in his letters of dealing with doctrine at the beginning of his letter, and then practical application at the end. Now, Romans is unique in the fact that he has 11 chapters that he has been pounding home doctrine. And it's to be ingrained within us what he is saying, especially our identity. And I will encourage you to please review chapters 1 through 11 on your own time. This will be one of those rare occasions we won't do a review today. But within that, Paul is emphasizing our identity in Christ, our position in Christ. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're born again. You have new life. You are dead to sin. You are dead to the law. Now, as we come to chapter 12, we're going to see kind of the controls. It's like up until this point, if you will, a vehicle without a steering wheel. 12.1 through 2 is the steering wheel. It's going to begin to show you how to live the Christian life and be transformed by the Word of God. And so we will wrap up what we didn't quite finish last time because I think his thoughts there in the end of chapter 11 are magnificent and it's important because it's what leads into his thoughts in chapter 12. So with that being said, I talked about last time, how did God create? How did God create? Think back to Genesis 1.1. This is a little bit of interaction, if you are so brave to put your voice out there. How did he create? He spoke, very good. He spoke, and what happened? It happened, right? It happened. So he created by speech. And so logically, words have meaning, and meaning originates with God and in God. And I made the point that if you remove God from the equation, there is no meaning. Interesting how we see that in our world, right? Anytime you get a society that removes God from the picture, what happens? Meaning is lost. That's just your truth, brother, right? That's what they say. It's foolishness, and it's not how God designed it. He spoke, and it was so. God's word is the standard of meaning. So not only does meaning originate in words and words with God, but God's word is the standard of meaning, essentially knowledge and truth. So when we talk about the big fancy word epistemology, it's the study of knowledge. It's getting at the heart of the question, what is truth? Famously asked by Pontius Pilate. Well, Jesus answers that question in John 17, when he's praying to the Father, he says, Father, sanctify them by Truth. Your Word is truth. So God's Word is the standard of meaning. So what I'm beginning to shape for you, if it hasn't been already, is the Word of God is the foundation of the Christian life. You must know it. There's no way around it. We gather here, we see one another, and we're encouraged by one another, we love one another, but we're here to praise our Savior, to bring prayer requests, to encourage one another, but we're here to study. And it's for a reason, because it's the very foundation of everything. And we're going to see that that foundation is what leads to our lives being transformed. I talked about that this destroys neutrality. There is no middle ground. There's not, you know, a partial biblical worldview or a partial pagan worldview. You either are operating at any given moment under a pagan worldview, or an unbiblical worldview, or a biblical worldview. And it is God's goal, and my goal, to see all believers function under a biblical worldview. Now, it's not going to be perfect. There's going to be constant corrections in your life where you need to go back to that fundamental premise that God's Word is the foundation. So we talked about this and how this was demonstrated at Princeton, the great debate that was lost by fundamental Christians, because they were trying to argue with those who were starting with the presupposition that there is no God. And they were trying to argue for the existence of God. Now they found the problem with that is you can't. And I know there's a multitude of arguments that we can give to an atheist or so on and so forth about the existence of God. And some of those are beneficial. But a lot of them, they don't cut it. Because at the end of the day, the bottom line, they reject God. Isn't that what Paul says from the beginning of his letter? For His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood. Not only do we see them, but we understand them by the things that have been made. So that they are without excuse. Why are they without excuse? Well, they suppress that truth in unrighteousness. So, what they found is, instead of trying to get their train track to deviate over to a divine viewpoint, we have to start understanding they have a human viewpoint that presupposes God doesn't exist. We have a divine viewpoint that presupposes that he does. Now we can have a conversation. And this is, if you think back, this was when I was at Bible school, we had a big event, we watched the Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate. A lot of Christians were upset with that. And they thought Ken Ham was utterly defeated by Bill Nye. And you know what I loved? Bill Nye would bring these accusations and say, well Ken, what about this? And you know what Ken did? Well you know Bill, there's a book. He kept going back to the Bible. Now he knew Bill Nye wouldn't reject, he rejected scripture, he rejected God, but what about all those people listening? They heard that the origin and standard of meaning is God's word, not what man thinks. Now, fascinatingly, many of my mentors point this out, but eventually, history and science will catch up with scripture. It will. Archeologists have found this true. Creation scientists have found this true. We're all looking at the same data. Did you know that? The secular scientists and the Christian scientists, they're all looking at the same dirt, the same rocks. It's all the same. What's the difference? Why do they come to such drastically different conclusions? their fundamental presupposition. You have one side suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, and so they're given over to a foolish, darkened heart, right? Whereas those who are receptive to God's word, what happens? Well, the Psalms call God's word what? A lamp. You want to avoid a foolish, darkened heart? What do you do? Look to the light. What is the light? The word of God. So that was kind of the main focus. And I don't necessarily apologize for spending all of our time on that last time, because it really is pivotal to, or crucial, to Paul's argument. Now, I talked also about human viewpoint takes a closed eye approach to God, that I can't see God, and as long as my eyes are closed, God can't see me. We've removed the problem. Briefly, I'll share an illustration on this point. When I was really young, about Titus's age, so five or six, I was best friends with this kid. He was older than me. He had Down syndrome. And when I was little, I didn't like being stared at or looked at. And so I made him, poor, poor kid, wear glasses. Because as long as he was wearing glasses, he wasn't looking at me. There was no problem. Could he still look at me through his glasses? Of course. So it's the same thing that the human viewpoint does. They close their eyes and they suppress the truth of God in their minds and in their hearts. But all the while they know, don't they? And so our job isn't necessarily to convince them of the existence of God. It's to persuade them that the God they know exists, loves them. Because what do they hear as the alternative? God hates you. Is God wrathful towards sin? Yes, of course he is. So much so that he sent his son to pay for it. And we have the best news ever to share with them that it's all been paid. That's welcoming and inviting news for those who have rejected their creator. So to illustrate, that's the la la la la, I can't hear you, you know, God doesn't exist. And so trying to evangelize someone using those argumentations, it's a lot like that scene in Dumb and Dumber where Harry and Lloyd are screaming at each other, la la la, I can't hear you. We don't get anywhere with that. And then we also talked about not creating a universal above God. We won't spend too much time, but that's inequality. God defines those. If meaning originates in God, and God's word is the standard of meaning, those words, those qualities, are they not also originating in God? So in other words, you can't say goodness exists outside of God. Because then you've just made goodness God, right? And for goodness sake, let's not do that. So with that, we are made in the image of God, right? So with that, God and his qualities, they're infinite. And not only infinite, they are 100% in operation all the time, meaning that God can be loving and exercising his justice at the same time. Did you know that? We, on the other hand, we may have similar qualities as God. We're made in his image. We may have a sense of right and wrong conscience dealing with justice, but it's finite, right? You can't be happy and sad at the same time. I mean, I know maybe poetically you can, right? But if you're angry, you're filled with rage, are you happy and bubbly and joyful? No. because we're finite, we're made in the image of God. All of this speaks to that underlying principle, or overlying principle, that God is the creator, and there is a clear distinction between him and us. We're not on the same page, we never will be, we never can be. And when we realize that, then I think things begin to open up for you, and you begin to understand your place in God's creation. And it's not God keeping his thumb on you, He wants you to understand your role so that you can experience him in his fullest. Because if you rightly understand who God is, it's the most blessed thing you will ever experience. As we've been singing about his love. So we illustrated this. At the end of Romans 11, Paul quotes from Isaiah 40. Now, in Isaiah 40 and Job 38, God does the same thing. He does it personally with Job in Job 38, and he does it nationally for the nation of Israel in Isaiah 40. And so he basically starts with the proper starting point. What do you know about marine science, Job? Who controls the universe? Do you, Job? Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who knows the unknowable? Job, you can spend the rest of your life, and you live a long time, but you still can't know everything. But who does, creator? Where does light come from, Job? Tell me that. What controls do you have astrophysically, Job? What meteorological controls do you have? Do you control the seasons? What do you control in ecology? How do you control the right amount of food? Have you ever thought about that? How animals, predator-prey relationships and stuff, how things have lived for at least 6,000 years since the creation of the universe. God has so wired things that they are perfectly in balance. So in other words, we have to set up the question how the Bible would. This is a quote from my mentor, Jeremy Thomas. The way God sets the question up is that he insists that he is different. We are the creatures down here in creation. He is the creator, infinite in size, infinite in magnitude, and whatever quality, capital Q, we ascribe to him is not the same as the lowercase q quality that occurs with us. In other words, there's no quality common to God and man in an identical way. Capital Q does not equal lowercase q. Similar, yes, but not identical. And then we come to my favorite theological rule. Similarity does not mean sameness. It doesn't. Just because something is similar doesn't make it the same. So we begin with the creator-creature distinction. The creator-creature distinction will engage a truth-suppression response from the carnal mind. So this all gets back to the point is they suppress the truth on unrighteousness. But that is where the argument or the discussion, we'll say, is able to begin. That's the pressure point. But you need to know there's a lot of pressure at that point. If you bring that up to an atheist or to an unbeliever, it will cause that truth-suppression response. Oh, you just believe in fairy tales, right? Or something of that nature. So you need to be prepared. The second point we see is the incomprehensibility of God leads to worship. That's the whole point here at the end of chapter 11 is Paul is talking about the incomprehensibility of God. I can't wrap my mind around him. And I would make the strong argument, and I think I would win, that Paul had the most brilliant mind ever in his recognition of Scripture. And yet he says, I can't, I fall short, I come short. And you know what, it didn't leave him defeated. What did it do? Oh, how great. And that's why it's important to know who your creator is. Because if you know who he is and you know who you are, the true blessings of understanding that unfold. On the flip side of that, the arrogance of man, we want comprehension, right? We want to wrap our mind around something, and that's why idolatry is appealing. It's tangible, right? You can see it. You can carve it out of wood. There's your idol. Now I'm talking ancient idols, right? But idolatry's still alive and well. We still worship things that we think we understand. But do we control those things? Think about the case of idolatry and James, the rich who said, oh, we'll go in this city and we'll make a profit. What is the response from James? You don't know if you will die tomorrow. Who does know that? God. So again, at the end of the day, We have to recognize our Creator and our position before Him. And so we titled the Heart of True Worship, The Key to Contemplate, verse 33, The Key to Recognize, The Key to Remember, verse 36. Contemplating God is overwhelming. We looked at the review. I told you we won't go over that. He says, Oh, the depth of the riches. You can't fathom the depth of the riches. Contemplating God's wisdom and knowledge, we talked about the difference between the two. Contemplating God's judgments, says that the judgments are anek erunete, an is a negation, ek, from or out of, erunao, to search. In other words, it's unsearchable. So not only is it really, really hard to search, it is unsearchable. It's like, you know, you think, I've heard statements that we know less about the ocean than we do about space, which is kind of an ignorant statement, right? Because the universe is pretty big. But still, the point being made is that we know nothing about the ocean. And we've been here for 6,000 or so years. It would require us to be on the same level of justice and righteousness as God. Kind of skip through this so that we can actually cover new ground. God is creator, he's incomprehensible, he's unsearchable, his ways are untraceable, his ways are not our ways. Now we come to 34 through 35, we get the quotation, for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given him, and it shall be repaid to him. So Isaiah 40, 13 is the quote, but verse five, let's go back to Isaiah for a moment. Isaiah 40 and verse 5 is where we'll start. Frames the passage, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. It's interesting, even those who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, they'll still see the glory of the Lord. Verses six or eight, we see the creator creature comparison. The voice said, cry out. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass, but the grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of our God stands forever. You've probably heard that before, right? Peter quotes this as well, and he's making that illustration that we are only a blip, a vapor, literally, is the idea. But the word of God stands forever. Now, what's fascinating, just a quick side trail, when I preach through 1 Peter, Peter's use of this is fascinating, because what he's talking about is that word is what led to you being born again. So his point is, the Word of God is eternal. You believe the Word of God, what do you have? Eternal life. Even though your flesh is but a mist, a vapor. Your eternal life comes from the eternal Word, and your life is with God. So we see that point made here in six through eight. We also see the kingdom in nine through 11. O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem. You who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young. So those are kingdom descriptions. That's when God finally steps in and he shepherds his people Israel. And it's not for his lack of desire. Jesus himself said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I long to gather you like a Hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. But there will come a day when they will. The King of Glory, verses 12 through 14. Who has measured the waters? Okay, similar language as Job, right? Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in measure. Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. who has directed the spirit of the Lord or as his counselor has taught him. That's the quoted verse, right? Verse 14, with whom did he take counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of justice, who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding. You know, civilization, the closest they ever came to being like God was at the Tower of Babel. And if you know what's going on in the backdrop there, it's comical. Because what happens? God says that he goes down to investigate. It's almost like God's like, okay, let me get my magnifying glass. What are you guys doing down there? God is mighty. Even on our best day, even when we're all collected against God, we fail every time. But that's not gonna stop the world from trying, yet again, to do that very thing, right? The inferiority of the nations, 15 through 17, the superiority of the king, verses 18 through 20. Verse 18, to whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare to him? The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution, choose a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter." Now at this point you need to understand Isaiah's message is he's basically mocking the nation of Israel. Why? Because they've been given into idolatry. And he's saying the foolishness of it. You have to accumulate the very best skilled laborers to craft this thing just so it doesn't totter. And you don't ask yourself why that's so? Perhaps it's because that thing, too, is creation. And you forsook your Creator, forsaken." So again, we see that same point that God was making with Job in Job 38, is being made to Israel in Isaiah 40. And it's on Paul's mind when he's thinking about God's future plans for Israel. He says, Oh, the depths of the riches of the glory of God. pulpit pounding, I guess. And then the incomprehensibility of the creator 21 through 26. Oh, I have to, I'm sorry. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted. Scarcely shall they be sown. Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth. Have you ever stared at the night sky? I know it's hard when we're in the city, but if you go up in the mountains, how many stars are there? Yes, right? He knows them all by name. And He didn't strive to create them, He breathed them into existence. There's no equal. And yet, time and time again, we buy into the lie, even as believers, do we not? We think that maybe we have something to offer that God would accept. Even anything we could offer, is it not what He has already made? So our response of worship, it can't be, what do I contribute to this? It's simply acknowledging, thank you. Nothing else to say, thank you. And that's Paul's point, and it's the argument leading into chapter 12. Key to remember, all things are of him, all things are through him, all things are to him. All glory is his forever, because he created everything. Summary application, God is incomprehensible. God has revealed himself to us. God's word is the standard of truth and reality. All people are under God's standard. The unbeliever must believe the gospel. The believer must reject human viewpoint, develop a divine viewpoint. So that's the point from last time is, if you're an unbeliever, you need to believe the gospel. If you're a believer, you need to learn to develop a divine viewpoint. How do you do that? By being transformed by the renewal of your mind that comes from the word of God. divine viewpoint leads to true worship, which worship is more than singing. I don't know if you knew that. It's also your behavior, your lifestyle. So now 12.1 what to do, 12.2 how to do it. So he says in verse 1 of Romans, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. So he says, I urge you. Now notice he says, I urge you, I beseech you, not I command you. It's interesting. Later on with the development in Paul's literature, he urges believers, not necessarily commands them. And I think it's consistent with his grace teaching. And so there's an example in Philemon. Let's go there just briefly. Philemon after Hebrews. Before Hebrews. Tricky Philemon. There he is, before Hebrews. Look at verse eight. Paul is writing, I don't know if you know the background, there's been an escaped slave, and he comes to Paul, and Paul writes to the former master, or current master, and this is what he says in verse eight. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged and no, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him. That is my own heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntarily. So it's kind of along the same lines. He does the same thing, we won't go there for sake of time, but in 1 Thessalonians 4. He's drawing out application, but again, he doesn't command them, he urges them. Based on all this doctrine I just shared with you, I urge you, I encourage you, I beseech you, I plead with you to respond in this way. And he adds, by the mercies of God. So the reason that he's urging us is by the mercies of God. Now, some will point back to chapters nine through 11 and his discussion on the mercies of God, specifically related to Israel, but also the roots, right? God showed mercy to the unnatural branches that were grafted in. And while the natural branches are disobedient, that is so that he can show mercy to them. Now, I agree with all of that. But there is also the argument that says all of chapter 1 through 11 is kind of what's in mind. And I tend to agree with that. So in other words, he's saying, by the mercies of God that I've just laid out for you in chapters 1 through 11, I urge you Jeremy Thomas says this what are the mercies of God Paul is stealing the language of mercy from 1130 31 and 32 There he showed that before the cross God had tangled Gentiles up in a net of disobedience So that now he could show them mercy and now he has Israel tied up in a net of disobedience So that in the future he can show them mercy, so I think that's on his mind But I think it also encompasses all of 1 through 11 So what do we do what to do present your bodies in? Living sacrifice now at this point Paul is going to get very Judaic I guess for lack of a better word. He's drawing comparisons from the Jewish religious system, and he's Highlighting that we have the spare the same thing but in our own bodies so instead of you know put yourself in the 1000 year 1000 BC and you got to bring your sacrifice to the temple, and you have to see that sacrifice sacrificed. What happened to that sacrifice? Can you take it home with you? No, it's dead. It's useless, right? It's been offered to the Lord as a fragrant aroma to him. But he plays on that. And he says, offer or present your bodies a living sacrifice. How can a sacrifice be living? if it's in Christ, right? Because Christ died. He was a sacrifice. But is Christ alive? Yeah. And our life is hidden in Christ. So in that mindset, he's saying offer or present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now, it's important to know what is living the new man. So I think by way of implication, he's saying, live in the new man. In other words, I think he's picking up where he left off back in chapter six, presenting your bodies as instruments for righteousness, not unrighteousness. And then there's a list of adjectives. It's holy, acceptable to God. And then he says, which is your reasonable worship. Now, based on everything he said, it's quite reasonable, right, that we would offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. That's his point there. Now, I want to explain just briefly with the grammar there. It seems to imply a once, a point in time event. And I'm inclined to agree with that. Now, you might be thinking, well, we're bad sacrifices. We crawl off the altar, right? That's true, but this is talking about, in your mind, that principle of, you need to offer yourself once and for all. You are gods, and you're a living sacrifice. Verse two tells you how to maintain that. Does that make sense? So that's what to do. Verse two is how to do it. Observation, not conform to this present age. Now, that's my translation. If you work through this, some of your translations put it as a command, be not conformed. This is a textual variant. I won't get into all the details of that. But one ancient manuscript puts it in a imperative. The other is not. It's a present participle. The better manuscripts don't put it in an imperative. And that's, please, tongue in cheek. But the idea is here, he's continuing his thought from verse one, not conformed to this present age. So how are you a proper living sacrifice? By not being conformed to this present age, rather transformed by the renewing of the mind, namely by the word of God. How do you renew your mind? The word of God, right? That whole preface that I had, divine viewpoint, human viewpoint, we have to get back to the foundation, which is God's word. And as we read, study, apply God's word in our lives, divine viewpoint gets settled into our thinking, and what we think and what we believe will determine how we live, right? You don't do anything unless you believe in it, right? And that's good or bad. And so it would be helpful to believe good things and then do good things, right? We talked about reaping and sowing downstairs. And that is so that you approve the desire of God. Now, some of you have will, don't be afraid of that. Will is a tricky subject. It's not, we won't go there. Sometimes this Greek word will, translated will, it simply means it's the desire of God. It doesn't mean it's a guarantee. There are other times where it's the will of God, and you better believe that is a guarantee. That will happen. This is one of those words that simply means it's the optimum desire of God. But the very fact that we are being urged to do it implies what? It may not happen. Does that make sense? So by being not conformed to the present age, but transformed by the renewing of your mind, that is how you will be able to approve the desire of God. Now go back to chapter one for a moment. Romans chapter one. And verse 28. So he's talking about that context of those who are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, right? In verse 28 he says, and even as, let's start in verse 27. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lusts for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. So now he's picking up where he left off there. So he's saying those guys did not retain God in their thinking, and what happened? God gave them over to a debased mind. You, on the other hand, be not conformed by this present age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to approve the desire of God. In other words, if you know the word of God, You know what you ought to do as Christians. There's no way around it. You cannot live the Christian life apart from scripture. Because the Holy Spirit, who's working in you, by the way, we've been talking about this in our study of the Holy Spirit, he is applying in your life the things that you are studying, reading, oh, by the way, the things that he moved holy men of God to write through the process of inspiration, first Peter, 2nd Peter, 1st Peter 1, 19-20. So the Holy Spirit is working in us, and he is the agent by which we got the very Word of God. And we are transformed by it. Then there's a list of adjectives. It's good. It's acceptable. And perfect. The will of God or the desire of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. So do you want to live acceptably before God? Do you want to live good? I don't know if that's proper English. If you want to perfect or better said complete, do you want to be complete before God? Hopefully the answer is yes. How do you do that? By being transformed, by the renewing of your mind. And that's a daily, daily thing. And I'm sorry, daily bread is helpful. But it is an additive. If that is your only meal, you will starve. Do you understand? I love daily bread. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes they could be great. But if that is your only meal, you're gonna starve. You need sustenance. Isn't that the remark that a lot of the New Testament writers give later, when they should be mature? He says, I can't even give you solid meat. Got no teeth. Your knowledge of scripture is teeth. And I love, the best way I heard it explained was by Peter. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So in other words, you grow in the proportion that you understand your Savior, and who he is, what he's doing, and where you fit in all that. So, by way of review, how did God create? Words, words. A rich meaning of everything comes from God. All of that. Summary application. Emotions will not transform you. They will conform you. Emotions aren't bad in and of themselves. But if you are driven and dictated by emotions, you will not be transformed. Your mind will not be renewed. You will be conformed to this present age. And this is a major issue in our society today. We are emotionally driven. Emotions aren't bad, but they must be subject to revelation. They have to be, or else you're gonna be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, because that wind maybe feels nice, or maybe it doesn't. Who knows? Your emotions do, right? Rather, the solid rock is the word of God. Okay, so the alternative to emotions, we got to be rational, right? Rationalism will not transform you, it will conform you. Rationalism is the same extreme on the opposite spectrum where it's saying, I'm in the position of God, I'm the arbiter of truth, I will determine whether something is true or not. I am that authority. Are we that authority? No. Only the living and active Word of God can transform. It's living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. So you're going to have good days and bad days. My encouragement to you, keep going. If you have a bad day, so what? Guess what? His mercies are new every day, right? Start again tomorrow. Keep going, keep walking. If you trip and stumble, when you were a baby, I'm sure you tripped and stumbled. What happened? Did you stop walking? Many of you here today are walking just fine. So that tells me you didn't give up, right? Now, spiritually speaking, is it not the same thing? Well, pastor, you don't know my sin. You don't know how I've not been able to overcome this. Well, there's a powerful verse in 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, it doesn't say God will hold us in a probationary period for us to toe the line for a certain amount of time, and then after a certain amount of good works to offset our sin, then you'll be approved. What does it say? We confess our sins, God is faithful. Don't forget that. To forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from some of the unrighteousness, you'll still be in probation. All unrighteousness. All of it. And all means all, and that is all all means. Another theological rule, right? Until it doesn't. But in this case it does. All. Keep walking. And don't stop. Because if you stop, there's no middle ground at that moment you're being conformed to this present age. But be transformed, believers. Let's pray. Father, we love you so much. We can't comprehend your love for us. We don't understand it. But you say it, and we believe it, and we rejoice in it. We want to live pleasing to you as our creator and experience the blessings that come with that. I pray for each one here. And Lord, I also want to pray for those who may be listening, whether through recording or here today that don't know you. And if that's you, I pray that you would trust in Jesus Christ alone. Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, and if you believe that he died on the cross for your sins, the promise stands that you have eternal life, not by works, but by faith. We thank you, Father. We pray that you continue your work in us. In Jesus' name.