Difference in Law & Grace | Bro Jimmy Shook | Joy & Peace in Believing | Bill Moseley | 5.24.26

Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Appreciate Brother Elton's humble prayer. I'm gonna go ahead and get right into what I have on my mind. What I've had on my mind for some time is is the law and how the law covenant or that first covenant compares to the grace covenant. And uh I'm gonna start over here in uh Leviticus in the uh twenty-sixth chapter. God is talking to the people there. He said, Ye shall make no idols nor graven image, neither rare you upstanding image, neither shall you set up any image and stone in your land to bow down to, for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep my Sabbath and reverence my sanctuary, I am the Lord. He said, If ye walk in my statues and keep my commandments and do them, then I'll give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall year their fruit. And he goes on, he said, You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. So he says, If if we if the people would just keep his statutes and commandments, he would be their God. They would be his people, and he would be their God, and he would do all these things for them. But you see, there's a contingency in that. There's an if. He said, if you'll keep my commandments, then I'll be your God. And then in the 14th verse he goes on to say, But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall despise my statues, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant, I also will do this unto you. And he goes on to tell them all the things. He said, I'll set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies. And he goes on to say all the things that he will do to them. He won't be their God if they're if they won't obey his statutes. So that's that's a contingency, and it requires work and things for the people had to do before he was obligated to do his part. Well, I'm thankful that that's the old covenant, that's the law covenant. But we look over in Jeremiah, we see about a new covenant. In Jeremiah 31, 31, he says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break. God didn't break that covenant, the people broke that covenant. Although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. The Lord did everything he was supposed to do, but they didn't do their part. But this shall be the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I'll put my law in their inward parts, and I'll write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. That's a unilateral promise. There's no contingency in that. He's not depending on us to do anything. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. So that's the new covenant. That's that's the grace covenant. And I'm so thankful that that's the one that we're under. We're not under that old law covenant. But I want to look a little bit why we're not under that old law covenant anymore. I want to look over here at the seventh chapter of Romans. You know, Paul here is using natural things to teach us some spiritual things, but he says, Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law. How that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he live. You know, these Jews were very steeped in the law. Not only the Ten Commandments, but all the laws that you see over there in Leviticus. So they were really into the law. But he says, and here he gives an example. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth she be married to another, she'll be called an adulteress, but if her husband be dead, she's free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead by the law of the body of Christ. Here's the lesson they're teaching. Said, ye become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Christ made the law dead to us. We're free to have another husband, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So it said, For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. They couldn't obey the law, so that they were they were uh subject to death. Wages of sin is death. But now we're delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve the newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Christ made the law dead to us, so we're free to serve our new husband, Jesus Christ. And I want to look a little bit at uh some more symbolism in that. I'm gonna go to Matthew 27. This is when Jesus is on the cross, and this is 27 and 50. So Jesus, when he had cried aloud, cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. So we see here when Christ was crucified and gave up his life there, that that veil was rent, and that signified the end of the law. The law was over. And I'm gonna look over here in uh Hebrews 6, I think it is. I got too many markers in there, I can't see what I'm doing. Uh Hebrews 9. This was talking about uh this first covenant, the law covenant, and the ordinances that they went through, the high priest and all of them went through. And I won't take time to read all that, but I'm gonna skip over here to the sixth verse. Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone. He was the only one that could go into the second. Once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the heirs of the people. He had to take in blood, he had to offer blood for himself because he was a sinner, then he had to offer blood for the people. But he was the only one that could go into that second, behind that second veil, and he uh he only did it once a year. And uh it says the Holy Ghost signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing. The law was still there, so we couldn't enter into that second veil, to that second holiness, because the law was still there that we would we would uh we couldn't do that. And he says, this was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscious. This was all just a shadow and type of what Jesus was to do. He said, But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. So we see all this that was done by the high priest was only a symbol of what Christ was to do. But as long as the law was still in place, as long as the law was alive, we couldn't enter in to that holess of the holy. But when that veil was rent from top to bottom, now we're free. We're free from the law, and we can enter into that grace. Galatians 4 and 21. Paul says here, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? They wanted to adhere to that old law. And you know, it says, For it's written that Abraham had two sons, the one a bond maid and the other a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, Ishmael, but he of the free woman was by promise, was Isaac. When things are an allegory for these are the two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, which entered to bondage, which is Agar. So that first covenant, that's that's the works covenant, that's the law covenant. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, which answered to Jerusalem, which now is in his bondage with her children. But Jerusalem, which above, is free, which is the mother of us all. I won't go in anymore, but I want to get this over and talking about these two mountains. These two representing these two covenants. We're gonna go to Hebrews 12. 12 and 18. Paul tells him, he said, Ye are not coming to the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor into blackness and darkness and tempest. You remember when Moses went up on the mountain, they couldn't even touch it, or they'd die. The animals couldn't touch it. And it says, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of the words, which the voice they had heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as the beast touched the mountain it should be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are coming to the Mount Zion, to the city of the living God. They said, You couldn't come to this Mount Sinai, you can't touch it. And they said, You can't uh you can't bear it up. It's a burden, it's a burden you can't bear. Peter told them over on the 15th chapter of Acts that when they were trying to put the Gentiles back under the law and make them be circumcised, he said, Why put you a burden on us that neither our fathers nor we can bear? We can't bear the law, we can't do it. We need that grace. For they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as the beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, but ye are come unto the Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than things of Abel. So we're so thankful that we're not under that old covenant. When Christ was crucified, that veil was rent, signifying that we were dead to that law. We can have a new husband, Jesus Christ. We can be thankful that we're under that new covenant, that God says, They shall be my people and I shall be their God. No ifs, ands, or buts about that one. And we're so thankful that we know that, because we can have that joy and peace and comfort, knowing that we're not under that old law, that we can't abide. We're under the grace and just the grace of God alone. Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Appreciate what Brother Jimmy has set before us that uh service under the law was one of words written on a stone. Stone has no feelings. The stone, what is written, it is there, and you can't take it away. It's it was there for them to take heed to and to live by. Believing was not it was not the issue for the law. Believing. I I we take it kind of the natural law. I could I could believe that that speed limit going to the DOS church was not really right and for me. It didn't matter. That guy stopped me, brother Laura, and gave me a warrant. It wasn't whether or not I believed it or not, it was whether I obeyed it. The law was for those to obey. And it was a schoolmaster to show us that by all your goodness you cannot fulfill the law. It defined what sin is and what sin was to them and what sin is to us. And it was a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. And Christ did not come to destroy the law, he didn't come to say, okay, I'm just gonna abolish the law, and you're gonna do it my way. No, he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And he didn't just believe that what the law was true, he displayed it in his life that he was obedient to the law. And that dividing of that great veil was there to show us that it had been completed, it had been finished, he finished the law. This morning for a little while, I want to uh want to take your minds to think about believing. Now we uh we'd been talking uh in the past about the man that said, Lord, he had that son that was a lot of turbulence, uh a lot of problems, and he asked the Lord to uh to heal him, cast out his demons and things, and he said, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. We've been talking about unbelief lately. This morning, though, I want to center our thoughts on the believing side. Just what is this thing called believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus said to his disciples before he went away, he said, I'm going away. Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Believe in me, trust in me. Have a view of me with certainty in your heart that I not only am what I say I am, but I'll do what I said I'm gonna do. He was saying that he was about to go away, and he's talking about going away to heaven. But he's not gonna go straightway to heaven, he's gonna go to heaven through the cross. He's gonna run, he's gonna walk a very hard road, and it was for a great purpose. Matter of fact, it was for the very purpose that he came into this whole world as a man. Born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Ghost, God manifested in the flesh. I want to talk about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and what that means to us as believers. And I'm speaking to believers. Uh I'm not talking to unbelievers. If you have a resistance against Christ and don't care, then this message is probably not pointed at you, although there may be a spirit of believing in there that you don't know about. But hopefully we'll we'll look at some things that would make you think about it, about believing this man Jesus Christ. Man that lived 2,000 plus years ago, born there in Judea in the town of Bethlehem, grew up obedient to his mother and stepfather, having done the things of the law perfectly, no iniquity found in him. He was not a sinner. He was not born after sin. He was born of the Holy Ghost, made of a woman, made under the law. Christ was under the law. The law wasn't evil. The law was the word of God. The law was set in stone, it didn't change, just like God didn't change. When God gave the law, the law's not going to change. The law was what it was, and you were, they were to keep it to the best that they could. And they were they were to believe it that it was God's word that he said. And if you kept the law, then you were blessed in the keeping of that law. Matter of fact, he tells Saul through the mouth of Samuel that to obey is better than sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrifice. Some people say, well, if I'll just give more and get give to God more, then I will be blessed more. No, obeying is better than sacrifice. But believing, first of all, believing. I've got a list of five things. And you know, you guys know I like list. And the reason I like list is because the law of the scriptures is written using list. Uh, this list is kind of my own uh setting out to uh to organize this thought. I I began to think about believing, and believing can be given kind of a bad rap in that a uh it could be portrayed as a burden, a burdensome thing that is unpleasant, but I gotta do it anyway. I gotta believe. I gotta believe. Well, believing doesn't obligate God in one way or another. Believing doesn't uh cause us to become a child of God, to the contrary to that, uh, and I'll get to this too. But in one place in Romans it says that what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid is what Paul said. So it's not whether we believe or not as to whether God will do what he's gonna do, God's faith stands fast. Paul believes. Says to young Timothy, the preacher, he says, if we believe not, yet God abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. God did what he would do despite what we do. That's that whole thing about the law and grace. The law taught us that works, works doesn't work, that it's by grace. And Paul would tell us, not of the works of righteousness which we have done by his mercy, he has saved it. But we want to get to this believing. And the first thing that believing, if you are one that is a believer, that you see Jesus as he is, and he is the Christ, when Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, he was saying that from a heart of believing. He believed what he said. And this is before Christ died and was resurrected, that Peter would say, Thou art the Christ. And Jesus says, Simon, thou son of Jonah, blessed are you. You're blessed, Peter, for what you said, I am the Christ. Blessed art thou, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Believing is an evidence. First word in the list, it is an evidence that a miracle has happened to you as a believer. It has already happened and brought forth evidence, that is, faith that is in you, given by the operation of God through the voice of the Son of the Holy Ghost, which says, live, and that dead soul is quickened, made alive, given spiritual faculties, spiritual ability to discern spiritual things. So if you believe, it's because God has already done a work of grace in your heart. That's what gives you the capacity to believe. You're blessed if you believe. So it is an evidence. So when Peter gets up, when the when Paul gets put in prison, him and Silas, and the jail cells fly open, and the jailer, who is under an obligation to keep us safe or die, he said, What must I do to be safe? He's not talking about eternity. He's talking about right there in his life. And Paul preaches Christ, and that evidence shows up in that jailer, and he believes. And he believes. He believes what Paul preaches to him. And my friends, that is an evidence of grace written in the heart. That evidence of faith that says, yea, I believe. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is my Savior, that he paid my price, he paid my penalty. He paid all the debt that I owe that was an offense against God. And my friends, there's not a person alive in this world that didn't get that death sentence from our father Adam. For the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die. And he violated God's law, and God's law passed upon him. And Paul says that it has passed upon all men. For all have sinned. We all got the same penalty of death. And that believing is that Jesus took my penalty, my condemnation that was of God to me. It was passed from me, transacted to Jesus, and Jesus on the cross paid my debt, and he paid your debt. And to believe that, my friends, is an evidence that you hath he quickened, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. To believe that, my friends, is an evidence first and foremost that that came by the work of God Himself and no other. The next one is that very evidence takes us to liberty or freedom. Liberty. And that is that we're not under foreign rule. We're under the rule of our government of this country. And that's a great blessing to be of that kind of liberty and that kind of justice. But sometimes, my friends, that's flawed, and we lose some of our liberty and justice. But here, my friends, this believing takes us from the bondage of what that law said. That law said death. That law said you ought to die. That law was condemning for what the law could not do, because the law never could take away your sin. I don't care how many animals they sacrifice, I don't know, I don't care how many very detailed and harsh and overwhelming bloodshed that was done under the law, it never at all put away any sin. Because the law could not justify us. It took perfect life, it took a perfect man, it took a perfect free man. It took a man that was free from sin and death, and he had no iniquity in him. It took that kind of holiness to satisfy the judge. Because this one that's going to pay that debt, he's got to go before the judge of the quick and the dead. He's going before the judge who is so strict. I'm talking about, you know, that law was a schoolmaster, it was a teacher to bring us unto Christ. But my friends, Jesus as the Son of Man came and went before the judge that would judge him not as the Son of God, but as the Son of Man that was man, that was necessary to die for man, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, it took a man to die for a man. And he had to go before this judge. And if God had found one spot in him, I know he was beaten and he was uh he was mutilated in the flesh. They had beaten him almost unrecognizable. But that didn't do anything to his character. That didn't put a spot or wrinkle in his heart and his intent and who he was and what he was. But God looked upon him, and for six hours he hung there between heaven and earth under the judgment eye of the judge that is so strict if there's just one jock or tittle that is missing, if there's one slight in his character, if there's just one thought, my friends, that went amiss in him, God the judge, would have completely denied him. But my friends, you have a Savior that is holy and righteous, separate from sinners, that went before God the judge and hung there saying, I will take all my children's debt without exception. My children's debt are mine. And he paid the penalty of all sin of his children. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. And who he predestined, also called, justified, and glorified. And my friends, to believe that is to understand true freedom, true liberty. And what that brings us to is believing is a stabilizing in our life. It brings us to stability. The more we learn about Christ and the things that he accomplished, the things that he did, the things that he taught, it brings a stability. He's talked about as the rock. He's the rock in which our house is built on. That rock doesn't move, that rock is level, that rock is certain. It's not moving. There's no other foundation to be laid than that which the apostles laid, and that was Christ Jesus. And to believe, my friend, to have this believing that is evidence of the child of God being quickened by the work of the Holy Ghost and given the freedom that comes with the death of the Christ that came into this world and gave his life, laid down his life with such sacrifice, such love for the love set before him. It was his good pleasure. You think, well, I don't know if I'd be having good pleasure to die for somebody. Especially, especially what we were that he was dying for. While we were yet sinners, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, for the enemy against him, for those that were haters of God, yet he loved them. And my friends, the believing, the very fact that you believe, you know, he tells those sisters, he says, he came to Lazarus' grave. Lazarus has been dead for four days, and Jesus says, if thou canst believe, thou canst believe. That can't believe is if you have the ability to believe, if you have the ability, that is evidence that He is already working in you. He is already in you, Christ, the hope of glory. My friend, that that that is evidence. It is freedom. It is not burdensome, it is a blessing to us when we believe. When we can live our life in the belief. Just think, my friends, that God has given you the ability to believe. You know, hearing, I would say hearing is equated to the understanding. If thou hast ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church. But this believing is what we, what I would equate to not the understanding, but to the feeling Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's one thing to know about the theological term of Christ send you the hope of glory. It's a whole other thing to understand the feeling Christ send you, the hope of glory. We live our life, my friends. He is our life. Our life is hid in Christ. And what that is, my friends, is a life of stability. It is evidence of new birth. It is a freedom in that holy one that took our sins, bore our iniquity, and has given us the freedom in that. Not that it made us any, not that that said, okay, that sin didn't matter. Because that sin does matter, because that's what he died for. That's what he went before the judge with and paid the full extent of that debt. It still means something, but my friends, it's not held against you. He put away your sin as far as the east is from the west. That's 180 degrees opposite. It'll never come around to be found against you ever. But not only does it stabilize our life, not being tossed, you know, I believe Paul talks about, or Peter talks about not being tossed to and fro. Let me go and find something real fast here. Romans chapter 15. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. With all joy and peace. There is a joy and peace in believing. Think of, I just want you to, that is that is the phrase that got me into this vein of thought, this thinking about the impact of believing in our life. The impact of what we have heard and understand that Christ did on our behalf, on my behalf. Make it personal. It is on your account that this is all talking. You know, I hear people talk about their bank accounts this, their bank accounts that. My friends, the one that I'm I need to always look at is my bank account, my account, my ledger. And I see the things that Christ has done on my account. I want you to think about your account. And when we're in the understanding and believing that there is great joy that is brought to us through the work of Christ, our Lord, who has done these things. When you feel that joy and that peace in believing. Yes, it's something happening to you, but it's glorifying to our Father. It's glorifying to our Savior who is happy. I'm just kind of putting it in early. He is joyous when his children glorify him in believing. It's a glorious thing when the child of God believes. I believe he was glorified in the words of the eunuch, as the eunuch was riding in the chariot, and Philip was sent down there by God to meet him on that road and asking, understandest thou what thou readest? He was reading Isaiah chapter 53 about that man that was taken and sacrificed or killed in the midst of malefactors, in the midst of others. This man that gave his life. That whole chapter 53 of Isaiah reads almost like New Testament, because it's the story of the sacrifice of Christ. He was reading that. And Philip said, Understand us out what thou readest. And he said, How can I except some man teach me? And Philip started at that point, started where he was on that road, reading that text. A text you can go read today in your Bible, the same text, 53rd chapter of Isaiah. And Philip began at that, and he preached Christ. And it must have been something in that sermon about the baptism of Christ, and about we ought to be baptized. If you believe, you ought to be baptized. It's a fulfilling of a commandment to repent and be baptized. If you believe, you're called to baptism. That's one of the things of the gospel, that we are called to be baptized, showing, professing, displaying that I believe. That I believe that Christ died and was buried and rose again for me. Because I'm the one getting baptized, right? I'm being baptized for the dead. I'm being baptized because there was one that died and was buried and rose again from the dead on my account. And the news is, he not only rose again, but because he lives, and we're in him, we were raised with him, then we live because he lives. Because I live, you shall live also. Teaching the resurrection someday of these old bodies. And he said, What doth hinder me, see and hear is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest, if you truly believe what you're saying, then what you want to do will mean something. It will be a glorifying to God because you're following after what he said. And the eunuch says, I believe. That's what that jailer said, I believe. And he was baptized. And 5,000 souls believed on the day of Pentecost. And they were added to the church and were baptized. So baptism, my friends, is not to the unbeliever. Baptism is to the believer. Why? Because it glorifies God in following what God said should be done. It's glorifying to God. Now, I've got to get on to one more point. And it's kind of the big one. It goes along with that joy and peace in believing. In John chapter 20. John chapter 20. I'll just go there and just talk for a second about it. John chapter 20 is where Thomas comes in after eight days. The Lord has shown himself alive after his resurrection. And now here it is, eight days later. Thomas wasn't at the first meeting, but Thomas is at this meeting. And the Lord shows himself into that company. And he addresses Thomas about that. John chapter twenty and twenty nine. This is kind of important because we have not seen, we have not seen Jesus in the flesh. Not a one of us. The apostles did. Many in that first century did. But here in John chapter 20, 29, 28, Thomas answers and said, My Lord and my God. He had showed him his hands, he had showed him his side. And he told him, touch that hand. Touch that nail print. You know, right there, wherever that nail print was, he showed him that and said, Put your finger right there. Or thrust your hand into this side where the sword went into my body on that cross and out came water and blood. And Thomas said, My Lord and my God. Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Blessed are those that have not seen, yet believed. Let's come over to 1 Peter. Peter must have heard this conversation. Peter writes in his first epistle, what I believe is a reflection back to what Jesus said about you have seen with your eyes, with your natural eyes. You saw me. You saw the hand prints, you saw the nail prints, the spear place, you saw that. You saw the physical. Having not you hadn't seen him, but you love him. That is an experience of believing. That is a joyous, liberating, stabilizing thing that we glorify God in is we love him. And we love him because he first loved us, which is it goes to the fact that believing is an evidence that the new birth has already happened. You love him because he first loved you. You didn't love him and he then started loving you. No, he loved you first. You return that love. You just respond back with that love. His love is great. Our love is returned to him, whom having not seen, ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We sang that song that is coming from this very verse in Peter's. You haven't seen him in the flesh, but you have felt him in the heart. You've understood him in the spiritual faculties of your faith. That, my friends, is why nothing in this world can separate you from the love of God because he first enters into you, then you respond with believing. Lord, I believe. Lord, I believe. I'd like to, I want to tell you, we spend a lot of time talking about our shortcomings, our downfalls, our iniquities, and the things that we do wrong. We talk about the sadness of sin. And you know there's there is a rightfulness about that, is that we be honest about what we are and who we are. We are sinners. My friends, it's necessary that we understand when you believe, you're blessed. If you live your life with responses built on belief, that's building your house upon a rock. That's building up things upon your upon your faith. That the trial of your faith be more precious than good. You know what the trial of your faith is? It's likened unto fire on gold. You know what fire does for gold? It burns away the impurities. It burns away those bad things. You know what it leaves behind? Pure gold. It leaves behind the valuable, it burns away the worthless, and it leaves the good. We need to understand, my friends, that when we believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, when we live our life on the principles that Christ has given us as his teaching, we're following after. We're following after the valuable, the gold. That's, my friends, the believing. That's the joy and the peace that is given in belief. Joy and peace in believing. That, my friends, is a great blessing. You know what? I love, I love the truth. I don't always, I don't always get it all in its right place. I have to work at it. You do too, and especially in the obedience to it. The gospel is something that we are to obey also. God is more interested in obeying than sacrifice. But if we believe and we are found followers of Christ, I'm going to tell you, you're going to find him in your life. You want to look for him in your life. We were to look for Christ in the Old Testament and the law and the prophets. Now, my friends, we are to look for him in our lives, in our very living, and the things that we value, in the things that we cherish, the things that we we hold to, the things we build upon, the things I want to be around. Life is joyous and peaceful in believing. I thank you this morning for that.