It's an honor to be here. This is the first time I've visited in this capacity, but Dixie and I have come down several times to worship with you, and it's always a delight. We have a great interest in Dallas Reformed Baptist Church, so it's a joy to be here. This morning in our first hour in the Sunday School Hour, I'm going to take a topic or a question and seek to answer that. So you have a handout which you can just follow along. I'll just warn you in advance, we're going to look at a lot of scriptures in this hour. I don't apologize for that, but I am going to ask you to turn to a quieter number. So I put the references on the sheet so if you don't hear them, you can still find them. Let's begin with a word of prayer before we advance. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, it would be a bold affront of us to open up your word and tend to it without first seeking and asking for your help. You have granted and promised to us your spirit to open up our understanding. You have said that your word is designed to set us apart But in our own flesh and strength, this is not possible. And so we ask at the outset of our time together that you would bless it. And as we look at these scriptures, enlarge in our hearts for the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself up for us and caused us to truly be lovers of his word and lovers of you. And those who not only listen carefully to your word, but walk accordingly. Bless us now with appropriate speech and concise speech, and may we be drawn to You this morning by the study and contemplation of Your Word. For we ask it in the risen and reigning name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our adversary, the devil, is a very brilliant and intelligent being. but he is two things. He is a created being and he is finite and he's not omnipotent. His labors in church history, and I say all the way from Genesis, has been to infuse God's people with error and to lead them off the narrow way. And because he is finite, he has only a finite number of errors or heresies that he can raise up but he regurgitates them over and over in history. And he does so by reshaping them using new terms, new locations, new people. But old heresies are repeated. This is one of the reasons why every believer should be interested in church history. For to be completely devoid of any understanding of church history, you make yourself susceptible to the old heresies in new dress and new garb. In the Middle Ages, a very popular, a very successful heresy that was originated, I'm sure, by our adversary was that of ignorance. Those who controlled the church at that time, and it was largely out of Rome, past laws prohibiting the ownership of Bibles. So the common people were not permitted Bibles. The Bible was only allowed to be in the Latin language. It couldn't be translated into common language. And those parish priests who read the Latin in their services did not understand Latin. They just read it. And so you can see the effect of ignorance because the Gospel was in a very dark period. In our generation, we all have access to Bibles, and we have access to Bibles in our language. So you would think maybe ignorance would not be an issue. But in New Garb, this is a heresy that is very prevalent in our day. In the last 30 and 40 years, there has been a development in the church that is almost a pride in ignorance. You can look at the publishing market, the Christian publishing and the jackets on the books that come out that are very popular. And they almost always will advertise themselves as easy to read, light, funny, humorous, full of stories and illustrations, not difficult, will not take much of your time, won't be a great challenge, but it'll change your life. Christian programs, Christian conferences, training is promoted in the same way. Many of the great, big, and large churches have adopted the same pride and ignorance. They demote or discard an emphasis upon doctrine at all. It is divisive. They encourage you to come to their church where you won't be overly challenged, but you will be thoroughly entertained. Years ago, where we live, there was a billboard at one of the churches that advertising would come to their church, they will not preach at you or throw the book at you. That was the big headline. I always wanted to call and ask what church would throw the book at me. I'll find that one. And then I travel up to the airport once a week, and the large church, one of the big churches there, when it was being built, they had a large billboard that said, come to, and they named the church, where you will be entertained, I-N-N-E-R, entertained. We're proud of not being doctrinal, but being lively. So my question this morning is, must we know? Is knowledge important to Christians? Are all Christians supposed to be knowledgeable Christians? And I am going to look at five questions. We may not make it through all of them, but we'll go as far as we can in order to understand the role of knowledge in the life of the true believer. And my first question is, what is eternal life? If I were to corner any of you between the services and ask you, what is your definition of eternal life? Probably most of us would say, well, it is life without ending. And that's a good answer, and that has to do with time. It is life without end. Some of you might say, well, eternal life is life in heaven. And that is a very good answer, too. It has to do with place. Some of you might say, well, eternal life is that which begins after this life, after death. And that's not a wrong answer either. But let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to John's Gospel, chapter 17. John chapter 17. Now, these are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as he opens up his high priestly prayer. And in verse three, he begins with the words, and this is eternal life. Now, with our question in our mind, what is eternal life? And you hear Jesus say, this is eternal life. Then you know you're going to get a very good answer. You're getting it from the eternal Son of God. And he says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. Jesus Christ, in this passage, defines eternal life as the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the knowledge of God? Well, it's nothing more or less than theology. And that is a word that's much maligned in our day, but theology is the study of God, the knowing of God. And so I'm going to try to make a point this morning that it's not only necessary that those who stand on this side of the podium be theologians, but those of us who sit in the pews are to be active theologians. It's very, very important. The other thing I would point out here, that Christ says here that this is eternal life. He puts it in the present tense. His point being that The knowledge of God becoming a theologian is eternal life. If you have believed on Christ and you are coming to know God as He has revealed Himself in His Word, you have already entered into eternal life. It began then, not necessarily just at the time of your death. And it shall continue. So that is the question of what is eternal life. It is knowledge. Becoming theologians is what we ought to be. Well, do the scriptures agree with me on that point? Let's begin. And this is where we're going to look at a lot of scriptures. I've tried to put them in the order of the Bible so we just can move in one direction. And we'll cite these passages in answer to the question, what do the scriptures say? Turn first to 1 Samuel and chapter 2. Is knowledge necessary? Let's look at what the Bible says in 1 Samuel 2. While you're turning there, I'll set it up. This is that wonderful prayer in chapter 2 that Hannah presents to the Lord. Hannah and her husband Elkanah could not have children, and so yearly she asked the Lord that he would remedy that and allow her to bear a child. And if so, she would present him to the Lord. in the service of God, that has been granted. So once she has weaned her son Samuel, she takes him to the priest to present him to the priest. And this is her prayer after she has done that in chapter 2, the first three verses. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in Yahweh. My horn is exalted in Yahweh. I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. No one is holy like Yahweh. For there is none beside you, nor is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth. For Yahweh is the God of knowledge. by him actions are way my point here is she refers to the Lord by the name God of knowledge so God of knowledge is one of the names of God now slip over to 2nd Chronicles chapter 1 2nd Chronicles in chapter passage. This is the account of when Solomon ascended to the throne after the death of his father David and the Lord meets with Solomon at the outset and beginning in verse 7. Let me read those verses to you. On that night, God appeared to Solomon and said to him, Ask what I shall give you. Solomon said to God, You have shown great mercy to David, my father, and have made me king in his place. Now, O Lord God, let your promise to David, my father, be established. For you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude." Verse 10, Now give me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people for who can judge this great people of yours?" Now note God's response to that petition. Solomon is asked for wisdom and knowledge. And God said to Solomon, because this was in your heart and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or life of the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life, but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself. that you may judge my people over whom I have made you king. Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you, and I will give you riches and wealth and all the rest." My point here is, is the Lord happy and pleased that Solomon has asked for wisdom and knowledge? Well, obviously, he's very pleased with that request and honors it. Now let's go to Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 3. But if you read them very, very carefully, they never proffer judgment without either at the conclusion or tucked in there somewhere a proffer of grace. And it is those proffers of grace that are marvelous. And here in chapter three, the Lord has asked Jeremiah to prophesy against Israel and Judah, but he tucks in a gracious offer here. So if you'll look with me at verse 12, Go and proclaim these words toward the north, that's Israel, and say, return backsliding Israel, says the Lord. I will not cause my anger to fall on you, for I am merciful, says the Lord. I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity that you have transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your charms to alien deities. under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord. Return, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And notice what his gift will be to them when they have repented and returned. Verse 15, And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. That's His promise to us, to grant to us shepherds, pastors, who feed us not with happy stories and lovely counsel and psychological counsel, but knowledge and wisdom. Very, very important. Now go to chapter 10, Jeremiah. Here we have something of a diatribe against idolatry and idols and idolatrous priests. And the Lord has Jeremiah complain against them. And so I'm going to skip around here and look at some verses beginning in verse 6. Inasmuch as there is none like you, O Lord, or O Yahweh, You are great, and your name is great in might. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your rightful due." And then he begins to speak about idols, and he says in verse 8, but they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish. A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. Now look at verse 14, and now he's speaking about those who are worshippers of idols, idolaters. Everyone is dull-hearted without knowledge. And then he goes on about the metalsmiths and that. And then down in verse 21, he talks about the shepherds who promote idolatry. For the shepherds have become dull-hearted and have not sought Yahweh. Therefore, they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. What I would like to point out here, in all three cases, speaking about idols, idolaters, and pastors or shepherds who promote or allow such, he calls them dull-hearted. Now, your translation is may very well have something quite different there. But the Hebrew word is Ba'ar, and Ba'ar means stupid. That's how it's translated. It's stupid. The Lord God refers to idols, idolaters, and those who promote them as being stupid. They have no knowledge, and so it's an offense to them. One curious observation, and maybe the very last on that comment about the shepherds, so contrary to our day, The Lord promises those who pursue such, He's going to make sure they do not prosper, and then He will scatter their flocks. Now we often hear in our day that if you will diminish the importance of doctrine, you'll have a larger church. More people will come if you won't make so distinctive your beliefs. And you'll get big churches. And we kind of see that in some of the big churches. But God says He will ultimately scatter their flocks. It will not be a true unity. First in chapter four, and here again we have a rebuke from the Lord. He commands the prophet Hosea to hear the word of the Lord and then pronounce it. Let me see if I can skip down here a little bit. Children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land. There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. That's what the problem is. There is no truth, no mercy, there is no knowledge. That's theology of God in the land. And so down in verse 6 he comes up, he lists all the sins that have been going on. He says in verse 6, my people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge because they have rejected Knowledge is destructive to the people when there is a rejection of knowledge. Knowledge being theology, the knowledge or knowing of God. Now chapter 6 in Hosea. This is a passage I think we're all quite familiar with. First three verses I'll read as an introduction. Come, let us return to Yahweh, for He has torn, but He will heal us. He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days, he will revive us. On the third day, he will raise us up that we may live in his sight. Then he has an imperative mood verb here. It doesn't translate in the English quite so well, but it says, let us know. And that's a commandment. Know. He says, this is a commandment. Know. Let us pursue the knowledge of Yahweh. Theology is what that is, whether we like it or not. He is going forth as established as the morning. He will come to us like rain, like the ladder in the form of rain to the earth. So here we have a command to be knowledgeable and to pursue, to run a race, to charge after theology or the knowledge of God. Now let's go all the way into the New Testament to Matthew's Gospel in verse 22. This to me is a very colorful passage. Matthew 22. I'll set it up. This is when, one of the many times when our Lord is confronted by the religious elite of his day, who are, ironically, I mean these are the Sadducees in this particular case, they are not aware that they are confronting the eternal Son of God, but their whole goal is to make him look foolish, the audacity of a creature. thinking he can confront the Lord and make him look foolish. They do so by this invented story of the woman who marries, whose husband dies, she marries the brother, the brother, the brother, seven times, and then they want to know, so when she's in heaven, who will she be married to? They think they can stump the Lord God on this occasion. Now these are the Sadducees. Sadducees and Pharisees, I know you probably are aware of this, they were the religious intellectuals of the day. They were not stupid people. They studied the Torah constantly. I have been told, I can't prove it, but I've been told that one of their tests was to drive a nail through the Torah, show them the first page, they identify the letter of the alphabet, and then they had to recite from memory the letter of the alphabet through which that nail would have passed. That may just be a folklore. But they did minutely study their Bibles constantly. They were noted by the community as being intellectuals. But look what Jesus Christ says to these people when they have confronted Him. In verse 29, Jesus answered and said to them, you are mistaken. The audacity of a carpenter's son saying to an intellectual, you are mistaken. For two reasons you're mistaken. Not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Brilliant statement on the part of our Lord. He addresses those who have spent their life studying the Bible, but He says they're mistaken because they don't know. Now, in our day, we would probably say to them, you know, you need to come out of that book a little bit and live a little life. You're spending too much time in the books. Jesus says, no, you have not spent enough time. And, of course, the significant statement He makes is, nor the power of God. Romans 116, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. His point being, not only do you not study the scriptures enough, but you don't study it with the power of God. In other words, you are not regenerate. And that's a lesson to all of us. None of us can be true students of theology apart from the Spirit's work in us of converting us and bringing us to a true knowledge of God. Brilliant statement. It's almost humorous when you see the Lord speak to these intellectuals as to them. It's just a carpenter popped into town and caused trouble. And he says you're mistaken. I think that's brilliant. Let's go now to Romans 10 Romans chapter 10. And in this passage, we see something at the heart of Paul, but something also having to do with our topic this morning. Paul is in this place praying for natural Israel, genetic Jews, his race. He has a heavy burden for his people, and under that mindset, he prays, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. And we learn right there from that statement that Paul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, does not believe or is telling us that the national Israel is not saved. Apart from the Messiah, they are not saved. Verse two, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. but not according to knowledge. They had a great zeal or enthusiasm for the Lord. We, in our terms today, we would say he has such a heart for God, but it is without knowledge. And you can deduce from that that a great enthusiasm for God, not wedded to theology or knowledge of God, does not please the Lord and is not indicative of salvation. Where there is true, saving faith, there will be a zeal for God, but it will be according to knowledge, according, fashioned by the Word of God. We often say that today. Well, so-and-so has such a heart for God. We must look for the fruit that is appropriate. Is it a heart for God that is molded by God's Word and shaped by an interest in it? Another series we can look at is Philippians 1 and Colossians 1. Here, if you'll just turn to Philippians 1 first, we can see something that calls prayers for his readers. On the first occasion, he's praying for the Philippians, people in Philippi, to whom he writes. And just note what is among his prayer petitions for these people. And of course this is all applicable to us, but these are good prayers for other believers. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more according to or in knowledge and all discernment that you may approve the things that are excellent. that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness." All those wonderful things, but he begins by saying we have to be, we must abound in a love that is according to knowledge, instructed according to the scripture. And then over a page to Colossians, and the same prayer in verse 9 of chapter 1 in Colossians, he elaborates a little bit more in his petition here when he says, For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Theology. Knowledge of God is theology. So it is the prayer of the apostle for the people of God that they not just know God, but they increase in their knowledge of God. So we ought to all be pursuant of becoming better theologians. Now I'm going to conclude this part of the second question by turning to 1 John 5, another familiar passage. 1 John 5 and verse 13, at the end of his epistle, John writes, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That brings us back to Jesus' definition of eternal life, the knowledge of God. That was the purpose of John in writing, that we might know that we have eternal life. Jesus has said eternal life is knowing God and knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. I think I put some other verses in there, you can look on your own. If you have in your mind this concept of the knowledge of God and the importance of it, as you read your Bible daily, you'll find out it's everywhere. It truly is everywhere, and yet in our day and time, it's almost nowhere. And so it's something that's truly lost in our generation. So in answer to our question, must we know, I think the Scriptures make a strong case that we must know. We must be theologians, and we must consider that a goal. Third question I wanted to deal with this morning. What does God call us? This is another argument in support of our premise this morning. In the Old Testament, in various places, we're referred to as the righteous. We are called, in some places, the seed of Abraham, the remnant. Isaiah likes to use that of us. And in another place, we're called the godly ones. And also, we're referred to as Israel. In the New Testament, we take the name believers. We see that in some texts. We see beloved, which is a lovely term for believers. We are referred to as children, little children. We are called the elect and in Antioch we are referred to as Christians. But think with me. You don't need to turn to Matthew 28 because you've all probably memorized it. It's the Great Commission. But Matthew 28 is another title. Go therefore and make disciples of men. We are disciples. That is another title given to us as believers. The Greek word for disciples is matheteo, Matthew. The word Matthew means disciple. And its translation is, one who is a scholar, one who is a learner, one who is a pupil, someone who studies. All very explicit terms. And that is your title. The Lord has given you a title of a scholar, a learner, a studier. And I put into your notes a beautiful quotation from Jonathan Edwards. I'm going to read it to you. He writes, God hath never made it the duty of some to take pains to teach those who are not obliged to take pains to learn. He hath not commanded ministers to spend themselves in order to impart knowledge to those who are not obliged to apply themselves to receive it. The name by which Christians are commonly called in the New Testament is disciples, the signification of which word is scholars and learners. So by our title we are to be theologians, students of God's Word. Now my fourth question, if knowledge is imperative Do we have any warnings against the neglect? I mean, does anywhere in the Bible does it tell us we really should not neglect knowledge? We've seen some in the earlier readings, Ephesians 4 verses 11 through 14. I'm not going to go into detail there, but I think there's some implications in this. This is the passage where What stands out is Christ's gift to the church, which is didactic. He gives apostles and prophets. Well, that we have right here. We don't have living apostles and prophets, but the apostles and prophets, you're holding those in your hand. But the living gifts that he has given us are evangelists, pastors, and teachers, all didactic gifts. And those are things he's given to us. What is the implication? What is the fruit of that? If you read through that passage, it's for the equipping of the saints, it's for the work of ministry, it's for edifying the body. They're all building up things that these teaching gifts give to us. Is there a warning in this? He goes on to say that the reason he does this in verse 14 is so that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. There's a warning in this. If we are not pursuant of theology or the knowledge of God using the gifts that Christ has given to us in pastors, teachers, and evangelists then we will be children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. And the Greek word here for children is different. There's three different words, I think, for the word children. And this one is nepeoi, and it has to do with unskilled infants. I think I had another definition on here before, too. Untaught minors. Not a very flattering term, but that's what we are if we do not attend to these gifts that Christ has given to the church. And so there is a warning, a slight warning, I think, in this. Hebrews 5, again, you don't have to turn to these because I'm just making very brief comments on them. In Hebrews 5, at the end of chapter 5, our Lord is angry with his people. And he makes the comment in verses four, he says, for it is impossible for those once enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift to have and have become partakers of the holy gift. I'm reading the wrong chapter, I'm sorry here. I'm in verse five, he says, verse 12, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. He's angry with his people because they have not been attending to the gifts he's given to the church of teachers. And as a result, he says that they need to start all over. So our Lord is not pleased with us when we are not students of his word or theologians. The most severe warning of all against those who refuse to pursue knowledge and wisdom is found in the first chapter of Proverbs. And in that first chapter of Proverbs, Our Lord beautifully pictures for us the pursuit of wisdom. He fashions it as a woman that we pursue. But of course Christ is our wisdom and the point He is making is we are to pursue Christ and the knowledge of Christ. He is the wisdom of God for us. But then in verses 20 and 29 He gives his reaction, the Lord gives his reaction to those who do not pursue wisdom. And he says when the day of calamity comes upon you, which usually provokes us to turn to the Lord, he will laugh at your calamity. If you have not pursued wisdom, When the day of calamity comes, He will laugh or scorn at you. He will not answer your prayer at that point. You have not prepared yourself as He has asked. So there are some severe warnings in the Scripture to those of us who think, I just know Jesus and I don't need to study Him or know Him better. And my last question for the morning is, Do we have any promises or anything that's really encouraged, that ought to encourage us to pursue knowledge? We've had some negative things said about it. What's positive? And I put in my notes here, Matthew 11, 28 through 30, and this is a wonderful passage of invitation from Christ. I'll read it to you. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn and that's the Greek word matheteo again disciple learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for yourself all those wonderful things come about because you learn take the yoke of Christ on you and learn from him as your teacher then he says for my yoke is easy and my burden is light and some people have camped upon the phrase, my yoke is easy, and think of it as something that would overturn the first part, learning. But the Greek word here for easy is krastos, not kristos, but krastos. And it does not mean easy without effort. It means fitted, shaped, made usable. formed. It's a beautiful statement he says for us because even in this room here we are all quite different people. Some by the natural gifts of the Holy Spirit to us are intellectual people. That wouldn't be me. But some of us have a natural gift to learn very brilliant things and use bigger words. Some of us do not. And so those of us who are not natural intellectuals will say, this all doesn't apply to me. I cannot be this. I cannot be a theologian. But the passage here from Christ is, it's fitted for you. You are to be a theologian. But the forming of theology in you, studying God, knowing him in his word, is fitted to you. It doesn't mean you're off the hook. It just means that Christ is personal as your instructor. The spirit works through his word with each one of us. In other words, whether I am an intellectual in my 60s, or a child, preteen child, but I believe in Christ, I am still to be on the path to be a theologian. And Christ is with me on that path. It is what He takes me through. So there's a great encouragement for there, because I've known in my own family, my mother is always saying that she's not bright enough to be a theologian, and yet she's a very bright theologian. devoted her life to studying theology and so again it's personal Christ fits it to a Psalm 910 we read there and those who know your name and of course the Hebrew word for name I'm sure Pastor Walters has brought this in the past it's not a reference to George or G-O-D it's a reference to character attributes so when you read of the name in the Old Testament, and it's referring to the character and attributes of God, not just his title. And so he says, and those who know your name, that's theology, know your name, will put their trust in you. It's the natural reaction. As you come to know him, your trust in Christ, your trust in the Lord increases and improves. For you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you. I put down Psalm 91 as another. There's many, but Psalm 91 is another one we can conclude with here. Because you have set your love upon me, therefore I will deliver you. I will set him on high. Why? Because he has known my name. Theology. He has known me. He has known my name. he shall call upon me, and I will answer him, and I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him, and I will honor him." So you see there's intimacy promised to those who are theologians. Theologians are not those men who sit in seminaries and speak words we can't understand and live impractical lives. They are us. They are the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who have pursued of Christ. I hope I've made something of a case this morning that every one of us ought to be an active theologian. My adversary has made that such a naughty word, but it's a wonderful term. We are to be theologians, students of God. We have one of our great theologians who's still with us. He has not passed away yet that I know of, Dr. Robert Raymond. And I listened to one of his sermons many years ago in which he says, it is the duty of everyone who stands in the pulpit to labor very hard to make those who sit in the pew improving theologians. And so his goal as a pastor is to make those he looks at theologians. And so that ought to be our prayer and our desire as we continue along the narrow way that leads to eternal life. So let's conclude this time in prayer. Father, we are grateful that you are a God who has made yourself known to us, that we do not have to wander in the dark and hope to stumble upon you. There are many of the world religions that say just that. But you have spoken through the prophets and the apostles. You have sent your Son, who is the exact representation of yourself. And he has dwelt among us and spoken to us. And we have those words recorded and preserved by your Spirit for us. You have promised us your Spirit to bring to us an understanding of what we read. to open up our understanding and cause us to know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And this is eternal life. Make each one of us in this room active, aggressive, and persevering theologians, men and women who long to know you as you have revealed yourself to us in your word so that all of our conversation and conduct reflects our fellowship with you that is knowledgeable. We ask your blessing now upon us as we conclude this time and prepare our hearts for our time of worship and we thank you for all these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.