Our scripture reading today is from the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews, chapter 12. We will be starting at verse 7, going through verse 17. Chapter 12, verse 7. Let us listen to the words of the living God, whose character is holy. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we pay them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profaned person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place of repentance, though he sought for it diligently with tears. Amen. You may be seated. Let's bow together, shall we, in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning, we do so as was described in the text reverently. We bow inwardly and outwardly before you. And Father, as we come to you, it is on the occasion of worshiping you, seeking your face, reading and hearing your word read and preached, but also of the supper of the Lord. And so, Father, as we open up the scriptures, we have your assurance that it is the inspired Word of God, that, Father, it is profitable, that is to say sufficient, for all things with regard to doctrine and reproof, for correction, for instruction or training in righteousness, that the man or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It's told us here in Hebrews chapter 4 that it's alive. It's a living word, not a dead letter. But God, the Holy Spirit, watches over his word to open eyes and to plow up hardened ground of our hearts. And so, Father, we pray that you would watch over your word to perform it. You tell us, Father, that just like the rain that comes down from heaven does not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout and furnish seed for the sower and bread for the eater. What a picture of your power through something as so innocuous to us as water or raindrops. And yet, father, you say your word is. Indeed, like that, but much more powerful. It says your word, which you send forth from your mouth, father, shall not return to you empty or void. Without accomplishing the task under which you desire, you've sent it to accomplish. Without succeeding in that which you have ordained. And so, Lord, as we do. come to this time, we recognize that you tell us, Father, that we are your worksmanship, and that you, Father, are the one who called us forth out of death unto life. And your scripture says there, Father, I believe, therefore I spoke. And so, Father, let us indeed do both, believe and speak forth. ready to give an account for the hope that lies within us to all as that which lies within. So with that in mind, Father, we pray that you would illumine our hearts and minds, not only just to comprehend what we hear or read here, but Father, may it be so applied to our hearts and souls as to transform us this day. And may you be glorified in all that is said, all that is done, all that transpires here, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the title of the sermon this morning here in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 7 to 17 is Yielding the Peaceable Fruit of Righteousness. When we think of the way the Lord taught his apostles to pray, it's very enlightening, I think, as to what it's getting across. From the very beginning when it says, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, etc. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and so forth. from the very beginning of this epistle in chapter 1, verse 1, when it spoke about how God spoke to the people through the prophets of old, and how he has spoken to us in these last days in a son. Here again, we see that father and sonship relationship put before our eyes, and especially at this season of the year when our hearts and minds turn towards the Incarnation. We're reminded of Galatians 4, where it talks about a God in the fullness of time brought forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might deliver those who are under the law. And it goes on to say that We have the Spirit of the Son who is crying out in us, every believer in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of the Son calling out within us, Abba, Father. And so as we come to this text, it is most certainly one of describing a relationship between our Heavenly Father and his earthly people. And so I'd like for us just to look at two major points today. First of all, the divine parental or fatherly discipline. When I closed last week, I hurriedly went over the word that is used here, and it is a word that we get our word pediatrician or pediatrics from. And it is the word paideia. or Paiduo if you want the verb form, and it is the idea of training a child. It is one who is a tutor, but a live-in tutor, and one who is really discipling the child. And so the paideia is there any, what we would use the word chastisement for. It's chastisement for the good of the child. It is to instruct the child and to form the character of the child, and to cause them to grow up to be that kind of a woman or a man that God would have them to be. That's the word that's used here for discipline or chastisement. It's not the word crima. We get our word criminal from that. The word of condemnation, of judgment, which is a judicial thing. Our judgment fell upon our substitutionary atonement, Jesus Christ. He is our propitiation. You ever heard that word? I know you've heard the word and we've gone over it before, but fundamentally that word propitiation means satisfaction. It means that Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God in full, once and for all. And the righteousness of Christ is imputed or accredited to us. So God sees us in the righteousness of Christ. So please don't understand this in any way, shape or form as somehow meriting or earning favor with God by what we're describing. But what we're describing is God forming His image in us and what that looks like. And so here in verse 7 it says, we endure discipline. That too is a central teaching throughout the book of Hebrews, the idea of endurance, the idea of perseverance. And when you think of this perseverance, enduring discipline, those who are the children of God, we are the ones who will look at the discipline in a particular way that we should develop, and that is that we receive that discipline, understanding why it's there, and what the intent of it all is, and how God is using it for our good and His glory, both individually, as families, as a church, in any great way. And so when we think of this idea of endurance, whether it's endurance of discipline or enduring in the faith, and those sorts of things, recognize and remember that this endurance is itself a fruit or an evidence that God, by the Holy Spirit, is that work which he has begun, he will most certainly complete unto the day of Christ Jesus. Not leave it half done, but all the way. Well, here as we read in verse 7, it says, if we endure chastening or discipline, God deals with us as with sons. For what son is there that a father does not chasten? And if you're without chastening, verse 8, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." In other words, every single child of God, He will cause us to grow in grace. He will cause us to be conformed more and more to the image of Christ. He will work in our lives to cause us to be so. And so the doctrine of so-called carnal Christian is one of those things that is really called into question thereby, isn't it? That idea, the way it's used by some people, it's not that Christians never act carnally. We're gonna come to that here in the text. But the whole point here is, is that teaching, as I've heard it most frequently, probably abused in many ways. And that is thinking that one can be justified before God, that one is saved forevermore. And that there is no fruit, no evidence, no perseverance, no anything, and still be saved, they're saved. They've lost all their rewards. Well, this would say those who make a profession of faith and there is not the evidence, the fruit, the growth, to some degree, in varying degrees in the life of the person, God would chasten to cause to grow, to cause repentance, to cause growth in faith, etc. If not, it says, then, not really evidence of children there. And so anyhow, the enduring discipline in verse 8, discipline is a form to form the character, as I said, or to train for life's pilgrimage. You know, if we've seen anything in chapter 11, it is, we remember of Abraham, for example, and all these others, it describes them as pilgrims, that when we enter into this saving relationship with God. He takes hold of us by His grace, and He factually works that which we cannot do for ourselves, and by His grace causes us to be saved, and by His grace is the one who is working in our heart, and in our mind, and in our lives, and that He leads us on this life. It's a calling not just for that immediate context, and not just for heaven, after this life. but that God is concerned about this life and the pilgrimage that He leads us through in it. And so the process of this life and how he uses us in this life, how we are gifted to be useful unto him in various ways in his church and in the world, and how he would cause his character to be reflected in us. And so more and more, as Jesus said, the light is not hidden under a bushel basket, but that the light is set on a hill that all may see. And so as we go through the idea of a pilgrimage, are led by our Lord through this life to our heavenly home, yes, but on the way he's very busy in us and through us as well. It is a pilgrimage. We all know Pilgrim's Progress, that book written with that very concept in mind, wasn't it? That's a genuine life, that's a Christian life, that's evidence of the Spirit's life at work in us. The fruits of the Spirit, the evidence of the handiwork of God. You have in your, in fact, you have in your bulletins and in the sermon notes, you find there a quote to Jesus speaking in John chapter 15. Verses 1 and 2. Jesus says, I am the vine and my father the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away. That would be those who apostatize. And every branch that bears fruit he prunes. There's our discipline. He prunes it, but why? That it may bear more fruit. So God is not doing this because he somehow has this desire to watch us suffer. But it is that God is by this means causing us to grow. We will develop this more. And so in verse 9, as we follow this along, we see that God the Father is the one particularly we're looking at here. In verse 9, furthermore, if we had human fathers who corrected us, we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be subjected to the Father of spirits and live? And so when we think here of the Father, speaking of the Heavenly Father, first of all, notice it says, we showed earthly fathers respect or honor. And it says, how much more should we show our Heavenly Father the honor, the respect, the reverence that he is due? It is transcending honor. The one who is high above the heavens above, how we should show unto him the honor and reverence he is due. There's part of what God is forming in us. And furthermore, did you notice there, it said he's a father of spirits. Think of your father, and maybe you didn't have a, your father passed away early or something like that. I'm sorry to hear that, but you understand the concepts of a father, an earthly father, in dealing with you. You know, we fathers, I remember that I told this story many times about my son when he was, you know, when I was first born, and when he was just a little tight, he was maybe this tall, you know, and just a couple years old, if that. And when I bent down at a shelf, you know, it was only like that tall to get it to look down on something on the shelf. Here he is bending down, squatting down, where it's eye level with him, squatting down, looking at the shelf right next to me. And that's where the Lord really impressed upon my heart for the first time here, I remember it 46 or so years later, that every time I bend, he'll bend. He's watching me. And that I have a high and holy calling as a father in so many ways. Well, you see, a heavenly father, we do the best as godly men, especially in the church, as we're seeking to form Christian character in that child that God has entrusted us with, and bring them into the knowledge of the scriptures, and the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by God's grace, watching as God would work in their hearts. And they come to faith, and repentance, and all of this. And as we go through this, we desire our very best to lead them the way we ought to. At our very best, we fall far short, don't we? And he says, they have us for a little while, and we show them honor or respect. How much more the Father who molds us throughout, the One who wove us together in the womb, it says in Psalm 139, and wrote in His book all the days ordained for us, and the One who's hedged us behind and in front, and He is our hiding place, He is our fortress, our God, and He's the One who forms us as He calls us unto Himself, and He forms the character of Christ in us. All through our lives, more and more we grow. When are you done growing in grace? Well, when you enter into the gates of glory. Until then, God's working on you and me. Praise God, he's not done working on me yet, or you. But then when we enter into his presence, the spirits of just men make perfect, it says in scripture, the work complete, ultimately in glorification. perfected in righteousness conformed to the image of Christ. Not God's, but unable to sin. And so you see, beloved, he does this for all eternity. And so as we are looking at God's discipline of his children, it is his children. And it is with a desire to cause us for our good to be formed to that which he ordains. So God the Father, it's a transcending honor we owe Him. He's the Father of our spirits. In other words, He works within, not just outwardly. It's interesting, we talked about the word, you know, in Hebrews 4.12, where it's living and active. Why is it living and active? Because it's God speaking through it. That's a means of grace, right? God, the Holy God, is speaking. We saw last week how God is the one talking to you and me through the pages of His Holy Writ. His Spirit working to effectuate His will within. God is the one who illumines our minds. He's also the one who reaches into our very spirit and puts his finger of conviction on the sin that's in our heart. Remember in Revelation chapter 223, I think it is, where it talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, and it says that He is the judge of our thoughts and of the motives of our heart. There's the judge. And so, beloved, when He's the Father of spirits, this is one we cannot fool. And He's one knowing our hearts, knows at the deepest level what must change. We sang, Have Thine Own Way, Lord. Beautiful hymn. But do we mean it? You know, when we enter into this discipline, it says sometimes it's painful. And so God is doing this in us, our Father, this God of the spirits of mankind. In verse 10, it says something else. It says, They indeed for a few days chastened us, it seemed best to them, but He, for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now in verse 10, it says that we may be partakers of his holiness. In verse 11, it says he disciplines us that we may, you know, it's painful, but it brings forth the, it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness. What's the difference? Holiness is the idea of that. Yes, it means set apart or, or that kind of thing. But when you're thinking about holiness and the idea of the context we have before us, it is the holiness of God. It is that which has to do with his nature and his character. So that, in other words, which is what he is and how he is. And we think of the attributes of God and the properties of God and many other things we could bring out, we don't have time. But as you look at this and you say, God is forming within us his very character of holiness. We're coming to that in a minute. But righteousness, you see, is that which is applied or put forth in our hearts. And so that which is holy character, because it's character, he changes us, in other words, from the inside out. He changes our heart. He changes our mind. Remember, we've seen the New Covenant. Remember that? Where does he write his law in the New Covenant? Remember that? Come on, where is it? The mind and in the heart. That's the innermost working of God. And so when we're thinking that he disciplines us, that we might be conformed to his holiness or partake of his holiness. So he is forming that in us. And so the righteousness is the application of that in thought, word, and deed of doing that which is according. Remember what sin is. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. And so all the commands of God, remember the, Motive for doing the love of God, excuse me, the commands of God, is the love for him. Loving him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Loving our neighbor as ourself, etc. And so here, what does he do? For our good, did you get that? That we may profit from that, or for our profit, but also that we may partake of his holiness. So it goes without saying God is both holy and sovereign. He's able to accomplish what He has ordained. And so He's working all things for our good. Does it remind you of Romans 8, 28? For all things work together for good. For those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose. I've said this before in illustration. Maybe you remember my cake mix illustration. Some of you do. I see the grin. You know, and if you have a cake mix, I remember my grandmother making the cake, and I told you this one. And there I, you know, when she had her back turned, this is God molding character in me, showing me not to do this. But as my grandmother made this chocolate cake, turned her back, and there I went with my dirty finger and did this in it and put it in my mouth. Well, it was unsweetened chocolate and it was as bitter as could be. Why? It did not have all the ingredients. You see, beloved, as we go through discipline, yes, there are things that are bitter. There are things that are painful. There are things that we cause us to weep, even seem catastrophic, but God works them all together for good, but not for everybody. For those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, it's on purpose. He works it all together. And it says here. Something else here in verse 9, I don't want us to overlook. It says, shall we not be much more, shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? Subjection, submission. We're going to look a little later on in I guess I can give it away now. As we look at the verses down below, you see here in verse 13, where is it? I'm sorry. The light's terrible. Where it talks about us being on the way, and make straight paths, verse 13, for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated but rather be healed. In other words, a straight path, not a crooked path, not a wayward path, not one that's going the opposite way. It says we should be in submission to him as his children, not being those who are wayward, who are the sheep who are always straying away. A wayward, crooked path. In the Old Testament law, God taught us lessons about various kinds of sacrifices and various kinds of categories of sin. Sin is sin, I know. One sin's enough to condemn you forever. In fact, our sin nature is. But the whole point here is this. He talked about sins that were of the weakness of the flesh, or sins in which one stumbles into sin, or those sins like we read here, the besetting sin, the sin that so easily besets us, and that kind of thing. But then it talks about the other things, which are the kinds of sins, which are sins of presumptuous sins. Presumptuous sins are those sins that are those done in rebellion deliberately. Sins that are the defiant kind of sins. The ones that are always oppositional against the will of God. And so as we talk about those who are the Lord's people, you see, it says, make your path straight that the bones may not be dislocated. Instead, they may be healed, you see. God intends for his discipline to heal us and to cause us to grow in grace, etc. But this wayward sin, this presumptuous sin, the rebellion against God and that sort of thing. has the opposite effect. Look with me if you would, Hebrews 10, just to remind ourselves. It talks about this waywardness and this kind of thing earlier in Hebrews. Hebrews 10, we're not going to go through all of this, our time is short, but you look at beginning in verse 26, listen to the wording. Here in the wording it says, for if we sin willfully, After we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. For those, for anyone who rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of truth through witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose Will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot and counted the blood of the covenant by which he, that is Christ, was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace? So you see, when we talk about that sin which would lead to turning our back on him, apostasy, of not enduring in the faith, but those who said, I've had enough, and turn away. As we pointed out many times in 1 John 2.19, it says they went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But in order that it might become manifest, shown, the evidence given that they were not of us, they went out from us. And so, beloved, as it talks about this, it should give us pause. And we should be they that yield. And here in verse 11, back in our text, it uses yield in a different way. Here it's talking about a crop. Remember that John 15 text, Jesus is the vine, we're the branches, et cetera, bringing forth fruit. Yield a peaceable fruit of righteousness, it says. In verse 11, we see here a lot that is beneficial for our understanding, that it says, Chastisement does not seem to be joyful at the present, obviously, but painful nevertheless. Afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. And so when we look at the fruit, think of this. The pain is short term. The fruit is permanent. And so the settled peace, the peaceable fruit is talking about the settled peace of faith. That has the trust that is anchored within the anchor within the veil in Christ. He remembers 13.5 of this same book, where Jesus says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And they're holding on to him in faith. It is the peace that's settled. You know, if you look in Galatians 5, at that list of the fruits of the Spirit, you got all these deeds of the flesh, but then it's followed in 22 and 23 of that chapter. It says, you look at the third one on the list, love, joy, peace. In the word patience, that's endurance, kindness, gentleness, self-control, all these things that you find in that list of the fruits of the Spirit. You see there, you've got peace there, a faith that is settled, that is at peace, even in times of chastisement. Philippians 4, verses 6 through 7, another well-understood text. That settled peace of the fruit that the Holy Spirit would bring. In Galatians 5 here we see the emphasis on God guarding us. God's peace that guards our hearts and minds. We come to Him in prayer. It's as if, you know, we come to Him in prayer that we're seeking His face and so God is the one who gives us His peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And then finally that John 15. 1 and 2 passage where it talks about Jesus Christ. In union with Christ, in other words, as we died with him and we are buried with him and raised with him, that Christ is in us and we are in him by the Spirit, that therefore in union with Christ, legally, covenantally, but also vitally, that is to say, by the Spirit we participate in him, that in all of these things, We bring his fruit, Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. But he says, I prune you that you may bring forth much fruit. And so the idea of peace in him, the triune God, even in chastisement. Let me give you a piece of advice I've had to learn the hard way over many years. Tune out the competing voices to God's Word. Tune out those competing voices. Oh, that doesn't mean you're not taught. That doesn't mean you don't grow by other people and that kind of thing. But you see, too often, that's the first stop instead of the last stop. God's Word is that which brings forth His fruit. Fruit of righteousness trained by Him. Now, compare this as whether it's individuals, or it's families, or churches, or even nations, we can see how God has worked in this way. It says here that the Lord's people, in verse, remember we went back to verse four, where it says, you've not yet resisted unto the point of shedding your blood. In other words, persecution, martyrdom. It says you've not yet been led to that extent. Not yet resisted sin to that level. Let me give an illustration. Sometimes it can be that God is working at a corporate level, a group level if you will. Sometimes with the whole church, how God's working to form the church with the trials or difficulties, where all the church, it seems, is growing in grace. Or sometimes God would remove some that would be pretenders, or it doesn't matter. As we look at the text, think of Israel. Let me give an illustration. Here's Israel that are really Judah, and you have Nebuchadnezzar who comes as God had said he would, as God's whip to whip Judah for their apostasy. And here you've got that Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple is destroyed, you've got the people, many of the people are slaughtered, and you have others who are taken away to Babylon. In the first time, there are three times it got increasingly worse than the third time I just described. Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, or they were renamed that, were taken to Babylon. And think of how God worked in their lives. These were godly men. These were men who were devoted to God, but here they share in the corporate trial and difficulty that God is using to work in the nation and in their lives individually. Sometimes it works that way in persecution, right? You look in early church history, for example, and you see the persecution by the Romans and how the Christians were chased place to place and so forth. All through the centuries, we find it. Well, Daniel, they were tested, first of all, by defiled food that was offered unto idols at the king's table. Chapter one, remember that? In chapter 2, Daniel and his friends, they were here put together. Do they trust in the revelation of God of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar against magic of the Babylonians? Chapter 3, remember, it gets tougher. And here you have Nebuchadnezzar that makes an idol of himself, and here the idea of worshiping an image of the king or being burned alive in the fiery furnace. And then in chapter 6 we see the ante up again for Daniel. You can pray to only the king, Darius, or you'll be thrown to a den of lions. What does he do? A settled rest, a peaceful faith that opens the windows towards the temple or where it used to be in praise. And trust God. In each place you see God causing them to grow in grace. Do you suppose the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego grew slightly after God brought them through that fiery furnace? Oh my goodness, yes. I will never leave you nor forsake you really was evidence then, wasn't it? That's the way God works. To peel away the dross and refine the gold that comes forth in our lives. Well, beloved, I had every intention of finishing this today. I'm going to leave it until next year. Can you wait until then? I'm not kidding. We'll pick up where we left off today. But let me just say this. The peaceable fruit of righteousness is that which comes after, not before the discipline. Let me close with this well-known. I mentioned Judas and Peter last time. Let me come back to Peter, if I may, and complete that. Peter, when he denied the Lord Jesus Christ, remember what preceded that. Peter spoke out in arrogance or in self-confidence and pride, whatever the case may be. He was impetuous, and he said, though everybody else betray you or abandon you, I will never do that. Remember what Jesus did. He said, really, before the cock crows, in other words, before daybreak, you'll deny me three times, Peter. And we all know that it occurred, didn't we? And it was incremental. Here's this, these various people who are confronting Peter at a campfire in the evening when Jesus is there being tried by this kangaroo court, falsely accused by godless, so-called godly men. And when Peter denied the Lord Jesus Christ to a young girl, With an oath, it says, the Lord turned and looked at him. Peter went out looking for a place to weep because that gaze was enough to break it. And the tears that he shed were beneficial to him. And God broke his pride And so by the time you get to the fast forward to Galilee and there's Jesus Christ after he had shown himself once again to be the one who said, have you caught any fish? Not a one. Cast your net on the other side. You know the account. As they sat at the campfire after breakfast, Jesus talking to Peter, what did he do? He did not have to beat him up. Peter was already broken. Jesus knew his heart. He restored. Three times he denied, three times Jesus restored. Do you love me, Peter, more than these? You know, agapao, a special word for a loyal love that would die for someone. Lord, you know I phileo, I'm a brotherly love friend. You feed my sheep." And he goes through this, and each time it is that Peter will not raise that word, agapao, out there. Finally, on the third time, Jesus said, Peter, do you phileo? Are you truly having brotherly love for me? What does Peter say? Lord, you know all things. You know I do. You tend to my sheep. So what does the Lord do? You're out. You're a second-class citizen now. You're not worthy. Get out." No. You see how God molded his character using the trial, using that pain. A life changed, transformed, and fruitful all the more because the Lord is working. There's one other thing Jesus said when he warned Peter that he would fall. that I don't want us to forget. He said that, Peter, Satan has demanded you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you. We've seen in the book of Hebrews that Jesus Christ is our great high priest, that he ever lives to make intercession for us. And so when we think of discipline, it is discipline with a Lord, a high priest, who is our sacrifice, who constantly ever lives to intercede, to pray for you and for me. May that encourage our souls. And may we be they that set our sights forward and seek the peaceable fruit of righteousness. May God grant us a grace for it. Amen. Let's pray together. Righteous Father, as your scripture says, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. O Lord, we praise you and thank you that you are a God who is tender and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. We see that in just the description of what has been preached to us in the Lord Jesus Christ's handling of Peter. there at the side of the lake. How tender and merciful, and we praise you and thank you for it. And we praise you that you have granted to us your precious and magnificent promises that we might be partakers of the divine nature. What an amazing thing. And so may you get the glory for everything, and may we be submissive and thankful throughout our lives in the midst of whatever crosses our path, knowing you are the Sovereign One who providentially watches over. You pray for us and you guide us, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Now receive the benediction of the Lord. Unto him who was able to establish you according to the gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ, he who has made known to all nations unto obedience of faith, to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, be glory forever. Amen.