not just in that particular day this was written, this is, I mean, just as much for us today. According as His divine power hath given unto us, every believer, all things that pertain unto life and godliness." When did He give those to us? When did God give us all things that pertain to life and godliness? I don't know about you, but if life and godliness are your goal, you are completely and totally equipped by his divine power. All you ever need, he has already given you in Christ. That's the foundation here that's being laid. Now, the interesting thing is how, through the, what's the next word? Knowledge. So, so key. Somebody said, you don't know what you don't know. Now, I can't even say simple things in sound smart. That's simple, but that's deep. You don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you've not been taught. I mean, this is profound. And so everything I need, I possess. But if I don't know about it, I'm living as if I don't possess it. All I can think of is maybe a grandfather. I'm not picking on the grandfather, because I am one. I don't even have children anymore. Children? What are children? I have grandchildren. I am Papa. Don't call me Dad. Hey, Dad, they want money. They want help. At least the grandkids still snuggle a little bit. Anyways, anyways. hath given us all things. And so I had a very specific point and I have not done that forever. That lets me know the Lord is present and He's saying quit wasting these people's time. According to His divine power He has given us all things that pertain unto life and Godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us. And so my point that I was going to make is if you don't know, if you don't know than you are living without. And I was going to pick on the grandpas. Here you go. So all I had to do is go back to the passage. And so you might get in years ago. Now cars are different, but when they were changing, grandpa might buy a car and you might have one of the grandchildren driving down the street. What did grandpas used to do? In my day, if the windshield was fogged up or iced up with some frost, what did grandpa do? It's scraping on the inside. I've had vehicles that I've had to do that on back in my, and I'm not even that old, but scraping it out. And so maybe the grandchild just reaches over and flips the defroster button. They didn't have those when cars came out, you know, they just didn't have them. How many of you knew that? No, that's the truth. And so he's not used to that. So what's he doing? He gets frost on the inside of the windshield. He's just scraping it off. It's dropping on the dashboard. He's got a little hole he's looking at him. Oh, you flip on the switch. And what does it do? Clears the whole windshield. Now, he is driving, scraping, because he doesn't know that his car is equipped with a defroster. When did he get the defroster? It came with the car. It's been there the whole time. He didn't know it was there. So he is living without. what he already possesses. And that, I believe, is why so many Christian people are struggling, is they are literally living day after day after day without things they already possess, they just don't know it. And so we're striving to overcome sin. Not that sin's not, it's a problem. Temptation is real. But where's the victory? In my ability to overcome it? You're done. There's, and wisdom. Do I have to learn? Somebody said, well, and if you're this person, I'm sorry if I'm about to make fun of you, but I'm not doing it on purpose. Said, well, I grew up in a school of hard knocks. Don't brag about that. That's the worst school. You should check out of that one. There are better schools to learn in, right? I mean, you know what? I was just 16 years old, and I wanted to be a carpenter. See, I'm in my 50s now. I still want to be. I'm trying. It's not as easy as some people make it look. But anyways, I was doing this little job, and I had the miter saw on the floor, and only because that's just all we had. And I got the trim. I'm getting ready to cut. Some guy goes, hey. I didn't grow up with a dad in the house. Men, there was something about a man. You know, I mean, you know, men, it's such a powerful thing to be without. But anyways, and I looked up and this guy's there, he's like, hey, look at this. And he holds up his hand, and his fingers are, they're a miter, they're mitered off. And he's got this one sticking out, and he's like, you better respect that thing, it'll get ya. I'm sitting there looking up, I'm like, I mean, it got my attention. Now, I have been using saws like that almost daily for 35 years, and thank God. But I want to tell you the message that that guy gave me. I mean, look, he may have attended the School of Hard Knocks, but I didn't. I attended the school of what? No. And here I am. I mean, all these years later, I still think about it. His experience was all I needed to learn. We don't need, we don't have time. You don't have enough life. You don't have enough opportunity to be figuring this thing out on your own. I mean, I'm telling you, you just don't have it. Before you know it, you're gonna make mistakes that are gonna cost you a long time to get out of. Don't do that. Knowledge, if you don't know. So the idea of our growing in our faith is not growing primarily in experience, but growing in knowledge. And when our knowledge increases and we mix that with faith, We are a complete. We are complete in Christ. Everything we need is already there. We just need to know about it. And when we know about it, we must believe it. Knowing is not enough. And our faith isn't based in what God can do. That's not a faith at all. I mean, our faith is based in what God said he would do. We can't be walking around saying, well, I know God can do this. Well, yeah, you could go up to the top of the building and jump off. God could catch you. I do not recommend you test him on that. I mean, somebody said, well, you just don't believe God can catch you. I didn't say, yes, I believe he could catch me. I mean, I can believe he could catch me with his eyes closed. I mean, it's not a matter of if he can, it's a matter of did he say he would? Because we can't walk around saying, I know God is able, therefore I will do this thing. No, our faith is based on what God said he would do. When I was growing up, and I would not mean to offend on purpose, but I'm not afraid to if it's the Lord that does it, right? But when I was growing up in a church and we sang this chorus all the time, oh, I'm so hoping it's not in that book, every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line. That is so far from the actual truth. You will damage yourself that way. Every promise in this book is not mine. Now, if you want to amend it, I did. Every promise in this book is true, right? Some for others, some for me, some for you. I don't know. Make up your own song. I am not a little songwriter. I can't even sing. I can't write songs, because then I have to sing them. And that's even way worse. But think about it. I mean, honestly, what if, I mean, your pastor, I'm not gonna say too much nice things about him because he's here. If he wasn't here, I'd say, man, he's an amazing person, but I'm not saying it now. But honestly, just think about this. What if tomorrow you see him walking down Broad Boulevard there? He's got a couple suitcases in his hand. Oh, we're not surprised. You know what, you've put up with him so long. Any day you snap, we're not surprised. You don't have to justify yourself. We are so surprised you've kept him. He walking down there, and you're like, hey, Pastor, need a ride? No, I'm good. Where are you going? Not sure yet. What are you doing? Been in my Bible this morning. I opened it up, and I read, get thee out of thy father's house. It's kind of comical, but I'm trying to pick something nobody here has done yet so that you're not like, how did he know? Mrs. Rowley told him at dinner, I know she did. Get the up, get the out of that father's house, get the out of the country, go into a place I'm going to show you. Now that's in the Bible. And if you'll do that, I will make of thee a great nation, right? And I'm going to bless you and make your children as the stars of the sky. And those that bless you, I'll bless. Those that curse you, I'll curse. And you're like, man, whoo! Up and out I go. I don't recommend it. There's no kind of, it's not written to you, right? And there's a lot of the Bible that's not written. We need to learn what belongs to us. And it's those things that are in Christ. An Old Testament believer, a New Testament believer, not the same thing, not even close. I'll tell you the one thing, and this is what's so important about the King James Bible, because every other version, they're taking stuff out, and they don't know what they're taking out. I feel bad for them, some of them do. But most of them don't. The difference between the word pursue and ensue. They're both King James Bible words. You won't find the word ensue in any version. Pursue means to seek something that's without. Ensue means to seek something that's within. See in 1st Peter chapter 3, it's gonna tell you he that will love love life and see good days. Oh, man, I'm gonna mark that one down no matter what's going on God says you he is able to help you love life and see good days man That is can you imagine doesn't you say well, what about this? He's I don't care what day it is God says you can love life and see good days. That's a promise who can even come close to that. I But he talks about how we respond to things, talks about our contentment, and he says, to seek peace and ensue it. Now, if you go to the book of Psalms, word for word, except for it's the word pursue. Some of you say, well, it means the same thing. No, no, no, no, no. See, the Old Testament believer did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit the moment that they had faith in God. So they always had to pursue God exterior. They always had to go. to the temple. They always had to go to an altar. They always had to go somewhere. No, you and I, we don't go anywhere. He's in, he's inside. You want to fellowship with God, he's already there. You want peace. Peace is a fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness. Some of you kids help me out. Faith, meekness, faith, temperance. Yeah, I said about 14, but there are only nine. Those are all fruit of the Spirit. Again, when I was raised, they said, love's a choice, love's a choice, love's a choice. Love is not the choice, love is the fruit of the Spirit. The choice is yielding to the Holy Spirit of God and letting Him produce the love. That's where the choice is. You can't choose the love, you'll drive yourself nuts. I just choose to have peace. You can't. Peace is not a human attribute. It's not something that you can produce. Circumstances, nothing can produce peace. Peace is a fruit of the spirit of God. He is the only one that can produce it. And he's producing it within us. So we don't go anywhere for peace. Peace is never, never dependent upon what's going on around us. It is always dependent upon what is going on within us. That's the difference. So that's the point. All right. And so blessed be our God and Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And so then here he follows up on this according to 2 Peter 1, verse 3, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. So it's by the knowledge. Watch how he'll do this again. Verse number four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. Now this was a tricky one for me for the longest time because I think, well, he's talking about being saved again. He's already established that they're saved. How now am I a partaker of that divine nature, which I already possess? I'm not seeking a divine nature. I'm partaking of a divine nature, one with which I now possess as a child of his. How do I partake from that? And it's by knowing that it's available. If you don't know, you're not going to believe. You're not going to believe. And it is so, so important. So somebody says, Lord, I need more faith. And then he's gonna say, what you need is to increase your knowledge. You need to know what I've promised you. And when you know what I've promised you, you need to believe what I've told you. And that's simply how it works. I'm gonna give you an illustration just real quick, and then we may come back to some passages. I don't wanna, is this mine? I wasn't gonna drink it because every drop is longer. Let's go to a passage in 1 Samuel. This is one of my favorites for so many different reasons. 1 Samuel 17. What story is that? Yes, David and Goliath. It was one of my favorites. I just recently, just recently, and I mean to tell you in the last two weeks, did I see what I'm about to share with you. in this particular perspective. It doesn't change anything. I'm not gonna tell you anything you've never heard and already don't believe and don't already know. It's just the emphasis. It's just a reminder. It's just saying, look, what are we looking for? We don't have to go anywhere. We already have been given everything that we need in Christ the moment we're born again. This is the New Testament life. This is the New Testament Christianity. And I'll close with a few statements on that once we look at just one aspect of this story here. If you're not familiar with this in its entirety, I cannot go through it in its entirety, but we know that Israel is God's chosen nation so that he could prove himself to the world. So God has to have somebody that he puts on display to reveal himself. That was the whole purpose of creating Adam. And when he says that he made him in his own image, it's God's way of displaying himself. And he did that through his creation. Well, he chose Israel so that he could show the world who he was. And so we know he chose the despised, right? I mean, he chose the weak. He chose people that didn't have anything. And he remained to be their only excuse for success, their only excuse for not being totally annihilated, and remains that way today. And so there's so many reasons why, but God said he was gonna prove himself through that nation. And they were only given one job. Well, two, I guess. The one was to believe him and to make him known. Simply, that's all they were told, to make him known. You see, when Jesus went in and kicked over all the tables and ran out the money changers, what did he say? He said that my house, was to be called a house of prayer for all people. It was never intended to be just for the Jews. It was for them to show the whole world that there was a God in heaven that would take them right where they were if they would just believe him. And they failed, and they failed miserably. As a matter of fact, when God is arguing with Habakkuk, it's only three chapters, but God is telling Habakkuk he's gonna judge him. Remember, he's gonna use the Chaldeans, and Habakkuk's like, I can't believe you'll use those dirty, rotten, nasty people to judge somebody so righteous as us. And if you cross-reference the same amount of time at Israel at that moment, many of them were taking their own children down to the valley of Hinnom and were melting them on an idol, trying to appease a false god. And he's trying to say that they were more righteous than the Chaldeans? Man, I'm telling you, God's perspective is the one that he needed, and he got it. And when Habakkuk finally got it, God said, you're going into judgment. I'm taking you into judgment. You've gone into idolatry. You've forsaken my plan for you. He was taking him into judgment. Habakkuk's prayer, many things about it, but the thing that stands out the most is he says, in the midst of the years, make known. I mean, it's interesting. In the midst of the years, the years would be the 70 years of captivity. What is the make known? Make us known? That's what got him into trouble. No, make yourself known. He knew what we should have been doing is making you known. This is what we should have been doing. But we didn't. It was all about us. It was about our plan, our agenda. Boy, this sounds like the American church, but this was them. This was them. It's all about us. And God said it was never about, I have, I will give you all that you need. And the blessings are immense. And we haven't seen anything yet. The best is yet to come for us. And it would have been for them. They were supposed to make him known. It was time to make him known. But instead, they went about their own business. So Habakkuk broke and says, we'll go. We're going. We know we're going. But in the midst of the years, make known. What we failed to do in our freedom, would you get it done in our captivity? What's the next book of the Bible that's written after Habakkuk? Not in chronological order as they're displayed. The record of the beginning of that captivity. Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean comes into Jerusalem, besieges the city, Daniel chapter 1. You want to know the phrase that shows up in one form or another over 40 times in 13 chapters? Make known. Habakkuk says, in the midst of the years, make known. We know that's what we should have been done, and we failed. And in their captivity, God made him known. The first person to use the phrase was Nebuchadnezzar himself. And he made God known to the whole entire world. Known world, anyways. Isn't it amazing? That was their whole point, is to make God known. That was the whole point. And so when this story starts to unfold for us here, that's what David reveals once again. It was over and over and over again. Whenever he challenges Goliath, remember, I mean, not word for word, and we will get there, but maybe, maybe we'll get that far. What does he tell Goliath? This day, what? Yeah, shall all the earth know that there's a God in Israel. That was the whole point. There's a whole point. It always was with Israel. This particular story, interesting. There's two battles. The nation of Israel, the Philistines come up against them. We know the Philistines have got this massive soldier. So verse number three, the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side. And there was a valley between them. I mean, this is a war getting ready to get set up. And there went out a champion. out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath. And then it starts to give his size, his weight, and his armor, and the size, and just the spectacle that it was, and all of that. It's all important. God wouldn't have put it in if it wasn't important. It's just not the point here in this particular setting. But anyways, it gets down to verse number eight, and he Goliath stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said unto them, why are ye come out to set your battle in a ray? I am not I of Philistine and ye servants to Saul. That's his first mistake is he thought that they were out there serving Saul. Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. And so then this and then he lays the battle plans out. Goliath does. Never good to let the devil lay out the battle plans. Let God do that. But anyways, he laid them out. They abode by them, which was a mistake. Verse number 11, When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now David again is introduced. David's already been on the scene for quite a while. He was playing the harp for King Saul whenever he had a spirit that troubled him. Then David would play the harp. He was there in in Saul's presence for quite some time. Now this war breaks out. The Bible says, verse 12, David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons. And the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And it should still be that way today. And so the elders stay back. The young go out if there's a need for the fight, if it's a physical war. And that's all he's saying. And so in verse 13, it's interesting, the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle, and the names of those three are given. Verse 14, David was the youngest, and the three eldest followed Saul, but David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. I'm gonna tell you, I'm battling back and forth with whether or not David was there that first day and heard that first challenge. So many things have been spoken of that point and then it says David returned. Anyways, verse 16, the Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented himself 40 days. And so we know that this, so for 40 days, Goliath came out with some similar challenge for 40 straight days. And so then Jesse said unto David, this verse 17, now David's at home, 40 days nearly have expired. And Jesse rouses David up, tells him to take some supplies to his brothers, see how they're doing. Verse 20, David rose up early in the morning, left the sheep with the keeper, took and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the trench as the host was going forth to fight. shouted for the battle and so that's interesting as the host and so here in Israel now there I mean this morning it's early morning and they're up and shouting 40 days up and shouting let's do this thing they're all in it Verse 21, for Israel and the Philistines to put the battle in array, army against army. Here they are. And David left the chariots in the hand of the keeper, verse 21, and he ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words, and David heard them. And so that's the only area, you know, so he hears him. I still think he possibly heard him the first day, but it doesn't make one bit of difference at this point. And all the men of Israel, what'd they do? Verse 24, when they saw the man, what'd they do? Fled from him and were sore afraid. Why? All right, and so let's park on that. So David immediately is challenged in his heart. And we know why, but we're gonna rehearse it here. He's just surprised that nobody is going out there to stop this man who is defying the living God. Verse number 26, David spake to the man that stood by him and said, what shall be done to the man? Because they're saying, well, whoever does this, whoever beats him gets this, gets that. David's like, what? How does that even matter? I mean, look, what should be done for the men that kill at this Philistine and take away their approach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? We already know that David sees something different. I mean, his perspective is totally different. Why? Why is this perspective different? You know the answer to that. I don't have any grand thing. It's just to work our way through this because the Bible is not a book of completely new beginnings. It establishes us in the truth and it never changes. Our faith is based on what God has said. We don't need to go back and relearn it. We just need to believe it and go forward on it. That's how it works. It is exactly how it works. And so the people answered again after the same man of verse 27. Man, they missed this whole point. That nothing needs to be given to a man to go out and shut somebody up who is defying the living God. That was David's point. His brother, remember his brother, busts him there a little bit and then David cries out again, verse 29, is there not a cause? And so then when he continued, well, the words were rehearsed to Saul, verse 31, and when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent for him." So now David's got the attention of the king. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him, verse 32, thy servant will go and fight with the Philistine. Saul said to David, thou art not able to go. And that's true. Thou art not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. This is typical. I mean this sounds like, I'm going to tell you, this sounds like a war out independent Baptist. What are you going to do? You can't do that. You're not able to do that. You want to do what? You want to how? Oh, man, you can't do that. So, I mean, it's insanity. Saul's the king. So David said to Saul, verse 34, here's the key, right? Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. Verse 35 is going to describe the battle, primarily with the lion, but I think it probably went similar with the bear. How many of you could jump ahead and you remember the battle with Goliath? What did that look like? What did it look like? I like that, Miss Diana. Bing! It probably sounds just like that. That tin can forehead, but it's a solid rock, but it was empty. So I mean was Do you think David worked up a sweat? Do you think he bled I Mean it happened in seconds Seconds look at the description of the fight with the lion Well, I Went after him That implies that the lion got in, got a sheep, and was on his way out. David went after him. Went after him and smote him. Now, usually that means he's dead. Not in this case. And delivered out of his mouth. And when he rose against me, so the initial blow was enough to recover the lamb, but man, it wasn't over yet. Man, the lion rose up. He said, then I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Which do you think was the tougher battle, the lion or the Goliath? By far, by far, the lion was a tougher battle than Goliath. We look at Goliath because of his size and his experience, and obviously, compared to David, a much, much greater challenge. But the way it's described, Goliath was a much, much less challenge than the lion and the bear. So when David looks at Goliath, and when the armies of Israel look at him, David has something that all those other men don't have. What he has is experience. He has experienced personally Almighty God. He knows the Lord. He has won a victory at the Lord's hands that will last him the rest of his life. The rest of his life. And that is, I think that's the key. I mean, and at least part of this, I mean, we know that, you know, when they're looking at Goliath, David's looking at God, what is he looking at God? Because he's been delivered. He knows deliverance. Look, he even uses the word, verse 35. And I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth, right? Then verse number 36 thy servant slew both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them verse 37 David said moreover the Lord that what's the next word past tense the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear he will Deliver what? That's present tense and yet to be, just a little bit future, but present. He will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistines. The God that delivered me there will deliver me here. And I think that is almost the entirety of the difference between David and every other person there. There's not a man there that had experienced the deliverance of God the way David had experienced it. And David had that to his account. He knew God, he believed God, and he won the victory. But the victory was not won on that 40th day that Goliath came. That victory was won when God delivered him from the line. Let me share one more verse with you and we'll go. Yeah, Hebrews chapter two. And so this is simply it for us as believers. If we want, and I mean, I wholly mean this wholeheartedly, there's so many things to learn and so many things to understand. And amen and amen. When we get to the end of this and we get to heaven, we're gonna find out, well, we could have stayed another thousand years and we would have never stopped learning how amazing God is. We would have never got to the end of his power and his glory and his ability and his wisdom. There's no doubt about that. And I really believe, all of eternity we're going to continue to learn of His amazing, there's no searching out of His wisdom, there's no going to be, we're not going to be 10,000 years and God's going to be like, that's it, that's all I got. Enjoy the rest of your time here and there's no more of me for me to display. We'll never get the end of His amazing ability and His glory, He's God of heaven and earth, He's amazing. But the Christian life is meant to be lived from the start, from victory, and to remain in victory until we see Jesus face to face. That is how it's designed, that is how it is meant to be lived. And the experience, the experience that I spoke of with David, it was not the experience of the battlefield. It was not the experience of using a sword and a shield and being in a battle arena. That wasn't the experience that he had. He experienced God, and that's all he needed. And you've got all those professional fighters and all those men, the king himself and all of them, they could not win the battle because they had no experience. This isn't how long you've been around. It isn't how much you've been exposed to. It isn't who has taught you. It isn't what school you've gone to, what church you're raised in, whose parents you are. It's whose God you have. That is the key. It's always been the key. It's never been anything but that. You don't have to wait till you get to be an old person to have faith. Every child in here needs to have their own faith, and they need it as soon as possible. Nobody else's faith is going to get you through the next temptation. Nobody else's faith is going to help you get through whatever the devil's going to throw at you. Only your faith is going to get you through. You need your own faith. When Jesus, just before Calvary, he told Peter, he turned to him, he said, Peter, Satan hath desired thee. to sift thee. I couldn't think of any more sobering thing for a person to hear. The devil's coming after you. He's coming after you. And so what did Jesus say? Don't worry about it. I'll jump in. I'm gonna stand in the way. I'll remove you from this place and put you somewhere the devil can't find you, reach you. No, no, no. He said, I'll pray for you. I've prayed for you. That what? That thy faith fail not. It was his faith. We're justified by faith. We walk by faith. We live by faith. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. It's not our experience how long we've been at this thing. It's not, well, bless God, I beat the devil up before, I'll just do it again. You never beat him up the first time, if that's your attitude. He beat you up and you've not gotten up yet. The pride and arrogance, he's probably let a whole lot of other people down with you. Look at this, what Jesus has done. So many things that Jesus did when he came. Hebrews 2's packed full of a bunch of them. We're gonna hurry up. So he's talking about verse 14, for as much then as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. Oh man, Jesus did it. He did it. Him and he came. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Christ came to destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. And he did it, he did it on the cross. He did it on the cross. When Colossians 1 talks about it, or Colossians 2, it says that Christ triumphed victoriously over him in it. He's done, the devil's done. He's been defeated. He's been destroyed. He can't touch you. He's got no power. If there were one sin that Christ didn't overcome, he'd still be in the tomb. There's no such thing as addiction. There's a choice to sin or there's deliverance from it. Somebody's bound in sin before they're born again. When they are born again, they are delivered from the bondage. Oh, you can sin if you yield to it, but you have the power not to. Is it a new power you need to receive to overcome that temptation? Or is it a power you receive the moment you are born again? The Bible is very clear that when a person is born again, they are baptized into Jesus's death and into his resurrection. We are raised to walk in newness of life. We possess the power over sin the moment we are born again. You will never, ever, never can sin overpower you. You have got to yield to it, to commit it, and you can. But you don't have to. You don't have to. We have the power over sin through the resurrected Jesus Christ. All the wisdom we need, he possesses. He will give it to us. All the strength we need, all the grace we need, he's got it all. He's got it all. And we are in him and he is in us. We have everything we need. What we simply need to do is know what He's made available to Him, what we become in Him, and believe Him for that, and just go forward. I mean, that is simply it. There is no grand second blessing. There's no time to where, I mean, you know, I'm probably using a term that hasn't been used a lot in your presence, but charismatic belief, second blessing, stuff like that. There'll be those moments when you see something, and you're gonna light up, right? You know what that is? Your knowledge. just met your faith. And you were like, whoo, got it. And you'll have those your entire Christian life. But you get discouragement, depression, you want to get tossed to and fro. It's either you don't know what you possess, or you're not believing it. You need to increase your knowledge of what God's given you, and you must believe it. It is by faith. We are not sanctified by works. We're not saved by works, neither are we sanctified by works. We are saved unto good works, but good works do not sanctify good works. People could be in church for years and years, and keep working, and keep serving, keep working, and still failing, and still, I mean, just unhappy. They don't have joy, they don't have peace, because no amount of service will bring joy. Only the Spirit can do that, and that can only be done by faith. Faith. By faith. And so that is just simply it. David possessed experience with God. God had already won the victory for him. And friends, you and I have won it. Let me tell you, when Jesus Christ went to the cross of Calvary, his body was broken for the punishment of our sin. We must know and be fully convinced that our sin must be punished. There is something to be said about a mentality that says, I can do whatever I want and there are no consequences. God says, know for a surety that sin must be judged. All sin must be judged. You are a sinner. There is no question about that. The only one that might question it would be you. And that's only because you're not willing to be honest or you've not been in the word of God because God would shine his light upon that sin in a moment. Pride, arrogancy, dishonesty, lying, all of it, stealing, cheating, envy. Jealousy is not necessarily a sin, but envy is. God is jealous. The modernists will get you on that. They'll say, well, is jealousy a sin? Of course it is. Well, God was jealous. He must be a sinner. Jealousy is not a sin. Jealousy is, that belongs to me. I want it back. I'm not happy that you have it. Nothing wrong with that. Envy is, that belongs to you, but I want it. When God was jealous of His people because they belonged to Him and He was worshiping other gods, He had a right to be jealous. But He's never been envious. There's two different things. At any rate, sin, sin is what Christ went to the cross for. His body was broken for the punishment of sin. I mean, this is the gospel. If you want to learn, I mean, if you're giving the gospel, and I hope you are, if you want to break it down very simply, the broken body was for punishment of our sin. The shed blood was for payment of our salvation. The resurrection is the proof that everything Every sin was paid for. The sacrifice was accepted. That's the only reason there's a resurrection, is because Jesus' sin sacrifice was accepted by the Father. He rose again. He says, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be safe. Why? Because your sin has been judged. Your salvation has been purchased and your resurrection awaits you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. His death is a place to you. His blood is given to your account. You are raised to walk in newness of life. And that is by faith, nothing else. No amount of, of, of, no amount of, of, Baptism communion anything to do it is simply by faith believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and now shall be saved in that moment You're in dwelt with the Holy Spirit of God Christ is in you you are in Christ You possess all that he has it is now a journey of learning what you possess I mean It's almost you walk as a poor person into a mansion and maybe you inherited it and you walk in and you knock something off Like oh man, I'm so sorry. Hey, it was yours. I You know? And you're walking through and then maybe after a while somebody says, hey, have you seen your car yet? What car? It's in the garage. You go out there, it's like, oh, it's been here all along. It belongs to you. It came with the house. That's the way your Christian life is. All that God has for you is already yours in Christ. Increase your knowledge. Mix it with faith. Live the victorious life. There is no other way. sanctification the Bible way we are not working to perfection we are working from perfection and that's exactly how it works amen father we thank you we thank you for your word we thank you for God just a sweet spirit and Lord we pray that we wouldn't make it more difficult than we ought to and we thank you for