Turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12 is continuing to compare the wicked and the righteous. It's comparing the good and the evil. It's comparing the wisdom of God and the foolishness of man. And that's what he's been doing since chapter nine, right after chapter nine. But tonight, here in Proverbs chapter 12, I was, as I was studying, I was made to think about that we live in a world where the thoughts of individuals, for the most part, collectively, are the same as it was in Noah's time. The heart of man were, the imaginations of the heart were only on evil and that continually, only on evil and that continually. And that's true with today's society that we live in and the world that we live in. Seems that no one has right thoughts about who God is, who Christ is, or what we are by nature. And the reason is because our message at this church and all the gospel churches is not a popular message. Men don't want to hear the truth. They want to feel good about what they believe to be right and what they believe to be true. But we must preach the truth, not what we want to hear. The reason men don't want to hear is because we have a naturally wicked thought process. We are sinners by nature, therefore we sin. And our thoughts are on sinful things. Now what do I mean by sinful things? I'm not talking about breaking the law necessarily. I'm talking about how we think of God. How our perception of God is by nature is wrong. To deny there's a creator would be foolish just because nature itself teaches us there's a God. But, that being said, to know him is a lot different than knowing about him. People can gather information based upon what they know, and we by nature will apply what we know to make God out to be what we would like for him to be. That's what Paul's talking about in Romans chapter one, where he says he's made God into creatures, four-footed beasts and creeping things and birds and fish. This is what men do. They compare, they take God and they say, okay, this is now a reflection of me more so, or this is what I want to worship. And they're worshiping themselves. They don't have the right mind. They don't have the right thoughts. Only the Lord can teach, only the Lord can teach, and only the Lord teaches His people. Now, they that have their own thoughts, there's a, to the contrary, by way of introduction, there's those that are what right here calls the righteous. And I want to preface that by saying those who are righteous are the righteousness of God in Christ alone. Our righteousness is not the determining factor of us being righteous. We're called righteous just because the Lord has made us thus, and that's the only reason. But they're the ones, we do have the right thoughts, because our thoughts are directly influenced by our Lord's grace, by our Lord's mercy. And he continually brings us back to his truth as our foundational need in this life, where we don't think of God as, being in handcuffs. I put an article in the bulletin for Sunday. I didn't write it, but somebody else did. But he said that he saw a televangelist saying, we have God in handcuffs. We have God in handcuffs, we have to give, we have to choose to take his handcuffs off so he can save us or he can do for us or we got to allow me think about the arrogance and the and that's what I'm saying they don't have the right thoughts of who God is. But the Lord's people are made to have the right thoughts about him, about his person, about his character, about the finished work of the cross, about his gospel, about the creation of the universe. Everything about what we believe and preach is a direct reflection of the Lord teaching us. Because he said, they'll all be taught of me. Those that have right thoughts are the ones chosen before time ever began as we heard on Sunday, they're the elect of God, there is chosen people, they're the only ones that do have right thoughts, they're the only ones that can have right thoughts because he's the one that makes us have right thoughts, he's the one that makes us to differ so we get no glory in this. Now let's read this text together, Proverbs 12, one through 10. Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish, A good man obtaineth favor of the Lord, but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. A man shall not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, but she that maketh ashamed is as rotten as to his bones. This is where our title comes from right here. The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them. The wicked are overthrown and are not, but the house of the righteous shall stand. A man shall be commended according to his wisdom, but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised. He that is despised and hath a servant is better than he that honoreth himself and liketh bread. A righteous man regardeth life, the life of his beast. but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." I've titled this message, Right Thoughts. Right Thoughts. First, we must establish that we are utterly, completely, and totally depraved. by nature when we're born into this world, meaning we can't do anything to get to God, anything to please God. We are completely depraved. Men preach that we're sinners, but they don't preach entire depravity. What I mean by entire depravity, well, I mean that we are dead in trespasses and in sin without hope to fix that in any way. The Lord has to be the one that changes us, makes us alive in Him. When we're born, we're born without the capacity to have right thoughts about God. We're born without the capacity to have right thoughts about Jesus Christ. We're born without the capacity to have right thoughts about ourself. This can only happen, the capacity to do so, can only happen when God saves a person. When he gives them, by grace, repentance and faith, then we have the right thoughts about who God is, who Christ is, what he actually accomplished, and what we are by nature. That's what the Lord gives when he gives repentance and faith. we don't have the ability to come to a proper conclusion regarding God and his gospel. This is the gift by faith, all by grace, all by grace. Here we are, dead and trespasses and in sin. Unable to get to God, unable to please God, and yet God committeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the good news of the gospel. We couldn't get to God, so what happened? He came to us. He came to his people. Scripture tells us in John, he came to his own and his own received him not, but to as many as did receive him. To them he gave power to become the sons of God. Turn with me to Mark chapter five. We've got a couple of places to turn to tonight. You can hold your place there in Proverbs 12. We'll come back to that. I want you to see us, how we are by nature, how we are unable to have right thoughts. Mark chapter five is a good example of this. You know this story very well. It's the Maniac of Gadara. And every time I read this story, I think of myself. We were all, in one way, shape, or form, maniacs because we were out of our mind before the Lord called us, before the Lord saved us. We had thoughts of God, but we, what does the scripture say? Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. That's what we were. That's what we did. That's how we treated God. But look at this story, how it unfolds in Mark chapter five, verse one. And they came over into the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him, out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. This man, this man, I want you to notice his condition. where he's at, first of all. The Lord comes to him at the tombs. He's around a bunch of dead people. This is every false religion, every false church is what this represents here. And in those false churches, what they do is to please God, they offer themselves up by sacrifice. That's what the cutting represents. They offer their self up to God by promises that they make. I remember being in false religion. I think I rededicated 20-something times. Anybody else relate to that? You keep rededicating and you keep, what did that mean? I needed to live better. I needed to have my morals put in check. I needed to do better. And the Lord, that doesn't honor the Lord. Not as part of salvation, not for righteousness. It's good to live a good moral life, but not as part of salvation whatsoever. So this man, here he is. He doesn't have any clothes on. He has all these promises, pictures of promises that he's made. These chains, these unbreakable chains. This is men saying, I'm going to do this for God or I'm going to get God to do this. I'm going to obligate God because I'm going to hold up my end of the bargain. That's what false religious salvation is, is them saying, I'm going to hold up my bargain and I'm going to make God save me because I've done this or I've done that. We can't keep our promises, can we? That's the problem. That's the picture there. He keeps breaking the chains. He keeps breaking the fetters. Nothing can bind him. Nothing can hold him. He's out of his mind, and that's you and I by nature. By nature, that's every man, woman, boy and girl born into this world, that's how they're born into this world. So, what's the hope? Well, look at verse six. One word, what does it say? But. Nope, yep. Yep, verse six. But, when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped Him. But. That's the interjection of the gospel. That's the Lord. Whenever we are dead and trespasses and in sin, whenever we have no hope of getting to him, have no hope of pleasing him, have no hope of earning favor with him or meriting salvation or having a righteousness whatsoever before him, our righteousness are as filthy rags of scripture tells us. But God, who is rich in mercy, but God, That's the interjection. If we would have stopped right there at verse five, that'd been the end of that man, that he would have just stayed that way till he died. But God came to where he was. The Lord Jesus Christ condescended from the top of that sea all the way down to the bottom of that sea, just like he did for his people upon the face of this earth, whenever he condescended from the realm of glory all the way down to this earth. And he came right to where we were, right to where we were. And notice what he says to him. The man came to Jesus and worshiped him. And I didn't write this down, but I just thought of this. Those are demons inside this man. Scripture says every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. I love that. Even the demons are subject to the Lord because here in this story, they have to beg the Lord. Will you let us, please don't send us off into the country. Please let us go to the pigs. They couldn't even do anything without asking permission of God. Is that not glorious? Let's read on here, it says, he cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, what is thy name? He answered, saying, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away into the country. Now there was nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought him, saying, send us into the swine that we may enter into them. Swine is an unclean animal. Swine is an unclean animal to the Jews. They couldn't touch it. They couldn't touch it, they'd be considered unclean. Do we understand that? That's a picture of those that are not the children of God. They're the ones that, it's either the Lord has us, as far as salvation is concerned, or the individual belongs to the devil, it's that central. And I understand God owns everything, so don't misunderstand what I'm saying there, but either they're influenced, we're influenced one way or another, that's all there is to it. Verse 13, forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea. They were about 2,000 and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and country and they went and to see what was, that was done and they came to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid. story goes on by saying that they asked the Lord, get out of our country. We don't want you here. You done killed our hogs and now you've made this maniac saying, get out. We don't, we don't want you here. The Lord condescended all the way down to that place in that ship for one man, one man, this maniac of Gadara. The rest of these men, they did not want to have anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because they didn't have good thoughts. But what about this man? What about this once maniac now made sane? He was seated. What is that a picture of? Well, that's a picture of us resting on the Sabbath, the Lord's Sabbath. That's a picture of us resting on the finished work of Christ alone as all of our hope of salvation. And he was clothed. He was no longer naked. He had a covering. That covering is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's what it's a picture of. And he was in his right mind. What does that mean? He had good thoughts. He had good thoughts, not thinking the former thoughts of promoting self to God or promoting self to others. Lord told the Pharisees, you love the praise of men more than you love the praise of God. That's why they wouldn't come to Christ among other reasons, but. This man no longer promised God anything. He was clinging completely to the promises of God. This man was no longer trying to do something to earn or merit salvation. He was resting on the Lord who is our salvation. He no longer tried to seek righteousness by what he did. He was clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the picture is here. And unless God does that for you and I, we'll never have right thoughts. We'll never have right thoughts about who God is, and what we are and what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. I wanna point something out to you. What work did the Lord give this man to do? Did he say, okay, if you'll pray this prayer, if you'll pray this prayer, then I'll save you, I'll heal you. Did he tell him, well, I need you to do this work. I need you to do this. I need you to do that. No, you don't read an account of this man doing anything. All we have is the demons and the Lord having a conversation. The next thing that's happened, he's seated at the feet of Christ. This is how he saves his people. He does it all by his power, all for his glory. He doesn't wait on you and I to do something. We don't have him in handcuffs. He's not the one that's lost, we are. We need him to come to where we are, and that's what he does for his people. No longer a maniac, we have right thoughts. We've been put in our right mind all by his grace. Now go back to Proverbs chapter 12. Look at verse five. The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. The thoughts of the righteous All right. I'm reminded of a man by the name of Heyman. He was a Syrian. He was captain of the guard. He was second over all of Syria. He had a lot of problems, didn't he? Can you imagine being one rank underneath the general? He wasn't the king, so the king would have been in charge, but he was one rank underneath that. Do you understand what I'm saying? So he'd been kind of like a general type. How many problems does that man have? Imagine, 1,000 problems, 10,000 problems. Well, he became a leper. He had one problem, just one. He didn't have 10,000 problems anymore. He had one problem. The Lord struck him with leprosy, and that means it's an incurable disease. There's nothing you can do about it, but God, there it is again, but God put a little maid, a Jewish maid in the house of Haman, or Naaman, I'm sorry, I'm saying Haman, Naaman, and put a little Jewish girl in the house of Naaman, and she told the wife of him that there was a prophet down in Israel that could heal him. And he said, okay, well, I'm gonna go down there and see this prophet. I'm gonna get healed. And so he goes down. He goes down to Israel. He goes to see Elijah and he gets there and he doesn't come out. Doesn't come out of the building. Now think about this. You have this captain of the host of Syria parading down through there, bringing silver and gold and clothing and articles. It's a long wagon train coming down through there. I mean, they're letting everybody know who's coming. and the prophet doesn't come out. But he sends his servant out, and he says, go dip in the Jordan River seven times. And you know what? Naaman said, I thought, I thought he would come out, and he would pray to the God of heaven, and to paraphrase, lightning and thunder and miraculous this and that, and all of a sudden I'm healed. That's kind of how his attitude was towards the whole thing. He was wrath. He was wroth with the word of the Lord, because it's not what he wanted. See, he didn't have right thoughts. He thought wrong. He said, I thought, but he thought wrong. That's where we go, that's where we read earlier in Isaiah 55, where it says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways, as the heavens is high above the earth, that's my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways. What happened? Well, thankfully, Naaman had a, A servant that had enough sense about him said, Lord, if they would have asked you to do some miraculous thing, you'd have been happy to do it, but you gotta go dip in Jordan. You know what that's a picture of? He said seven times in Jordan. Jordan represents death. Do we know that? Jordan represents death. He says you gotta go die a perfect death. That's what he told him. And who's the only one that died a perfect death? That's the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? The point was is you need to look to Christ. That's the whole meaning behind this. When he does that, he comes out clean. And I'm reminded whenever the Lord in his time walking about the earth, talking to the Pharisees, he made them mad so many times. This time in particular, he said there was many, many leopards during the time of Elijah the prophet, but only one leper was healed and it was Naaman. And he was not even a Jew and they hated him for that. So there's many widows as well, many widows during that time, but only one was saved, one was spared, and that was the woman that had the son where the Lord gave her the meal that she could continue making a cake every day for her and her son the whole time that the drought and the famine was there. And she wasn't a Jew, and they hated him. Then they took up stones to stone him. I mean, it just, they hated the truth, and they still do today. Brethren, we're incapable of having right thoughts about who God is, about what he's done, and about what we are, unless God gives us that ability. This is the gift of faith by grace alone. This is what he gives us. We have to die the perfect death, meaning we had to die in Christ when He died in order to cleanse our leprosy. He had to put that leprosy away on the cross of Calvary. If we're gonna be clean, well, how can that be clean, which is born of a woman? If we're gonna be clean, Christ has to be the one who shed His blood for us, putting that sin away. Otherwise, we're gonna be just like Haman, or Naaman saying, well, I thought, I thought this and I thought that. No, no, the Lord has to teach us, doesn't he? And thank God he does. We are incapable of believing him or hearing his voice, having right thoughts unless he makes us by grace. You know what men think, and Naaman thought the same thing. Psalm 50 verse 21 says, the Lord speaking here, thou thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set an order before thine eyes. He reproves his people. He corrects his people. He chastens his people. He is causing us over and over. I love that he purposes us to fall flat on our face just to make us say, Lord, save me. Somebody said, well, I don't like chastening. It's not pleasant. Well, that's what Paul said. No chastening for a time is not pleasurable or pleasant. We know the tribulation of our faith work with patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed of the gospel That's the whole point behind it. We're gonna fall in love more and more and more with the Lord's gospel we're gonna see him higher and higher ourself lower and lower and Rejoice in the finished work of Christ more and more because he's now given us right thoughts about who God is What Christ did and what we are The sad conditions of those who believe that they can do things on their own, they have the wrong thoughts. They're going to offer themselves up to God, they're going to live how they want to, they're going to do what they want to do. They're convinced they're right, that's a sad place to be. Only the Lord can save someone out of that. Turn with me to Luke chapter 15. This is the story of the prodigal son. Father had two sons. One decided he wanted to leave. He wanted to get out from underneath his daddy's rule. He told his father, give me my inheritance. And the father gave him his inheritance. And the scripture says verbatim that he spent it on riotous living. He was having parties. He was enjoying life, living everything up. I'm not underneath my dad's rules anymore. I'm going to do what I want to do. Live how I want to live. Pretty soon he finds himself feeding the hogs. And again, I would remind you that the pigs, hogs, they're unclean animals according to the scripture, the Old Testament and the law. They couldn't eat them, they couldn't touch them. They weren't allowed to have any interactions with them. Thank God we're not underneath the law anymore. I will say that. Very thankful that we get to enjoy all that. That's what the Lord showed Peter. Whenever Peter was upset, he saw this vision of all these unclean things. The Lord said, don't call that which is clean, which I've called clean, unclean. He's saying this was all just a picture that we cannot fulfill the law. Now we're able to eat whatever, and it's not offensive to our Lord. That's just glorious. I got off track a little bit, but that's okay. So he's down in the hog pit. And what's he doing? He's feeding the hogs. And the scripture says he would have feigned, filled his belly with the husks. Now what's that a picture of? Well, that's a picture of what false religion offers people. All false religion. They don't have any meat. They don't have any bread. They don't have any living water. They have husks. Husks that accomplish nothing. It has no nutrition in it whatsoever, but he was starving. Why? Because he left the gospel. picture is he left the gospel to go to false religion because he wanted to try it out instead. And when he got down there, he was a deacon at the first Baptist church on the corner, eating the husks of the hogs that he was sitting around with. And he thought, wait a minute, wait a minute and look at verse 17. When he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I'm no worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy servants. And he arose and went to his father. But when he came, When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion. Oh boy, is that not our Lord? Is that not our Lord's having compassion? And ran and fell on him and kissed his neck. He confesses that he sinned to the father. The father grabs a robe, grabs a ring, puts it on his finger. He says, kill the fatted calf. My son has returned. But the one thing I want to point out that's very, very important is he came to himself. Now that's interesting wording, but who made him do that? Who's over all things? Who ordained everything from the foundation of the world? God did. He didn't just wake up one morning and say, hmm, I think I'll do this now. God did that. God gave him right thoughts about who he was and about his father. and about what his father had and where he was at. He realized, I'm a sinner. I've sinned against you, father. He says that. I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father didn't give him wrath and judgment. The father gave him mercy and grace. Why? The same reason the Lord Jesus Christ gives us mercy and grace. He comes to where we are. He causes us to come to ourselves, to our senses by saying, live, giving us faith and repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ. He puts the ring on our finger of sonship and the robe on our back of righteousness. He kisses our face. And I find it amazing the scripture tells us that one day he's gonna gird himself and serve us in glory. Have you ever read that? The Married Supper of the Lamb, he's gonna gird himself and serve us. I'm thinking, probably like some of you are thinking, like Peter, whenever the Lord said, I'm gonna wash your feet, Peter said, you're not washing my feet, I'm unworthy. He says, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. Peter said, well, not just my feet, then my hands and my head. Somebody said, well, I don't want the Lord serving me because I'm unworthy. If he don't serve you, you have no part with him. You can't have the work to do. It's all his work. Do we see that? Everything required, the Lord provided. Everything required, the Lord provided. All this is a work of grace in the heart of the Lord's people. He performs by his spirit according to his will. This is his determinant counsel. See, this is orchestrated, if I could put it that way, by his sovereignty, by his purpose, by his own will and grace. And it was given to his people before the world ever began, scripture tells us. Otherwise, we'll remain the maniac. We'll go around trying to establish our own righteousness, trying to establish our own holiness, trying to establish our own sanctification, and it's just not possible. No, we need to be found seated and clothed and in our right mind. Only the Lord can do that. Oh, if we don't, if the Lord doesn't give us right thoughts about him and us, then we're going to end up being like the prodigal son. We'll be eating the husk of false religion, thinking that we're just fine. But yet we have no hope of eternal life. We must have, we must have the father. We must have the son. We must have the spirit. They have to robe us in the righteousness. He has to robe us in his righteousness and give us the ring of sonship. According to his will, or we have no hope. We have to have right thoughts. Here's where our text says, the thoughts of the righteous are right. Why are they right? Because of where they came from. It's not my thoughts. It's not your thoughts. No, this is his thoughts bestowed. You know, the glorious part about the Lord's people is, is we speak exactly what the Lord speaks now. Just as the Syrophoenician woman that came to the Lord, she wasn't a Jew, but she had a need. Her daughter was sick unto death. She said, Lord, you're going to have to heal her or she's going to die. He said, I didn't come, but to the lost house of Israel. She said, I've lost my train of thought now. I have not come but to save the lost house of Israel. It's not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And what'd she say? Truth, Lord, but the dogs desire the crumbs that fall from the master's table. We speak what the Lord speaks now. Truth, I am a dog, but can I be your dog? Can I have your crumbs from your table? I have a dog that always puts its head on my lap when I'm eating. It drives me crazy because I'm like, just leave me be. I want to eat my food. But then they give me that sad eyes. You know, I'm thinking to myself, looking to our Lord, just begging Lord, give me a crumb. Just I'm dying down here. You know, give me a crumb. Give me another crumb. Oh, if the Lord doesn't do a work of grace in the heart, our heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. We'll be just like Haman. I thought, I thought. Aren't you glad the Lord doesn't let us be left to ourself and think. I have one more place I want to turn to, and I believe we have enough time. But I want to, before we turn there, I want to tell us this. Our Lord asks questions sometimes. This is another, he actually asked, what do you think? He asked a couple of times. One of them that he asked, what think ye of Christ? You remember that passage? That's where we're going to turn in a second. He's asking the Pharisees, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? I remember in false religion, or I remember after hearing the truth and talking to some people in false religion, that they had that verse down pat. Oh yeah, he's the son of God. But they don't know who God is. That's the problem. But the Pharisees on their hand, they said he's David's son. So the Lord asked them, he says, how is it if he's David's son, how is it that David called him Lord saying, My Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou here at my right hand until thine enemies made thy footstool. And they couldn't answer him a word. They couldn't answer him a word. It wasn't just that the Lord was trying to trap them, the Lord was shutting them up. Understand something, when the word of God comes to a sinner, it either comes for the purpose of salvation, or it comes with the purpose of shutting them up, one of the two. If we shut up to Christ, or we shut up to ourself, that's it. That's the only two options that can happen. And he shut up these Pharisees, their lives were shut up, it was over. When at the end of it all, a man, every man and every woman are going to have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And these Pharisees wouldn't do that. These Pharisees wouldn't do that. The Lord asks this question, what think ye of Christ, for one of two reasons, to draw the right confession out of them or to shut them up. That's it. And if the Lord's drawing the confession out of you, it's because he's given you the confession to speak. What think ye of Christ? That's life and death, isn't it? It's life and death. Yes, the Pharisees that question in Matthew 22. I'm catching up to my notes here. They didn't have the right thoughts. They couldn't answer him back because they didn't have the right thoughts. Whose son is he? He said, David. He said, well, why? They say, my Lord sit here on my right hand. I can call him Lord. They couldn't answer him because they didn't have right thoughts. They didn't have right thoughts. So turn over to Matthew chapter 16, if you will. So I just told us of the one with not having right thoughts. Now I want us to look at one who had right thoughts and understand the difference. The difference is the Lord Jesus Christ, period. That's it. It's not something you and I learn on our own. This is the thing that the Lord does. He teaches his people. He gives us right thoughts about him. So we get no glory in this. Look at verse 13 of Matthew 16. And when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, who do men say that I, the son of man am? And they said, some say thou are John the Baptist, son of Elias and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But I say, he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And that's the most important thing to understand is we must, the only way that you can say who he is and believe it in the heart is by the gift of faith, by grace alone. Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, whatsoever thou shalt loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus. The Christ. God's people are made to know what to speak because he gives us right thoughts. Right thoughts. He bestows those upon us, causing us to think. We would have never thought like God does in the sense of who Christ is and who he is and what we are. But because he gives the gift of faith and he gives repentance, that's exactly what we think. We have the right thoughts of who God is, what Christ accomplished, and who we are. We are resting, not in our obedience to anything, but His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. We're not resting in our works, we're resting on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. We're not looking to our sacrifices, those are wrong thoughts. No, the right thought says, look to His sacrifice, because His sacrifice was the only sacrifice able to atone for the sins of His people. We don't look to our life. We're hoping our life is hid with Christ and God. We're not looking to our anything. We're looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as all of our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It's his life, his death, his burial, and his resurrection alone that saves. We're made to know salvation is of God according to his purpose all by his grace. been made to believe Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior because He's God. And you know who taught us that? Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. God teaches his people. The Father teaches his people by his Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ, he teaches us he's all in salvation. He's Lord and Savior. He's not just Savior. Nobody had a problem with the Lord being the Savior. They just didn't like him being the Lord. Oh, sure, yeah, if you saved everybody, that's perfectly fine, but you're not gonna reign over us. Well, whenever he comes to a man and gives you a new heart, or a woman gives you a new heart, we say truth, Lord. You're God, I'm not. You're Lord, I'm not. You're the Savior, I'm not. I can't save myself, and I don't wanna be in charge. Every time I'm in charge, it seems like I mess it up. Anybody else relate to that? Especially, we don't ever try to be in charge when it comes to our salvation, because we can't get it right. The Lord's the one that has to do that. Because the Lord been made our substitute surety by his death, we're made alive, by him being made sin, we're made the righteousness of God in him. By his obedience under the cross, he's given his people right thoughts, right thoughts, all by his grace. These are the right thoughts of the Lord's people. All by grace, we've been made to believe everything else is wrong. It's the lie. Everything else is false. Everything else is wrong thoughts. Thank God he clothed us. He seated us, put us in our right mind. He made us come to ourself and our own senses, realizing what we had, the Father's house. He caused us to go down to Jordan and die the perfect death that he did when he died. And now we've been cleansed of our leprosy. He's given us right. He's made us rest on the Sabbath, our Lord Jesus Christ. He's put us in our right mind. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name, amen.