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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You Well good evening everyone welcome back to Mountain Baptist Church take your song books and turn to song 110 Song 110 in your song books will say all the way my Savior leads me And if you would stand we'll sing song 110 All the way my Savior leads me What have I to ask beside Can I doubt his tender mercy Who through life has been my guide Heavenly peace, divinest comfort Here by faith in him to dwell For I know what e'er befall me Jesus doeth all things well For I know what e'er befall me Jesus doeth all things well All the way my Savior leads me Cheers each winding path I tread Gives me grace for every trial Feeds me with the living bread Through my weary steps may falter And my soul a thirst may be Gushing from the rock before me Lo what spring of joy I see Gushing from the rock before me Lo what spring of joy I see All the way my Savior leads me Cheers each winding path I tread All the way my Savior leads me Oh the fullness of his love Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father's house above When my spirit clothed immortal Wings its flight to realms of day This my song through endless ages Jesus led me all the way This my song through endless ages Jesus led me all the way Alright, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, again, we just want to thank you and praise your name for just all the grace and mercy and all the blessings you bestow upon us each and every day. Thank you, God, for just a faithful, serving church that is constantly preaching your word and getting people saved. Thank you, Lord, for this day. Thank you, Lord, for the service and the soul winning. I pray, Lord, now that you would just fill our pastor with your power and spirit. We love you, for it's in Jesus' name I ask all of you. Amen. You may be seated and take your mountain Baptist, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, books, the blue folders, and turn to page two. Page two in your mountain Baptist song books and we'll sing Psalm number 15. He that waketh up rightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart, he that waketh up rightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart, he that bakbiteth not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor take up reproach against his neighbor nor take up reproach against his neighbor he that bakbiteth not with his tongue in whose eyes a vile person is content but he unripe them that fear the Lord in whose eyes a vile person is content but he unripe them that fear the Lord he unripe to his own hurt and changeeth not putteth not out his money to use rape he that answerth to and changeeth not here put not out his money to use rape nor taketh reward again the innocent he that doeth these things shall never be moved nor taketh reward again the innocent he that doeth these things shall never be moved Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hell Amen. Well, welcome back to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday evening afternoon. So, just some announcements here, but first I want to get the sowing numbers. So, did we have any saved during the week before Saturday? One on Monday. Was there any others during the week? What's that? One on Wednesday? So, two and then we had 38 on Saturday, so 40. What did we have today? I know brother Gavin is one and then brother Wade one and then brother Anthony too, so four. Is there any others today? So, that's 44 for the week. So, that's quite the marker for next week, huh? Good job with the soul winning. Obviously, yesterday we had a great turnout out in Indianapolis, had a great amount of salvations and just good time and so be in prayer for the next soul winning marathon in Philadelphia on the 15th and so hopefully we'll see great reception out there as well. As far as the church times go for this week, everything should be normal on Wednesday. Sunday will be normal, so the church service times everything will be normal. It'll just be Pastor Anderson that will be preaching instead of me, but everything else should be normal as far as just the flow of things, soul winning time, all that and so, but be in prayer for him. Obviously, he's going to be traveling a lot because we're the first stop on his road trip through all the different churches, but just be in prayer for him and his family. He's bringing some of his kids, so that'll be exciting there and then be in prayer for me because I'll be traveling. And then the regional soul winning times, so Monday there's not going to be a soul winning time there, so as far as just taking a break from all the soul winning throughout the weekend here. But just get with the other guys as far as Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday as far as soul winning times go there. And then we have the men's prayer meeting on Friday, women's prayer meeting on Saturday, and then obviously Pastor Anderson will be preaching this coming Sunday, and then we have the fireworks scheduled for July 7th, so that's a Friday. Obviously, the fireworks aren't going to start until it's dark. So, or at least getting close to dark, all that. And so, we usually do have some stuff as far as sparklers and stuff like that for the kids, those little snap things. The bacon snaps are for the adults, right? This is the adult version of the snaps. But so, and then as far as all the food goes, that'll all be taken care of, but if you want to bring any type of dessert or anything else, you're more than welcome to. And so yeah, it should be a good time. No one's obligated, obviously you're not missing church if you don't go to this. This is not a church service, this is just an event to have a good time and enjoy some fireworks there, and celebrate the freedoms we still have in America. And so we haven't completely lost all our freedoms, but it's definitely dwindling. And then the baby shower on the 29th of July, so July 29th, there's going to be a baby shower. I have zero idea what anything's going on with that baby shower, but I imagine you can get with the ladies, either my wife, probably Miss Paula, I don't know who's doing it, but you're like, oh, you're the pastor, you should know. No, there's certain things that I just let you, you're having a tea party, as long as you're not doing anything against the Bible, have your tea party, have your baby shower, so if you need my help, call Brother Dave. No, but all joking aside, yeah, so there'll be a baby shower, but they want you to RSVP them as far as who's going to be showing up, so they know I'm sure of drinks, food, and all that. And I think on the back of your bulletin, we have the chapter memory of Malachi chapter 1, Proverbs 1, 7 is our memory verse for the week, and then we've got the birthdays, anniversaries, and be in prayer for all the ladies on the pregnancy list, so it's getting bigger. So pray for all these, and that's about all I have for announcements. I can't remember who's reading tonight. Brother Levi, so we're going to be continuing our study through Add to Your Faith, and so we're going to be reading 2 Peter chapter 1 after we do one more song. All right, take your song books and turn to song number 3. Song number 3 in your song books, we'll sing Jesus Paid It All, song number 3. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small, child of weakness, watch and pray, find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I own. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow, Lord now indeed thy power and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I own. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow, for nothing good have I whereby thy grace to claim, I'll wash my garments wide in the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I own. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow, and when before the throne I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I own. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. All right, take your Bibles and turn to 2 Peter chapter number 1. 2 Peter chapter number 1 in your Bibles, and we'll have brother Levi come and read that for us. All right, 2 Peter chapter 1. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence to add to your faith and virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if ye do these things, ye shall never fail, never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed the cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, If this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mountain. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth into it, that shineth in a dark place, until the day of dawn, and the day star rise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men and of gods, baked as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Let's pray. God, thank you for the day. God, thank you for the souls that were saved. God, I pray that you be a pastor as he preaches and help us to learn something. We pray these things of Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So we're continuing our study through this passage dealing with adding to your faith. So add to your faith when you get saved, what do you do after that? And the idea here is that in this chapter we can see very clearly that he's talking to people that already have faith, but we want to add stuff to that. And there's obviously a lot of false doctrine out there and the idea that these things need to be added for you even to have faith. But that doesn't make any sense. If it's not real faith, if you don't have virtue, but how can you add faith, or add virtue to faith if that doesn't really exist without it, it doesn't make any sense because it's not true. The idea here is that all these that he's speaking to already have faith because in the first verse of the chapter it says that they obtained like precious faith with us. And so now that you have that faith, where do you go from there? And last week we covered the idea of what it states here is in verse 5 and beside this give all diligence, add to your faith virtue. So the first thing that we add to our faith, or the first thing that we should be adding to our faith is virtue. And we're getting into the fact of adding works, good works, adding righteousness to our faith and how that will cause you to perfect your faith, that will cause you to be the friend of God, and to be a disciple, all of those things. And then the next thing that we're going to be hitting on after virtue is knowledge. So notice what it says here. It says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and the virtue knowledge, we call it temperance, and temperance patience, and the patience godliness, and the godliness brotherly kindness, and the brotherly kindness charity. And so the first two things that we see here are virtue and knowledge. And some would maybe think well maybe knowledge should come first, right? Maybe when you get saved the first thing you want to do is learn a lot as far as learning the Bible, learning who God is, but really the first thing that we should be doing is keeping the commandments and being righteous and doing the works and all that. And what I'm going to show you is that that will help you gain knowledge. And so, but what's interesting is that in verse 3 here of chapter 1 it says, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that had called us to glory and virtue. So notice that He's calling us to glory and virtue and that's why once we get saved we should add to that virtue and then the glory is interesting because the next thing that's mentioned is knowledge and go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 1 Corinthians chapter 1 about if you're going to glory you need glory in the Lord. And this is stated in 1 Corinthians it's also stated in 2 Corinthians and I just want you to see where it's stated here of not glorying in yourself not glorying in your own wisdom. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 it says, for ye see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yea, things which are not to bring to not things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence but of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Now this is something that's stated also in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 17, but he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Go to Jeremiah chapter 9 because what does that mean the glory in the Lord obviously you can think of the surface meaning that don't glory in yourself glory in what God does, but I want you to see something specific when it's talking about glorying in the Lord or what you should glory in and notice what it says here in Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 23 I'm a little little tired. If I'm chugging coffee right now and pouring it into my eyes trying to get some energy here. Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 23 it says thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches. So you can see how that ties into what was said in 1 Corinthians, right? And the idea of being mighty or wise or in this world, but not glory in that in verse 24, but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercised loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. So if you want to glory glory in the Lord and what do you do to glory in the Lord? Glory in the fact that you know God. Knowing God and having that knowledge of God. Because obviously you need to add to virtue knowledge, but specifically the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's the theme of this book in 2 Peter is the idea of having the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Now, obviously they already have the knowledge as far as salvation is concerned and the Bible talks about knowing God or rather being known of God. So anybody that gets saved knows God to a certain extent, right? You have to know God to a certain degree to get saved You know that he's God and that he died on the cross for your sins rose again a third day, but there's a lot more to know about God to know who he is, to know everything about him and we should be seeking to know God and that's why Paul says in Philippians chapter 3 that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, right? So after we get saved and we win Christ, if you will, and the fact that we believe on him for salvation, righteousness is imputed on this that we may know him and the power of his resurrection and going down the line that we can know God. And that is something that is not automatic. That is something that we'll never attain to in this life. And that's what Paul was stating. He hasn't attained He hasn't apprehended Christ as he's apprehended us And he says that I count on myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He's trying to know him. He's trying to apprehend him as much as God apprehends us or knows us. And that is something that we should be striving to do. And we want to know God. It's obviously great to have knowledge when it comes to mathematics to have knowledge when it comes to science and chemistry or physics and things like that. It's good to have knowledge when it comes to knowing how to do your taxes. I didn't say it was fun, but you know, or doing different things in life, you know, having knowledge when it comes to gardening, having knowledge when it comes to having chickens or having you know, doing farming stuff or, you know, whatever you're doing, right? It's good to have that knowledge. And I'm not saying not to add that but we're talking about specifically the knowledge of God here. We're talking about the knowledge of Jesus Christ and that that's something that should be constantly adding and abounding. And if you remember that this passage is talking about not only adding it, but abounding in it. And so we should be striving to know the Lord and striving to be knowledgeable. And for some reason sometimes Christians take pride in being simple minded. You know, whether it's in secular type of knowledge or whether it's even Biblical knowledge. They go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 where it says, I came unto you and I knew nothing but Christ Jesus and Him crucified. And they're like, that's all I need to know. It's just the Gospel. No, the reason that He states that when He came unto him, He made a purpose not to know anything besides that because He's all about getting them saved. That's why. Because when you go to the door, the whole thing that you're trying to get across is the Gospel. But once you go past that, those that are wise, you go on to perfection. And you're going on to, you know, those that are perfect and those that are on perfection that's where you're preaching the wisdom of God and knowledge and things that are beyond salvation. And so that's where we want to be as Christians is that we want to go beyond that. We want to go past the principles of the doctrines of Christ. We want to go on under perfection and go past that and know God and know the Bible on as deep a level as we can. Now go to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1 Because if you're going to attain knowledge the Bible actually teaches where do you start? Proverbs chapter 1 Every Christian, and listen, I don't care if you're not going to be a pastor or anybody in any type of authority position you need to know the Bible. Your mission should be to know God as much as you can. And listen, if you're going to a church where the pastor doesn't know that much of the Bible, that's not an excuse. Because we're not to be comparing ourselves among ourselves. Know God as much as you can. And if you surpass your pastor when it comes to knowledge, well shame on that pastor. But the idea is that you should be looking at this is that I want to know God as much as I can and it doesn't matter where everybody else is at. I'm going to keep moving forward. I mean we could say that here and be like, well we probably know more about the Bible than a lot of these churches but why are we setting that standard so low? Well we go out so many more than any of these churches out here. So what? They're not our marker. They're not where we're setting our mark at. I'm pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I'm not setting the mark at some IFB church that's dead as a doornail. Or even an IFB church or even a church that we would consider to be friends with, I'm not setting the mark at them. I'm going to set the mark higher than that. And by the way, even churches that we would consider to be like-minded, I almost guarantee that they're setting the bar higher than where they're at. So we need to be always setting that mark high. When it comes to Bible knowledge, we should never think that we've attained. We should always be going further. There's always more to learn. And the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. Because he to think if he knoweth anything as he ought, knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. So I mean, the more you know, the more you read, you're like, man I don't know that much about this passage, do I? There's a lot more here than I thought. You're like, what? You've never read it? Do you have any reading comprehension? No, the Bible's infinite, my friend. The Bible is, you'll never be able to search all the deep things of God in your lifetime. And once you realize that, hey, maybe you'll start diving into it. In Proverbs chapter 1 here in verse 1, it says, The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtly to the simple to the young man knowledge and discretion. Notice this right here in verse 5. A wise man will hear and will increase learning. A man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. So notice that someone that's starting off as being wise, they're already wise, they increase in learning. It's very interesting how it talks about how the wise man will hear it. The person that, but yet the scorner doesn't, the foolish man doesn't. The one that you're like, that person needs it, though. But who actually is the one that says, hey, I need to learn more? It's the wise man. It's the one that already has a bunch of knowledge. Because the one that has a bunch of knowledge realizes, hey, I need more. And the more you get, the more you realize you need more. And you just keep going down that path that I need to know more. And keep reading there, it says in verse 6, to understand a proverb and the interpretation the words of the wise and their dark sayings, notice this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and destruction. You want to know the Bible, then you need to, first of all, in your mind, state that the Bible is your final authority. That what the Bible says is what's right. You need to have the fear of the Lord that, hey, this is God talking here. This is His word. And if you want to know it, then you need to go into it in that humble attitude that, hey, I need to, this is my teacher. This is who's going to teach me. The Word of God and the Holy Ghost inside of me, that's what's going to teach me. And get off your high horse about what you think you know. The fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord that, hey, I don't want to be wrong. And if I go into it in this proud avenue of, like, I think I know a whole bunch of stuff, I think I know everything, then you don't have that healthy fear of being wrong and actually not knowing what the Bible says and the consequences that come with that. And so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And obviously you can think about that with salvation and the fact that the knowledge of salvation is, what's the first thing that we do when we go out soul winning but we show people that they're sinners and on their way to hell? And that healthy fear of realizing, hey, I need a savior. But, listen, as Christians, we need to go into the Bible, we need to go into our study with that healthy fear. Listen, as a pastor, I have a healthy fear of preaching something wrong. And there should be a healthy fear there because I don't want to get up here and lead you astray. And so when it comes to doctrine, when it comes to, if I'm going to teach on some deep doctrine, listen, I'm putting that thing through the fire. Does that mean that I'll never make a mistake and I'll never say anything wrong? Of course not. I'm a human being. But at the same time, there needs to be gravity when it comes to preaching doctrine and to teaching doctrine to where you have this healthy fear that, hey, I could be leading these people down, I could be teaching them wrong doctrine, wrong interpretation, and the consequences that come with that. So Proverbs chapter 2, go to Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 1. Notice that you want to have knowledge, you want to increase in knowledge, you want to abound in knowledge, then you need to have the fear of God when you're reading the Bible. Or when you're looking at a doctrine. There's a lot of times where people just throw out this lackadaisy type of interpretation and there's no gravity to the idea of the implications of what you're saying. When you're looking at a doctrine, does it contradict eternal security? Does it contradict, does it take away from the deity of Christ? You know, you have to be thinking about these things if you're going to go out and just start teaching a doctrine. And Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 1, it says my son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding, yea, if thou Christ after knowledge, enlisteth up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searcheth for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. And notice how, you know, wisdom is given to the righteous. The wise man increases in learning. Notice how in 2 Peter chapter 1, we're dealing with a person. We're dealing with someone that has been made righteous, someone that's saved and the idea of going past that and going beyond that. Alright, you're saved, you're a child of God, you have eternal life, let's go forward. Let's move forward with this. Let's go on you know, unto perfection, as far as like knowledge and keeping the commandments and all these different things that we should be going forward with. And obviously the world mixes those two. They mix virtue, knowledge, and temperance and all these different things. They mix them and put it in with salvation, where it shouldn't be mixed. But you don't want to go too far to be like, okay, it's just salvation don't worry about the rest of it. No, there's a proper place for it. As a Christian, we should be adding virtue. We should be adding, you know, knowledge and going down the line. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 9 verse 10, it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. You may ask yourself, you know, what's the difference between wisdom and knowledge and understanding? Well, I mean, to me my understanding of these three different terms is the idea that knowing something is like if you know that the sky is blue, that's knowledge, right? You know it. You know it's blue. Understanding is knowing why it's blue. Right? Now you know the dealing with the light and how, you know, the waves of the light and it's shorter and it's blue and why, you know, the why when it comes to the knowledge. And wisdom, I believe, is how you apply the knowledge you understand. Actually implementing, being wise with it, right? That's how I understand it and so when you're dealing with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, well, in order to have wisdom, you kind of have to have knowledge first, don't you? In order to have wisdom you kind of have to have understanding first. You need to know something, you need to understand it, and you need to apply it. And so, Proverbs obviously hits on this a lot. Proverbs 10, 14 says, Wise men lay up knowledge but the mouth of the fools is near destruction. Proverbs 18, 15 says, The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge. Proverbs 23, 12 says, Apply thine heart unto instruction and thine ears to the words of knowledge. Proverbs 24, 3 says, Through wisdom is in house builded and by understanding it is established by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong, yea, a man of knowledge increases strength. So, yes, we are to increase in knowledge and if you say no, I don't need that, then you're not wise. Because the wise man increases knowledge by definition. So you can't say that you're a wise person if you're not increasing in knowledge, if you're not trying to abound in knowledge. You should be looking at knowledge as being something that's addicting, like you want to get more. You should know more this year than you knew last year. That should be your goal, is to increase in knowledge and not be less in knowledge. And you say, well how can I be less in knowledge? You know, once I know it, don't I know it? No, because you forget. You know how many times I've looked back at sermons that I preached and because I'm preaching on maybe the same type of subject and I want to make sure I'm not just like reiterating the same subject or re-preaching the same subject to verbatim or something like that. I don't want to do that. Because I'm not like one of those circuit riding evangelists that uses three sermons and that's it for the whole year. So when I look back at it, sometimes I'll listen to it and be like, I don't remember that at all. I'm the one that preached it. But it's because, you know what, you forget things. Anybody study for a test, right? That you study for that test and you got the answer right. And then you can look back and be like, I don't remember that. So there's a lot of stuff you forget. So you're constantly having the learning just to be at break even. Just to be at the point of where you're not losing information. But you've got to go even further than that to where you're gaining it. And go to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. And what I want to mention here is that when we're talking about adding knowledge is that we want to know the Lord. And again knowing God is not being, it's different than being known of God. My sheep hear my voice and I know them. And I give unto them eternal life. Right? The idea of God knowing us, the Lord knoweth them that put their trust in Him. The Lord knoweth them that are His. The idea of God knowing us is salvation. That the moment we believe, He knows us. We're one of His. He calls His own sheep by name. That's salvation. But knowing God, that's a process. Us knowing Him. That's something that we're going to be constantly trying to strive to do. But I want you to see this link between knowing God and keeping His commandments. And you'll see this very like when you see virtue and knowledge being mentioned at the very beginning of adding to your faith the understanding of how these things work together. What it says here in 1 John 2 and verse 3, it says here by we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Now if you don't understand, if you're going into this thinking that knowing God is salvation, then you're going to be confused. Right? Like I know I'm saved because I keep His commandments. That's what people will think. Right? No. It's not that I know I'm saved. It's that we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. You know what that means? If you're not keeping His commandments you don't know God. Okay? That doesn't mean you're not saved. It just means that you don't know God, you're not perceiving God you're not seeing God for who He is. You can't say that you know Him if you're not keeping His commandments. And the same thing, you can't say that you're abiding in Him. He that abideth in Him sinneth not. So if you're sinning, guess what? You're not abiding in Him. That doesn't mean that you're never abiding in Him. It just means that when you're sinning, you're not abiding in Him. When you're sinning, you're not knowing God at that moment. And so, keep reading there. It says in verse 4, it says, He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. But whoso keepeth His word, in Him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we, that we are in Him. He that saith, He abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walk. So the abiding and knowing Him are very much hand in hand. The idea of Christ abiding in us or the Father and the Son abiding in us. And I don't want to get too deep in that doctrine. But the idea of the Father and Son knocking at the door and us letting Him in, this idea of abiding in the vine, abiding in Christ and all that, that is not salvation. That's that fellowship. Walking in the light, walking in the Lord and doing all of that. That is something that you can't do that if you're not keeping His commandments. And it's basically stating that you're a liar if you say you're abiding in Him and you're sinning. One easy example of this would be like, okay, you're literally in the middle of killing somebody in cold blood and you're like, I'm abiding in Christ. You'd be like, that's insane. No, you're not. But you could put a lot of different sins in there, right? Obviously that's an extreme example. But you're not abiding in the vine when you're committing sin. Now obviously you could say, well, how do I know that I've ever abided in the vine? Well, I'm talking to a soul winning church. Have you ever won someone in the Christ? If you have, you've abided in the vine. I'm not saying that you've never abided in the vine if you've never won someone in Christ, okay. But at the same time, abiding in Christ means you're walking in the Spirit, you're walking in the new man, you're not walking in the flesh and then sin. And by the way, no one is walking in the flesh and abiding in the vine at all times. Because none of us are sinlessly perfected, physically speaking. So this is a process, right? This is something that you have to decide to do every day and say, I'm going to know God. I want to know God today. I want to walk in the Spirit today. I want to abide in the vine today. And you have to make that choice every single day. Matthew 5-8 says this, I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Matthew 5-8 in the Beatitudes, big theological term, always feels like you're beating somebody. You know, they talk about the Pope being beatified or whatever. Like, beat him, I don't care. Like, what are you doing? But apparently it's talking about him being brought into the sainthood or something like that. Anyway, in the blessed hours. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now, obviously an unsafe person would be like, the seed needs to be pure of heart or you're not going to go to heaven. No, seeing God is, think about this, when we say, if you were telling me something, right, you're trying to explain something to me, and I said, oh, I see. Am I saying that I literally see, like, your argument, like, it's visually there before me? Or am I saying, I understand it, I know it. I know what you're saying. Just as much as if you say, like, they see with the eyes, but they don't perceive. Because sometimes seeing can be talking about perceiving something, right? You perceive it. And so when we're talking about blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, we're talking about knowing God. Obviously, all of us that are saved are going to see God face to face eventually. But what we're talking about is in this life, if you're pure of heart, adding to your faith virtue, then you can see God. You can know God. Go to Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 12. Is it any marvel that those churches that are actually doing what they should be doing actually know more about doctrine? Do you think that's an accident? I don't think it's an accident at all. Those that just say, you know what, nuts to do in the work of God, I'm just going to read the Bible, I'm going to be some Dr. Fatbottom in my ivory tower. And just study the Bible, but they don't do any work for God. Is it any marvel that they don't know the Bible from a hole in the ground? I don't think there's any marvel in it. I think the Bible actually teaches that you can't do it that way. The Bible teaches you do the work and God will add knowledge to it. You add virtue and then to the virtue you add knowledge. The Bible says the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life and he that win his souls is what? Wise. Is it any marvel that soul winning churches actually know their Bible? Soul winning churches have the best doctrine. You're like, well, you're biased. We're right. The Bible's right and it actually makes sense when you go to a soul winning church on the doctrine. It actually fits exactly what the Bible says. You're not going back to commentaries. You're not going back to some other language to make it say what you want it to say. No, it actually says what it says. It means what it means. And you know what? There's good doctrine with churches that are actually doing what they should be doing. And churches that stop working, you know what ends up happening? The doctrine falls apart. They get off on some wild doctrines, some YouTube doctrines. No marvel. Because that's what actually the Bible teaches is that these things are hand in glove. You can't let the works of the Lord, you can't let the Great Commission fall apart and expect to have great doctrine. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 12, it says, Wherefore let lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Notice this in verse 14. Follow peace with all men in holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Now, as saved people, you look at it and you're like, this isn't talking about salvation. And I don't want to keep bringing that up, but you know what, it's just like people constantly twist these passages. Everything's about salvation, heaven, hell. No, what it's stating here is that if you want to know the Lord, if you want to see the Lord, you want to perceive the Lord, you want to know who He is, you want to know everything about Jesus, then you better start purifying your heart. You better cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. If you want to draw an eye to God, and Him to draw an eye to you, then you need to purge things out of your life. To get closer to God than you want to know who He is, the closer you get to God, the easier it is to know who He is. And you can't just leave out virtue and expect to have knowledge. And so I think this is very important to understand. Because people put the cart before the horse on this. Because you would think, I guess, well when you get saved, you should just know, it's all about learning. No, you know what you should do? You get saved, you get baptized. Isn't that actually interesting, that the first thing you're supposed to do is get baptized? That's keeping a commandment, isn't it? The next thing you should do is get into church and actually get a part of that church, and guess what's going to happen in that church? We're going to send you out to go soul winning. Now obviously there's knowledge that needs to be gained in order to do that, but listen, you don't have to have any knowledge to go out soul winning, because we'll put you with someone that knows how to talk, and you'll be a silent partner. You're already doing the work. You don't even know how to give the gospel yet. You don't even know the presentation yet. Guess what? You're already doing the work, aren't you? Because we need silent partners. So that work will translate into knowledge. That work, I believe God blesses those that do the work with knowledge and wisdom and understanding. Know this is that the Bible's a supernatural book. It's a spiritual book. You say, well, you know, it's just words on a page. It's just grammar. You know, why would I have to do all this work to understand it? Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. If that were the case, if it's just a book which is just grammar and words on a page, then everybody should understand it just like a saved person. But it's not just words on a page, because it's not the words of men. It's the word of God. And there is a spiritual aspect to that. That the Holy Ghost is involved in this. The Bible talks about, but the anointing which you have received with Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing, teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in Him. You want to abide in Him? Translation, you're abiding in Him, meaning you're knowing Him. Yeah, you have a close fellowship with Him. And you're seeing Him. You want to do that? Then you need to have the Holy Ghost teaching you the word of God, and if you want to do that you need to be keeping His commandments. And listen, I'm not saying that if you didn't go out soul winning, you weren't going to church, you can't learn anything in the Bible, right? There's nothing you can learn. But listen, if you want to get serious about the knowledge of God, then you have to be doing the work. There's going to be a point where you're just going to kind of plateau. And you know, I don't know about you, but I want to know more. I want to know a lot more. I mean, there's books in the Bible I'm just like, I feel like I just don't. And I've read through them scores of times. But I'm just like, I just don't feel like I've even scratched the surface on it. We went through the tabernacle, right, when we were going through Exodus, and we were looking at some of the things that picture Christ and picture, foreshadow Jesus. You know, we probably didn't even scratch the surface on that. There's times I went through there and I'm like, this is just what I saw when I was studying this. There's probably other things that I, I guarantee there's other things that I never, that I haven't seen yet in there. But I don't think if I just stopped soul winning, then I don't think I'd ever see those things, to be honest with you. If I just stopped doing everything, I'm just like, you know what, I'm just going to study that, I'm going to look into that. You know what's going to end up happening? I'm going to end up getting into some weird false doctrine, some weird things that don't actually fit. When you don't go soul winning and you're not preaching the gospel continuously, you know what you end up doing? Oh, this repent of sin thing isn't that bad. I mean, it's just semantics. And you start, you start getting soft on that type of stuff. You start muddying the gospel. You start muddying the gospel, then good luck with the Lord giving you more knowledge. So, go to Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Cause there's a different, so when you look at the word of God, there are different, for lack of a better term, spectrums within the word of God as far as what's easily understood and what's not. There's the milk of the word, and there's the strong meat of the word. There are things easily understood and there's things that are hard to be understood. And the Bible even admits that. In this book, in 2 Peter chapter 3, it basically talks about how some people rest and it's hard to be understood. It literally states these things are hard to be understood. Facts. And I don't think he's just saying that to just a certain group because they they're dumb or something like that. I think it's just facts that there's certain portions of the Bible that are hard to understand. But there are certain portions of the Bible that are just very easy, it's the milk of the word. And so you need to understand that, that okay, maybe I understand the milk, but if I need to understand the strong meat, I better, I better have everything in my favor for the Lord to show me this. And notice what it says here in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11, it says of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing, for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as of need of milk and not of strong meat. So he's saying you can't handle strong meat, like you need milk. You need to go back to the first principles, like you're not able to bear this. He's talking about Melchizedek by the way. He's talking about how Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek. He's like you can't handle this. There's many things I'd like to say about that. You can't handle it because you need the milk. And then it goes on to verse 13, it says for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. You know, there's nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ, but if you've been saved for years and you ought to be teachers at the time, then that's when there's shame involved, right? It's like what are you doing? Get off the milk. Start eating steak. And, you know, because as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, it may grow thereby. So if you're a newborn babe in Christ, I mean, eating the milk and there's nothing wrong with that. There's no shame in that. I mean, that's the way it needs to be. You know, I don't give my son Samuel a steak. He's on mama milk right now and that's what he's going to have. There's many times I'm sure he wants what we're eating, but it's not going to happen. He's not going to be able to eat it. But, look at verse 14. I want this to resonate. It says, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. Even those, so notice that, who are those that are full age? Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. They use it. Remember how I was talking about the fact of the difference between knowledge and understanding and wisdom? The wise man uses it. They don't just know it. They don't just understand it. They use it. And the question that I have for all these Dr. Fatbottom type of preachers out there that want to be all about, you know, well look what I know. Look what, you know, it's all about intellectual prowess when it comes to them and what I want to ask them is what do you use that you teach? The more you use it, the more that I believe God is going to give you more. And the more mature you're going to be, the more full age and perfected in the faith that you're going to be. And that's why I believe virtue is mentioned first. It's kind of like the idea of the wisdom that's from God is first pure then peaceable, right? There's an order to it, right? It's like the wisdom of God, you know, is peaceable but it doesn't sacrifice purity for it. And God wants to give you knowledge and wisdom but listen, there's a prerequisite to you having a bunch of knowledge and wisdom and that's for you to use what you have. Listen, if you're a newborn babe in Christ, use the milk. Use what you got. And you know what's going to happen? He's going to give you more. Why would God give you more information if you're not using what you have? So, this is, when it comes to doing the work, there's many reasons why to go soul winning, right? I mean, we want to go soul winning because we don't want to see people go to hell. We want to go soul winning because, you know what, it's an honor to work with the Lord and see people saved and you know what, and to be a part of that and know that for all eternity I'm going to see this person in heaven and we're going to be rejoicing together. There's many reasons. But you know what? One reason for doing the work of the Lord, that's a good reason too, is that hey, I can know God. I can know Him right now. We're not going to know Him like we're going to know Him when we see Him face to face, right? I mean, right now we look through a glass darkly, but I believe the more you do the work of God, the more that you're virtuous and you're trying to be righteous and you're keeping His commandments, the more that that glass is less dark, to where you can see more clearly. And I believe that God blesses those that do His commandments, those that are His disciples, those that are giving up things in this life to do the work and to love Him by keeping His commandments, I believe that He is saying, hey, I'm going to give Him a little more information. You know what, that hidden man, let me give Him some of that. I mean, think about it. If you have a soldier that's out there that's in the trenches, I think that God gives those that are doing the work that are in the battle the ammunition they need. But if you're not out there doing the work and if you're not out there in the trenches and you're not out there actually fighting the battles, why would He give you more ammunition if you're not using what you have? I mean, think about it, if you had a thousand rounds of ammunition but you don't use it at all, why would He just be stacking ammunition with you? When the guy over here is like on his last round because he's fighting to the very end, guess what, more ammunition for that guy. And I believe that all this works together for the perfect will of God. And one thing to think about too is that we want to always be abounding in it and go to Romans chapter 11, Romans chapter 11 and this is something that you can't I can't show you you have to experience it for yourself. I can tell you that the Bible is infinite in knowledge. You can't really know that until you find out yourself. Because you can look at it and be like, you know what, I hear the Bible I listen to the Bible and it's like, okay, what's so complicated about that? I read this story over here, what's so deep about this? And you can think about that, but listen, until you are doing the work of God and you're reading the Bible and you're studying the Bible to the point where you just realize there is no end to the depth of the knowledge and wisdom that's in the Bible. I mean, it's magnificent. It's almost to the point of kind of daunting to the point where you're like, man, where do I even start? And you have to be like, alright, I'm just going to start over here and see what happens. I'm going to go over in this book and just really study this thing out or this doctrine, I'm going to study this out. But notice what it says here in Romans chapter 11 verse 33, it says, How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out? That's a true statement. That's not being hyperbolic. What do you mean by hyperbolic? Meaning like you're just going overboard with your statement, right? It's just kind of like being this grandiose statement, it's not really that deep. It's not really that, you know, when it says past finding out, I mean, you can find it out. I don't believe it is past finding out in this life. When we, the finite type of intelligence and brain that we have, I don't believe we can find out the depths of the knowledge of God. I mean, think about it, I know this is kind of an inside thing, but we were talking about the Mandelbrot equation. And brother Chris knows, he wasn't there to talk about it, but he knows. If anybody, if you ever want to look up something that's very interesting, a mathematical equation called the Mandelbrot equation, where the fractals and all the stuff that's just in this mathematical equation that just they just discovered in the 80s. And the mind of God. I mean, you could spend your whole life just looking at that. Just that one equation and that one thing that God obviously put in, you know, has made. And that's not Bible, that's just mathematics right there. But the Bible is that way, and listen, if you understand that, at least if you believe that, then what are you doing if you're not reading it? Right? I mean, if you really believe that it's unsearchable and that there's no depth to it, then you're never going to be reading through it and be like, well you know, I've read through that thing 20 times, I've read through that thing 40 times, I've read through that thing 100 times, I don't care if you read through it 1000 times, you're not going to reach the depths and find the depths of God's knowledge. We don't have the capability of finding that knowledge, but you know what? I'm going to try to learn as much as I can though. Whatever I can attain, I'm going to try to attain it. And, you know what, and listen, I'm not just trying to attain it just to know it. The idea is like, what's good is all that knowledge if you're not using it for something. I want to use it so I can tell other people about it. Then they can use it. But ultimately, you know what, everything that's in the Bible is there for us to use. It's for our admonition. Right? All the Old Testament stories and all that stuff, it's for our learning and admonition. It's for us to use. It's an example. All those things are to show us, hey, here's how you should live. Here's how you shouldn't live. So, we need to add knowledge on a constant basis. And go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 4. The Bible talks about giving attendance to reading. The Bible says, till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, and we need to read. We need to read. The Bible talks about blessed are those that hear and those that read. And so I do both. I listen to the Bible and I read the Bible. And you say, well, I listen and read to it at the same time. Great! Whatever you prefer, right? I think there's a blessing in both. But that being said, you need to give attendance to that because it's going to give you good doctrine. But you can't just say I'm going to read and that's all I'm doing. I believe that there's going to be a plateau that you're going to reach with your knowledge. I think you're going to maybe get all the milk of the word, but you're not going to be able to decipher that strong meat. And you may think you're deciphering that strong meat, but you end up getting in the false doctrine. And so in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 4 it says, I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we're talking about basically being enriched in knowledge and all knowledge knowing God, ultimately there's a reward for it. There's a reward that we don't come behind in any gift that we abound in everything. Whether it's knowledge, whether it's utterance, whether it's faith, we need to try to abound in that. And obviously this whole series is dealing with these different things that we are to abound in. And so when you're dealing with this, okay, what do I start off with? Start off with virtue. I believe this is a list of progression. Start off with virtue. Be like, hey, I got saved, first step of obedience, I'm going to get baptized. Alright, I did that, okay, I need to try to keep the commandment. And you say, well how can you know what commandment is to keep? Well listen, good thing that God actually wrote His law in your conscience. I mean, you know it's wrong to steal. You know it's wrong to murder. You know it's wrong to lie. Start with that. And obviously you can, you're reading as you're going on. The idea here is that as you're keeping the commandments and doing what you should be doing, God sees that and I believe He's going to pile on that knowledge. I think that God wants, I think God wants to pile on as much knowledge and wisdom as you can handle. But, I don't believe He's going to pile on somebody that refuses to do anything that is already given to them. So, I'm trying to see what I want to get into here, because I'm about done here. Go to Isaiah chapter 33. I mean I'm almost done with the sermon, not like done, like I'm going to pass out. I'm tired, but I'm not that tired. About done folks. Put a fork in me. When it comes to adding to our faith, the big thing that I see with this is that we want to add stability to our faith. We want stability. And that we don't want to be wavering all over the place. We want to be stable. And notice what it says here in Isaiah 33 and verse 5. The Lord is exalted, for He dwelleth on high. He hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness, and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of Thy times. In strength of salvation the fear of the Lord is His treasure. You want stability? You need wisdom and knowledge. The Bible says this in Colossians 2, 6, it says, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Rooted, built up in Him, grounded in the faith, it says in chapter 1. Does anyone have an invite on them at the moment? A church invite? I might have one up here. I meant to grab one. Thanks brother. I want to read to you what our statement or what our mission is in our church. We are a young, local New Testament church with the desire to reach all north central West Virginia with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, preaching the gospel. We are an independent, fundamental, King James Bible only, soul winning, hard preaching Baptist church. And by the way, we're unapologetic of all those. But notice what it says. The next thing it says, We are a family integrated church with the desire to edify believers with the word of God so that they will be well grounded and rooted in the faith. That's a big part of the mission of our church. I mean, think about the great commission is to win the lost, to go out and preach the gospel to every creature, but to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. But also to teach them to observe all things. So, when you're observing all things and you're getting that knowledge and edification, you know what that is? You're getting stability. And listen, if there's any time that you need stability, it's in these times. If you want stability, if there's any time for a need of it, it is now. Because right now, everything is just falling off the wagon. I was going to read, go to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Listen, as believers, everybody should be increasing in knowledge, but how much more should the pastor of the church My job is to feed you. I mean, by definition as a pastor, my job is to be the shepherd of the flock. I mean, one job is obviously to fight off the wolves. But a big part of the job of the shepherd is to lead you to the water, lead you to the food, make sure you're fed and nourished. And how am I supposed to nourish you if I don't have any knowledge myself? I believe the pastor should be always trying to be above on knowledge and wisdom and understanding than those in the church. That's my goal. I'm not saying I attain that, just so you know. I'm not claiming to be smarter or have any more knowledge than anybody in here, but at the same time I'm not to be the lowest on the total pole when it comes to that. But I'll say this, my goal is to always be up here when it comes to wisdom and knowledge and understanding so that I can teach others. And Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11 says He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So listen, we're talking to believers here, but he's talking about coming unto the knowledge of the Son of God and unto a perfect man. We're talking about going on to perfection and knowing God, knowing the Lord. And that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. And really this comes down to the fact that if you're being tossed to and fro, you're not stable. The Bible talks about if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abraighteth not. But it also says ask in faith nothing wavering. He that wavereth is like the wave of the sea tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything in the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. You want wisdom, then you better have the faith that God is able to give you that wisdom and to not be unstable and double-minded. And go back to 2 Peter chapter 1 and we'll be done. 2 Peter chapter 1. Ultimately, you add all these things and we're not, you know, we're just getting started with this list. You add all these things and these things abound, you're going to be a stable, well-grounded Christian. And that should be our goal. And 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 8 it says, for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. These things need to abound. If these things abound, you're not going to be unfruitful in it. And whether that's talking about getting people saved or whether that's just talking about the knowledge of God, you know, these things all abound in you, hey, that's going to be fruitful. But it says in verse 9, it says, but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you shall never, what, fall. For so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Meaning that you don't come behind in any gift, you go into that kingdom abundantly. You have an abundant entrance. You don't just have life, you have life abundantly. And that is our goal, right? I mean, you can get saved and you're going to enter into the kingdom of God and you have eternal life, you'll be there forever, but do you want to have just an entrance or an abundant entrance? Now, go to the end of the book, 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 17, dealing with this idea of falling. We don't want to fall. Now listen, stability will cause you not to fall. Obviously, if you do fall, the Bible talks about the righteous man falleth seven times and rises up again, so I mean, if you do fall, get back up. But the idea is to not fall, to begin with. And so, that's what we're training to do. We're training the adults to not fall. We're training our teenagers, we want our teenagers not to fall. That doesn't mean that if you fall, it's all over, just give up on life. Get back up. But listen, I'd rather you not fall to begin with. And I mean, obviously we're training the children, the same thing. Is that we want them to have stability and not just be ready to fall at the drop of a hat. Notice what it says here in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 17, it says, ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. So notice that when we're talking about falling, we're not talking about, oh you fell down the hill. No, we're talking about stability and not falling in your walk with the Lord. Falling from your own steadfastness. But notice what it says in verse 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. This is something we should be constantly abounding in, but I think that it's very interesting on how virtue and knowledge work together. And why virtue is mentioned first? Because the idea of keeping the commandments, knowing God and the fact that you can't separate those two, they're so hand in glove. You want to have knowledge, you want to have understanding, keep His commandments. Do what He tells you to do. The more you know, the more you know what to do, right? And they work hand in glove, and then obviously there's going to be other things to add on to that, right? It's kind of like, this is like, okay here's the meat of it, and then we're going to add on some temperance, and then we're going to add on some patience. And then kind of all-encompassing what we're going to be dealing with there when it comes to that, and I don't want to get ahead of myself, but hopefully that makes sense, and like I said the Bible, I believe, is very clear that those that are going to have a lot of knowledge and wisdom are those that do the work, plain and simple. And it's no marvel that churches that I know of that do the work have good doctrine, actually know the Bible well. And not only does the pastor know the Bible well, church members know the Bible well. And that's the way it should be. That's a stable church right there. And it shouldn't just be the pastor that's the only one that's stable. Everybody should be striving to be stable. And obviously in a growing church you're going to have people that are more stable than others, because you're going to have babes in Christ. You're going to have people that aren't at that level. Well that's the end of our prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for all the souls that were saved this past weekend, past week, and Lord just pray that you would help us to continue to go out and reach the loss. And Lord I pray that you would endow us with much wisdom and as much as we can handle, Lord. And Lord just pray that you help us to use all the knowledge and understanding that you give us for your glory, Lord. Everything that we know and that you've taught us, Lord, help us to use that for your glory. You deserve all the glory for what you did when you died on the cross and rose again the third day. And Lord we don't want to glory in ourselves. We don't want to glory in the fact that we know a whole bunch of stuff. We want to glory in the fact that we know you and that we can use that for your glory. And Lord we love you. We pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Now Dave will come and sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 115. Song 115 in your song books. If you would stand we'll sing No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus, song 115. I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus Since I found in him a friend so strong and true I would tell you how he changed my life completely. He did something that no other friend could do No one ever cared for me like Jesus There's no other friend so kind as he. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me Oh how much he cared for me All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me My heart was full of misery and woe Jesus placed his strong and loving arms about me and he led me in the way I ought to go No one ever cared for me like Jesus There's no other friend so kind as he No one else could send in darkness from me Oh how much he cared for me Everyday he comes to me with new assurance More and more I understand his words of love but I'll never know just why he came to save me Some day I see his blessed face above No one ever cared for me like Jesus There's no other friend so kind as he No one else could take the sin and darkness from me Oh how much he cared for me