All right, we come this morning in the book, The Doctrine of Revelation by A.W. Pink. We come to chapter 12 this morning. I've probably said it before, I'm not sure why he bothered with chapters or anything else, because he just kind of runs from one to the other. And I've kind of given up trying to keep up with it in some ways. But we're talking about the Word of God as it authenticates itself, and that's a teaching that's been in the Reformed Church for a long time, that the Word of God is self-authenticating. And so today, in chapter 12 in particular, we're gonna look at the unique contents of the Word of God and the proof of divine revelation from the uniqueness and the uniformity of that Word. We've seen this already in the last two weeks before in the matters of salvation and prophecy, but today I think we'll see it in a little different way as far as these three areas with regard to the unique contents of the word of God is in particular as it relates or as it is in contrast to other religious documents that are put forth as being somehow special or teaching religious things. So three things that we're gonna look at this morning, I'll give you all three of them because again, it will be a lot to get through. But first of all, the doctrine of the word of God, Secondly, the precepts of the Word of God. And then thirdly, the promises of the Word of God. And so under the matter of the doctrine of the Word of God, Pink makes the point, and I think it's very valid if you stop and think about it, and a lot of these things are like that. If you stop and think about them, you'll say, yeah, of course it is. But if you don't stop and think about it, you just pass right by them and not enjoy and not benefit from what is in the Word. So first of all, the doctrine of the Word of God is a singular and harmonious truth. It is one truth. It is not full of diversity, to use one of our words today. It is not error that takes on many different forms or many different deviations. It is singular. It has a single focus, and it is harmonious. All of it fits together. as it reveals the revelation of God, the doctrine of God. And so, as Pink points out, often in scriptures, the doctrines of that are not the word of God are spoken of in the plural, as opposed to the singular, the doctrine. And so, for instance, 1 Timothy 4.1 speaks of the doctrines of demons, plural. Colossians 2.22 speaks of the doctrines of men, plural. And which are, and described in another place, which are various and strange doctrines. But the divine always uses the singular. The doctrine, John 7, 17. The apostles' doctrine, 1 Timothy 4, 16. Sound doctrine, Acts 2, 42. Good doctrine, 1 Timothy 4, 6. the name of God and His doctrine, 1 Timothy 6.3. And so very much the Word of God points to the doctrine of the Word of God as a single truth, one that is wrapped up and is all contained in a single truth. And yet, And I like these analogies. I like one better than the other. You'll see why. But like a diamond or like a rainbow, there are many faucets, there are many facets or colors that make up that doctrine. And diamonds in particular, I think, point that out. If you don't have one, go look around, somebody that does. But a good diamond, one of the ways that they rate a good diamond is the color of it and the way it reflects the light. A rainbow, of course, is nothing but refracted light. It wasn't known until, I don't remember who it was now, but one of the guys was fooling around with a prism and suddenly noticed that the light coming through the glass broke up and broke into the colors of what we call the rainbow. But it's one rainbow. And it's a diamond that is one single thing that has all those colors and all that clarity to it. And so that is the doctrine that we look at in the Word of God. It is a single thing, even though it has many different aspects or many different facets that we look at. And so think of it as branches growing from a single tree. I hadn't thought to use this, but I was up yesterday standing on top of the ATV picking apples out of the apple tree because I could reach further with the apple picker. And I didn't fall down, I didn't break my leg. I guess that's a good thing I'm here. But it was interesting to me, and I hadn't thought of it in this context, that there were apples of all different sizes. and they were all on all different branches. And as I did that, it was all there, but it was still one tree. We really only have one apple tree that bore fruit this year. And so all that tree has all those different branches, and there are a lot of them in the way, and all different apples, different sizes, different shapes, sort of, but all from that single tree that it all has sprung forth from. And so what we refer to often as the doctrines of grace are really the many parts of the revelation of God in His mercy to His people. So don't think of it as many doctrines. Think of it as the doctrine of grace, if you will, that has all those different parts that we study and that we look at and that we see as we appreciate these things. And so the question is, do we fully appreciate the importance and the primacy of the doctrine of Revelation? We would not know these things if they did not come to us by God in the book that he has given to us. And so the more time one devotes to a prayerful and diligent perusal of the doctrine of Christ, 2 John 1, 9, the more will he perceive not only the spiritual excellence of each of its parts, but also their perfect harmony, their intimate relationship to one another, and the mutual furtherance of all unto the same end. It is ignorance of the whole which lies behind the supposition that any one part conflicts with another." And I was quoting Pink there in case you didn't pick that up, and I realized it was a long quote, but I think it was important that as we look at the Word of God, and notice the further reference here in 2 John, the doctrine of Christ, So we've had the doctrine, the apostles' doctrine, the sound doctrine, the good doctrine, God and his doctrine, and now the doctrine of Christ. You see, they are all the same thing. And I think it's important as we look at that, because some people will try to say, oh, well, Paul taught this, but the other apostles taught this, and Christ taught this. No. The Word of God refers to all of these things as the doctrine. But Pink makes the point that unless you're studying it, he says, prayerfully and diligently, so both with an eye to God, God give me wisdom, give me the spirit to direct me in these things, as well as effort on your part. You have to be diligent in these things. You can't just read something and say, oh, well, I don't know what that was about and keep going. There is prayerful and diligent perusal of the Word of God. And the more you do that, the more you'll perceive the excellence of each of the parts and how they blend together in harmony and how they're related to one another. And so I agree with Pink, and that's why I put this quote in here. It's difficult sometimes to read a large quote, but it is ignorance of the whole. which lies behind the supposition that any one part conflicts with another. So as soon as you run into someone who says, oh, well, that doesn't, you know, mean this because there's a conflict in the Word of God, they don't understand the whole of the Word of God. I remember this, and I probably have used it as an illustration before because I remember it, but I remember a man who stumped me early on about his aunt who was very religious and She was always talking about the serpent in the Garden of Eden as being Satan, and that was silly. It didn't actually say that anywhere. And, of course, I didn't really have an answer, and I went and looked, and sure enough, in Genesis, it doesn't say that the serpent is Satan. There's some ambiguity there, but I think it's in Revelation. When you get to Revelation, it absolutely says, the serpent, Satan, who was in the Garden. So, you see, because of being young and not having that whole picture put together, you could be tripped up by somebody saying, oh, see, the scripture disagrees with it, or it doesn't, you know, people say things that it doesn't say. No, it's not that at all. Be familiar with the scriptures. Be wrapped up in the scriptures and understand the unity of them and the need that we have to study that and to be in accord with it. And so it produces and promotes the doctrine, the singularity of the word of God, produces and promotes an end goal of piety. If as a Christian you're asking yourself, how do I get to be a better Christian? The answer is the study of the Word of God. God uses means. Yes, the Spirit will have to aid you. Yes, God will have to have worked in your heart and given you life. But He gives us the Word of God in order that we might get to that end goal of piety. And so we have, as it says in 1 Timothy 6, the doctrine which accords with godliness. Do you want to know how to be more godly? Do you want to know how to serve God and live for Him more? Then study the doctrine of the Word of God. Look at that which is given to us there. And so Pink used this illustration. I really liked it. He says, it is a mold into which the mind is cast. And you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered," Romans 6, 17. But I like the idea of the mold, and probably because I mold things. I mold bullets. And you got these molds, and you pour lead into them that's melted, and they harden, and it comes out, and every one looks exactly the same, and they measure exactly the same. And that's the idea of a mold. And for the rest of us, we also probably did that with silly putty when we were, you know, silly putty, Play-Doh, when we were young, right? See, the boys, they did. You push it on things and you make shapes in it and you make molds of it. Well, take that and think about the Word of God and your relationship to the Word of God. You should be taking the Word of God and pressing it onto yourself so that you are molded into the shape of the Word of God. And so, as Paul says in Romans, that you obey from the heart the form of doctrine to which you were delivered. So it should impact us, it should direct us, it should mold us into what we are. And I'm just going to throw out a few examples that Pink gave. You can read some more in his book, or you can explore these in other means. but examples of doctrine that I don't think any of us would ever begin to understand or grasp if they weren't represented in the Word of God. Things such as the Godhead. God is one, and yet he's in three persons. And you look at false religions, they have all kinds of crazy ideas, most of which involve multiple gods. and there is the uniqueness of the singularity of the God of the Bible. One God represented in three persons or in three persons. The idea, and we just heard about this recently, the idea of federal headship, and that's a bigger word or a fancy word for one man legally representing many. And so Adam legally represented the human race. Jesus Christ legally represented those who would be saved. And you see, without that, you have no salvation. You have no context for sin coming into the world and separation from God. And so the idea of federal headship is a doctrine that we should see in the word of God and study and understand the implications of it. The doctrine of grace. or the undeserved favor of God. It was interesting. Pink made reference to it, and at the picnic last night, I was sitting, I think it was Luke and Greg and it might have been somebody else, and I said something to him, because I know Luke is a little bit of a language guy, and I said, Pink made the comment that the idea of grace is not found in most language. And that when you go to a new country, a foreign country, and you try to work missions there, one of the difficulties is trying to get the concept of grace and find a word that represents it. And Luke was like, you know, you're right. Spanish doesn't, it's hard to represent that in Spanish. And Pink's point was because it's not natural. Grace isn't something man comes up with on his own, and then especially with relation to God. And yet the word of God is full of the grace of God. The gospel is a doctrine that we would do well to understand and to see in the word of God. And you say, well, of course, but understand it from this perspective. The gospel is good news for us, right? We all say it's the good news of the gospel. It's not advice. It's not something you can take or leave. It is the good news and it is the only way, as Jesus Christ said, it is the only way to God the Father. And so that makes a lot of people say, oh, you Christians, you're mean, hateful. Oh, you're terrible. No, not when you tell the truth of if you want to be reconciled with God, you have to go by the means God has prescribed. That is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. There are other examples, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. You of all, I'm pretty sure at one point or another, if you've given any thought to the things of God, you've wrestled with that. How do you put those two things together? And the answer is, keep working at it. God will eventually help us to understand that. But don't say, well, I can't understand that, so therefore I don't believe the word of God. Who are you, man? Should you stand in judgment of these things? God says and teaches clearly he is sovereign, and he teaches clearly man is responsible. There you go. Press that on yourself. Get a hold of that and understand it is the teaching of God. It is part of the doctrine that is set forth. And then the manner of setting forth doctrine in the Word of God is unique. And I just want to touch on this for a minute. Again, Andy touched on it a little bit in the studies on the confession. But the Word of God is not defined articles of faith or a creed. The Word of God isn't our confession. It is the presentation of these things incidentally rather than systematically. And it took me a minute to think about that and see what he meant. It's illustrated and exemplified in particular in individuals. So God has not gathered the whole of any one truth in a single place, but he requires us to search and to dig it out among the warnings and the exhortations and the promises. And so thus in doing this is our conscience addressed as well as our understanding. And so the confession plays a very important role. Systematic theologies play a very important role. But they do that in the sense of, as we are learning the things of God, they are tools, they are crutches, if you will, that help us to put together things in a logical, orderly way that we can come back and reference, that we can show to others, that we can discuss amongst ourselves. But God didn't reveal himself to us in that way. He did it in the Bible. in a individualistic way in order that we would have to dig and work for it a little bit. And I think whether you think of a garden or a mine, a gold mine or whatever, you appreciate what comes out of that garden more if you're the one that's been out there digging and working and weeding and pulling and picking and throwing bugs in the bucket and all that stuff. You appreciate it more than if you go down to the store and pick something off the shelf. And it's because you've had to work at it, and you know what went into it, and you know the effort that went into it. Well, that's what the Word of God is. And so as Christians, what should we be doing? We should be engaged in the digging, and the mining, and the reviewing, and the looking again, and the consideration of the Word of God, and the things of God. And it's interesting because I've found this over and over. As you go into the Word of God, you can read something that you have read literally hundreds of times before. and suddenly have some understanding of it in a way that you didn't have before. That's the spirit of God, I think, applying the word to us and teaching us these things. But the point is, it is a mine. It is a place where you can dig and dig and dig, and you think, oh, I found the nugget, look at this one, and then come back tomorrow and you dig a little more, and oh, there's something else, and here's another one. And so take advantage of this communication of truth and of then the tools that we have, the picks and the shovels, if you will, of the orderly and systematic looking at the Word of God in those other tools that we've added on. And I would say also that you can do this and help others who you're speaking to about Christ in showing them this. And oftentimes I'll say to someone who is like, I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start. Start in the gospel of John. and start working there. And then at some point, maybe you can go into like, say, Romans, or depending on the need, different books. But at some point you have to say, and then you need to go back to Genesis and work your way through and see that progressive, orderly, systematic revelation of God that led all the way up to the culmination of Jesus Christ coming as the Messiah. So that's the doctrine of the Word of God, but also the precepts of the Word of God are unique. Again, I think this is quoting Pink, let me, yeah, anyway, at no other point does the heavenly origin of the Bible appear more plainly than the exalted standard that it sets forth and the conduct it requires from us. You think about this, and especially in the context of like today, we're on the Lord's day, we're gathered in the Lord's house, you as you drove here, went by numerous people that were not doing anything in any way religious or interested in the things of God. And so what is it that has driven us to act in the particular way that we act? It is the standard that the Word of God sets forth and the conduct that it requires from us, including the commandment that we should honor the Lord's Day. And so be careful of taking away from the Word of God and saying, oh, well, you know, nine commandments, they're fine, but that tenth one, we don't have to do that anymore. That's a false use of the word of God, which sets a very exalted standard for us and for our conduct. And so our Christianity must extend therefore beyond this church building. If you leave the church building and your Christianity doesn't follow you and you just go about doing your things of the world like the world does the rest of the six days, you have missed, I think, the point of the Word of God as far as the precepts of the Word of God. They are to be what drives us as Christian. There's a marked contrast between the Christian and the world. And so unbelievers, atheists, which are really truly just unbelievers, philosophers, sages, all the men that have gathered and tried to have wisdom outside of the Word of God, all of those things are surpassed by the teaching of God. God embraces every duty and relation He prohibits all evil and promotes all virtue, to sum up the gist of what I think the precepts of the Word of God are here. And so, what's promoted by the world? Ambition. The one thing, my son and I were talking about this the other day, because he was having a mid-year review. What are your goals for the next year, for the next five years, for the next 10 years? And he said, I just want to say to him, I want to have a good job and provide for my family. I said, yeah, they don't accept that one, do they? They should. That's the best goal you can have, men. I'm sorry, but that's not the thing of the world. No, no, no, we mean what position would you like to be in? Okay, I want to be an astronaut. No, no, no, that's not realistic. Well, then, see, you're never happy, so I'm tough at work. Be glad I don't work for you. I've been that way a long time. Now I can blame it on my age, mostly, though. But you see, that's the world. Ambition. Wealth. Who doesn't want to be the richest man in the world, right? except I just happened to see a clip of him the other day, Elon Musk, if you're wondering. I happened to watch a clip of him the other day where he explained when he came to this country, he was 17 years old, he had $2,000 in his pocket. How did Elon Musk get to where he is now, the richest man in the world? Not by sitting around going, nobody's fair to me, because I'm an African-American. He is. Sorry. And nobody will hire me, nobody list. No, he took that couple thousand dollars. He was in school. He came out of college with $100,000 in student debt that the government didn't relieve. And he was going, I think he said, to Stanford. And he said, you know what? I need to get a job. And he got a job, and I don't remember the order exactly, but he started a little internet company that eventually became PayPal. And he made, I think he said it was something like 10, $20 million, and he took that $20 million and he put it back into the next company that he founded. And he took the money he made from that and he put it into Tesla and SpaceX. And his point was, and of course, this is the world, his point was, I always play with everything on the table. I'm all in. But that's how he got to be the world's richest man. Not by laying around and saying, oh, nothing is fair. So wealth, ambition, those things are looked at by the world as very positive things. You should be ambitious as a Christian. We're told to do that. You can accumulate wealth and provide for your family and for your church and for all the things that you need as a Christian, but it should always be tempered by God and his teachings as to Where do you use that and how do you use it? But the world, ambition, wealth, pleasure, pride, they're all promoted by the world. And you can't help it with talking recently about the pride parade coming up. People that should be ashamed of what they are doing are instead publicly promoting wickedness and calling it pride. And think of the twisting and the perversion of things. How would you know that? We all have an innate sense of, eh, that's not right. But the Word of God says that's not right. Here's the standard, and this is what we should teach. But the Scripture teaches the opposite. Colossians 3.2, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. It doesn't say don't have anything to do with the earth. It just says set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 1 Timothy 6, 8, and having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. Are you content? Are you thankful? Because we all obviously have clothing, and I'm pretty sure we all had food this morning, and we all probably drove here this morning with the air conditioning on, because it's a little muggy and humid, and we're comfortable now. And so are we content as Christians with what we have, even to the matter of just the food and clothing that God provides for us on a daily basis? Proverbs 23, verse four says, do not overwork to be rich. Because of your own understanding, cease. Matthew 6, 19 says, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You see, and this is just a small sample, you know that, but this is the teaching. This is the precepts that the Word of God gives us as to how we're to live. Well, you need to know those. You need to be reading these things, not because somebody told you, but you need to be reading them because you're reading them and learning them for yourself. And you may have heard them in the preaching of the word of God. You may have heard them in a book that you've read. You may have heard them from someone else in talking to them, but you need to go back to the word of God and make sure you understand them. And these things, in fact, direct and guide you. And so therefore, not only in that area, but also the highest morality and duty are required. Matthew 7, verse 12, therefore, Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. The world's turned that into that's the golden rule. I always chuckle because the King of Id, the Wizard of Id, if you're not familiar with that cartoon, the golden rule there was whoever had the gold makes the rules. That's really the way it works. But you see what the word of God says? The word of God says you treat other men the way you'd like them to treat you. How much better would this world be if that's how we all acted? If we all acted and treated others as we wanted them to treat us. Proverbs 25, 21 takes it even further. It says, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. That's not natural. We are in no way inclined to do that. And the rest of the verse goes on about you heap up burning coals on his head and doing it. But that's not your motivation. That's God's judgment on him. You are to do these things because God says it's right. Why? God's had mercy on us. And so we'll see that as we go along here. Romans 12, 10, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another. Now we're getting to what we'll talk about in our cell groups tonight, the chapter on love. It's a tough chapter to read. If you read it and thought, oh, that's easy, you might wanna read it again. Love is put forth as the primacy in the word of God because of what it requires of us. And so we are to be kindly affectionate to one another, giving preference to one another. That's hard, why? We always give preference to ourselves. We always look past our own sins and difficulties and point out everyone else's. That's why there's the illustration of the splinter in your eye and first take out the mote in your own eye, the beam in your own eye, before you try to take the splinter out of your brother's eye. That's how we act. Yeah, I've lost my place here in the verses. Yeah, that was Philippians 2, 3. First Corinthians 10, 31. Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now think about that. Think about the duty God is requiring of us. Eating and drinking. It's the most basic things we do every day. You have to keep your body running. And yet even in eating and drinking, you should do it to the glory of God. So as you teach your children to sit at the table, we've had a big discussion recently in a group about, do you force your kids to eat everything on their plate? And do you force them to eat the, I think it was Brussels sprouts or something nasty. And the general conclusion was, we don't know. Some parents did it one way, some parents did it another way. But one suggestion that I thought was very good was, it doesn't matter if they eat it all, it matters how they eat it. Do they at least try it? That was kind of our rule and do they try it and say I really don't like that mom I'm sorry, but I'm happy that we have it. I'm thankful that we have it So you see that's you have to teach your children that otherwise your kids gonna grow up eating hot dogs I haven't know somebody like that who's I don't know 17 18 19 still eating hot dogs because that's all he ever had to eat because it's What he was allowed to eat Okay, that'll catch up with you. Everything we do, eating, drinking, everything, to the glory of God. Matthew 5.48, therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Now you read that and you say, I can't be perfect like God. Doesn't matter. That's the duty that's required of us. So you better get to it. and not excuse yourselves, not say to yourself, well, I can't be perfect, so therefore I don't have to be anything, but instead say, how can I approach that each day, each moment of my life to be perfect just as my Father in heaven is perfect? And our motive is to honor God, not to receive the praises of men. If you come here and you worship here and you go to church and you're religious, and of course it's not as popular as it used to be, but it used to be that that would get you some standing in the community. Now it might get you some, you're an oddball and we don't want to do anything to do with you. But it's not to receive the praise of men that we'd follow these precepts, it is to honor God. And then that brings us to the third thing, and that is the promises of God. And that is because man has a natural instinct to seek happiness. And it was amusing to me, because I was reading about a debate, which shouldn't even be a conversation, and the person was putting forth a college professor, who should know better, was putting forth the idea, we need to get rid of the Constitution. It's old, it's outdated, it was fine 250 years ago for a bunch of farmers, but it is not in any way any good for our country today. We need democracy, we need equal rights for everybody, you see where that was going, right? Well, it made me say, wait a minute, what does it say in the Declaration of Independence, the preamble? It says, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, by God, that's why you could say that, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We understand that man has a natural instinct to seek happiness so much that our founding fathers in creating our nation put it in the document that justified why we were going to war to break away from England, from Great Britain. And so we see that. And man even desires eternal happiness in religion. You will meet very few people that aren't religious. They may be kooky religious, but they're religious. And even as I saw someone recently point out, even the atheist is religious. He's just religious about his system of faith, not yours. and it's very much a system of faith. It's the same with this movement today that we call wokeness, but it's the same idea. You either follow that religion, that pagan religion, or they are going to ostracize you, they're gonna go after you legally, they're gonna mistreat you, they're gonna not let you go get food and medicine and whatever, because you're not following the religion. So man has that natural inclination, yet, instead of looking to God, he naturally tries to find it in the creature. And so after giving up glorifying God, and by the way, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question one, what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And that's an excellent start to that catechism. But that is man's chief end, to glorify God. So after giving up glorifying God, which man has done, what does he do? He turns to the flesh for satisfaction. Romans 1.24. And the context of they stopped glorifying God, Romans verse 24 says, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchange the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Discontent And seeking for satisfaction in our own flesh is a great sin against a loving God. And only He can satisfy us. Only our Creator can give us gladness of heart, not through the delight of the senses, but in communion with him. And so again, as Christians, be careful. Be careful that you're not trying to satisfy yourself and enjoy your day by feeling good about things, but instead by communion with your creator. That's why it's important, I think, and scripture seems to be very clear about this, that we should begin our day with devotions. It may be very short based on your schedule and sometimes you get up late, but we should wake up and thank God for the day and give blessing to Him for what He has done. Because the promises of scripture are the assurances that God will bless us in this life and in eternity to come. Isaiah 55 in verse two says, why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Not your body, your soul. Incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. The sure mercies of David. And so the promises of God, I'm gonna end on this note, is first of all to say to the unsaved, Isaiah 55 and verse seven, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. And Christ says the same thing in Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And there's a lot I could have covered on that. I've run out of time. But that's the invitation of Christ to the unsaved. Christ will take away your burden. Christ will give you rest. Nothing else can give you that peace of conscience, soul and heart. So unbeliever hear the promises of the Word of God and believers also hear the promises of the Word of God because the promises of Satan are lies from the beginning. The first thing he did was he lied to Eve. The promises of man are, at best, unreliable. How often do we promise something and then circumstances change or something happens and we can't do what we promised? But the promises of God are infallibly sure. They do not change because God is able to hold and control all things. And so we see this most in the testimony of fellow believers. And one of the best questions you can ask another believer in Christ when you're trying to get to know them and trying to learn a little bit about them is to say, how has God blessed and kept you? We've heard testimony just recently from three ladies who've joined the church, and that was the theme of each of them. Very different stories, very different ways that God brought them to this place to worship with us. But in each of them, there was that idea of God blessing and keeping them. And as believers, we should hold on to that promise. Joshua mentions this in Joshua 23, verse 14. He says, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. We are all gonna go the way of all the earth. We're gonna die. We joke about taxes and death. Death is absolutely 100% sure. I am going the way of all the earth. And you know, in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass, not one of them has failed. And then Solomon says the same thing in 1 Kings. Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people, Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised through his servant Moses. And so this is a promise that we as Christians should cling to and freely appeal to and rejoice in with one another. Psalm 50 verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. Let's close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do pray that you would bless your word to our hearts, that you would help us to indeed glorify you as we live in this world. And Father, may we glorify you because you are such a faithful and promise-keeping God. You have kept us from sin and wickedness when we would naturally have walked in that way. You have brought us to see and to know your Savior, Jesus Christ. You've even gathered us in this place that we might be nourished and fed and fellowship together. And we pray that you would direct us as we spend the rest of this Lord's Day worshiping and honoring your name. Thank you for your mercies to us. We pray that you would continue with us now in Christ's name. Amen.