We're turning to John's Gospel, chapter 14, and then we're turning to 3 John. And so two readings today. First of all, John chapter 14, and then we're turning to 3 John. We're reading just a number of verses in both places, beginning at the verse 1 of John's Gospel, chapter 14, and then 3 John. John 14, first of all, the Lord Jesus Christ is the speaker. And he said, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. And whether I go ye know, and the way ye know, saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh on to the Father but by me. And then 3rd John, and we'll read again from the verse number 1 of 3rd John, find the book of Revelation, then turn to Jude, and then you'll find 3rd John if you go in that direction. backwards and so third John the chapter number one there is only one chapter we'll read verse number one the elder on to the well-beloved Gaius whom I love in the truth beloved I wish above all things that I may prosper and be in health even as I soul prospereth and For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers. which are borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort thou shalt do well, because that for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers too. the truth. Amen. And God will bless the reading in these two particular portions and we'll unite just in prayer together. Let's seek the Lord together at the throne of grace. Our loving Father, we rejoice, O God, in the bounty thou has given to us and we have from that bounty given that which first of all is rightfully thine and giving to thee the tithes and lord then that which is above it we have given out of a love offering on to thee we've given to thee our offering oh god we have given to thee oh god Father, as a demonstration of our love for Christ. Lord, we pray that thou will bless even that which has been given in the offering. Lord, use it to the furtherance of the gospel, not only here, but across the world. We pray, O God, that thou will furnish thy church. We think of these individuals that we have read about in 3 John, how they took nothing of the Gentiles. They never sought, as it were, sponsorship from some ungodly individual. Oh, but there was a means by which they were to be supported through the church. And Lord, this is the way, this is God's order. Oh, let us never seek, oh Father, investment from the world. O God, help us, Father, ever to do things biblically and right. And so grant, O God, us wisdom in all of these matters, we pray. And grant, O God, a blessed time around the Word. Give us an understanding heart. Lord, as we have said in prayer meeting, open our eyes, open our ears, and open our hearts that we might behold and receive into our hearts wondrous things that are found within thy law for we pray these our prayers in and through Christ's most precious name amen and amen it was a w tozer who said the church has surrendered her once lofty concept of god and has substituted it for it one so low, so ignoble as to be utterly unworthy of thinking. If we would bring back, he said, the spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is. This series of messages on the attributes of God has been attempting to reverse the downgrade. And can I say that there has been a downgrade. when it comes to our conception of God. And it has been our desire to place the emphasis where God does place the emphasis, and to place God, at least in our minds and in our hearts, in the position where He ought to be, the preeminent place, the highest place, the exalted place. Now today we come to the final communicable attribute set forth in the Westminster Divine's definition of God, namely His truth. God is His spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, and His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Now just because we have come to the last communicable attribute in the definition of the divines, does that not mean that we have come to the end of our study on the attributes of God? Because I believe that there are other attributes that are worthy of our considerations and we'll pursue those in the will of God in coming weeks. But today we want to focus our thoughts upon the fact that our God is infinitely, eternally, and unchangeably true. true. This attribute of God's truthfulness, as with every other attribute that we have considered together, is frequently presented to us in the record of Holy Scripture. Now you might be thinking, I know what's coming next. He's going to be listing a number of verses with respect to this attribute that God is true and that God is a God of truth. And you would be right in your thinking. You'd be right in your estimations, because, brethren and sisters, we need to see from Scripture that God is a God of truth, and we must accept Him as such, or else we will be those who will form erroneous, false views of our God. So let me list just a number of them. You can mark them down. Exodus chapter 34, verse number 6. If you're quick at looking them up, you can. And the Lord passed before him, speaking of Moses, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. Deuteronomy 32, verse 4. He is the rock. His work is perfect for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. Psalm 31, verse 5, Into thy hand I commit my spirit. Who said those words? Christ on the cross. He quotes from Psalm 31, verse 5, and then he says, Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth. Isaiah 25 verse 1 speaks about God's counsels of all being faithfulness and truth. Jeremiah 10 verse 10, but the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Daniel 4 verse 37, that ungodly King Nebuchadnezzar said, I exalt and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth. and his way's judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to obey us. Coming into the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. They had turned from idols, those were false gods, and they have turned now to serve the living and the true God, the last one The last reference I give you, Revelation 19 verse 11, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness doth he judge and make war. Speaking of Christ himself, believed to be the rider on the white horse, his name is Faithful and true. Whenever we come into the Scriptures, brethren and sisters, we find that all three persons within the Godhead make and state a claim to be true and to be the source of truth. And that is only to be expected as all three persons are of the same substance, as our catechism says, and so what is true about the Father is true about the Son and the Holy Spirit. If God the Father is true, then the other two persons within the Trinity can be nothing else but true. Think about God the Father's claim to truth. Speaking of God the Father, the Son of God said this in John chapter 7 verse 28. You're in John's Gospel, it's only a few pages over. Turn there, John chapter 7, the verse number 28. Lord Jesus Christ, speaking about the Father, then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, ye both know me, and ye know whence I am. And I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true. whom ye know not." Now we know that the Father sent the Son into the world. He was sent by the Father, commissioned by the Father to do the Father's will. And so we find here that Christ is saying that the Father is true. It is something that he repeats in the next chapter of John's Gospel. Turn there, John 8, in the verse number 26, he repeats such a statement again, such an affirmation again. "'I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.'" There it is again, a repetition. The Father is true. We think about the Son of God's claim to truth. The inspired pen man again speaking in this particular book, speaking of the second person of the Trinity made this remark in John 1 verse 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. one who came became flesh was full of truth we read it this morning or this afternoon John 14 verse number 6 Jesus saith unto Thomas I am the way and the truth and the life. So we see the Son's claim to truth, we see the Father's claim to truth, and we see the Spirit's claim to truth. Because the Son of God spoke of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth, and He did so on two separate occasions in His discourse to the disciples in the upper room. John 14 verse 17, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. John 15 and the verse 26, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And being the Spirit of truth, brethren and sisters, he leads us into truth. John 16, the verse number 13, when the Spirit has come, he will guide you into all truth. So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all rightfully claim to be true, the true God, and also the source of truth. And such is to be expected by the one who is perfect in his being. Now there are basically two ways in which we consider God to be true. God is true first of all essentially. He is essentially true. God is true and therefore there is no falsehood. There is no error, there is no pretense, there is no hypocrisy that is found in our God. He is truth without error. He is truth without deceit. He only possesses truth. Because He is truth, He is truth essentially. Just the same way as He is love essentially, God is love. Whatever love is, that is God. So God is truth, and that essentially. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I said, I've quoted it a number of times now, John 14 verse 6, I am the truth. Christ was not implying that He had the truth. but that he was the actual embodiment of truth. The actual embodiment of the truth. Thus all that he did, all that he said, is marked by truth. Augustine was an early church father and he said this, where I find truth, there find I my God, who is the truth itself. Where I find truth, there find I my God, who is the truth itself. While men and women possess a degree of truth, it is God alone who is truth, the only being who is true in every sense of the word. And thus all that he has decreed has been governed by the truth, and all that he does and all that he says and all that he wills is regulated by the truth. Let God be true. He already is. Our God is true, essentially speaking, but God is true comparatively. Comparing the God of the Bible with the gods of this world, the gods of men's imaginations, the gods of false religion, you'll know that Hinduism and Buddhism have maybe at least 3,000 gods within their counterfeit religion. As you compare those gods with the God of the Bible, you'll find that the God of Scripture, the God of glory, compared to them, can alone be called the only true God. As you compare Him with them, He alone can be called the only true God, and that is what He is called in John chapter 17 and the verse number 3. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent God exclusively, alone is true. He alone is the true God. Every other God is a false God. The gods of the nations are designated in Scripture as those who speak vanity. Matthew Henry said, it is certain that there is only one living and true God and the God we adore is He. He is the true God and not a mere name or notion. The only true God and all that ever set up as rivals with Him are vanity and a lie, a vanity and a lie. And so comparing Him with the gods of false religion, He alone is the true God. But comparing God with us, the sons of man? And the daughters of men, we alone, or we can say again that God alone is true and that He is the only source of truth. The psalmist said in Psalm 116 verse 11, all men are liars, all men. are liars. Falsehood and deceit are bound up in the hearts of men from birth. By nature, truth does not reside in the hearts of men. Neither can fallen sinful man discern with his own intellect what truth really is. And I say that because of what Pilate said to the Son of God. Pilate, when he was interviewing the Savior, prior to his crucifixion, asked this question, what is truth? With all of Pilate's education, with all of Pilate's learning, Pilate as an individual had not come to understand what the true or what truth was. Truth is an absent commodity. in the life of fallen humanity, but in God there is a fullness, a plentitude of truth. And so as we compare God with the gods of this world. He alone is a true God comparatively as we compare Him to ourselves. We know our own hearts. We're aware of our sinfulness. We're aware that at times we're not true to God's Word. And compared to us, again, we can say that God alone is true. He is the standard, brethren and sisters, of truth, the standard of truth. But having asserted that God is true and the source of all truth, we come now to ask and answer this question, where is the truth of God seen? Where can we view the truth of God? Well, the first place that we can view the truth of God is in revelation, in revelation. God's word is God's revelation of himself to mankind. It is a true revelation of the true and living God. having come to us from God, God being its author, all that is contained within the pages of this precious book is true. Every part. It's all true. It's all true. The Word of God is historically true. It is prophetically true. It is scientifically true. It is doctrinally true. And whatever else and realm you care to mention, whatever other area you care to mention, God's Word will be found to be true in that particular matter. And as a consequence of God's Word being true, having come to us from a God of truth, those promises contained therein are true. Every promise is true, whether those promises be for the comforting, for the encouragement of God's people, or challenging and a warning to the sinner. All the promises of God's Word are true, and therefore, all of God's promises will be fulfilled, as they have come to us from a God of truth. from the true God. Thomas Watson put it like this, God's truth is the seal set to the promise. God stamps his promises with the fact that he is true. And he will end by his truth, fulfill that promise. It is his guarantee that what he has said he will do. God's truth affirms that to be so. The promises of God are built then upon the bedrock of God's truth. God cannot lie. He's not a man that he could lie or can lie. All that has gone forth out of his mouth shall be fulfilled. Not one thing that all of God, of all the things that God has promised will feel. Not one thing that a God of truth has promised will ever feel. D.L. Murray said, God never made a promise that was too good to be true. God never made a promise that was too good to be true. And so you're maybe here today God has given you a promise, something that has held you fast in the days of storm and trial, something that God has said that He would do, but they lie dormant, those promises. Those promises wait their fulfillment. Those delayed promises of yours, they wait for God's timing. But can I say that all will be brought to pass by the God of truth who cannot lie. It was Dr. Robert L. Redmond, who said God's covenantal faithfulness, just God's truth, is the saint's ground of confidence, the foundation of his hope, the cause of his rejoicing, and the source of his courage. Maybe you doubt what God has said. Whether that be concerning your salvation, you're doubting today, respect to what God has said, maybe you're doubting with respect to the fulfillment of a promise, maybe you're doubting with respect to some direction in life that God would have you to take, but to doubt what he has said is really to call into question the truthfulness of your God. You're calling into question the truthfulness of God. Today you doubt your salvation. Well, has God not said that if you called upon Him, you would be saved? That if you repented and believed the gospel, that you'd be made a child of God, if you would receive Him and believe in Him, that you would become a son of God, He would give you the power to do so? Are you doubting the truthfulness of Him? The true God? Has God not said? Has God not fulfilled it? And so in Revelation, God is seen to be true. We review the truth of God. Secondly, in redemption. In redemption, God at all times is true to himself. And thus in his redemptive work, there is the upholding of his truth. There is the upholding of his truth. A seed was promised in Eden's garden. A seed that would come to bruise the serpent's head. A seed that would provide redemption and salvation. The seed of the woman. And God, in truth, gave that promise. And God, in truth, fulfilled that promise. Now, there was the passing of 2,000 years, 4,000 years before that occurred. But God kept to His word. What is a thousand years anyway in the sight of God? As Peter tells us, it is but as yesterday, it is but a day. It is but a day. God was true to his word. God is true to the covenant of grace. And being true to the covenant, it was seen in the sending of His only Son into the world to be the Savior of men. He's true to His Word. He's true to His Word that He saves sinners by applying Christ's work to the sinner and bringing them and drawing them on to Himself. God's true in the area of redemption, and we thank God for that. Here you are today, a sinner. estranged from God, alienated from the life of God with no hope, no refuge, no Savior. But I put it to you today that God has promised, God has promised this God who is true to His Word, this God who is true to Himself. This God has promised to you, sinner, that if you would be called upon Him for salvation, that you would be saved. Will the God of truth not be true to His Word? He will. God has said that if you would come to Him, He would in no wise cast you out. Can you not trust God who is true to His Word today, sinner? Would you not trust Him today, One who is true to His Word, that you would call and come to Him? He would not cast you out. He would not throw you, banish you. Oh, no, but He would receive you and make you His child and bring you into the family of God. Oh, God is true to His Word and with respect to redemption. But we also view the truth of God thirdly in retribution. We have considered that word before. When we thought of the justice of God, it simply means the punishment that is inflicted upon a criminal for their crime. That's really what retribution is, the punishment of the criminal because of the crime. And I say what God has promised and I see what God has promised to do the sinner with respect to judgment, with respect to future punishment, He will perform. Let God be true in the punishment of the ungodly who obey not God. who have obeyed not his gospel, he will punish with everlasting destruction. That's what God has said. Let God be true. That's what the cry will go up on Judgment Day, sinner. As you stand before God in your sin, having never abandoned it, having never trusted in Jesus Christ, the cry will go up from angels, go up from men, will go up from the very God himself. Let God be true. Let God be true. I want you to think of it. I tell you, for God not to be true to His Word would mean that God is no longer true to Himself, and therefore He would no longer be God, but true to His holy character and true to His stated Word. God will execute all, all that He has threatened to do when it comes to His dealings with the sinner. And so, sinner, I want you to be aware of that. I want you to be aware of that when you come the next time to choose to sin against God in your life. Be aware, be aware that God will execute His judgment against you as He has promised to do so in His Word. Now the devil will come to you. He'll cause you to think along the same lines as he got Eve to think along concerning punishment for sin. He'll put the question into your mind, hath God said? Hath God said that he will judge the sinner? Hath God said that he will punish the wicked? Hath God said that he will, as it were, place his wrath upon the ungodly and the unrepentant one? Hath God said? You know, like Eve, you're going to find out very quickly that God has said. God hath said. And like her, you're going to find out that God is true to his word. She found it to be true. She found all that God had said was true. The moment she ate of the fruit, she died spiritually. Spiritual death. And then the seed of death, physical death, was sown in my heart. And she started to die physically, along with her husband, Adam. You see, you're going to find it to be true, but maybe too late. Come to the Savior. Come to Christ in this service. Come to Christ now where you sit, because God is true. God is true to his word. And so let me just recap what we've learned so far. Let's try and just bring it to our hearts again. We have learned that God is essentially true, and that in the Trinity of His persons. Within the Godhead, God is essentially true. We've learned that God is comparatively true compared to other entities. Whether they be true or false entities, the gods of this world, whether ourselves, we have found that God alone is true. And we have found that God has revealed himself to be true in the areas of revelation and redemption and retribution. You'll remember that truth then is one of God's communicable attributes, meaning that in some measure, to a finite degree, truth is communicated to us by God and from God. Just the same way as justice and love and goodness, it is communicated to us from God, so God's truth is communicated to us. And because it is truth, brethren and sisters, should govern our lives in a number of areas, and I want to think of them with you as we draw the message to a close. Firstly, truth, the truth of God, should govern and regulate our worship, should govern and regulate our worship. Now, I've spoken in this before. Let me remind you that our worship, our worship of God, and if we are to worship God are right, we are to worship Him in a way that correlates with the truth of God as revealed to us in the scriptures of truth. Remind you again of those verses of Christ himself, John 4, verse 23, 24. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers, as I think of that phrase, I am reminded that there are false worshipers. But he's speaking here of true worshipers, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is Scripture alone that regulates worship, and therefore everything that we do in worship ought to be grounded in and governed by biblical truth, biblical truth. I want to give you a few examples of truth being discarded when it comes to worship. This example is taken from some years ago now, the years 2006. And as I thought of that, I thought, well, if this is what happened in 2006, what is happening today in 2018? Let me read a press release from Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. It stated the 6th of July, 2006, Elvis is coming to Truro Cathedral. Johnny Cowling, Elvis Impersonator will break new ground when he performs gospel music of Elvis Presley in Truro Cathedral on Sunday the 6th of August at 6.30pm. The Elvis service forms part of the cathedral's exploration of alternative styles of worship. It is part of a program that has seen both jazz and country and western style worship take place in Thoreau Cathedral for the first time. Canon Perrin Gay, the cathedral's head of worship, explains, we want this to be partly like an Elvis gig and partly like an act of worship. I am genuinely excited by the challenge of engaging with people who wouldn't normally come to the cathedral. We believe God gives us many ways in which to worship him. This is just one of the many alternatives. I trust that you're shaking your heads in disbelief. Can I say, brethren and sisters, we don't have to go to Cornwall to find this type of thing happening. Because on Sunday evening, the 12th of March, 2017, last year, in a Protestant church in Eglinton, Elvis impersonator Andy Rogers donned a sequined white jumpsuit. And I quote from the Belfast Telegraph, in order to belt out the King's hits. The article reported that the place was full. They actually needed to bring out more seats. Mr. Rogers said there were two guys from a church in Dungannon who were so impressed that they are thinking of having a similar evening in their church. The minister of the church said, everyone was extremely positive on the way out the door. And many people suggest that we have similar evenings in the future, which I definitely wouldn't rule out. That's in Eglinton. But brethren and sisters, you don't even have to go to Eglinton. You only have to go up the road from this church a few miles. And you go to a church where it was said on Sunday evening, the 14th of January this year, in the midst of the worship part of the service, the pastor of that congregation said these words, and I quote word for word, we need to learn to swing our pants in church. So we are going to swing our pants. Where is truth? Where's the truth there? Where's the truth? And hundreds will flock to such places. We saw it in Eglinton, they needed more seats. They needed more seats, the crowd will go to it. And in that place, hundreds of people, we need to... Oh, brethren and sisters, brethren and sisters, I'll tell you where truth was whenever those events were organized and whenever those things were said in those particular churches. I'll tell you where truth was. It was outside the door. That's where it was, outside the door. Outside the door. And because it's outside the door, brethren and sisters, everything and anything goes. You may not like such things being brought to your attention, but this is the truth. This is what's happening in our land. This is what's going on under evangelical Christianity today. This is the truth, brethren and sisters. And Paul wasn't embarrassed to expose falsehood and error in his day, and neither should we. This is what's happening. And crowds are flocking to it because they love to have their ears tickled. And they love something new and a new fad. Do you know what's going to happen, brothers and sisters? They're going to have to go further away from the truth the next time they want to get a crowd. Because what's going to happen is that Elvis is not going to satisfy them in a few months' time or a few years' time. Oh, brethren and sisters, may the Word always satisfy us. May the truth always satisfy us, because it's the truth that sets men and women free. And so, brethren and sisters, truth regulates our worship and governs our worship. I see whenever men worshiped in the Word that they fell before their faces. They humbled themselves before God, and there was contrition of heart, and they weren't bouncing up and down, and they weren't glorying in the fact that the very gallery bounces whenever they bounce. May God have mercy on us. Secondly, truth should govern and regulate our service. Is it possible to serve God in a false way? In a dishonest way, in an insincere way, of course it is. Judas Iscariot, the greatest example of that, a man who served God for a period of time, but not in a truthful way. Oh, we are to serve God. Our service is to be regulated by truth. Joshua 24, verse 14, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth." 1 Samuel 12, 24, only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things He hath done for you. Has our service for God been true? While it may appear to have been, while it may have appeared to be wholehearted, has it been anything less than that? For that's not serving God half-heartedly. That's not true service. Have our motives been true? Have our motives been sincere? Or do ulterior motives fuel our service for God? Oh, let us serve Him in truth. Thirdly, truth should govern and regulate our words. God is a God of truth. And as such, He abhors a lying tongue and a false witness that speaketh lies. We spoke about that last Lord's Day in Proverbs 6. In the family of God, we are exhorted in Ephesians 4, 25 to put away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. We see God's approach. We see God's approach with liars in the book of Acts. Whenever Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Ghost and God struck them down dead. Is it any wonder that we read in Acts 5, in the verse 11, that great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. Is it any wonder? Oh, may we speak the truth, may we speak it in love, putting away from us lying and hypocrisy and all deceit and whatever forms that may come. You see, we are partakers of the divine nature, and if God be true, we are to be true in our words, we are to be true in our belief system. The church whose sole head and keen is Christ is to be the upholder of the truth, truth that has been entrusted to us by the God of truth. 1 Timothy 3 verse 15, the church of the living God is termed the pillar and ground of the truth. God who is the source of truth expects His church to be the custodians of the truth and the communicators of the truth. It is upon the truth given to us by God. the true God that our faith rests. It's upon the truth that we believe, that we believe what we believe and we practice what we practice. Oh, let us hold fast to all that the God of truth exhorts us to hold fast to in His truth. Fifthly, the truth should govern and regulate our walk. That's what we read in 3 John. What brought joy to John's heart? It was this truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. And that covers every other part of our life, whether that be in employment, whether that be in the home, whether that be in the church, every other area of our life that I haven't mentioned already, we are to walk in the truth. We are to walk in the truth because Christ walked in the truth, and as we walk in His footsteps, we walk as He walked, and we behave as He behaved. Since God is true, we who have believed the truth of God ought to be true in every aspect of our lives. Joseph's brothers, they said when they came to meet Joseph again, we be true men. how wrong they were, how wrong they were. But let's be able to say that of a truth, we be true men, we be true women. Especially in a day when there is so much pretense, and whenever there's so much hypocrisy abounding in Christian circles, let us be true, true and faithful. And I say maybe your cynicism concerning the truthfulness of others may be the cause of you to be reluctant to trust in them, but can I say the God of truth is absolutely reliable, and you can trust Him. And so whatever your concerns, whatever your cares are today, cast them upon the God of truth. God will be true to His Word and true to His promises. He'll help you and carry you through. Let God be true. Let Him be true. May you prove that in your life. May you prove it in the church. Let's hold fast to the truth. Even if it be that our numbers diminish, let us hold to truth. For this is what we are to be the custodians of. We are to be the pillar and the ground of the truth. May God help us. and may God enable us to live for him. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's seek the Lord. Thank you for your listening. We appreciate it.