Oh, man. I've had that before. So it's all right with y'all. Let's take a moment by ourselves before the Lord. Our call to worship is in the 19th Psalm. Psalm 19, beginning at verse 7. Let's give our reverend attention to the reading and to the hearing of God's most holy word. We read that, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. This is the word of the Lord. Let's go to the word of prayer. Merciful and most gracious Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you for being such an amazing God. For displaying your love and kindness, for letting us know that you are a God of patience, a God of gentleness, a God of mercy. Lord, we know that you're also a God of wrath and justice. Lord, we are so, so grateful for all that you are. You are worthy to be praised, worthy to be adored, worthy to be honored, worthy of all of our love and all of our affection. Father, we pray that you would meet with us, be in our midst this morning. As your word promises, where two or three are gathered, you would be there in their midst as well. They're gathered in your name, and we're gathered in your name. Lord, I lift up to you, pastor, bringing a message to us this morning. I pray that you would fill in the power and unction that you would preach to us. and that you would preach through him to us, and that we would be blessed, convicted, encouraged, strengthened to live the Christian life, and pray these things in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Well, at this point, I'd normally say, turn in your chemo's, but I'm going to say, turn in your inserts. So, holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty, God in three Persons. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee. Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. and seraphim falling down before thee, who were, and are, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee, perfect in power and love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Amen. So, also in your handout, if you find Psalm 20, the responsive reading. I'll read the light print, and together we'll read the dark print. This is the Word of the Lord, Psalm 20. When you are in distress, may the name of the god of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from a sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and we'll lift up our banner in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. of the lord our god. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. Oh lord, save the king. Answer us when we call. Amen. Father, we come before you and we lift up to you this past week, even this very morning. Lord, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, in word, and in deed. We have provoked you to your face so often, yet your mercy still is available to us. for us, for your throne of grace is open to us that we might approach boldly. So Lord, we are so grateful for your great mercy and kindness. We confess that we are so weak and you are so strong and we're so thankful to have a high priest who is perfect in every way, yet was tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin. So Lord, we are thankful that you can identify with us in our weakness, that you are compassionate to us in our weakness, that you are merciful to us in our weakness. Moreover, we are grateful that you have promised to cast our sins as far as the east is from the west, to remember them no more. Lord, taking a moment to remember the results of the fall, the results that sin brought into this world, death and suffering, we lift up to you. We are now family as they mourn the loss of Naomi's grandmother. And we pray, Lord, that you would comfort them in this time of mourning, that you would be with them. Lord, we also remember those who were not able to be with us today for various reasons. and we pray that you would be with them, I think, of the winters. I pray that you would grant them safe travel this morning as they head to Houston. I pray that you would bless their travels and that you would be with them. We pray for all the churches in our community. that are preaching your word and preaching your gospel. We pray that you would bless them and the work that they're doing and that you would bring many of the lost sheep into the household of God through the faith and preaching of your word. Lord, we thank you for this congregation and for this church. We pray that you would continue to bless us, continue to grow us and strengthen us. Again, our desire is to confess that we have so often failed, but we are so thankful for the mercy that we have received in Christ, that we need to be dressed in the righteousness, the alien righteousness of another, so that we can stand before you. and hear those words. Well done, good and faithful servant. Even though it was in the labor of our elder brother, we are so grateful that you credit his righteousness to our account as you are daily fulfilling your promise to inform us as an image of your son. We pray these things in Jesus' mighty name. Thank you for all that you do. Amen. Amen. Our words of assurance. of forgiveness are found in 1 John 3, verse 5. The first epistle of John, chapter 3, verse 5. And you know that He was manifest to take away our sins. And in Him there is no sin. Well, if you turn in your handout to Alforma Foundation. And please write your grade. A firm, a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord, it is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you He has said, ♪ For refuge to Jesus hath fled ♪ ♪ Fear not, I am with thee ♪ ♪ O be not dismayed ♪ ♪ For I am thy God ♪ ♪ And will still give thee aid ♪ ♪ I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand ♪ A bell by my righteous commitment can, When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow, for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, and sanctify to thee thy deeds. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only desire thy drops to consume. ♪ And thy goals to refine ♪ ♪ In down to old age ♪ ♪ All my people shall prove ♪ ♪ My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love ♪ ♪ And when o'er it airs ♪ ♪ Shall their temples adore ♪ My friends, they shall still in my bosom be born, the soul that on Jesus died. Jesus hath leaned for repose. I will not, I will not be turned to his foes. Lest, although all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. You may be seated. Merciful father. that you would, and I know I prayed that prayer of intercession earlier during the sin of confession, but Lord, I pray again for those that are mourning and weeping. Lord, you called us to weep with each other in times of mourning, and you called us to rejoice with each other in times of celebration. And so Lord, we pray that you would grant us as your family, grant us as the children of God, the sons and daughters of God, to love each other in that way. Oh Lord, I pray that you would grant the Lord's high priestly prayer to be more and more manifest in this world, that the world would look at the church and see us as one, as you and the Father are one through Jesus. That we would be united, not united for the sake of unity, but united around the bond of truth and love. United around your word faithfully proclaimed. United around your awesome revelation. We're so thankful for it, and we're so thankful for you. Lord, I pray for pastors who brings the word to us that again, as prayed before, that it would be light to us, that it would encourage us, that it would help us to grow in our walk with you, that it would help us by equipping us more and more to do the work of the ministry as we've been called. Lord, I pray that you would grant to us opportunities and that you would grant to us a voice during those times of opportunity to share the truth of gentleness and respect in a world that is growing more and more intolerant of the truth. Lord, I also want to take this moment to lift up to you, Pastor, who will be traveling on a mission trip to evangelize in Scotland. in the coming days, Lord, we pray that you would be with him on that journey, that you would bless him and his team with powers that preach your word, and that you would grant revival in Scotland through their preaching. Not just their preaching, but other ministers who have gone there and are faithfully preaching your word. I pray that you would shore up the ministers that are faithfully preaching on Lord's Day to your people. And we know, Lord, that the remnant still remains there, even though that country has gone so far away from you. And Lord, in praying for another country, I'm reminded of our own country and the struggles that we have here that are too numerous to count, and that are too burdensome to even want to focus long on. But you know all, and you are in control over all. You're sovereign and glorious. And so, Lord, we plead with you Lord, please grant revival, grant revival that we might, that we might witness a large, a large number of men and women broken. over their sin, humbled over sin, and brought to the glorious fountain of life, the glorious fountain of forgiveness. Lord Jesus, we pray, Lord, that you might grant to us the ability to go labor with you in bringing in the lost sheep. We pray these things in Jesus' glorious name. If I had gotten here a little bit earlier, I would have asked him if he had read this passage. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and read the Old Testament, but can I ask you to read the New Testament passage? Yeah, of course. Not right now. In just a second. Our Old Testament scripture reading is found in the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. Let us again give our reprehension to the reading and hearing of God's most holy word. Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess. that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you. a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house When you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. This is the word of the Lord. If you turn in your handout to when this passing world is done. This is one of my favorite pens. I honestly don't know how the tune goes. We're going to sing to the tune of Rock of Ages. And this was written by a young minister who didn't get to live very long, Robert Vernon Kane. I think it's the only We're just going to sing the ones that are found in the Trinity Temple. So, if you please rise and sit at your table. When this fasting world is done, when the sun, young, wearing sun, when we stand with Christ in glory, looking o'er life's finished story, then, Lord child, I fully know, not till then how much I owe. When I hear the wicked call, On the rocks and hills to fall, When I see them start and string, On the fiery deluge bring, Then, Lord, shall I fully know Not till then, how much I owe. I'm going to try to lower it a little bit. When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art, lovely with a sinning heart, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then how much I owe, when the praise of heaven I hear. Loud as thunders through the year, Loud as many waters' oars, Sweet as hearts' melodious voice, Then more shall I fully know, Not till then, how much I owe, Chosen not for good he meek, Wakened now from wrath to flee, Hidden in the Savior's sight, By the Spirit sanctified. Teach me, Lord, on earth to show By my love, how much I owe. Amen. Good morning, please turn to Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 12. Do not presume that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I do not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, first, I want to thank Justin for putting together this handout. It's a lot of hard work running into that. I don't know if he had much time to do it or not. I don't know when he found out that Josh was not going to be here. But anyway, nevertheless, I appreciate that. I appreciate that Josh also is going to be preaching Sunday after next. By the Lord willing, I'll be in Scotland. And please pray for our Scotland troop that The Lord will bless, that many will be saved, that he will give us protection and boldness and a flow of the gospel that will be able to make it clear that we need your prayers. And you will be participating in the mission trip, I pray. And thankfully, all of our needs are met. But you know, if you want to just pray, it would be much appreciated. All right. Now, we're preaching through the Sermon on the Mount, part of which was just read. And let me emphasize here what I'll be preaching on. And it is this. Beginning in verse 17, our Lord says, that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, thank you for the word of God. Lord, thank you that it's living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and able to pierce deep, deep, deep within us. And Lord, do so today. Open our ears, open our hearts. Lord, we can do nothing without your Spirit. We cannot apply the Word, understand the Word, appreciate the Word without your help. And so we appeal to you, Lord, for that, for your glory. And Lord, help us to be doers of the Word. and not merely hearers as we depart this place later. And let us adorn the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. So I titled this sermon a title that I wasn't really comfortable with because it almost sounds proud. But if you know the gospel, you know it's not proud. And it's directly taking from what Jesus says in this passage, great in the kingdom of God. And that's what, in part, this is all about. It's also about those who annul the commandments of God. will be the least in the kingdom of heaven. So the first question and the first point that Jesus makes, which I have summarized in a point, do I uphold the word of God? Or do I understand and fulfill the law of God? And let's unpack that a bit and see what is being talked about. Jesus exactly said, Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Okay, so one of the things Jesus is doing here, and that we need to be doing, is he is restoring a right understanding of the law of God. Now, why would he do such a thing? Because of the Pharisees. They were distorting the law of God, which is very easy to do. Have you ever felt like you needed to keep God's law to be saved and that by doing so you might get into heaven or you would get into heaven? That is a wrong use of the law. That's not the purpose of the law. Yes, God has put it in our hearts to live a righteous life, but not in order to be saved as if that would save us. Christ dying on the cross is what saves a Christian. Faith in Christ is what saves the believer. So what Jesus is interested in doing, and keep in mind the context here, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, they had a distorted view of the law. They thought they were keeping the law of God, did they not? They suffered from self-righteousness, which we can all suffer from that, and I would say we all have to do. You know, they loved the prayers in public, the long, flowing robes, the seats at the table, the noisy giving, the clanging in the offering plate. They loved it all. And it was all external. External. The appearance. But what does Jesus talk about? Jesus talks about the heart, the inner life. You know, in the Old Testament, Murder was forbidden. And I've told you before how, you know, murder is not what soldiers and policemen do in the line of duty. They have a responsibility sometimes to kill in the line of duty. But now, murder is where somebody that doesn't have that authority just goes out and kills someone. Okay? But Jesus made it even clearer that if you even hate somebody in your heart, you've murdered them. When you look upon somebody with lust, you come in and go, just look, look and think, and you're already guilty. So, you see, he is explaining, it's not just exterior, like the Pharisees thought, the Sadducees. There is an inner life that he changes when we become a Christian. Praise the Lord. So, the Jews had a false interpretation of the law and of their nature, they thought that they could be good. As a matter of fact, one of them even said to Jesus one day, good teacher. And Jesus, knowing that this guy didn't know that he was Jesus, this Christ, the God-man, he says, why do you call me good? There's nothing good with God alone. And so one of the things Jesus is doing in his ministry is restoring a right understanding of the law of God. Now, you know, I had a lady tell me one time, I said, do you want to go to heaven? She was very elderly, you know. She shocked the daylights out of me when she said, no. I said, don't you want to go be with Jesus? She said, no. I said, why not? She said, he's too good. And so I think she was just feeling the condemnation that comes with the law. which is good. You know, imagine somebody battling cancer and they've got no idea. And cancer is just eating them up. Well, if they don't go to the doctor and get the diagnosis, they're not going to start getting treatment, right? So one of the good things about the law is it shows us our true condition before God. Now, one of the most amazing things, what is the law described as. Listen to this. 2 Corinthians 3, 7, 8. But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fainting as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? Now get that. The ministry of death. How would you like to go to the church and the whole ministry was about death? They have a big sign, you know, welcome to death being celebrated here. We celebrate the victory over death. We celebrate the last enemy being destroyed. But a ministry of death? That was the ministry of the law in part to show us our need for the grace of God, for the mercy of God. You see, the law says if you break one law one time, you're guilty of all. Now, God is holy. And that's another thing the law makes very clear to us, is that God is righteous, completely, 100% righteous. He's holy. Now, when I first became a Christian, One of the things that I appreciated the most was that Josh McDowell said, that means he can be trusted. What if God was just a little bit simple? Well, you might wonder, well, when's he being simple? Is he being simple when he tells me this or tells me that in the Bible? How can I trust a God who is not holy, who does not have integrity and righteousness? So, okay, it's a ministry of death. We are condemned by the law. Now, let that soak in, dear ones. Let that soak in. We are not going to earn our way to heaven. There is no way that's going to happen. So when you're tempted to think that, and I believe we all are, I believe because of our fallen nature, We are sometimes tempted to try to be good enough to get into heaven. To err getting into heaven. Well, let this be part of your defense that you're never going to meet that standard. It is a ministry of death, a ministry of condemnation. That's what the law is now. Are you willing to embrace it? Are you willing to accept it, that truth? Well, especially in the light of the grace and mercy of God, that that is why Jesus Christ came down here to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross. To pay that penalty that we could never pay. The only way for us to get to heaven is through His righteousness imputed to us. There's nothing wrong with good works, but if we trust in good works to be saved, to merit salvation, we are sadly mistaken. And actually, we've fallen from grace. This is in the Bible. In the book of Galatians, if you or I, if we're trusting in our good works to get us to heaven, we have fallen from grace. and very delusional and unnecessary. So this right use of the law is a defense against wrong thinking about salvation and falling for grace. Now, how is the law to be respected? We are to respect the law as it is. You know, the covenant was given to Adam. The covenant of works. That was a covenant of law. Here it is, Adam. You do right and you will live. You keep this law, you keep this commandment, you'll live. You break this, you die. It's that simple. So, what is the law to us? Well, for one thing, as a believer, trusting in the grace and mercy of God, I want to know how to live my life. The law tells me how to live. Don't lie. Don't go around being dishonest. Don't bear false witness. Don't steal. Don't kill. I mean, I'm talking about murder now, because I know we've got a lot of military in this congregation when everybody's here. Even now, we've got quite a few. You know, there's, we're talking here that it's murder that is condemned, not righteous killing. I mean, you look at the Old Testament. God commands his armies to kill. Okay, now, a rule. Do not commit adultery, which our society is full of, okay? And that word, adultery, stands in place of all sexual sin. Don't commit that sexual sin. You know, God has given us a marriage between a man and a woman, a place for sex that is honored and glorified even. That's the only place for it. So we're talking about the commandments. Worship only the true God. And don't worship images of the true God. Just worship God. And the law tells us how to live. You want to know how to live? You know, we've got ethics. Well, right here's God's ethics. how to live. What am I going to do? Do this? Do this? There's a reward, as we had in one of the readings this morning. Okay, now, more about this law. Now, as true believers are not under the law, yet there's great use for it in informing us about the will of God. In Romans 7, 12, Paul says, so the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The law is good. You know, we've got to be careful as Christians that we don't start, oh, the law is good. No, the law is good in its place, in its place. Listen to what Paul also says in Romans 7.22. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man. I mean, isn't it great? Following the law of God, not for salvation, but just for life. Think of how many marriages have been saved by the law of God. Think of how many careers have been saved by the law of God. How many lives, even, have been saved by the law of God. Tremendous numbers. Tremendous blessings. Even to the people who don't know the Lord, it can be a source of restraint. When they know that God has commanded certain things, it can be a source of restraint. And then there are blessings for keeping it. Now the law is not contrary to the grace of God. The law is not contrary to the gospel. Now, trying to be saved by the law is contrary to the gospel. But the law itself is not contrary to the gospel. Listen to what Galatians 3, 21 says. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be. For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would have indeed been based on the law. Righteousness is not based on the law for the believer. You know, Paul, who had done so much, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, an education that was excellent, and yet, you know, as to the law, blameless, he said, now that is to the exterior keeping of the law. But he said when he heard that commandment against Cuthathin, That's what God did, because coveting is an inward thing. But he said, you know, I don't want to be found having a righteousness of my own, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness which comes by faith. That's what he wanted. We are to obey the law, but not for salvation, as a rule of life, as a way to live. Without getting under the law for salvation, don't do that. That's wrong. Okay? Now the scripture says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. How do you like that? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I remember my mother one time, in her old age, when we took her to the beauty shop. We took her to the beauty shop, and the girl who was rolling her hair used the wrong size curls. Now, you would have thought that this was a huge sin to my mother. She was very upset. Here she was, I guess, in her 80s. And I said, well, just forgive her, you know. And she said, you know, when I did my work, she was an accountant. I did it in fear. Now, I watched my mother work because she often brought her work home with her when I was a child. She'd be sitting at the dining room table late at night crunching those numbers. But I never looked over and saw her cowering and shaking, trembling, you know. But she did it in fear. She said, I always did my work in fear. Her complaint against the hairdresser was carelessness. She said, I always think about working fear. Now, in the scriptures, servants are told to serve their masters with fear and trembling. Well, what is this? Does this mean, you know, work out your salvation with fear, trembling, cowardly, and shaking, you know? Well, it is very serious. And I pity people who don't take it seriously. Because I think it's easy to miss the boat if you're not careful. You know, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. You know, we need the Word. We need the Bible. We need to be in the Bible. We need to be praying. We need to be having devotions. We need to be being fed by the Bible. And you know one thing, we go through a lot of trials. Somebody said there's three things going on. You're either coming out of a trial, you're in the midst of a trial, or you're getting ready to go into a trial. A trial of your faith, a test of your faith. Life is not easy. We face challenges, we face trials. The Lord even tests our faith. We need to be able to trust God. We need to be in the Word of God. So, this working out of the salvation with fear of tribulation, which is found in Philippians, by the way, which, you know, let's look at it here for a minute. Chapter 2, something in my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only. Now, notice a Christian is one who obeys the Lord, not perfectly, None of us perfectly obey the Lord, but we do obey. Just as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only. You know, Paul's like, okay, you behaved pretty good when I was around, but now that I'm not around, but now much more in my absence, excuse me, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? For it is God who is at work in you. Love to desire to work for His good pleasure. Now, God is at work in you. This is another benefit of the law. The law shows us that we are in bad shape. outside of Christ. And even in Christ, we need His grace and mercy to do anything. To be a spouse, to be an employee, everything. To be a grandparent, to be a parent. We need God's grace and power and strength. That's one thing the law shows us and the rest of the scripture confirms it. And notice this first one confirms it. It says, for it is God who is at work in you. Are you concerned about your soul today? That's God. Unless Satan's accusing you. And the only reason Satan, I think, would be accusing you is because God is working in you or the Holy Spirit is bringing you under conviction. But we don't do nothing. good without the Lord's help. That's how sin has affected us. That's how the fall has affected us. Did you come here today in hope of getting some spiritual food? That's from God. God gives you that desire to get some spiritual food, to get some spiritual nourishment, to get some hope for your faith to be increased. And where does faith come from? From hearing the Word of God. So really, let's think about this fear of trembling for a minute. I don't think it would be fitting to the birds for us to be cowering in fear and shaking if God isn't working in us. That's something to rejoice about, is it not? And besides that, this book of Philippians tells us to rejoice. Be rejoicing. By the way, that's a command. I was helped greatly to hear that that's a command because I don't always feel like rejoicing. And I heard an old man say it a number of years ago when I had gone many decades without realizing it's a command to be joyful. We are to be joyful. We've got plenty to be joyful about. We just need to count our blessings. We need to pray. You know, pray without ceasing. Now, that doesn't mean that God expects us to pray 24-7, but that means He's listening 24-7 for us to pray, right? He wouldn't tell us to pray without ceasing if He was taking a few hours off. Pray without ceasing, He said, between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. No. Pray without ceasing. You got these trials going on in your life? Pray. You know, it's amazing. You may think your life is ruined. You may think all the opportunities are gone. Pray, pray. God is great and gracious and merciful and he rewards. So pray, pray. Notice this word, for. Listen, Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for. It is God who is working, that word for is almost like an arm reaching out and grabbing the rest of the sentence there, the truth. That God is at work in you, both to desire and work for His good pleasure. Now right there in the same context, in the same chapter, the last verse, verse 18, for you too, I urge you, rejoice. in the same way and share your joy with me. So I think here about fear and trembling, it's figuratively for taking the Lord seriously and respectfully and obeying Him and depending upon Him. So are we depending on the Lord now regarding our lives? Are we depending on the Lord now regarding our future, the future of our children and grandchildren? And lately, I've been praying for this generation. You know, I've been praying for individuals, you know, and like I was riding the bike trail and I was praying for this person that I would pass and then I started calling. It just dawned on me, man, you need to just pray for the entire generation, like David did. He prayed that this generation, that he would be able to proclaim to this generation the truth. We need to pray for this, all people alive. With God, all things are possible. There could be a revival. Oh, that there would be a revival. So, you know, I think part of the problem in the book of Philippians was, he says, do nothing from selfishness or impotence, but with humility, consider one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others. Have this attitude in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as he already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. But emptied himself, taking on the form of a bouncer, being born in the likeness of man and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself. You know, maybe they were a little high-minded there in Philippi. And maybe we are, too. And I think we are always struggling with that. And so fear and trembling to deal with our high-mindedness, respect for the Lord, reverence Obedience. Dependence on the Lord. That's what the law calls for. This is what the Word calls for. This is what the Spirit calls for. Have joy. Well, we're going to have joy by considering other people. You know, the old acronym, J-O-Y, Jesus, Others, Yourself, right? In chapter 3, rejoice in the Lord, verse 1. Verse 7, but whatever things were gained to me, these things I've counted as lost because of Christ. You know, you're tempted to think self-righteously, high-mindedly, just count it lost. And think, Christ is my only way. It's not for me to be thinking that I'm better than other people, holier than other people. I need to look to Christ. He is my salvation. I need to sympathize with those who are steeped in sin. And all my accomplishments, so-called, that weren't really accomplishments, but I just thought they were, that's loss compared to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's a loss. It's nothing. It's trouble. It's trouble. It's self-righteousness. It's wrong. So, dear friends, work out your salvation with humility, with a right knowledge of the law of God, obedience, and dependence upon God. That's what we're called to do. And He will bless that. And He will reward that. Not in salvation. That's a free gift. But in our daily life, in our experience, are we enjoying God? You know, the first question of the Shorter Catechism, which I was reading, I believe took him about seven years to write, if I read that right last night. Seven years to write the Shorter Catechism, which could be read, I believe, in less than an hour. I know I've listened to it on audio for 30 or 40 minutes. They so carefully wrote it. You know what the first question is. What is the chief end of man? What's your purpose? What's my purpose? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And I was close with this Stonewall Jackson, that great soldier. I don't know how his name came up the other day. But you know how he got the name Stonewall? Because he would stand in battle. I mean, he was still taking the necessary precautions and stuff. But he was like a stone wall because of his courage. He knew that his times were in God's hands. And so he was not cowering in the war. And he stood like a stone wall. I heard two pastors in the war on the street going in opposite directions. And they noticed each other's confidence, which I would say is faith. And they turned around and looked at each other and said, is it a shorter catechism? I said, yeah. It instills that kind of faith in you because it's based on Scripture, nothing apart from Scripture. Our chief end, our chief purpose, our chief goal in life is to enjoy God. Now how do we enjoy Him? Trust Him. Do you really believe that God is working all things together for the good? That's what He says. Do we really believe that? Now in trials, that's very difficult to believe, isn't it? It's very difficult to believe that in trials. But it's true. And if we will, Go to prayer and go to the Word and spend time until God increases our faith to believe the truth. We get relief. We get joy. Let's pray. Precious God, Heavenly Father, thank you for the right use of the law that Jesus came to restore, not to destroy. but also to fulfill all righteousness. Thank you for a great Savior. Thank you for the word of God that not even a jot or tittle will be changed, which I spoke about several weeks ago. Lord, thank you for the bond in your word. Help us to be humble. Help us to rely upon You, to be obedient, to be trusting. In Jesus' name, Amen. And so we have the Lord's Supper that He said to observe until He comes back. And one of the things we do by observing this is that we proclaim the Lord's Second Coming by doing this. Because His instructions were, do this until I come back. And so we have these ordinary elements. I'm going to pray that they be blessed by the Lord to communicate what He wants to communicate. Heavenly Father, we pray that You would take these ordinary elements and use them for Your purposes. That they would be signs and seals of the covenant of grace to us. We pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. So on the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord took bread and He broke it and He said, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So we remember Him with this. We remember that He paid it off. And so we ask that you examine yourself before you partake of this. The instructions are on the back of the bulletin exactly. If we find in our self-examination that there is sin, we need to repent now and forbake of it. Of course, children who have not been yet admitted to the Lord's table by decision will learn by observation, please. He said, this is my body broken for you. Do this and remember it's with me. Let's partake of it together. In the same way, after the egg, He took the cup. He said, this cup is the new covenant in my bloodship. The forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. We'll take this together. Thank you. He said this cup is the new cup in the blood. Shit, I forget it's the same as the drink he had. Let me, uh, pray for you all. Precious God, Heavenly Father, you're so kind to us, so good, so generous, Lord. Thank you for blessing us and teaching us to be content with what we have and also giving us ambition to do what you've called us to do as far as work and career and retirement. Lord, bless now this offering. Use it for your glory. Use it for the spread of the gospel here in Clarksville, the region, and the world. For your glory, Lord. Thank you that you love and share forgiveness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'll be right with you. I apologize, I didn't have space to get the words in, but it's a pretty easy song. But the words are, praise God, or excuse me, the words are glory be to the Father, glory be to the Son, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, and is now and ever shall be, world without end, amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. So, before the benediction, I just wanna make a few announcements. Uh number one, we're having lunch in here. So, please The other thing is, is please be in prayer that we are allowed to move back to our other room downstairs, room 103. They said we needed to be in this room for three weeks. This is the third week. They will be making a decision about letting us back in there. Only, not that we misbehaved or left it dirty or anything like that, because we didn't. But, you know, they purpose these rooms around this campus. And I know they've turned two churches down recently. mainly because those churches were too big. Well, we're really too big for this room if everybody's here. And so, please be in prayer that we can get back in room 103 or that the Lord will even provide something better for us, okay? And having said that, just remember to pray for the Scotland trip coming up starting the 11th of next month. And having said that, please proceed with benediction. And now, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, both now and forever. Amen.