This is Pastor Matt's second to last Sunday here. He'll be preaching his farewell sermon next Sunday. And I want to honor our Father in heaven for giving us Pastor Matt these nine years. Jonathan Edwards said, that an excellent minister is the greatest blessing of anything in the world that ever God bestows upon a people. An excellent minister is the greatest blessing of anything in the world that ever God bestows upon a people. That is a massive claim by Jonathan Edwards. And we might be tempted to think it's overstatement. If you're an unbeliever in this room this morning, the church is full of wheat and tares. Certainly there's unbelievers in this room. Children, adults. You might hear that quote by Edwards and you would think it to be completely absurd. There are a million other things that are more valuable than a minister and more useful. You might be thinking. But Jonathan Edwards knew the Bible, and that's why he could make claims like that. He knew that without a faithful pastor, one who feeds God's sheep, God's word, and God's gospel, the church would be ruined. And he has the whole Old Testament that he would lean on to show that. But a faithful pastor, who teaches God's people the whole counsel of God, who constantly sets before God's people the person and glories of Jesus Christ, would be for His people the greatest blessing that God ever gave them. As that type of pastor, the Apostle Paul said this in Colossians chapter two, verses one through three. So he's speaking to his flock at his time, and he says this. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you. And for all who have not seen me face to face, that your hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Paul struggled and labored and he wanted his people to know how much he struggled to have Christ formed in them the hope of glory. That's what he lived for and that's what all faithful pastors live for. They exist as instruments in God's hands to work salvation and happiness in the souls of God's people. Do you know anybody else, it could be said, that this person is only working for my eternal happiness? Of course we can say that about God. That's the point of Jeremiah 3.15. God has placed that in the hearts of shepherds. Working for our eternal happiness. Our text this morning tells us that God is the one who provides his people with such shepherds. Jeremiah 3.15, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. I'm going to argue from this verse that God is the one who appoints and calls these shepherds into existence. Secondly, that God's shepherds have a heart after Him, always feeding His people with the scriptures and the glory of His Son. And thirdly, that this feeding and nurturing and caring is one of the chief means that God uses to bring His people home to heaven. Here's my big idea. This is the main doctrine from this text. I'm just taking Jonathan Edwards' words. A faithful shepherd, that's a pastor. Faithful shepherd is the greatest blessing of anything in the world that ever God bestows upon a people. Two points. to this sermon. First of all, God himself provides these shepherds. He calls, he appoints them. And then secondly, God himself supplies these shepherds. That is, he equips them with the things that they need to shepherd God's flock. Let's go to the text. First of all, God himself provides these shepherds. Jeremiah 3.15, and I will give you shepherds after my own heart. who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Right away, I mean, if you know anything about the book of Jeremiah, this verse is so displaced. So displaced, because chapter one and chapter two, he's just laying out all these indictments against Judah. Totally wicked people. And then he says this, I'll give you shepherds after my own heart. They will feed you. Now the prophet Jeremiah was one of the last prophets that God used to speak to Judah. Jeremiah's letters written to Judah before King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came and took them captive in 586 BC. Jeremiah's ministry spanned 40 years, 40 years of preaching. And for those 40 years, he was constantly opposed with violence, An imprisonment by the very people that he was sent to help. In fact, when Babylon came in, they proved themselves to be more friendly to Jeremiah than Jeremiah's own people. Now in the end, Jeremiah's ministry was unsuccessful, at least by the world's standards. There was no national repentance. 40 years of preaching and no repentance. Only judgment. God called him to preach and to prophesy, and Jeremiah lived long enough to see three things. He lived long enough to see the temple destroyed, the people carried off into exile, and the Davidic line of kings seemingly to end. And this is the end of many faithful shepherds. They faithfully preach God's word. They're constantly opposed, not only by the world, but by many of God's visible people. And then they die. Sing almost no fruit. Now, question. If that is one of the possible outcomes to ministry, why would anyone willingly choose it? No one. Jeremiah didn't choose it. Just look at chapter one. I'm just a youth, God, don't send me. Jeremiah didn't choose this ministry. God chose him to serve him for the good of his people. Verses four and five of Jeremiah one. Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. And then when Jeremiah gives his speech, I'm just a youth, God responds to him. Do not say I'm only a youth. For to all whom I send, you shall go. To whom I send you, you shall go. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid. For I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. Now that's a really good clue. Why would God have to tell Jeremiah not to be afraid? And my heart is afraid all the time. All the time. And anybody who's ever served on the front lines of ministry knows that's the truth. Because you have the hordes of hell pressing against you. Because when the Kingdom of God is touching earth and feeding God's people, there's nothing that Satan loves to destroy more than that. And he'll use anything and anybody to do that. Show me one minister in scripture who didn't suffer greatly for proclaiming God's word. I was reflecting with this, with Monica the other day. I was thinking, man, what did I get myself into? All the apostles. How many of them lived a happy, long life? Even John, who wasn't executed, was exiled to that island at the end of his life. And so God preemptively comforts Jeremiah, saying, don't be afraid. I'm with you, I'm here with you to deliver you. Now I ask the question, who would willingly choose this life of ministry if they knew what it would cost? And the answer is no one. but God calls and God appoints ministers for his people before they were ever even born. Before God formed these ministers in the womb, he determined that they would care for his church. Our verse says, verse 15, and I will give you shepherds. We do not secure shepherds for ourselves. Americans have this disease called libertarian free will. We think we're ultimately self-determining in all of our choices. That is not how it works. God graciously brings us to the very field where he's already prepared a shepherd for us. And that's what he does with us. God sees our need in eternity past, and he stored up kindnesses for us by providing for us shepherds at just the right time. Just the right time. We have the same need that Israel and Judah had. Between the calling of Jeremiah in chapter 1 and the promise of God providing shepherds in chapter 3, we discover what the people needed. The people needed repentance. Line after line in chapter 2, God is bringing damning indictments against Judah for abandoning him. Look at chapter 2, verse 19. This is only one of them. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God. The fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord God of hosts. The fear of me is not in you. You've turned away from me to chase after glories that will not satisfy. This is not just the problem with ancient Judah. This is the problem with all of the human race. The deepest crime of humanity is that we do not value God above all other things. That is our deepest problem. We see God and we yawn at him. We chase after a million trifles. That's the essence of sin, brothers and sisters. The essence of sin is not those symptoms like murder and lying and adultery. Those are symptoms. What's underneath those sins is a devalue of God. We turn to those things to try to find satisfaction. We devalue God and move to those other things as our God. And so God sent Jeremiah to Judah so that through his preaching, these people might repent and return to Him. Look at verse 13, this is leading up to our verse. He calls out, return. Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. that you've rebelled against the Lord, your God. Consider the kind initiation of Father here. He's pleading with violent and gross and perverted sinners, sinners who were guilty of prostituting themselves to every foreign God, who in every way disqualified themselves from ever any hope of heaven. There's people like that in this room. People who have not turned to the living God. People who are still chasing after a million trifles. And God is saying to us this morning, turn to me, I can forgive you, I will be merciful to you. He's calling, He's always calling. Turn to me, just acknowledge your guilt. Your black and cold and sick soul that you feel all the way to your bones can be made to live and have light and warmth and joy if you turn to God in repentance. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's what God is doing here. Look at verse 14. Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord, for I am your master. Now look at sovereign grace at the end of verse 14. I will take you, one from a city, two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. This part of the verse was such a surprise to me as I was preaching, as I was preparing this week. The doctrines of grace are all over scripture. all over scripture. He sends Jeremiah to preach, preach this message to this wicked people. He calls through them, repent, repent, repent. He doesn't wait for them to repent because they won't. And he says, I will take you, one from a city, two from a family. I will bring you into Zion. Not waiting for you, because if I waited for you, you'd all perish. You'd all perish. God must take. Jeremiah's preaching ultimately is not effective. Those who repent at the hearing of Jeremiah's message do so because God takes them and brings them to Zion. That's the church, by the way. Zion is an Old Testament word that represents the church or the kingdom of God. And then, we see God's continued fatherly kindness in verse 15, our verse. So summing up, after I send you this prophet, after I tell you your sins, after I sovereignly choose you out of all the rest to come into the church and to be saved, then, verse 15, I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Now this verse immediately applies to Israel because after the exile, he was promising that he would restore them and invite them in. But the New Testament confirms that this is how God operates in the church. Our fighter verse today, Ephesians 4, 11 through 12, just listen, listen very carefully. Ephesians 4, 11 through 12 says this, and he gave, he is God, he gave, God gave freely, graciously, without merit on our part, God gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. So if we compress this and take the beginning and the middle and the ending, we put it all together, and God gave shepherds for the body of Christ. For the body of Christ. God gave shepherds as a gift from His heavenly throne room for us. So Ephesians 4, 11 and 12 is the New Testament confirmation of Jeremiah 3.15. God is the one who personally provides pastors to care for his people. Have you thought about that before? I remember the first year I was here. I was driving, I was passing 7-Eleven, Maple Grove. I called up Pastor Matt and was just overwhelmed with all the knowledge and understanding that I was getting hit with after being starved for so many years. And I said, I'm so thankful that you're my pastor. I'm so thankful. Because I was listening to a lot of guys. I was listening to that point. Driscoll hadn't quite turned to the dark side. I was listening to Driscoll. I was listening to Piper. I was listening to C.J. Mahaney. Guys like that. And it's very easy to be awed with all of these guys who live on the other side of the United States. And I was thankful that I had Pastor Matt. That God placed me in this field. Because he knew exactly what I needed for my soul. I was so thankful to God for that. And God has done that with you. God has brought you to the exact field that you need. Because He cares for you. He's our Heavenly Father. He knows what He needs. That's the first part. God Himself provides these shepherds. Now let's look at the second part. God Himself supplies these shepherds. God himself supplies these shepherds. Verse 15, I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. You know, it would do no good for God to send us pastors who didn't share his tender heart. Jesus explicitly spoke against these type of pastors in John 10, 12 through 13. Jesus says this, He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. God doesn't send those type of shepherds to his people. He sends shepherds after his own heart. But what does that look like? What does that look like mainly? Because there's lots of ways that we could say a shepherd is after God's own heart, but we don't want general ways, we want specific ways. What is the main thing that God has in mind in this particular text? Let's look at a couple clues before we answer that question. First of all, turn with me to Ezekiel 34, please. Ezekiel chapter 34, Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah preaching near the end of Judah's freedom before Babylon came in to bring them into captivity. And here at this point, God is indicting the false shepherds of Jeremiah's day. And this is our first clue to what verse 15 means. Starting in verse one. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God. Oh, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves. Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. And hopefully you heard the emphasis there. God's chief indictment against these false shepherds is that they don't feed the flock of God. Instead they feed themselves all the things that the sheep are bringing them. That's our first clue as to what God means in verse 15 as to having shepherds after his own heart. Let's look at the second clue. Turn to John chapter 21, please. These are Jesus' words to Peter. After Peter denied Jesus three times at his trial, many think that at this point, Jesus restores him by asking him three particular questions. Picking up in John chapter 21, Verses 15 through 17, this is what it says. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord. You know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Now, oftentimes in Scripture, what is not said helps us to see the importance of what is said. One commentator notes here, quote, the response of Jesus to Peter's affirmations of love and affection could have included three different charges. For example, he could have said, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Preach the gospel. make disciples, love one another, or any combination of different imperatives. But what does Jesus say instead? Feed my sheep. Peter, if you love me, don't be like one of those false shepherds who live off the flock, but feed my sheep. So when we ask the question from verse 15, what does it mean for a shepherd to have a heart after God? The rest of Jeremiah 3.15 answers the question. Reading it all together, it says, I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Feeding God's people with knowledge and understanding is what it means for a shepherd to have a heart after God's heart. If shepherds are going to answer, yes, Lord, you know that I love you, they must be feeding God's sheep. To fail to feed God's sheep, knowledge and understanding is to be a false shepherd. Now we need to ask the question, why the food of knowledge and understanding? Why the food of knowledge and understanding? What is it about this food? What happens if God's people don't get this food of knowledge and understanding? They die. They die. I don't necessarily mean physically, although it will lead to that. It means spiritually they die. Over and over again in the Old Testament, God pronounces judgment against false shepherds of Israel. Why? Because they corrupt the knowledge of God and that causes men to stumble. Hosea, if you guys remember, when we preach through the book of Hosea, God's standing indictment against the priests is found in Hosea chapter four, verse six. My people, he says to the priests, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you priests have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. When it doesn't have faithful pastors to feed God's people knowledge and understanding. Lack of right knowledge leads to death. And all we have to do is look at America to see that this is the case. What happens in 1973 when the Supreme Court of the United States has a wrong knowledge on what it means to be a human being? 60 million babies die. Wrong knowledge leads to death. What we believe always determines what we do. And abortion is just a microcosm of what happens in the church. False shepherds cause spiritual abortions in the church through the means of their false teachings. False teachings are the ultimate abortifacient, spiritually speaking. When men and women are taught false gospels, when children are taught false gospels, and when they believe them, their souls are ruined. That's what God means in Hosea 4, 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. What does He mean? What does He mean? If the church is going to survive, it must have shepherds after God's hearts who will feed His people with knowledge and understanding. There must not just be a calling into the church. There must be a governance of the church. If America only received the constitution from our founding fathers and didn't receive civil magistrates to implement it, America would not have survived. If you're in a family, if a child only has the rules of the family posted on the fridge, but no father and mother to nurture him and care for him and admonish him, that child will die. Likewise, if the church is deprived of sound teachers, this is what Calvin says, if the church is deprived of sound teachers, all things soon fall into ruin. And God guarantees, this is what God guarantees the church in Jeremiah 3.15. I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Our heavenly Father ensures to give us all things necessary that we will make it home. What a comfort. Because I honestly, for the longest time, didn't think I needed, I don't need a pastor. Actually, that's the means that God has determined to get you home. And in spite of my ignorance on that, God wasn't ignorant on it. God knew exactly what I needed, and he provided it for me, and for you. As we saw in last week's text, Jesus said in John 6, All that the Father gives me will come to me. All that the Father gives me will come to me. Father guarantees our coming to Christ by sending us a Jeremiah who preaches to us the gospel. And then because God grants us repentance, all of a sudden we find Jesus irresistibly beautiful. I can't wait to preach. If you read the rest of John 6, to draw these truths comes out, to draw these truths out. No one comes to me unless the Father draws him. And when the Father draws you, you will see such a beauty in Jesus Christ, but yet your soul says, yes, yes, that's what I want, that's what I've been looking for, and I didn't know it. But the work is not yet completed. Jesus goes on to say in verse 39, I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. There's still a last day coming even after we become saved. How does Jesus keep us? How does Jesus keep us in the sheep pen? By what means? Have you thought about that before? Why are you still a Christian? Why did you wake up this morning a Christian? Well, the simple answer is that God's mighty power kept you. John 10, 28 says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. God is holding you by His omnipotent strength and He will never let you go. But He uses means to keep you in His hand. He uses means. What are those means? What is He using to keep you cherishing Him and adoring Him and admiring Him on a regular basis? Shepherds who preach the gospel. Shepherds who possess a heart after God's heart and demonstrate it by feeding you with knowledge and understanding. Calvin says in this verse, It is as though God said, I will not only give you prophets to lead you from your wanderings to me and to restore you the way of salvation, but I will also continually set over you sound and faithful teachers. God from all eternity has supplied us with all the means that we need to get home. What is the food? What is this food of knowledge and understanding at the end of verse 15? What is it exactly? Well, this knowledge is not a generic knowledge. Our God is not a generic God. Faithful pastors do not feed their people slogans about God or merely general notions about Jesus. That's what the Old Testament shepherds did. They talked about Yahweh a lot, but they watered Yahweh down with all the other gods of their age. And this happens in our day. Jesus. is good. Jesus is part of the gospel. False shepherds will say that all the time. And then they pour different meanings into the word Jesus and gospel. So that by the time you realize what's happened, 10 years of your life has gone by. Or 50. This knowledge and understanding that Jeremiah 3.15 alludes to is two very specific things. What is this knowledge? What is this understanding? Two specific things. Number one, a shepherd who feeds God's people right knowledge and understanding does so by proclaiming the whole counsel of God. Shepherd who feeds God's people right knowledge and understanding does so by proclaiming the whole counsel of God. Next week we're gonna hear the Apostle Paul preach from the shores of Miletus and he says this to the Ephesian elders. He says, therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Paul is saying that had I not preached to you the whole counsel of God, I would have been guilty. I would have been guilty. God's people don't need jokes or entertainment or endless stories from the pulpit. They need God's Word opened and explained to them. That's where life is. Like Peter says, Lord you have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go? Or as the psalmist says, the unfolding of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth at hand because I long for your commandments. That's what the heart of a saint says, and that's what a shepherd gives to God's people. Secondly, a shepherd who feeds God's people right knowledge and understanding does so by constantly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. A shepherd who feeds God's people right knowledge and understanding, that's what we're looking at, does so by constantly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is not an umbrella. It's not that thing that you use out there and then once you come to the church doors, you put it aside and you come in and you graduate to bigger and better things. The gospel is not a ticket stub that you give for admission never to use again. The gospel is not the red-headed stepchild that you only bring out for company. The gospel is everything. It's everything. And if you don't have the gospel proclaimed to the local church, you lose everything. If God's people don't constantly behold the person and work of Christ in the gospel, they can't be transformed. 2 Corinthians 3.18 says this, we all, that's us, Christians, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord. How do we behold the glory of the Lord? By hearing the gospel preached. We all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. We only are transformed by hearing the gospel. Beholding and admiring the glory of Jesus Christ is the main exercise of our faith. The main exercise. Christ is the main food of our souls. If we don't If we don't hear from Him, if we don't have Him, we lose everything. All the Christian life is held together and maintained by constantly being fed Christ. In this, our souls live. You see, the glory of Christ is a soul arresting glory. When Jeremiah started performing his duty as a prophet and a shepherd of Judah, he started to feel the reason why God said, don't be afraid. All the hordes of hell pressed in against him. At one point, he was so overcome with trouble and anguish that like Job, he cursed the day of his own birth. Jeremiah 20. 14 through 18. Why did he continue? Because the glory of Christ compelled him. He says in verse nine in chapter 20, if I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones and I am weary with holding it in. I cannot. That's what seeing Christ in the gospel does. Seeing Christ in the gospel conquers our souls, and our souls love to be conquered in that way. We don't keep ourselves. We don't keep ourselves in the church. God keeps us by seeing the glory of Christ. and we see the glory of Christ by hearing the gospel, and the gospel is preached by shepherds that he sends. That's why the scripture says, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Let's apply this to our lives. Doctrine. So if you're new, we have three elements of application, doctrine, duty, and delight. It applies to our head, it applies to our will, and it applies to our heart. So first of all, our doctrine. It's just our big idea. A faithful shepherd is the greatest blessing of anything in the world that ever God bestows upon a people. Now I can affirm this statement by Jonathan Edwards experientially. Because I've had a shepherd who has fed me with knowledge and understanding. And my soul is in an infinitely different place than it was 16 years ago. Now Paul took time at the end of Romans 16 to commend Certain people who worked with him in the ministry, and therefore I think we have a biblical warrant to do the same thing. God has blessed us these nine years with Pastor Matt. And God has shown his faithfulness in upholding his promise in Jeremiah 3.15 by giving us him. So I just want to share a couple of things of why I can say that having Pastor Matt here has been the greatest spiritual blessing that I could have ever received on earth. how I came to this church. I was wandering in a seeker-friendly church for 10 years, didn't know that I was eating unhealthy, unhelpful food. And I finally reached the point where I was tired of hearing seven ways to improve my life, because my life was not improving, my life was getting worse. and I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take it anymore, but I didn't know what I was looking for. I left the church, started the painful process of looking for a new church, and God led me providentially to a sermon by Pastor Matt on Galatians. I'd spent 10 years of hearing preaching, put that in quotes, 10 years of hearing teaching, and I heard five minutes of Galatians. and five minutes wrecked my soul. Because I heard gospel. I heard pure water. I heard Jesus. I heard all of it. And I didn't know Matt from Adam. Could have been a serial killer. I don't know. But this is where we're going, honey. I know. I can hear the shepherd's voice. I can hear his voice. And I wouldn't have even been able to articulate that then. But I can hear the shepherd's voice. Pastor Matt immediately started challenging my shallow assumptions on free will. I remember sitting in a coffee shop, pointing to scripture where God commands something of us, and I asked a very Pelagian-like question. How could God require something of us that we can't do? And he responded with something like, where do you get that assumption in scripture that God can't command what he wills? Does God have the right to be God or no? After I was wrecked by the doctrine of predestination, I was terrified for what that meant for my children. Because I discovered that they didn't have ultimate determinacy over their will. And my knees started knocking. What does this mean? If predestination is true, what does this mean for my kids? Are my kids going to be saved? Called up Matt. I was walking through Albertsons. Matt, I have a problem. And he said, actually, and I'll paraphrase again, because this was like nine years ago now. He comforted me with two things. One, first of all, Josh, God loves your children infinitely more than you do. And secondly, because they are great sinners, the only hope they have of being saved is sovereign grace. If God doesn't elect them, they're lost. If you want them to be in control, they're going to hell. That's right. Fourth, along with John Piper, Pastor Matt has helped me become a Christian hedonist. If you're not familiar with that term, talk to me after I guess. I remember reading Pastor Matt's book on doctrine and division and I was sitting at my dining room table and I was struck with the utter idolatry I had over heaven. I thought heaven would be a pretty cool place, as long as when I got done worshiping God, I could do what I wanted to do. Pastor Matt was explaining in his writing how the glory of God, the gift of Christ is heaven itself. Psalm 37, four, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. And I realized for the first time, delight yourself in the Lord, that means God is my highest delight. I remember how radical Pastor Matt's teaching was on 1 Corinthians 10.31. This is when we were at the Biblical Studies Center. 1 Corinthians 10.31 is fodder in this church. We use it all the time. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. I remember his big idea for that sermon, big idea for that sermon was all of life is either worship or idolatry. There's no gray area. That's what eating and drinking for the glory of God means. Everything we do, surely all of us have heard multiple times, everything we do says something about God. The God-centeredness of his preaching and teaching has been breathtaking. Fifthly, Matt has been faithful in teaching me to be a smiling, loving Calvinist. In the Romans 14 class, which was, Devastating to this church in the best way. Devastated me at a couple points. He pointed to Jesus Christ, and I had not thought about this. Because being serious about theology creates certain problems. Because you can take small scriptures too serious, and big scripture is not serious enough. And he said, there was no one more There's no one more theologically uncompromising than Jesus Christ, on the one hand. And there's no one more loving than Jesus Christ. And He did it in one person. And that's what God is calling us to do. That's what God is calling us to be. And then lastly, on this section, the Gospel. Matt has held to a Reformed view of the Gospel that has wrecked me every single Sunday that I've heard it. Holiness matters, and I'm not the standard of it. Christ died because even on my best day with my best prayers, with my hottest affections, I still only offer God filthy rags that deserve to be burned in hell. It's only through his blood and righteousness alone that any of us have any hope in heaven. You know what a treasure it is to hear that gospel? That is not preached everywhere, brothers and sisters. I will always thank our Father in heaven for giving me a shepherd who has fed me with knowledge and understanding of his dear son. So what is our duty? What is our duty in light of Jeremiah 3.15, in light of this sermon? Well, we have two duties. We have the duty of retaining words, and we have the duty of praying for words. Retaining words, praying for words. So our first duty, retaining words. God has blessed us these nine years with a shepherd after his own heart. And to honor God in this gift, we ought to do what the apostle Paul told Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1, 13 through 14, this is what Paul said. to Timothy, his protege, follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. God has given us a deposit in this church of doctrine, and gospel, and logic, and epistemology, and history, and philosophy, and systematic theology, and we ought to honor God by following that sound pattern of words that have been deposited to us, that we have heard from Matt, in as much as he has followed scripture. That would honor God. If he has followed scripture, then if we follow that sound pattern of words, we're honoring God. So we have a duty to retain words. But secondly, we have a duty to pray for words. Listen to how the Apostle Paul ended the book of Ephesians. He asked the church to pray for him. He said, pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And also for me, that words, pray for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. The existing elders here, and especially those who preach, need your prayers. No one is sufficient for these things. Paul wasn't sufficient for these things. Pastor Matt wasn't sufficient for these things. And your new elders will not be sufficient for these things. Pray. Plead with God that God would give us words, that he would open our mouth, that we would boldly proclaim the mystery of the gospel in this church. Lastly, our delight. Our delight. Father considers Christ too precious to let Jeremiah 3.15 fail. Our father in heaven considers his son, Jesus Christ, too precious to let Jeremiah 3, 15 fail. Listen, congregation, God crushed his son for sinners. Listen to Peter's first sermon at Pentecost. He said, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus, Delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Did you hear that? Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Father publicly displayed His Son on a cross to save sinners. And he, and Jesus is too precious to him to let Jeremiah 3.15 fail. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? We can be confident that God counts the blood of his son so precious that he will not fail to raise up shepherds who will feed his people this message. Pastors were bought by the blood of Christ in order to ensure the preaching of Christ's blood would remain until the end of the age. Let's pray.