Be Transformed By Knowledge

Introduction

Good morning. It is a blessing to be together. It’s been a wonderful day of worship to God. Our brothers who have led us in various parts of the worship have done a wonderful job. And we appreciate their service and their commitment to the Lord. And I appreciate all of you who are here this morning to worship God and give praise and glory to his Son, Jesus the Christ. It’s so good to be together on this Lord’s day. I want to begin this lesson this morning by asking you a question about this book.

Do you have an old school paper Bible like I have in front of me? Or do you have an electronic Bible? Do you have a Bible on your phone or on your on your iPad? What translation do you prefer? Like me, do you prefer the New American Standard Translation? Or maybe the old King James or the New King James or maybe the ESV. All of those are wonderful translations that I would highly recommend, but probably the most important question I could ask you about the Bible is how often do you use it? How often do you use the Bible? How often do you read it and study it and meditate on what it has to say? I ask you that question because while we currently live in a culture today where nearly everyone seems to have access to the Bible, and many people say they love the Bible and they value the Bible and they believe the Bible is a sacred book that comes from God.

The fact of the matter is, very few people hardly open it up. Very few people hardly ever read the Bible and study it and consider what it has to say. For example, a widely, a widely credible religious polling group recently found that while the average American household has about four Bibles, four paper Bibles in it, only a third, only a third of U.S. adults say that they read their Bibles once a week or more. Half say they read their Bibles less than twice a year. Only 16% of those people say that they read their Bibles most days during the week. And when it comes to our young people, that is people who are teenagers and early 20s and late 20s, almost 60% of them say that they read their Bibles less than three times a year, if at all.

And evolution. And they endorse, they have no problem openly endorsing things like gay marriage and cohabitation and abortion and divorcing your spouse for any reason at all. It is no wonder that we’re currently living in a society where for so many people they seem to be struggling to tell you what a man is or what a woman is or why half of Americans believe that demon possession still takes place and ghosts exist. And it was Paul and not Jesus who preached the Sermon on the Mount. We are clearly living in a biblically illiterate society, but rather than talk about our culture and our society today, what I want to do in my time is I want to talk about you. I want to talk about me.

I want to know how much do we value the Bible. How much do we value gaining knowledge and developing a worldview that is based on the information given to us in the Bible? I want us to think about that because remember, as part of our goal this year to be spiritually transformed people, as a congregation, we’ve devoted ourselves at least once a month for the rest of this year to studying this text here in 2 Peter chapter 1. Remember in 2 Peter chapter 1, in this section of scripture that was read for us in our last scripture reading, we find Peter’s inspired formula for transformation. We find his inspired formula to becoming more like Jesus and more the kind of people that God wants us to be.

In fact, last month, if you remember, we learned that spiritual transformation begins with acquiring virtue.

It begins with adding to our faith virtue or moral excellence. And then, as we keep, if we keep reading in the text, we see that in addition to that, in addition to acquiring virtue, we also have to acquire knowledge. We got to have virtue and knowledge from the word of God. In fact, this letter here, 2 Peter chapter 1, is actually bookended with that idea. And 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5. Again, what did Peter say in verse 5? Now, for this very reason, also apply an all diligence. You got to work hard. It takes some effort to get these things. Apply in all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence or virtue, and in your virtue or your moral excellence, knowledge. The book begins by talking about knowledge from the word of God.

And then in the last verse of the book at 2 Peter 3 and verse 18, Peter says, But grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This book begins by talking about the value of knowledge from the Word of God. And it ends talking about the same thing. And the question is, why? Why? Why do we need to supply or add to our faith virtue and to virtue knowledge? Well, before I tell you why acquiring knowledge is so important to this process of spiritual transformation, let me first tell you why it is not. First, let me submit to you that acquiring knowledge from the Word of God is not important. It is not something that we need to pursue so we can be arrogant.

1. So That We Can Know God and Ourselves

So we can be prideful, so we can flaunt our knowledge and receive praise and compliments, and so people can look at us and think to themselves, oh, I wish I knew as much as they knew about the Bible. No, sir and no ma’am. We should never pursue knowledge for arrogant, prideful, and selfish reasons. Instead, we need to pursue knowledge in this process of transformation for these reasons. First, we need to pursue knowledge so that we can know God. We need to know God. We need to know who God really is and who Jesus really is. And Peter talks about that in 2 Peter 1, but look at verse 3. You see verse 3? Before Peter even starts giving us, giving us this spiritual formula here for transformation, and 2 Peter 1 and verse 3, Peter says, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything, everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true what?

Knowledge. Through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Notice how, in addition to having everything we need to be godly people and have spiritual life, the Bible, the Word of God, also gives us everything we need to know God. It gives us everything we need to have a true knowledge of God. The psalmist actually said that first. Going back to our first scripture reading this morning in Psalm 19. Do you remember Psalm 19? Remember in Psalm 19, the psalmist there talks about revelation. He talks about revelation from God. He says that God has actually revealed himself to us in two different ways. First, in verses 1 through 6 of that chapter, he says that God has revealed himself through nature.

He’s revealed himself through the natural world. He has revealed himself through creation and all the things that he has made. You see, by observing the sun and the moon and the stars and the trees and the plants and the rivers and the lakes and the creatures. God speaks to us. God speaks to us about his existence. God shouts to us loud and clear that he is real and he is extremely powerful through natural revelation. The psalmist says, we are given evidence for the existence of God, but then he goes on to say in the rest of the chapter that it is through special revelation that is through the word of God that we actually learn about God. That we actually learn about the creator. That we actually learn about the attributes of the one who created all things.

You see, you’re not going to learn who God is by looking at the sun. You’re not going to learn God’s will. You’re not going to learn God’s will by looking at the moon and the stars and the oceans. No, you got to get that from the Bible. Through knowledge from the Bible. We learn who God is. We learn that He’s perfectly holy. We learn that He’s eternal. We learn that He’s all knowing and He’s just and He’s faithful and He actually cares about us. He actually considers us, and He watches over us, and He loves us and He values us. We need to pursue knowledge from the Bible in this process of transformation. Because through the Bible, we learn the truth about God, but not only do we learn the truth about God, secondly, we also learn the truth about ourselves.

We learn the truth about ourselves. We learn from the Bible that the atheist, the person who says there’s no God, that person is wrong. We learn that the world and our existence in this world isn’t a result of chance. It isn’t the result of some grand cosmic accident. It isn’t something that just kind of happened out of nowhere. No, the Bible tells us that we are the product and the result and the handiwork of God. As Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26 says, we were made in the image of God. We were made with attributes of God. We were made with the moral consciousness and with eternity in us. The Bible tells us that God is the one who made us. In fact, not only did God make us, but he also has expectations.

He has expectations for our lives. He didn’t just put us on this earth and say, hey, you just go out and do whatever you want to do, and that’s okay. No, God gave us a standard. God gave us rules, and he’s going to judge us by that. He’s going to judge us by his standard. Isn’t that how the book of Ecclesiastes ends? In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 14, after Solomon tells us that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments. And the last verse he says, For God will bring into judgment every act, everything which is hidden, whether it’s good or evil. God’s going to bring those things into judgment. And the Apostle Paul says that, right? 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10.

The Apostle Paul says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that we may give an account for the things we’ve done in our bodies, whether those things be good, whether those things be bad. Jesus preached that before Paul did. If you go in your Bible with me to John, the 12th chapter, please. John chapter 12, you look at verse number 48 and John 12, we get the words of Jesus Himself in John, the 12th chapter. And in verse number 48, Jesus says, He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what’s going to judge him on the last day. Notice how when he comes to the last day, and the last day there is a reference to that to that final great day.

That day when the Lord comes back and the dead are raised and we appear before him on that day. There’s only one standard that’s going to count. Only one standard is going to count when we stand before God on that day. And it’s not going to be the standard of our culture. It’s not going to be the standard of our society, of our constitution, of the Supreme Court. It’s not going to be our own standard. Instead, it’s going to be his standard. It’s going to be his word. It’s going to be his divine will that has been given to us in the Bible. We need to be pursuing knowledge, Peter says. In this process of transformation, because through knowledge of the Bible, we come to know the truth about God and we know the truth about ourselves.

2. To Know How to Please God and Defend Our Faith

But then thirdly, we need knowledge because through knowledge we know how to please God. Don’t you want to know how to please God? I want to know how to please God. And I know you do, or you wouldn’t be here this morning. So let’s go in our Bibles to Colossians because Paul makes this point in Colossians chapter 1, please. In Colossians chapter 1, and in verse number 9. The apostle Paul says this, Colossians 1 and verse 9. For this reason also, since the day we’ve heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, he tells the church of Colossae. We have not ceased to pray for you and to eyes that you may be filled with what? The knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding for a reason, Paul says, verse 10.

So that you will walk. So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. To please him, not just in some respects, but in all respects, bearing fruit and every good work and increasing and the knowledge of God. There it is. Notice how the purpose of growing and our knowledge of God’s word is so that we can walk a certain way.

But we can bear fruit for the glory of God every day. So we can please them in our hearts. So we can please them in our actions and our behavior and our relationships and our marriages on our jobs and how we and how we raise our kids and in how we we treat one another and treat our fellow man on a daily basis. The Bible tells us all of that. We have to grow in knowledge so that we can know how to please God, and we also need to do this in this process of transformation so we can be able to defend our faith. So we can be able to defend our faith so that we can be equipped to defend our faith against false teachers, false teachers in the church and outside the church.

Peter makes that point back in 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 2. Go read that when you have time today.

So we got to grow in our knowledge so we can defend our faith against the false teachers, but not just that, not just that. We also need to grow in our knowledge so we can be equipped to give an answer for our faith. And Peter makes that point also in 1 Peter chapter 3, and 1 Peter chapter 3, and in verse 15. And 1 Peter chapter 3 and in verse 15, Peter says, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. Do you want to be able to do that? You want to do that? You want to be able to do what Peter is talking about there in that verse.

Do you want to be able to effectively give an answer for why you believe the things that you believe? Do you want to be able to effectively tell people why you are a member of the church of Christ? And why you believe that baptism is essential to salvation. And why you’re not okay with women preachers and using instruments of worship or instruments of music and worship to God. And why you partake of the Lord’s Supper every single Sunday? And why you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord, and He’s not just a way to heaven, but He’s the only way to heaven.

3. So We Can Teach Others

If so, then the answer to doing that is keeping our minds in that book. We got to keep our minds in the Word of God. We got to be truly changed and convicted by the things we find in the Bible. We gotta pursue knowledge in this quest for transformation. Because through that we’re able to defend our faith, but then we add to the list that we got to pursue knowledge in this quest so we can be able to teach others. So we can be able to teach others the word of God. I’m going to my Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 24, please. And 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 24, Peter is talking to bond servants, bond servants of Jesus. That’s us if we’re Christians.

And Paul, Paul has this to say to bond servants in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 24. The Lord’s bond servant must not be quarrelsome, not argumentative. Now always look at a start up trouble all the time and in the middle of something. The Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all. What’s the next one? Able to teach. Patient when wrong. We got to be teachers. There’s a sense in which we all have to be teachers. Jesus, this is so important that Jesus actually talks about this right before he goes to heaven. If you look at Matthew chapter 28, in Matthew chapter 28 and in verse 19, before Jesus goes to heaven to be with his father. Jesus says to his people these parting words.

In Matthew 28 and verse 19, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Verse 20, teaching them, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you, and lo, I’m with you always, even to the end of the world. And then let me give you one more verse here. What does Paul have to say to people like me? Fathers, daddies, who are still raising children. Well, Paul has this to say in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4 to men who leave their households. He says, Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction or teaching of the Lord.

4. So We Can Increase Our Faith and Grow

Notice how God has given us a duty. We have a duty. We have a duty to teach others. We have a duty to teach the lost. We have a duty to teach our kids. Grandkids, we have a duty to continue teaching those who are initially converted. We got a duty to teach so many different kinds of people, and we’re not going to be able to do that effectively unless we know God’s word. We’re not going to be able to do that unless we are first firmly grounded in God’s word. We can’t teach somebody what we don’t know, what we don’t know ourselves. And so we got to pursue knowledge so we can teach others. But I’m still not done. We got to pursue this also so we can increase our faith.

Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6 says, and without faith. It is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he’s a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. As Christians, our faith is everything, isn’t it? It’s everything. It plays a critical and central role in our lives. It is what we walk by every single day. It is what connects us to God. It’s what keeps us focused on the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the primary reason why we’re even trying to be transformed. It’s why we’re trying to be like Jesus. It’s why we try to worship with zeal and with passion and enthusiasm. It is why we live each day with hope and endurance and anticipation as we eagerly await Jesus to come back.

Our faith.

We nurture our faith. We mature it, deepen it, we’re changed by it, we get it, we get it stronger for God. We need knowledge so we can grow our faith. But then let me add this also. We also need to pursue knowledge because by it we grow. We grow, we mature, we develop. Each and every day we start looking more and more like our Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Go in your Bible, please to 1 Peter again. Have you noticed how Peter has so much to say about this kind of stuff? In 1 Peter chapter 2, look at verse number 2. In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 2, Peter says this. Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may what?

Grow and respect the salvation if you’ve tasted the kindness or grace, grace of God, grace of the Lord. Focus on that illustration there, that metaphor Peter is using there of milk. Be like a baby that longs for milk. You and I both know that typically when the idea of being a baby and talking about milk is used in the New Testament, it’s usually used in a negative way. Paul uses it in a negative way. The Hebrew writer uses it in a negative way to call out Christians who were not growing up. They were acting immature. They were not being the kind of people that God wants them to be. Typically, the idea of being a baby and drinking milk as an illustration is used in a negative way in the New Testament.

But Peter’s not doing that here. Peter’s not using this in a negative way. Instead, he’s using it in a positive way. He is saying to us that a big part of Christianity requires being like a baby. We gotta be like babies in a sense. We gotta be like babies in the sense that we’re always longing to be fed the word of God, just like a baby longs to be fed milk.

5. How Do We Get It: Opportunities and Daily Bible Reading

Just like babies need milk to grow and develop. Peter says we need God’s word to grow. We need God’s word to develop. Now, these are just seven, just seven of many reasons why. We have to pursue knowledge on this quest of spiritual transformation. And you and I both know there are many other things we could put on this list, but you get the point. You get the point. You see where I’m going here. You see that there’s so many reasons why knowledge is so important to what we’re trying to do. And so that brings us to the second and final question that I want us to consider very quickly, and that is how do we get it? We know why it’s important. We know why we need to pursue it, but the question now is how do we do it practically?

How do we pursue knowledge from God’s word in a practical way so that we can be transformed and changed like God wants us to be? Well, very quickly, I’m gonna give you some practical things for you to jot down, take these things home, pray about them, most importantly, try to implement these things in your life. How do we pursue knowledge from the Word of God? Well, the first thing we gotta do is we gotta take advantage of some opportunities. We gotta take advantage of opportunities that are before us when it comes to group studies. We gotta make sure that we make it a priority to come to Bible classes. Did you come to Bible class this morning? Do you understand that Bible classes provide an opportunity?

They provide a wonderful opportunity to grow in our knowledge of God’s word. Do you understand that? Do you understand that there’s only so much you can get out of a 35-minute or 40-minute sermon? But in Bible classes, you can go deep into the text. And you can ask questions. And you can listen to comments in a way that you can’t hear it on a Zoom thing, a Zoom, whatever that’s called, having church on the computer. You can’t get that on the computer. You can listen to comments from other Christians. And you can make comments. Bible classes provide a wonderful opportunity to grow in knowledge, and so are the monthly studies that we have in the other building on the third Sunday of each month. We have those at 3 o’clock on the third Sunday.

And then we have these meetup studies that Brother J.R. organizes at the Starbucks each Friday. Wonderful opportunity. And then we got gospel meetings. We got a gospel meeting coming up. We got a vacation Bible school, teen weekends, even teen devotionals that are offered for our young people every single month. You know what those things are? Those are opportunities. Opportunities to grow in our knowledge of God’s Word. And that’s not enough for you. If you want more than that, you know what you could do? You can start your own Bible study. How about that? You can start your own group study. You can open up your home, show some hospitality to other Christians and allow them to come into your home and study the Word of God.

There is nothing wrong with that. If we’re going to pursue knowledge, one of the things we got to do is we’ve got to take advantage of some opportunities that’s before us all the time here. Opportunities to study the word of God with other Christians, but don’t just depend on that. In addition to studying with other Christians, how about doing daily Bible reading and studying ourselves? Doing it ourselves. And Brother Rufus brought up a uh this verse here in his prayer this morning. I’m going to Acts 17. We’re talking about the Bereans. Acts 17 and verse 11. And Acts 17 in verse 11, when Paul went to Berea and he started studying the Bible with those people. It says these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonic Thessalonica, for they received the Word of God with great eagerness and examine the scriptures daily, every day to see whether these things were sold.

That’s what we’re talking about. You know, coming to Bible classes is great. That’s great, but those only take place two hours out of a 168-hour week. And this is what we’re doing right now with the worship assembly. Well, that only takes up about an hour and a half of a 168-hour week. If we’re going to really grow in God’s word, we got to do more than that. That’s not good enough. We got to invest more time in the word of God than that. We got to invest ourselves to reading and studying the Bible every single day. Now that could be for you doing it before you go to work in the morning. That could be doing it on your lunch break, doing it in the break room, doing it as soon as you get home from work.

That could be listening to the Bible read to you as you drive to work in the morning, and you know you’re going to be stuck in traffic. That can be carving out some time to read the Bible right before you go to bed at night.

I’m not telling you when to read and study your Bible. All I’m saying is we need to do it. We need to make time to do it. Just like we make time to go to work and play fantasy football and post pictures on social media and debate people about politics and play sports and watch sports and do yard work and watch all of our favorite shows on Netflix, we gotta make time for this too. We gotta make time to get into the word of God. We gotta make time to do daily Bible reading. We gotta make time to study and prepare for Bible classes and dig deep into the text on our own. We gotta do daily Bible reading and daily Bible study. In fact, something that can help us with that is a good spiritual library.

6. A Spiritual Library, Good Listening, Spiritual Conversations

How about that? Go on to your Bible, please to 2 Timothy chapter 4. In 2 Timothy chapter 4, the apostle Paul, as he is concluding this great epistle, he writes this to his friend Timothy. And 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 13. He says, when you come, and Paul’s in prison as he writes this, he knows he knows he’s about to die real soon. And he says, when you come, bring the cloak. He’s cold. It’s cold in a dungeon. And when you come, bring the cloak, which I left for Troaz with carpis and the books. Especially the parchments. Do you see what Paul had in his life? Paul had a library. He had a library. He had books. He had books that helped him with his understanding.

Now, if Paul had that, if Paul had books, if Paul had his own library, you think it’s okay for you and me to have a library? Is that okay? You think it’s okay for us to invest in having a spiritual library? Do you think it’s okay for us to invest in things like Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias and Bible workbooks and maps and even commentaries if, big if, we use those things with discernment. You think that’s okay? It absolutely is. In fact, if you do this after we dismiss, and you can if you want to, just don’t mess with my Bible heads. But if you want to go down that hallway at the conclusion here and go all the way to the end and take that last right, you can go in there, and what you’re going to see is a library, my own personal library.

That I have spent the last 25 years building, but it has helped me tremendously. And I want to thank a lot of the brothers here for helping me move that into this building. But it’s helped me tremendously. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with investing in a good spiritual library. But in addition to that, you know something else we need to do? We also need to do some good listening. Careful listening to teaching and preaching from the word of God. Romans 10 17, you know that verse. What does it say? Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God. Hearing by the word of God. James says in James chapter 2 in verse number 19, or James 1 in verse 19. James says, be slow to speak and swift to hear.

There in that context, he’s actually talking about swift to hear the word of God. And then Jesus, throughout his ministry, uses a repetitive device after preaching a lesson. For example, in the parable of the sower, at the end of that parable that talks about the impact and the power of the seed, which is the word of God in people’s hearts. Jesus, in Luke chapter 8 and verse 8, says, He who has ears to hear, let him. You gotta hear. Hearing is important. According to Jesus, this right here, this is important. This is critical. This is a really big deal. Preaching is a really big deal. And whenever it’s being done, the Bible says we got to listen. We gotta listen carefully. We gotta avoid being distracted, goofing off with our friends, playing games on our phone, texting on our phone.

We gotta avoid making funny faces at the little baby in front of us in the pew. And falling asleep if we’re not on medication and zoning out and daydreaming and thinking about what’s on that menu at the Olive Garden in Red Lobster. You can’t we can’t do that. When the word of God is being preached, we gotta listen carefully because that helps us in our knowledge. But then finally, let me close with this. Let me also close by saying that we need to pursue knowledge, and we can pursue knowledge with spiritual conversations. Just spiritual conversations, especially with older and seasoned disciples. And this is a point that I really want our young people, for all of our young people here. I want you to really hear me on this, okay?

One of the great tools that God has given you as young people to grow in your knowledge and understanding of his word is found right here in this room. It’s people right here in this room. It is seasoned disciples in this room. It is people who in this room, they’ve been serving the Lord a long time. They’ve been serving the Lord for decades. They got a lot of knowledge, they got a lot of experience, and they want to impart that to you. They’ve already fought many battles against the devil. They’ve won some, they’ve lost some. Many of them have been married for a long time. And they’ve raised children. Some of them have raised their grandchildren. They’ve studied the Bible countless times. Some are even leaders in this church.

Conclusion

There’s so many seasoned, experienced disciples in this room right now. And as young people, we would be wise to seek these people out and ask them questions and talk with them and listen and engage in spiritual conversations. These are just five practical things I tried to give you of how we can pursue knowledge every single day. And the point of this is there’s no excuses. No excuses for not doing what Peter tells us to do in 2 Peter 1. There’s no excuses for not constantly growing in our knowledge and understanding of the Word of God. And so it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been doing this. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been serving the Lord. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been reading the Bible and studying the Bible and teaching the Bible.

It doesn’t matter how much knowledge we think we already have in our lives. Let’s keep seeking more. Let’s never be content. Let’s get more. Let’s be humble. Let’s strip ourselves of pride and ego and keep learning. Be lifelong students of the word of God. Let’s understand that acquiring knowledge of God’s Word is a key part of this process of transformation. In fact, not only do we have to get that knowledge, we also got to do it, right? We’ve got to apply it. And did not James tell us that in James 1 and verse 22 when he says, don’t just be hearers of the word, also be doers. Be doers of the word. And so maybe there’s someone here this morning, and it’s time for you to do.

Maybe you’ve been hearing a bunch of sermons. You’ve been coming to a bunch of classes, but you haven’t acted on any of that stuff yet. You can do that right now. You can finally act. You can finally do. You can become a Christian. You can believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and repent of your sins and confess Him before these witnesses as the Lord and be baptized for the remission of your sins, or if you are a Christian and you know what’s right, but you haven’t been doing what you need to do while living in sin, and that’s repenting, having that change of heart that leads to a change of your life. You need to repent, repent. We’ll pray with you. We’ll encourage you.

We’ll do whatever we have to do to help you because we love you. If there’s anyone here this morning who needs to act on God’s word, come to the front right now. Let’s stand. Let’s sing together.