Turn with me then in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1, we're going to read the first 15 verses. It's likely that if you've been in church very long, been a Christian very long, even raised in a Christian home, that you are familiar with this passage. We pray today that God would make it new in our minds and in our hearts. and show us once again what he wants us to see from it. Without any introduction, I just want to read the passage and pray that the Lord would be with us as we move forward in the message from there. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus of Jesus, our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them, and are established in the truth that you have. I think it is right as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder. Since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me, and I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things. When an Olympic marathoner says that they went for a run, and when I say I went for a run, we are not really saying the same thing. In fact, it's quite different. And to say it a different way, when someone who after nine months earns a black belt in a martial arts and someone who says they earned a black belt after five years of study and practice in a martial art, they are not saying the same thing. That black belt is not communicating the same skill and ability. It really isn't uncommon at all for the same words to be used to describe very different things. Same words, deeply different meaning. This is true of faith as well. Peter knew this. Peter knew that to say that he had faith was different than it was for some others when they said they had faith. He knew that there was a difference, that that word didn't really define on its own what was meant when he said that he had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter then qualifies it, he is addressing people and what leapt out to me as I tried to find the Lord's will for this message today, what leapt out to me was that phrase, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing to our own. Peter qualifies his description of faith. He wasn't talking about a faith that merely drags itself to church on Sunday morning. He wasn't talking about a faith that had no real impact on his life. He wasn't talking about a faith that did not direct his mind and heart on a daily basis. He might even have been thinking. I think about John the Baptist, when John the Baptist told those Pharisees when they wanted to be baptized of him and he said to them, bring forth fruits, meat for repentance. I wonder if that was in Peter's mind when he wrote this, when John said to bring forth fruits, meat, that translation, it's about, it's indicating a repentance of equal weight of a value that that is of equal measure to what it ought to be. And so Peter says, and he's writing to these people and who he's addressing this short letter of second Peter to, he is addressing it to Peter, to people who have obtained a faith of equal standing with his own. It seems today that you can get away with using the same words to describe two very different things all the time. That somehow using the same words makes things equivalent and equal to one another. I want to speak to you today from this scripture, not merely about faith, because that word is tossed around easily and flippantly almost off of the tongue. I want to talk to you today about a faith of equal standing with Peter's and Paul's and Abraham's and every child of God who today is in heaven. I want to speak to you today about a faith that is of equal standing with that. I'm not talking about a whim. I'm not talking about a hope merely the way we use that word. I'm talking about a confident expectation. That you have been redeemed and that you are God's child. That you are in Christ. Again, I am not talking to you today about a faith that merely accompanies your life. I'm talking to you today about a faith that defines your life. That when somebody thinks about you, they think about your faith. They think about the decisions that you've made and they understand that you've made them according to your faith in Christ. I'm not talking to you today about a faith that stands only in good times, but a faith that finds its true legs in the bad times and in the struggle. When it finds God in the midst of that terrible time of life, when he picks you up and allows you to keep walking. I'm not talking to you today about a faith that costs you nothing. I'm talking to you today about a faith of equal standing with Peter's that costs you everything. You see, one person can say they have faith in Christ and another can say, I have faith in Christ. And they can be saying two very different things. Entirely different things. One can say, I have faith in Christ, who one day is going to stand before the Lord and say, Lord, didn't we do wonderful things in your name? And he's going to say, depart from me. I never knew you. They use the same words, I have faith in Christ. And there's going to be another who says, I have faith in Christ, who is going to hear Jesus say, come enter into the home and the kingdom prepared for you. They use the same words, they meant something altogether different. What are you saying? What are you saying when you say, I have faith in Christ? What does it mean? Is it a faith of equal standing with Peter? Again, with Paul, with Mary, with Ruth, with Esther, with Daniel, with all of these people we read about in the scripture, but also men, George Mueller, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, others that you read about in history. Is your faith of equal standing with theirs? Is your faith of equal standing with what Peter is going to lay out here? And I tell you this, you know me, we could plant ourselves in these 15 verses for two or three months if we really wanted to. I'm going to try to get through all of them today because I think there's just a few things I want you to see. What is a faith of equal standing with Peter? What is that? Peter describes it. And he gives us a quick window into it from the very beginning. He's not writing to people who don't get it. He's writing to people who get it. He's writing to them who understand what he's saying, and he begins very early. Peter, a servant. An apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul started this way many times in his letters as well. A servant, and we've talked about this before, I will not belabor it, but that's where it is, is in the Greek. The word is slave, doulos. Pertaining the Hebrew or the Greek translation is pertaining to a state of being completely controlled by someone or something. One of the reasons that We do not climb the spiritual mountains that Peter and Paul and others and so many in scripture and history have climbed, is that we do not see ourselves this way before Christ. We see ourselves not as servants the way they did. We don't see ourselves in the same way, and thus our faith is not of equal standing. It's not of the same stuff. It's not made of the same thing. These men, These examples for us in Scripture, they were not employees of Christ. They did not consider themselves merely His attendants. They were His slaves. That's the word that they use. They were controlled by His love. And that is what Paul says, I believe, to the Colossians. We are constrained by the love of Christ. It is the love of Christ that shackles us to His service. And it is a service, by the way, that we freely and willingly give and would give six days, seven days of the week and twice on Sunday. These men were not employees of Christ. They were His slaves. They were willing slaves. They were not compelled into His slavery, but they chose to obey and to repent. And they became followers of Christ, a servant of Christ. This is the kind of faith that Peter is talking about. To those who, again, have obtained this faith of equal standing. Now, to anyone who has not obtained this faith of equal standing with Peter, very little of what he wrote and very little of what I say today will probably make a lot of sense. It'll sound very strange. It'll sound as though I am speaking English, but you don't understand the words. Already, no doubt, those who have read Peter's words and knew the story of Christ as the world knew it would stand back and wonder why anyone, why would anyone follow a man who was crucified as a criminal and has died Why would anyone follow this man? The world would look at this letter from Peter and they would begin to shake their heads in confusion. Why would anyone follow them, follow him? A man whose followers were not powerful, they were not educated or esteemed by the world. But those who have a faith and had a faith of equal standing with Peter. Those who understood what he was saying, those who had that equal, that faith of equal standing with Peter would have understood. They understood the slavery to Christ that Peter claimed. They knew that it was that there was no other way to see themselves in a right way than to see themselves as servants, as committed, as followers, fully committed to Christ. The world's reaction to this letter of Peter is bewilderment. Those who don't have a faith of equal standing to Peter's, it's bewildering. And I am afraid today that there are a lot of people claiming to be Christian, and when they really read the Bible, they just don't get it. It's a step too far, they might say. That was for then. These things in the Bible are just ideas and principles and good advice, but we don't really have to give ourselves fully to Christ. We can be people of faith without fully engaging our lives in his service. But that's not at all what Peter is saying. It's not what the Bible says. The Bible tells us that if we are to follow Christ, we must leave all and forsake all and follow him. You will not take anything with you. When you leave the world. And you can't take anything with you, really, and hold it next to your heart and follow him in this world. The world's reaction is bewilderment. The Saints reaction is a nodding of the head that stops bowed before the Lord to anyone here today who does not have a faith of equal standing with Peter. Much of what I say, as I said, will sound incomprehensible to you. But I hope before we leave that the spirit of God will make it real. and will make it understandable to you. To anyone who does have faith of equal standing, I want to remind you as Peter said he wanted to remind them of that faith. Peter says at the close of these verses that he knew his earthly journey was nearing its end. The Lord had revealed that to him. He says, I'm going to put off this body soon. The Lord has told me as much. He knew the brevity of his life and he knew the brevity of this life for all men. He knew the opportunities that we have in this life to be a witness for Christ and to be a witness for those around us are fleeting. They are relatively few when you can put them next to eternity. And when I get to heaven, I will not miss this life. I don't believe at all. But this life provides us opportunities that we will not have there. And so Peter calls upon you and me that do know the Lord, calls upon all of those who might merely say that they have faith to examine it, to consider it, to test it, to confirm it. And that's what I want to ask you to do along with Peter today. He calls upon us that do have this faith, his fellow spiritual countrymen, to consider this faith. And so, let's look at it. Verses 3 and 4, we find the source of this faith. The source of this faith. I believe verses 3 and 4 are one sentence. Paul doesn't have anything on Peter when it comes to running sentences with pregnant with meaning in all kinds of doctrine and teaching. But he says his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. We note here first. that the ability to live the Christian life requires the same power that was necessary to begin the Christian life, God's divine power. That's how you began, if indeed you did, the Christian life. And that, according to Peter, is how you continue the Christian life. It began with the power of God. It continues with the power of God. It continues now and into eternity. When the requirements of the Christian life are considered, one must conclude that it is not man's power to begin it or to live it or to remain in it. And if you don't believe me, just read Matthew chapter five. And specifically verses 21 through 30, when Jesus says, You've heard it said, you shouldn't kill. And I say, don't hate. You've heard it said, you shouldn't commit adultery. And I say, you shouldn't have lust in your heart. And the Lord just expands and raises the bar of righteousness to a place that none of us could ever reach, that none of us could ever obtain. You stand here today and you tell me that you have never in your heart thought an evil thing, that you've never done a wicked, evil deed, and I will call you today a liar. Because we all have, every last one of us, according to Romans chapter 3, we've all sinned and we've all come short of the glory of God. Why is it that we try to hide the most obvious and known fact in all of creation, that every one of us is a sinner? And every one of us is lost in our sin apart from Jesus Christ. Why is it that we try to hide that? This source of faith, the source for this faith of equal standing with Peter is God. It is not you. It is not me. It is not enough to just think of our faith as something that makes us good. We must see our faith as we have been made good by God. And if that's not enough, I would ask you just simply to consider the greatest commandment of all that we quote so often. But Mark chapter 12, verse 30 is one place where it is found. You shall love the Lord your God with what? All. Listen and hear how many times he uses the word all. With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. Jesus uses the word all when describing our love for God with our hearts, our souls, our minds, our strength. Now listen, if you gave all of something that you have, if you gave it all, then you don't have anything left to give to anyone else. It's like God being omnipotent. If he is omnipotent, all powerful, it means there is not a drop of power outside of God. There is not a person who today, with the muscles in their arms and in their hands, can pick up a weight that it is not granted power by God himself. And if we give all of our hearts, then our hearts have nothing left to give to anyone else. Now, don't misunderstand me. You know what God does with that? He directs it just like his power is directed and allowed and distributed to a world that he has created and a son to put off a power that is mind boggling when we really think about it. But when he gives us that power or gives us the ability to do anything, it's the same. When we give our heart to him, we can then direct our love to him, to others. And our love for one another is a love for God. flavored and fragranced and all the while to God, you cannot give all your money to someone and then have anything left to give to someone else. And God, the Lord himself, uses that word all and he says it like a hammer four times, all of it. I am asking you for all. That is a faith of equal standing with Peter's. That's what drove Peter, according to tradition and history, to say when they were going to crucify him, to say, Oh no, you can't crucify me like the Lord. You got to turn me upside down. I'm not worthy to die like my Lord. That's the kind of faith that Peter's talking about. That's of equal standing with his own. And he wasn't vaunting himself. In fact, he comes out right at the beginning, lest anyone should think, Peter, you're something else. He says, this is God's power. This is not mine. I did not have this ability. It's God. Jesus uses this idea for us to understand we must give God all when the Christian rightly loves anything in his life. It is because that love is set first upon God and directed towards others. I ask you today, will anyone here claim that they have loved God like that apart from God's help? Have you ever done it? Did you do it on your own? It required the power of God. It required a work of God in your heart. Would any of us, would you? Would you stand with a straight face before the Lord himself and claim to have loved him with everything that you had if he had not helped you? Of all the great lies of Satan. of all the great lies of Satan, one of the most deadly, is the lie that he whispers into our ear that we are worthy, we are righteous, we are deserving. That's a lie. It's a lie. It's because of our inherent worthiness or this lie that Satan tells us, our inherent worthiness, our inherent goodness, our inherent merit. God owes us his favor and blessing. This lie from the enemy. Listen to me very carefully. Because I believe this is from God's word. God does not owe you anything. I want to repeat it. God does not owe you anything. Anything. From the greatest among us to the worst, God is not a debtor to any of us. From the most outwardly holy to the most outwardly wretched, God is not in debt to you or me. I know that's not what we want to hear. I know that's hard to hear, it seems, isn't it? So strange in our ears today, in the politically correct world, in the way that we have exalted man. I know that's not what the commercials say. I know that's not what the billboards say. I know that's probably not what your parents have told you, what your teachers have told you, what your friends are telling you or what your co-workers are telling you. I know it's not what you want to believe. But I also know it's true. God doesn't owe you anything, and I believe deep Down inside, you know it, too. Take a minute now before we move on, because we're not going to finish here. Trust me, the story is not done. There is gospel. There is good news. But just take a moment now and disconnect from the hectic pace of your temporary life here and consider the truth. that God does not owe you His favor or His blessing. Let the weight of that sink in. Let the truth of that awaken you. Let that wash over you like a cold shower driving away the sleep from your eyes and the fogginess from your mind. Pull out for just a moment the morphine drip of this world that is telling you it's all okay, when inwardly you know it's not. That though the morphine drip of social media and entertainment and the trinkets of this world can deaden the pain of your heart for a little while, you know deep down that the disease is still there, that it's not been taken care of. You know that you're not right with God. And I ask you for just a moment to stop and consider the fact that God does not owe you anything. And understand that Peter is writing this and saying, this faith that I'm talking about is through the power of God. Now, do not misunderstand. Do not misunderstand me. Do not turn me off yet. The fact that God does not owe us anything does not mean He has not given us everything, because He has. Do not think for a moment that because we are not owed anything by God, that God has not given us the greatest treasure that men and women could ever receive in his son, that he has not loved us beyond ability of human language to fully express. Don't think that for a minute. He has given to us and he has given us the greatest gift that has ever been given. He has given us his son, Jesus Christ. I am enjoying the series The Chosen. I am enjoying it. I think it is well done. But I'll tell you this, I watched an episode last night, I enjoyed it, but Jesus wasn't in it very much. And I'm just going to be honest with you, I'd like to see Jesus. And I can't wait for the day in heaven when I am with him and I'm enjoying fellowship with you like I can't even begin to imagine. And all the while there is going to be Jesus. As I worship Him and love Him and praise Him and discover more about Him, God has given us His Son to come and to live in this world. Do you know how hard this world is? I've got a little bit of a picture over the past few months how horrible this world can be, apart from the faith and the love of God. Without him, how desperate that this world would be without the hope of heaven, how hollow all of the other hopes in life would be. God gave us his son to come and to live in this world, to experience hunger and pain and thirst and grief over sickness, death and separation, and ultimately to go to a cross. and allow himself to be humiliated, spit upon, mocked, ridiculed. Let the crown of thorns be placed on his head and stretched out his arms and died for you and me. That's what God has done for a creation that he owed nothing to. You think there's an ounce of glory and praise that ought to be given to anyone else but God? He owed us nothing and he gave us everything. But in the world today, it seems that we don't want to hear that. But you see, though God owes us nothing, he has given us everything and it makes us. Listen, how did Peter start? I am a slave of Christ. What God has given to us, though he owed us nothing, makes us debtors to him. It is you and me who owe God, and it is not the other way around. And the really bad news, without the good news of Christ, is that no matter how hard you might try, you'll never pay off the debt. It's like the U.S. debt, $28 trillion. You think we're paying that off? You're fooling yourself. But the debt that I had to pay to Christ, to pay to God for my sin, was exponentially larger than that 28 trillion dollars could ever be. But Christ came, and he died for me, and I put my faith in him when I was an 11-year-old boy. And from that day, he's been with me. I have strayed at times, I have stumbled, but he has always been there, and he's gonna one day soon say, come, enter this place that I've prepared for you. And the people that you loved, they're already here that knew me. Come and see what I have created. See what I had in mind for you from the very beginning. And then to be able to see this life in a way that is different than the world sees it because of that hope and that expectation. So don't think for a minute that because God doesn't know us, that he has not given. We see that the statement that God does not owe us anything is not the end of the matter. It is the beginning. of the matter. It is our understanding of our inherent unworthiness that we can begin to see the depth of God's love for us. It's only then that you can begin to see it. Only when you understand that can you begin to see the love of God. We do not call it great love when a man loves someone who loves him. We don't call that great love. That's called normal. That's called just normal, what you would expect. Would we not be calling then, listen to me, would we not be calling God's love normal if we believed for a second that he loves us because we loved him? That he loves us because we did some great thing for him? Would we not be labeling God's love just like we'd label any man's love who loves those who love him? That is not a faith of equal standing with Peter's. That's not where it starts. That's not where it continues. And that's not where it finishes. It is the love of God who loved us. It is in our understanding of our inherent unworthiness that we begin to see the depth of God's love for us. 1 John 4, 19, we love. We love because He first loved. You could not love unless He first loved you. Couldn't do it, wouldn't do it, wouldn't have the capability. Matthew 5, 46, Jesus, the son of God, his words, not mine. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And we know calling somebody like a tax collector, that was about as bad as it gets. Tax collectors love people who love them. What's the point? What's the good use of that? That's nothing, Jesus says. No one in this room, no one in this city, no one in this nation, indeed the whole world, no one in the whole world has ever loved God first. Never done it. No one has. He has always loved first. The great men and women of the Bible did not love God before God loved them. Abraham did not love God before God loved Abraham. David did not love God before God loved David. Ruth did not love God before God loved Ruth. Fill in the name. And Kent did not love God before God loved Kent. Why? Wasn't any merit. He didn't know it to me. He just did. Because of who he is and his character. Now, there's a whole other balancing message to this one day of his justice and mercy, but my we need to move along. When you first come to understand these things, you might desire to love God because of the great love that he has loved you with, you might want to do that. You might say, boy, God's really loved me, I need to love him, and you might try. but it takes the power of God to love God. You can't on your own. It's not possible. It is no more possible to change our spiritual hearts on our own than it would be to change our natural hearts on our own. It's not possible. In fact, it's less possible. Realizing your sin and weakness is the first step. But perhaps you tried at the first to change yourself. To change yourself, to pull yourself up, as they say, by your spiritual bootstraps and be a good person. Live a good Christian life. I'm going to mortify the deeds of my flesh. I'm going to not do the things I want to do. And I'm not going to do the things I want to do. Does that sound like the Christian that we read about in the scripture? Perhaps when he's wrestling with his carnal heart and mind. But it doesn't explain the whole of him. Perhaps, though, you tried to change yourself. But regardless of your dedication, you failed every time, found your heart longing for wicked things. The Bible tells us the truth of this as well in Jeremiah 13, 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? If that can be done, he says, then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. Those of you with a faith of equal standing with Peter's know that it was not your strength that made you a Christian. You know that, in fact, you may have tried for years to be a Christian in your own strength just to be continually disappointed in your own weakness and inability to be righteous. You may have tried for decades, but you no doubt remember the time that God's divine power came and drew you to himself. He granted you the ability to trust him and you indeed trusted him. And it changed everything. You placed your hope in him and he lifted you up. Do you recall what David said in Isaiah in Psalm 40, verse verses one through three? Listen to what David did and what God did. David, I waited for the Lord. I waited for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction. He drew me out of the miry bog. He set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. The necessity of God's divine power to change the heart is one point at which Christianity differs markedly from all the other religions of the world. It's the differentiator. of man, religion, and gods. It is the differentiator, the necessity of God's divine power to change the heart. With most other religions, there's a recognition. There's a commonality. That's why it's so easy to fall into them. There's an initial commonality, and this is the commonality. There is a recognition that man is not fit, that he is broken, that he is lacking something, that he is absent of inherent virtue. But that is where the similarities stop. They stop there. Sounds familiar in the beginning, but the similarities stop there. In other religions of the world, man must climb the mountain of enlightenment. Man must discover the truth. Man must become the best version of himself. In every false religion, it is man, man, man. In the religion of God, it is God, God, God. God began it. God continues it. God finishes it. It is a faith of equal standing with these men and women who gave all of their lives to his work and to his service because of who he is and what he had done for them. And by the way, this has always been the case with false religion. And it was because it was the same in Peter's day. And so he makes a point of calling out the necessity and reality of God's divine power that caused him to become a follower, indeed, a slave of Christ. If you've been following one of these religions, and by the way, even if it names itself Christianity. But you've been following a religion that does not depend upon God to change you. I pray God will open up your eyes today and see the futility of your good deeds to impress him. There's one person who impressed the father and it was the son. There's one person that God looks at and says, I am well pleased with that. And it is his son. And one of these days, the only thing that's going to be left of me is that that loves God through his son in righteousness and holiness, as the sin of a rebellious heart has been put aside for eternity. You can try to change your spots all your life, as Jeremiah said, can the leopard change his spots? You can try to change those spots all your life long. And don't get too worried, I'm going to skip the whole two thirds of this message. I want you to hear this important. I think you can try to change your spots all your life. You can try to do it on your own. You'll never get it done. The spots will remain. Your scrubbing will only create more spots. It's all it's going to do. Your attempt to hide those spots. Do you know what that's going to do? It's going to require you to hide yourself. The only way you can hide your spots is to hide yourself. And you try and you hide yourself from others. Maybe even you hide yourself from yourself. You don't look at them. You don't think about them. If you could, you'd hide yourself from God. And we read in the scripture about one day when Jesus returns, there's going to be people who are going to try to do the same thing. They're going to be left with their spots of sin and their cry out for the mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the wrath of the son of the almighty God of heaven and earth. You can try to get rid of those spots all your life and you will not be able to because it takes the divine power of God to change you. You try to hide them. You're just going to hide. You'll try to ignore the spots, pretend they aren't there, covering them up with the clothing of religious works and the same way our first parents did with the leaves of the fig tree. Your guilt will remain. Your burden will remain. Your despair will remain. You will remain lost in your sin. If it is not the divine power of God that changes you. submit to Him today, and He will. That is the gospel of God. Christ Jesus the Lord has come to make right what we made wrong, to take your spot and your blemish of sin and wash you white as snow. Let him take that stain of sin. Stop trying to do it on your own. Have the most honest conversation you have ever had with anyone with God. Ask him to forgive you and to give you the peace that only he can give. Let him change your heart, vile heart, and replace it with a heart that's full of love and peace and assurance. When you do this, you will have a faith of equal standing with this. Peter and Paul and Mary and all the others that we read about. And I'll close with this. This is a rare company of people. This is a rare group of people. That you become a part of. a people who know the Lord. It's a rare company of people that you will become a part of when you obtain a faith of equal standing with Peter. These are the people of God, those who will inherit the kingdom of God as joint heirs with the Son, a people marching toward heaven that all the hosts of the enemy cannot in any real way threaten because of the faith that is of equal standing with Peter's is a faith that will see us through this life and into the next, no matter what happens here. I pray that you have a faith of equal standing with Peter, that you know the Lord, that you know him now. If you don't, that you'll find him today, soon. You submit to him. until he changes you, makes you one of his, and you begin to read words like Peter says and what he'll continue to say through the 15th verse, and in nodding your head, you'll say, I get it, I see it, rather than confusion and a lack of clarity. If that is true for you today, I would encourage you to seek the Lord. Seek him while he may be found, while he is near, Come to Him and submit to Him and He will lift you up. He will save you, redeem you, make you His, wipe away all of those spots of sin, and leave you with a fellowship with Him that is peace that passes all understanding. But don't, don't think that just because you can use the words, I have faith, that it means the same thing. as what Peter said when he said, I have faith. Could be very different. And so he says, examine it, confront it, test it. Pray that the spirit of God will work in our hearts. Let's have a song.