So let's go to the Word of God this morning, to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is where we will find our text. And it may be a text that you visited maybe as recently as yesterday. Perhaps the Sunday before, but yesterday would be a natural setting in John chapter 20. This is resurrection morning as we've already heard about a testimony and the baptism. Isn't that exciting? Oh yes, to be baptized on resurrection morning. What an opportunity. But that's really what's going on here, not the baptism, but the resurrection. And so if you'll just kind of follow with me, we're going to kind of move our way through the context and then arrive at a place that God laid on my heart as He laid this message on my heart, entitled simply, Double Trouble, Double Trouble. You say, how in the world can we get into double trouble in John chapter 20? Well, maybe we'll see it here in just a little bit. John chapter 20, you see it says, The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Now we'll pause there for a moment and just move on a little bit into the context. You have Mary who's coming. She sees the empty tomb. And she begins to have a conversation in a little bit with the angels, as a matter of fact, and then a conversation with the Lord. Now, she had already gone and told Peter and John, they came running. John outran Peter. They looked into it, they saw it, and the Bible says they went on home. And after that, Mary stood there and was weeping. And as she began to have this conversation with the angel, And then subsequently she began to have a conversation with none other than the risen Lord. And as she didn't recognize His voice to start with, and thinking Him to be the gardener that had placed the Savior somewhere, but when He said, Mary, all the familiarity, not just of her name, she was well-versed in her name. requisitioned to come and do something by her brother, perhaps her parents and others, and called her out as Mary. But there was none other voice, perhaps like Jesus's, when he said Mary. The intimacy of heart, oh, the echoes of past memories, not so long ago when she heard none other than the same voice say, Lazarus, come forth. Oh, what a destiny she had had. So many opportunities when she was witness to miracles and great times around the table. And knowing that this was none other than the risen Lord. And so you begin to see that, verse number 16, Jesus saith unto her, Mary. And then of course verse 17, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father. But go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God. And so verse 18, Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things unto her. What an opportunity! What an opportunity! She had already told Peter and John and they came in and saw the empty tomb and went on back home. But now in being able to converse with none other than her Lord, none other than if I could say her friend, now At the beckoning of the Savior and her friend and the Lord, she went back and met with the disciples and said, He is risen. He is risen. So now let's go to a little bit further in the chronology. Verse 10, this is still resurrection day. In the evening we see it. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, Can you imagine being there? Oh, what a delight. They were there. Timidly so, for fear of the Jews, and feeling with the door being shut perhaps they would be able to conceal their presence, for a while anyway, they were well known, no doubt. Triumphal entry would have exposed them to being associated with the Savior, and at the presence of various miracles they were seen as being disciples, or the ones who were closely associated with Jesus. But now the doors were shut. And now we see the Lord in His glorified body, if we could put it that way. Notice what it says, that the doors were shut, but He said unto them as He was there with them, Peace, be still. or peace be unto you, excuse me. And when he so said, he showed him his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. And Jesus said to them, again, peace be unto you, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. And when he had thus said, or said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whoever sins, ye remit, they are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins, ye retain, they are retained. So here you have the Lord and 10 of His disciples. What a wonderful opportunity they had of just having their hearts filled. All the fear that they probably had as they were in that room, the doors shut, being afraid of the Jews. Oh, when Jesus came and reminded them of when He was on the waters of Galilee, the lake of Gennesaret, Sea of Galilee. The storm clouds came and the waters were rolling and the wind was blowing and he just came up from the bowels of the ship and he said, peace be still. I would imagine, absent of the wind and the waves, but present with their fears, tossing them around. And he said, peace, peace be unto you. Now we come to the next passage in the scripture, in verse number 24, if you will with me please. One of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. Now, we don't know really why, and we don't know if this was the only time that He wasn't with them. Most likely He was not with them when Mary Magdalene went back and she told the disciples that were evidently in one place, He's risen. No doubt He wasn't there, I would imagine. that when Peter and John went back, and he was with the disciples, yes, he is risen. So now in concert with Peter and John, you have Mary Magdalene said, yes, I just had a conversation with him. He is risen. So we don't know exactly where Thomas was. We actually do not know from the time that the Bible says at the arrest of Jesus that they all forsook him. Whether there was any interaction, whether there was a meeting and Thomas was there among them at that time, we really do not know. The Bible, as far as I know, doesn't give any commentary on that. But one thing we do know is resurrection morning with those who saw Him, Mary Magdalene specifically, and those who saw Him in the evening, the other disciples, The biblical record says He was not with them. Verse 25 is a significant verse, as all the Word of God is, no doubt, but contextually for our understanding this morning, We read it in this manner, The other disciples therefore said unto him, Oh, they were glad. You remember that? It says the disciples were glad when the Lord showed up in the shut door. They were glad. Peace. Oh, it was wonderful. And so they wanted to share that with Brother Thomas, no doubt. And the other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord, but he said unto them. Now notice the next word. It's the word accept. Now, that's an odd word to use in this grand morning, this grand evening, and this time when they're together. We don't know exactly when it was, whether it was later that night or the next morning or whenever it was. Now wait a minute, that's kind of like a contrasting conjunction. You're going this direction saying, oh, this is great, and we are at peace, and we've seen the Lord, and this is wonderful. And the first word that comes out of Thomas' mouth is accept. Now usually when we hear the word accept, there's some conditions that follow in the wake of that word. Three conditions are here. Now, may I pause for a moment? What is a word that normally is associated with Thomas? He is called the what? Doubting Thomas. With your permission, I would like us to maybe re-evaluate whether the word doubting is an appropriate term as we consider what Thomas' response. We've seen the Lord. It's wonderful, Thomas. Oh, you should have been here. It was wonderful. Well, it doesn't matter where you were. You should have been here. We have seen the Lord. And now notice what Thomas says in the immediate. He says, except, but he doesn't stop there. But he said unto them, except, number one, I see. There's a condition. Except I see, where? What's he looking for? In his hands, the print of his nails. Now, doubting would be an appropriate term for that. Boy, I don't know. I don't know, guys. Oh, but it begins to accelerate in the momentum of his consternation. The second of the conditions that's followed by the third. It accumulates and it gets worse as it goes. He said, But he said unto them, Except I see in his hands the print of his nails, and put my finger into the print. Now that's an odd statement. Why would there be a print in his hands? Maybe it was just a discoloration. Maybe it was an aging process. No, he's still young. Maybe it's this, but no, no, no. Thomas says, I want to see the prints of the nails in his hands, but I not only want to do that, I want to take my finger and I want to put it into the depression. Because when they put that, let's say it was in his wrist. But when they nailed that, and they nailed him to the cross, and they nailed it, they didn't use just maybe a little thing that would put on the edge of the nail so that the hammer or whatever they used would not go in there. And so we're just going to use this little thing and we're going to go, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. No, no, it's still, ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah, it's in there now. It'll hold. He said, I want to put my finger in the print. of the nails." Plural. There's a depression there. Yeah, it really is. Yeah, it was there. Oh, that one too, it's really there. And if I could put it in this way, that arrogance is dwarfed in comparison to the final of the third conditions, if you'll notice it with me. Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Brother Hanke can correct me, and others more skilled in the Greek language than I. But if I'm not mistaken, when it says, I will not believe, the will not there is a form of a negative response that's just not saying, well, I don't think I'm going to go to the store today. Or, no, I don't think, no, I will not do that. But this is a very strong, I will not believe. Now let's pause and remember who Thomas is. He was one of the twelve. He'd been with the Lord as Peter walked on the water. He'd been with the Lord when the dead were raised to life, when the lame were healed and the blind received their sight. You remember Thomas. This is the one when Jesus was going to go to Bethany because Lazarus was sick and then he had gone to sleep. A polite way of saying, as he told his disciples, he's dead. And Thomas, he knew that Bethany is just a stone's throw from Jerusalem and there are so many in Jerusalem that wanted to take his life. And it was this one man, Thomas, who said to the other disciples, gathering them together, he said, let us go with him that we may die with him. Oh my, John 11. In John's journaling of the life of Christ, only three chapters later, it was when Jesus was telling him he was going to go away. He says, you know the way. It was none other than Thomas said, Lord, we know not where thou goest and we do not know the way. In verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So here you have a contradiction of images in the mind, at least I do. One battling with the other, trying to understand how could this man who said, let's go, let's go guys. We're going to die. He's going to die because it's close to Jerusalem. They're wanting to kill him. They'll find out where he'll get out. He's at Bethany with Lazarus and Mary and Martha. It's the end, guys. He's going to die. He better not die alone. Come on. Come on, Matthew. Come on, John. Come on, James. Come on, Bartholomew. Let's go. Let's die with him. And when Jesus is Rehearsing before them what God's plan was is that he would come and he would die. Not long after that conversation he said, Lord, we don't know where you're going, we don't know how to get there. And the Savior lovingly told them all about it. But now here we have it and he says, he says, "...unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand in his side, I will not believe." Now with your permission, it's just my, this is Breology here I guess we could say, but this is not the language of a doubter. At least in my ministry, when I'm around people who are predisposed to doubting, they're usually more of a subdued nature. A lot of times when they're doubting, they're just kind of in personal consternation of knowing, I don't know if it'll work out. I just don't know if this is God's will or not. I don't know if he's the one or she's the one. I'm just not really sure. You don't see any of those contingencies in here. What comes, I mean, it's like a baseball player would say, oh boy, that is right across the plate, waist high. In other words, it's a strike. And you can see it. No. It's not, well, I don't know if it's going this way or that way. No, it's, and when he is saying here, I'm not going to believe it. There's no way I'm going to believe it. Unless I do this, unless I do that, unless I eyeball it, there is no way I'm going to believe. I don't believe that it was the heart and mind of a doubter. This has all, in my opinion, this has all of the accoutrements, all of the things about it that reveal bitterness in one's heart. The kind of bitterness that just has an edge about it. The bitterness that says, you know, as we've read here, unless I do this, unless I do that, I'm not going to believe. I'm just not going to. It's good for you guys, but I'm not going to. Now why would he come to that point? Not long before he was in Gethsemane. Where it was, as the Savior, sweat as it were, great drops of blood. We're not long before that even in the text of the Gospel of John. Jesus is praying for them and he told the Lord, he said, I've not lost any of these, talking about his disciples, except for one, the son of perdition. He says, and I'm not praying, Lord, that you take them out of the world, but I'm just praying that you'll use them in the world. And now here you have one, in my opinion, arrogance of heart, and saying, I'm not going to believe. Bitterness does all kinds of things. Bitterness, though, is only a strategy of what the flesh and the devil wants to do in each of our lives. Think about others who came to places, to crossroads in their lives in the will of God, and they chose to go a wrong direction. We could talk about Jonah. Oh, he had bitterness. He had it on steroids, so to speak. We could talk about Ananias and Sapphira. Oh, when they had pride in their lives. We could talk about King David, who had lust in his life. We could talk about Peter, who had fear in his life. We could talk about Moses, who had anger in his life. We could talk about Demas, who loved this present world. We could talk about John Mark, who was a missionary and very soon the mission was aborted. We could talk about Achan, spoils to the victor was probably his motto. You see, the devil will work on each of us in a way specific to the heart doors that we allow to stay open, the windows in our lives that we allow to stay open. And as you and I look at this man, Thomas, this morning, and we say, wait a minute, here is a man who had walked with the Lord all these years of ministry. Here's a man who loved God, and then all of a sudden, how could he be so bitter? I don't know. The Scripture doesn't really tell us the seed of his bitterness. You remember, as I mentioned a moment ago, when Jesus was going to Bethany, and it was he who got the disciples together. I don't know. Speculation on my part. But maybe when the arrest came, And maybe Thomas was going to be determined to stay strong for the Lord. And he began to see Peter, a follower far off. And he saw Matthew and he began to see one and another and another and another and another. Maybe it was that. I don't know. Speculation on my part. Whatever it was that took Thomas to not only be with the Lord as He went through the greatest challenges of His ministry. But they stayed with Him until the very time in resurrection morning and resurrection evening and the disciples said, Hey, we've seen Him! And He looks at them heart to heart, eye to eye, and He gives these exceptions. Embraced faith that's disappointed, if I could say it this way, embraced that's disappointed welcomes and then promotes modified faith. this man's life and perhaps in mine or your lives represented here today. Embraced faith where, yes, I believe, yes, I'm going to serve God, yes, I'm going to be used of God some way, yes, I'm going to sing the anthem of truth in my heart of my allegiance to none other than the Lord Jesus. And when we pursue that faith and we love it, but something comes in, it may be bitterness, it may be lust, it may be pride, it may be money, it may be whatever it is, but it finds its way in a little crevice. In our allegiance to the Savior, in our commitment to the Lord, it finds just a little opening. And James would say, every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. That lust comes right alongside, as we've spoken before in chapter, it comes right alongside. Lust has the idea of passion in mind. Every man is drawn away of his own passions, the right things, the love of God, the faithfulness for God. We want that, but then there's a temptation that comes so closely that it looks one and the same with the other, but it never stays there. Then when lust hath conceived, my will attaches to it, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. He says, Do not err, my beloved brethren. When you and I stop to think this morning that embraced faith that's been disappointed, as no doubt, evidently he was. Here he was, the Christ, the anointed one of God, prophesied over and over and over through the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. And we have watched as he has fulfilled every one of those qualifications that would identify to the world he is the true Messiah, not one that just says I'm the Christ, but one who has fulfilled literally all of the prerequisites. so that we would know. Embrace Faith Disappointed welcomes, then promotes, modified faith. And when you and I see that begin in our lives, it is the first step. You're familiar with Romans 1. Remember that? And he talks a little bit more. But then, right after that, he says, but the wrath of God, verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, here we go, who hold, here's the crevice, who hold the truth, you've got the truth, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. May I pause just for a moment for an application for Andy Bray and may I share it with you. Is there any part of my life Young lady, young man, those of us not so young, is there any area of our lives where Satan knows, yes, they love God, oh, they're committed to God's will, yes, yes, yes, yes. A little bit of pride, oh, that's no big deal. A little bit of monetary things, you know, that really is taking precedent over some other things, wrongly so, no big deal. But when you and I begin, we allow those things as, maybe it was Achan, maybe it was Ananias and Sapphira, maybe it was King David, maybe it was Moses who just, boom, struck the rock. Boom, struck the rock. Didn't speak to it the second time. When you and I begin to think, all it takes, all it takes is for one of my areas of life to be unguarded, from those things that the devil would distract me and defraud me and then defile me, so that my walk with the Lord has lost its freshness, its intimacy, so that my testimony for God is I'm a representative of Him wherever I go in every setting of life. that I need to be on guard. Because from that point on, it is a, well, the stair steps down. Those of you who have been in Romans know that, well, it just starts with handling the truth and unrighteousness, and then it goes to when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Third step down, neither were they thankful. Fourth step down, they became vain in their imaginations. You don't go too many more steps, and not only do they Just handle the truth in unrighteousness. Now they're changing the truth of God into a lie. Here we have none other than one of the ones given to the Lord Jesus by none other than God according to the Lord's prayer. Those that you have given to me, I've lost none of them save the son of perdition. And here you have one that was given to Christ by God to be one of His disciples, to become one of the apostles. And yet he says, unless I can put my finger and I can see there's a depression there. It's not just a discoloration of the hand. And unless I can thrust my hand into the side, I will not. I will not believe. We read just a few moments ago as we were talking about the context in verse number 24, but Thomas, One of the twelve called what? Didymus. I'm sure you probably know, but the prefix Didymus there has the idea in mind of double or twin. No doctrinal significance here. But just a way for me to emphasize to my mind, here you have a man who walked with the Lord. He was in Caesarea Philippi with the Lord. A beautiful place, kind of like up in the mountains of Asheville and Hendersonville. Just a glorious place where you can kind of walk across the creek that becomes the river, the Jordan River, sooner or later as it goes on down. What a great opportunity he had. And yet, and yet, and yet, perhaps it was his faith that he had put. And said, we'll just go and die with him. And he gave his whole heart to it. And now his whole heart is up on a tree. Called a cross. I don't know what it was that brought that, oh, that contaminated attitude, appraisal, Ambition. Actions. To a place that he would say to those to whom he was closest, I'm not going to believe. Didymus. Double. If we just take that word double, I'm reminded of what James says. A double-minded man. is unstable in all his ways. No doubt deep within the corridors of Thomas' heart he had still a love for God. And no doubt there was a war that was going on in His mind, and it may be in yours or mine. It's not money. It's not pride. It's not whatever it is that has us ricocheting off the walls of our conscience of whether or not we're going to serve the Lord faithfully or whether we're going to deviate and go by the sideway and we're going to do this, but I'm still going to love God. No doubt there was a battle raging in his mind, and that rage perhaps was lived out when he gave that strong statement. I've got to put my finger there. I've got to thrust my hand there. But as James wrote, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. A few sentences later, a little while later in the book of James, he says, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. And then he says, Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. It's incumbent upon this short fellow and upon these that I have the joy of speaking to this morning to say God does not want to share your ambitions with anything or anyone. He is worthy of our worship. If you're familiar with the team Worthship, when you and I consider who God is in our lives and what He's done for us. And yes, the nail prints in His hands. Yes, the spear wound in His side that the disciples saw. And when He came back into the room when Thomas was there, well, let's just take a look at it for a moment. The Bible says in verse 26, And eight days again, after eight days again, His disciples were with Him. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. Eight days. Likelihood when the disciples said, Hey, we've seen him, Thomas. We've seen him. He should have been here. It was maybe later that night. It was maybe the next day. And yet the Lord tarried for eight days. He didn't do that for Ananias and Sapphira. Boom. Down. Boom. Dead. He didn't do it for Achan. You and your whole family are gone. He didn't do it for several others as chronicled in the Word of God. But here, 8 days. 8 days. Most often the Lord does not violate the conditions already set in place by our wills. But He responds to them. I don't know if there was agony in his heart. I don't know if there was complacency in his heart. I don't know if there was contrition in his heart. I don't know if there was callousness in his heart. But I do know this, you will not find contextually that when the man Thomas was in the second meeting where the doors were closed, and where the Lord came, there is nothing to indicate, at least for my eyes that have seen, that Thomas was of any different opinion. He was just there with the others. We see no remorse. We see nothing about that. And so here he is, eight days later, and he is there, and the Lord comes. And what a merciful God. What a loving God. And later it would become very much like the apostle Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus. You remember that. Saul of Tarsus did havoc to the church. I mean, he went after it. Oh, he went after it awfully, if we could put it that way. And yet it was on the road to Damascus that the light shined. And we learn later from Paul's writing that he was separated from the womb to be that one that would be the apostle. Born out of due season. Well now, wait a minute. Why did the Lord wait until the Damascus road? Why did He allow Saul of Tarsus to put these men and women in prison? And He stood there and He held the cloaks of those who threw the rocks and took Stephen's life. And Stephen said, hey, I see the Lord standing on the right hand. I'm so glad I serve an omnipotent God who knows all things. And He knew the exact time when He could appear to Saul of Tarsus and say, Saul, why kickest thou against the pricks? The pricks? What were the pricks? In my opinion, it was probably the Old Testament Scriptures, the various prophecies of Isaiah and so many others that He knew well, having sat at the feet of Gamaliel. And finally, God knew, and finally, He knew at the moment and at the time and at the place where Saul of Tarsus would be willing to say, I surrender all, all to Jesus. I surrender. And it was a loving and gracious God who came to Thomas that day. Notice what it says. And after eight days, verse 26, again his disciples were within, Thomas went with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, it's a repetition of what he did the first time. Peace be unto you. But there was another agenda on the Lord's heart. Then said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. God knew the whole time. There was within the quarters of Thomas's heart the ambition to love him. Even though there was a lot going on contradicting and just going back and forth and just finally coming to that place where, no, unless, I'm not going to believe. But the Bible says in 1 John, even if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and He knoweth all things. Say, preacher, what you headed for this morning? I don't know what it is in your hearts. I trust it's not there. But I don't know what it is that will become the flagship of every malady of heart, every other malady of heart, of conscience, of ambition, of attitude that follows in the wake of it. The flagship may be bitterness. that leads the way for other things that come in. And it will start with that. Maybe it's jealousy, maybe it's pride, maybe it's intimidation, maybe it's whatever it is. But something, because the Bible says every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And I'm just here to remind myself today and to share it with these I love. That whatever it is in your heart and life that's going on, maybe even right now, even in this place in life, even in this institution that's dedicated to God's will, there is something that's there and it's sinister in what it's wanting to do in your walk with God. It doesn't come with the symbols clashing. It doesn't draw a lot of attention to itself. A lot of times it'll just come and say, why? Why? It'll be much like the serpent in the garden with Eve. Hath God said? I don't know what it'll be. It'll be the flagship that leads all the others as they go in formation and the flagship leads all the other ships and it's charting the course. Whatever it is, just know, just know it's not going to travel by itself. And if you follow that leadership of pride or bitterness or carelessness or callousness, whatever it is, or if I do that, We will find ourselves sooner or later with not only a carelessness but that will turn to a callousness and then a brazenness where, no, I'm not going to go to the mission field. No, I'm not going to do this. No, I'm not going to do that. I'll do what I want to do. Well, because eight days later what happened? It's a happy story and certainly it turned out well. Akin would give a different commentary on that. And Ananias and Sapphira would give a different commentary. Moses, as wonderful it would be to be buried by none other than God Himself, but Moses put up with the Israelites and did almost everything right for 40 years, taking them all around the place in order that sooner or later their children could go into the Promised Land. And he did one thing wrong, and God said, that's enough. You forfeited what I wanted to do in your life. If God is dealing with you, I have no one in mind. I'm just here to preach what God laid on my heart. But if there's something that's there and it's like a cheerleader and it's going on and it's saying, yes, it's okay, it's okay, but you know in your heart of hearts, you know that it's not what the Savior would have you to focus on and to follow. May I just request of you to just come to the altar of your hearts. The word keep means to garrison. It has the idea to guard. That's understood. Diligence has almost the opposite in mind. It almost has the idea in mind of in prison. He is saying, guard your hearts, Randy. Guard your hearts, whatever the name is. Guard your hearts. Make certain that you don't allow anything in that has an opportunity of contaminating or defiling your life. Guard your hearts. But not only let it be a defensive posture, be a positive and offensive posture and imprison your hearts. Make sure it is doubly safe and it's totally yielded to none other than the one with the nail prints in his hands. The one who would reveal the wound in his side. Because those all have your initials carved into it and mine too. How is it with you? Oh, I trust that everything is just as the Lord planned and just as the Lord desires. But if there is that reminiscent of what Paul said in Romans 7, he said, I find then that there is a law. You know it. When I would do good, evil is present with me. So here you are in a Bible college, ambitious of being used of God, marrying right, and just going about God's will and everything else. But when you would do good, evil is present. And I would just ask you, how present is it? Has it found the crevice in your will? That little opening or a large gaping opening? What is it that is doing its best to campaign to lead you out of God's will for your life? Acuan says, it's not worth it. My children died because of it. Peter would say it's not worth it. I betrayed the Son of God. While I was warming by the fire, I denied that I knew Him and I cursed and I could have been a blessing. And yet I disheartened the very heart of God that was on trial, the trial of eternity. But if you and I will guard our hearts, imprison our hearts, and say it's doubly safe, then we could be called Randy Didymus, if I could put it that way, instead of Thomas, also called Didymus. Nothing wrong with the name Didymus, no doctrinal significance to that, but just a reminder to me. I want to be doubly used of God, doubly dedicated to the Lord, because if I'm not, it'll be the other way, and I'll find myself Issuing those accepts and any exception to the will of God in my life puts me on the Romans chapter 1 stair steps to total depravity. As you know there is no morality in sin only depths of depravity. Where are you? Stay away from that stairwell going down. Follow instead the stairwell of 2 Peter chapter 1. Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and you'll be guarding and it'll be a glorious life dedicated to the Lord.