in the likeness of sinful men, even though he has no sin. He has a body like ours. He lives as both fully God and fully man, fulfilling all of righteousness and then dying as our substitute on the cross. But the Old Testament pictures that in blueprint form. It gives us these snapshots of the coming Christ and all the Old Testament gives to us a pictorial of the promise that God made to Abraham that from his seed the nations will be blessed and they're blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're learning that in Ephesians. We'll learn that all the more that being in Christ we have all these wonderful blessings in the heavenly places as we see in Ephesians 1-3. Never mind that noise, Ms. Van Et, it's just the ice machine. We see the context here, you can look at verse 26, it talks about those that go back, those that apostatize, those that go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth. It talks about how there's an expectation of terrifying judgment in which with which the Lord will consume his adversaries. And so it talks about those that go back. So what we see in verses 19 through 25 is how we as God's people are to walk in persevering truth, to walk in persevering grace, and that there are means that God has ordained that we are to be equipped with if we are to be faithful and walking in the ways of the Lord. Listen, there's all kinds of ways to derail in the faith. Some go back because of the love of the world or the things of the world. We see that with Demas. in Paul's writings. Some fall back under the lies of that there's something under the Old Testament that is more satisfying and more fulfilling than Jesus Christ. And we see that today in the Hebrews Roots movement that has become so prevalent in our country, even globally, that those that are going back to the law, going back to the Old Testament, and thinking that that's going to provide for them something that it cannot. It's only a blueprint. It's only a picture that cannot give to us anything that's superior to what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see again and again the Hebrew author writing that what was done in the Old Testament has been transcended by what Jesus Christ. That the Old Testament high priest would have to go year after year after year and to atone for the people's sin. But Jesus Christ went in once to atone for our sin and said to Telistai, it is finished. And he accomplished the work of redemption once and for all. And that the high priest and all of the sacrifices under the Old Testament were only pictures. They were snapshots. They were types and shadows of the one that was promised, the one that God was going to send in the fullness of time that literally took our sin away by burying it in his body on the cross. So there's all kinds of departures, but here the context speaks directly to the departure of a religious apostasy, or going back underneath the law, trying to satisfy God by doing the works of the law. Now the argument is going to be made in our text tonight that the people of God have been called to persevere in the faith. to not go back, to, as Paul wrote to Colossae in chapter one, verse 23, continue steadfastly in the faith. And as I mentioned earlier in Luke chapter nine, to not turn back or to put your hand, to let go of the plow and then to turn back. Hebrews 10, 39, you can see it says that we are to not shrink back to destruction. I mentioned already that there are several in the Bible that the Bible speaks about that have gone back, and obviously we know that this does not please God. Paul says that Demas went back because he loved the present world in 2 Timothy 4.10. Judas Iscariot, the traitor, Jesus called him a devil, was the one that sold our Savior out for silver in Luke 22, 48. We read in John 6, 66, that many of those that were enamored with Jesus' miracles of the feeding of the 5,000 with the loaf and the fishes, that many went back and walked with him no more because he gave strong words that offended them. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, you're the one that hath eternal life." I'm like, wait a minute here. I didn't sign up for any blood drinking or any flesh eating. 1 John 2, verse 19, the Apostle John speaks about those that went out from among the church because they were not really of us. In each case, each of these that apostatized were in close proximity to truth, right? They were in the proximity of the church, in the proximity of Christ, in the proximity of the apostles, in the proximity of miracles, in the proximity of the sermons Jesus preached, the Sermon on the Mount, in proximity to stalwart believers exposed to the truth, exposed to powerful times of prayer with the people of God. They were engaged in religious activity, but they went out, they apostatized. The call in our text in verses 19 through 25 is for us as God's people to persevere and the foundation that insulates us from becoming apostates is given to us in our text. The antidote against falling away in our text is twofold. The first is that Jesus died on the cross and atoned for our sins, but also that He ever lives to make intercession for His church according to the will of God, and that He intercedes and His prayers are efficacious, meaning that God answers the prayers of His Son. So underlying our perseverance is, let me just mention these two. First of all, we see in verses 19 to 20 in our text, the atonement of Christ, the atoning work of our Savior. Look at it with me. Verse 19 says, therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us. Let me just stop right there. A new and living way in contrast to the old law, right? the statutes and ordinances and keep and do, which obviously we know that no one has done except Christ fulfilled the law for us. So he talks about this new and this living way that he inaugurated for us, that is through the veil that is his flesh. He's talking about his death, his blood being shed. I want to take a moment to make some important statements that might help you. It's important to clarify that there is a distinction, that there is a difference between conversion and enlightenment or being awakened. There are those that are enlightened that are not converted. Those that are being dealt with, that may be coming under conviction, that they're coming into the proximity of the truth and gaining an understanding of certain truths, but yet are not born of God, that have not passed from death to life. But those that have been converted, those that have been born of God, those that have, as John 17 three says, that have received eternal life, have just received eternal life, meaning that it has no expiration date. Those that have been born of God are Christ's forever. But yet, verse 26, as we are looking in the context of chapter 10, talks about a people that have been in the proximity of truth, but yet all the while have no victory over their sin. They go on sinning willfully, although they've received the knowledge, genosko, the knowledge of the truth. They have the facts, they have the revelation, but they have not been enlivened by regeneration or the new birth. They're in proximity to the truth, but yet they are still dead in their sins and transgressions. I mean, mention a while ago about Judas Iscariot. He heard every sermon that Jesus preached. He saw the miracles. He was the eyewitness to Lazarus who had been dead four days. He smelled the stench and he watched him walk out of the tomb. And he still apostatized. No one suspected him. The disciples never suspected it to be Judas Iscariot. He looked in every way like those that were truly born of God. And I know that there's been those that argue and say, well, he was a Christian, but he lost his salvation. My argument would be Jesus himself says that he was a devil all the way from the beginning. A little hard to argue with Jesus on that point. And so What it's arguing in verse 26 and following is that graceless religion fuels apostasy. Or adherence to formalism, adherence to religious rites and observations. They don't have the power to conquer sin that reigns on the inside of a lost soul. Sin is powerful. Jesus said in John 8 that the one that sins is a slave, doulos, of sin. And again, this is in the context of Judaism, that those that were going through the practices of Judaism, they were religious, but they were unconverted and they had no divine power, nor did they have grace to conquer indwelling sin. And the argument that we see that the Hebrew authors making in verses 19 to 20 is that the power to persevere in the faith is rooted in the atonement of Christ and the atoning death of Christ. And what is he saying other than that salvation, true salvation, biblical conversion is a prerequisite if we are to persevere for the glory of God. Revelations 5, 9 and Acts 20, 28 says that Jesus in his death purchased, made a legal transaction that purchased a people for God. John 10, 29, Jesus himself says that no one can pluck those the Father gave to him from his hand, that they are his. Those that have been born of God, those that are indwelled by the Holy Spirit are divinely protected and kept from the moment of regeneration all the way home. They're permanently Christ. Jesus paid for their sins in full on the cross. There's no sin that remains to their account. Jesus paid it all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as... Their hearts have been renewed by the Spirit of grace. They've passed from death to life. They have the seal of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing their inheritance. So in the atonement, Jesus legally and literally purchased the people of God, the church for God. He spilled his blood for his people. His blood was shed purposely. He said, I lay my life down intentionally for the people of God. Meaning that everything that was needed for our salvation, past, present, and future, has been procured, has been sealed by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In John 18, Jesus says, I will not lose one of them. So Jesus' atoning death, his blood purchase of his people, is the foundation of our perseverance, but also his present intercession. Look at verse 21. And since we have such a great high priest over the house of God, Jesus in his high priestly ministry is a twofold ministry. First of all, he sacrifices on our behalf before God. He sacrifices his own life. He gives his life away. He makes a purchase. He carries our sin and goes to the cross and bears them, pays for them. That's what high priests do. They atone for the sins of the people. But there's a second truth in that a high priest intercedes on the behalf of the people. that He gives Himself for us. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He lays His life down for us, and then He intercedes for us in accordance with God's will, Romans 8. So our persevering, our continuing on, is the effect of the prayers of Christ that He's prayed on our behalf. Listen, your high priest, your Savior, prays for you. But what's He praying? Well, we see a portrait of that in John 17 in the great high priestly prayer. that he's praying for us to persevere in the faith. John 17, 15, let me read this to you. Jesus said, I do not ask you, Father, to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. That you preserve them, that you keep them. And he's praying effectually, he prays for the church. He says, I'm not praying on behalf of the world in verse nine of John 17, but I'm praying on behalf of those that you have given me for they are yours. even those who will believe on me through the message of the apostles." John 17 language. This is high theology. I'm very familiar. But Jesus prays that His church will persevere to the end. I would have to ask those that believe that a Christian can fall from grace and finally end up in hell, is Jesus' prayers not powerful enough? Is Jesus' atoning work not efficacious, is it not powerful enough? It's a slanderous attack upon the efficacy of Christ's finished work. Jesus told Simon Peter, who fell but was restored, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. And when you have been strengthened, and when you have recovered, strengthen your brothers, right? He didn't say if, he said when. I've prayed for you. We're talking about God the Son praying, God the Son interceding. Has Jesus ever prayed a prayer that the Father said no? No. He knows the will of the Father perfectly. So the foundation, what undergirds the perseverance of a Christian in saving grace is the sacrifice of our Savior and the present ongoing intercession of our great high priest whose name is Jesus Christ. Listen, our salvation, our continuing with Christ is dependent upon the efficacy or the efficiency of the prayer and the power and the purpose of Jesus Christ. He says, no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. No one can snatch them out of my hand. No one is greater than my Father. I've had people argue with me toe to toe and say, yeah, but we can remove ourself. And so little puny me is greater than the sovereign Christ of the universe? That's a pretty bold statement. And people that can't even conquer sin for one day I want to talk about the function. I mentioned earlier that there are four truths in this text that are out of what Christ has done, that's out of what Christ has won. It's the putting the hand to the plow, that these are the commands of the Lord for us, that we are to walk out, that we might persevere. There are graces that flow from the finished work of Christ that need to be put to practice. The sovereign work of God and the responsibility of men and women all work together. We have to be warned we can't adopt a fatalistic view that says something like this, let go and let God, because that will train wreck you. Paul says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. God is at work within you, both the will and the work of his good pleasure. English Puritan John Owen said it this way, and I apologize for some of the Puritanical language, but it is what it is. He says, it is true our persistency in Christ doth not, as to the issue and event, depend absolutely on our own diligence. The unalterableness of our union with Christ on the account of faithfulness of the covenant of grace is that which doth and shall eventually secure it. Listen to this. But yet our own diligent endeavor is such an indispensable means for that end as that without it will not be brought about. So what responsibilities has God assigned to you and I? What are we supposed to do? So at minimum in our text, I see four functions that directly ties to you and I persevering with Christ going on. And by the way, we're living in a world that's gone wacky. It's not as easy as it was in some sense to serve the Lord, to be faithful. I see a day coming that faithful Christians are gonna be persecuted fiercely. Maybe in our lifetime. Probably in our lifetime. And so for us to go on and to continue to glorify God and to not shrink back and to try to save our skin, we're gonna need to put to practice these truths. We're gonna need to remember what the Bible teaches us. The first of the four truths is that we are, to persevere, we must pursue God. I get that from verse 19 and verse 22. Look at it with me in your Bible. And since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Draw near. Draw near to him. One of the benefits of the cross of Calvary is that in the death of Christ, the veil of the temple was rent in two, symbolizing that we now have access to the Father through the merits of Christ. That chasm that was once there, that separation, Isaiah 59, two, your sins have made separation between you and your God, and he will not hear you, has been mended. He's the repairer of the breach, it says in Isaiah 58, 12. And in Hebrews 4, 16, we see that there's a genuine invitation for you and I as Christians to draw near to the throne of grace, to receive grace to help and mercy in our moment of need, to draw near to God. The throne is indicative of power, sovereign rule, and that the invitation is a genuine, gracious invitation for Christian people to draw nearer to God because all resources are found in Him. All strength, all hope, all ability is what we see with our heroes of the faith, or William Tyndales, or John Rogers, that burn at the stake, they drew near in their life to the Lord, and that in the day of trouble, they were kept by the power of God. That even at the threat of flames, that even at the threat of being burnt to death at the stake, they did not draw back, because they drew near to God. That there was superlative, that there was mighty grace that helped them in that moment of need. So all the resources that you need, all the resources that I need as a Christian to live a life that glorifies God is found in pursuing and in fellowshipping with God. Going after God. Pursuing God. That's what you said you came here for tonight, brother. You said you wanted to pursue God, to know God, to get close to God, to go after God. Listen, the psalmist said in Psalm 34a that we are to taste of the Lord. This is experiential. is something that we don't like to talk about in Reformed circles, about the presence of God. Let me just clarify something. The presence of God is not mystical. The presence of God is not in the ethereal realm. It's not a goosebump sensation. The presence of God is not an emotional thing. Let me define that. The presence of God is the permanent, Christian environment by which the truth of God becomes experiential. Let me repeat that. God's presence is the permanent Christian environment by which the truth of God becomes experiential. It's not just in ink, it's in my heart. is something that is tangible, it's something that is real to me. It's that experience of God to where we taste and see that the Lord is good and that we enjoy having sweet communion with God. I quoted earlier, Psalm 1611, that in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore, right? And again, I mentioned this, it's almost like this is a stoicism in the Reformed community. I'm talking about biblical Christianity which almost becomes stoic in that we don't like to talk much about the experience of experiencing God because we're afraid that someone will classify us as a charismatic. But it's biblical language. When you define it right, that the presence of God is the environment of a Christian. It's something that God grants to us by which the truth of God becomes something experiential, that I know him. David experienced his communion with God. The apostles had this experience with the Lord. This is a reality that the death of Jesus has accomplished for us because he's given us access to the Father. and that you and I as Christians are to pursue God daily through the Word of God and through praying to God. John Rogers did not gather grace when he got to the stake. He gathered grace by meeting with God throughout all of his life. Listen, when the moment of battle, the battle comes, it's too late to load your weapon. You do that beforehand. We need to experience God. We need to pursue God. We need to understand what it is to be in the presence of God, to have the truth of God as an experiential reality in the moment by moment of my life. That means I'm praying. That means I'm in the Word of God every day. I'm communing with God in prayer. I'm meditating upon scripture. I'm memorizing the Word of God. So persevering in the faith is the result of communing with and pursuing God. pursuing God. Secondly, if we are to persevere, we must persist in faithfulness. Verse 23, let us hold fast, you might underscore that in your Bible, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Hold fast, he's faithful. Sounds like contradictory statements, but it's not. God is faithful. It doesn't mean let go and let God. The command for us is to do what? To hold fast. Hold fast to the confession of our hope or the confession of our faith, as the King James puts it. Either word works there in the Greek. It's a little ambiguous as to which one's best. Some go one way, some go the other. I don't think that you can split hairs over the issue. Faith and hope. But that we're to hold fast. But then at the end of the sentence it says that God is faithful because He's promised. So our holding fast coincides together with the faithfulness of God. We're charged to hold on to Him. Hold on to the confession of your faith. Listen, there are forces that are at work to try to deprive your hands from the plow. And I know that many of you have been saints for a long time, and you've gone through some battles. Carolyn, we talked about that in my office. You've been through some stuff. It's not your first rodeo. But the enemy works at times in our lives to try to pry our hands from the plow. But here we see that we are to hold fast and hold firm the confession of our faith. We're to continue to battle. We're to continue to walk with God. Paul was dealing with young Timothy, who would later become the pastor of the church of Ephesus. He said, Timothy, flee these things, you man of God. Flee these things, but pursue righteousness. Pursue godliness. Pursue faith. Pursue love. Listen to this one. Pursue perseverance. Pursue gentleness. And fight the good fight of faith. Take hold. Listen to the language. Take hold of eternal life. He's not saying let go and let God. And he says, take hold of eternal life to which you are called, and you've made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I've said this so many times over the years that my lips are turning blue, that the Christian life is not lived on cruise control. You've got to be intentional. You walk it out. You work it out. You fight the good fight. You wore the good warfare. This is biblical language. Bunyan in his classic work, Pilgrim's Progress, which if you've not read it, read it. I have so many different copies. I try to read it every year or two. I've read it through so many times over the last 30 some years. The Christian in his journey had to face all kinds of adversities. He had a Napoleon to fight, didn't he? He had the the slew of despond. He had all these different, like every page there's a different obstacle. And what is it showing? That the Christian life is lived in a straight and narrow way and there are many encumbrances, there are many battles to be fought, there are many struggles. Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress had to slay Apollyon or be slain by him. I want you to listen to the action in these phrases of Scripture in Revelation 3.11, hold fast to what you have so that no one will take your crown. Jude 3, earnestly contend for the once delivered faith. Matthew 11.12, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. 2 Corinthians 10.4, the weapons of our warfare are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 1 Timothy 1.18, fight the good fight of faith, keep the faith. 2 Timothy 2.3, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ. 1 Timothy 4.10, it is for this we labor and strive. 1 Timothy 6.12, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. This is the language of the Bible. So our confession of faith is to be held fast. The Greek word there, katakou, has the idea of laying hold of something with control like a bridle on a horse. It's an active tense verb that has the idea of continual action that we're to always be holding fast. confession of our faith. Constantly, repetitiously hold fast to the profession of your faith. Earnestly contend for the faith. Always be. Don't let your guard down. That's the language of the Bible. Going to church is not enough, although it's biblical and right and necessary. Hearing sermons is not enough, although that is biblical and right and necessary. Having Christian friends alone is insufficient, although that is biblical and right and necessary. This cannot replace your tenacious commitment to the profession of our faith. And I've said this again and again, there's only going forward in the Christian faith. There's no neutral. There's no going backwards. As Christians, we're only going forward. We're always swimming against the current. Hebrews 10, 38, you can look at it now, just flip the page. Then my righteous one shall live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the persevering of the soul. We don't look back. We don't take our hand off the plow. We don't go back. We persist in faithfulness. And God is faithful who has promised. Third, if we're to persevere, we've got to provoke each other to good works. Provoke here is not something, doesn't mean poke, but we're to stimulate one another, we are to admonish, we're to encourage one another. That's why church membership, that's why our small groups are absolutely critical. Look at verse 24, and let us consider how to stimulate, how to stir up one another to love and good deeds. What is this telling me? What is this telling you? Look at me. The Christian faith cannot be lived alone. If we've been called into one body, we see in scripture that we need one another. The Holy Spirit's given gifts, divided severally in accordance with the will of God for our profit with all, as the King James puts it. for all of us to benefit, for all of us to be strengthened, for all of us to be stimulated, for all of us to be provoked to love and good deeds. You cannot persevere if you live out your Christian life in solitude. I've heard people say that you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. I've never seen, in my 30 years or some years of ministry, I've never seen a victorious Christian that's not vivaciously committed in a local church. A Bible-preaching, Christ-exalting, Spirit-filled local church. Listen, if we neglect the membership of the local church, it weakens our spiritual immune system. Individualism has no place in the Christian faith. Interdependence upon one another is indispensable to our continuance and endurance. We see here the Hebrew author is exhorting us to engage each other as a means of persevering, right? He charges every believer to be responsible to engage other Christians in the body with love and to compel each other to good deeds. Here's what this means. If we're waiting around for someone to come and encourage us, we've missed the point. I mean, seriously, for a moment, just think. And I don't want you to answer this out loud. I'm not asking for you to raise hands. I don't even want you to do that. But did you tonight come thinking, I must go and assemble, I need to be strengthened, and that there's someone else that needs me to help strengthen them? That God's given me a gift that my brother and my sister need. that they might persevere, that they might endure to the end. Listen, these things are not in competition with God's faithfulness. They are working and coinciding with it. Here the call is for us to love each other and to stir up one another to good deeds. And again, I don't want to say this too much, but each gift that God gives to a person is given to the person for someone else and not for themselves. And we're living in a culture that's become so self-inundated, so self-focused that we've paralyzed ourselves. The grace of God's been given to us and we're to extend it and to help others with it, to strengthen others. to invest in others, to lay our lives down for others, to serve others, to care for others, to contact others. Right? Jesus said again and again in his ministry, whoever wants to save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. There's something about the kingdom of God that the more that you give away, the more is returned to you, the more that you help, the more that you're helped. There's something about the body being strengthened by the members of the body realizing that it's not about me, it's about Christ and His glory and the church that He gave His life for and to live my life out of that perspective and paradigm. So love and good works flow from a genuine confession of faith that's being held fast. And by the way, verse 23 and verse 24 are indispensable. Let us hold fast to confession of our hope without wavering. How does that happen? There's a conjunction that joins that thought to the next, considering how we stimulate one another to love and good deeds. And fourth and finally, I'll say this and have one of you guys pray so I can go eat while you guys are praying. I'm just being silly. If we're to persevere, we've got to persevere in our church attendance. I didn't make this up, it's in verse 25. I'm just being faithful to the text. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. The assembly is about encouraging one another. Brother Cole, you do a fantastic job of this. The Lord uses you tremendously to encourage the body. You're very gifted and blessed to help us. But we're all to encourage one another, and all the more as you see things going to hell in a handbasket, as you see the day approaching. Our persevering in the faith has, according to this text, a necessary dependency upon being faithful in a Bible-believing local church. Habits of neglecting the local church have eternal consequences. It's just that important. And again, verse 26, where it goes into willfully sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there's a conjunction there. You see it? It says, as some is in the habit of, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near, the thought continues, for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer remaining a sacrifice for sins. So I just kind of make the connection that that conjunction connects apostasy with abandonment of the local church. I don't know how you get around that reality in this text. That apostasy begins when the local church becomes neglected. I want you to notice something quickly, and I'll move along and pray and we'll be done. The progression, we're to draw near to God, we're to hold fast our confession of faith, we're to be considerate and to love one another, provoke one another, to do good deeds, and this finds its function in verse 25 in the local assembly. That's just the way it's framed. Grammatically, that's just what it's doing. It's connecting all of this together in the local church. God's redemptive plan, my friend, is exclusively local church-centered. The letters are written to local churches. Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3 addresses local churches. They have names. Ephesus, Laodicea, Pergamum, Sardis. We know them, right? Jesus walks in the midst of the golden lampstands and he says the lampstands are the churches. Where's Jesus at? He's in the midst of his church. He loves his church. It says in Ephesians 5, 25, and he gave himself up for her. He laid his life down for the sheep. Who are they? They are those in the local church. Under leadership, Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. that God set in the church. Not men that set themselves, but God does put men in the church to teach and to preach and to train up people for the work of the ministry that we would be no more children, but that we would come to maturity. Not bickering over the color of the carpet, not bickering over the new sign or whatever. So as the days are growing darker and darker, the need of the assembly intensifies. There's an eschatological reality here that Jesus is coming back for his church, but before he comes back, that the days are going to be dark and that there's going to be nations that rive against nations. And in the Greek language, it's ethnos against ethnos, ethnic group against ethnic group. That's not happening anywhere. and that we're going to need to be together. You know, I've been pastoring for an awful long time, and I've seen a lot of people come and go, and I've seen people run for a while that were hindered, as it says in Galatians. People that used to serve on staff with me are now practicing witchcraft. They went back. They started missing church. In the New Age movement now, totally denounced Jesus Christ. I mean, people that served with us 20-some years ago. I bump into people now and again that used to come and pray and that used to listen to the sermons and say, Pastor, that really helped me, but now they're completely living for the adversary, completely drowning in the world, in the system of the world, completely separated from God. And in so many of those cases, it started by missing Wednesday nights. It started by missing Sunday mornings. That gives way to make it easier the next Sunday. It makes it easier to miss the next Sunday. It makes it easier, you know, that only the elite Christians can go on Wednesday. And over time, that which God has given for our strengthening becomes something that people don't want to give themselves to. and they fall away. They go out from among us. The local church is the pillar in the support of the truth. It is the fruit of the atoning work of our Savior. It's the object, listen, it is the solitary object of His return. He's coming back to take a church He's coming back to take His church. It's that critical. I pray that's helped you. I don't want to see any of you shrink back. I want to challenge you, pursue Him. Pursue Him. Pursue His presence, meaning that the truths revealed to us in Scripture become something part of our day-to-day life, and we enjoy God, that we commune with God, that we talk to God, that we love Him with all of our hearts, that we love one another because we've been begotten of Him, and that we share the Holy Spirit. We have a common bond among us, right? and that we've got this divine call to stir one another up, to stimulate one another, to good works, to help one another along the narrow way. And sometimes it gets messy. I mean, we're dealing with rank centers like us, right? And it gets messy, but we don't give up on the church. We don't give up on pursuing Christ. We don't give up. We keep looking to Him, the author and finisher of faith. I know some of you may think this is very simple. It is, but it's so profound and so critical. Well, Lord, we're so thankful for the time that we've had tonight. Bless these precious saints as we learned in our text in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 last week that you called Ephesus saints, those that have been saved by your sovereign grace. Work your work in us. Use us to be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters, to provoke and to stimulate one another into good works. Protect us by the power of God. Preserve us to the end. And we'll give you praise forever and ever. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.