In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of entering into God's rest. He references Hebrews chapter three, which talks about how Jesus has provided a rest for the people of God. The preacher also mentions a story from the book "The Normal Christian Life" about a drowning man being rescued by a skilled swimmer. He emphasizes the importance of entering into God's rest and not falling into unbelief. The sermon concludes by addressing the fear that may hold back a person from accepting salvation and encourages them to take that step towards God.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Amen. We're doing things a little bit different today. Emmanuel's responding to, I think, what he heard from the Lord. And we just start with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, O God, how you are calling. Lord, I am trembling before you this morning, O God. God, I pray, dear Father, that you can speak to us this morning, Lord. I pray, dear Father, that you can come down to us this morning, Lord, and give us your grace, Lord. Dear Father, I'm not convinced that there's not some people that were sitting there during that altar call, Lord. Dear Father, I think there were. O God, do not pass us by, Lord, I pray. Dear God, but have mercy upon us in long-suffering, Father. And I pray right now that you would go for that one in 99, Lord. Go and seek Him, Father. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen. If you could pray for me this morning, I am naturally trembling coming up here. When Brother Aaron asked me to give the message, of course, I didn't know that he was going to give the first message, but it would be like our dear pastor to give a sermon on taking the lesser seat and then give a real example of doing it. God bless you, brother. The Lord has spoken a lot to me during that mission conference, too, and it spoke to our family. One of the things that really hit me in that was when he was talking there about the whole purpose. We talk about the place of Christ and the position of Christ, but then just like what Brother Aaron was saying today, it goes somewhere. It reaches someone. And Brother Denny brought up the analogy of the Moravians and the kind of witness that they had. And I thought, do you think the Moravians were that different than we are? Do you think they were? Do you think they didn't struggle with their children? That they didn't struggle with their families? Do you think they didn't have financial problems or something else? No. The difference was, though, they very clearly waited upon God, and when He said go, they went. There's a beautiful story. John Wesley, when he's heading to America as a missionary, he's not born again yet. He's a missionary heading to America to save the Indians. He writes in his diary later, but who will save me? And he's going there, and on that boat, there's a big storm, and the entire mast that was in front of that and holding that boat got broke off. It was that severe of a storm. And he said he writes in his diary, there was screaming and yelling, and he was panicking himself. And he looks over, and there was a group of people huddled together singing. Singing. They were singing. And he walks over, and it was the Moravians. And after the storm had finally finished, he went to them and he said, weren't you scared to die? They said, no, we weren't. Well, your children, weren't your children afraid to die? And the lady told him, by God's grace, they weren't. And it changed them. He said something. There's something here. So I see that's the difference. But what's holding us back? What's holding us back from being that same... It's the same God. The same way that work in those people's hearts can work with us. That we can draw a lot, and we're off. We're going to go to uncharted land in a boat that takes four months to get there through storms and everything else. Well, the message of the... That's not the message. Amen, that's just an overflow. God bless you, brother. The message today is, there were two trees in the midst of Eden. There was two trees in the middle of Eden. You know, sometimes a preacher saves the punch of a message to the very end, and I think that's very effective. But because at the very end of this message, I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to know exactly where I'm going with this sermon. I want you to know exactly. I want informed consent, as we say, into your soul as I go through these things this morning. And this is where I'm going to be. First of all, I'm looking for three people. This may be three groups of people, but yet it's three people. First of all is the Christian, who is a Christian, yes, but has no victory over sin. You continue to falling into sin. What I want to show you this morning is that God has promised a way for you out of that sin. The second person, as though you may not be actually falling into sin, you are constantly coming under condemnation. You are constantly feeling you're worthless. You're no use for the Kingdom of God, and you are no use for the Kingdom of God. You have stopped dreaming. You have stopped your vision. You have lost your vision. You have become unproductive, impotent. You are a bruised reed. You are the second person. And the third person, I'm glad that Brother Aaron covered this this morning, is a lost soul. And in particular in this case, a lost soul who knows the way of salvation, as it was preached here. Who knows that perhaps a young person who has been in a home, and they've heard the gospel their whole life, but yet they're not willing to come and take the step for fear, how would I keep going? You know, I've seen people fall. I've seen people fall. How would I keep doing it? So you fear. And there's something in you that makes you not want to take that step. I want to talk to you this morning. God wants to talk to you this morning. And at the end, I'm going to ask you three people, or three groups of people, a question. So again, the first is the Christian who's saved, but still falling into sin. The second is the Christian who is constantly under bondage, constantly feeling condemnation, and thereby no use to the Kingdom of God. And three, the lost sinner, who is afraid, who knows the way, but will not step into it. This is a message about sanctification, about being holy, and being holy, and obtaining that holiness by faith. Hebrews 6.1 tells us, Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works in faith towards God. You might rightly say, this is a common theme from this pulpit. You are right. It is a common theme from this pulpit. And I believe it's one of the beautiful things about this church. The fact that this pulpit preaches a holiness that's real, a practical holiness, a walking in a holy life, is something that's very lacking in the background that I come from. The fact that this pulpit constantly is preaching a holiness that is obtained by faith is something that I think is lacking in this area. And these two things together is a very powerful, powerful message. It is a common theme from this pulpit. May it ever be. May it ever be. Aaron preached a sermon just a few weeks ago on by faith. You're going to hear many of these things that I preached again today. Emmanuel preached often on appropriating the grace of God, of using it that's there. Why aren't you taking it? He's asked this before. Brother Mel just recently preached an opening on trusting in God by faith. I've heard Paul Lloyd preach these sermons on sanctification by faith. Denny preached two entire conventions on the theme Leadership of 2004 and Bible School of 1998 of this theme of holiness, of walking by faith into holiness and what God wants us. But see, it's not my point today. I want to come at it a little different. It's not my point again to talk about the theology or for you to have something else to kind of bring with you when you're struggling or to have with you to kind of figure things out. Really, that's not where I want to go. I want to offer it to you as a choice. That if it's by faith, then just like when you were offered salvation or as you were offered salvation this morning, you were offered holiness and sanctification by faith. Take it. Walk in it. So that's what I would like to do. And that's where I'm going. I'm going to start off in Genesis. I'm going to go from Genesis and I'm going to show you some of the origins of that. I'm going to do a little bit through the Old Testament and take you to Abraham. I'm going to show you four stopping spots in Abraham's life, which are four stopping spots in our Christian walk. After that, we're going to go and see how that stream of living water still was crying through the Old Testament taking us up to the Promised One, Jesus Christ. I'm going to go up through a little bit of misconceptions in Romans 7. And then we're going to conclude and we're going to look at what God has to say for us. I'm looking for three people. And if you're here, and I know you are, listen very carefully. The sinner, the Christian who's continually falling in sin, the Christian who's constantly under condemnation and you are no good for the Kingdom of God, and the lost soul who should have responded a few minutes ago. It's a common theme in the Bible. Jesus says, excuse me, it says all through the Scriptures, for me to live is Christ. Another place, for I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Hebrews, let us go in perfection. Philippians, being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Ephesians says, be filled with the Spirit. It also says, and know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Having therefore, in 2 Corinthians, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. I think of the song, Who can faint when such a river ever flows their thirst to a sage? These are promising words. Very promising words and very powerful words. But you know what? We will never walk in those words. Those words will never be a reality in our life if we are going to give a substitute for the Holy Spirit. Those are words by which the Holy Spirit obtains those things, but if we apply a substitute, it won't happen. Let me make that very clear. But they're wonderful words. But are we like Peter? Remember Peter and Acts there? What did he do? The Lord brought down a whole sheet. And in that sheet, they had all kinds of clean and unclean animals. And He said, go, rise, slay and eat. Get up, slay it and eat. What did Peter say? I'm asking you, what did Peter say? Not so, Lord. God is giving you great and precious promises. I'll do it. I'll take you. I'll carry you. I'll move you. Are we saying, not so, Lord. Not so. Somehow I think the church today is caught somewhere between the cross and Pentecost. We hear a lot of teaching about the place of Christ, our position of Christ, and that's good. We talk about our salvation through Christ. But Christ also taught that we are to walk in the fullness of life. He wants us to have a victorious life. It's very clear to see in the Apostle's life the difference between the cross and Pentecost. Do you remember it? It's easy to see. When Peter, after the cross and before Pentecost, what did Peter say? I go a-fishing. I go a-fishing. And the Apostles answered, we go also with thee. When we stop there, we take that cross, we do not walk into Pentecost, that's what happens. We go a-fishing. Our lives. We lose our purpose. We lose our vocation. We lose the whole reason we're here. We don't go on. We're no use in the Kingdom of God. And that's where God wants us to be. To have that purpose. He wants to take us to Pentecost where He gives that to us for a reason. For a reason. So, if we stop there, and I believe we have stopped there in some ways. We spend too much time on that fishing. You see, there's a possibility to be in a place in our Christian walk where we have eternal life, but no abounding life. We have a relationship without fellowship. We have a union without communion. We can have a life without health. We can have a privilege without enjoyment. We can have movement, but no progress. We can have peace with God, but we do not have the peace of God. It is simply not the will of God. I do not believe it is not the will of God that we be fruitless trees, waterless clouds, or savorless salt. It's not His will. It is not His will. What did Jesus say? I love the way Brother Denny preaches this on the Godly Home Series. This is the one where Jesus gives the promise in the last days. This is John 7.38. Of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. And what is the answer to that then? And he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Amen. I believe that's what God has for us today. He wants us that from our very being, everything that's within us rises forth living water. It's a purpose. He can use that. He can take that. So, again, the sermon is there are two trees in the midst of Eden. Turn to Genesis 2.9. Genesis 2.9 starts like this. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sometimes we kind of focus just on that bad tree or that tree of knowledge of good and evil. I've seen a lot of pictures. They have just the garden of Eden and there's just that one tree smack in the middle, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There's two trees in the midst of Eden. Did you get that? And now, one thing too, in a word, what is the knowledge of good and evil? In a word. If you had to put that in one word. The knowledge of good and evil. Sin lets you know the evil. The knowledge of good and evil is the law. It's there. It is the law. It's the knowledge of good and evil. It tells us the good things and it tells us the evil things. It's the law. So look real carefully here. At the very beginning, we had two ways. From the very beginning, two ways. Life and law. And there it was. Now keep going with me. Verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now, could he eat the tree of life? Yeah. Amen. He was offered that. But I give you one thing not to do. Don't partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know the story. I'm not going to bore you with it. The serpent said to him, he shall not surely die. See, I don't see God's words to them as something like, I'm going to send this punishment if you do it. He's talking from a reality. It's kind of like people say, would you take the Sermon on the Mount serious? That if you don't keep sinning, you should cut your arm off or pluck your eye out? I always reply, you know, the person who made hell gave that message. He knows how serious it is. And yes, so here I see God saying, when you eat that, if you are going to try to get that knowledge of good and evil on your own, you're going to die. And this is what happened. He shall not surely die. Verse 7. You know the story. They ate it and look at verse 7. And the eyes of them both were open. It was true. Open. Suddenly. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron. Keep going. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Okay. They were naked. That's right. They were there. But God was forming them. He just made them out of clay. He was their workmanship. Creating. He was making them. We were walking. We were having a relationship. And now you're hiding yourself. You're running away from Me. You're sewing this thing that you think is not going to fix this. And I read these next words not as just like a question, but out of the depths of the very heart of God we see this next question coming. Just like if you would have had a son that you had all your promises, your plans and all into and you found out he was defiled. I see this just as absolute grief in the heart of God when He says, Who told thee that thou was naked? I know you're naked. I know you have sin. I was dealing with that. You were My workmanship. And now you chose your own righteousness. You chose to be like God. And you partake of the law. Who told you you were naked? Hath thou eaten of the tree? He goes on. Two things I'd like to note about this tree also in verse 22. Go to verse 22. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. Note, God is a holy God. God knows good and evil. God cares about good and evil. And He was the sanctifier of this Adam. He wanted to do it. And He said, but now He's done it this way. And I read it this way that now He's ruined. But listen to what happens. And now lest He put forth His hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent Him out. Sent Him out. You know the story. Put a sword there. Put angels to guard it. Because now in His ruined state, now that He realized He could figure this thing out by going to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, He took it, and if we let Him now partake of this fruit, He's ruined. He's ruined forever. So the way I read that is they put Him out for His own good. God knew now what we have to do. We have to walk through redemption now. He's out now. There He was. There He was. Created in the image of God. But now His image is confused. Many years ago, an archaeologist found along the ruins of an ancient Babylon a brick that they used to make one of the walls. In those days when they would take a brick and they were going to do something like for public service, they would take a brick and the king would put his insignia on that brick. And on that thing would also be the king's name. Well, this brick is an interesting brick. Apparently when this brick was being laid to dry, a stray dog came by and stepped right on the middle of that brick. And although you can see the insignia, the name of the king is gone. And still today, we don't know what the name of that ancient Babylonian king was. But we see the footprint of a dog. It's the same way with us. Created in the image of God. But the image of God is marred by sin. The imprint of the dog is on it. He ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He ate of the law. But He did not eat of life. Knowledge without life. It's dangerous. Christ came to free this. To set this free. But the tragedy of our day is that we are this day in a church that's been so maligned by hypocrisy, sin and false teaching that we are once again walking right by that tree looking into the law to our cure. And I know in this area, we just look at that law as far as moral law. And it's true. There's a sense of moral law that's trying to obtain our own righteousness. There's also the same ceremonial law still goes on. Most of the people who claim to be Christians today follow a ceremonial law that they believe by going through certain sacraments or certain rites or certain things that God will be appeased. It's the ceremonial law. And still today, the heathens will still have some sort of law that they go through. Some sort of... I'll try to be good. They'll do charity. I work with some surgeons. They go to Tanzania over there doing surgery. Come back and... Why do they do it? They want to be good. They want to help people, you know. They're doing good. Albert Schweitzer did all kind of good. He was an atheist. He's in hell right now. They try to work that out. But listen, it's been prophesied to us. Listen to these words in 2 Timothy 3. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, false cuppages, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. Did you hear that one? He puts that with everything else. Disobedient to parents. Right there with blasphemers. You know, I don't think we make too light of this godly home thing in this church. I don't. It's right there with the heart of God. That disobedience with parents is right there with blaspheme. It's serious to the heart of God. Unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Listen to this. Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turnaway. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and let captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lust. And there's different ways for those men to get in these days. They don't have to just knock on the door. They can come in through the radio. They can come in through television. They can come through knocking on the door. We're supposed to turn away from them. But listen, ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth. Being in a church that preaches these things quite frequently, we run that risk of always learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth. I'm going to ask those three people a question at the end of the sermon. So I want you to pay very close attention. The Christian who is falling into sin. The Christian who is under condemnation. And the sinner who knows the way of righteousness and is not going there. Are you always learning? But never coming to the knowledge of truth. But God. I'm going to quickly now take you where I said I would. We're going to go through the Old Testament here just a bit to get to the point of Abraham. One of the main whole purposes of the beginning of the whole Old Testament is to take you from Adam through the genealogies up to Abraham. That's the purpose. If you miss that purpose, you're kind of missing something. From Abraham, we're to take that seed right through and see the children of God prefiguring the church and prefiguring and bringing you right up to Christ. That's the Old Testament in summary. A few things I would just like to point out on our journey up to Abraham. Genesis 5.26. I'm just going to point out some different blessings, how God puts in little blessings. Actually, this is 4.26. This is after Cain. They had Enoch in verse 18. He ascended into heaven because he found favor with God. We have Enoch in verse 26. Then begin men to call upon the name of the Lord. That's all we get there. Some kind of revival was going on. First revival, men started calling upon the name of the Lord. Keep going. Verse 8. I mean, chapter 6, verse 8. Look what it says of Noah. We know about all the sin of Noah. I'm not going to go through that. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. By grace, Noah found it and walked in it. And what did he do? He responded. We know that story. Chapter 10. We flip through. Chapter 10, we get the generations again that's getting us to Abraham. Chapter 11, we see the Tower of Babel and the generations that lead us to Abraham. And in chapter 12, we get to Abraham. Four things are possible stopping points in the life of Abraham. Number one, idleness. Number two, illegal holiness. In other words, a pretended holiness. Number three, a carnal holiness. And number four, a promised holiness. Number one, idleness. Not found in Abraham. Look at chapter 12, verse 1. Now, the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into the land that I will show thee. And I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. There's the promise. No Bible. No seminars. No nothing. Just alone with God, hearing from God. And he says, go. And what did he do? He went. Same thing those Moravians did. Amen. And then, when they heard it, they went. Okay? And he believed those promises. In that there, we know again, God, what did he do? He promised him an heir. He promised him that he would have an heir, that he would not even be able to count the stars of the heaven, would be like if he could count his heirs. And he believed that promise. So, if you're sitting there, and during that altar call, when Emmanuel was talking to you, and you sat there, then you've fallen into that first snare. Idleness. Oh, it's costly. Abraham heard God. No preacher. No sermon. And went. Got up and went. Second one. This one's easily missed. Turn to chapter 15. This is the legal holiness. Abraham hears going on. It's been a long time. He's about 86 now. He's heard this promise. He's walking. He just got back from the battle there, saving his brother there with Lot. Melchizedek has come and appeared to him and strengthened him. And now God, once again, comes down and speaks to Abraham. And he's excited. Listen to what happens in chapter 15, verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Amen. When he did that, Abraham said, Okay, I have connection with God again. I've got a question about this heir. You said we'd have an heir. I'm 86. I don't have an heir. I know you promised we'd have an heir. And since you promised, I believe you. But I think I've got it figured out now. You see, he goes on. He says, And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. And lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the... Excuse me. Chapter, verse 2. And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. And behold, to me thou hast given no seed. And lo, one born in my house is an heir. And what he was talking about here is that in this traditional setting here, if you had no heir, but you had a slave born in your home, raised your whole life, you could make this slave an heir. There was no real heir, but there was a legal heir. And you see, it's just like us, when God said, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless. We say, okay, God, I'm not really holy, but I have a legal holiness, right? I have this, and so there's nothing really happening in my life. There's no real changes. Nothing's really happening, but we have this understanding, right God? We have a legal holiness. I pretended holiness. It's from the background that I come from. I pretended holiness. It's not real. We just have this legal thing in heaven. Listen to what God said. I love this. Amen. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. This stuff's gonna be real. This stuff's gonna change your life. This stuff is gonna be something you can touch and feel and taste and walk with. That's what it is. So that's the second snare. Don't stop with a pretended holiness. The third one, I think we've heard preached a lot, but just to kind of quickly give you there, we know what he did. He kept going. Okay, Lord, thank you. It's gonna be from my seed. Years go by. I'm counting on the promises. Years go by. And then he finally says, and Sarah finally gets, saying, well, Abraham, this is not gonna happen. I've got it figured out now. Okay, it's your seed, but it's not gonna be through me. Why don't I get this servant, this bond slave, and you can have a child with this bond slave, then it'll be your heir. Doesn't that work? We've got it figured out. We can do this thing by our own strength. Enough of this waiting. Let's do it. We know the story. He ends up with Ishmael. Ishmael grows, and finally they did get Isaac. They got Isaac, and what happened? Ishmael persecuted Isaac. And it ended up having to do that they put Ishmael out. Well, in time, Ishmael's descendants moved to east and the south of the promised land and became collectively known as the Arabs. And still today, 4,000 years later, from that moment, 4,000 years later, the conflicts between the children of Sarah and the children of Hagar wage on. Every time you go by that paper, every time you see it, what's the front page? Ishmael and Isaac. Oh, the depth of the misery when we use carnal means to accomplish spiritual things. It's in Ishmael. That's the third way. The fourth way was His promise. Amen. We know the story again. He gets Isaac. He has it. Getting Isaac was a promise in itself, but that's not the real promise. And I know Brother Aaron just preached on this the other day, so I'm not going to go into anything about it. But you know the story. He took Isaac and believing those promises of God more than even the laws of nature, that if I take this sword and I put it into my son, he said, but of Isaac shall thy seed be. If I kill him, though, I don't understand this. All I know is that he promised the promises of God. And he believed it. Being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he had also able to perform, he reared back and it was stopped. And hallelujah, amen. Aaron preached on that the other day. He was stopped. He was able to go on. It prefigured our Father giving Christ. There's lots of symbolism in there, but the fact is he learned to walk by promises. He learned to walk by it. So we go on. The history of Israel. We know it. And one thing I wanted to bring out in Exodus 17, the history then for the rest of the Bible goes in and it's about the people of God. And what happens? Do they trust in God? Do they trust in man? They don't. They don't. They trust in man. They fall over and over and over and over again. Here very early, we see in chapter 17, an interesting word used of God in his talking about how he's feeling. And chapter 17, verse 1, and all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin. That's where they are. This is where they were thirsty. They were crying and saying, oh, you've led us into the wilderness. Sure, you're going to lead us into the Promised Land. Well, where's the water? He gave it to Moses. He said, okay, give them water. And then listen to what he said in verse 7. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord. Those words give the idea, the word picture of provocation or exasperation. How much can I continue to give you? And you're still griping. And listen to what they said. Grieved him by saying, is the Lord among us or not? That means yes, in the problems of our life. When things aren't going right. When we're struggling with our children. When we're struggling with our jobs. When we're struggling in our Christian walk. Yes, struggles are part of life. But not is God with us or not. That's what exasperated God. That's what exasperated Him. In Hebrews, He tells, Hebrews picks this story up again. And that three people remember again. The Christian who's falling into sin. The Christian who keeps coming under condemnation. And the one who is not able to walk. Listen to this, you who are not able to walk. You who know the way of salvation. Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. This is the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved for the years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but He that believed not. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. We go on, but through that, we go back to that tree. We see that tree and we see that life. Turn with me, if you would, to Ezekiel. We're going to pick up that tree again. You remember the sermons we've heard priests before about the water, and you keep going deeper and deeper. And He's showing them a mystery, a future temple. And He says there, and He takes the measuring stick and He goes to the ankles, and He goes to the knees, and finally, He's just swimming in that river. Well, listen here a little bit more. That's Ezekiel 47, verse 6. Right before that is all when He's explaining those waters. In verse 6 He says, And He said unto Me, Son of Man, hast thou seen this? Then He brought Me and caused Me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I returned, behold, at the brink of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Verse 9, And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth which moveth whithersoever the river shall come shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish. Amen. What did Jesus say He was going to make His apostles? Fishermen of men. And there will be a great multitude of fish because these waters shall come thither for they shall be healed and everything shall live whether the river cometh. Verse 12, And by the river upon the bank thereof and on the side and on that side shall grow all trees for Me, whose leaves shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth a new fruit according to His months. God knows what you need according when you need it. He doesn't stash it all up at once according to the months He keeps giving it to you. Because they're waters, they issued out of the sanctuary and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for medicine. Who needs medicine this morning? Who needs it? For your soul, for your life. He's promised it there. Let's follow that tree one last place it's talked about. It's in Revelation. Turn to John's Revelation there. This is Revelation 2. He's speaking to the church of Ephesus here. The church of Ephesus is one of the only two churches that he spoke to positively. He gave some credit to Philadelphia and Ephesus. Ephesus, he says this, Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I've got this in my hand. He says, I know thy works and thy labors and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars. Amen. He's giving an amen to this church. You know, you're looking at, you've been able to come out of a bunch of wickedness. You've been able to come out and discern that there's things that are wrong. People call themselves big preachers and apostles. You've been able to see through it. Amen. You've been able to stand strong in holiness. You've been able to do that. Amen. But listen. Nevertheless, I have, verse 4, Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. That first love. You're doing all these great things. You're going forth. But you've lost that first love. Verse 7, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches, to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Oh, doesn't that just make you want to peer into that paradise of God? Don't you want to just get a picture of where that is and where that tree is? He gives us a picture. The very last chapter in the Bible. Turn to that. Revelation chapter 22. Oh, this is precious here. We're talking right here about something that is for your cure. For your food. For your life. It is there. Chapter 22, And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street of it, on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bared twelve manner of fruit and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. He's provided this for the healing of the nations. He's provided us that tree of life that was there. And what's not there, interestingly enough? The tree of knowledge of good and evil is not there. God knows good and evil. In Ezekiel 36, He says that He will implant that knowledge in our hearts. He will do it. He will cause us to walk in those things. But let's keep going. Looking at that river that flows, doesn't it make a lot of light on Jesus' cry there? When He says that He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture has said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water. What living water do you think He's talking about? This living water that flows from the very throne of God. If we believe in Jesus, it will flow right out of us. We'll be ministers of His grace and ministers of His love and ministers of His life. That's promised to us. Alright. Let's look at some misconceptions. Let's turn to Romans. Romans is a beautiful book. Paul summarizes so much there. We've had a lot of preaching on Romans. I know you have, so I'm not going to spend too much time. What I really want to go to is Romans chapter 7. But just to kind of take us there, let me step through just a little bit. He starts off explaining very clearly that all have sin. He shows what sin is. How it came into the world in chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3, v. 9-11, He says, What then? Are we better than they? No, and no wise. For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. And it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understand it. There is none that seeketh after God. He goes on. In verse 25, he makes a bit of a completion in his entire frame of thought here. And he says, Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed to the forbearance of God. And then in 28, he concludes his whole line of thinking from chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3. Listen to this conclusion and listen very carefully. Therefore, we conclude, the man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Conclude. Conclusion. End of story. Now, with that now, he takes us into the next line of thinking about our holiness, about our sanctification. With that truth being made, he knows your next thought is, Well, then, what are you saying then? Are you saying that I don't even have to walk in this? Are you saying that God doesn't require holiness? Are you saying then that easy believism? Oh, great, I can just walk and say I have this. I can have that legal holiness that Abraham said, Oh, I don't have a real heir, I just have this pretended heir. So, he's going to clear that up. He's clearing it up for us. But the fact that that question comes up shows that you're following Paul's train of thought, right? Or he wouldn't have kept going this and there. But he's following it through and he says in verse 31, Do we, remembering, we're concluding that we are righteous through justification by faith without the deeds of the law. Verse 31, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid we establish the law. Remember, what did God say there when He was discussing the problem of Adam? He's become like one of us to know the knowledge of good and evil. God is holy. His law is part of His very nature. And when He imparts His nature into us, He imparts holiness and righteousness. He puts it within us. It says in Ezekiel 36, He causes us to walk in it. He causes us. So, He goes in and starts to... He starts to, from this point on, until we get to Romans chapter 8, to explain what it means to still be struggling with this, but then to walk in the cure. He goes to chapter 4. He again brings up that Abraham. And He brings up here, in one of my favorite passages here in Romans chapter 4, verse 21, talking, remember what we just talked about, Abraham being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform. And therefore, because remember how persuaded he was. All I know is that God is going to do this. I'm persuaded of that. And therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, group number three. Person number three. The sinner. Who's afraid to walk. Listen to this verse. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. Do you get that? Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. You feel the build-up that Paul is doing there. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. Understand the whole point of Abraham. Understand the whole story. It was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Don't stop at that big five there. Keep going. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There it is. You're justified. Keep going. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. There it is. We're walking. We take that faith. We're justified. Within that faith brings us into an entire sea of grace, an entire working of God, an entire empowerment and moving of God that He wants in our life. It's there that by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. That's... I mean, hallelujah! Amen! Praise the Lord. So here we are. He continues to remind us. What shall we say then? Because we are not under the law, but under grace, do we sin? Because we are not under the law, but under grace, God forbid. God forbid. And again, to continue this line of reasoning, He takes us to Romans 7, which is where I wanted to take us, to Romans 7. How many people have heard Romans 7 used as an excuse to sin? How many? Yeah, just about all of us. Okay. How many can relate to Romans 7? Okay. But there's some misconceptions there. And I'm going to draw just a couple pictures here that maybe can, I think, help clear this up. He starts off in Romans 7 talking about a beautiful analogy about the most precious thing that we have, which is a marriage relationship. He talks about it there as far as the woman is married to a man. She's bound to the man as long as he shall live. He says that after he's dead, then she's free to marry another. He takes it very much, there's a binding there. There's something there that has to be entirely set up in its life binding. That's why all of chapter 5, in chapter 6, he takes us to total abandonment in verse 11. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead and deed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He takes that there to show that we have to die to ourself. But then entering into this life, he says, because of your death, you're free to marry another. Now, your first spouse was totally unforgiving. The soul that sinneth must die. You had good intentions. You said, but I'm trying the best that I can. I want to be a good spouse. I'm doing. The soul that sinneth must die. But I didn't break all the laws, just some of them. He who breaks any of the law is guilty of all the law. He answers back. All of it. So, it's there. But although he's completely unmerciful, he's also totally unable to help. He can't help you. He's there with all the regulations, but no help. No help. But now God, through His Spirit now, wants to take you back to that Eden where there was a tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was that law, but there was also the tree of life. And now because of the new Adam, because of Jesus Christ, the new Adam, He's able to offer you to do it differently this time and to partake of the tree of life and allow that law to be written on your heart. But here we go how He explains it. We know the familiar passages. For we know that the law is spiritual. It's good. But I am carnal, sold unto sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For that which I would not, I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that is good. Verse 17, now then, it is no more I that do, but sin that dwelleth in me. Verse 18, for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present within me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. Okay. This is the first little drawing here. I'm going to say a little thing about drawings. Every drawing breaks down. You know what I mean? I'm doing this for analogy, but I can see some points where this would break down, not for everything. If we start off being a tree, Brother Manuel's nice tree here, it helps many people. Okay. And we're having these sin fruits, and all these bad things. Everything within us, it rises up to sin, and it goes and it produces sin. Brother Manuel has preached this frequently, and it's a very good analogy of showing it comes from our very being. It just rises up to sin. Now, because we put the ax to the root, we're going to cut the tree off. And we're going to graft in a new tree. A new tree. And this tree, of course, is Jesus Christ, and it keeps producing love, joy, peace, goodness, meekness, kindness, long-suffering, self-control. Somebody comes by and they say, boy, look at all that fruit. You're really holy, aren't you? You don't understand. In my flesh dwells no good thing. Everything that I would have drawn up, everything that I would have produced would have come out as sin. Everything you see here of God, that's the fruit. That's the fruit. In me... Notice he doesn't say that in a past tense, and it's very important that you don't see that in a past tense. In your flesh dwells no good thing. Christ has implanted in you to redeem sinful flesh to produce these fruits of righteousness. Very essential. When we start to get confused with this, we come under some weird condemnation. When this starts to happen, and you get these suckers, what do you call them, coming up, cut them off. But understand, don't come under condemnation. Understand. Don't let it block out and choke out the seeds of God. Alright, so he keeps going. He keeps going and he brings out two very important laws. Look at this. Verse 19 For the good which I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after my inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? We know the answer. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But look, so then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Okay, let's say we've got a water here. We're going along in a boat. A big boat. And all of a sudden the boat gets sunk. It hits an iceberg. Okay, the boat goes down and there we are in the middle of the ocean. All right? Here we are. In the very middle of the ocean. There we are. Now, there's two things that are going on here. Two laws at place. Two laws. First of all, what's drawing me down to the bottom of the ocean? The law of gravity is drawing me down. It's going to kill me. But there's a law of his mind, he says, that believe me, he wants to be set free. I don't want to die. So I try. And I struggle. And here I go. And I'm swimming and I'm swimming. But I get tired. I'm up there for a while and I get tired. I start to sink and I come up. And I'm tired and I come up again. I'm tired and I come up again. What Paul is talking about here, which one of these laws can change? What do we need to do for this person here? What if I come by here and I say, OK, he needs some good swimming lessons. If we could just teach him how to swim a little better, he'd be stronger. And then he'd be able to make it, right? And I think he would last longer. You know, he'd last. OK, I see. My stroke is wrong. I can do this now. One nice way would it be to do to eradicate the law of gravity. Some people preach that. They say, well, in Christ, we can just eradicate this law of gravity and there's no more sin. And then you can just float. Hey, I can walk on water. You know, here I go. So, teaching him, yeah, it might make him all holy a little bit longer. Eradicating the law of gravity would be beautiful, but we can't do it. But notice what? It's not the one law. It's not the second law. It's the third law. Look at the third law. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You ready for this? For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. You get a lifeboat. The lifeboat comes up. This person then, he labors to enter this rest. He labors. He has to labor. He crawls and he labors, but eventually he's in the boat. Now I ask you, when he's resting in this law, is the law of gravity gone? Is he a great swimmer now? No. The law of gravity is still there. If he jumps out, he still sinks. If he's not so strong that now, okay, I've rested a little bit, I can keep going. But in the boat, in the third law, the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, he's there. God, You saved me. Now he's in the middle of the ocean. Is the journey over? No. It's just begun. It's just begun. But in the law of liberty, the law of liberty in Christ Jesus, He'll take us to wherever He decides to take us. He'll move us to any port He wants us to go. We'll be there and we'll say, Yes, Lord, where are You taking me? Hallelujah! And in that you can say, Thanks be to God. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But the principles are still there. That's why this 7 doesn't contradict himself. I used to always be troubled. Why then does he say, After the summary, he still says in verse 25, he mentions this property is still going on. Thanks be to God. But remember, in my mind, I serve the law of sin. He wants to serve the law of God, but his body's sin. It's a property that is always there. So when we walk in God, and if we get out of that boat, don't be dismayed. If you've been walking in your Christian life and you start to come under condemnation, realize what the problem is and get back in the boat. Don't be bewildered if you've got out of the boat and suddenly you start to sink. Suddenly you start to get tired again. Suddenly you think, Oh, I don't know what's happening. Rest in Christ. Labor to enter His rest. And walk where He wants us to walk. I said I was going to take this to a question. And so I'm going to do that now. Coming close to the end here, so pay attention. Galatians. He knows what... You know the Scripture, right? You heard it preached here all the time too. Listen to the words though, will you? Listen very carefully. Oh foolish Galatians. This is Galatians chapter 3. Who has bewitched you? You know that's the only time that word appears in the Scripture. Only time you see the word bewitched. Bewitched. Totally confounded. Totally what's going on? I don't understand this. I'm bewitched. Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth? This is only what I learned of you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect in the flesh? He makes it very clear. He goes through that whole thing. He goes through chapter 4 and he brings up that analogy of Abraham again. We preached this the other day. He came up there in chapter 4, verse 22. He talks about how that bondage in the bond woman and the free woman. And then one of my favorite verses again. Chapter 4, verse 27. For it is written, Rejoice thou barren that beareth not. Break forth and cry thou that travailest not. For the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband. Do you know where he says that is written? Do you know where that's written? Anybody know where that's written? Isaiah. That's written in Isaiah. And do you know the context of where that is written? That is written right there in our atonement chapter, the next chapter, where he talks about the chastisement of our sins being upon Him. That by His stripes we are healed. And all that beautiful language about His atonement and His salvation that we have through His stripes. The next word there is rejoice thou that are barren. Break forth and cry. That's what Paul is bringing up here again. That in the middle of our hardship, yes, in the middle of our struggles, in the middle of things not looking right, but the fact is you know the will of God. You know what the Word of God teaches. You're going to walk in that holiness by the grace of God and trusting in Him. It's by His promises. He will make it happen. Don't be idle. Respond. Don't settle for a legal holiness. Expect a real change. Don't do it in your own flesh. You'll end up with an ishmael. But be able to take it beyond all expectations to trust in Him. Now the question. Do you remember you three people? The Christian who's falling under sin. The Christian who has condemnation. And the Christian, or the person who's not a Christian but knows the way of the cross and is not going through. Turn now for the question. Everybody turn here. Get your Bibles up. And turn to Jeremiah chapter 13 verse 27. Hold it there for just a second. When we come into that promise, when we come into this boat, Romans chapter 8 gives us some neat things. Romans chapter 8 says this. You know it. There's no condemnation. In verse 1, there's no condemnation. In verse 6, there's no unrest. In verse 10, there's no more death. In verse 10 also, there's no more loneliness. In verse 11, there's no more inability. In verse 17, there's no more spiritual poverty. In verse 28, there's no more anxiety. In verse 37, there's no more defeat. We have total victory. And in verse 39, there's no more separation. These are things that are promised. Group 1, remember that they did not enter in because of unbelief. Group 2, Jesus says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to recover the sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Jeremiah says this. This is the question. This is the question. It's not my question. Actually, it's God's question. I have seen thine adulteries and thine nayings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills and the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem. He sees every single sin. Every single thing. But then He says this. Wilt thou not be made clean? Wilt thou not be made clean? And then He asks the second question. When shall it once be? Wilt thou not be made clean? Are you not going to be made clean then with all that you've been heard? All that you have heard? What more could be said than to you has been said? Wilt thou not be made clean? Then when? The loving Father says now. When do you say? When do you say? The loving Father says now. When do you say? Wilt thou not be made clean? The waiting Jesus Christ who shed His blood to be a sufficient and total way to cleanse us of our sin says now. When do you say? When? When? Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it be? The Holy Spirit, the awaiting Comforter and Sanctifier says now. When will it be then? When do you say? When will it be? Amen. I close with this little first verse of this hymn. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you He has said? You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled. Well, praise the Lord. Such a clear teaching this morning on the law and grace. I've learned something new this morning. That tree in the garden. I have to think that one through. I think it's right. Law, good and evil. Tree of good and evil. Very good. Well, I would just say amen to the message this morning. As you are floating across that sea of life, where are you at? Are you in that boat that was going down? Or are you in this boat here where there is safety and there is rest and there is peace? How to think of the children of Israel, how that they were delivered out of that destruction, but they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. And that is the type of the Christian life. Saved, have been delivered from Egypt, but wandering through the wilderness. Doubt and fear and not sure. You know, there is some victory and then there is some falling away. There is some coming up again. And there is falling into sin again. And that is just a Romans 7, may I say, Christian life. But there is a Romans 8. And there is a Canaan's land of victory. There is another river to cross. It's that river Jordan. By faith. You enter by faith. Not by trying harder. There. By faith. Oh, for the grace to walk, to rest wholly in the Lord. Thank you, brother, for sharing God's word with us so clearly. I had to think of that picture of that tree. I really like that one. You know how that old tree stump is there. The new tree of life is growing. And there you see Romans 7 so clear. You know, that which I would, I do not. That which I don't want to do, that's what I do. There is this battle between these two entities, may I say. It's my old nature and the new nature within me. There is a wrestling going on. That which I want to do, I can't even do it sometimes. And that which I don't want to do, that I still do. That's what I see there. But, enter into that life of fruitfulness by faith. You see it. It's there. I know it's there. Maybe someone else has something to share this morning. Just open up here. Brothers, get the mics. Get your hands up. Maybe you can express yourself this morning. If the Lord guides you that way. Just remind the Lord. Don't just want someone to get up and, you know, expressions out of here all the time. Let's have some fruit. Let's have some. The Spirit of the Lord speaking through us. Is there anyone? Hand back there. Anyone else? I just had to think of the second picture there with the lifeboat. And, think about how grateful a man would be. That would be out in a sea sinking. And have a lifeboat. And how utterly incomprehensible it would be for that man to crawl in that lifeboat and grumble. I mean, it should just be a joy. A happiness that he's in the lifeboat. And he can live there. Maybe he can even help tend the boat. I don't think the Lord needs our help. But we get to labor with Christ. And maybe we can help out in the boat. But it's not needed to keep us up. We're in the boat. And we should be thankful people. We should be joyful. Because we can rest. We don't have to struggle anymore. I just thought that's a natural fruit of the tree. But it's also a natural result of getting in the boat. It's a life of joy and happiness. Amen. Thank you, Brother. Another hand in the back. Yes, amen, the message. That really spoke to my heart. I really appreciate that, Brother. I thought of some verses here that came to my mind as I heard some of that. It says here in Hebrews 3, it says, There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that has entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. I thought of the book by Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life. Watchman Nee tells a story in there about a man who got a cramp while he was swimming. He was drowning in the water. There was a good swimmer there. They asked that good swimmer go out and they rescued the man who was drowning. The person who was able to swim just kind of stood around and didn't seem like he wanted to go out there. He waited and waited. All the people watching started to get upset. Finally, when the man was just about given up, the good swimmer with a few clean strokes got out there and rescued the man. Later on, they asked him about that, why he had done that, why he had waited like that and made that man suffer. He said, Well, if I had gone out there originally when he was first struggling, he would have grabbed hold of me so fast, he would have pulled me down. I had to wait until that man had given up his own works, I guess I would say, and wait until he was ready to be rescued and have that life. I thought of one other thought here when Brother Denny had preached a message once about, I'm not sure the total context of it, but the point that stuck out to me was he had held a broomstick up and he had held it in the palm of his hand and he said, you know, if he looks down at his feet and tries to balance that vertically, that it always falls. But if he looks to the top of that and he looks up there to hold it up and balance it, that his feet just go where they need to go. And I would say that we need to look to Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of our faith and look away from all that will distract us and our feet will just naturally go where God wants them to do if we're looking to Jesus as our life. Amen. Thank you, Brother. He that is entered into his rest, God's rest, he also has ceased from his own strivings, his own attempts to be holy, his own attempts to be approved, his own attempts to try to please God. You can't please God in the flesh, but he that has entered into that rest has ceased from his struggles for holiness. How many of you can relate to this message this morning? How many of you understand what he's talking about when he's talking about that struggle? Let me see your hands. Do you understand what was said here this morning? The sinner doesn't really struggle with that one so much. He struggles with guilt and sin and condemnation, but there's many Christians who wrestle with the old man and the new nature between trying to find their way. Anyone else here? I just want to praise the Lord that I've been swimming in a sea of dead works and striving, and the Lord is setting me free, and I can say with my whole being this morning, hallelujah, praise the Lord to this message. I just want to thank everyone that's been speaking into my life to try and get this point across to me. I just can't thank God enough. I know that I am still facing my battles, but I'm not sinking in the depths of despair I was before. I'm going by faith and knowing that I'm accepted by him. I'm his beloved, and I just want to thank everyone that has participated in that and praise God and give him all the glory for the joy that's been coming back into my life. I'm so excited. Amen. Amen. I rejoice with you. Okay, well, thank you for the input there, some of you. I trust that God will continue to guide us and direct us, and I want to encourage you if you're here today and you're resting and going through that struggle, whether it be with salvation, whether it be with condemnation or failure as a Christian, I want to encourage you to get some help. You don't need to stay there. Don't just stay there, jump in the boat, like that swimmer. Let God have his way in your life. There's power to live that Christian life.