Turn with me, if you would please, in your Bibles this morning to the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 2, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 10 this morning. 10 will probably overlap with us a bit into next Sunday's message, Lord willing. But we have now for these past several weeks been working through these letters of the apostle Peter. Letters that he wrote, epistles that become a part of the Word of God as they've been given to him to deliver to the church, not only then but to us now. We already have seen in 1 Peter some incredible encouragement and instruction given to us as the church as to how, number one, recognizing and rejoicing in the truth of who we are in Christ and why, and who's to get the credit. And then to furthermore give us instruction of how we are to function as God's chosen people, as God's elect believers in the world that surrounds us. In 2 Peter, as we began this letter, if you remember, We see a sense of Peter understanding personally that God has directed him to deliver this letter to the churches, knowing, it seems, that his time was soon to be over. He was at least contemplating. that he would no longer be with us. So as he is looking at that, he is taking that opportunity as an apostle, as a leader and pastor of the church, as establishing of the New Testament church, to take this moment to once again strengthen and encourage the church and instruct them and in some ways warn them. And the theme that has come out in this, already in chapter one, is that Peter is looking at us and saying, recognizing my own experience in my life, my failure, my shortcomings, and the deliverance of the heavenly Father. He says, I want you to understand there's some things that should always be a part. They should always be the drive. They should always be the goal. And there should always be some evidence in your life that the faith that has been given you by God is growing. that the faith is to grow. There is nothing worse than someone who accepts the precious gift of our heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, the very gift of faith that we know, the very salvation that delivers us, and we deposit it in our heart and we say, thank you, Lord, I'm covered. And then we make no more moves. We make no more effort whatsoever with regard to, in response to what God has done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ. That is an amazing thought, and it's also one that absolutely ignores the balance of Scripture. For Peter is telling us that that faith that the Lord has given you, that He has implanted in you, He has given you the means and the potential for it to grow, to strengthen. Do you remember in Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, I believe around chapter 5, he speaks of the fact that though the outward man is perishing, is deteriorating, I mean, you don't have to look in the mirror, I'm looking at you right now. The flesh deteriorates, right? Let me confirm it for you. But Paul said the magnificent work that Christ has done in our heart is not to grow weaker. What did he say it was supposed to do? Get stronger. To get stronger and more consuming of our existence. So it's not a failed strategy here. It's not a myth. It's certainly not unbiblical. It is absolutely biblical to place the expectation upon our lives today as believers to grow our faith. Now, how do we grow the faith? Now, that's important. And Peter didn't leave us hanging there because he said, you'll grow your faith by following in the way of Christ. in the way of Christ that has been given you by the apostles in the written inspired word." Not only what they have written, but the prophets before them. And he reminded us, remember in chapter 1, as we closed out that chapter, He said in verse 19, And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed, as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. If you recall two weeks ago as we were sharing with you with regard to that passage of Scripture, we talked about the absolute fact that if we have been given faith by God and our faith is to be nurtured, cherished, cultivated, and strengthened, to whom is that faith directed? It is directed to God. How is it that we may know the God that we direct our faith? By learning of His Word. That means that we must recognize that it is His Word. This automatically puts us at odds with the lost culture surrounding us, right? Because the lost culture, for them, it's always seeing is believing. And even when they see it, they question it. Therefore, the Bible to them, at best, is an inspiring book. Maybe he speaks of inspiring lives. Maybe he gives the remarkable story of what happened to one Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who, while he may have been a fascinating figure, a political leader, a tragic martyr, certainly would not see him as the Son of God. And therefore, they would see none of his word to be divine or inerrant or absolutely compelling. They would see it as a suggestion. They would find it no more compelling than any other source of religious interest in our world today. But for you and I, as children of God, as believers, we must know better. Now, do I believe that you and I know better because there is enough evidence and enough proof and enough confirmation in God's Word that we can trust it merely by the physical evidence of it? No. Absolutely not. Is there evidence? Yes. But that is not why we believe. We believe because God has opened our hearts and our minds and shown us what the absolute truth is. If I relegate this to nothing more than an experience, a study, an observation, then I am doing nothing any different than every other lost man in the world. So we must not apologize for this. We must understand it. We must not hide from it. We must let it be out front. When someone is talking to someone who has no knowledge, no relationship with God, do not hide the fact that ours is a life of faith and trust. Not in what we can see, but even what we cannot see, especially what we cannot see. We trust in our Heavenly Father. We believe that this Word has been given by Him. We are compelled and we are commanded by it. And we're commanded by it. Not our opinion about it, but by it. Why is that important? Because in chapter 2, After telling us how important it is to follow in the way that is dictated to us by the Word, He now begins to acknowledge, to tell us and warn us of those whose faith is failing because it is not one that trusts in the Lord by trusting in His Word. We now deal with false teaching and those who do the false teaching. We'll take this on in two parts, Lord willing. The first part being found this morning in chapter 2 and verses 1 through 10. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed." Now, may I give one direct notion here? In verse 2, it's a direct comment on chapter 1. He's saying, for these to exist and to carry out their task, it will be to blaspheme the way of truth that Peter has just reminded us to follow in chapter 1. By covetousness, they will exploit you, with deceptive words. For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not somber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and delivered a righteous lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to deliver." the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority." Let's stop right there. I don't know if you understood this, but beginning in verse 4, we begin grammatically a sentence that does not end until where I just ended it in verse 10. Now in English class, they would accuse me of writing a run-on sentence, but in the Word of God, it's perfect. Amen? So, to understand false teaching, there's a comment that I ran across some time ago. It was a word that was written by A.W. Tozer. A.W. Tozer is a pastor and an author. And it's important you know this, in my opinion, for how pointedly accurate this statement is considering when it was said. I don't know the exact year that he wrote this, but I do know that he died in 1963. Sixty-six years old, and yes, Luke, in Toronto, Ontario. I know, I know Luke has a special place in his heart for these fellows who served in Canada. I wrote that down because of you, by the way. But I want you to listen carefully to his words. We have gotten accustomed to the blurred puffs of gray fog that pass for doctrine in churches and expect nothing better. For some previously unimpeachable sources are now coming vague statements consisting of milky admixture of scripture, science, and human sentiment that is true to none of its ingredients because each one works to cancel the others out. Little by little, Christians these days are being brainwashed. One evidence is that increasing numbers of them are becoming ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth. They say they believe, but their beliefs have been so diluted as to be impossible of clear definition. Moral power has always accompanied definite beliefs. Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need to return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that lives and abides forever. Wow. Folks, that was at least 50 years ago. More like 60 probably. Does that not sound exactly like something that you and I would see across the landscape of our church today, I think it's absolutely accurate. This is another affirmation, confirmation of that which Peter told the church here in this letter that was not only present in his day, but would absolutely come in days to follow. Now, for the people that Peter was addressing that day in context, what was about to happen to their lives was it was all going to go to pot, so to speak. They were living in the time of the Roman Empire under the rule of an emperor by the name of Nero. Persecution by everything we read is about to be ramped up. They're about to understand and know a sense of misery that you and I can only dream about. We grieve over death. I understand that. But we're now talking about multitudes of people dying at the hands of absolutely wicked and ungodly rulers. We're talking about oppression to the church. And at the same time the church is being oppressed from the government and the powers that be, the church still has to fight off the wolves in sheep's clothing that are found within its walls. It's not enough that we have to look at the wicked and depraved world that we can recognize easily for what it is, right? It now becomes even the greater challenge, and it always has been, that we remain so true and focused to God's Word that we would not allow someone to come and take away from it, even within the church, to exchange what has always been a clear, defined word of doctrine that now, all of a sudden, has become foggy. that now all of a sudden has become subject to debate. Now someone has looked at God's Word where it says, Thou shalt not. They've even penned it in their books and then years later have decided to go back and remove it because they're no longer convinced that even though it says it, that's what it really means. This is the danger. This is the battle that is the battlefield of the church even today of which Peter is giving us an address here. He is speaking about two very contrasting images here in this passage of Scripture. One is in the forefront, one is in the background. Both can easily be seen if we'll look clearly enough. In the forefront, He's sharing you the image of what a false faith is. In the background, He's reminding you that God still takes care of the true faith. So let's examine this for a moment. The image, if you will, of the glory of our Heavenly Father. He speaks of an image here that is false. False prophets, He says. He says, "...that will be among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord about them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their destructive ways," it says in verse 2, "...because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed." By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." Peter now shows us this image of those, if you'll allow the argument, of those who do not finish well. For those who do not finish well. Notice how he identifies himself and then speaks of the danger of those who would follow otherwise. He says in verse 16 of chapter 1 of 2 Peter, for we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. He tells them in verse 16, for we have not followed. Peter makes it clear. That which we have given you is the truth. We have been eyewitnesses of this truth. We have seen the confirmation of the prophets before us, before our eyes. We have not followed any fables or any myths. And he encourages, he exhorts the people of God, neither should they. But he also acknowledges in verse 2, many will follow. Now, this is important for us to understand. This is the dichotomy of the church, the disturbing dichotomy of the church. The Scripture speaks of times when false teaching would be so compelling as if to call someone genuinely saved to question. Now that seems impossible, but it should not be to our ears and our eyes. In fact, we should be all the more sensitive to it to make certain that we not allow someone to knock us off. to compel us and drag us away. James speaks of the temptation of sin. He says it is enticing. It's like a trap. It is very attractive to us. And before we know it, we've been drawn into it and we've been caught. I believe that false teaching can have the exact same effect. The fact of the matter is, the Scripture has told us that many will follow false teaching and we can see it experientially in our lives today. My friend, there are churches across this nation this morning, even as we meet, Numerically, we're not even on the radar screen with them. Thousands upon thousands of people are gathering in rooms across this nation, and they're listening intently while a very charismatic, while a very more physically attractive speaker stands before them, well-dressed, well-appointed, a music program, although I think Luke does a great job, but a music program is the finest that money can buy, professional, orchestras, singers, all the like. I mean, if you're not impressed physically with that, you're not listening. And a man will stand up there and deliver to you absolute heresy, as Peter defines it. That's the truth. And people will eat it up like candy. Why? Because it's attractive, it's compelling. It's compelling. Many shall follow. In chapter 2 and verse 15, he describes it as those who have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. See, there's another problem. Those who fall for this, those who follow after this, that was chapter 2 and verse 15, by the way, they do so because they love what it brings to them. After all, if someone presents you with an idea that if you follow steps 1 through 5, 1 through 10, if in your prayer you say the exact words that they script for you to say, then they can promise you that God will give you. In fact, they used to have it on t-shirts, He'll give you your stuff. Financial prosperity will come. Physical health will be restored. There are those, and I've heard the man with my own ears, speak of the fact that he believes that one can be in spiritually strong enough place that they have no reason to fear whatsoever to ever be sick. In fact, he boasted of the fact of only having been sick once in the last twenty or thirty years, and he blamed it over the fact that he was fatigued and tired from a long flight. Once he got his rest physically and spiritually, he got to business with God and got rid of it. My friend, surely you and I recognize that that is a lie of Satan, and therefore a false teaching. Now these are obvious, but Peter's not just talking about that which is obvious to us. He says that there will be people who will come among us who will secretly bring in false teaching. Now, let's be careful here for a moment. That doesn't mean that you and I are supposed to look across the aisle with an eye of suspicion and cynicism. and wonder who in the room really wants to be a false teacher in our congregation. You're missing the point. They used to talk about this, and preachers have used this forever as an illustration. It's a tried and true one. I don't know if they've changed their training methods now, but it used to be that the Department of Treasury was trained to recognize counterfeit money, not by studying counterfeit money, but by studying the genuine article, true currency. so that they could easily recognize that which was counterfeit. My friend, that's what the church must do. Your responsibility as a child of God, as a member of this congregation, is to be a student of God's Word, to learn what the true word of faith is, the true measure of God's Word, such that the more familiar you are with that, the more sensitive, the greater the ability you have to discern and know when you're hearing something that is not true to God's Word. And therefore, it's false teaching. That must be the key. So if we understand that, Peter reveals here very clearly that there is no good end to this. Their faith will fail. In verse 1, he said, in the last part of verse 1, he says, they will bring on themselves swift destruction. In verse 3, he says, their destruction does not slumber. In verse 4, he speaks about being delivered into the chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. In verse 9, he says that not only can the Lord deliver the godly, but he says also to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. In verse 12, He says, but these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak of evil, the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption. Well, it seems that Peter's trying to get a message across to us. The one thing he wants us to know, first and foremost, is that God has made it clear that false teachers, meaning those who are not of the Lord, obviously, will suffer the judgment of God, period. It is an absolute truth. The Scripture tells us, for instance, in the book of James, that anyone who aspires to be a teacher should give great and long and hard thought to it based on the accountability that is held to the one who dares to do his best to expose, to teach God's Word. So we can only imagine that God especially gives us note here of those who would dare to be false teachers in the congregation of the Lord for whatever motivation that they hold. So the one thing we know is that God has certainly made it clear their destruction is coming. And He begins to reveal that to us in a way of answering a question that is not asked. There is a passage here in Peter where he speaks about those who will doubt, deny the second return of Christ, and therefore the judgment of God as well, simply because they say they haven't seen it yet. Peter now, beginning in verse 4, says, where in the world did you get this idea God hadn't been delivering judgment unto now? He says, let's have a look. Verse 4. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment." So the first image that he gives us here in this long sentence as it is written in the Greek is that he wants us to know that he did not spare the angels who defied God's authority. You want to talk about what autonomy brings? That's a church speak word if you're not familiar with it. We Baptists love that word, autonomy. We like to say we have autonomy, meaning we make decisions of our own. But my friend, in the spiritual life of every believer, the last thing you want is autonomy. We don't want to be independent. We want to be dependent, dependent upon God and His Word and leadership of His Holy Spirit. So here we find what true result of what happens when you defy God's authority, when you desire to have an autonomous authority before Him. It is reference. In Jude chapter 6, or verse 6 I should say, there's only one chapter, where it says, we regard to these angels, and the angels who do not keep their proper domain but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. There's a great deal of discussion as to exactly what event is Peter giving reference to here. There are two very easily possible answers here. Obviously our first note we think of is, of course, Lucifer and his rebellion against God and his being cast out. There is also the reference that has already been made by Peter of the events of Genesis chapter 6, where it speaks of those awful angels of Satan and their embodiment of people and the great sin that is committed there. Regardless of the case, what it is that Peter wants you to know is what was told to us as the end result of their actions. That God, as an illustration, as an example of His judgment, had cast those angels down and put them in chains in the abyss and the darkness. Now, did God do that as an exhaustive account? No. He did it as an illustration of His judgment, His power, His control, His authority, His sovereignty over all things, including Satan's angels. Verse 5, He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. Well, for those of us who have had any experience in church at all, it's not hard for us to figure out what's being spoken of here. He is speaking of the events that are described in the book of Genesis with regard to the judgment of God by the flood. In 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 6. Peter writes here, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So in verse 5, Peter is not only acknowledging God's judgment that has already come through the flood, the story of Noah and his family. God comes to Noah, God calls Noah, sets him aside to be the one to speak, saying, Thus saith the Lord. He was to deliver a message over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And by the way, all the while he's preaching, he's putting together this incredible vessel, this big old boat, That's going to take years and years and years to finish. He will lead a family, a family for which we can only begin to wonder how much they understood, how much they really appreciated what was going on from one day to the next. Let me ask you something. In your experience with your own children, have there not been times when they questioned and wondered about your judgment and things you're asking them to do? That should be an easy question to answer. So we can only begin to understand the difficulties, the challenges that Noah went through to carry this out. But in fact, the whole time he's doing that, he is dwelling right in the midst of a wicked and depraved world. What marked that world? Everybody did as they chose to do. Everybody sought out self-gratification, no matter the cost or the expense to anything or anyone else. That was the mark of that society. Do we not bemoan, and rightfully so, looking around the culture that we exist that is absolutely narcissistic and self-indulgent? So, Peter wants you to know that that thing called the flood, that was God's judgment. There's no reason to believe that God is holding back. He is never held back. He is given a portion, after a portion, after a portion, after a measure, after a measure, after an example of His judgment and consequences to evil actions and those who would defy His authority. Verse 6, And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemn them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. So, in verse 6, there is a reference here to Sodom and Gomorrah. You may be familiar with this story as well. These are two cities that are always associated with the idea of great depravity, wickedness, perversion. They're also the cities for which Lot, who had once been traveling with Abraham, had removed himself and was dwelling there now. Now, Abraham pleaded with God when he knew that it now was God's plans to destroy these wicked cities because they deserved it. And he pleaded with God, seeking that if there was just a little bit of righteousness there. I know that's paraphrasing, but work with me. Messengers showed up. that night. And the wickedness, the perversion of the people had so been caught up in such a fervor that they would have taken these messengers who Lot had no reason to believe were anything other than men. And they would be absolutely abused, victimized, possibly killed. Strangely enough, Peter makes a reference here to the act that Lot takes He refers to Lot as righteous. Delivered righteous Lot. Now, I've gone back and looked at that account oftentimes. Even other prophets spoke about the horrible nature of those cities. Ezekiel will make reference when he says, look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride fullness of food and abundance of idleness, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor or needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away as I saw fit. This was Ezekiel writing of God's response to what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. But I'm reading something here. that says that Lot made a righteous act. What righteous act did Lot make? The best we can find is the fact that he did make some attempt to spare these visitors, of course. Took them in. Tried to get the people to go away, but there was arguably some very strange and questionable moral decisions that Lot made in trying to do so, including offering him women of his household. So while we look at Lot and we see an act that has been done, we see something that is certainly by no means perfect, by no means is without sin, and yet he is referred to as righteous. So I may ask you, how is it that Lot is righteous? He is only righteous because God made him so. What we find in this incredible moment is an act of God's mercy that is beyond our comprehension, our ability to understand. For I promise you, we may give Lot credit for trying to spare these visitors, but if we think he's wanting to throw his daughters out there to him instead, then nobody's putting Lot in for a nomination for heaven. Amen? I think that's who we are. Thank goodness that's above our pay grade. You know why? Because there's probably somebody out there saying they wouldn't put us in either. So this notion here of not only God's judgment with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as it is put to us, also gives us insight as one of more than one occasion here, that God is wanting us to see not only the absolute truth of His Word, the truth of the consequences of His judgment, but also know that as you know that those are true, know also in the midst of it, God knows how to deliver His chosen people. How do we know that? Peter writes it. He says in verse 9, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. God knows how to deliver. So we see here a picture of God's grace. Where do we see it? We don't see it in the angels. But we do see it in verse 5. We see it with Noah and his family. How was it that Noah was spared? Was it that Noah never had an ungodly thought all those years while he was building the boat and while he was preaching the message? Certainly not. Was it because the raising that he gave to his children was just dead on? No, none of that. It was because God chose Noah and his family to preserve them, to care for them. He extended them a measure of grace that is unimaginable. Not for their sakes, by the way, though they are greatly benefited by it. Why were they preserved? Why was the remnant kept? Because it was according to God's promise. It was according to God's Word. It was a fact of them being led by our Sunday school, or by a reference I gave in our Sunday school class this morning from the book of Psalms. They were being guided by His eye, not their own. An eye they could see far more and far better. There was, in fact, Lot. The occasion that confounds our mind as we look at verse 7, because we see what Lot was about. He was in Sodom and Gomorrah, not because of a wise, godly choice, but because of a sinful, self-serving choice. His family remained there. Why? It was a wicked and awful place. And you say, well, pastor, that doesn't make any sense. Lot didn't do anything that made him a good target, worthy. of God rescuing him. You're absolutely right. You see, Abraham pleaded that if God would find so many righteous people, there was none to be found, there was only some to be made. There was only some to be made. My friend, if you don't recognize it by now, that's you and me. The reason why we are here as the church is because our Heavenly Father has condescended to the equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah. And He has come to our lives, to our homes. And He has rescued us. Not only from this place, but from ourselves. We are sinners who have been saved by grace. set apart for a work, for a task, for a mission that is beyond us. But God says, trust in me, believe me, follow me. How do I follow you, Lord? Well, I have imparted unto you the Holy Spirit. Ah, wonderful. Then the Holy Spirit will lead me. No, the Holy Spirit will direct you by the authority of God's Word. It will help you understand. It will help you follow. It will help you obey. Is it a lock that once given the Holy Spirit, once given the Word, that I am a can't miss? Wrong. The Apostle Paul said that he battled every day with the temptation and the vulnerability to sin. And you and I will too. What is our hope? Our hope is growing the faith that has been given. How do we grow it? By seeking to follow the Word that has been given. That means we've got to know it. We've got to learn it. We've got to apply it. This is the hope that we have to follow this journey that God has given us in this life. To be the church of Jesus Christ. To be this incredibly illogical, Unbelievable choice by our Heavenly Father. To know that He doesn't need us, but He chooses us. To know that He does not have to use us, and yet He desires and commands us to be used. Are we the saving machine? No. We are the screwdriver in the hand of the One who saves. We're the tool. We're the vessel. We hope to witness and rejoice in the glory that is God's. And give thanks that according to God's Word, it becomes our glory too. Magnificent. I pray you know that today. I pray you understand the truth, the joy of God's Word, and to be His children. We live in a time, obviously, and we use these words right and left because we have no other words to use. We call it chaos. We call it uncertainty. We call it a time of crisis. And yet it is not the first crisis. It's not the first historic time of chaos. It's not the first nation who finds itself in some measure of peril. And amazingly, For thousands of years, God has applied the same solution to every nation, every continent. He has come along and He has taken men like Abraham, Moses, even Lot, the prophets. He's taken a fisherman like Peter. Boisterous, passionate, Foolhardy. Impulsive. He takes him and he calls him and he makes him into something that could never be imagined by anyone else that knew him. And he's still doing that today. The Heavenly Father condescended to me. He opened my heart, my mind, and my eyes to see this glorious truth. This horrifying but glorious truth. It's horrifying because even as a child I had to come face to face with my sin. I had to see and to know no matter what day that I may give my parents or my home, I cannot live a life good enough. I'm a sinner. And then He showed me the one and only hope. that is to be found in Christ. That because I can't, He did. He lived a sinless life. He died a precious death. The only one that could ever be received and acceptable to God as a substitute for the wrath that should have been mine. And here I stand. Here I stand stumbling and bumbling, failing and faltering, For every good minute, there are five that are not so good. And yet, I can be called righteous. I can only be called righteous because when God looks at me, He doesn't see me. He sees His Son, Jesus Christ. That is my joy. I pray it is yours. Luke, come. Stand with me. As we join together in a song of commitment this morning, a precious hymn, Be Thou My Vision. It is my hope this morning as we sing that all of us examine our hearts and our lives as we are about to observe the Lord's Supper to give thanks.