August13_2023_psalm70_2peter1_2

The speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the new day and acknowledging God's control over their life. They offer their entire life as a sacrifice to God and ask for transformation. The speaker then discusses Psalm 70, emphasizing the importance of sacrificial worship and recognizing the need for God's help. They mention the triunity of God and highlight the timing of God's deliverance. The speaker explains that David prays for those seeking to harm him to be confounded and turned backward. They emphasize the need to seek and inquire of God and express joy and gratitude for his salvation. The speaker concludes by discussing Psalm 71, where David asks God to hasten and deliver him. They encourage staying in the secret place with God and letting him be magnified. They mention the importance of a heart of gratitude and express the need for God's help and deliverance. August 13th, 2023. Treasures in Christ, Psalm 70. Jehovah, not Saul, our Lord God, who delivers. Psalm 71. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. O Heavenly Father, we're just so grateful for this new day. We're grateful that you chose to bring us into this new day by keeping us through the night. We worship you, Almighty God, because you are the King of kings and Lord of lords, the very one who determines these very things, for you control our very life and breath. We worship you today by bringing our entire lives as a living sacrifice today, Lord, holy and pleasing to you. We want nothing left out, Father God. We want no rock unturned. We want no page not read, Father God, today by you. We want you to search out our lives, Father God, to transform us in the very ways that need to be transformed. We know it's the working power of your Holy Spirit and it's the sanctifying work of your Spirit that does these very things. So we thank you for that Holy Spirit of power. We're grateful, Father God, for the process. We're grateful for the salvation we have through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, giving us the very direction we need to go in life. So we thank you for this truth, Father God. I pray it will be transformed into nature in Jesus' name. Amen and Amen. Well, let's take a quick look, see. We're going to take a look at Psalm, I'm going to take a look here at Psalm 70. And it's a psalm of David and it's to make remembrance or to bring remembrance or make memorial. Sometimes we just have to remind ourselves when we're in the midst. And of course, as David always does, he shows us that, you know, we have to start off in sacrificial worship. Without that, nothing else is possible. It's useless, you know, everything is vain. If we build a house without the Lord, the house is built in vain. So in verse 1, chapter 70, verse 1, it says, Make haste, O God. And again, this is the kingdom. This is when we see God, we see the over-lighting, rulership authority, the precepts, the intentions of the kingdom. And so he's calling to the power that is in sacrificial worship. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. See, God helps those who recognize their need for him. We see David recognizing his need for God right here. And then he's going to make it a little more intimate into the very path that he's going. Make haste to help me, O Lord. So it's make haste, O God, to deliver me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. He's got both ends covered. So that all authority and power, the ruling entity of the kingdom, and the actual one who shows him the way to go, leads him in the way. He's seeking help from both aspects. You know, from all aspects, really, is what this is. It's all aspects. And we know the help, then, is reflective of the Holy Spirit because, you know, Jesus hadn't been born yet. And God is omniscient and omnipresent. So the specific help that David was receiving, would have received, would have been from the Holy Spirit. So we see the triunity here. Verse 2. Now, David is aware of the timing of God, that it's God's timing. But I was looking at verse 1 there with the word haste. Make haste. That's not like, hurry up, hurry up. It's like, may that time come quickly. Because David was fully aware that it's God's appointed time, and that's the time that he wants it. Verse 2. I mean, in his flesh, he wants, you know, let's get that process, you know, let me get out of the way so that that process can run at its quickest speed. Verse 2. Let them be put to shame and confounded that seek and demand my life. Let them be turned backward and brought to confusion and dishonor, who desire and delight in my hurt. And we know confusion and dishonor, confusion, David was suffering from confusion himself as he was in the midst of all of this. It can really get our heads swirled. You know, he taught us, I was listening on the way up, you know, he taught us, you know, if we keep our eye on the issue instead of the help, if we don't remind ourselves of the help that we have from God, we can find ourselves in confusion, especially when we're making mistakes. This is, he's speaking though about a different attack now. This is not necessarily, we don't see any mercy and grace mentioned here. So, he's talking about what other people are doing. So, let them be put to shame and confounded that seek and destroy and demand my life. Let them be turned backward and brought to confusion and dishonor, who desire and delight in my hurt. See, when people are walking in wickedness, this is just what he's saying. But let's hear it, let's see how he carries on here. Let them be turned back and appalled because of their shame and disgrace, who say, aha, aha. See, so that one moment they're like, this is a good time, we're going to attack right here. When we're bunkered down in the secret place at the most time. We're going to have it come against us. Wait a minute, he goes on to say in verse four, to encourage himself. So, let's see, he's praying for them to be confounded, turned backward and brought to confusion and dishonor. Those who desire him to do wicked. And then let them be turned back and appalled because of their own shame and disgrace. You see, when God begins to make them fall by their own device, it brings a degree of shame and disgrace. May all those who seek and inquire of, verse four, and for you and require you as the vital need rejoice. See, he's not removing those situations, he's encouraging us to stay in the secret place at the most high, seeking, asking and knocking. God has to be our place of safety, he has to be our place of help. And then rejoicing and be glad in God because the promises of God will be fulfilled in our life. And we have to have a heart of gratitude in the process, of course. And we learn what the magnification process is, is that when the joy comes because God's fulfilling his promises and we're filled with joy, we're filled with joy and we're filled with joy and we're filled with joy and we're filled with joy and we're filled with joy and we're filled with joy and we're filled with joy. We learn what the magnification process is, is that when the joy comes because God's fulfilling his promises and we're having praise in our heart with gratitude for the salvation of God, then that magnifies God. So he's already doing the work in us, so his glory's already coming forth, but it gets magnified when we express to God the glad, our joy, which is praise and with a heart of gratitude for our salvation. Say continually, let God be magnified. And again, we can get caught up on this, you know, where it says, say continually, may those who love your salvation say continually, I guess testify continually, comma, let God be magnified. And the reality is, is it doesn't require any words. If you didn't have the ability to speak, you could still operate in this truth. So we know that it's a heart thing. When we see mouth, speak, say, these sorts of things, they're a reflection of our heart. And again, if no one's around to hear it and you say it out loud, did it make a sound, you know, kind of a thing? If you can't speak and you're mute, can you praise the Lord if you're mute or are you disqualified from praising the Lord? We've converted praise into a mechanical motion, and it's unfortunate, but that's not what it is. It's an outward expression of the joy of the Lord with a glad heart for the salvation of God. Verse five, he says, but I am poor and needy. Hasten to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer. O Lord, do not tarry. Oh, he's just, he's excited about that moment when God comes and brings that deliverance and brings the help he needs and the support that he needs. That word needy is reflective of help. And we know from verses, you know, two and three that there's some deliverance there. He needs some deliverance out of this place where he's filling this way. And the Lord is the one who will bring the salvation. And this is really a summary of the secret place. You know, we see this constantly with David. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and confounded that seek and demand my life. Let them be turned backward and brought to confusion and dishonor and desire and delight in my heart. Let them be turned back and appalled because of their shame and disgrace and say, aha, aha. May all those who seek inquire of and for you and require you as their vital need rejoice and be glad in you. And may those who love your salvation say continually, let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy. Hasten me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer. O Lord, do not tarry. Let God be magnified. And when I see that let, I see it as where we're not getting in the way. We're keeping that heart of gratitude. And we're keeping in the secret place of the Most High where God is operating and he's fulfilling promises and is coming out. He's fulfilling his promises of salvation and deliverance. So it's almost like, let it come, let it come. Let God be magnified. Let that, because then he goes into saying, but I am poor and needy. Hasten me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer. So he's in need right now and he's in need of this fulfilled promise of salvation. You are my help and my deliverer. Well, deliverance there covers that whole situation. O Lord, do not tarry. It's a beautiful word and it's a beautiful verse to show us what it looks like in the secret place of the Most High. So we're going to take a look at 2 Peter. We're going to take a look at the first couple chapters there. I was looking at 2 Peter 2 that had a but. Any time God's word starts with a but, then I know that I need to go back. So let's take a look at 2 Peter 1. It says, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle, special messenger of Jesus Christ, to those who have received, obtained, and equal privilege of, like precious faith, with ourselves in Christ Jesus. With ourselves in and through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is by grace through faith we're saved, right? This is the precious faith that we're given that gives us the capacity to walk, trusting and leaning on, relying on the Lord. It gives us the ability to do what David just did. What David just spoke, the position he spoke from, came from the faith that God gave him. And the grace, it starts with grace because, you know, grace is the gift. I mean, faith is a gift, so that is an act of grace. And we see that in this precious faith. And it's through the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ. And we add that title Savior here because it's the righteousness of Christ that saves us. And verse 2 says, May grace, God's favor, and peace, which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts, be multiplied to you in the full, personal, precise, and correct knowledge of Jesus our Lord. And it's so interesting because he's requesting more grace and peace and it to be multiplied. Not so that we can get that job promotion, not so that we can get a stack of cash, not so we can get rid of that diabetes, not so we can do any of these things, but so that we can increase, be multiplied to you in knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Because if we know God more, we know his way more, and if we know his way more, we know him more. We draw near to God, right? He draws near to us. It's a beautiful thing to pray for others, that God's grace and peace in the knowledge of God be multiplied in knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now, here he's bringing it down because we had the Christ of above, the saved salvation of God, and the grace and the peace and the journey to know God is to know his way more, which is the Lord is mentioned there. Now we see Lord, Jesus our Lord, and knowledge of God's kingdom and what he wants in his kingdom, and knowledge of Jesus our leader, and that just reciprocates, both of those reciprocate. It's a beautiful truth. It's a beautiful thing to pray for someone. And, of course, peace in the process, because we're going to make mistakes. We just went through the righteousness of Christ of above, so we know it's by faith, by grace through faith we're saved, and we walk in the righteousness of Christ now in the kingdom of God. And in order to walk in the kingdom of God, following the lordship of God, then we've got to know the way of God. And so it just makes sense. He just summarizes what our prayer could be for anybody in the body of Christ. Verse 3, For his divine power has bestowed upon us all things that are requisite and suited to life and godliness through the full personal knowledge of him who called us by and to his own glory and excellence in virtue. So we know that God gives us everything we need for life and godliness. This is absolutely everything we need. And it's through the knowledge of him. See, knowing him more is what gives us everything we need for life and godliness, because we just talked about Jesus our lord, right? And the kingdom, you know, the overall kingdom authority. And so we see knowledge of him shows us everything we need to live life. He gives us, number one, everything we need for life and godliness because Jesus did it for us. He showed us the way. He forgave us. He brought in his righteousness. You know, all of these things he's already done. And it's us knowing him more so we can know his way more. And he called us by and to his own glory and excellence. So when he calls us, it's his glory. Remember, we can't give God any glory. So when he calls us, it's so that he can operate in us and his glory can go forth. And that's his excellent way. Verse 4, By means of these he has bestowed on us his precious and exceedingly great promises. Okay, so that's what I was just saying. And he went ahead and said it in the next verse. By means of these he has bestowed on us his precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape by flight from the moral decay, rottenness, corruption that is in the world because of covetousness, lust, and greed, and become sharers and partakers of the divine nature. So this is an interesting verse because he says that because of this righteousness of Christ, as we walk in the kingdom following the lead of the Lord, which we know is given to us via the Holy Spirit, that's our actual driver, you know, Jesus is at the right hand, God is omniscient and omnipresent. So the very driving factor, the very law that we are following, the very directions we're following, is the Holy Spirit, who is the main line in the throne room. And it's to his own glory and excellence where he's operated in our lives and transforming us and removing those things of the flesh and his glory is pouring forth. And it's based on his precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them, through the promises of God to put this stuff to death by flight from the moral decay, see, that's a process and it's a morality issue here. It's a heart issue, right? It's not the fact that I just am addicted to stealing things and so now I'm going to prison for stealing things. Yes, he's going to want that thievery to stop because it's in enmity with his will because it is abrasive. Whoever you're stealing from is not pleased by that, right? But it's the moral decay inside of us that motivates us to do it. See, I had a hate for money in my heart that caused me to become that klepto as a child. You know, my mother and father, you know, I went from a house mom in the first part of my life, first seven, eight years of my life, my mother was at home. And I think when me and my older brother started school, then she went and worked in the school system so that way she could be home when we were home. My dad quit the military 14 years in and didn't get anything from it. It was a bad breakup and so he found himself having to go back to high school, I mean back to school and get a GED because he didn't have one, a high school diploma, which is an amazing statement about our military back then. So he had to get out of the military after 14 years and get a GED and go back to college to become a graphic designer because that's really what he enjoyed doing. So my mom went to work. So the first time in our lives after being raised eight or nine years, ten years, or whatever it was of our life, with a house mom, housewife, you know, house mom for us kids to no parents. And they both went away and did what they did to work and to do what not. Now mom was home a little bit in the beginning, but again at some point it transitioned into complete working home by both parents. And, you know, I just, the way I responded in kind and rebellion to that, what I felt was neglect for the sake of money. And money became this driving force, this thing in our home that it was all about how we looked and what we had, and it just really developed this real, I had a moral decay in me, a rottenness and corruption that said I'm just going to abuse money, I'm going to blow it whenever I have it, and I'm going to start stealing it and taking it from others, and then just so I can blow it. You know, it was a weird way to be, but I was in this place of moral decay. It was a process. It wasn't this momentary thing. The point was it's not a momentary thing. It's a process, and we're trying to escape out of the process of the decay process and get into the life process, right? So we need the promises of God to operate in our life, to be fulfilled in our life, to put the death and deeds of the flesh to be able to do this. And in the process, it transforms the heart so that we no longer have moral decay. This is then, it says, so that through them, let me just read all of verse 3 and 4. For his divine power has bestowed upon us all things that are requisite and suited to life and godliness, through the full personal knowledge of him who called us by and to his own glory and excellence and virtue. By means of these he has bestowed on us his precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape by flight from the moral decay, the rottenness and corruption that is in the world, because of the covetousness, lust, and greed, and become sharers and partakers of the divine nature. So this is what he's doing. He's transforming us into the likeness of Christ. And this is the process. So he's talking about the sanctification process here. This is absolutely what he's talking about. He's giving us some pro tips to the things that kind of stimulate it. When we start to lust and greed, like I was greedy for my parents' time, as that same example, and then it turned into a lust to just take more and abuse more, and go as it decayed more and more, the morality in me in that area, to the point where I would steal from companies and people, and, you know, thievery was not a hard thing for me. I didn't give it any thought at some point because of the moral decay. But it began as this covetousness for either lust, greed, for more of my parents' time, whatever it was that motivated it, I'm just speculating because that was a lot of years ago. But it's so that he can put to death the deeds of the flesh, this is what he wants to do, because at the end of the day, this process, this beautiful process, and why we're so grateful for it, is that when we're in this process of God's promises putting to death the deeds of the flesh, then we are partakers now of the divine nature, which is eternal. So when Jesus looks at us at the end day, he's going to say, I knew you, come over here into the celebration. We have to be partakers in this process, we have to be sharers in this process. If outside of this relationship right here, and this is the relationship, you know, God is spirit and we must worship him in spirit and in truth. He is not a human body that we can sit next to us and just kumbaya with, and let me open the door for you, and let me just try to love on you by helping carry your burden in life. But this is why carrying one another's burdens in the body of Christ fulfills the law of Christ, because that's the only way we can do it in the temporal. You know, so we can't, because there's no other way to do it. But this is how we become sharers and partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature is this. God wanted a relationship with us, and he went to great extents to make it possible, to give us the grace and mercy and all of the righteousness of Christ, so that we can have access and freely gave us his Holy Spirit to guide, direct and transform us. This is an amazing relationship we see here. Well, the divine nature is what we're talking about, sharers in the divine nature. It's that moral decay he's given us some insight to, because it's a moral thing, it's an inward thing. It might express itself in all kinds of ways, but it's really an inward thing, and it's a heart, a matter of the heart, and it's decay. And I think of decay as a slow process. You know, something sits there and you don't pay no attention to it, and all of a sudden there's maggots in it or something, you know, a piece of meat, is what I was thinking in my head, and it starts to smell putrid, because the decay process has been going. Now, you haven't been able to see it, maybe initially, but eventually it will pour forth, as mine did, like I said, in beavery and all kinds of things. That's just one example. This is why God has given us all of his precious promises. This is why. This is the purpose of the kingdom of God. I mean, God's over-lining purpose is that none should perish but all should come to repentance. So everybody's come to repentance now. Now what is the purpose of the kingdom? To be transformed into the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And that doesn't mean into his physical likeness. That means into his moral likeness, the inner man likeness. And we know that from his life, he constantly, in every way, submitted under the powerful hand of God. So let's just go on and see what this has to say about this divine nature. For this very reason, adding your diligence to the divine promises, employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue. Faith. Exercising your faith. Walking in faith. Trusted in, leaning on, relying on the Lord. Walking without seeing the outcome with our hope and confidence in God. This is our faith. This is how we exercise it. Employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue, which is Christian energy, resolution, and excellence. This is what the idea is to develop not wishy-washy faith. To develop the ability to have our faith constantly able to be applied to God in every way, where we're trusted in, leaning on, relying on him. Now, we're going to make mistakes, but this is why we have to go back up to the righteousness of Christ. It's going to cover our mistakes. It's not about whether we make a mistake. See, if you take that piece of meat that's been sitting there for a long time, before it starts to fully decay, and we start to see holes form, decoloration, and all of the things that are taking place. It's not the same as if you take a knife and just poke a hole in it. You see, yeah, there's a hole in it, just like there is in the decay process, but the knife was a one-time mistake kind of a thing, whereas the decay was an inward thing. You know, this is an outward thing where you're coming from and you're poking a hole in it, but this decay comes from the inside and starts to eat its way out. It's different when we make a mistake than when we've allowed moral decay to set in. So, this is the process, the standard operating procedures to keep that from happening. You know, if we want to stay where David was at in Psalm 70, this is the operating procedures we want to live by. So far, he's given the kingdom operation in a nutshell. All right, where are we at? I think we're at 2 Peter. So, we're looking at this process now where we're in this relationship with God, which is a beautiful thing. This is an easy place to be grateful for this process. So, we have faith that's given to us by God, by grace, and we're exercising it because faith is an action word. And what we're doing when we exercise it is, because we're trusting and leaning on and relying on the Lord, we know that everything that we do is going to have excellence to it. You know, it's going to be, they use the word resolution, Christian energy to expound on virtue. So, it's that leadership that we're following now. And you have to develop it. You know, this is an interesting thing. This is all an action word, you know. We're not the frozen chosen, as I like to say, as Robert Duvall said in The Apostle. But this gives us the illustration that it's not. And so, faith is a motion thing. We're exercising our faith, and it's developing virtue because we're being transformed in the process. And in exercising this virtue that's continuing in this, with this zeal for operating God's leadership, we develop knowledge. And what are we developing knowledge? It says intelligence, which is the same thing. We're developing an understanding and knowledge of God's ways. And so, as we do this, and it goes on to say in verse 6, and in exercising knowledge, you know, once we know the way to go, we walk in it and we exercise our faith in this process and allow the Holy Spirit to transform us and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit as we walk. We're getting to know his way better. And then we get to develop self-control and self-care. Self-control. And self-control is that transition from the spiritual direction we're getting to what the flesh wants. To have self-control is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It's a fruit. It's an outpouring now. We're starting to see the fruit of God coming out now in the self-control because that's a gift from the Holy Spirit again. And it's that place where we come to, do I feed the flesh or do I be obedient to the spirit? And we find ourselves having self-control. Flesh control is another way to put that. And so we're developing this fruit in our life of self-control. And in exercising self-control, we develop steadfastness. The more that we resist the flesh and operate with self-control, right? It's developing steadfastness and patience and endurance that we continue on in this process, making the right decision, choosing God's way over the flesh way. And this produces steadfastness and gives us the patience. Now more fruit is starting to come forth. And endurance, we're able to endure. Like David was enduring in that Psalm 70 today, there was an endurance he was doing and he was being steadfast in the Lord as he was exercising all of these self-controls and virtue and knowledge and everything else that we see here in this passage. This is a beautiful illustration of the process. And in exercising steadfastness, develop godliness and piety. And again, develop is continuously used here. This is a process. This is not a decision we make. This is a lifestyle that we live. And godliness means now that we're walking in the way of the Lord. This is what godliness means. And in exercising godliness, verse 7, develop brotherly affection. See, it starts to pour out of us now because of what God's doing in our life and the goodness of God in our life. It starts to pour forth this brotherly affection. We start to have this affection for others, you know. We see a lot of the Psalms where David will, you know, he's got all this coming against him but at the end of the day, it's the salvation of their very soul that is most important to him. And this is what happens. And so in exercising brotherly affection, actually having a heart for others, which is what God wants us to have, this is the transforming work of God in us because he's taken us from self-centered to body of Christ centered. And this is what we see at the very end. And in exercising brotherly affection, we will develop Christian love. For all these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you. They will keep you from being idle or unfruitful unto the full personal knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Again, this is the path that God, when we operate this full system out, we'll see God has worked in our life. And all of these areas and led our life in all of these areas. And this becomes the fruitfulness and the action of the body of Christ. This is the action of it. It's not, you know, how many outreach programs we can go to just because it's that time of year. It's about this process of growing in our relationship with God so that it can be expressed to others in the body of Christ and be fruitful. And it's an increasingly abound. These are qualities. These are eternal qualities. These are eternal things, treasures in heaven. Because when we give into the flesh, we know we suffer eternal loss. But when we submit under the powerful hand of God in obedience to the lead, the Lord Jesus Christ is what we see, the Lord, we see Lord now. Lord is the leader. This is what he did. And he goes on to say, For whoever lacks these qualities is blind, spiritually short-sighted, seeing only what is near to him, and has become oblivious to the fact that he was cleansed from his old sins. Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous. Solicitous. Solicitate. Solicit. Solicitous. Solicitous. Be all the more solicitous. Solicitous. That was a tough word for me. Wow. Wow. Okay, I'm going to process that one for a minute. Thinking solicit, where you're allowing it to pour forth is like a promotion. You're soliciting something. And eager to make sure, because of this, brethren, be all the more eager to make sure, to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast your calling and election. For if you do this, you will never stumble or fall. See, so this is the process. This is the relationship with God that is going to make sure our calling and election. It's not what others tell us. It's not what certifications we can get. It's this. This is the process that does it. And it keeps us with that heaven-minded. You know, he's talking about that if we don't operate in this relationship, then we'll be short-sighted. We'll only be seen in the temporal. We won't be able to see that eternal with God goes on. Because of this, brethren, be all the more eager to make sure, to ratify and strengthen, to make steadfast your calling and election. For if you do this, you will never stumble or fall. See, then we stay on the rock. Then we're staying rooted in God. And he is where it hastens. And he will keep us from falling. Thus there will be richly and abundantly provided for you entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. See, if we don't operate in what we just read, we won't be provided entry into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why? Because he won't know us. At the end of the day, he's going to, did I know you? That's what he's going to ask us. And this is how he knows us. Have we been following his leading? Have we been allowing him to be fruitful through us? And this is in the kingdom of God. And this is what he's talking about here. So it's not a decision we make that gets us into the eternal kingdom of heaven. It is, well, the eternal kingdom of our Lord, which is now and for all eternity. It's this process. It's this process. And let me see what that phone. All right. So he took that phone call. And it's interesting because during the phone call, we had a chance to talk about some of these things that we're reading here. You know, this is the developing that God does in his children. And this gives us the stability. This gives us stability. You know, it may seem unstable in the flesh, but it's stable because, you know, we're constantly learning, making mistakes, and we're growing, and we're in this process. What did he call it? Developing. We're developing these things. These, well, it says develop them. But the reality is at the end of the day, it's the Holy Spirit that's really developing them. Because we don't do any, I mean, come on, what can we really bring to the table? We're the created, right? And so the Creator's working in us to get all of these qualities that are reflective of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. And when we let, when we, we have, and then we have stability. Ooh, whoever lacks, for whoever lacks these qualities is blind, short-sighted, seeing only what is near to him, and has been oblivious to the fact that he was cleansed from his old sins. See, that this is, when we have operated where we just operated in sin, it wasn't just a mistake we made, because we're going to continue to make mistakes. He's not talking about any degree of perfection here, as far as our part goes. But the old sins is a reflection of that old lifestyle where we just fed the flesh whatever it wanted. Now we're in this process of being transformed in the flesh, or transforming so that we can be transformed in the likeness of Christ. And when we're in this place, and we want to be eager in this, and this is the calling and election that God's given us, that we have this stability. And thus there will be, in verse 11 it says, thus there will be richly and abundantly provided for you entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that shows that it is a working out of your salvation of fear and trembling. And what does Jesus pray for the disciples when the devil is going to come against them and try to sift them like wheat? Does he pray that they won't make any mistakes? No, he prays that their faith won't fail, because in the process, this is a process of faith. And God's given it to us, and that's the beautiful thing. He doesn't require anything of us that he hasn't given to us already. But this shows us that salvation is not a decision, it's a lifestyle. And he goes on in verse 12 to say, so I intend always to remind you about these things, although indeed you know them and are firm in the truth that you now hold. Notice the two things that are there. There's a knowledge and there's a truth that we hold. So we have the knowledge which comes from the Holy Spirit, because understanding can only come from God in that way. The truth is the truth, and that's the nice thing that never changes, and we're firm in it now. So we're firm in our grasp of it because we're getting the knowledge from the Holy Spirit. And in verse 13, I think it right as long as I am in this tabernacle tent and body to stir you up by way of remembrance. Since I know that the laying aside of this body of mine will come speedily as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. See, we're just sojourners here. And this is why we have to be reminded and has to bring to remembrance the relationship, because we can be easily distracted by the flesh. David's taught us that in the Psalms, that how easy it is that the flesh can be distracted by what we're going through. He says in verse 15, Moreover, I will diligently endeavor to see it, that even after my departure to cease, you may be able to at all times call these things to mind. So that we will remember constantly, whether we're with somebody or not with somebody, that they will be in constant remembrance of the process of the relationship. For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, grandeur, authority, sovereign power. And again, it becomes, it's about that relationship. It's not about some cleverly devised story that we're just getting an agenda. I like to call it an agenda. We're not just following some cleverly designed agenda of some person. We're experiencing the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his majesty. For when he was invested with honor and glory from the God, the Father, and a voice was born to him by the splendid majestic glory in the bright cloud that overshadowed him saying, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. We actually heard this voice born out of heaven. For we were together with him on the holy mountain. And this right here, these two verses here is just showing us the triunity of God. And the qualifications of Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And we have the prophetic word made firmer still. You will do well to pay close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dismal, squalid and dark place until the day breaks through the gloom and the morning star rises, comes into being in your hearts. So what God said he was going to do in saving us and coming to redeem us, to have a relationship with us. It comes to fruition when it comes through and Jesus Christ comes through in our hearts. It's a personal thing. Yet, first you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of any personal or private special interpretation, loosening or solving. This is why God's truth is his truth. It's available to all of his children, all of creation. There is nobody that's got a special privilege of something that no one else has. And so this is why, because we all operate with spirit and in truth when we're in the kingdom. And so we all have that main line right into the throne room. There is no special personal private interpretation. For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it to do so. It never came by human impulse. But men spoke from God who were born along, moved and impelled by the Holy Spirit. This is where all of the truth of God comes from the spirit and the truth. It doesn't come from how much Adam knows. But also in those days there arose false prophets among the people, just as there were false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines, destructive heresies, even denying and disowning the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And we see this in Christendom. You may not see it because he just mentioned subtly and stealthily. So you may not notice it. It may look good. It may look very good. And I always use that example of, okay, every November of the year we're going to go do an evangelistic missionary trip. But what if God wants you to do it in July? What if God wants you to just focus on today and operate in this place today and allow the Holy Spirit to move and direct and be the master? But we can deny the mastery of God by scheduling him out. That's one example of a way we can deny and disown the master by running our own agenda. Now, it's subtle and it's stealthy and it's sly. It's not going to be obvious. We can't just look for the obvious things. I mean, yeah, the obvious things we can see and those are clearly easy to see that they're heretical doctrines. But when we start getting into things like the prosperity doctrine and we start getting into things like this Pollyanna doctrine or this formal gathering doctrine or the tithing doctrine, there's a lot of doctrines that are in the body of Christ that have been subtle and stealthy in their introduction. And it really is a false teaching. And a lot of times it'll be a false prophecy involved as well, where they prophesy falsely and they teach falsely. This sickness doctrine that we have, prayer doctrine that we operate, that Christendom tends to operate in, where we're only praying about symptoms. We're never praying about the root of the situation. We're always praying about the symptom of the situation. And this is just subtle and stealthy. Oh, because you should pray and all that. There's so many verses that can be taken out of context that can justify all of these doctrines. Because they've taken their agenda and they've tried to put scriptures to fit it. And it's funny because we'll see that in these formalized religions. Just looking at the denominations themselves have been a subtle, stealthy, heretical doctrine. Because God says we need to be unified and we're unified in the body. There should be no division among us. And we can see it in a lot of times these formal gatherings. They'll put statements of faith together. And they'll put a statement of faith and then they'll attach a scripture to it. But the way we're supposed to operate is we're supposed to operate in the scriptures and then create lifestyle from it. We should not have a lifestyle and then just find scriptures that fit the lifestyle. And many, he says, will follow their immoral ways and sinless, shitless doings because of them the true way will be maligned into fame. And we see it is maligned into fame today. Christendom is in a very bad way. And many, it's a large, large, look around. Churches nearly on every corner. Well, at least in some parts of Las Vegas, there's churches on just about every corner. It's a huge, huge thing. Many will follow. And in their covetousness, lust and greed, they will exploit you with false, cunning arguments. Oh, they have great, great arguments. Absolutely, without a doubt. I've heard, I mean, really compelling stuff where they'll pot shot scriptures and they'll just, they're very cunning. And it's their desire to have either more membership or more baptisms or more churches or more outreach or more tithes or whatever it is that they covet. They're lusting and greeding and coveting things. And it becomes an exploitation. And it's a false argument. From of old, the sentence of condemnation for them has been idle. Their destruction, eternal misery has not been asleep. I mean, it's not been idle, has not been asleep. And we can see it because there's no real eternal, we're not seeing a lot of eternal discipleship. We're not seeing generational discipleship and all of these things that scripture is saying.