[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Fort Collins Bible Church Sermon Audio Broadcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is our prayer that these messages will spur you on to growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have any questions or would like to hear more, please access our website at www.Fort CollinsBibleChurch.com and now a word from Pastor Brad Maston.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, thanks for tuning in this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: This week we continue our adventure in the book of Acts, completing the first chapter.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we see, these very early events are incredibly important to understanding what God is doing in us in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hope you enjoy this study, and then it blesses you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you for the gift of your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you as we come into the Thanksgiving and the Christmas season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, may those wonderful celebrations continually draw our attentions and our affections back to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We praise you for your word.
[SPEAKER_01]: We praise you for your spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We praise you for your son.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we come into this first,
[SPEAKER_01]: are these first chapters, these early chapters in the book of Acts, these early chapters in the history of your body on earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: We praise you that they're not separated from us, but Lord, we are in their line.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you've revealed here and what you've done here is truly in a very personal sense our history, your movement within humanity on earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: in a very real and personal way that you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or please bless this study.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would be in fellowship with you and may your eyes be fixed on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Increase the name we pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, so we're continuing on in our study of these are rich chapters.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you notice, last week we even hit the one hour mark, which is a rarity in our sermons.
[SPEAKER_01]: We win a full hour and a y because these first and some of you were so excited.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're a football game today, please don't let that happen, please.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are power-packed theological chapters, and it makes sense, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The very beginning of anything is going to wind up to have a lot of the information and set the entire trajectory for all that is to follow.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what we see is that these are theologically power-packed.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are information for us that we need to have in order to come, do a full understanding of what God is doing here among us.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we move forward, we want to remind us what we went through last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus had given them some amazing instructions.
[SPEAKER_01]: He told them that they were going to be his witnesses, but they had to wait for the power and the endwelling of his holy spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw the incredible need that we have today to rely on that spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: even though we don't wait for it to come, it has come to every, every believer, every believer is sealed and regenerated and is born again of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're now in a permanent relationship in dwelt by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't wait on the Spirit, but we need to rely on the Spirit and the Spirit's resources if we're going to do anything that is worthwhile or rewardable to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just as the disciples could have moved on and done their own thing and worked out their own issues and tried to spread this good news of Jesus Christ out of their flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were encouraged.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, commanded not to, but to wait until the Spirit came.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we saw the ascension and the heaven, and hopefully remember, we talked about how when Jesus Christ was ascended into heaven every single believer was identified with Him in that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that fact, as God sees you, He sees you with the righteousness of Christ seated at the right hand of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there was a great crowd coming up with Christ spiritually,
[SPEAKER_01]: And we also saw that Christ is yet to return in the same way, visibly bodily, personally, coming to Earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at that point, the crowd will not be invisible to the naked eye, but quite terrifyingly visible to those who oppose Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we got a lot packed in last week for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, probably one of the rarest things that ever happens in the Bible occurs.
[SPEAKER_01]: People are told by God to do something and they actually do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: It happens like three times in the Bible and twice in my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, they follow orders and return to the city and wait in the upper room where they were staying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I want to point out as you listen to this, as you listen to this whole passage being read so patiently.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You notice that Luke again takes time to point out the vital importance and integral role that women play.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he didn't have to point that out.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, culturally it was odd.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was strange to point that out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet here is Luke saying, and these women were co-important before the eyes of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were vital to the forward movement of the early church.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were noticed.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Christ's ministry, which was unusual, Christ was expressly noticed as teaching women and letting them be a part of our participate in his ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here again, going into the church, we see this precedence and standard upheld.
[SPEAKER_01]: The value and importance of women right alongside men, we call this sometimes the complementary and view, it's not that we all do the same things, but we do all have the same importance and there's not a need or a hierarchy in terms of value before the eyes of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I just wanted to take a moment to point out that in spite of all the culture and all the normal attitudes and choices of that day, or ideas of that day, Luke points out that these
[SPEAKER_01]: Alongside, even naming them by name, very the mother of Jesus, so being one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: The disciples are here described in two ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to look at these two ways with some specificity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're going to be off your hand out for just a little bit on a couple of these.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first description they get is, they're of one mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, depending on your translation, but they're of one mind and next, they're continually devoting themselves to prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, let's start by looking at this, this descriptor in verse 13, that they are 14, sorry, that they are of these all with one mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Greek word behind this one mind or what's transcendent here is one is homothomodon, which is undoubtedly one of the most controversial dinosaurs that we've not yet discovered.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, it's not really.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like my daughter every time I tell her something like that's just really daddy, like no, not really Anyway, this this word homo-thumbad on homo-right same word and then thumbad on the idea of focus for heat So one We're focused.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the idea here's very simply one focus.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're in complete accord their eyes and their focus is in the same place
[SPEAKER_01]: So the picture that we get here is that the disciples, and again this is not just Peter James John in the 12 or the 11, this is not just of the 11 and the ladies, this is the entire body of disciples who are following along.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're all said here to have, well actually here specifically, it's just the 12, right, and the coming women.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they all are characterized by having one focus.
[SPEAKER_01]: a singularity of faith and direction.
[SPEAKER_01]: This wonderful word shows up 10 times in the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: 14, 24, 26, 4, 24, 5, 12, 7, 57, 8, 6, 12, 20, 15, 25, 18, 12, 19, 29, hike.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's ice all over the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is repeated as being one of the characteristics of a healthy body, one focus being completely in a cord, seeing eye to eye.
[SPEAKER_01]: This doctrine, this idea of unity within the local church body, or within the church body at large, is not isolated to the book of Acts, either.
[SPEAKER_01]: Different Greek words certainly are used, but here are some passages that talk about the same idea with some different verbs surrounding it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Philippine's 127 says, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear that you are standing firm.
[SPEAKER_01]: In one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, as a big statement.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to hear about you Philippian Church that you're standing firm.
[SPEAKER_01]: The picture that this would likely have aroused in their mind, especially in Philippi, which is a Roman colony where many of the people were retired Roman soldiers, is a picture of the Caligay, which was a, which was a spiked or a cleated sandal that made the Romans especially powerful or strong and battling that when the army raged against them, they could hunker down with these spiked sandals.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the opposing forces would just crash upon them because they were so well firmly fixed.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's kind of a picture of what he's saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stand firm in what?
[SPEAKER_01]: One spirit with one mind, the Greek word, Suka, the one soul is another way you could describe it.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are they saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Standing firm in your unity in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is zire, and that united soul as if you were one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then striving together, working together again, another military image, if you've ever seen the movie 300, not that I'd recommend it, but there were some great visual representations much looking like video games, but still of soldiers, there were Greek soldiers at that point right Spartan, or Spartan, sorry, but locking their shields together so that they could
[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine, you know, 30, 50, 100 sweaty smelly guys all walked in one turtle shell formation together with spiky shoes on running as a group.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine how much unity?
[SPEAKER_01]: How they'd have to strive together?
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want to get a flat tire with a metal-spite shoe.
[SPEAKER_01]: That would be very, very uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they say, work together like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: With that kind of military position for the faith, for the faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is to say, for the revealed faith that has been given for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Finally fully and completely in the written Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The doctrines that teachings that have been set out before them by Paul and Peter and him for us contained in the Word.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is he saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Be united.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be of one spirit, be of one mind of one soul, even think together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seek that unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it's going to take, take resolve as you stand firm.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to take work as you strive together as you learn what it means to work with one another with a desire for unity and to be four or one another and not against one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: First Corinthians 1-10, a church that actually was expressly struggling with this lack of unity or this disunity.
[SPEAKER_01]: First Corinthians 1-10 says, now I absorb you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there will be no divisions among you, but that you may be made complete in the same mind and the same judgment.
[SPEAKER_01]: You picking up on this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Agreed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Making a choice to try to see it to agree and not to make divisions, not to try to divide up or make your own little camps, but rather than that, try to be a, or, or a, or a grow to be of the same mind and the same judgment.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was very specifically directed at them because here's Paul telling them, I agree with what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for us, I agree with what the word says long to know that what the word truly says, not just know what I want it to say, to hear all of us, hopefully, to hear the word of God and conform ourselves to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: rather than our own ideals or desires.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we want to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 15, 5 and 6, also highlighting this idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another, according to Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that with one accord, you may, with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, get it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Having the same mind, the mind of Christ is revealed in Scripture with one accord, with one voice actually is really with one mouth, is the literal translation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The idea that you'd all be saying the same thing together, that is the idea, that is the goal of maturity within the local church, and yet that's kind of rough for us, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't sound challenging.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the unbelieving?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking about believers who are unbelieving, come up to this teaching of Scripture and they say, oh come on, really, how can we, I've never been a part, I've never agreed with anyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty interesting that the people who don't believe that this could ever be possible are also the ones causing most of the problems, but we'll leave that aside.
[SPEAKER_01]: How are we going to do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: How is this even possible?
[SPEAKER_01]: How could we hope to have this unity?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's no question that this is a growth issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't come as we just step in the door and something that involves this Paul pointed out and as we see here, it involves a choice and an active working and humility to submit ourselves and know what the Word of God has to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's look at Ephesians 4-7 because it's precisely what Paul's talking about and he gives us more specifics on how it's to be done.
[SPEAKER_01]: I therefore, or therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.
[SPEAKER_01]: being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is one body and one Spirit just as also you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, over all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is overall and through all and in all, but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it has to do with our attitude, with our stance.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're supposed to stand in understanding the amazing, it's standing in the understanding of the amazing calling that we have in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Understanding what the amazing grace that He's exercised towards us looks like and is about as His revealed in His Word.
[SPEAKER_01]: That will lead us to humility, that is not being over obsessed with our own importance and our own desires and our own thoughts but actually longing to submit to him and gentleness.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a power under control, and is the desire to give exactly the right amount of force in any situation as is needed, not overkill in any point, with patience.
[SPEAKER_01]: strongly enduring, this is the character of Christ in the believer, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: The patient strongly enduring any difficulty and any shortcoming of others, showing tolerance for one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: We could spend a long time talking about tolerance because the word that's been massively abused in our day and age.
[SPEAKER_01]: But showing toleration
[SPEAKER_01]: for one another alongside of showing patience for one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean being tolerant of sitting doesn't mean being tolerant of wrongdoing, means being patient as we work together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Waiting for the Lord to work out what He's working out in your life as you wait for Him to work out what He's working out in my life and not demanding that everyone be perfect right away, no no questions asked.
[SPEAKER_01]: being diligent, oh sorry, one another in love, being diligent to preserve.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the idea of work, it takes effort, it takes effort to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Means you wanna put effort towards something, put effort towards preserving the unity between your brothers and sisters in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he goes on to speak with the theology behind this.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's one body.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're all apart.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are all united in the body of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyone who has placed their faith is trusted in Jesus Christ as the divine payment for their sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: And rose again on the third day, that person is a part of the body of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've equipped before that I think that that believer that you least can stand.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you disliked the most is undoubtedly going to be your roommate in heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: who's got as a great sense of humor.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, working out here, so you don't mind who you get paired with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's one body.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are united that person, no matter how awful, no matter how terrible, no matter what.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stinky and nasty and immature, and all you just can't stand the fact that they even breathe your air.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're united to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're in one body, the body of Christ together, which Christ is the head, because you're filled with this one spirit, the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no matter how much better or worse you might think they are than you or those who sit around you, you both we all approach.
[SPEAKER_01]: the throne of God, on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's no purpose for us to find this unity in terms of who we think we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just also as you were called in one hope of your calling.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all responded to the gospel call.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all came to that same message.
[SPEAKER_01]: One Lord, Jesus Christ, one faith, the teaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we can say it was being revealed at the time, revealed in the Word, were united around the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: One baptism, which I would again remind you, not water baptism here.
[SPEAKER_01]: the immersion of your identification, one identification.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're both identified with Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: When God looks at the most awful, unreformed, terrible sinner who's placed their faith in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He looks at the most saintly, wonderful, perfect right.
[SPEAKER_01]: They see sees the same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees the righteousness of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have the same identification as by the basis of the same work of Jesus Christ that they'll enter into heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: One God and Father, overall, who is overall and through all, and in all, getting a little bit distracted from our main point, but it's something that I value because I see it here.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the same father that's working through us in the ugly times and the wonderful times.
[SPEAKER_01]: Working through our disobedience by disciplining us, by convecting us, working through our obedience, working through all things by the power of his son, because he's that good at what he does.
[SPEAKER_01]: But according to each of us, grace was given according to the measure of grace gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he goes on to use the spiritual gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: here.
[SPEAKER_01]: The unity in the body of Christ is something that is both commanded, is something that we're meant to be a part of working with, and it's also based on all that he's done, but something that is meant to characterize a healthy body.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's something that they were characterized by, this one or single mindedness, and so,
[SPEAKER_01]: What we have to ask ourselves every day is, do I truly want to be of one mind or am I to find somehow by finding problems to identify with?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting, divisive people can have any kind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it just pick a problem out of the sky, it's the music, it gets this, it's that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's this person, something this person said to me, it's something that, it's something, it's the doctor.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's this, it's that, it's, well, you know, they don't emphasize this, never come to an end of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're divisive internally, if you don't have this desire for the unity, if we're not submitted to the word in this, then we're going to make and find problems.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Green ties could offend you at that point, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we're going to thumbs down on the green tie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just got it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The point is, is that if you see the need to be devised,
[SPEAKER_01]: because the Spirit of God within you will always be working and seeking towards unity of understanding, surrounding His Word, not towards divisiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, one, they're one-minded.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two, prayer, they were prayerful.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to see the issue of prayer popping up again and again and again in the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've grabbed just a couple of the references here.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're continuing, they're one-minded, continuing to voting themselves to prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: In 242, we find that they're continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, breaking up bread and to prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: In three-one, we're going to see Peter and John going up to the temple at the 9th hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: the hour prayer, so presumably they're going up to pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 6 for, but we will devote ourselves to prayer in the ministry of the words.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here are the apostles acting as local elders of the newfound Jerusalem church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they said, hey, look, if we continue to take care of all the physical needs of this body, and we want time to teach the word and to pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was worth using the church resources in their mind to free them up to spend time both in the study of the word, teaching the word, and a prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 1031.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your arms have been remembered before God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here you have a God-fearer and a Gentile, His prayers being heard and entertained by the God of the universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: So our prayers are heard, and Peter kept in prison in prayer, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the Church of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be a great account once we finally get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love this because the whole church is praying for him firmly, and then God answers the prayer and they're like, no way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, you are just praying for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: God answers.
[SPEAKER_01]: God responds.
[SPEAKER_01]: God acts in accordance with our prayer as a part of the clear revelation of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: you are struggling with something to pray for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could use the prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking at no, if you're struggling for something to pray for, pray for everything and anyone around you, but do, please, make regular times and concerted effort towards private times of prayer and corporate times of prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're married, pray with your spouse,
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you have children, pray with your family, pray, be in prayer regularly.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you can steal 5, 10, 20 minutes for yourself, set aside that time to talk to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to feel because the enemy, because of your soul, because your flesh, then you're just going to say, oh, you're just talking to the ceiling.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could be knew something important during this time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Prayer is the work.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, evidence of that, or in evidence of that reality that we could look throughout Scripture and see the value and vital importance of prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: When it looked through the entire Gospel of Luke and Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself, conducting His life in prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now we see, throughout the book, we'll see, throughout the book of Acts, prayer being important and vital part of their life in unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: the need.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now Peter stands up amongst the 120 disciples present.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're waiting for the next thing, the Holy Spirit to come.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the same day, it's been a big day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he recognizes the fulfillment of prophecies.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's brother in the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit for a toll by the mouth of David, concerning Judas who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: For he was counted among us, and received his share in this ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, we're going to talk a little bit about the way the old New Testament uses the Old Testament, because this gets really complicated and really difficult.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we can get really specific about that, or this, which we're not going to do today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to give you some general categories, because it causes problems.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever seen the Old Testament used in the New Testament and been a little bit troubled, because it didn't work out like you're expected?
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of us only think, as with anything in Bible reading, we think of everything as being totally one dimensional and fitting in one simple category,
[SPEAKER_01]: which is rarely the way the Bible works because it's written by the God of the universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're usually looking for this, a direct prophecy being directly fulfilled right in time.
[SPEAKER_01]: That happens a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, we're going to see that there's one right here in this passage.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're looking for.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're looking for if they're going to use the old testament that it's going to be because a prophecy was being fulfilled right there, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: and we love Matthew for this Matthew is great at walking us through and this is where Christ will fill this prophecy and this is where Christ will fill that prophecy it's fantastic and some of them are a bit perplexing and challenging to us but essentially this gives us the idea that this is what we're using but the reality is that while this is vital valuable importance for us to understand it is not the only way the Old Testament is used in the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also have sometimes a point of similarity people pointed out.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to see this in some coming studies very soon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oftentimes, the author is not saying that this is what that author is talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: The person using that scripture is actually saying, this is the type of thing that God does.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is within his character.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is within his pattern, if you like.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone were to say, I saw Brad on the street, where did you see him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why saw him outside of the coffee shop?
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd say, well, that kind of makes sense every time I see Brad.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got a cup of coffee.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, it's kind of in the pattern.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in the character of what I know of him, or the standard of what I know of him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's exactly what oftentimes happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because as we've said many times before,
[SPEAKER_01]: The church, what we're in now, was not revealed in the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when the Old Testament is used to describe what's going on here and now, it's often not in a matter of this is prophecy fulfilled, but it's a matter of that there's a similarity in the character of God as to how this is applied across two sensations or times.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next, very frequently, the Old Testament is quoted as a principle being applied
[SPEAKER_01]: just a simple principle derived from godly wisdom or revelation.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's not often times again, not saying that this is a prophecy fulfilled, but rather that this is a principle from god's character applied.
[SPEAKER_01]: And finally, sometimes it's a fitting and powerful quotation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ever seen or of course you have?
[SPEAKER_01]: where you you're reminded of the way that a certain thing was worth it in a movie or a book that you read and you share that with someone else you're not trying to say that what the author was saying necessarily is what you're about but you're just quoting it because it's the way it was a nice pithy way to put so sometimes the old testament is used in that way it's a fitting and powerful quotation that is not necessarily related directly it's just hey I like the way that this was put
[SPEAKER_01]: because it's the word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what I want to open your mind to, hopefully, is the fact that not the use of the Old Testament and the New Testament is not limited to just this is what was said in the Old Testament and this finds its direct prophecies.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just not that simple, it's not that easy and that's a good thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it clears a lot up.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can confuse us sometimes, or it may confuse you sometimes, when you see that that's not the case, because that's your expectation.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was never the promise of God that every time the Old Testament was used, that it would be a fulfillment of prophecy, a lot of the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: But not entirely.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to see that quite a bit going forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Psalm 41-9, this is one of those direct fulfillment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Celebrity one nine reads even my friend and whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me This betrayal of Judas was prophesied by scripture Christ knew it Christ talked about.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've none of those have been lost except the one
[SPEAKER_01]: who must be for scripture, so scripture can be fulfilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we get two other different types, not so much prophecy fulfillment, but the ones that he actually quotes are more on a principle.
[SPEAKER_01]: The idea that when this office was made vacant, not by Judas' death, but by Judas' defection, or betrayal, that it made sense for them to a point, a replacement in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here they are, picking judices, replacements.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I want to note and take a little brief moment and say that we use this as one of the possible theological log jams.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get a lot of Bible interpreters and Bible teachers and just get downright mad.
[SPEAKER_01]: They shouldn't have done that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was not appropriate.
[SPEAKER_01]: That wasn't okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then immediately said on judgment and say, actually, it wasn't him.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was Paul and they jumped to conclusions and they never should have done that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I call these people theologically speaking fools.
[SPEAKER_01]: They like to take a very limited amount of biblical information and then in cast a moral judgment on it that is not given to it by Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, what we will see is that this choice of them to appoint this appointment thyser, a point of replacement for Judaism is kind of found and supported by the rest of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, when I ask, why bother pointing this out?
[SPEAKER_01]: One, we're going to come up with a lot of these.
[SPEAKER_01]: undoubtedly you've probably done it yourself in your Bible rating and you've undoubtedly heard countless sermons about stupid Peter and dumb Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all the, and I can't believe in dying all sorts of moral judgments on the characters of Scripture with no actual reason for doing so.
[SPEAKER_01]: To read Scripture is if we were so much smarter and we know so much more than those idiots who were actually going through it and led by the spirit and talk to and spoke with the living resurrected Christ were so much smarter than they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why bother point this out?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well attitude changes everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're reading through the word of God with an express desire to find out where everyone's wrong and throw sin and stones at everyone else's movements and actions as in this case, I think we've got a real deep attitude problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason why I think that the deep attitude problem is that that's going to train us to then impute that same attitude on our brothers and sisters in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: actions that they do choices that they make that have no moral value or implication that are not and yet all the sudden they owe their walking in sync because they're not doing it the way I would do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It increases a judgmental in us and a self-deification of our own preferences and thoughts that I find very uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as we go through this, if the scripture does not lay judgment and say, wow, they goofed up on this, we're not going to presume that that's the case.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to go around guessing as to whether or not what they did was best or worse, your guys will not go as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to see that's an unsheritable attitude that we certainly hadn't had the audacity and goal to read on the Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: This Christ could have done a lot to correct them if this had been the wrong thing to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or Paul, when he takes the Nazareth Vauer on and on for other places that we get all legalistic and judgmental and foolish with people.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't mind so much of being legalistic and judgment of foolish with the people in Scripture except that it's going to mean that you probably start acting that way towards each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul can take it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter can take it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't mind anymore where they're at.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your brothers and sisters in Christ probably aren't in the real mood to put up with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You shouldn't have to.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, that's just an interesting sideline because what we're going to see is Scripture actually supports this, even though people want to get really.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been out of shape, so picking an apostle with a apostle we get more word problems.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember we talked about baptism last week and several times in the past, we said that the word baptism or baptize comes from the Greek word baptism, so it's a word that we're not even translating, we're just taking it directly from the Greek, and then imputing upon it a bunch of magical language that will mean anything but what it actually means to immerse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Guess what the Greek word
[SPEAKER_01]: Apostolus, it's a Apostolayer, it's a pothole, it's another untranslated word.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do we know when we don't translate words, we're usually using that as a manipulative tactic to try to impute magic upon something and make a problem for ourselves that was not ever intended by Scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the word of Pothole is another Greek word with an normal definition.
[SPEAKER_01]: The normal definition of the word apostolate is a specially sent one who's been given the authority to see the message executed.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the word apostolate means.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was not considered or thought of as an office and it's originally used.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the Bible authors and the men of Scripture started calling themselves Apostles, they weren't necessarily thinking of what we might think of now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because this is one of the words that I grabbed on to by the Catholic Church to say, we have apostolic succession from Peter, and that's why you got to listen to the Pope.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll move on.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the very simple meaning of this word is someone in a special sense, especially sent with a message.
[SPEAKER_01]: and also has the authority to see that message carried out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have an angle loss, which is also where we get our English word messenger.
[SPEAKER_01]: An angle loss was a person who just brought a message, don't shoot the messenger, hey, what you do with it is yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: I delivered the message for you, for that person.
[SPEAKER_01]: On a parcel with someone who is broader, again, a commissioned messenger, it was probably the best way to translate it and my mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this person was sent with a message and also with the authority to execute that message.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do we see in the apostles?
[SPEAKER_01]: We see these men were given a specific message.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they were given the ability to do miracles.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were given the ability to do miraculous things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even things that God had not done through Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really remarkable and amazing things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: To substantiate their message.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, there were given a special task.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, as far as these, the commissioned by Christ for this express purpose are the 12, if the 11 minus Judas' plasmus size, and then Paul, who doesn't consider himself one of the 12, by his own writing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, those are the specially commissioned by Christ for that express purpose, for that role in giving, getting the church off the ground, if you like, or beginning,
[SPEAKER_01]: We have those who are called apostles in Scripture, and this is again where it's so important to understand that we can't make a technical term out of what's not a technical term.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are other people who are especially commissioned by Christ, but they weren't apostles in this strict sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are Barnabas, Junia, and Paparaditis, and there are a handful of others.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the word Apostle is applied to them just as it's applied to the 12, just as it's applied to Paul or Paul applied to himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were still commissioned workers of Jesus Christ who had been given the authority to do what he'd set them out to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't the same as what he'd set out, Luke, Paul, and he's to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, again, there's also another group of especially chosen gifted and anointed people who are commissioned for a purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not, and I'm not commissioned for the same purpose that Paul was, that Peter was in the other 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not in that special strict cat class, but it doesn't change the reality that God has placed you in a situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It filled you with the Spirit, provided you with His word, He's given you everything that you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have a message to share and you have all the authority and all the power would give into you.
[SPEAKER_01]: by the God of the universe, to see that fulfilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there is a way, if I'm not comfortable with doing it, because of the misunderstandings that it might follow.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a way that you could say that you also are out of a puzzle in a manner of speaking.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're also a specially commissioned person who's been given all the authority to do what the Lord has set out for you to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: These special apostles, however,
[SPEAKER_01]: by God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he puts out the earmarks of this special group of commissioned people.
[SPEAKER_01]: One.
[SPEAKER_01]: In this case, they wanted them to be accompanied, accompanied them the entire time.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were with Christ and accompanied him through every step from the baptism all the way up to the essential when he was taken up.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, they had to be with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: The entire day had to have seen and heard Jesus speak and act.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was going to be an anchor point and finally had to be there from baptism to essential.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I had to be with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really interesting because when Paul starts to talk about his commission, he's going to use a more in-depth series of requirements to legitimize or justify his special calling, which again differs in a way from the strict 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we see is that it was well understood within them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, they didn't ever anticipate, and we see there's no accession continued line of apostles.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're just filling this one hole.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's pretty interesting, because first they pray, again, to the knower of hearts, to God the heart knower, the one who knows what's going on inside people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they also said that God would choose this person.
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't believe it was them choosing and it wasn't them choosing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was God choosing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he said, they prayed God, you know who these men are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please choose for yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the middle of voice means.
[SPEAKER_01]: Choose for yourself the one that you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they cast lots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is that narrative normative thing again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember that that principle by which we see something happen, and we say, well, we should try to do that again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sad to report that there are actually our churches that have tried to choose their leadership by the casting of lots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, was this a bad idea?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number's 26, 55, 33, 54, 34, 13, 36, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a very common Old Testament way to make decisions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interestingly, those
[SPEAKER_01]: are having to do with deciding who would get what territory.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'd have to do it with inheritance in a sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know that there is a special, a special allowance for the 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the reality is that they knew that they had a special end times job to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it wouldn't do for only 11 of those spots to be taken.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why, interestingly, using lots makes a lot of sense are a great deal of sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: because that was essentially deciding what someone's role would be in the kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what about now?
[SPEAKER_01]: What changed between them and now?
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a totally appropriate way for them to make that decision then.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what about at this point?
[SPEAKER_01]: And what changed?
[SPEAKER_01]: What we see is that the Holy Spirit in dwelt believers between that time where they made this decision now.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need this system of making decisions by lots or looking for signs or setting out a fleece before the Lord, oftentimes again a misuse of the Gideon account.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know the will of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: We are plagued by pagan ideas about the will of God, and it's painful to us, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We might get the idea that God's will for our lives is some sort of golden role.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the pagan thinking, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And you would go and find out that God has hidden his will from you, and if you just kind of
[SPEAKER_01]: blindly stumble around if you get the right one you'll be blessed and get the wrong one you'll be cursed if you get the right one you'll get a lot of stuff and you get money and if you get the wrong one you're going to experience hardship and so if you're experiencing hardship it's because you've gone wrong in the will of God and becomes this huge long issue and it's problematic again this is the pagan view of the will of God or of the gods depending on how they're looking at it because many many of the saints throughout history
[SPEAKER_01]: because they were walking along the will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't use the pagan standards of, hey, things, I feel pretty good, and things are going pretty well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I must be in the will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a good measure of whether or not we're within the will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see inscriptions of a very different view.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not God, clearly hiding his will from us, and should I choose this shirt, or that shirt, should I choose this car, that shirt, or should I choose on and on?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, God's will is, and this is just a visual image to help us maybe understand it a little bit better.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's will could be viewed as a three-circle scripturey.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, this is oversimplifying, so forgive the limitations.
[SPEAKER_01]: but there's God's sovereign will as revealed and sovereignty again as we've looked at just last week has been misunderstood to be God is controlling all the zeros and ones and God is using us like chess pieces and on and on.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not what we see.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what sovereignty means, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: sovereignty means that God will have the final say and there are some things that he's just said that's it.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's some parts of God's sovereign will.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter what you do or you don't do.
[SPEAKER_01]: We looked at one last week when Christ will return.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a part of the sovereign will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever you do is not going to bring it closer, it's not going to bring it faster because it's been set out before the dawn of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ's coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a part of the sovereign will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ was going to come.
[SPEAKER_01]: As part of God's sovereign will, His decree, there was no questioning that it was going to occur.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your salvation and position in Christ is a part of God's sovereign and unchangeable will.
[SPEAKER_01]: You place your faith in Him and you become a part of what Christ has done in creating the salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's God's sovereign will, that's the unchangeable part.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we go in an unbreakable, he won't allow it to be violated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you get into what we sometimes call God's moral will.
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't cooled here because I don't like the term moral for what we're dividing here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that gives us the idea that the list of good things and bad things, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is part of God's moral will, but there's more to it than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because God's moral will, things that we don't commonly think about in terms of morality.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's will is that every person would put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's God's part of God's moral will.
[SPEAKER_01]: calling that a moral choice might sound a little confusing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I be broken?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he tolerates that to be broken.
[SPEAKER_01]: He tolerates even though he desires that every person comes to salvation, he tolerates people to reject him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We have God's moral will being for every single believer all the time to be resting and abiding in Christ, to be living in obedience to His Word every single day, you are meant and I am meant to live my life in focused abiding in Jesus Christ in God's provision, walking in the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a part of God's moral will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I do it and not do it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can violate that part of God's will.
[SPEAKER_01]: still within the circle of his sovereign will, certainly.
[SPEAKER_01]: But these are choices that are universal.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're for every single believer.
[SPEAKER_01]: God does not have a different desire for one believer from another, in terms of how we spend our days and weeks and months and years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we get into the sticky part, the part that we really want to be way more specific than it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's God's individual will.
[SPEAKER_01]: This God will need to take this job or this God will need to take that job.
[SPEAKER_01]: This God will need to be a scientist or this God will need to be an astronaut.
[SPEAKER_01]: This God will need to be a musician.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we have revealed in Scripture is that as you're doing the things I've got to set out for us to do in his moral will, he will guide your steps along the line of his individual will.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you that based on all information I have now, God's will is not for me to be an astronaut.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I cannot be an astronaut for more I'm sitting right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would be a long path down which I've long since passed all the exits to get onto.
[SPEAKER_01]: is not God's will that I be an astronaut.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's before you contains God's will for your life right now?
[SPEAKER_01]: What the Lord has opened up to you, whether it's to continue at your job to be a husband, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a grandfather, an on and on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are God's will for your life that you do those things as you abide in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: as your conform to his image, as your responsive to his spirit, as you listen to his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's God's will for your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to miss it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to whips, slip out of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to forget to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not going to fail.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why he's not sending you any emails.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's why he's not sending you any postcards and say, hey, my will for you is to... My will for you is to quit your job and go to... My will for you is that you don't get those.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't get those.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you get those, seek anti-sicotics.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't get those because that's not the way guys working interestingly when God does have a special plan Our special calling to use someone in a in a unique way like we see with these He doesn't make it unclear them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He makes it very clear to them In the fact that he's guiding you through your circumstances through situations and Yes, and response to the choices that you're making
[SPEAKER_01]: to abide into Him, or abide in Him or not, to rest in the Spirit or not, to pursue Him through His Word or not.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's going to direct the steps of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we need to walk in fear of God's will as if He's hiding it from us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's put the path before us, and he's asked us more so and in a bar greater importance than what you're going to do, who you're going to be, and who you're going to know as you go about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The will of God, all right, some brief applications and we're done for the morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: One, may we be a body of one mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: May we actively be choosing to contend for that unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: That unity is built in Christ and His Spirit and His work and around the truth as revealed in His Word alone, Mayor Desire not to be right while everyone else is wrong, not to win an argument, but to be united that we might all see and know Him better.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we continue to be and grow in our unity in the body of Christ, by his working.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next, maybe we be a people of prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a whole list of things that you can pray for.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a actual physical list right back there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to some real fun?
[SPEAKER_01]: Go pick up the church, the church directory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray over your brothers and sisters in Christ, even if you don't know who they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: got a family, pray for your family, so much, and we need to be in prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: This body needs it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need your prayers.
[SPEAKER_01]: You need each other's prayers.
[SPEAKER_01]: May we be a people.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we'd never take for granted the powerful provision, which God has made, to lead, use, and guide us.
[SPEAKER_01]: The provisions of the Spirit, the provisions of His Word, the provisions of His local church body, and we not take that for granted.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we come to know Him and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and so doing, let's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We praise you, we worship and adore you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your work on our behalf and your Son, Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for revealing so much of what you have for us to do and be.
[SPEAKER_01]: May we fix our eyes on Christ in the season of Thanksgiving and be marked by our thankfulness for all you given us in Christ and we pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.