Do you know Christ or do you just know a lot about him? Think about that question some before you answer because that question sits underneath everything we're going to talk about today. And it's one of the most important questions that most of us really don't like to ask out loud.

Hello, and welcome to the Pristine Grace podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Kraft, and this is a show where I discuss Christian living, theology, and important Bible subjects and the gospel. If you're new to this channel, please take a moment to subscribe and check out my other videos and my website at pristinegrace.org. To give you a little background about me, I'm a Christian writer and speaker and have been operator of the christiangrace.org website since 1997. And today's message, we're going to get right into it.

All right, I hope I got your attention with my leading question. Hope you thought about it. And I'm gonna settle in right now and start this the same way I would if this were just me and you, let's say, sitting down at a coffee shop with a couple of cups of coffee and plenty of time. Now, I'm in Kentucky, so I guess if you were in Kentucky, we'd go down to the bar and have some bourbon. But, just kidding, of course. But anywhere else, we're drinking coffee. So, if you like, pause the video and maybe get your favorite beverage. I know we can't converse one-on-one, but I'm asking you to pretend or try to envision us sitting down to chat as friends or friendly acquaintances. And right now for me, there's no rush. I don't have any pressure. There's no performance. I'm just sitting in my office here all alone. And I want to speak clearly and slowly enough that you can think while I'm talking. And honestly, Slowly enough that I can think while I'm talking to you because this is not a subject you can sprint through. This is something you walk through. Sometimes doubling back, sometimes stopping all together.

If you don't understand something, just feel free to ask me or feel free to pause the video and go back to where we were and see if you can digest what we just spoke about. By the way, I'm happy to talk to anyone. And also, maybe get your Bible out and read along with me because we're going to get into the scriptures some. This video is meant for study and reflection and to give you an opportunity to really think about this message and the scriptures. And even if you don't agree with me, if you just think about the scriptures even for just a few minutes today, that's going to make me happy. And just so you know, I'm not saying that because it sounds spiritual. I really do mean it. I don't need you to agree with me. I don't even need you to like everything or even anything that I say. I'd rather you slow down, wrestle with the text, and let scripture have the final word, even if that takes longer than one sitting. And if you don't agree, I would be happy just knowing that you are led to pour over the words of the Bible and pray for understanding.

I want to be honest about something right out of the gate here. This slower pace is not just a stylistic choice for me, it's kind of a protection. I've learned that when I move too fast through spiritual things, I tend to stay on the surface. I say the right things, I'll hit the right notes, but I never really let the truth press down into the places where it actually needs to do the work in me and in others when I'm teaching. I often try to force my position on others, but as I've been growing a little bit older now, I've been learning to just sit back and rely on God to do the work. I'm just a mouthpiece and a flawed human being just like you and anyone else out there. And I speak from experience and years of knowing the Lord and his gospel. And I've become really good over the years at sounding like someone who's resting while quietly wrestling inside myself attempting to stay in control. That's a hard thing for me to admit out loud. But I think honestly, I think honesty matters more here than polish.

Remember, I'm just another human being like you who has to deal with sins, often the same sins, stuck on repeat in a never-ending loop. I struggle with pride and temptation the same as anyone else does. But over the years, in spite of my awful attitude and terrible sins, the Lord has kept me. And that's brought me so much joy, a joy that I wish to share with you today.

So let me make that a little more concrete because this isn't just theoretical for me. I didn't always learn this lesson, which I'm about to share with you. the lesson that's inside my heart the way I should have learned it years ago. For a long time, though, I approached Christianity the same way I approached everything else in life. I figured out what it's all about. I understood it, I systematized it, and I mastered it. I used to think that if I could get just the framework right, the outlines right, the doctrines lined up cleanly, then I'd feel settled. And for a while, that worked. Or at least it felt like it worked. I could talk confidently. I could explain things clearly. I could spot errors quickly. And people often assume that confidence equals health. But underneath all of that, something was missing. I wasn't always resting. I was managing. And I've written before about how easy it is to confuse structure with substance, especially with spiritual things in church life and whatnot. You can be surrounded by good theology, faithful language, and serious people, and still feel strangely restless on the inside. I did. And for a long time I didn't even realize that what I was calling discernment was sometimes just a refusal to be dependent. and slowing down forced me to notice that.

For my long time viewers out there, you know, you've been following me a long time, you may have noticed that I took a several year break from creating videos and during this time I learned a lot. I learned a lot. My son has kind of grown up now, and we've had our struggles, and I live life like all of you do, and I've got my problems, and during this time of silence, it exposed a lot of things I would have preferred to keep hidden. The Lord revealed a lot of things to me. And honestly, that's part of why I talk the way I do now. Go back and listen to some of my old videos. You can find them on Sermon Audio. And you're going to find out that my delivery has changed quite a bit. And it's not because I'm trying to sound thoughtful or look good on camera. I'm just trying to stay honest with who I am and not trying to perform to anybody's expectations. And so I know I'm probably going to disappoint some of you out there. But maybe some of you will like this new approach.

There is a version of Christianity that can be talked about very efficiently. You can outline it. You can bullet point it. You can summarize it in neat little packages or what I call boxes or formulas. I did a sermon for that over at 13th Street. And none of that is necessarily wrong. But efficiency can sometimes keep us from honesty. It can keep us from slowing down long enough to ask the uncomfortable questions, especially the ones that don't have tidy answers. And as people, we love efficiency, especially in church culture. If you're like me, you want the summary, the takeaway, the bullet points, preferably before lunch. And none of that is wrong, okay? None of that's wrong. But sometimes efficiency is just impatience dressed up in a Bible verse. And over the years, I've noticed that the Lord often does His deepest work in the pauses, not in the explanations. In the moments where you realize you don't have anything impressive to say. In the moments where you're not sure how to move forward, but you know you can't go back to where you were. That kind of space is uncomfortable, but it's also where dependence grows. And I think that's one of the reasons Jesus so often slowed people down instead of speeding them up. He asked questions. Read the Gospels, you'll see he asked a lot of questions. And he told stories that took time to sink in. And he let silence and the Spirit do the work. And in a world that rewards quick answers and strong opinions, that way of teaching can feel almost foreign. And that's especially true in this fast-paced digital age and even in sermons we hear in churches.

But real spiritual clarity, that usually comes slowly. It usually doesn't come from just hearing one sermon, or watching one YouTube video, or reading a book, or even going to Sunday school. Real spiritual growth comes through wrestling with the scriptures. You have to get your bible out. You have to pour over the words of God and wrestle with them and try to understand them and pray for the spirit to give you understanding. And real spiritual growth, it comes from honest self-examination, not through comparison with your neighbor or some super spiritual dude that you know, you think he's got his ducks in a row. No, you don't compare yourself to anybody. But real growth comes through the Holy Spirit working on our hearts and minds. It's not something we can conjure up within ourselves. And that's especially true when we start talking about things like knowledge, truth, and assurance. Because if we're not careful, we can turn even good things into substitutes for Christ. We can take tools that were meant to serve us and quietly let them rule us instead. And knowledge is one of the easiest tools out there to misuse. precisely because it looks responsible on the surface. In knowledge, it's very necessary. Nobody gets rebuked for knowing too much of the Bible. Nobody gets warned for caring about doctrine, so the danger often goes unnoticed. It grows quietly under the cover of seriousness and sincerity. And before long, the thing that was meant to lead us to rest in Christ becomes the thing we lean on instead of Him. It's kind of like food, even good nutritious food, the type your doctor wants you to eat. Our bodies, they need food. But if we misuse it, we can grow to be extremely overweight and unhealthy. And ask me how I know that. Anyway, that's why I want to take this solely. Not to be vague, not to avoid truth, but to make sure we're actually talking about what matters most and not just circling around it with familiar language. I've learned over the years that the things I most need to hear are usually the things that I already agree with intellectually. The danger zone for me isn't where I disagree with what I think scripture says or the latest sermon I heard in the pulpit. The danger zone for me is where I nod my head and assume I'm safe because I understand it. That one still gets me because there were seasons where I honestly thought, well, I can clearly see this. I can agree with it. I can explain it. So I must be standing on solid ground. And only later did I realize I was standing on agreement at times, but not on Christ.

Think about that for a second. That's where knowledge quietly stops being a tool and starts becoming a refuge. This has been one of the most uncomfortable lessons of my Christian life. The hardest truths for me as a believer haven't been the ones I disagreed with, they were the ones I already affirmed. The doctrines I could sign off on, the ones I could put in my statement of faith on my website, the verses I could quote, and the positions I could defend.

And I've sat under solid preaching. I've read good books. I have hundreds of books here that I've read that I love. And I've spent long hours thinking through and writing articles on theology. And yet, there were seasons where I realized I was using agreement as a kind of insulation. If I already believed the right things, I assumed I was fine, safe and secure. But scripture, on the other hand, it has a way of sneaking past your defenses. It doesn't just ask, do you believe this? It asks, what are you resting on right now? And that question can be unsettling, especially for people who value clarity and precision like I do. And that's where knowledge quietly stops being a servant and starts acting like a refuge. Not loudly, not obviously, but just enough to keep you from collapsing fully into Christ.

And to be upfront with you, this message is based on an article and a song I wrote titled, Your Knowledge Won't Save You. I'll put a link in the description so you can listen to the song. And I want to say again that this is not aimed outward or toward any particular group of people, although it is something I've observed in quite a lot of people. A lot of people who, most people would say are faithful. But it's not aimed at a theological camp. It's aimed inward. It's aimed inward towards me. Because I know how easy it is to confuse being right with being secure. And scripture refuses to let us do that.

And even Jesus confronts this directly in one of the most eye-opening passages in the Bible. He's speaking to religious leaders, men who were serious about God, serious about Scripture, serious about their obedience. And this is what he says to them. Let's go ahead and turn to John chapter 5 verse 39.

Here Jesus says to these Pharisees, I want to stay here for a while because this one verse, this single verse, dismantles a lot of false confidence. Jesus does not accuse these people, these Pharisees, of neglecting the Bible. He accuses them of trusting the wrong thing. He says, quote, in them, you think you have eternal life. Their confidence was misplaced. They thought eternal life was something contained in the text itself, rather than in the one, the person, the text points to. And then he says to them, they are they which testify of me. Scripture bears witness. Scripture points. Scripture speaks. But scripture, as wonderful as it is, it is not the Savior. Christ is the Savior. Scripture can never know you, but Christ knows you.

So I want you to linger here a bit because this is where a lot of sincere people get tripped up without realizing it. We hear that scripture testifies of Christ and we can agree with that in theory, but in practice we often stop one step short. We learn how to talk about Christ instead of learning how to rest in Him. We learn how to explain Him instead of learning how to depend on Him. And there's a subtle difference between knowing where a road leads and actually walking down it. You can study maps your whole life and never take a journey. You can become an expert in directions and still never arrive. And in the same way, it's possible to know exactly what the Bible says about salvation and still never come to Christ as a sinner in need of mercy. And this is where knowledge can quietly become a substitute for trust.

As long as I'm learning, I feel productive. As long as I'm studying, I feel engaged. As long as I'm refining my understanding, I feel faithful. But none of those things necessarily mean I'm resting. None of those things necessarily mean I've stopped relying on myself. And rest is really the issue here. Coming to Christ means laying something down. It means giving up the need to justify yourself, to explain yourself, to prove yourself. And knowledge can be one of the hardest things to lay down because it feels like part of who we are, especially for those of us who value truth, clarity, and careful thinking like myself.

And if you take a look at this passage, you'll see that Jesus doesn't really rebuke these men for searching the Scriptures. He rebukes them for refusing to come to Him. And that tells me something important. It tells us something important. The problem is not our efforts. The problem is direction. All their energy was moving sideways instead of forward. It was circling the truth instead of landing on the truth. And this helps us understand why Jesus speaks the way he does in this passage. He doesn't argue theology with them. He's not trying to correct their interpretations point by point. He goes straight to the heart of the matter. He says, you will not come to me. That's not a debate. That's not a debate. That's an exposure. And that should make us pause and ask ourselves a very honest question. Not do I know the gospel, not can I explain the gospel, but have I actually come to Christ and stayed there? Have I stopped moving and rested my full weight upon him? Or am I still hovering, still managing, still keeping something back?

Scripture, you know, it never presents coming to Christ as a one-time intellectual event. It presents coming to Christ as a posture, a continual posture of dependence, a settled refusal to look anywhere else for life. And when we understand that knowledge interferes with that posture, it has overstepped its place. Knowledge has overstepped its place. And this matters because it is possible to be surrounded by scripture and still resist Christ. It is possible to memorize verses and still refuse to come to Him. And Jesus makes that explicit just one verse later. We're going to get your Bible out. If you still have your Bible open, you're going to go one verse down to John chapter 5 verse 40. and ye will not come to me that ye might have life. And that sentence should stop us cold in our tracks. These people he's talking to search the scriptures constantly, but they wouldn't come to Christ. Their knowledge and supposed confession became a substitute for dependence on God. Study became a shield against surrender.

This is not a problem limited to the first century Pharisee. It's a recurring religious problem seen throughout the ages and is with us even today. Wherever scripture is loved, this temptation exists. Because scripture gives us language, categories, frameworks, and clarity. And clarity can often feel like safety. I've seen this play out repeatedly, not just in history books, but in real churches, real conversations, and real relationships. Wherever scripture is taken seriously, And that's a good thing. This temptation shows up right alongside it. Because when you care deeply about truth, it's very easy to start confusing accuracy with safety. And I've watched debates where everyone involved could quote scripture, define terms, and defend their positions. yet something was clearly off to me. Their temperature, the temperature in the room was hot, it was high, but patience was low and mercy was nowhere in sight. And you start to realize that knowing the right words doesn't automatically produce the fruit of the Spirit. And that realization hit close to home for me because it forced me to ask whether my own sense of security was coming from Christ himself or my ability to navigate theological conversations without stumbling. And that's not a comfortable question. It's not comfortable to think about, but it's a necessary one. Because clarity is not safety. Christ is safety.

And the Apostle Paul warned Timothy about a kind of religious life that looks authentic on the outside but lacks the very thing that actually saves. 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 5 having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away all right so let's ask ourselves some questions here a form of godliness what is that In my mind, a form is something that has the shape that is right. The structure looks right. And when it comes to the Bible, the theology sounds right. But the power is denied. And the power of God is not intelligence. The power is not precision. The power is Christ crucified and risen, saving sinners by grace alone, and not in anything they do or say or think. And when we lean on knowledge instead of Christ, the power is denied. Flat out. When we rest in being right instead of resting in His mercy, the power is denied. When our assurance is grounded in clarity rather than in the cross, the power is denied and we have a false assurance.

And I want to say this carefully before we read this next passage. This isn't meant to make tender consciences spiral. This isn't Jesus trying to unsettle people who are clinging to him. This is him unsettling people who are clinging to everything except him. all right and jesus warned us pain plainly that many would stand before him with confidence credentials and religious language and still be rejected flat out and you can read this in matthew chapter 7 verse 22 some of the hardest words to read in scripture Jesus says, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? Alright. These are not minor claims. These are serious and sincere religious activities. And yet Jesus responds with words that strip away every false refuge. Next verse, Matthew 7 verse 23. Jesus says, And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you, Jesus says. That doesn't mean Christ lacked information. Okay? He knows everything. Alright? And when the Bible speaks of knowledge, God knowing somebody means more than just information. It means there was, there's a relationship. And in this case, there is no relationship. Jesus says there's no love. There's no union with him. There's no belonging with him. He says, I never knew you. I never loved you. And this passage is not meant to terrify those of us who believe in rest in Christ. It's not meant to terrify us. It's meant to dismantle false confidence. It is meant to leave us with only one place to stand, and that is Christ himself.

And this is where we have to be careful not to misunderstand what Jesus is doing in Matthew 7. He's not trying to make genuine believers anxious, although, you know, as a believer I tend to get a little anxious when I read that. He's not pulling the rug out from under weak faith. He's not setting traps for tender consciences. But what he is doing, however, is exposing false places of rest. Places people have been standing that cannot actually hold them. Okay? The danger Jesus is addressing here is not too little confidence. but confidence in the wrong thing. And these men were not trembling. They were bold and they were certain. They were ready with a resume. And that alone should tell us something. Because false assurance is usually loud. All right? And I see a lot of false assurance out there. But true assurance is usually quieter. It's usually quiet. Real assurance tends to rest. It doesn't need to announce itself. It doesn't need to enlist its accomplishments. It doesn't need to justify its presence. It simply clings to Christ and says, if I'm accepted, it's because of Him. And that kind of assurance doesn't argue, it trusts. And the people in Matthew 7 appeal to what they did, what they said, and what they accomplished. They don't appeal to mercy. They don't appeal to Christ. They don't appeal to grace. And they don't appeal to Christ's work on their behalf. And that absence is telling. When people are resting in Christ, His work is never far from their lips. This is why self-examination is necessary, but it must be done carefully. Not with suspicion, not with fear, but with honesty. Honesty. The question is not, can I find flaws in myself? Because we can all do that. The question is, what am I actually trusting? Where is my rest? Where is my confidence? Am I trusting my experiences, my decisions, my knowledge, my consistency, or am I trusting Christ, His obedience, His blood, His finished work? Because only one of those can stand when everything else is stripped away. Jesus isn't calling us to get involved with analysis paralysis. He's not calling us to stare into our navels. He's calling us to wide-eyed dependence. He's not saying, look harder at yourself. He's saying, stop hiding. Stop hiding behind anything else and come to me. And once that is understood, it reminds us that proximity to truth is not the same thing as resting in truth. And it prepares us to listen carefully to what scripture tells us with one of the most important stories in all of scripture. At least it is to me. And this story is the story of Judas. Judas Iscariot, Judas the Betrayer. And if you're not familiar with Judas, I urge you to look him up and understand what happened with him. And I think his story is crucial to understand. Judas, he was one of the 12 disciples. And he embodies this warning of Jesus in flesh and blood. Like I said, he was not on the fringe. He was one of the twelve disciples. He heard probably most of Christ's sermons. He saw most of Christ's miracles. He participated in ministry. And scripture tells us plainly that authority was given to all the disciples, including Judas.

Matthew 10 verse 1, it says this, and when he called unto him his twelve disciples, that is Jesus called his disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Judas was included in all of that. Judas preached, Judas healed, Judas cast out unclean spirits, he cast out devils.

And yet, Judas was not one of Christ's chosen people. His heart was not at rest in Christ. Judas, he loved money, he loved position, and he loved himself. And when Christ no longer served his interests, he betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver. And that should humble us. Ministry, service to the Lord, does not save. Knowing the right things about God does not save. Proximity does not save. You can be right next to Christ and not be saved. Only Christ saves. Alright?

And Jesus tells us plainly who his people are. John chapter 10 verse 27. My sheep, or my people, they hear my voice and I know them I know them and they follow me, hearing his voice, being known by him, following him, not mastering him or the language of him, not leveraging him, but following him. and salvation is not about our grip on Christ it's about his grip on us and I've seen so many people who are confused about this even solid Bible teachers scripture is clear about why Jesus came Matthew chapter 1 verse 21 and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Look at that. Just stare at that verse for a long time. Pause the video or get your Bible out. It says, He shall save. He shall save. Not attempt to save. Not offer to save. He shall save. Salvation is His work from the beginning to the end.

And this is why assurance cannot rest on knowledge. Knowledge grows. Knowledge shifts. Knowledge wavers. but Christ's finished work does not. Paul explains this clearly in Romans 3, verse 24, one of my favorite passages, where Paul says, we're being justified freely, freely, by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Freely. by grace through redemption in Christ. And again, Romans 5 verse 1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God, not anxiety, not fear, but peace.

And Paul wrestles honestly with indwelling sin in Romans 7. Verse 22 of Romans 7, Paul says, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. And yet he says in Romans 7 verse 24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of this death? Notice the question, who shall deliver me? Not what system shall deliver me, not what knowledge shall deliver me, but who shall deliver me? And the answer, it comes in Romans 7 verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Deliverance is found in a person.

And Romans 8 opens with one of the most comforting truths in all of scripture. Verse 1 of Romans 8 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. That no condemnation that Paul's talking about, it's not based on your understanding. It's based on your union with Christ. And Paul continues, Romans 8 verse 29, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. The goal is to be like Christ and conform to His image, not accumulation of knowledge. And then this unshakable premise, Romans 8 verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing can, nothing can. Because salvation rests on Christ's love, not on our performance or knowledge. And that truth right there is where the soul finally gets to exhale. Because if salvation rested on our performance, we'd always be measuring. And if it rested on knowledge, we'd always be comparing. Someone would always know more. Someone would always articulate better than us. Someone would always feel more certain. And assurance would quietly turn into competition. And I've seen this happen. I've seen it happen time and time again. But Scripture doesn't move us in that direction. It moves us toward Real rest. Deep rest. The kind of rest that comes from knowing the most important work has already been done, completely and perfectly, by someone other than you. Because if you had to do the work, you know you'd mess it up. I know I'd mess it up. If I had to live that perfect life, I'd mess it up. If I had to do just one thing to earn my salvation, whether it be making a decision or saying a prayer, I'd mess it up because I know myself. But I don't have to worry about that. You know, Romans 8, it's not written to inflate our confidence in ourselves. It's written to deflate it, deflate our confidence. It is not to leave us empty, but to leave us dependent. And the point of all this assurance is not to make us feel impressive, but to make us feel secure. Secure enough to stop proving ourselves. Secure enough to stop guarding our image. Secure enough to love other believers without needing to rank them. And if knowledge were the foundation of salvation, assurance would always belong to the sharpest minds. But the gospel does something very different. It gives the strongest assurance to the weakest sinner who clings to Christ. And that should humble us deeply. And if that's true, I want to be the weakest center. I want to be the weakest center. All right. And this is why scripture never tells us to look inward for peace. It tells us to look outward and upward to Christ. Peace with God doesn't come from understanding yourself better. It comes from trusting Christ more fully. And that trust is not heroic, it's not dramatic, it's often quiet. It often looks like coming to Christ again and again and again with empty hands saying, I still need you, I still can't save myself, I still don't have anywhere else to go. And that posture, that posture never outgrows its usefulness. Mature believers don't graduate from dependence, they deepen in it, and they become quicker to run to Christ, not quicker to explain Him. They become more patient with others, not more harsh, and they become more gentle, not more suspicious. And if you're listening to this and thinking, I still need Christ just as much as I ever did. Well, that's not a problem. Alright, that's not a problem. That's called health. Alright, that's not immaturity. That's the Christian life working the way it's supposed to work. And I've come to believe that real maturity looks far less impressive than we expect. It doesn't sound louder. It doesn't argue harder. It doesn't rush to correct every misstep. Instead, it grows quieter. It grows steadier and more patient. And the longer I've walked this road, the more I've noticed that seasoned believers tend to talk less about themselves and more about Christ. Not because they've run out of insights, but because they've learned where life actually comes from. They don't outgrow the gospel, they lean into it. Again and again. not with drama, not with panic, but with a settled awareness that they still need mercy just as much as they ever did. And that realization that doesn't weaken faith, it stabilizes it. When knowledge is kept in its proper place, it becomes a gift. It feeds our worship. It strengthens our faith. It steadies us in confusion. But when it drifts into the role of being our Savior, it becomes a burden that none of us can carry. And Christ never asked us to carry ourselves. He called us to come to Him. And when we do, we find that He's gentle, faithful, and sufficient. Not just at the beginning of our Christian life, but all the way through to the very end. And that's why the Gospel is such good news. Not because it flatters us, but because it frees us. It frees us from self-reliance. It frees us from comparison. It frees us from the exhausting need to be enough. Because in Christ we already are. In Christ we stand perfectly righteous before God. Our sins are forgotten. They've been erased. Erased. My sins, all my past sins, all my current sins, all my future sins, In the eyes of God, they are as far from me as the east is from the west. Which means, they're gone. Alright? And Paul tells us where boasting belongs. Galatians chapter 6, verse 14. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. not in being right, but in the cross. And Paul gives us one more sobering reminder, 1 Corinthians 13, 2, and I brought this up in my last podcast. And if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and have not charity, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. Knowledge without love amounts to nothing. Grace. Grace humbles us. Grace softens us. Grace protects us from pride and despair alike. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 9 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not of works. It's not of knowledge. It's not of any condition fulfilled by us. It's not of a free will decision. It's grace. Grace. Grace alone. And if you're weary, Christ is enough. If you're confident, make sure Christ is still your refuge. That's all I've got to say to you there. And in the end, only one thing will matter. It's not what we knew. but whether we were known by Christ. And there's a saying I like to quote often, it's not what you know, it's who knows you. Your knowledge will not save you, but Christ will. And if you take nothing else away from this, take this with you. You don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to sharpen your understanding or get your footing perfect before you come to Christ. You come as you are. And you keep coming, tired, unsure, distracted, even frustrated. He doesn't get worn out by that. Christianity, it's not about reaching a point where you finally need him less. It's about reaching a point where you stop pretending you ever did. And if today all you can say is, Lord, I need you, that's the beginning of something new. That's the center of everything. And that is very good news. And so if we were really at a coffee shop, just me and you, this would be the moment where the cups are probably empty, the conversation has slowed, and maybe you realize you don't need to walk away with answers, just with Christ. And that's about all I have to say for you today. I hope you find this useful. Think about what I said, and please stay tuned for more messages from me. I plan on making more and more videos in the coming weeks. months and years as I have a lot more to say. And feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I'm happy to talk to you and answer any questions you may have. And there's a link to my contact form on my website in the description. Also, I'm now getting into YouTube and plan on releasing a video here maybe once a week. I'm going to try to do that. If I can't, forgive me, but I'm going to try to do that, at least during the winter months here. So please stay tuned and thanks for listening and grace and peace to you. Goodbye.