This is no indication of what the morning will be like, but I think this is my shortest outline I've had in ages, but it doesn't mean anything, I warn you. Amen. We're going to be starting off, we're going to be continuing in the Lord's Prayer, or I like to call it the Disciples' Prayer, and we're looking at, once again, forgiveness. Forgiveness and fellowship, it all goes together. First, we looked at last week the fellowship that we have with one another in the church. Forgiveness is what keeps a church unified when that forgiveness is based on the work of Jesus Christ. And today we're gonna be looking at forgiveness being the way to keep your fellowship with God. Not that God ever leaves you or forsakes you, but we have a tendency to wander. As a matter of fact, this morning on the way here, I need to confess this. On the way here, I came to a stop sign and I did one of those California stops. You know what that is where you don't fully stop? No big deal, but that was sin. I broke the law, I sinned. And we might think of something like that as being just something, just move on and just keep on going. But that offended a holy God. So we need to have forgiveness, ask God to forgive us, as well as realize the forgiveness that he has for us. And that forgiveness is only in the cross of Christ. So with that, let's go and read our text in Matthew chapter 6 once again. Remember, we've been sticking with reading not the entire chapter of Matthew 6, but we've been starting off reading verses 1 through 15, because we're going to be looking at verses 14 and 15 today, and next week we'll go back to 13, and we'll see how that all works together. So Matthew chapter 6, verse number 1, or beginning at verse number 1, says, take heed that you do not your arms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine arms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret himself, shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetition as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before you ask him. After this manner, therefore pray, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debts. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And Lord, we just pray that you would add your blessing to your word this morning. And we do pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well again, forgiveness keeps the believer focused on Christ. Do you realize if you do not realize God's forgiveness of you, and He did forgive you entirely of every sin that you committed past, present, and future, was taken care of at the cross of Calvary. Tetelestai. It is finished, was what Jesus declared. And He completed that work. It was a transaction that was once made, never to be repeated against. Yes, Jesus Christ cannot go to the cross. He cannot go to an altar and be sacrificed day in, day out, week in and week out. He completed the work. And you know why and how I know that? Because the Bible tells it. And the Bible also tells us of His burial and His resurrection. So today we have a high priest who is seated in the heavens. He is making intercession for us. Why is that important? Because look at us. Look at us. I am continually growing older and older and older and older. Do I need to get any older? I'm up to about nine generations already. One more, older. That's 10, that's 100 years right there. We continue to progressively regress. We continue, no matter how much Botox or plastic surgery or anything you have, you are continually dying. But Jesus Christ rose from the grave. He is in heaven. And one day we will have a perfect body. A perfect, sinless, sin-free body. And that's what we need to look to. What happens today, and sadly in a lot of the church, as well as secular psychology and everything else, it puts the emphasis on what you must do. Has anybody ever, I know I don't know who half the people are or who any of them are that are on the cover of People magazine and stuff. I deliver them, I have no clue who they are. But I'm standing in a supermarket and they have a picture of this certain person before plastic surgery and after. People are doing everything to prop up their dead bodies. And by the way, most of that plastic surgery and the Botox, it's worse than what they were already. I don't know what they're thinking. That's the Hawley weird mentality. Amen? Tummy tucks and lip tucks and this tuck and that tuck and before long you've got more tucks than you have body left. But that's the mentality. Focus on me, myself, and I. It's funny, Carol just said that. She heard something today about it's all about me, myself, and I. What the church is. And I said, boy, you stole what I was just going to say. So I'll give Carol the credit for that this morning. But, that is the focus. And the reason that we, and I say we collectively as Christians, we lose hope sometimes, is because we forget. It's our flesh, it's our sin nature that we have. We forget how much forgiveness we actually had in the cross. We tend to focus on earthly things rather than heavenly things. I want to go back and finish up from last week for a second. Let's go to Matthew chapter 18. This just deals with how often we all know what's going on. I said go back, but go forward to Matthew chapter 18. I just want to touch on this just for a second. Let's skip right down to verse number 21. You know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna go back to verse 15. Again, it's important. It says, moreover, uh-oh, there's a moreover. Let's go back, but for time's sake, let's stick with the moreover. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go tell him his fault. This is in the way of church discipline, when somebody sins against a brother. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two or more, and in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. And if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Let me stop there for a second. A lot of people think that's binding and loosening demons. But it's not. It's talking about what happened before. It's what you allow or deem as being of God. It's dealing with salvation on one hand, and on the end of it. In the end, it's dealing with the testimony of two or three witnesses, then you're bound by that testimony. I'm so thankful, I'm bound by the testimony of God's Word. What my salvation, your salvation, is bound, it's by the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's the same example he uses here for sin on this earth. Whatever is bound or allowed here on earth is allowed in heaven because it comes from heaven. But let me get away from that for a second. Verse number 19, and again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. I have to go over this over and over. It's not dealing with two or three gathered together. Now we can have a church service or now the Holy Spirit can come and dwell because the Holy Spirit dwells an individual. without coming upon everyone. Every Christian is a Christian because he's been baptized by the Spirit into Christ. So again, the context of this deals with this judgment on a believer, or what's been allowed or what's been forgiven or not forgiven. Verse number 20, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Again, we were just talking about this on Wednesday night. I'm thankful for the judicial system that we have in the United States, because that's what this is based on. It's back found in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Romans chapter 14 as well, that two or three witnesses to what's been happened. Never ever should a court or a church take one person's testimony against another person. Anybody could say, or I could accuse anybody here of something, but if there are no witnesses, it would be thrown out because that would be hearsay. So that's what's happening here. Verse 21 says, Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him till seven times? I love Jesus' answer, but think of Peter's thinking, you know, we're gonna have the three strikes you're out mentality, seven strikes you're out, I'm gonna forgive him seven times, that's it, I'm done. But Jesus says this, Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, until 70 times seven. Try counting how many times you can forgive somebody. When Jesus says His forgiveness is enough, you're to forgive somebody over and over and over. But if that continues to be sin or wrong against you or anybody else you do as before, take it to Him. Then if He doesn't hear you, take it with two or three other witnesses. Then if He doesn't hear you, then you take it to the church. And then He's cast out as a heathen, as a publican. Not cast out of salvation, but we can no longer say, well, God bless you and your sinful endeavors. We can't do that. We have to let that person know who Christ is. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 deals with a gentleman that did grievous sin. And Paul said the same thing. Cast him out to be buffeted of Satan. Not that he would lose salvation, but he would get to the bottom, get to the lowest point in life that he would realize what great salvation is. And it's amazing how that happens if you just let it happen that way. Let's go on here. I wasn't going to go on, but Verse number 23, Now that's a whole lot of money. That would make Bill Gates, or who's the guy that owns Facebook, that would make them look like they were just paupers. It's an amazing amount of money. Talents are money. It's not about what you can do or can't do. It's money. It's a measure of money. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, the Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made." So this was the collateral. Give up an arm and a leg, your kids, your family, your wife. This is such a grievous debt that he had. So he took restitution for that pay. You know, all of us, we do indeed owe our entire life to God. What verse? Oh, verse number... 26, the servant therefore fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him. He didn't bind him, he loosed him. Here's what the difference, he loosed him from the debt. He now no longer owed that debt and forgave him the debt. Think of that. Try that for yourself. If somebody owed you a gazillion dollars and they said, look, I'll do what I can to pay. You say, just let it go. That's what forgive means. It's releasing, releasing the debt as God released our debt that we owed Him through the cross of Christ. We stand forgiven. Let's go on here and finish this off here. But, there's that good word there, but, the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence. This is literally a hundred pennies, like equal to a dollar that was owed. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me that thou owest. So think, he had just been forgiven the gazillions of dollar that was owed to the master and here was a dollar that was owed to him and he literally grabbed him by the throat, you owe me. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. So the second gentleman says the same thing as the first, I'll pay it all. Have patience. And look at the answer. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So for a measly dollar, he was cast into prison. By the way, verse number 30 here, this is a verse that is actually used by the Roman Catholic Church for purgatory. You go to purgatory until the last debt is paid. We don't know how many masses it'll take, how many dollars it'll take in paying for those masses, but you're cast into purgatory for that. That's a proof text for purgatory. That's not a very compelling evidence when you put the context in there, is it? Verse number 31, so when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then the Lord after that, he called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desirest me. See the picture that we have here? When our, and I turn this upon us, when our desire is the Lord Jesus Christ and His glory, His honor, the end of the Lord's prayer, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, we desire that and know Christ. That's what brings us forgiveness and fellowship with Him, the desire we have for Him. Shouldest now thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And as Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him, so likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother, his trespasses. Christ is not talking about eternal damnation. He's talking about fellowship with Him. See, we're held back from fellowship with God because we desire other things except for the King. Jesus would later say in chapter six, to seek those things which are above, where Christ sits. Not where Christ sits, that's in Ephesians 2. Seek those things which are above. Seek those things, seek his righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you. Now physically that deals with the nation of Israel and the coming kingdom as well, but it's an excellent example for us as well. Where is our focus? I chose turn your eyes upon Jesus this morning to sing that, because that's where our focus needs to be. Not on others who have betrayed you or sinned against you, not on yourself. Guess what, you're gonna let yourself down as well. Just like me in my California stop, I let myself down. How could I do that? If you ask my wife, she'll tell you I do it all the time. But it doesn't make it right. Let's go over to back to our text in Matthew 6. For if you forgive men, verse 14, for if you give men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Remember, it's dealing with fellowship on this earth, judicially, or not just on this earth, but with God, with others. Judiciously, we have been judged as sinners and Christ paid that debt completely on this cross. But here's where I can talk about abundant life. You want abundant life, you need to look at the forgiveness, which is in Christ Jesus. This is what keeps us focused on him. Let's go over to 2 Peter 1. I only have one verse written down here too, but you know me by now. 2 Peter chapter 1. Let's go to verses 3 through 11. It's more than one verse, I know. Says, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him. But I was gonna get to that one later. that hath called us to glory and virtue." As a believer, we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. He has called us to be in glory with Him. I'm glad I'm not in glory yet, but I look forward to being in glory one day. But for now, we're here on this earth. whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness. and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. Now without going through each of those, this way you could see progressive sanctification. That as a young believer, you continue to grow. The more you keep your eyes on Christ, the more you grow. You grow in patience, you grow in knowledge, you grow in wisdom. And to sum it all up, you grow in Christ. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. Where? In the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off. Where is Jesus Christ today? He's in heaven. Where is our goal? It's in heaven. How do we get to that goal? Well, the way has already been made through Christ Jesus. So we as Christians, because we're in the flesh, we tend to forget, like it's going to say right here. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Purged. I have a trash folder in my computer. Once in a while, I have to purge that trash folder. It's an accumulation of all the junk that is there, all the junk we were born with, all the junk that we carry, and bingo, I hit that key and it's purged. Same with what Jesus Christ did. He took care of your sin. Unfortunately, we still walk in this world today. Verse number 10, Wherefore the brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. God called you to salvation. You were elected because of faith in Christ Jesus. For if you do these things, ye shall never fall. My little note I made in human terms. We fall daily, but it's because we take our eyes off of Christ. The more we know, the more we grow. The more we know Christ, the more we become Christ-like. But instead, there's so many other things that get in the way. Verse number 11, for so an entrant shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So with that, I say amen to that. When you keep your eyes on Christ and his word, you realize the great expectation that you have in Christ. I'm glad to know that I didn't have to do anything except for trust him to have my way purchased and go to heaven. The root of sin, I'll substitute the word sin for modern day language, the root of behavioral issues, it's sin. The things you are doing wrong is sin. It's not behavioral issues or a disease. People drink and do drugs and do all kinds of things, not because it's a disease, but because they choose to. It's a choice. I love these nuts out there that want to kill babies because they're pro-choice, but they, yeah, you have the choice, you can do what you want, but don't kill anybody else for it. I'm pro-choice with them as well. I think they should keep their pants on. That's a side issue though, so. That's a good choice to make. I use that as an illustration, the fact that without knowing Christ, your choices are limited to the flesh. Sure, we can be moralistic and do certain changes, but without knowing Christ, what other option is there? People are blinded by their religion, blinded by their old sin nature. By the way, and I know I say this over and over again, we need to remember we do have two natures. We're both saint and sinner at the same time. But there are actually teachers out there saying, no, when you're a believer, your sin nature is eradicated. To that I say, have you looked in the mirror? Have you looked at yourself and how you're falling apart? It's one thing John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul, they believe you have complete salvation, you no longer have a sin nature, so now you can persevere in the faith. To that I say, I say phooey. Phooey to that. Because it puts the scope, the focus on salvation in you. Eternal security is eternally secure because Christ paid the price for your sin. And no matter what you do, you can be forgiven for your sin. This only one nature kind of stuff, it says that you have the nature, you could be perfect. So you tend to look back at the law and see how well that you've persevered. I'd rather look back and see how Christ has persevered on my behalf. He thought it not robbery to be like God, because He was God. He's the one that endured all trial. He endured the suffering and shame of the cross. for salvation, look forward to the glory which was to come. Not a disease, we choose to sin. Today I'll use my California stop again. I chose to roll through that stop sign. Imagine if we use that on the police. I'm sorry officer, I rolled through it because I have a disease. ticket, he'd probably sign it double. So yeah, you're pretty crazy too. You have a disease, the California, I'm gonna start a new thing, I think I'll write a book. How to solve the California Stop Disease. I'll have 12 steps to overcome stopping at stop signs. It doesn't work. I know I'm being ridiculous here, but just to illustrate how ridiculous things are, let's go over to 1 John 1. 1 John 1. I'm tempted to send just 1 John 1 to John MacArthur as well. I did that before about something. I never heard back from him, but I put it on our website. It's there. 1 John 1, verse 1. I only had verses 9 and 10 highlighted, but verse 1 says, I like how John uses the term, our hands. Now Him and the apostles, they witnessed first hand, there were at least two or three that witnessed that Jesus Christ was real. Their testimony is bound in heaven. It's loosed, I mean loosed on earth, but it's bound on heaven that the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, is real and true. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifest unto us. His witnesses, his apostles, two or three were gathered and God literally was in the midst of them. And these things write we unto you. Why? that your joy may be full. He said the same thing in John 10.10. He said that the promise is abundant life to those that believe. Abundance, not necessarily money and clothes and rockets and all kinds of stuff, but abundant in knowing who Christ is and his sufficiency. Verse number five. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So who is light? God, contrasted with God, even you as a believer have darkness in you. That's the two natures we possess. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. And walk means to continually walk, to tread around in the darkness. If you say you're Christian, you keep on doing things that aren't Christian, guess what? God is not gonna be happy with that kind of fellowship. And I gotta be careful so I don't turn that around to being some legalistic step in order that you must do to keep your fellowship with God. But it's all about Christ. But, verse number seven, isn't it neat how the buts will either erase or clarify something? But if we walk in the light continually, how do you walk in the light? Keep your face in the Bible, keep your face around other people, other believers, and then you'll walk in the light. as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from, what's that word? All sin. It's been done past, present, and future. And as we walk in this world, yes, we may be walking in the light, but our feet do cross over the border and they do walk in darkness from time to time. But when we walk in the light, we realize that Jesus Christ cleanses us or purges, purge your sins. Verse number 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. That sounds like people have a sin nature still. It's still there. If we confess our sins, By the way, you don't have to go to a guy dressed in black in a closet someplace. You can confess your sins right to the Father, right instantly. There's no need to go to anybody else to do it. Guess what? God hears you. God knows what you're thinking. That's pretty scary, is it not? And even when you know that you don't think that anybody else knows, God knows. And God knows the thoughts and intents of your heart. And I guess we're all guilty when he knows all of our thoughts, amen? But we go to him. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. Think of that. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from mortal or venial unrighteousness. No, from all unrighteousness. Chapter number two, in the first couple verses, my little children, I love John's wording there, my little children, the ones that he has begotten, the ones that he has nurtured through the Word, nurtured with his testimony of the Savior. These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. Not that you're never ever gonna commit sin, but we have the word of God in order to stem the tide of sin that we would do without it. We have the light of God's word. We can have fellowship with him. We'll continue here. And if any man sin, every man, any man will sin, but, I added the but there, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. That's an emphatic the on there. His righteousness was imputed to the believer and our sin was imputed to him. He did indeed take all of your sin to the cross. Verse number two, and he is, The propitiation, the full satisfaction of God for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of all of the elect. I have my Sproul Bible here. Also for the sins of the whole world. Know why the world is in such trouble? It's because it has not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is there, the gospel is sufficient. So we choose to sin. We don't have a disease, individual diseases, but we choose. I guess we do all have one disease, it's called sin. And we've inherited that from Adam. It's gone right down the line and we are still victims of that curse and of that sin. So the root is sin. Now what is the remedy for behavioral issues or which should be called sin? The remedy is number one, the word of God. Let's go over to Colossians chapter three, another place where we go quite often, but that's okay. Let's just start with, I am just gonna use a couple verses here. Verse number 12, put on therefore, again, you can go back and check out the therefore on your own, we won't do it this morning. Put on therefore as the elect of God, as you that are well favored of God because of what Christ has done, holy and beloved by God. Bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. I repeated that from last week, but it still stands true. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Verse number 15 says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you're called in one body and be thankful. How can I do that? How can I have the peace of God reigning or dwelling in our hearts? I'm glad somebody asked that because the answer is the next verse. One that's a memory verse for every single kid in here, I think. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, given thanks to God and the Father by him. So the answer we have is the word of God. We get, I almost said we must, we got to, but we get. We all have a copy of the Bible. And in fact, some of you have probably seen my picture I took a while back ago of the 120 or so Bibles that I have at home. We're not lacking the Bible. I guess I'm a Bible idolater or something, I don't know. But we are not lacking the Word of God. The Word of God is sufficient. You realize that whatever you're going through, if you go into the Word of God, that is sufficient. And guess what, because of our old nature, we go to everything but the Word of God. But yet, the Word of God is the most important thing that we can have. It's the only place where we can get what we need for life and godliness. Let's go over to Psalm, the first Psalm. Again, another one that's common, that's known, Psalm 1. Verse number one, blessed is the man that walketh not, not, what did I get, not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Now meditate there isn't this empty in your mind center and prayer nonsense. It is actually dwelling on what does the word say? What is it saying not about me, but what does it say about Jesus? You find Jesus through all 66 books of the Bible. Jesus told the Pharisees, if you had read the word, you would see that they pertain to me. It's about Jesus. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper, if you stick with the word of God. It's not a prosperity teaching as far as having riches and glory and health and wealth, but will prosper. You will have peace. That peace will reign in your heart the more you absorb and the more you read the Word of God. It's not an easy solution. So many people are looking for, hey, how can I get a quick fix? I need an infusion or injection of some grace. But yet, it creates strong, strong Christian. It creates strength and soundness to your soul when you go to the Word of God. How many of you have done that? You're thinking, I'm going to read the Bible. and now a commercial comes on TV or anything else, you get distracted. It happens to me all the time. It happens to all of us all the time because it is a spiritual battle that we have. Satan doesn't want us to know about Christ, Satan wants us to know about me. Well, not about me, but about us. Satan wants to do anything he can to turn your eyes off of Jesus and onto yourself. He wants you to say, oh, poor me. Poor me, I have it so badly, I just can't bear. But when you grow in who Christ is, you can bear up those things. It's not like the positive declarations that so many have. Let's go over to Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter seven or 17. We know one verse in here, very good. Jeremiah 17. We all know verse number nine, and let's look at verse number nine and go back a few verses. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? This is an absolute fact about the nature of every single human being. Our hearts are wicked. Don't ever listen to that thing that Disney movies tell you. Just follow your heart. Listen to your heart. Just go with what your heart says because your heart is wicked. God has given us a brain to go with the heart. We need to check our brains with the heart. I had an old coworker, he used to come into work before he retired every day, he came in, he says, check your brains at the door. That's how it is working for the post office, you don't need any brains, really. But the reality is we need to check our hearts at the door. We have forsaken so much of our God-given intellect and our God-given way of reasoning and choosing which way to go. Let's go back to verse number one for a second. We'll set the context of this. It says that the sin of Judah So Jeremiah, he's a prophet, he's talking, it's a prophecy towards Judah and the impending judgment. Israel and Judah had the same problem as we have. Their hearts were wicked. They looked to everything else but this God who revealed himself gloriously to them. It was just their way of doing things. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron. Now, I've never used a pen of iron, I prefer Bic pens, but a pen of iron was a dreadful thing, and with the point of a diamond. Now, you know that diamond is hard, a diamond can engrave, you know, anything. We used to get our windshields engraved with a number in case somebody stole your car without breaking your windshield, you could get your car back. It is graven upon the tables of their heart and upon the horns of your altars. Sin was so thick. so embedded in the nation of Israel that it had to be reckoned with. Well, Ezekiel 36 gives an answer, because we don't have time to go through more of this. Ezekiel 37 says, I will give them a new heart. It's talking about the nation of Israel and their sin, because their sins are graven. He will give them a new heart so they can seek the Lord then. Let's continue here. Whilst their children Remember their altars and their groves and the green trees upon the high hills. O my mountain and the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin throughout all thy borders. And thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thine heritage. For I gave thee and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land, which thou knowest not, for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger. Thus, I'm going to end with verse number five, and you can continue on your own later. Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. Take that ahead 3,000 years. It's still the same today. Man trusts man. Man has idols all over the place. They're much easier to make today because most of them are already inside your mind and in your heart. So the answer for them would be to go to the Word of God. Listen to the prophets. Listen to what the Bible says to us for today. Let's go ahead. We have the Word of God is what we need. And in closing, we need the God of the Word. 2 Peter chapter 3. Actually, let's go to Ephesians chapter 1 first. I'll keep it in order. Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 15, starts with a wherefore. So again, look back to the first beginning about the wherefore. It all deals with salvation. deals with the nature of God and your redemption is in Christ and His blood alone. It says, wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, make in mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." Let me repeat Him again. Him, Him, Him. The spirit of revelation and the knowledge of Him, that you may know Him. Philippians, that you may know Him and the fellowship of His suffering. Know Him. Let me keep on saying Him. That you may know Him. That's the most important thing we can do. The eyes of your understanding be enlightened. Yes, think. God bids us to think of the things that He has. That's the only way our eyes can be opened. When we know Him. that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and mighty, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things, including your sin, including behavioral problems, including rolling through a California stop, no matter what, it has all been put under subjection to Him, and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness, of him that filleth all in all. So we get a lot of knowing who the head is, the head of the body of the church. Your head, your spiritual head is the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we know and when we get to know him more and more, then we can deal with those things that come about in life. You know, I'm so thankful. Sometimes I get, not ridiculed, but people say, well, you only have so many people in your church. I'll take the people that are assembled together here, over the 200 or so goats that are assembled, looking for every different answer. I talk to somebody, they're miserable, because they've taken so much other things than Christ. And they're dealing with this person's particular sin or behavior, this person has another issue, this person has another, and they bring them all together and one, it turns into a toxic soup, rather than just focusing on what Christ has done on behalf of all of us. So we have the Word of God and the work of God. These are the remedies for sin. This is the remedy for fellowship with God. Yes, sin will hold you back. God desires you to have fellowship with Him. And it all starts with the gospel. It all starts with Christ dying being buried and risen again. He did that on behalf of the whole world, that all who would believe would have eternal life. And because you have eternal life, you can have internal life as well. You can look more and more on what Christ has done rather than the things of this world. How's that song turning? And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and praise. I may not have gotten it right, but you get the idea. Christ is enough. I think back to the couple weeks ago I used the example of the delete key. Have sin, Christ has deleted it. Go to him, he will forgive you of whatever sin you have that's holding you back from fellowship. And it all goes from there, amen. The Lord is good. Can I say him again? Him, in him. Peter said, the closing of 2 Peter chapter three, he says, but, I used it, you gotta go back and see what the but is for. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And all the things that come in the beginning of 2 Peter three, they'll look dim. That's where we need to be. Let me change that. That's where we get to be. We get to look to him for all that he's done. Otherwise, I had one thing here. I said, we're like a bad starter in a car. We keep on going back to things that don't work. You ever done that? You start as going and five minutes later you turn back and you try to turn the key again, it still doesn't work. It needs to be changed. That's how our attitudes with God are. We keep on going back, doing the same thing, but really it needs to change from God's perspective for our good, for our fellowship. Amen.