Morning. Morning. My those jurisdictions had a command of the English language. We were talking about the English language last night. There's some voting for or against whether we should allow it to change too much, not that we can't control that. But at some level, it will change. So if it's any measure of how much our language and our ability to express ourselves has changed since the Valley of Vision was penned and those men penned those words to what it is today, can you imagine what the next 100 years, 150 years will bring? probably be speaking all in acronyms by then, not knowing what the underlying words mean. Right? LOL? You're supposed to LOL right now? Well, thank God that He is merciful and He gave us a sure word, an unchangeable word. Amen. Well, we've come to week five in our thoughts on Christian ethics from the scripture. And I hope you're as glad as I am that we have arrived at that fifth week for it is the last week. And this has been a good exercise for me. It has done my soul good. I hope it has done your soul good when you when you've had a chance to be here for it. I've enjoyed it. I thank God for the opportunity. So thank you, Brother Sammy, for letting me do it, making me do it. I often don't push that hard into the Word, except I'm challenged to have to. You know, a productive study of the Word. So today our text comes from Daniel chapter 2. If you will turn to Daniel chapter 2. Really, the whole chapter is the text, but that would be pushing it a little bit in our Bible drill exercises. By the time we get through, you'll know what I mean. So I'm going to talk about the first part of the chapter and then read and pick up in the middle of the chapter and read the main crux of our text. So we know in Daniel chapter 2 that there was this king. His name was Nebuchadnezzar and he, like us, had to sleep at night. But being a king, I would suspect that he often had troubling things on his mind when he went to bed, and possibly some of the partying and reveling that those kingdoms were noted for might have caused him, much like our pizza at 11 o'clock might have caused us to dream a dream. But this time, this dream was of a different nature. This king, Nebuchadnezzar, dreamed a dream But it was a troubling dream. Have you ever woke up in the morning just on the wrong side of the bed or just troubled and not sure what it was? Well, this king was not sure what it was, but he knew it was significant because it was a different nature, a different flavor of the normal dreams that he probably had, as we all do. And the scripture says that his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. He couldn't go back to sleep. So he said, well, I don't know what this means. So he decided to call all the wise men in the whole kingdom, all the smart guys, the ones mostly that they had captured, ones of their own soothsayers and charmers and all kinds and flavors of people, you know, getting everybody together so that they can be kind of what we call a day well blended and you get a balanced picture of things. He called all those together and he said, look guys, I've dreamed a dream and I want to know what it means because he was deeply troubled. So he put a caveat on them to find out if they were really smart or not. You know, they're wise. You know, if you, if you told me your dream, I could give you an interpretation. But he said, no, you've got to give me the dream and the interpretation. You've got to tell me what I dreamed and what it means. And they said to the king, ah, this is an unusual request. to which the king became quite angry at this. Most of these kings don't ask us to tell them. They're breaking down the charade. Most of them don't ask us to tell them what the dream is, but just what the dream means. That's what we really want to tell you. That way, you're just trying to make it up as they go along. But now, we've got to know the whole thing. The king became angry and he said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to kill every one of you. Everyone, if y'all no smarter than this, I'm gonna kill every one of you and I'll get me some new ones. That was the mind of the king. So we'll pick up at verse 12, reminding that some of the Hebrew children, some of the Hebrews captured at Jerusalem were in this number of wise men, young men and old. They were in this number. We'll pick up at verse... Let's pick up at verse 12. For this cause the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Ariok made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time. and that he would show him, show the king the interpretation. By that is implied the dream too, which was the requirement. Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. Always like it when they use their real names instead of the ones the king gave them. Y'all know what those are. That they would desire mercies of God of heaven concerning this secret. that Daniel and his fellow should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon, then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are His, and He changeth the times and the seasons, and removeth kings, and setteth up kings, and giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him. I thank Thee. I think Daniel had great reason to thank God at this point. God had just mercifully spared his flesh. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desire to be. For thou hast now made known unto us the King's matter. So we see that it was revealed to Daniel. A secret thing was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. The same way it had come in a dream, it was revealed in a night vision. A lot of things happen at night. A lot of things happen in our souls at night and it would be very important, this is extra, it would be very important for us to be careful what we put into our minds and souls before we lay down on our beds. That's one lesson that we learn from that. But that is our text, but not necessarily the meat of everything we'll talk about. The first rule review from last week, over the last four weeks, we've stepped off into the shallows of Christian ethics. And we know that they are shallows because the Word of God is a deep well. It is a mine. As you pull up the oar of the Word, we find more and more and more that resonate with our hearts as we seek the face of God. So we are definitely in the shallows. And we know that our ethic is not formed in five weeks of study. We know that the way we act, things that we do and participate in are not shaped by a mere five-week study. So this is indeed the shallows in an ocean. That's what it is. So in week one, we studied ethics from a biblical perspective as we looked at the sovereignty of God in all things, His ability to lay everything out the way it ought to be and the way it is. Then we looked at that same time, we looked at God's sovereignty, we looked at the fall of man as to the defining event of the need for an ethic. Man fell, man sinned. This changed everything for everyone forever. And then we looked at another fact of the redemption of the blood of Jesus Christ as a foundation for us to understand Christian ethics. In that, It is now the law written upon the heart and not upon a tablet of stone. So it is an interchange that allows us to develop and to live before God with a clear conscience. In week two, we understood and examined the idea of the fear of God versus the fear of man, as the fear of man being the very foundation of all unethical behavior. When we fear man above God, man in his temporal puniness, in his temporal laws and regulations that generally serve his generation, and we fear men and we fear their philosophies and we imbibe their philosophies, we bring a bondage to our souls. Christ came to set those that were in bondage at liberty. So we see that a fear of God liberates. And the grace of God liberates us to do the right thing from the inside out. The preferred ethic. In week three, we reviewed the societal norm of just weights and measures. That we need a solid and predictable way of interacting and trading, since trading is a way of this life, we all buy food, we all buy clothes, we buy and sell the things that we need, we interact with one another, and without these just ways and fair measures, chaos reigns. And when chaos reigns, it becomes a societal disease, and it corrupts the entire civilization as everyone tries to recoup their perceived loss on the next guy. It just propagates, and it cannot get better when just weights and measures are arbitrary. Then week four, we studied prayer. We studied prayer, the scriptural prayer, deliver us from evil. In the Lord's prayer, the disciples' prayer, deliver us from evil. Brethren, when you ask God to deliver you from evil, be prepared to be delivered from evil. Be prepared that God will not allow you to go and do things that you might want to go and do. that God will not allow you to rise in the corporate structure or to rise, at least in your own eyes, to where you think you might ought to be, because He is delivering you from evil. Remember, we talked that God delivered His people from evil by whispering the location of the enemy into the king's ear. with the claim that, hey, the king's counselor said, look, this prophet is telling the king things that you say in the secrecy of your bedroom. God knows the ways of the wicked, and he knows how to deliver his people out of them. Remember, we discussed how that Daniel was the president of presidents in a wicked and perverse nation. And he responded in prayer as he did aforetime, after they had chosen to try to destroy him. So we see that prayer is essential for being delivered from evil, and it is essential for our survival, physical and spiritual at times. So in our last lesson today, we're going to wade into the future. We're going to look at what I've entitled it as ethics and foresight. This is not prophecy. It's not. I'm not about to tell you what the mark of the beast is or anything that I have no idea about. I'm not going to tell you what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day. But God's people, the scripture says, understand all things. As Daniel understood, Daniel understood the gravity of that situation in the second chapter. And he understood that his only recourse was before the very throne of God, where he received an answer. So, why would I talk about the future in Foresight? Aren't Christians supposed to be present-oriented? Aren't we supposed to live one day at a time, day by day? Because sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof? Aren't we to take no thought for tomorrow? Aren't we to be like the lilies of the field, the birds of the air? The answer, of course, to these is yes. That is true. The scripture tells us to be present-oriented, that not to take cares upon ourselves about tomorrow. worry, all of those things that are contrary to faith and are evidences of fear. Faith is always present. It's always about now. I believe right now that God is good and that He will do good to His people. And I know we agree on that. But God is always present. He is eternally present, infinitely present. If there were no slight future orientation, there would probably be no food in your cupboard. There would probably be no gas in your car. You might not even have a car. At some level, we all recognize that there is some future orientation. These are not the same things as taking cares for the future. These are prudent, precautionary things to do. So that's the type of foresight that we're going to talk about. How that we can connect the dots and see, as those who studied the scriptures long ago could see, they knew about what time Christ was going to appear. And this is also not about when Christ is coming back. It was supposed to be October 21st, according to some fellow, but he missed that one again after six months. So at this time, it probably would behoove us to just review something that we studied. I think I presented a lesson a year or so ago, maybe a little longer, on the Christian work ethic and the Christian and work. We did about seven weeks on that. And there was one lesson in that on time, if you remember that. So I'm just going to quickly redo that and again jump into the meat of what we have to say today. We discovered in that study that time is an element of the created order. God is not bound by time. Time is us looking out. God sees everything, all things, infinitely in one instant, as one event, eternally. This is above us. This is a thought that is so much higher than us that my puny mind and the puny words of the English language cannot encompass. This God is big. It is what we discovered as the x-axis of all of life. It's how we measure things along a timeline, a fourth dimension. Time is a gift and a reminder from God for us to number our days. Brethren, you, except the Lord come and change things drastically, you will likely die. I will likely die. I'm planning on dying. I want to die well. I'm not sure always that I've lived well, but I want to die well. We will die. Your parents' children, your parents will die. Your grandparents will die. This is a fact of time, of life. But God is not bound by those laws, neither by any law that He has made for us to live by. He transcends them. The fact of a law implies the capacity to do error. God has no capacity to be wrong. He is not bound by His laws. But we can only live in the present. But yet, have you ever tried to grab the present and hold on to it? So the progression of time towards us is future, present, past. As it rolls our way, the only thing we can see is really what is in the future. Because once that instant of the present Once we perceive that, it is gone and it is past. So we see what is coming at us, even at the speed of light, at the speed of sound. But as soon as we perceive it, it is gone into the past. So the instant, the present only exists. for however many times you can divide time. And we've divided it in lots of things. You know, we deal all the time with nanoseconds now. But that's beyond my puny mind. So we see what's coming toward us. Some of it may be cloudy. Some of it may be clear. But it's all enveloped nicely in Romans 8.28. We know that God is working all things together for good. for his own glory to those that are thee called according to his purpose. This is why we need not fear the future. So in Proverbs 22.3 says, A prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Prudent man foreseeing the evil. Can see something that's coming toward him and avoid it. So we're going to unwrap a little bit ethical foresight in three categories. That's what you always supposed to have, three categories, three points, right? It's really the only three I could think of. So we can have a better look at what's coming our way. Here are the three. One, we gain ethical foresight and fellowship with the brethren. Two, We gain ethical foresight by discernment gained by the word of God. This is a big. Three, we gain ethical foresight by the spirit impressions upon our minds and our souls. So we will examine those three in a little bit of detail. So from the beginning, We always get back to Genesis, don't we? Anytime we discuss God, the underlying current is that God made all these things. He made them all. God declared that it was not good for man to be alone. That's in Genesis 2.18. So it is worth noting, Brendan, and it is important That Genesis 2.18 is the first declaration that God made of something that was not good. Everything up to that time was good. God said it's not good for a man to be alone. So he gave him a wife, a companion. So the need for companionship is not a result of the fall. This was pre-fall that this was not good. But it is part of God's design. It's not merely procreation, procreation, having babies, that's what that means, making children. It's not just for that, that fellowship, but it is for heart fellowship. Someone to help bear a yoke, 1 John 1.17 declares that. All right, from that union came all humanity and ultimately families. Look at Psalm 68, 6. I'm going to call these out. You can write them down. This would be Bible drill on steroids. Ephesians 3, 15. We are taught that iron sharpens iron, that God develops and refines us through our interaction with our brethren, through those who who have exercised their minds in the scriptures. I can imagine that Daniel and those other three Hebrew children spent much time chattering about the law. I mean, they're engulfed in this pagan culture, so they had to talk to one another and encourage one another. Of course, there may have been others. God gives us pastors. and teachers to instruct, reprove, and encourage us as we interact. Ephesians 4, 11, following. And further, we are exhorted to attendance at worship and the set times for corporate fellowship in Hebrews 10, 25. So this fellowship of the brethren sharpens our vision, gives us foresight, and understanding into the ways and operations of God. And when we neglect these, brethren, when we neglect these and hold them lower than other activities, we sin. Brothers, I'm telling you, it is sin to forsake the gathering together of yourselves. It's sin. And our day is full of this sin. Let's not this sin be part of our body. We are open to the erosion of our spiritual foresight and we neglect fellowship of the saints and we deprive ourselves of nurture and sustenance from his people. This is an important part of our Christian foresight and understanding is fellowship of the veteran. The next one and my favorite one to talk about is discernment gained by the word. The second way, we talk about fellowship that's given us foresight. We talk about discernment. Discernment is not only something that's not practiced a lot in our day, but it may be a term that maybe our young folks are not as familiar with. I'm sure some of the older saints, you know, that have been exercised much in the Scripture are much more familiar with the term discernment. So, it might be in order for us to defining but for the life of me from the beginning. I want to say that we may be marveled at the ethical dullness of our day. It does me, I'm just amazed at where since 1955, when I was born, and then a few years later started having some consciousness of everything that there is. For the life of me, I cannot understand how some may dismiss thou shalt not kill as inapplicable to abortion. I do not understand that. How that thou shalt not steal does not apply to intellectual property, which it does. And that the downloading and copying of music and of content off the internet without paying or without permission is theft. Thou shalt not steal. I'm amazed that we do not see that. And how that thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind does not condemn the homosexual. I'm amazed at those things. These are gross examples of our day's folly. They are not examples of a lack of discernment. That's not what these are. This is a different category. This is a result of the abandonment of discernment. It is the end of the road of moral pseudocide. It's a hardening of the conscience. Discernment is something that needs to happen much earlier in the progression of sin. Discernment, that must happen much earlier. So, I wanted to get somebody smarter than me, which is most people. John MacArthur writes, in its simplest definition, discernment is nothing more than the ability to decide between truth and error. right and wrong. Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions about truth. In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with the ability to think biblically. Another, a more favorite definition, and a much shorter, since brevity is the soul of wit, I've always liked this one, where it says, the essence of Christian maturity is, quote, rightly choosing between things that are similar. Brothers, that's discernment. A Christian must be discerning. Sometimes things are so close on the spectrum of grey and black and white that it requires deep spiritual discernment to understand which way to turn. It's not like one famous quoter said, when you come to a Y in the road, take it. Brothers, when you come to a Y in the road, you're going to have to go on one of the paths. You can't go on both. So discernment is required for us to think biblically. In other words, discernment is to choose between the good and the better, the liberty and the license, between truth and reason, between the lawful and the expedient, between faith and feelings, between covering and exposing, between mercy and law, between that which is holy and that which is profane. This is where discernment is required. Scripturally, we are required to use it, and we need it. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 21, 22, and 1 John 4, 1 requires us to use it. Discernment follows those prepared by strong doctrine. It is a characteristic of those who have immersed themselves in the strong doctrine of the Word of God. Discernment is an outgrowth of that, in Hebrews 5.14. Discernment is given to those who ask for it. We think of Solomon in 1 Kings 3, 5 through 13. He didn't ask for wealth and riches and a good, happy kingdom. He recognized that he was going to have to make much discernment as he judged his people. And he needed it. And then also in Psalm 119, 66. Brothers and sisters, young folks, discernment is the product of sanctification. of consecration and of separation. In the life of Daniel, this is evident. I turn now, and I'll read this text, and you can join me in Daniel 1, 8 through 17. The very beginning of Daniel, right after they were captured, right after they were taken off to where the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar and all those guys were. Daniel saw what was coming his way. He had foresight. He knew what the score was. He knew that he would have to be very careful or he would lose his religion, so to speak. Daniel 8, 1, 8 through 17. But Daniel resolved. Resolve is something you do before something happens. You know, you don't resolve to win a football game or something like that after you're down 20, 21 points. That's not when you resolve to win before you start anything. So resolve requires foresight. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. It's like going to your boss and saying, you know, I don't want to have to do this because it might defile me. And God gave Daniel favor. Notice that God gave it. Gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king who assigned your food and drink. For why should he see that you are in worse condition than the youths who are your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king. Hey Daniel, if you don't eat like you're supposed to, you're not the only one that's going to suffer here. I'm probably going to get it too. The king doesn't like that. Then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables. As for these youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. We see here that God blesses the sanctification and consecration and stand that Daniel and these men took. So as with any good gift, there are counterfeits, right? So what are the enemies of discernment? There are enemies of discernment. The enemies of discernment are anything that is contrary to a life of sanctification and separation. Those are the enemies of discernment. Love of the world. mental slothfulness, excess leisure, appetite for self-gratification, worldly entertainment, compromise with evil, vain philosophy, anything that seeks to erect a platform of righteousness without the offense of the gospel, which is a bloody Christ. Men try to erect all the time and build up these altars of good works, these altars of ways and paths to God that leave out the only way and path to God, which is Jesus Christ. Discernment tells us that we must weigh all things in that light, the light of the blood of Jesus Christ. Another scripture. that I would ask you to be a noble Berean about. It's a scripture that I have wrestled with almost all of my life, at least Christian life. It's Proverbs 18.1. Through desire, a man, having separated himself, seeks an intermediate with all wisdom. Many take that in the negative, is that if a man overly separates himself, he moves away from the influence of good wisdom. But I have not, I've never taken that scripture in that passage. And I have someone who agrees with me, or I guess who I agree with, because he's much older and much less alive than I am, and his name is John Gill. This is how John Gill divides it. He mentions the others, and he says, these guys are in error. He asserts, our translation seems to take it as an excitement to diligent in the pursuit of wisdom. If we would get knowledge or grace, we must desire it. is that which we need and which will be of great advantage to us. We must separate ourselves from all those things which would divert us from or retard us in that pursuit. Retire out of the noise of the world's vanity. and then seek and intermeddle with all the means of instructions and wisdom. Be willing to take pains and try all methods of improving ourselves. Be acquainted with a variety of opinions that we may prove all things and hold fast that which is good. Scripture tells us to prove all things and hold fast that which is good. That is the essence and crux of discernment. We're told to try the spirits. That requires discernment. So discernment is to be coveted. 1 Corinthians 12.10 and 1 Corinthians 12.31. Where we're told to covet the gifts. Discernment is one of those. Discernment is coupled with wisdom. And it is a product of our immersion into the scripture. Read Proverbs chapter 4. Would you be discerning, brethren? Yoke yourselves to Christ. Spend time in meditation and prayer if you would be discerning. This is a labor. This is what we must do. This is the cost, the price of the gospel. And third, we get into spirit impressions on our minds and souls. And I realize I'm taking liberties with time. Spirit impression on our minds and souls. The third way, this is the third way. Fellowship with the saints, discernment through the word, and spirit impressions on our minds and souls. This is the third way that we gain foresight and help from God. We may be tempted at first to kind of dismiss this as some type of metaphysical, supernatural, you know, just kind of magical thing that happens where God whispers in our ear exactly what's going to happen or what we should do. This is not what I'm talking about, although the scripture is full of examples of just those type things. So I would challenge you, what caused you to believe? If you have believed, what caused you to believe? Was it from the outside in? Or was it from the inside out? Did God first regenerate your soul and cause you to believe what you heard? If God works with us that way, and that is as the Spirit moves whithersoever it will, and you don't know where it's coming from or where it's going to like the wind, why should we think that once we're converted that God no longer deals with us in such ways? that He no longer whispers into our souls what He is about to do, or gives us what we would call a motion, or an inkling, or a sense, or a premonition of what may be coming our way. God deals with that often with His people like that. Ephesians 3, 16 through 20 bears that out. God promises that when we are brought before the magistrates for the defense of the faith, Where he says, when you're drug in for the cause of Christ, take no thought for what you're going to say, for God will in the same hour, Luke 12, 12, in the same hour, He'll give you what you ought to say. This comes directly from God. The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, in Romans 8, 14. Flesh led by Spirit. Sons led by Spirit in the inner man. Do our hearts, brethren and believers, do our hearts not resonate when we hear truth? Much the same way as those disciples walking on the road to Emmaus heard when Jesus, they didn't even recognize Him. They're walking with Jesus. I mean, this guy probably had holes in his hands and a hole in his side, and they didn't recognize it. But yet their confession was, did not our heart burn within us as we walked on the road? That's in Luke 24, 32. So truth is not believed intellectually first before it is understood spiritually. The spiritual precedes the intellectual. I have no intellectual problem anymore believing that God created the heavens and the earth. I once did. I saw, erected, and fabricated all kinds of reasons why He could not have done that. Time being the main one. But once, there was a change in my heart. I no longer doubted that God did that. I understood that He did, and that the things which we see were made from things which we do not see. So it's internal first. And so I want to leave you with one passage, and I have to confess and witness that this is the passage that God used to help me see His sovereignty. And I'll not go deeply into explaining that, but there was a time when I was a Christian and did not see the sovereignty of God and salvation, that men's puny little wills could rise up and stand up and say, God, you're not going to save me no matter what you say. God saved my soul. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 6 through 16, I want to read these, and I challenge you, brethren, to... This one rang in my heart after I first heard it, and I hope it will ring in yours. For Paul says to the Corinthians, Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught. But we seek the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, did not come from the outside, even though the facts were there. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, I love this passage, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Then the big verse 10, But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God. which things also we speak, not in the word which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things to spiritual. This is the verse that God used for me. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Brethren, that That is a meaty verse. If you are a natural man, you cannot perceive the things of God. Because they are not naturally derived. They are not naturally given. They are naturally declared in the creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. But they are given to the spiritual man. So the conclusion I came to is unless we're first made spiritual, we cannot understand the things of God. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that we may instruct him? What do we have? But we have the mind of Christ. How do we have the mind of Christ? This is a spiritual mind. This is not a natural mind. And we see from the life of Daniel that the more this grows in us, the more useful we will be to God's people, to the world in which we live, to ourselves, to the glory of God. So, my brethren, stay in the fellowship of the true worshipers of Jesus Christ. Gain discernment. by saturating your souls in the Word of God. And listen. And listen for that small, still voice that is the mind of Christ. And we see what is coming. It is Christ. We should make sure that we have adequate oil for our lambs. Yes. Let's pray. Our Father in God, we're thankful for Your Word. It is a light. have good light, the only light for us, Father. Father, please help us to stop making excuses for the world, but only declare what is true and holy and just. Help us to be useful to You, useful to Your people, useful to our families, useful to our employers. We lay all ourselves before You, in Jesus' name, Amen. Mary.