Luke 21 verses 5 through 38. While some were talking about the temple. That it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts. He said, as for these things you are looking at. The days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another, which will not be torn down. And they questioned him saying, teacher, when therefore will these things happen, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? And he said, see to it that you are not misled. For many will come in my name saying, I am he, and the time is near. Do not go after them. When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified. For these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately. Then he continued by saying to them, nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places, plagues and famines, and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my namesake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves, for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. Yet not one hair of your head will perish. By your endurance, you will gain your lives. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city, because these are the days of vengeance, so that all things that are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations. In perplexity at the roaring of the seas and the waves, men fainting from fear and expectation of things which are coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift your heads because your redemption draweth nigh. Then he told them a parable. Behold, a fig tree and all the trees, as soon as they put forth leaves, you see it and you know for yourself that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life. The day will not come upon you suddenly like a trap. for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. Now during the day he was teaching in the temple, but at evening he would go out and spend the night at the mount that is called Olivet. And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to him in the temple and listen to him. Let's pray, Heavenly Father. We come to you for grace. We come to you for mercy. We come to you with thanksgiving. And we come seeking the work of your Holy Spirit. We pray for sanctifying work. We pray for saving power. We pray that you would guide us in truth, keep us from error. We pray that you would use this passage of Scripture, this text as a comfort to your people. An instruction. That you would. That you would prepare us. For the days that lie ahead of us. God, today we. We pray that you would hide this preacher behind the cross. And that the words proclaimed here this morning. Would be your word. And not the word of a man. We pray this in your precious name and for your kingdom sake. Amen. This passage that we come to today, maybe maybe you're aware of why I come with with an extra heavy load this morning because this passage called the Olivet Discourse, it's very important. You can probably tell that just by reading through it, that it's a very important passage. Well, aren't all passages of scripture important? They are, but they're not all equally important. They're all equally inspired but they're not all equally important. And I'll give you just a quick example. We read verses 37 and 38 during the day he was teaching in the temple and the evening he would go out and spend at the Mount of Olives and all the people would get up early and come in and listen to him. That is important. It is God's word, but it carries some different weight than, let's just say, Before all these things they will lay hands on you and persecute you and deliver you to the synagogue. It carries something different, different passages. And this passage, this passage in its entirety is a very important thing for us. And it's a passage of scripture that has some controversy associated with it. It's difficult to find commonality on how to interpret and how to understand this passage of scripture. This is Luke 21 that we're in. There's a parallel passage that we would find in Matthew chapter 24 and again in Mark chapter 13. So this teaching, this event of Christ saying these things is recorded in Matthew and Mark and Luke that we call the Synoptic Gospels. And it's not just repeated word for word, but what we find is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke give different levels of detail and different nuance that we see in each place. Here we have a more succinct, more shortened, there's another word that I can't remember, we have a more shortened version of this Olivet Discourse. It's called the Olivet Discourse because, as we read at the end in Luke, that Jesus was going out to the Mount of Olives or the Mount of Olivet to spend the evenings there. And as we get more detail from Matthew and from Mark, we find that these things happened as they were leaving the temple and as they're walking toward the place where they will spend the evening. And much of this conversation went on at the Mount of Olives. And for that reason, we call it the Olivet Discourse. There are three views about this passage and how to understand it and how to interpret it. and I will share with you very quickly. these three views. And if you think of a fourth or find a fourth view, I'm not trying to be exhaustive in any of this. I'm just trying to present how we can see this and some of the main things here. Some say that this text that we have read together speaks of a secret rapture of Christians and a seven-year time of trouble called a tribulation. As Reformed Baptists, we do not hold to this doctrine. We do not believe that that secret rapture is found anywhere in the biblical account, that there's no evidence for it, but we are as Reformed Baptists looking for the return of Christ. We are looking for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Or at least I am. I hope you are too. Others read this and many Many godly men who are Reformed Baptists read this passage and they see that many of the events spoken of here in this text were fulfilled in 70 AD in the sacking of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus. And we see that, and I believe that we can see that very clearly when we look at history. But some would say that while some of the events were fulfilled in 70 A.D. in the sacking of Jerusalem by General Titus, other events, some of these events, speak to the second coming of Christ particularly. And you're going to want to keep your Bible open today because we're going to work through this. Particularly if you look at verse 27, some say, well the things before verse 27 speak of the destruction of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem. But in verse 27 we see, then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And they say that speaks of the second coming of Christ. And you can see just at a cursory glance how they would say that. Now in a minute I'm going to tell you that's not what I think that's talking about. But some would say that's what that means. And when we read about the end of the age drawing near, the end of the age, they would say that the end of the age is the end of time. It's Christ's return to judge the living and the dead. This view sees three events here that are in view, these three prophetic events that are discussed. The first would be the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Secondly, they would say we see in verse 27 the second coming of Christ. And then as we continue, the end of the age, meaning the end of time. They would say that we see those three things. And these are spoken of in this view. But if you will see, verse 26 to 27 doesn't give us a passing of time. So for those who hold this view, they call this a prophetic foreshortening. I didn't make that up. That's a real word. A prophetic foreshortening. And let me describe if I can just what this prophetic foreshortening is. It's to say that there are multiple events described but no time frame given between them so that we have no way of knowing what distance there is in time between the first event and the second event and the third event. You can think of that like looking at a mountain range. Now, we don't have mountains here, but I've been to mountains. I've seen mountains. Maybe you've seen mountains in person. At least maybe you've seen pictures of mountain ranges. And you can see one mountain, and behind it, you can see another mountain. And you know, OK, there's a mountain and another mountain. But if I were to ask you, what's the distance from this mountain peak to that mountain peak, how do we know that? It's hard to see because everything's kind of flattened out, and we see that that mountain is behind this mountain, but we don't know how far behind. And that is what they would call a prophetic foreshortening. And those who hold to this say that that's exactly what we see here. When we see verse 27 saying, they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds, that's Christ's second return, second coming, but we don't know the time frame between the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD and the second coming. So they call this a prophetic foreshortening. The future for them at this time that it was written, for those who heard Christ and those who read this originally, the future destruction of the temple and the future coming of Christ had no way to determine between the two. Now, that's one way to read this. Another way to read this passage. And I'm going to tell you, I'm not the smartest guy. I'm not the smartest guy in this room, much less the smartest guy in the world. So I want to leave some room for me to be in error, but I lean this direction. I lean in the direction of understanding this passage, understanding this passage and the Matthew 24 and the Mark 13, the Olivet Discourse, as being all fulfilled in 70 A.D. This view, this treatment of this passage would say that all the events spoken of here are related to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. These events were future for the original readers, future for the disciples who heard Jesus say this, but they are for us past historical events. When we read of the end of the age, I believe this to be the end of that age of Old Testament. The end of the Old Testament period. The end of the temple sacrifices. When we come to verse 27 and look again, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. I believe that they saw in 70 A.D. Christ coming with clouds and power and glory in judgment. Not a physical appearance, not a physical coming, but a coming in power. And there's evidence that we won't take the time for today to see throughout the Old Testament. Many times when we read of God coming, God has come in power. He has come in judgment. He has come visiting this type of thing on people. the end of the age being the Old Testament period. So if this is history and this is not speaking of the second coming of Christ, do we then as Reformed Baptists believe in a second coming of Christ? Yes, absolutely. We are looking for a second coming of Christ and if, as I'm saying this passage does not speak to the second coming of Christ. There are plenty of other passages that definitely do and we have much there to be hopeful for as we await, anticipate the return of our Savior. And there is application here. for the Christian application even for the second coming of Christ. But that application then is by a type, if you will. What we see happening in 70 AD becomes a type. It becomes an example of how we can look for the Second Coming and those things that are predicted for the Second Coming. One just quick example here. In these things and what we see historically that happened in 70 A.D. and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, we understand that God judges sinners. That God judges sin. If you think that God will not judge sin. You need to understand this passage as a type, as a shadow, as an example that God judges sin. The sin that Jesus Christ has been pointing out in these religious leaders, in this Jewish system, these are not new things that had just sprung up in the last few months. These are things that had been going on for so long, and maybe some were saying, well, God's not gonna judge that. Maybe some were saying, since God hasn't judged it, maybe it's all okay. But God's judgment for sin was sure in that day. And we can know today that God's judgment for sin, God's judgment upon sinners is sure, it is coming. It's been 2,000 years since Jesus Christ walked this earth. 2,000 years since he ascended into heaven and said, look for my return. 2,000 years and some would say, well, God hasn't judged things that are going on in this world. God's not judging sin, it must be okay. We must be in a place that we're gonna get away with this. Maybe some would say, well, it doesn't matter. Maybe this is God's approval. God has not approved sin. God has not approved false doctrine and false teaching. His judgment is sure. And the other thing that we can see here in my quick, that's not so quick example, is that God through judgment, in judgment, during judgment, saves His elect. He protects them. We see these things as types, and there's application here for us. I have said, and I'll say here again, this is not going to be today an in-depth study of this discourse. If we did this, this would take us quite some time, and we would have to include in that the Matthew and the Mark passages and bring all that detail, and perhaps sometime we'll see a topical study of this discourse that includes all of those things. What we are doing as a church is we are working through the Gospel of Luke, verse by verse, we're just working through that, and we're going to keep to this text in this message today. And in our systematic study of this gospel, and we'll make observations in the text along the way so so we're gonna work through these verses and There is so much here And Where there's no way we're gonna get through everything that's here and We better get started. First note the setting of this discourse. Jesus is teaching daily in the temple. He's going to spend the night at the Mount of Olives and they're here in this place. The setting is that there's this temple. There's this temple and they're walking in and out of town every day. The temple was under renovation or under what we could call a reconstruction. It had been underway for many years, for over 40 years. If you'll remember the original temple, Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. and then a second temple was built but all those who saw the second temple said this second temple does not have near the majesty it doesn't have near the beauty of the first temple and that's the temple that had been there and along comes Herod and Herod says I'm going to reconstruct this better I mean This is not a remodel. This is a reconstruction of this temple that Herod is doing. And he doesn't do this because he's concerned with the worship of God and he's concerned with the glory of God. Herod is concerned with the glory of Herod. And he's going to build this great thing. This temple would be known as Herod's Temple, if that gives you any indication. He's looking to build a name for himself. And he comes making this so elaborate, so opulent, so beautiful. And there's no question about the beauty of this temple. Just some things here to show you. This project went on for over 40 years. There was an eight-year, consecutive eight-year period where Herod employed 10,000 workers for eight years consecutively. That doesn't include the entire project. That's just to give you a little idea of how things are going here. The court of this temple would be 1,000 feet by 1,000 feet. That's a big place. And this temple would be if we just talk in football terms, right? A football field and a half square approximately. This is a big place, say 20,000 square feet in this temple. Some have reported on this. Josephus, if you'll remember, Josephus is a historian who is not a Christian and his writings are not inspired by God, but they are trustworthy as far as any historian's writings would go. And Josephus tells us of the stones that were used, that were fitted together to build this temple. And he says the stones were 67 and a quarter feet. Now we're working that into our measurements. 67 and a quarter feet by seven and a half feet by nine feet. Think about that for a minute. That's bigger than your couch. That's a big old stone of marble. That's huge. And these giant stones were fitted together, Josephus tells us, with such precision that you could not put a piece of paper between the stones. This was a great undertaking. This was skilled labor. There was much here and Herod was doing this for his name and for his pride. The building was covered on some parts with gold, gold plating that would reflect the sun so that you would be blinded, they say, as though you were looking directly at the sun. And the white marble, they said, resembled snow-covered mountains. It was so white, so beautiful. This is the opulence, this is the beauty of this temple. Let us note here that Jesus is walking out one evening, and I imagine, this is my imagination, I imagine that He's looking around. at the construction, at what's going on. And that's when we read that the disciples say to him, now Mark tells us one disciple, Matthew tells us the disciples. So maybe one started the conversation and others joined in. The disciples are saying, yeah, Jesus, I see you looking around. It's beautiful, isn't it? Isn't this gorgeous? Have you been there? Maybe you've been to a place where you would look at this, look at a building. You know what? In the place that we're sitting now, now it's nothing like this. But I remember when we walked into this place after a remodel and a reconstruction and saying, this looks pretty good. This looks pretty nice. And they assumed that this is what Jesus is doing as he's looking around. Boy, Jesus, don't you want to talk about how beautiful this is and how wonderful this construction and this work and this craftsmanship is? And that's when Jesus says, Not one stone will be left on another. Jesus is not just walking through and noticing the beauty. And we should learn here that as opulent, as beautiful, as breathtaking and astonishing as this building was, Jesus looks at it and says, this is coming down. This is coming down. It's funny how we see destruction. I remember one of my earliest childhood memories is standing outside my grandparents' home and watching it burn to the ground. And I was too young really to know what was going on. They burned to the ground. They lost pretty much everything. and my grandparents and my parents and my aunts and uncles are standing there crying as this building is destroyed. Sometimes we act like that. I remember, some of you if you're old enough to remember, when the World Trade Center in New York City was destroyed by an act of terror. And as those buildings fell, we have, it's just stuff, right? But we have these emotions that well up within us. I wonder how many people who heard Jesus say, this is all coming down. There won't be one stone on top of another here. This is all coming down. I wonder how many would have had such a sad feeling. That's a shame. Maybe because of all the work that had gone in, maybe because of everything that had been put into this and all the wonderful craftsmanship and the labor and the and the money people were giving gifts and their gifts would go toward this opulence. What a shame. Some would some would possibly say, well, it's not just about the money for me. I've come to this area and I've worshiped at this temple for 20, 30, 40 years. I've been here to offer sacrifices. I've been here to worship. And Jesus says it's all coming down and some would feel this overwhelming emotion of loss. We're losing something. It's hard to tell what the disciples felt. We're not really told what the disciples were feeling. I mean, they asked when and what are the signs that will accompany this? But what were they feeling? I don't know. You and I are very much disconnected from this. We've never laid eyes on this building. We haven't laid eyes on this building because when Titus came in, General Titus, the Roman general in 70 AD, he initially said, I'm not going to destroy this beautiful, I mean he wouldn't destroy this great building, but factions within Israel, factions within the Jews kept fighting amongst themselves and they couldn't figure out a way to come together and agree on a surrender process and they housed and held up in this temple and Titus said we got to tear it down and they flattened it Words used for how they destroyed this building are words like plowed. They plowed it. This is great destruction. We're so far removed from that, maybe we, I don't know, maybe we don't have any emotions tied up in this. But for Christians, Christians, listen. You should be caught up in this. And you shouldn't be caught up in this with a feeling of sadness about the loss of this great building. You shouldn't be caught up in this with a feeling of sadness about the end of this place where we've offered all these sacrifices. You should be caught up in this because the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of this temple marked the end of an age. It marked the end of centuries of animal sacrifices offered Hebrews tells us day after day after day after day. And there was not a seat for the priests to sit in because the work was never finished. And that was what they had understood. That's where they had lived. And Jesus says this is coming to an end. And it's coming to an end because He is going to the cross of Calvary to offer one sacrifice. One Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He's coming to say this is a new covenant in My blood. We should be caught up in the emotion of the destruction of this temple. And sure, we can say, well, it's a shame. It was probably pretty. But we should be so caught up in this new covenant in Christ's blood that had been talked about and foretold and foreshadowed and it had been kind of, we had a peak of it in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, but now Christ is bringing it to completion. He's bringing it to fruition. As a matter of fact, when the disciples said, what are the signs that will accompany The end, the old King James says the end of the world. That's not the best way. My translation says the end of the age. This word could also be translated as the consummation. The consummation. Those things are completed. It's over, it's in. Turn a new page to a new covenant, and this is what we have. He said, all these things that you're looking at in verse six. The day will come when not one stone will be left on another, and it'll be torn down. He had already mentioned in Luke 19, we saw the destruction of the temple, and he said those same words, not one stone left on another. Jesus here is not impressed with the opulence of the temple. while it was pointed out to him the beauty and the expense, Jesus doesn't comment. Isn't that hard to believe? How can you just pass over that? But Jesus is not impressed by this. He doesn't even make a comment on the size, on the beauty, on the expense, And this is instructive to us. The beauty of that building is in the view of man's eyes. But God sees things differently. This is important for us to remember. Waco Family Baptist Church, this is important for us to remember as we sit in a building that we borrow. that we rent. This may be hard for us to remember as we look out and there are few people. Because man's eyes, as we look out, if we look out with a human mindset, with an earthly mindset, why don't we have more? Why isn't it greater? Why isn't it bigger? Now, let me say this. If God blesses us one day to own a building, I hope for that. We will welcome that day. And in that day, I hope that we will together do the best we can to make it beautiful, to make it represent. I mean, we don't want to meet in a hay barn if we don't have to, right? We want to do the best we can to make our meeting place beautiful and to make it fitting for God's people to worship. But when it comes to the weight of that, that's like 1%, right? I mean, that's like a light thing. J.C. Riles points out here that a contrite heart and a broken spirit That's the temple that the Lord is looking for. If the Word of God is not proclaimed, the beauty of a building means nothing. Nothing. If the people aren't submitted to the Word of God, to the Holy Spirit, if we're not submitted to Christ in that way, then you're nice dress. and your good suit, and your slick back hair, means nothing. Nothing at all. We can build buildings that impress men, and we can dress ourselves up to impress others, and we can put on a show. But what's going on on the inside? What's going on behind that facade? That's what matters. And that was the problem here. There was much activity. By the way, Christians, don't we get impressed with much activity sometimes? Look at that church. They've got so many programs. They've got so many things going. There's just all kinds of stuff. We get impressed with stuff. This temple had much activity. They had much wealth, great opulent buildings. And Jesus looks at it and says, this is over. That's not what he was about. I am on the first paragraph of the first page of seven pages of notes. So let's look here in verse 7 and 8, and then we'll find an off-ramp, and we'll revisit this another time. We'll revisit this next week. They questioned him, saying, Teacher, when therefore will these things happen, and what will be the signs that these things are about to take place? I just put here, note the apparent faith of the disciples. We don't have a lot that they've said, but here when Jesus says this 67 foot by nine foot by seven and a half foot stone, and the one on top of it, and the one on top of it, and the one on top of it, not one will be left on top of another. They say when? Now you think of the faith that that takes. No, but we don't see here. I can't tell you that nobody thought this, but we don't see here anybody saying, Jesus, that's ridiculous. It took 10,000 men eight years to stack this stuff up. When? When's that going to happen? They believed. What an example. Jesus says something that seems to them outlandish. You think about, they could not imagine a world where there wasn't a temple and the worship of God through animal sacrifices as it has been all along. How do you imagine that? And Jesus says, this is all gonna be flattened. And they say, when's that gonna be? And how will we know that's coming? That's great faith, I believe. And we should see this and use it as an example. He answers them, and he says in verse 8, see to it that you're not misled. See to it that you're not misled. Now, we read things like that. I totally expect that Jesus would say something like that to me. You need to watch yourself. You have a tendency to go after the wrong thing. You have a tendency to, you need to be careful. But think about who he's speaking to. Matthew, the writer of the gospel. He's speaking here to John the beloved, who wrote the gospel of John and three epistles. John, John of Peter, James, and John. And Jesus is speaking to him. Jesus is speaking to James and Peter. This is who Jesus is speaking to. And He says, see to it that you are not misled. And they needed to hear this. That it's recorded in Scripture that we can read it. And you need to hear it too. See to it that you're not misled. It's kind of amazing How much false teaching, false doctrine, false prophecy is in our world today? We had a wedding this past week, and someone commented to me, I don't hear, this is someone who doesn't go to our church, someone from another place, I don't hear preachers saying the things about marriage that you said, you know, they're leaving some things out when they do weddings. You know what went through my mind? A lot of preachers are leaving some things out when they preach every Sunday. We need to be careful. You need to be careful, church, that you are not misled. Now this is not to say grab your Bible and go to your corner by yourself. When we see the instruction and the Bereans who searched the scripture, this was a church thing that happened. They did this together. They did this in the congregation. But church, we need to be careful that we're not misled. Jesus warns about being duped. And we, I think more than Matthew, more than Peter and James and John. We need a healthy dose of self-doubt. We have self-doubt, it seems. I'm off my notes completely. We have self-doubt, it seems, in the wrong places. We hear people talking about abortion in our day. And we say, well, there may be. And all of a sudden, we're displaying self-doubt in something that God has commanded that is very, very clear. We hear people talking about changing genders and homosexuality and gay marriage. And we say, well, it's just. And all of a sudden, we're displaying self-doubt in things that are clearly commanded in God's word. And we need to stand firmly, not to say, I judge, but to say, if God has already judged, that's gonna be what I'm gonna go with. If God's made that judgment, and if it's clear, and there are other areas, there are other areas where we see Christians having so much confidence. And the scripture's not as clear. We need to be careful. And don't believe a lie. He says here, see to it that you are not misled. See to it that you are not misled. That instruction, see to it, kind of strikes you funny, doesn't it? See to it that you are not misled. This is not just beware, you see to it. How are you going to do that? How are you going to see to it that you are not misled? In order to inoculate against error, you have to know sound truth. See to it. Don't just read, see to it that you're not misled and say, you know what, this is an example for us as Christians. We need to go out of here knowing that we could be misled and crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. It's more than that. See to it. Can I tell you how to see to it? If you're not opening the pages of the Bible, Now I'm not telling you how much you need to read daily so that you can check that box and say I'm a good Christian because I, my brother said to me the other night, said to Pastor Brent and I, Jesus saved me and all of a sudden, and then he said, this is not like who I used to be. All of a sudden I love the word of God. How are you gonna love God who you can only know through his word and spirit? You need to be loving the revelation of Jesus Christ. How much do I have to read? I don't know. I don't know how much you've got to read. But if you're looking at it like that, how much do I have to read? There's probably a problem. Let me ask you this. I'm married. I've been married for 27 years. How much do you think I have to know about my wife? How much do you think I have to talk to her? If she wrote me a letter, how much of it do you think I need to read? That's silly, isn't it? Every one of you know. If you love her and she wrote some stuff down for you, you ought to read it. Hey, right, even if it's a to-do list, right? No matter what it is. She wrote some stuff down for me. If I love her, I ought to read it. If I love her, I ought to want to talk to her. I ought to say, I haven't talked to you all day today. I've missed talking to you. Do you claim to be a Christian? And the things that God wrote down for you, you could take or leave. Hadn't prayed in three or four days and it's been okay. I haven't really missed it. Nothing's been different. Nothing's been missing in my life. See to it. Get in the word. Here's some good tools. This is not just my idea. On the Lord's day, meet with the Lord's people to hear the Lord's word proclaimed. That's entry level, how you can see to it that you are not misled. That's step one. But before we meet in here, some of you may know, we meet down the hall. And it's different. But here's what's the same. We're opening the word of God. And we're saying, what has God said? And how can we understand it? There are some things that are good there. That's a good opportunity. And y'all know what's coming next, right? Wednesday night at 6 o'clock, we meet. And we study what God said, what God's commanded. Those are good opportunities to be able to say, hold up, can you say that again? Or can I ask you a question? Or can you clarify this? Or what about that? Those are good opportunities. These opportunities where In the house of God, the word is being taught. The word is being opened and proclaimed. The word is being preached. These are opportunities for you to be receiving. We call this the means of grace. They're great opportunities for us to receive from God. I would encourage you, to inoculate against error by knowing, see to it that you know the truth. And by that, you will not be misled. See to it that you don't place all of your hope, all of the value in the things that are outward, in external, in opulence, but the inner person of the heart. And we will pick up on this next week. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your words and the revelation that you have given us. We thank you that it is a revelation, that you haven't hidden your truth. Even though there are things that are difficult to understand, some things that we that we struggle with. What we need to know about faith. And life. In Christ. Is revealed and we thank you for it, we pray. That you would touch our hearts where we may we may be putting too much emphasis on what men see. Forgive us. We pray that you would help us, that you would strengthen us, that you would give us a determination to see to it that we're not misled in knowing the truth. God, we pray these things in the name of Christ for your kingdom's sake. We pray that you build up your church in Jesus' name. Amen.