From 2 Peter chapter 1 and verses 1 to 4, we'll be reading God's word. And the title for the message is, Precious Faith, Precious Promises. And so reading from 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 1 to 4, the word of the Lord. a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 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, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. There are many precious treasures in these four verses we've just read. Boys and girls, I could come before you with a chest and open it up and have jewels and gold and silver in it, and it would not be as precious as what we have from the Word of God. It would not be as valuable as what we have here from the Apostle Peter. It reminds me of Thomas Brooks, who who was naming his books in this way. He would use these kinds of words in his book titles, like, A Cabinet of Jewels. Or he wrote one, Apples of Gold and Pictures of Silver. And then, of course, famous for writing Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. You see, Thomas Brooks understood the value. He understood what constitutes treasure, real treasure. And this is the truth that's really worth knowing. The things that are like lifelines in the world, all right here. Whoever understands these spiritual things that Peter is describing will agree right with him, that they are most precious. They are to be accounted more valuable than anything else in the world. And that's what we'll be looking into this evening as we go through these verses together. And we're going to zero in on four things, four aspects that Peter draws out. And there will be two for the preciousness of faith. And then there will be two for the preciousness of God's promises. So two for the preciousness of faith and two for the preciousness of God's promises. Peter opens up his letter by calling himself a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul does the same thing. And we see how he lowers himself so much, makes himself into nothing, and he's happy to do it. It's no shame to him. He's happy to do it because of the secret that he knows, because of the preciousness of the things he's delivering. What is he? Who am I? He might be saying when he says, I am just the bondservant. It's like what Paul says, we have these treasures in vessels of clay. And Peter is giving witness to the same thing. I'm a bondservant. What I carry, what I'm bringing is of infinite value. And so I'm happy to take the place of a nobody because of the preciousness. And may God make us aware of these things just like Peter as we proceed and look at these things and seek the Lord for spiritual benefit. And so we start with an aspect of precious faith that Peter is drawing out here, and this one is righteousness. We see in verse one that Peter is saying to the fellow heirs, the fellow heirs of righteousness, fellow heirs of salvation, to the ones, he says, in the church who have obtained like precious faith with us. And so he starts by saying that they have obtained a very precious thing. And he's reminding them that they have got a like precious faith. And he's saying that the thing that they have obtained is the same value, it's equal to the thing that he has obtained. And the thing that anyone has obtained, it's faith and it's like precious. See the two words that we have in English, it's actually from a single word. in the Greek, it's a compound word in the Greek, showing us it's not just a figure of speech. Peter is not just saying that their faith is a little bit like his faith, because his faith is precious and their faith is also precious. And he's not saying that their faith is precious in general, like his faith is just precious in general. He's using a precise word, a single word here, to say that it's exact. And this is something for us to stop and meditate upon. There's an exact preciousness in Peter's faith, and in your faith, and in my faith, and whoever has faith. There's an exact preciousness in it, because whoever has genuine faith, no matter how small, they have Christ, and they have Christ's righteousness. And this is of infinite value, and of infinite worth. And so even though we would admit that there are degrees of faith and that there will be some that have small faith and there will be some that have great faith, fundamentally, whoever has any faith has something of infinite preciousness because they have Christ, because they have all Christ's benefits, because they have Christ's righteousness, all through faith. And you see, my friends, whoever has it has obtained it Obtained it, as Peter says, they've obtained it by divine allotment. That's the meaning of this word here, to obtain. It has the meaning of being received as though given by a lot, given by a divine allotment. And so, this is true. We see this in other places of scripture. Ephesians 2.8, very famous. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It's given, it's obtained by an allotment. All of this sets the stage for what Peter's getting at here, the righteousness that we have, the righteousness by faith. He says this in verse one. To them that have obtained, like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so this is showing us just how precious our faith is because it's through faith that we have had the righteousness of God brought near to us, applied to us, imputed to us, to a sinner. And that's what makes it so valuable and so precious because what will we do without it? What will we do without it? It's like King Henry, what did he say? He said, a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse. because he saw what would he do without it but perish. So it's showing us that it's so precious because it's a conduit. It's bringing to us the righteousness of God. Faith doesn't add anything to it, doesn't contribute anything, it conveys it. God has said that he would, God has chosen faith to convey it. The simple means by which he would bring near and apply and impute his righteousness to his children and make them holy. And he would dress them in white. making them beautiful with the righteousness of Christ. And so now you see how that makes everyone's faith, whoever has any faith at all, whoever has saving faith, like precious because it's opening to them that righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a classic text on this from Paul in Romans 3. is what he says in Romans 3. He says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And so you see Paul giving witness. This is why faith is so precious. It's not because of any works. It's not because of anything that we could add to it. It's not because we have been able to drum it up and just stir it up more than anyone else has. It's been given that it might not be of works, but that it would be by faith, that we would have this righteousness that would cause us to be in awe, that none would boast. that none would have any pride in self, but that we would just be in awe and say, look at the preciousness, look at this. It's like, again, it's like a man at his last breath saying, a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse, because what will he do without it? He'll just perish. This is how precious it is. This is how precious it is. It's just as true for someone who has a grain of faith as it is for someone who has a mighty oak tree of faith. It's all like precious because of what it lays hold of. Because saving faith lays hold of Christ and all his benefits and his righteousness and Christ through faith. He puts upon us that white garment, that white robe, his righteousness that we will all wear. We will all be in awe to say it is not my own works. It's not of anything I've ever done. It's all of Christ and he's done it by faith. This is the first aspect of the preciousness of our faith, and Peter goes on. There's a second aspect we'll look at here in verse two, where Peter says, grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now we could preach whole sermons about just these words, grace and peace, and all the things that they signify and all the things that they signal, But I'll mention something here about what Peter says, grace and peace be multiplied unto you. In the New Testament, there's just two writers that ever use this phrase. It's Peter and it's Jude. And actually, Peter uses it two times. He uses it in both of his epistles. And in Jude, it says, in his epistles, in his epistle, it says, mercy unto you, peace, love be multiplied. And so let's draw something out here. Peter is saying that for the one who has that precious faith, the one that believes, he says, to them, there's a multiplication, there's an abundance of grace, there's an abundance of peace. And so we see in this that there's a preciousness of faith because faith is like the key that unlocks these things. Faith is like the golden key that will unlock these benefits. We've already spoken of righteousness, but here's more. Grace and peace be multiplied to those that believe. It's not that we only believe and one time we receive the grace of God and that's it. And God is saying, there's the grace, just live off the grace, just live off of it. And it's not that we just believe and just one time we experience the peace of forgiveness and the Lord is saying that's the peace, just live off of it. Grace and peace be multiplied to you over your whole lives, whenever it's needed. in your times of trial, in your times of distress, grace and peace be multiplied to you, and faith is going to unlock it as you believe and as you know Jesus Christ, as you know God, because that's what Peter says in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. And so God gives the faith, But with the faith, what are we going to do? We're going to seek out His works, just like we sang. We sang earlier in Psalm 111. We're going to seek out His works. That's what we're going to do with faith, because we want to know all there is to know. We want to know all that we can know for our grace and for our peace, that it would be multiplied. multiplied to us. What would you think about somebody who, they came and they heard a gospel message, and they said, Lord, I believe. I believe. And they walk out, and you never see them again. And maybe you catch up with them some other time, and you say, well, I thought that we would be seeing you. I thought that you would be returning. I thought you would be coming back and growing and everything. And the person says, oh, no, that's okay. I already know everything I need to know. You would be terribly distressed about that. You would say you already know everything you need to know. There's so much more to know. There's so much more peace to be had. There's so much more grace to understand. And so that's what faith will do. Faith will do that. Faith will be seeking knowledge. Now there's knowledge at the beginning of faith, because how can we believe if we don't know in whom to believe? And so there's knowledge at the beginning, but as we receive faith, we will, with faith, be wanting to know. more and more. I hope it's true of you that you'll want to know more and more of Christ and all that he has done in salvation and all that he has promised and all that he's offered and all that he's going to do in salvation. It's about our grace and peace being multiplied. And this is a working of our faith. It's a precious aspect of our faith that it does this. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God in Christ. And isn't that true for us in our own experience? When we are built up by studying scripture, or by hearing a message on the gospel, you know, it's like our brother prayed, we could be somebody that hears the gospel a thousand times, and if we are born again, if we're gracious people, it's going to thrill our hearts the thousandth time And the 10,000th time, too. It's just going to keep thrilling us. And we're just going to be in wonder, and we're going to say, I'm just knowing more. I'm just receiving more as I think upon these things. And all that he's done, this is much like what Paul prays multiple times, doesn't he? He prays it for the Ephesians. He says that the Ephesians, that they would know the hope of their calling, and the riches of their glory, of their inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of his power. Paul says to usward who believe in Ephesians 1. Because it's through the working of faith that grace and peace are multiplied as faith seeks to know more of Christ spiritually, It's like a multiplication of grace and peace in the life of a believer. And it's a wonderful thing. It's a precious thing. And that is like a golden key of faith working, a precious thing. There's another, well, those are the two aspects of faith. We turn over now to verses three and four. And there's promises. And there's going to be two aspects here. Two aspects of things that are promised. The first is found in verse 3. Listen to what Peter says. This is a familiar verse. And there's a promise here. And this is a promise, I'll call it the gift of equipping. Equipping. That God is promising, that the Lord is promising to us that there's not gonna be anything lacking. That God has given to us all things that are needed for life and godliness in our walk with Christ. Life here is to be understood as eternal life. And godliness is to be understood as our present life. life to be understood as eternal life, because it's like the perseverance of the saints. There's not going to be anything lacking. There's not going to be anyone that falls short, who is called, who is elected, who is brought near. There's not going to be anyone that almost made it, but then didn't. If they're brought into this promise, they're going to make it. They're going to make it. And then godliness, our present life on earth. We have everything we need, says Peter here in verse 3. There's not going to be anyone that could say, in my life, I would have been more godly. In my life, I would have been more sanctified or more holy, but I was just missing this piece here or this piece here. None of us can say that. No one can say that. It's all provided. It's all gifted. It's all promised here. God supplies it. And the testimony is frequent in Scripture, that God supplies it, God gives it, whatever is needed, his means, his Spirit, his power, whatever is needed. Psalm 3410, this is a good example. "'The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.'" And then Psalm 84, verse 11, it says, "'For the Lord God is a sun and a shield, And the Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." And then there's Psalm 85, verse 12, where it says, "'Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase.'" And so all these testifying that God will give it whatever is profitable for our soul. He will not withhold it. We have Paul saying the same thing, 1 Corinthians 3. He says, Therefore, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God. Paul is saying all these things that you are concerned about, you're worried about, you're gravitating here, you're gravitating there, you're running here, you're running there. Stop. Why? Why are you scurrying over here? You think you have to lay hold of this thing, that thing? It's all yours. God's going to provide it abundantly and richly for your souls and for your edification. You're going to have whatsoever. All things present, all things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." And so this is what Peter is saying. God has given us everything. All that we could need for eternal life, and all that we could need for godliness in this life. And this is a promise. It's a promise that Christ also gave us, and he's fulfilled it. When Christ said he's not going to leave us as orphans, he says he's not going to leave us comfortless. In John 14, verse 16 to 18, he says, What a promise! Do you see what Christ is promising? It's the same thing that Peter is saying. It's going to be provided everything that you'll need to have to serve the Lord. You don't have to wonder if you're going to run out of steam in the Christian life. You may feel like you are, but the promise, the promise is it's going to be holding you up, everything you need, even the Spirit of God. I will not leave you comfortless. Oh, this is a precious promise, to know that God is especially attentive to the spiritual needs and concerns of his people, and that he is so ready to attend to all of our cries. in this department, every spiritual need, so that we're not gonna lack anything. And that the Lord will, as he says, continue that good work which he begun in us until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that God will, as he says, he'll conform us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ through these things. He'll supply everything according to his riches in glory. This is not a promise that we will always have the earthly comforts and earthly luxuries and securities that we would desire of the Lord. No. James says you pray and you receive not because you ask amiss because you would spend it on your own lusts. The Lord will not forget his children. He won't forget their physical needs. But the promise that we are looking at here is so much more precious than that. This promise is so much more precious than if God had said, all your comforts, all your desires for luxury, security, ease, I'll provide it to you. This promise exceeds that because he's saying all your spiritual yearnings, all your spiritual desires, your spiritual ambitions, granted to you through this promise, through his help. And these are precious things. Are you in spiritual turmoil, spiritual distress? Hebrews 4.16, it says, let us come therefore boldly unto the throne of grace. that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. What could be better? All his spiritual blessings are his best. It's all, all his spiritual gifts are his sweetest. There's nothing lacking. He's given us all, according to his divine power, all things that pertain to life and godliness. And then Peter goes on here. He says he's called us to glory and virtue. And this is the road, the pathway that Christ has set us on, if we believe. He's going to give us everything we need, and he set us on this pathway. Peter says it's the pathway to glory and to virtue. We're going to be like those travelers on that highway in Isaiah 35, verse 8. And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, Though fools shall not err therein." He's called us to glory and virtue, and he's given us everything that we could need on that highway, on that pathway. Boys and girls, imagine if you were going to pack up for a hike, a really long one. You would want to lay everything out and you'd want to carefully select, what will I need to pack in my bag on my hike? I might be gone for many days. You want to lay it out carefully. Well, God is saying on the spiritual highway of holiness, he's already packed the bag. He's already chosen everything needful and put it in order for us. And all we have to do is walk in it And all we have to do is seek Him and cry to Him for each thing. And it's already there, it's already given. It's His pleasure. What a precious promise. Well, that's one aspect of a promise. There's another one here. This is the fourth and the final aspect here. A precious promise here in verse four. Partakers of the divine nature. Peter himself, he emphasizes the very glory of this promise when he says in verse 4, So Peter is contemplating all the promises of Scripture. And in a sense, he's kind of rolling them all into one great, great promise, one great reward. And he says it's incredible. He's emphasizing the glory of it. He's saying that God's people might become the partakers of the divine nature. Now think about that for a moment. This is the glory of glories. This is the height of heights for humanity. If you think about how far we've fallen, that we were made in God's image to begin with, in knowledge and in righteousness and in holiness, and it was wrecked by sin and mangled, and we became an unclean thing We became a vile thing, children of wrath by nature. And now, through Christ and through his blood, Peter is saying that the promises that are exceeding great and precious, that by these, it might be all restored. That God would make us partakers of the divine nature. In other words, that God would rebuild us that God would restore us to His image, and that we would once again stand as a proper image of God in righteousness, and in knowledge, and in holiness, something that had been completely mangled, completely ruined. And now it's going to be restored. We're going to be rebuilt through Christ and be partakers, once again, of the divine nature. It's tremendous. It's like what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, he says, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God. Changed from glory to glory by becoming partakers of the divine nature. By once again, by once again reflecting those divine attributes which are communicated to men. Not that we would become as God, like deified, with His essence, but that we would become holy as God. But that we become partakers of His divine nature. And this is the height of promises, as Peter says. Everything else falls away and just pales in comparison to this, this great promise. You know, people speak of the promises of Scripture, there are so many, and people speak about turning those promises in Scripture, found in Scripture, into prayers. And William Gernal, he writes about this in his work, The Christian's Complete Armor, The Christian in Complete Armor. And he writes about praying all the promises of God with confidence because you're taking the promises of God and you're turning them into prayers. Now, what about this one? I'll ask you, won't you turn this promise into prayer? Oh God, that I might partake of the divine nature by reflecting, by experiencing, This blessedness that God is willing to communicate by faith through Christ. And Peter sets this forth as the great promise to partake of the divine nature. Now, just to help us understand this a little bit better, Peter supplies us with one more thing. He gives us a contrast. He gives us an opposite at the end of verse 4. And with the Lord's help, this might help us flesh it all out. Verse 4, he says, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And so that's the other side of the coin. That's the negation. If faith opens up to us these exceeding great and precious promises that lead us to becoming the partakers of the divine nature, then the negation, the opposite, is being held down and weighed down and strapped down by the corruption that is in the world through lust. And to be in that misery and to be in that fallenness, and then that guilt, and that corruption, and that bondage that's fueled by lust, and it's not escapable. You can't escape it. It's like those glue traps for those rats and those mice. They get in there and they can't get out of it. We can't escape it. A Puritan, George Gifford, he comments in this way. He says, in the last clause of this verse, Peter showeth us his meaning very plainly, in that he saith, he saith, ye who fly the corruptions which are in the world through lust, this is the way to be made partakers of the divine nature. For as the corruptions and filthy defilings, the more they cleave unto us, the more they separate us from the Lord. So contrary-wise, the more a man doeth fly and askew them, so much the nearer he doth approach unto God, who is the fountain of all purity." And so what a contrast. There's a corruption, there's a pollution, it's in the world, and it's fueled by lust, it's deceitful, and it holds men down, and it keeps men in bondage. And because of it, they won't partake of the divine nature. They won't tear themselves from the lust of the world. And Peter is telling us, and the scripture is saying, if you don't partake of this divine nature, you're done. You're dead in your sins. Or you could take it another way and say that some who have partaken of the divine nature, they'll just go along limping in the faith. They'll go along limping because parts of them and members of them are still stuck in the corruption of the world. But either way, the contrast could not be more clear. of the world and of corruption that will hold us down in mire compared to the pure fountain, says Gifford, of heavenly things. And it brings us back to Joshua chapter 24. And this is where Joshua, he sets before the people, and in his dying words, really, his last address to the people, he sets before them all of the corruptions that they've escaped. He says, your fathers, they dwelled beyond the flood, they worshipped other gods, and then they were put into bondage by the Egyptians. And again and again, God broke the yoke that was over them. God broke the back of their oppressors again and again. He's delivered his people. He's delivered you, he says. He's delivered you from the Amorites. He's delivered you from Balaam. He's delivered you from the men of Jericho. He's delivered you from all these things. And he's leading up to his point where he says, if God's delivered you from all these things, then walk as free men and then serve the Lord. And don't go back to these things. He says in Joshua 24 verse 14 and 15. Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." We've looked over these two aspects of precious faith. We've also looked over two aspects of very precious promises that are mentioned here in these verses. And all of them are exceeding precious, and it shows us A little bit of the thought process of Thomas Brooks when he was naming his books, The Cabinet of Jewels, or he was naming things like the golden key of faith that's to be had by understanding these things and knowing these things. Well, some applications for us in closing. If you have faith in Christ, saving interest in Christ, however small, your faith is like precious. to any other faith, to anyone else with saving faith. And we're not saying that everyone's degree of faith is equal, because as we see from Scripture, there's going to be some with small faith and some with great faith. But it's all like precious in that it's all providing us that access that we need to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is a help for us to sweep away pride, and to sweep away envy, and to sweep away comparisons among brethren, because all of our faith is, as Peter says, like precious. And we've all had faith given to us as a divine allotment. And so as Paul said, where is boasting? Where is envy? Or where is striving? It only comes about by pride. and forgetting that all that we who have been delivered from sin and corruption, that all we have this like precious faith. And so the prideful believer is such an oddity. We should look upon the prideful believer as such a contradiction. Realizing that faith is given as a gift, it's given by God to all who believe. It's like precious, says Peter. Another application as we close. This precious promise that Peter sets above so many other promises when he says that you might partake of the divine nature, that you might be restored and rebuilt into the image of God. This is something that should delight us and stir us because this partaking of the divine nature of God is paramount to the believer. This communion that we have with God by being restored to his image and to these attributes that he's communicating, this should be paramount to us. And it calls again to our minds, Joshua. What Joshua was using as a challenge, because he said to the people, choose ye this day, whom will ye serve? Whether the gods of your fathers, whether the gods of Egypt, whether the gods of the Ammonites and the Amorites, or whether the Lord that has brought you out of the house of bondage, that has brought you out of all these things. And then the people answered, and they said, oh yes, Joshua. Of course, we'll serve the Lord. All that thou sayest, this we will do. Of course, we will serve the Lord. And then Joshua comes back at them. And in verse 19, he said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. Why did Joshua say this to the people? Well, because Joshua knew them very well. Because Joshua discerned something about the people due to his long experience with the people. And so it's a caution that Joshua is giving. He's saying, are you sure? Again, are you sure? I know your temptations. I know your proclivities. I've lived with you. I've seen your works. Are you sure? Because if you're not sure, You're not going to be able to serve the Lord your God. You're not going to be able to serve him because he's holy. He's not going to just take your best intentions when you're still in bondage to the pattern of this world and to your idolatries and your lusts and everything. He's holy. He's not going to forgive your transgressions. He's not going to forgive your sins. If all you're doing is just It's just saying the right words. If all you're doing is just drawing near unto God with your lips, Joshua is just challenging them. It's what you really want is to become this partaker, these partakers of the divine nature. Where's the evidence? And I could turn it to you. And I could say, where is the evidence? What would Joshua have to say about you? Where's the evidence? What would others have to say about you? Whether or not you prize and treasure all these things that have been brought before us in the scripture in Peter. Would anyone be able to bring evidence and say, this person, this person really does treasure and value the promises of God above all else. It's evident in their conversation. It's evident in their disposition. It's evident in their day-to-day life. It's evident in how they've ordered their life and how they arrange their life. Or would those things give someone pause the way that it gave Joshua pause when he considered those people Would someone struggle to come up with the evidence? Or alternative, even more alternative, even to your own heart? What about your own heart? Is there evidence that you can see that your heart thrills in the things that are presented as exceeding great and precious promises? That that's your preference, that that's your yearning that you would be a partaker of the divine nature and not, as we read in Hebrews 6, a taster of the powers of the world to come. Are you a taster or are you a partaker? You see the difference? If you're a taster of the powers of the world to come, and not a partaker of the divine nature, you are yet dead in your sins. But if, through grace, God makes you a partaker of the divine nature, these promises are unfolded in front of you. These promises are displayed in all of their richness, in all of their value and their preciousness right before you. And Christ is there with all of his benefits, more precious than anything. And so I will say, if that's you, then do as William Gernal said, and turn these promises into prayers and seek the Lord for these things and say, yes, Lord, I do find these things precious, make them more so. I do find these things thrilling, make them more so. I do believe, I do, I do believe what the Lord has said here, that all things, that all things that pertain unto life and godliness will be provided by the Lord's divine power and that I will have no reason to say, oh, well, I would have been more holy. I would have been more godly. I would have been more sanctified. But I just wasn't sure if I would have what it takes. No, it's all there. It's all set before us. These promises, believe them. And may the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Would you stand now together as we pray to our God? O God, our Father in heaven, Lord, thou hast so richly blessed thy people above what we could ever ask or imagine. If we are in Christ, if we are brought near, and if thou hast placed the righteousness of Christ upon us, even as a white robe, these promises, they are exceeding great, exceeding precious. We pray that we would lay hold of them, we would be thinking of them, meditating upon them, desiring them, that that would give us faith, that would seek to know thee, and know Thee more and know Thee in the power of Thy salvation and the riches of Thy glory. And we pray that Thou would put us on that path of glory and virtue and give us every aid we need. Father in heaven, we pray for any who are not partakers of Thy divine nature, but they're just, they're just tasters and they just keep listening. We pray that Thou would set a difference in their hearts, and that Thou would show them how much they need Thee, and that Thou would draw them, Lord. Father in Heaven, we call upon Thee to respond and to answer in everything we've asked this evening. And we pray that Thou would do it all according to Thy divine counsel and Thy gracious will. We pray that Thou would show us Thy mighty arm in these things that we've asked. We pray that Thou would give us Thy Spirit and Thy blessing throughout this evening and then even throughout the week. Father, we pray that we would be able to return here, and that we would be able to return in strength and in numbers, and that would restore health to those that are not able to be here, and that we would return in strength and numbers upon thy day. And we pray that that would bless Mr. Appazzo. Excuse me. Yes, Mr. Appazzo. We pray for his labors. Father, we love thee. And yet we find ourselves, we find ourselves sometimes just limping along. And we pray that that would lift us up and strengthen us to run in thy paths and run in thy precepts. And we do pray and ask all this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.