Welcome to Fife's Pulpit. It's a lovely sunny day here in Scotland and we have our Sunday morning service and exposition for you. I want to do a reading from the Book of Jude. from verse 3. Now Jude was the brother of our Lord and the gentle Lord Jesus and yet we find Jude here very, very hard and very clear in what he's saying. But Jude, verse 3. Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints, once and for all. For some people who were designated for this judgment long ago have come in by stealth. They are ungodly. turning the grace of our Lord God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. And again from Galatians to the young church in Galatia, they were going through it. Some Jews had come in and they were turning from the Gospel to legalism once again. And the Apostle Paul says in chapter 1 verse 6, I am amazed, he says, that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another gospel. But there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, may he be accursed. As we have said before, I now say again, anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, a curse be upon him. For I am now trying to persuade people. For am I trying to persuade people, O God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Jesus Christ. Very stern words. from the first century, way back there. Jude and Paul were probably writing about 20 years after the resurrection, so not long. So then, what is happening in the Church of Christ today? Why is there so much confusion as to what is true? Well, I hope to show you exactly what is going on. there is clearly a departure from the Gospel. Of course this has happened before, it's not something that's unique for us. Having said that, with our modern communication it's a little more obvious because somebody speaks and then within five or ten minutes it's on the news. But there is no question at all that much of what is called the Church of Christ today And I hate to say this, but I have to say this, is actually apostate. And it is only Christian by name. And once again, I want to show you how amazing and unchanging is the New Testament and how up to date Paul and Jude both were when they tell us to contend for the faith once delivered. The implication was that the faith, that is the faith, the body of truth, was even in those days, those early days, under attack by the devil and his cohorts and by using wolves going in sheep's clothing. Now many years ago, a Puritan called John Owen wrote about apostasy from truth. John Owen was one of the deepest of the Puritans. In fact, many have said that to read the whole of his works and understand what you read might take a lifetime. Maybe it's those people who have never really read John Owen and just have heard what people have said about him. But you have to read him slowly, digest, think about it, maybe go back again on what he said. But there was such depth with John Owen. He was one of the great princes of the Puritan movement. But studying him is worthwhile. And these men like Owen were intelligent, but deeply spiritual men. Yet many of them had a simplicity about them, like Thomas Brooks, who I'm thinking of maybe looking at next week. What a beautiful simplicity and devotion he had compared to Owen, who had that simplicity and devotion, but such a complexity as well in his thinking. So let me bring you some of the thoughts of John Owen. And you will also see that this departing from the gospel is nothing new. It has happened and happened way, way back in the first century. What then is the Gospel? The word Gospel literally means good news. It occurs 93 times in the Bible, exclusively in the New Testament. In Greek the word is Eugalion. It literally means good news and it is called good news because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings. The problem is simply this, to put it simply, God is holy, God is just and I am not. At the end of my life, I'm going to stand before a just and holy God and be judged. And I'll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness, which or lack of it, or the righteousness of another. and the good news of the Gospel and all that it contains about God and about Christ and salvation is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God and not for his own well-being but for his own people. In he done, he did for me what I couldn't possibly do for myself. He has taken my wretchedness my vileness and my sin, and he has lived a perfect life of obedience. and offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and to satisfy the righteousness of God. And the wrath that was due for me has been poured down upon him and I have been set free to live a new life under different philosophy and different rules. That is the good news. Because it is good news. However, when we speak of the gospel, we might say it is the faith that was referred to in the New Testament. So it is much, much more than what we first think. For it's not just believe in Jesus and you go into heaven. That's not the gospel, although it might contain that. It includes everything that goes with this salvation. To understand the good news, you must understand the whole scope of it. And as John Owen says, it comprises of three things. Firstly, there is the mystery of its doctrine. That is what we are to believe about it, as revealed in the scriptures. That is the prophetic work of Jesus as the Prophet. Secondly, there is the holiness of its demands upon us, how we are to live under Jesus the King. And thirdly, there is the purity of its worship, the result of the Gospel in glorifying God. as Christ the priest approaching God. So these things are important. There is what we are to believe, how we are to live, and how we are to worship are all contained in this kernel of the gospel. So the foundation of true holiness or a true walk with God and true worship as its heart true belief. So when Christian doctrine is neglected, it is forsaken or corrupted, then true holiness, true worship will also be neglected, forsaken and corrupted and strange fires will start appearing. A recent example of this was a certain denomination that I was once associated with very loosely. But when I asked them for a statement of faith, I was told that such a thing would be divisive. I was told that by one of the men who was one of the great leaders of the denomination. The implication was that each church had to make up their minds upon what they believed. So there was no central belief. But sadly this leaves us open to any kind of error without a body of faith that is believed, without guidelines for what we are to believe. So what saddens me today is that we are afraid of linking ourselves with historic statements of our faith. like the Great Westminster Confession, or if you like to do things with water, the 1689 Baptist Confession, which is just a wet version of the Westminster Confession. And I was ordained to agree with the historic confession. And these confessions are not scripture, of course they're not. But they are true expressions of what has been handed down as our body of faith, which has come to us in the Gospel, which has come to us from the whole tenor of Scripture. And these things are written down because we have essential belief and conduct. Belief is essential, and from this stems conduct and worship. That's why Paul said to young Timothy, Timothy, he says, keep the faith. And that's why Jude, the brother of our Lord said, earnestly contend for the faith. We must understand that when these men spoke of the faith, they referred to the whole body of belief, the gospel, the good news brought. This faith was new, it was precious, and not even an angel from heaven could alter its truth. Obedience to this revealed gospel requires, as Romans 1.5 says, obedience to the faith. which says Paul has come to us through the resurrection so that we can know this new faith, we can know this gospel through the resurrection of Jesus rising from the dead. Christians are to be obedient to the faith. Acts 6-7. Again Paul says to Titus in 2 verses 11 and 12 that this faith teaches men to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. So when the doctrine of the Gospel is neglected or forsaken, then there will follow a falling away from true Gospel holiness and worship. And I believe that that is what is happening in Christianity today. At the end of his ministry, Paul said to young Timothy and to Timothy that he had what kept the faith. Remember that Paul's passion was to glorify God by preaching the gospel, but his major concern throughout had been to teach, to keep, to guard the faith. This was not easy for Paul, for even in those early days there were satanic attempts to corrupt the gospel truth. Titus was charged to rebuke those who were prone to neglect or forsake the truth of the gospel for Jewish fables or the command of men. Again Jude told Christians to earnestly contend to the faith because many are all too ready to corrupt them and turn away from the faith. You only have to read Paul's farewell, that tearful, emotional moment where they knelt together and prayed to the elders in Ephesians in Acts chapter 20, when he in tears told them that he had taught them from house to house and that he had declared to them the whole counsel of God, the whole plan of God. Even in those early days, the body of belief was under threat. And he told them, you keep this which I've given to you, this whole counsel of God from start to finish, what God is doing. I've given it to you. I'm entrusting it to you. And with tears, he put his arms around them and said, I won't see you again. And they wept. And he said, just keep it. Hold on to it. Look at Corinth. The fellowship was planted by Paul and watered by Apollos. Yet in about five to six years, many in that church were denying the resurrection and they were living lives not in accordance to the doctrines of the gospel because they were sitting loosely upon doctrine and therefore their lives were sitting loosely. Look at the Galatians, also planted by Paul. They treated him at one point like an angel from God. Yet in a very short while, he fell from the doctrine of grace, justification by faith alone, to go back to works. Paul had said, you're bewitched. Strong word. And he told them that even if he or a literal angel from heaven were to tell them any other gospel, because there isn't any other gospel, there's no other good news, but that which he had brought, they were to be anathema. to curse it. Just as an overview of the seven churches in the book of Revelation, they were literal churches and they will tell you of the error that had crept in in the first century. False teachers were tolerated, lukewarmness and laziness of living and their perceived wealth had resulted so much that the Lord himself was standing outside one of the churches' asking to be let in. I want to come in to sup with you, to have fellowship with you, but you're too interested in your riches, you're too interested in this or that. One church was beginning to hold to the teaching of Balaam and committing immorality. Some were holding to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Another fellowship had tolerated a prophetess who was a Jezebel. Again, she taught sexual immorality and the wrong practices. Another, the Lord had found that their works, not found that their works were good and that they should remember what they had received and heard and repent. Then to one little church he said, hey, you've kept my word. So I have placed before you an open door that no man don't you just love the Church of Philadelphia? You see, from all of this, we can see several things, and Owen points these out, and they are so, so relevant for us today. Firstly, that the body of faith that we have today in theological works, systematic theologies, laid down for us, the teaching that comes through our pastors based on the Word of God, That body of faith was developed as error came along. So if you look at the New Testament, you will see that great doctrines like election, justification by faith, baptism, the resurrection, the Lord's return, Antichrist, the victory of Christ, Adam's imputed sin to mankind, but Christ's atonement. We see the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit clearly involved in our salvation portrayed for us in the New Testament. We see faith and then all of its basic practical conduct to demonstrate we are changed. So we see practical statements about holiness and practical matters of living and doctrine, definitions of the proclamation of the gospel and the need for repentance and faith. Then we have the declaration of how and in what spirit we are to worship God. and regard each other, to love each other, to love God and to worship him in spirit and in truth for God is spirit. And from these teachings, Christians have gathered together, as they gathered together, the common canon of scripture that was in use at those days, the recognised teaching of Jesus and the apostles. And Christians have gathered together a body of divinity. which not only includes what we should believe, but how we should act as Christians today. The next thing is this. So from this, we understand the importance of belief and the way this belief is not only in the head, but also in the heart and in the actions, which in turn leads us to worship God correctly. A solid biblical belief leads to a better walk and a biblical form of heart worship. So the apostle kept on repeating, God, contend for the faith once delivered. What we have today in systematic theology is not, and I repeat this and please try to understand this, it is not the imaginations of men. but the gathering of all that is in the Bible that is taught about God, creation, Christ, redemption and his return and our lives together. Also, last bit on this, we should not therefore think it strange if those professing to be Christians today fall away so easily from the gospel after receiving it. If the apostolic churches easily fell away into error whilst the apostles were still alive, so will churches today. Paul warned churches that false teachers would come, and come they did, that they would openly challenge or come as wolves in sheep's dress. Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, He knew that after his death, savage wolves would come among them, not sparing the flock. And amongst themselves, there would come men speaking perverse things to draw them away from the biblical solid truth of the gospel. So what can we say about this today? Well, interestingly, John Owen highlights four basic warnings. that are given by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament about departure from the basis of the gospel, and all that it applies. And those warnings were not only cleared during the New Testament times, but also in Owen's time, during the time of the Puritans, 1600s, but also for today. And as I bring these warnings to you, I am sure that immediately you will recognise them. And remember John Owen wrote in the 17th century, he was referring back again also to the 1st century and to his own situation. And all I want you to do is to listen to these carefully, without me going into detail. I think you will see them applying today. Because if I were to go into any kind of real detail, I will mention a little bit of detail, but if I were to go into more, it would take an awful long time and you'd have to exercise a lot of patience. So what I'm trying to do is to say, please, please listen to these things and think about what is happening today. Firstly, says Owen, men from among the body of pastors and teachers would arise, teaching perverse things that itching hearers want to hear. Let that soak in. Secondly, it says, Owen, that savage wolves would enter into the church of God, not sparing the flock. sealer, as the Psalms say, stop, think about that. The third warning was that people would get tired of hearing sound biblical doctrine and would turn from truth to fables and imaginations of men that would tittle their ears and please them. Isn't that what's happening? And fourthly, this warning was that a gradual, secret, mysterious apostasy would arise in the visible church. And this was the mystery of iniquity that works even now. That does not mean, of course, that the church will be defeated, but that there will be a subtle iniquity that is rising up slowly like a great tsunami on the church of God. All these things, says Owen, were happening in the first century. and they were happening in Owens Day, today and today. But of course, God always has his remnant who remain faithful through his gospel truth, its doctrine, its way of living. And when I say they remain faithful to its way of living, you know, we all wrestle and we all fight with holiness, we all fail, we all sin. That doesn't mean that we're all perfect, but we are committed to the New Testament understanding of how we should live. Even if we fail at doing that, we are committed to it. and we are committed also to its way of worship, to Jesus as our prophet, open in our minds, as our king, ruling over us and as our priest who takes us into the glorious presence of God. There will always be those of us who see the importance of right belief and try to live in accordance with the Gospel and worship God. As I said, by no means are those remnant perfect. They are not, by any means. But true believers, they are, who will worship God, not necessarily in a building, don't need a building, or organised denomination, Oh, says Jesus, true worshippers worship not on this mountain or that mountain, but true believers worship in spirit and in truth, as John says in John 4 to the woman at the well. For God is spirit and must be worshipped in spirit in accordance with the truth. True worshippers believe know, live and worship God wherever he places them. whether they worship him in a barn, whether they worship him in a house, whether they worship him in a cathedral, it doesn't matter, because true worship of God comes from true understanding of biblical truth, from attempting to live according to that truth, and worshipping God, therefore, in spirit, and in truth as the scriptures reveal God is a spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth so it doesn't really matter where you are in worshipping sometimes believers have to meet in a barn sometimes in a house sometimes in a field that doesn't make any difference not at all let me briefly run through these points then but understand i can only touch on them just briefly because the subject is incredibly vast. The first one is this. In Acts 20.30 says Owen, from among your own cells will arise men speaking twisting things to draw the disciples away from them. Says Owen, from amongst the body of pastors, he says, and teachers, they will start teaching doctrines that are contrary to Paul's teaching. Well of course these would be men of authority because otherwise nobody would take any notice of them. So they began teaching and their teaching began to spread. This happened in the first century. You had the Gnostic pastors who taught added wisdom. You must have the wisdom. You must have this and have that. more than the gospel. They neglected the simplicity and the beauty of the gospel. So when the doctrine went, so did their conduct. And their conduct became bad. And God was not glorified. God was not adored the way he should be. So look at what is happening today. How many false teachers have arisen? men, and now even women, in authority, denying the scriptures, teaching what they want to teach. Coupled with this, we have the second warning, for they often overlap. And the second warning that Owen gives from the New Testament is this, that savage wolves would enter the church, not sparing the flock. And I would link these two things together. In the first century, the seeds of heresy were being sown by some pastors or church leaders or those who pretended to be sheep. Much of these heresies involved the deity of Christ and the denial of his true humanity. Arius, for instance, entered the church and taught that Christ was not divine. Pelagius denied Christ's satisfaction and merit and grace. And these things were in existence in Owen's time. And how often today do we hear of church leaders and those who profess to be of Christ's flock even denying the virgin birth, even denying the perfection of Jesus, or even the resurrection. be a bag of old bones', says one man. Here is a church leader. Those who profess to be of Christ's flock denying these things, they deny his triumph over sin, they deny his sovereignty and his right to rule in justice and judgement. And then you have Arianism. It's not dead. And Pelagianism is a dreadful poison today. Owen spoke of it being the religion of the majority of Christians in his day. Pelagianism exalts man. That man's will is free from the effects of the fall that somehow it escaped. And it is the root of modern-day Arminianism. which is really a baptised me-ism. I am in charge. And put the corpse on the throne and not God. And all these things were in their seeds in the first century. They came into flower in Owen's time and they are really a harvest being harvested today. Today we have a general denial of the Gospel. We do. man's depravity and sin. The modern gospel is simply believe in Jesus and he'll put your life right for you, he'll sort you out. When the old gospel of the New Testament was, you are a sinner and a vile wretch, you are to fall before God and ask for forgiveness in Christ and receive new life and go and live for him and die for him if needs be. That's not the case today. And when modern man, we have a denial of the depravity and sin, so when modern man sits down to write his theology, if what the Bible says doesn't agree with him, or he cannot understand it, or he cannot grasp it, then he sets about reinterpreting it. And instead of acknowledging that this is the Word of God, we are to believe they reinvent it. Well, I cannot see how God could make the world out of nothing. Surely there must have been something there. Surely there must have been a big bang that created something and God just took those things. I cannot believe, for instance, that there was a literal Adam and Eve and I cannot believe those things and therefore I will papoo them. I don't think this is what God was saying. I don't think there could possibly be a virgin birth. Now, come on. But of course, if there's no virgin birth, there's no redemption because there is no perfect Christ or the resurrection. Oh, come on. It's all made up. And that's just the way it is. Jesus died on the cross to give to us a good example of how we should give ourselves to other people, how we should feed the poor. And so it goes on and on and on and on. Ad nauseum. and they are departing from the basics of the gospel. Thirdly, and what Owen says is, people prefer fables today. Again, this happened in the first century, and in Owen's time, in the first century, you had people who went into kind of monasteries and imagined and dreamed all kinds of things. But in Owen's time, it was happening in particular in the Roman Catholic Church, and it's happening today. People like to hear what pleases them, things that make them happy, that make them rich, that make them healthy. And there are always those who will teach such things because their home is in this world, not in heaven. They are worldly, selfish and devilish. stupid new doctrines like the prosperity teaching of a certain teacher that says there are nine people now in the Godhead as there is the Father, the Son and the Spirit so that the Son has a Father and a Spirit as well and the Spirit has a Father and a Son and so it goes on till you total them up and you have nine of them at the moment and then riches as a sign of God's favour which has never been the case People love to hear these things. They love to go to big churches. They love their finery that their pastor has and all the trimmings. They love the perfection of the music. They love just to be part of something that is worldly. And they go expecting new things, new ways of worship, new songs. And pastors find themselves having to top this week with what they did last week. People prefer fables. Their itching ears are going towards things that please them and make their life comfortable. And then finally, there is a gradual, slow apostasy that is happening, says Owen, and it's happening today. Slowly things are slipping. until Christians no longer seemed to know truth from error. Gradually, critical race theory, critical social theory, LGBTQ whatever, the killing of children, the closing down of preaching, the outlawing of the gospel, All these things are really smoke screens as to what is happening within the church, not from without the church. Within the walls of the church, you see, despite all of these changes in society. Within the walls of the church, doctrine and biblical understanding leading to a biblical practice, leading to God being adored, glorified, has slowly been eroded so we can no longer stand against critical race theory, critical social theory, and all these things. Emphasis is now laid on love, but without biblical definition of what love is in relation to holiness. Ironically, me-ism cries out, I deserve love. You should love me as I am. And yet Paul's definition of agape love in 1 Corinthians 13 includes love not being self-seeking, or wanting its own way, or not being proud, or puffed up with all kinds of personal demands. It is exactly opposite to the definition of love today in society. Yet biblical love is pushed aside. Sermons now are shorter. Expositions are rare. Doctrine is not that important. Many colleges are not teaching the importance of belief, but instead the importance of social acceptance of everything, of critical theories, of gender critical theology, of race critical theories. I need not go on, for the subject is far too vast for me, but the application, I believe, is clear, that the Church of Christ is in crisis. Denominations are compromised. In some areas, do you know, it is hard to find a biblical church that preaches from Scripture, challenges our conduct and holiness, and is full of love and support and grace and ministers the gospel in its truth and its reality. True believers are now forming together, fed up of pastors getting rich and living in style. Many Christians today want reality. We're crying out, let us return to Biblical doctrines. Let us return to the things that built the church, not the things that are empty in the church. Let us return to Biblical doctrine, to Biblical conduct and Biblical worship that honours and exalts God. Let us once again put God back on the throne. and do not apologise for it. John Owen, you see, in his great wisdom, pointed this out years ago. The apostles warned the early church. Today we are being sidetracked by worldly doctrines and all these modern theories when we should be glorifying our glorious God in our minds by believing his truth, by fighting sin within us. And oh, what a battle that is. and without and burning on the fires on the altar that please him and not make him angry. Sadly also many Christians are standing up for the wrong things, pretending that God-ordained authorities are to blame and we are somehow being persecuted or singled out. One thing I think we must understand is that if we were really being persecuted today in that sense we would know it. Go and ask those early Christians as they were being dipped in oil and set on fire to light up the streets of Rome. Ask them what persecution was really like. So often we are just little children today. And because we are sitting loosely upon scriptures and doctrine, we cry at the very smallest splinter that we get in our souls. But for us this is more subtle. We have been infiltrated with false cults, false doctrine, religious hypocrisy. Wealth, and yet our saviour, had nowhere to lie his head. He only had one cloak that was taken off him and was gambled for. He had nothing. The apostle Paul had nothing. The saints of old, so often, had nothing. and we have opened our doors to any idea or worldly whim. Who is behind all of this? Well, of course we know it is Satan, the enemy, who comes like an angel of light. And do you know what he says? He is hissing like the serpent of Eden. Has God really said? And we, as Christians, because we have no doctrine, we have no grounding, we have no systematic theology or doctrine, we say, hmm, well, maybe he didn't, or maybe we've got it a wee bit wrong. Should we really be saying, we alone have the truth? Is it right to say that? And so it goes on, and Satan keeps whispering in our ears, has God really said? Has he really said? Yes, he has said, and we have to abide by it. We must be careful not to allow beneath the smoke screen of me-ism, woke-ism, and all the cries for love that is not love at all, because beneath this, and all these things we are looking out and are trying to keep out of the church, Beneath this we can easily be departing from our historic faith. We must not allow these things, things that will change as the opinion of society changes, we must not allow them to move us from our foundation of biblical faith and truth handed down to us from the New Testament apostles of God. the faith Paul asked us to defend and proclaim and believe to contend for, the body of divinity that lays down for us from the Scriptures, God, that describes Him, that speaks of His creation, His plans, His desire to have men and to worship Him, that declares Him in all of His beauty, in all of His holiness, in all of His power, and tells us how He came to save us, wretches, to restore us, and how He did it by transforming our sinful lives into new creation. And with that came a new walk and a new philosophy and a new way of living that leads in turn to a worship that we can then through Christ approach God, that exalts God, that his creation are now loving him through Christ and exalting him, that pleases him, that sees him not as an old grandfather who is there to help you find satisfaction in life. But He's there to be loved, honoured, adored, worshipped, revered. He wants us to believe in Him, to trust in Him, to give Him our lives despite our failure, to realise we are sinners, vile, dirty, rebellious. But we have found grace and mercy so that we can now love Him. that this world and its ideas and standards are passing, but we must be led to a rock that is higher than we are. Oh, lead me to a rock that is higher than I. Owen is right. These three things matter. The gospel, the good news, is made up of these three things. The mystery of its doctrine, what we are to believe, Jesus our prophet, the holiness of his commands, how we are to live, Jesus the king, the purity of our worship and how we should become before him, Jesus the priest. And that very foundation of true holiness and worship of God is the doctrine of the Gospel, is what we have to believe. It was guarded by the early church. It was guarded by those who followed. It was guarded by those faithful during the Reformation. It was guarded by people of preachers of this century earlier on. And it has to be guarded by us. We cannot let it go. Isn't it in the New Testament where Paul talks about holding forth the torch or the flame of truth? But you know, before you can hold a torch or a flame forward, you must have a firm grip of the thing. We need a firm grip of our belief and doctrine. So when doctrine is as revealed in the scriptures and handed down to us, he's neglected forsaken or corrupted, then our conduct, our lives and our worship are also neglected, forsaken and corrupted. Paul says to those here in Galatians who were being drawn aside from the good news, and he says in chapter 1 verse 8, Yet even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. Remember the last words of the canon of scripture written by the last surviving apostle in Revelation 22 verse 8. And I do think that this text, although it refers to the book of Revelation, refers to the whole of scripture. When he says this, I warn everybody who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of this book, of this prophecy, God will take away a share of the tree of life in the Holy City, which are described in this book. He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus, and the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen. Dear ones, dear, dear ones, may God bring us to our senses before it's too late. May God have mercy on us and bring us back to a true belief, the New Testament doctrine and belief of what's handed down to us. Let us pray. O God, have mercy upon your church. Revive us in the midst of the years. Make us what we should be. Help us to stand firm against these errors, these subtleties that come in. These false teachers, help us to stand against them and help us to, if need be, meet in barns or houses. But keep your remnant close to your heart, O God, and keep that remnant in faith and love toward you. Help us, O God, to live according to the New Testament. Oh, it's so hard in this wicked world with so much wickedness within. But teach us, O God, to love you better more each day. And may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you, both now and forever. Amen.