Well, we will be in 1 John chapter 2. We're going to finish up the chapter today. And as a way of introduction, I wanted to remind you guys that I started this first epistle of John, back in February of 2022. So, because of the infrequency in my preaching, there's big periods of time between the messages, shorter time the last few, but I call your attention to that because it's very important that we consider the context and what John has just laid out prior to being here. Unlike his gospel, which is an account of Christ's ministry and it's hard-hitting, quick, fast, this miracle, this happened, this happened. The epistles are instructions to New Testament Christians and John lays out logical reasoning. He comes out and he makes arguments and he bases conclusions based on the prior arguments he's made. So because of that, it's important to keep in our minds what has happened just preceding the text we're looking at today. So I'll give a quick review of my last two messages, very brief, but if you will, pay attention to the background of what we're jumping into. John has written this epistle to his children in the faith, and he explicitly tells us that he's writing to us so that our joy may be full. And hopefully, we've gone through this enough for that to remain in your mind. He's writing that our joy may be full. Now John is walking us through these tests of our faith, He's giving us warnings. John, he was a disciple, he is now an apostle, and he is a very mature, seasoned believer in the faith, well-steeped in discernment and wisdom that comes from decades upon decades of walking with Christ through the Spirit in this world, and likely is one of the most seasoned and mature, wise believers on the planet at the time. John, a disciple of Jesus, is going to be a mighty apostle. And he warns us of dangers, dangers to those, generally speaking, but those who are younger in the faith, which is everyone compared to John, and also false teachers that have already arisen in the church. Sometimes we look back with rose-covered glasses on what we call the early church, but in the lifespan of the apostles, there is already heresy that he is addressing that's creeped into the church. So he's warning us, these false teachers calling into question the very nature of who Christ is, these subtle yet destructive lies, that entice our sinful flesh and draw our affections away from our Savior. Just as King Solomon's pagan wives led his heart astray, so do these false teachers prey on vulnerable Christians. Now in chapter two, just preceding what we're looking at today, or the earlier portion of two, he warns us, do not love the world. hopefully remember we went through that, or the things of the world, which are futile and carnal. And after that, he warns us of the spirit of antichrist that is already in the church. This antichrist warning is not some sort of spiritual decoder ring that glows in the dark in the presence of the antichrist. It's rather anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ. and has come in the flesh, and he says that they have the spirit of Antichrist in them. Now, after that backdrop of warning about not loving the world and the spirit of Antichrist that's coming to the church, he gives us these warnings and he exhorts us. He gives us homework, if you will. He gives us a practical wisdom and a spiritual exercise, a meditation to hold in our hearts, and in our minds, and to hold them captive to Christ. That's what we're looking at here. After these warnings, here's the homework. Here are the instructions, Christians. How do you avoid loving the world? How do you avoid false teachers? Recognize them. Here is the practical wisdom John is going to lay out. The whole of John's instructions today can be summarized in one short sentence. That is, abide in Christ. Abide in Christ. Now, one of the challenges for me today is throwing something like that out. I take it right from the text. It's the title of my sermon. is if you are sitting here and you are a regenerate believer, that is a very non-controversial thing to instruct you in order to share. Abide in Christ. So the challenge today for me, and I will exhort you now, is to not check out, to not say, oh, I agree with that, I believe in that, and then drift off because What John is going to get into here is a little bit of the nuts and bolts of what that is. What does that look like? Where does it start? How do we do that? How do we abide in Christ living in Southern California in the year 2024? What is the practical application of this? What are the ramifications? What does it mean? We're going to take a look at all of that. So with that, if you don't mind standing with me, we're going to read our text for today. from 1 John chapter 2. I'm going to read from verse 24 to the end of the chapter. And again, just as a reminder, remember, this is the instructions that comes just after the warning to not love the world and to beware of Antichrist. These are the words of our Lord. Therefore, let that abide in you what you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He promised us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you. And you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it is taught you, you will abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Amen. Our Lord and our God, O Father, teach us by the power of Your Spirit now, Father, what it means to abide in Christ. Oh, Father, may we understand more greatly, more closely. Exhort us, Father, in your truth. Convict us, Father. Encourage us. Show us a greater measure of who Christ is and how we are to live in a way that glorifies you, Lord. Speak to us now from your word, Father. I desperately need your spirit and your help. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing. So you have your instructions. We're going to take a look at what that means. I do have three points that will come up as I work through the text. And my first point is abiding in what you heard at the beginning. Abiding in what you heard at the beginning. In verse 24, John begins with giving his application of the prior warnings. Abide in what you heard from the beginning. Now, do you remember how John started this epistle? I'll read it to you to remind you. The page back here. John 1.1, that which you heard from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. Same author. How about his gospel? The gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So right from the beginning here of his instruction to us, John is telling us that it all begins with Christ as preeminent in all of these things. You see, every bit of instruction he gives us here, it predicates it on the preeminence of God and a forgiven sinner's union with Jesus Christ. So although the title of my message, Abide in Christ, is what John is saying here, It does not sufficiently focus our thoughts into the magnitude or impact that the gospel has on the command to abide. So if I could flush that a little bit. Simple, abide in Christ. Simple concept, simple to understand. But he's telling us, he's instructing us to abide in that which we heard from the beginning. What does he mean by that? How does abiding in that which we heard from the beginning How does that help us to combat a love for the world and worldly things? What does that mean? How does that help us to identify false teachers in the spirit of antichrist and to not listen to them? I'm glad you asked. So John's point is that all of this, begins with our union with Christ in the beginning of our spiritual life. So I have an illustration for you. Imagine the route that you took to drive to church today. Now for most of us, there are a number of different routes that we could have taken to drive here. For us far away folks in East County, you know, the people that have real dedication that come here and show up, We can take 8 to 805, 52 to 163, wherever you're coming from, there's different routes and different ways that you can take to get here. But regardless of which route you take, it all starts with leaving your driveway, driving down the street. There's no way to get here. There's no way to get to worship here. There's no way to come to this place, even though there's different routes to take, that don't start with the same process of backing out of your driveway, out of your garage, off the street where you park, and driving here. And John is telling us that in battling these things, in abiding in Christ before we even get into that, it starts with Christ and our forgiveness in Christ and our union with Him. And I know that we're saturated with that kind of language. We hear it a lot. But it's something a little different here than just a kind of a passive acknowledgment, preach the gospel to yourself every day, or a gospel-centered preaching. These are all true things, but the problem is when that gets thrown out so often, it kind of loses its strength, or your ears become hard of hearing that. But John tells us to abide in that which we heard from the beginning. So how do we not love the world or get influenced by the spirit of Antichrist? We abide in the Son and in the Father. And how do we do that? We abide in that which we heard from the beginning of our spiritual life. Christ crucified for us, buried and raised again. But it is true that we hear this all the time, the things that I mentioned. So John here, he uses The Greek word, meno, translated here, abide, but it moves far beyond the intellect. There's a way, brothers and sisters, that we can hold the historical account of the cross in our mind and believe it. True believers, we can hold the facts of the gospel in our mind and fail to abide in Christ. Of course, that's a reality, that's why John is writing to us, and he is warning us. So that's my emphasis here. What exactly does it mean to let the gospel abide in you, that you may abide in the Son and in the Father? And as I mentioned, the Greek word meno is translated here, abide, but in other places it's translated remain, dwell, continue, tarry, and endure. Its definition in reference to a state of condition is to remain as one, to not split, not to come to another or different, to wait for or to await one. What does that all mean? What is the point here? The best way I can illustrate abiding in the context of this verse would be to take a look at Matthew 26, 36 through 40. I will read it to you. Feel free to turn there if you would like, but you don't have to. Matthew 26, 36 through 40. John's instructing us to abide in that which we have in the beginning. We're searching out exactly what does that mean? Matthew 26 says, then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. He said to the disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. They began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. He said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch with me. And he went a little further and he fell on his face and praying, saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. We'll pause there. I believe you're familiar with this scenario, but if you're not, this is Christ in the evening. He was betrayed before He stood trial and then was to be crucified the next day. He's in the garden of Gethsemane with 11 of the disciples. Judas has already gone off to sell his lord into...to sell him for 30 pieces of silver. and the God-man Jesus Christ at the very thought of the wrath of the Father being poured out on him and that breaking of that eternal fellowship in his humanity as being fully man was close to the point of death. With just considering what was going to happen, he sweat drops of blood, his physical body almost ceased to function. And in that hour, of need as a human, fully man, fully God, in his humanity, he takes those closest to him. He takes men that he has taught for three, three and a half years. He says, pray with me. And then he takes three out of that group, the kind of the inner circle, which were Peter and who? The sons of Zebedee. Who are they? James and John. The writer of our epistle is there. This is an account, he's there. Peter's only names, but it says the sons of Zebedee are there. So Peter, James, and John come with him, and Jesus begins to pray, and he comes back, and he finds them sleeping. He comes back. He said to Peter, what could you not minnow? Would you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. The writer of John, the epistle, 1 John that we're in, the writer of the gospel of John is here. Same person, same author, same Holy Spirit, same word. but he's telling us to abide in what we had from the beginning. Christian, abide in Christ that you don't fall into these temptations, that you are not deceived by the spirit of antichrist that's more subtle than you realize, that's been in the church for 2,000 years. What he's saying is you have to abide, you have to labor, Not as a works, but there is an intentionality. There is something that you have to exert yourself, you have to labor to abide in this. It is not something that comes naturally. As Christ was pleading with Peter, James, and John to abide with him in prayer in his darkest hour. So John uses that same word and he says, Christian, abide in Christ. Labor. When you are weary. They were tired. They were justifiably tired. But Christ tells them, can you not even for an hour abide with me? Labor with me. Watch with me. Just as an observation, although the older disciple, Peter, is the one that the Lord rebukes, there are three there. And so I took the opportunity to share that with my oldest parents and oldest children, that if you and your younger siblings maybe are misbehaving, and the oldest catches all the attention of the parents, remember, they are just emulating Jesus Christ here. It's like John telling us, little ones, don't make the mistakes I did as a young man. Abide in the Christ that you encountered at the beginning of everything. And then after saying this, John drops a sort of drive-by statement for motivation. At the end of verse 27, he says, by the way, remember that God is going to raise you from the dead to live eternally reconciled to your creator. It's just tacked on there. Very much could be said about this, but seeing as how John just mentions it, we'll continue moving, but it is worth noting that that is, it goes into the bank account of motivation, right? When it's hard to abide in Christ, when it's a struggle, remember, you've been forgiven. You'll spend eternity worshiping the Lord. Well, John gives us two warnings and an assignment in this section of Scripture, and now he's going to elaborate on by what means we can abide. That brings me to my second point, anointed for discernment. Anointed for discernment. I spoke about anointing in my last message. The scripture uses the term when something or someone has been set apart from the common for use by God. So in verse 26, John says he's writing this because false teachers are trying to deceive Christians. False teachers are trying to deceive Christians. And he said, you've received an anointing. What does that look like today? What ways are Christians trying to be deceived today? Back then, one of the heresies, it's not here yet, but a kind of an early version of Arianism is already here. The reality of what Jesus Christ was, was He fully God? Was He fully human? Was He made out of flesh? It's already there. It becomes Arianism. That's what He's addressing. We have a version of that with us today in the Jehovah's Witnesses. That's not something that I think the average Christian is having to wrestle with. Surely there's some. But what does it look like? What are the temptations, the subtle things that come in that are hard for us to deal with? Did you guys get a chance to see any of the advertisements from the Super Bowl? One of them stuck out to me a little bit more. Actually, I think it's the only one I may have seen. But I saw it online later. It was the He Gets Us. Is anybody familiar with that at all? Yes? No? It was so interesting, the timing of that, too, as we sat in here. I saw it on a Monday, but I'd sit in here and Pastor Steve preached on the passage of Christ washing His disciples' feet. And then this He Gets Us advertisement. To put the best construction on it is essentially saying Christians go out and whatever the world is pushing and forcing us to accept as okay or even lawed, go wash their feet and don't bring your religion with you. You might not think that that's terribly enticing or difficult to deal with, but forms of it are, no doubt. There's pressures socially to concede ground on these things. These are where the temptations come in that John is warning us about, to capitulate, to give ground on these things. And as a sinner, The temptation for those who are maybe a little bolder is to respond in the flesh, to respond out of anger. And there's a place for holy and righteous indignation, but I'm talking about when you respond in the flesh and that profits nobody. And then I think maybe the bigger category though is to maybe just remain silent or to allow this incremental change. So how do we combat that? What do we do? I'm trying to place the emphasis on it here, on what Christians can fall and be deceived by today. How do we give in to that? It's giving ground on things like the reality of God creating men and women specific and special and wonderful and that there's no other categories other than a man or a woman that bear the image of their creator. We receive pressure to capitulate on that. The beauty of a union between a man and a woman in marriage and no other definition. or this idea of racial inequality, that if you are a white Christian, especially if you're a white Christian man, that there is something, there's some sin that your forefathers committed that Christ's blood somehow did not atone for if you were in Christ, and therefore, you must spend the rest of your life self-flagellating or something like that to atone for that. These are the things that we reject, but we feel the pressure, We feel that by people who profess Christ, who have lots of money and make Super Bowl ads, we get preached at by so-called Christians to acknowledge this as true. But John goes on to say that you have an anointing. Christian, you have an anointing. Look with me to verse 20, back in 1 John 2. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth." So when we get to verse 27, that's from the last message, when you get to verse 27 here, it says that anointing which you have received from him abides in you and you do not need that anyone teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie and just as it is taught you, you will abide in him. How do we make sense of that verse? We have a few options. John tells us that we don't need anybody to teach us, It could mean that there is no need for the very thing that we are doing right here, right? You've been anointed by the Holy Spirit, you will get your spiritual download as God sees fit, assuming you have a good Wi-Fi signal. I've met people like this through the years. They become disenfranchised with what they call organized religion, so their solution is a cowboy Christianity. They reject the God-ordained means by which members of the bride grow in sanctification. They can point to verses like this and say, all they need is the Holy Spirit and the Bible. The problem with this is that they are correct in a certain way, but not in the way that they mean it. Here's an example. Do we need food and water to become a Christian? Do I need to drink water every day to be able to pray and read my Bible? I certainly don't. But God has ordained. He has created a scenario where this side of eternity, I need to eat and drink. And God has ordained and called preachers, pastors, and teachers to bless His bride. This is the way God has ordained things to function. So certainly, it doesn't mean that. So if we need teachers, why does John ironically teach us that we don't need anyone to teach us? You guys have the best questions. John is arguing here for the sufficiency and the totality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I remember before I was even a teenager, I struggled with assurance of salvation. And looking back, this makes sense because I wasn't a believer at the time. But at the time, my solution was to find out what I had to do in every kind of world religion to be saved and to do that. I had, in my own mind, cracked the code and I was going to hedge my bets. That's how unregenerate children think. But unfortunately, many adults hold on to a form of this thinking. When confronted by people hostile to the gospel, they don't know how to respond to the truth claims of every other world religion, or even worse, they try to argue a person into the kingdom with a display of intellect. How do I know the claims of Islam, Hinduism, and woke intersectionality are without merit? I need no instruction that is apart from the gospel message of Jesus Christ, and neither do you. That is what he's talking about. Discernment. You've been anointed with discernment. You know all things in Christ. John is telling you, dear Christian, that you have discernment and that it's only given by way of the Holy Spirit and it's opened up to you at the new birth. Yes, there is a lifetime of things to learn about, to learn about our triune God, but all of that ability to know is given to us at conversion, we can rightly say that we have found all truth in Christ. I've heard it said, one of the charges against Christians are that they are not open-minded, closed-minded, And that is true, and it is a good thing if it's done rightly. A mind is to remain open until it finds truth. And once truth has been found, then it locks down, and you clamp down on that truth. And there's no need to be open to error now that you have truth. And for us, that is Christ. So you don't need that anyone would teach you If you have union with Christ regarding what truth is, oh, we have need for teachers. We have need for daily reading, absolutely, about the God we already know through Christ. You have no need for anything else. It's a sufficiency argument here. You are sufficient in Christ. The scriptures are sufficient. So as we're walking through this, we're coming up to our third point here, he is telling us To abide in Christ. And we abide in Christ by focusing and abiding in that which we had from the beginning. We remember who we are, where we were when Christ found us. That's foundational. Every time as we climb to the heights of the deepest theological truths, We never get there without starting by backing out of our driveway. We start there with what we had from the beginning. And in the process of this, as we are abiding in Christ, that we would not fall into the temptation of this age, that we would not be caught up in the net that catches so many professing Christians, that we are mean or bigoted or sexist or whatever it is. If we're going to avoid all that, we're going to avoid the spirit of antichrist and false teachers that will arise in the church of Jesus Christ. We are to abide in him and then trust that God has made us sufficient as we are filled with the spirit to recognize error. There's nothing more needed to understand that if you have Christ, you have all truth. That brings us to our third point. Abiding without shame. Well, John ends this thought with another exhortation to abide in Christ. However, he tells us a little bit more about what abiding or failing to abide produces. So one is a command, and now he's going to tell us again to abide, and then tells us what happens if it doesn't. I'll read it to you real fast here. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you, but at the same anointing teach you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie. And just as it is taught you, you will abide in Him. And now, little children, Here we go. Abide in Him that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. So 1 John deals with the positive effects. Abide in Christ that we may have confidence. I do think that it looks a little bit different in every Christian. We have different temperaments, gifts, and stations in life. There are two very large categories that I think this could be helpful to look at. That is, to abide in Christ that we would not be ashamed. The first is men. So my brothers, I exhort you by the Word of God to abide in Christ that you would have confidence in the workplace and in the public square. So I have a question for you men, and you can respond. The answer, I'll give it to you, is abide in Christ. How do you deal with pressure to affirm radical transgender ideology? Am I talking to the men? All right. Respond with confidence, men. How do you deal with conversations where you are expected to join in with others and slander your bosses and authority? Better. How about participate in coarse jesting or dirty jokes? How do you deal with your extended family at gatherings who mock and challenge your beliefs? How do you deal with the charge of being a cisgender, heteronormative, colonizing, toxic man who believes in forced pregnancy and supports the patriarchy? They're out there, folks. You see, my brothers, remembering that you are a forgiven sinner, who has been saved by the blood of Christ will give you a confidence that the world cannot ignore, a confident strength that is undeniable. You abide in Christ and there is no shame. What does the world want you to feel if you will not agree with them? They want you to feel shame. You see how it's exactly the opposite? John says that we abide in Christ. The Holy Spirit has spoken through the Apostle to us here and says, if you don't want shame, then abide in Christ. Labor, the way Christ was exhorting His disciples to labor in prayer fervently and watch. You abide in Christ with intentionality, with effort, and you will not be ashamed. That is the truth. But what will your flesh tell you? Your flesh will tell you, if I speak up, if I don't affirm, if they know what I believe, then I will feel shame. And the thing is, you can have your flesh tricked into feeling that shame. So that is why I remind you and exhort you, men, to abide in Christ, that you would not be ashamed. Now to my sisters. I exhort you by the word of God to abide in Christ that you would have confidence. In the home and in the public square, how do you deal with the pressure to have it all? Career, perfect family, 2.3 kids, stay fit, and have a perfectly decorated, immaculate, clean home. How do you do this? Not do those things, but how do you deal with that pressure? Abide in Christ, thank you. How about the pressures that come from within our Christian culture? How do you deal with the expectation that you bake your own gluten-free bread from the wheat that you grow in your raised bed gardens, which you serve your husband and your 15 kids, all one year apart, with the fresh eggs from the chickens in the backyard and the vegetables that you also grow. Oh, in between teaching your daughters to sew and cook and homeschooling your kids, making sure that they are proficient in Latin by age 10, And don't forget that the house better be filled with the aroma of the most biblical essential oils, mainly frankincense and myrrh. How do you deal with these pressures, sisters? Abide in Christ. Yes, I am being hyperbolic, but am I exaggerating that much or is that kind of real? It's kind of real, isn't it? A little bit. Abide in Christ. How do you obey? and submits to a husband who is a good man, relatively speaking, understood as a forgiven sinner, but fails to love you like Christ, is often busy with work, tired, can seem distant or distracted at the end of the day. How do you do that, sisters? Abide in Christ. And to my beloved single brothers and sisters, whether you are just entering this phase of your life where you are thinking about marriage, or you've been there maybe longer than you expected, I exhort you by the word of God to abide in Christ. His timing is perfect. Abide in Christ. It does not come naturally to the flesh. But my brothers and sisters, it comes so naturally to the Spirit because it is a gift from your God. So in closing, I want to draw your attention back to what John says is the consequence of a failure to abide. At the end here. The consequence of a failure to abide is shame. John tells us that when Christ returns, a failure to abide will cause shame to fall upon us. I want to call your remembrance back to our original parents in the garden. After they had disobeyed God, they partaken of the fruit that He said, do not touch. They covered themselves, they sewed leaves together. Because there was shame for the first time. They did not abide in the Lord's commandments. They did not abide in fellowship. They did not persevere and they did not carry through. And the first instance recorded in all of the world of shame came with our original parents failing to abide in their Creator. When the Lord came down in the coolness of the day and called for Adam, what did they do? They hid themselves. You see, there's this propensity for us to do shameful things. To not abide in Christ. And our conscience will bother us. I'm not saying it won't. But what John says in the close of this chapter is, when Christ returns, when you're confronted, with your Creator. That is when the shame comes in. So it's all the more important, it's all the more prudent now that we walk circumspectly, sober-minded, intentionally, because there's a reality of a Christian, I'm not talking about a false believer, a regenerate Christian who has been washed by the blood of Christ, who wills to do what is right. There's a reality that they can live in a way to not abide in Christ, and on upon their entrance into glory, or when Christ returns, that the immediate feeling they have is one of shame, because they have let the things of this world, the love of the culture, the love of the world, consume them to make shipwrecks of their lives. John, in this epistle, deals with false believers, but that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about Christians who have squandered their great treasure in Christ, and the only thing left is the shame that comes with not abiding with Christ. Well, there is hope, Christian. As you can remember, Peter, we talked about him earlier, in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly after that, not even a day later that night, After he said he would battle the entire Roman army by himself to keep Christ from the cross, a little girl comes up to him and recognizes his accent and she says, aren't you with that man? And he gets mad and he cusses at her and denies Christ three times. He acted shamefully, incredibly shamefully, contradictory to what he had just said. And yet when Christ meets him on the shores, after he had gone back to fishing after Christ had risen. He restores him. He tells him, if you love me, feed my sheep, abide with me. So that's the call, Christian, to persevere. If you are in your life now, I'm not talking about being puffed up with pride, but if you are abiding with Christ and things are good, I encourage you to stay the course, to run the race, to not become weary. There'll be challenges. We need one another. Of course we need God's spirit, but he has ordained this place that we would come and pick each other up and encourage each other. Or maybe there's a sense that you have been going through the motions a bit. You know you're a believer, no doubt about it. But maybe you've drifted in your affections. Maybe some have gone cold. Maybe you struggle with a sin from the past you thought you defeated and it's reared its head again. And it's really easy to come in here and to act like you're just as good as it's always been. But you know inside, the Holy Spirit says it's not. There's business that needs to be taken care of. Here's a warning. That if you don't get that right, if you don't deal with that, that there's shame waiting for you if the Lord requires your life in the midst of that state. But it doesn't have to be that way, right? You call out to God. He's faithful and just to forgive you from all unrighteousness, to cleanse you, to restore the joy of your salvation. He is kind to His children beyond all of our comprehension. We can say here and speak of the goodness of God and mean it with all sincerity. It's amazing that He saved a sinner such as I, but we still fail to grasp the magnitude of what it is that God saved us. He is a good God. He is a kind God. And in my closing, I'll simply say, if you are here and you are outside of Jesus Christ, I'm not asking if you've asked Him into your heart, or raised your hand, or repeated a prayer. If you have never before the Lord cried out and said, I deserve your wrath, God, for you are holy, and I'm a sinner, and my only hope is Christ. If that has not happened, oh, I pray that today is the day of salvation for you, that you grab somebody, that you grab one of us, Steve or I, another man or woman here who knows the Lord, and you tell them that you need to talk about these. Abide in Christ, brothers and sisters. Abide in Christ that you would not be ashamed at Christ's return.