That hymn reminds me of something
my pastor said years ago. I was a real young believer. I wrote it in my Bible. I've
never forgotten it. He said he had three desires,
and they really struck a chord with me. He said he desired total
commitment to the Lord, Total communion with the Lord and total
conformity to the Lord. I've never forgotten that. I
wrote it down and never forgotten that. And that's my desire. That's
your desire? 2 Peter 3, 2 Peter 3, verse 18
is our text. I'm sure you read it. Peter, this is his last epistle. These are his last words,
the very last chapter and the very last parting words. And he says, grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and
forever. Amen. Growth and grace. Now let me say this, and I listened
to a message by my pastor today. And by the way, I prepared this
message yesterday. And I say yesterday, I prepared
many, many more notes the day before that, the day before that.
Fifteen or twenty pages of notes, and I threw away most of them. I prepared a whole message and
then listened to my father, and I threw it away. And I did a
whole other message today, but same thing, just more concise,
I guess. This is how he started, and this
is how I'm going to start. When we talk about growth and
grace, we're not talking about being more justified or sanctified,
more accepted by God, more pardoned or more loved by God. That's
not possible. God loves you. You will always
be loved. No matter what you do or don't
do, you can't be unloved by Him. You can't be unaccepted, can't
be kicked out of the family. You're justified, not by works,
but by the blood of Christ, aren't you? By the grace of God. Sanctified by His offering. Accepted, pardoned, loved by
Him. If you're born of God, If you're chosen of God, if you're
called of God, redeemed by Christ, you are complete in Him. Okay? Completely justified, sanctified,
accepted, pardoned, completely, 100% pardoned, forgiven of all
your transgressions. No condemnation, no judgment.
Ever. Alright, is that clear? And I'm
not talking about some kind of progressive sanctification the
way reformed people refer to it, okay? We're talking about
the new man here. You know this, there are two
creatures in, there's a new man and an old man. We just read
about that. And the new man is complete. That is, he's created
in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? And he has grace,
he has repentance and faith and love and fruit and so forth.
But he grows, right? If you die a baby in Christ,
you're saved. If you die an old man in Christ,
you're saved. Same way, right? Your salvation, your acceptance,
nothing depends on your growth. Is that clear? Okay, is that
clear? Everybody listening on Mixer,
is that clear? Don't anybody accuse me of preaching
some kind of progressive sanctification. Now this is talking to the child
of God. I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians
13. Try not to have you turn too much. We will turn to Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians, Ephesians. Or I'll turn for you. 1 Corinthians 13, look at this. Here's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
13, verse 11. When I was a child, I spake as
a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. See that? Look at chapter 14,
verse 20. Chapter 14, 20. Brethren, be
not children in understanding. We need to grow, don't we, in
wisdom and understanding. Howbeit, in malice, be children. Meaning, you know, little children
get over things real quickly. They don't seem to have this,
little, little children don't seem to have that, you know,
vindictive and malicious spirit in them, they don't. But in understanding,
be men. Does that make sense? Sure it
does. And you know all they say, we've
looked at all of this before, but we need it, they need it.
You know, when a baby is born, he's a complete little man or
woman. They don't grow any more fingers
and toes or eyes or ears or anything. Right? Complete. A man-child. They used to call
it, you know, not a boy, but a man-child is born. But if it's a lot, it's going
to grow in. Anything living grows. Everything
living grows. If alive, it grows. If not, something's
wrong. Right? Either sick and need restoration
or dead. Not alive at all. Okay? Now here's
the paradox. And you can, let's see, where
am I going to turn next? I don't know. Just hang on. The
paradox is, and it seems like everything seems a contradiction
to the world and maybe even a young believer, but you cannot make
yourself grow. Our Lord said, which of you by
taking thaw can add one cubit to your stature? You can't grow
one hair on your head. Believe me, if you could, I would.
You can't. You can't do it. But He tells
us to grow. You can't come. You can't come
to Christ. You won't come. But He says,
come. You can't believe. You cannot
believe. But He says, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You can't call. You won't call.
But He says, whosoever shall call. You can't hear. Having ears to hear, you won't
hear. You can't hear. But He says, hear and your soul
shall live. Doesn't it? Explain that. I don't have to. You understand.
We all understand them. He gave us ears to hear. He gave
us the will. He gave us to come. He told us to come and we did. He
gave us the faith and we believed. It's like the man with the withered
hand. He had a withered hand. And he could not stretch out
his hand. He could not. Could he? He would have long ago if he
could have, but he couldn't. The Lord said, stretch out your
hand. And the Lord did not grab his hand and pull it. He said,
stretch out your hand. What happened? He stretched out
his hand. You see, with the command comes
the ability. comes the ability, comes the
grace, comes the power, the ability. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. Severed from Christ. There's
a branch fit for the burning, right? He said, but if you abide
in me, you'll bring forth fruit. We can't produce any fruit, can
we? We don't produce fruit. It comes from Him. OK? But Paul said this, I can do
all things through Christ. John, you love that verse, don't
you? Now, our Lord saves by grace. We're saved by grace. And we grow in grace. And He
giveth more grace. But you know what? I've got to
ask for it. I've got to ask for it. There's not one true child of
God, not one believer, not one saint that thinks he or she has
grown in grace. Anybody in here think you've
grown in grace? If you do, don't admit it. Spiritual life and growth is
a paradox. You see, physical life, when
you grow physically, you get taller. You grow spiritually,
you feel smaller. Physical life, you grow stronger.
Spiritual life, you feel weaker. Some of you know what I'm talking
about. Paul said, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Why is that?
Because you quit looking to yourself. You quit trying to do something
yourself and you look to Christ in whom is all power and strength. Physical growth, you become more
able. I told you when I was younger,
I didn't think there was anything I couldn't do. And I tried. Well,
I failed a lot. But I tried. I learned more about
failure than I did success. But the older you get, the more
unable you feel. You grow physically, you become
independent. Spiritual growth is you're totally
dependent. on Christ. Physical growth, there's
a lot of self-confidence in that, which breeds pride. Oh my, spiritual
growth is to have no confidence in the flesh. I mean none. All your confidence is in His
Christ. We're talking about humility. This is growth. This first growth. Growth in grace. Growth means
increase. And growth in grace, spiritual
growth, is to grow in humility. In humility. And we're going
to see here how that all these graces, we're going to look at
the grace of repentance and faith and love and kindness and all
of this, all of this is connected. He said, grow in grace and the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's all connected.
This growth comes by knowing Him, hearing the Gospel of Christ. Alright? All right, my pastor said, he
who grows not in grace knows not grace. And that's true. Because
everything living grows. Everyone who's alive in Christ
grows up in him and by him. But growth is slow. And it's nearly imperceptible
to us. Right? It's nearly imperceptible. But
Paul didn't say this. No, you're not your own selves,
either. Christ is in you, except you be reprimanded. I do love
that poem that Newton wrote. I love it. He said, I'm not what
I want to be. I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I'm going
to be, but thank God. I'm not what I used to be. And that's Ephesians 2 in it.
We all love Ephesians 2. I once walked according to the
prince, the power of the air, the children of disobedience,
the children of wrath, even as others. That was me. That was
me. Brothers, that's not me now. In the life I now live, it's
not me. It's what Christ did for me.
And that's not bragging on you or me. It's bragging on Him. It's giving Him the glory for
it. That's not pride, it's boasting in him, what he's done. But it's slow, it's growth, it's
nearly imperceptible. Someone said, you remember this,
you said it to me, I heard others say it to you. Too old, smart, too old,
smart, how's it go? Too late, smart, how's it go? Too old, We're old too soon,
smart too late. Old too soon, smart too late. That's it. Old too soon, smart
too late. That's a good saying. Seventy
years and you finally learn something. We look in the mirror, you know,
we don't see, we've seen the same person. If anything, we
get uglier. Look in the mirror of God's Word,
we get uglier. But other people see it, see
Christ. Don't you? I've seen it. I've seen people, the ravages
of sin and the countenances and the big person of people that
come in, the Lord save them. I've seen the dew of youth come
on there. I've seen a glow like when Moses
came down from the mountain and the presence of the Lord. He
didn't know it. But his face was glowing. The blind man in John 9, when
he was healed, everybody says, it's not him. That can't be him.
He's like him, but he's different. And his parents said, that's
him. The man said, it's me. Well, how did this happen? He
did it. The disciples. Rough, rough,
longshoremen, you know, Simon Peter and all of them, they were
rough fellas, weren't they? You know they were. When the
Lord saved them, their old friends, that's not the Simon Peter I
used to know. It's just so in them. See, that gives God all
the glory. They said, you're one of them. I know you are.
Your speech betrays you. Sound like it. Now, there's not a child of God
that doesn't grow, and there's not one child of God that doesn't
want to grow. Right? David said, I'll behold
His face in righteousness. His. It's like the child in the field,
you know, was made beautiful, wasn't it? Grew up. She grew
up, didn't she? Formed. Every bad thing about her grew
up, didn't she? Why? Because she said, live.
And he decked her in a beauty, and we're told to adorn the doctrine
of God our Savior. And he does this to her. And
she grew up, and he said, she's beautiful through my comingness
that I put on her. I did this, he said. He gets
all the glory for his workmanship created in Christ Jesus by the
Spirit of God unto good work, which God before ordained that
we should walk in. He gives him glory. Herein is
the Father glorified that you bear fruit, bear much fruit. Every one of God's people have
fruit, but we all want to bear more fruit, don't we? Don't we? And like I said, there's three
things, total commitment, total communion, total conformity.
That's what I want. Do you? All right, I gave you
a little short outline today, and here it is. We're going to
talk about the fact of growth. We're going to talk about the
graces that grow and the means of growth, all right? The facts
are what the Scripture says, the truth about growth. Now,
Psalm 92 says this. It says, The righteous shall
grow like cedars in Lebanon, trees of righteousness the Lord's
planting. And that grew up. And listen
to this, Ephesians 4, you read it with me, you were reading
it with me, it says that we all, until we all grow up into a perfect,
mature man, a measure of the stature of the fullness of pride,
to be not children anymore. Verse 15, that we grow up in
Him in all things. Mind, heart, walk, talk. That's what you want to be. My
brother, I've told you many times, I love my brother and I want
him to be like him. I remember I tried to emulate
every single thing he did from the way he sat at the table,
the way he carried himself, everything he did. I did it. I tried to
do it. But that's the child of God.
You remember me telling you about the Pilgrim, or Holy War, when
Emmanuel came and led captivity captive, led, took the people
out of the captivity of Satan, and Emmanuel was walking down
the street of Mansoul, and everybody was so happy that they were freed,
and everybody was so in love with Emmanuel who set them free
that they all got in behind him. And wherever He put His steps,
they put their feet. They wanted to walk with Him,
following Him, and wanted to walk just like Him. Is that true? Yeah, sure it is. That's admiration. That's love. He's going to come
to be admired in all His saints. Philippians 1, listen to this,
Philippians 1, you don't have to turn, I'll turn for you, I
know where they're at. Philippians 1 says this in verse
9, I pray, Paul prayed to the Ephesians, he prayed of the Philippians,
that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all
judgment. He said, I want you to be filled
with the fruits of righteousness. which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. Colossians 1, listen to this,
Colossians 1 verse 9, he says this, he's praying for the Colossians. I pray that you might be filled
with the knowledge of his will and wisdom, spiritual understanding,
walk worthy of the Lord and all pleasing, being fruitful, full
of fruit. in every good work, increasing
in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His
power, under all patience and longsuffering and joyfulness. Anybody need to grow in patience? I'm going to tell you how it
grows. Got it? I'm going to tell you
in a minute. All right, listen to this. 1 Thessalonians. Listen
to this. I hope some of you are still
with me. I'm glad. Listen to this. Do you need this? 1 Thessalonians
3. He says, The Lord make you to increase and abound in love
one toward another and toward all, even as we do toward you. And I'll give you a couple more.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, he said, I exhort you, brethren, that
you ought to walk and please God that you would abound more
and more. That means growth. And then 1
Peter 2, to desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may.
grow thereby. So, growing is a fact, the scriptures
talk about it, a great deal, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Okay. Alright, now
these are the graces, he's talking about fruit, fruit, alright,
grace, graces, like fruit, you know, in Galatians, Five, it
says, the fruit of the Spirit. And it mentions several things.
Those fruits, it's all the fruit, the produce of the Holy Spirit. It's what He produces. All of
those fruits make up the fruit of what He produces in God's
people. And grace, we've all received
grace. And every one of God's people have these graces. All
the old writers talk about Christian graces. It's not something they
produce, but it's what God puts in every one of His people. Alright? Graces. Salvation is by grace.
It's a gift. Okay? And salvation is unto grace,
to make us, like Christ, conform to His image, our gracious Lord.
That's what it's all about. That's what Barnard used to say.
Barnard said, Salvation is God reproducing the character of
Jesus Christ in a human being. That's it. It really is. Predestined to be
conformed to the image of Christ. Do you want that? I do too. All right. Now here's a mystery
I'll tell you. The Scripture says that our Lord
grew in wisdom. and favor with God and man. Now, how do you explain that?
You know how to say that? You've read it. Our Lord grew
in wisdom. He who is wisdom grew wiser. You know, He had more wisdom
as a six-year-old than we do at sixty years old. I guarantee
you that. But somehow He grew. He had to grow in wisdom. In favor with God? Could he have
more favor with God? But yet as an obedient son, he
grew and grew and grew and worked and God was so pleased when he
was 30 years old, God said out loud to the whole world, I'm
well pleased with him. I don't love my daughter more
now than I did when she was born, do we? But that love grows. That doesn't make sense, but
it does to me. I loved her with all my heart
and soul and mind and being as soon as I laid eyes on her. You
loved her before that. Is that possible? God did us. And yet, that love grows. It
grows deeper. It grows deeper. All right. Graces. Here it is. The gift of repentance. Repentance is by the grace of
God. This is the first thing that God does for every one of
His children. When the Spirit comes, He convicts
of sin, righteousness, and judgment, our Lord said in John 6 today.
In Acts chapter 2, Peter told everybody they were
all pricked in their hearts. They were convicted of their
sin. How? Why? What pricked them in their
heart? What convicted them of sin? They heard the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They heard Simon Peter preach
Christ, the Lord. Now here's how this comes, the
growth, by the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
They all heard of the Lord on the throne who came down to this
earth And man killed him, because man hates God. And every one
of them heard that, because they all got in on it. And then they
all heard that you did what God determined before to be done.
You killed the sacrificial lamb, the Lamb of God. And now that
God hath made this same Jesus, whom you've crucified, both Lord
and Christ, seated on a throne, and your life is in His hand. You've killed the Lord of life. And they all were convicted,
3,000 men and more women and children. I said, what shall we do? Peter
said, repent. Repentance is godless sorrow.
What does that mean? You know what that means. Lord,
I'm sorry. Forgive me. Have mercy on me,
O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of
Thy tender mercy. Blot out my transgression. Wash me throughly
from my iniquity. Every one of God's people, I
think Psalm 51 is their favorite psalm. Or Psalm 38. Isn't it? Why? Because they're
against God, and God only have we sinned, and we know it. But
God, rich in value, has a vision to you. How you walked according
to the course of... But God, rich in mercy for His
great love." That'll make you repent. It's the only thing that'll make
you repent. You know it? The goodness of God leads you
to repent. They heard the gospel of the
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and they repented. Repentance,
somebody said this, Repentance is repentance of sin, what you
are. It makes you do what you do. That Paul, my flesh dwelleth
in no good thing. Old wretched man that I am. Repent
of sins. Repent of what you do. And of
self-righteousness. Or lack of righteousness. What
you don't do. That's repentance. And it's toward
God. Repent. All right? With repentance
comes humility. We've already been talking about
that. Now, do we ever quit repenting? Repentance grows. You know that? You get to the point, after a
while, you repent of your repentance. Did you hear me? Don't you? You
repent, you lament that you don't repent. That you don't feel as
sorry for your sins as y'all did. Right? That's growth. Repentance
growth. Humility and repentance go together. Humility, a humble soul is a
repentant soul. A repentant soul is a humble
soul. You know, when we think of great men in the Scripture,
men of faith, men that loved God, men that were friends of
God and walked with God and did the works and all that, like
Abraham, the father of the faith. You know what he said about himself?
I am dust and ashes. Lord, please forgive me for even
talking to you. I'm just dust and ashes. Job said, I'm vile. He said, I'll eat myself. I'm
just going to put my hand over my mouth. Job, nothing like humility. Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean
lips. A man of unclean lips. Paul said
this, I am not worthy to be called a disciple. I'm not fit to be
called an apostle. I'm less than the least. He said,
I'm the chief of sinners. Paul, that's humility. That's humility. Do you need
growth in humility? Do you? You got any pride left? Or are you like that man that
came home to his wife and said, behold, woman, I have overcome
my pride. Boy, the growth in grace is downward
growth. The riper the fruit, the more
it hangs its head, right? So this gift, this grace of humility,
you can't produce it. You can't produce it. You can't
make yourself more humble. But he says humble yourself.
Didn't he? How? by seeing Christ on that
cross. You know, there's nothing that
will humble you. Nothing will give you repentance, except looking
at what Christ did for you. Now, love. Galatians 5, turn
there, we'll just look at this, and I promise I'm going to quit
real soon. Galatians 5, it talks about the
fruit of the Spirit, of graces, the grace that God puts in every
one of His people. And I see some of you hanging
your head in shame. I wish you wouldn't do that.
I'm just as guilty as you are, okay? But this is to exhort you. This is to edify you, to build
you up. And I'm going to give you some
help here. It ought to be helping you already,
that every one of us feel the same way. And if you do, good. Good. Galatians 5, the fruit
of the Spirit, the graces are love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Love. Do
you need to grow in love? Does love grow? You know, Simon Peter and all
of them loved the Lord when He first called them. You know what
they did. But boy, when they saw Him die on that cross. You know, Simon Peter denied
Him right then. And when he saw him died on that
cross, oh, he went out and wept bitterly. And then when he heard
that blessed message sent by the angel, go tell my disciples
and Peter, he dove out of that boat to get to Christ. And he
got on shore like a dog, you know, crawling up to his master's
feet. And the Lord, that first thing,
yes, Simon Peter, love of Salmon, yes. Asked him three times. Yes, yes,
yes. Yay, yay, yay. So love grows. Absolutely. Absolutely. You can't make it
grow, but it grows by looking to Him, looking to Christ. That's
how it begins, and that's how it grows. And love for others. Love for
others. grows by, all right, look at,
let me, Ephesians 4, look at this, Ephesians 5, all right,
Ephesians 5, just over a couple pages. Love for others. And you know how often we're
exhorted throughout the epistles to love one another? You know,
the Lord, last thing the Lord says, it's my commandment that
you love one another. Isn't it? Over and over He kept
saying that. Love one another. By this shall all men know How do we know that Christ loved
us? He laid down his life for us.
Well, John said the same thing. If he did that for you, you'd
do the same for your brother. This is how they're going to
know. Christ did that for you. So, Ephesians 5, look at this,
verse 2, walk in love as Christ hath loved us and hath given
himself for an offering, a sacrifice to God for sweet-smelling savor. My, my. Why would God do, Christ
do that for us? And on down, you know, a husband,
he tells the husband, verse 25, love your wife. And the same
goes for the woman, doesn't it? Love your wives, how? As Christ
loves the church. Oh, but you know, she makes too
many demands of me. Oh, really? Oh, really? What demands do you make on your
Lord? Huh? He does everything for you. Right? That's the only thing
that'll make a man love his wife. The only thing that'll make it
grow is when you realize how the Lord serves us. We ought
to be serving Him. And one says, well, He just won't
talk to me. Oh, really? How much do you talk to your
Lord? He doesn't spend enough time with me. Oh, really? How much time do you spend walking
with your Lord? That'll make you love one another
more. When you consider what you do
and don't do to our Lord, yet He loves us fully. You know,
that's the only thing that'll make you grow. You can't make
yourself. But you look at Him and see Him,
and it'll break your old hard heart, make you want to be like
Him. So this grace of love grows by
looking to Him, looking at Him. Long-suffering. Love. Joy. What about joy? Can you
grow in joy? Can you grow joyful? We ought to. Paul was. You know that Paul was. He ended
up in prison, beaten, just his body bruised, wore the marks
of Christ. Let's sing. Silas, let's start
singing. How in the world could you be
so full of joy and yet so full of stripes? Because by His stripes we are
healed. That's how. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, but God dealt with Christ after our sins. How to
make you? Joy, peace, love, joy, gentleness,
goodness, gentleness. How gentle, how tender, how kind
is our Lord to you, to us? How kind is He? How tender, how
gentle? Long-suffering. Do we need to
grow in long-suffering? Peter said the long-suffering
of the Lord is salvation. If He doesn't suffer along with
us, we're goners. How long is He going to suffer
with us? All our lives. Well, that's the only thing that
will make long-suffering in us grow. It's the only thing. Nothing
else will. Do you understand? I'm sure you
do. Because you can't make yourself
do it. Patience. I don't want patience. I don't
want it now. I'm going to be patient. Five
minutes later, you've lost your cool. How does that come? Here's the
means of growth. The Word. Desire the sincere
milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. And by, you know,
faith cometh by here. Faith is a grace. Does faith
grow? Oh, absolutely. And this is how it grows, by
the Word. You desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may
grow thereby. Eat the Word. Drink. Lie down
in a green pasture beside the still water. But it's not just
reading the Bible. Reading the Bible won't make
you grow. Seeing Christ in the Bible will. Eating Him. You understand that, don't you?
People read the Bible all the time. They're not even born again.
But growth comes by seeing Christ in the Word, eating Him, feeding
on Him. Prayer. James wrote a whole book,
and pretty much the whole book is ask, ask, ask, ask, ask. He started out, anybody lack
wisdom? Anybody need to grow in wisdom? Ask, he giveth more, upbraideth
not. What about the tongue? Got a
problem with the tongue? Want it to grow silent? We need our
tongues to grow, to shrink, grow silent. James said, be swift
to hear. Slow to speak. Slow to react.
Hear. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. What about
being a doer of the Word? What about patience? Trials.
The Word of God. Asking the Lord. You have not
because you ask not. Trials bring growth and greatness. The trial of your faith. Work
with patience. Patience. Experience. Experience.
Hope. Saved by hope. And that hope
grows. Trial. Worship. Worship. We read in
Ephesians 4 how that when the body is united together and we
all come together. So we all came in here and I
started talking about growth and everybody's going, oh man.
You know, we all started with me. So I need it. I'm not preaching
this because I've mastered it. I'm preaching it because I need
it. And we all get in here together,
and we're exhorting one another, and we're edifying one another,
and we're helping one another. You got a problem? Yeah, I got
a problem. You got the same problem? I sure do. And you hear a man,
hopefully he's going to point you to Christ. We're all going
to look at him together, and exhort one another, and edify
one another, and build up one another in his faith, so we grow
together. Now, that was every joint supply.
It's an edifying of itself. in love. Worship together and
fellowship together around the gospel causes you to grow in
love for Christ and love for one another. If you separate
yourself from us, if you forsake the assembly of yourselves, absence
does not make the heart grow fonder. That is man's wisdom
and his foolishness. Absence does not make the heart
grow fonder. It makes the heart grow colder. You hear me? This is vital, what
you're doing right now. Fellowship with one another,
the company of the saint. My pastor said, you know, you'll
begin to emulate the company you keep. That's why he tells us, come
out of the world. You can't have fellowship in darkness. Why?
Because you'll get like them. They're not going to get like
you. You're not going to rub off on them. They're going to
rub off on you. You have something in you that they have, an old
man. You're going to need to starve
that old man. You need to kill that old man. You need to come
out from people. How can light help those that
can't do it? You're not going to grow. You're going to diminish.
You're going to decrease. You're going to go right back like Simon
Peter when he was warming himself by the fire with all those old
God-haters. What did He do? He became just
like them. Paul said, follow me. I'm following
Christ. Walk with the world and be like
Him. Walk with the saints and be like Him. Walk with God. And so, grow. How? Desire the sincere miracle.
Here, your soul shall live. Ask, you receive. Forsake not the similitude of
self. Get together. Edify one another. Worship. Call on the Lord. Sing these
prayers. Fellowship around the gospel. Grow in the grace of
God and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
close by singing a hymn.