I don't know which one of you is Brother Patrick. Raise your hand. Oh, he's not here. Oh, good. He probably want to throw stones at me for using that ancient software. But I tell you, Brother Joe, right now my nine-year-old grandson can probably run circles around us. They've grown up with technology all their lives, and that's all they've ever known. I remember the biggest thing back in the day when I was born was maybe a transistor radio. And you could see how things have progressed so much in the last 60, 70 years. And I could imagine had my grandparents seen what's going on today, they'd probably think it's all witchcraft. But there's good and bad in all of it. There's good things on the internet and there's bad things. And just like everything else in life, we have to learn to discern the difference. But we as a people, primitive Baptists, ought to be the happiest people on earth. God has given us the truth. Excuse me, I had to try to lower my singing voice one octave because I couldn't make it. I got a little frog in my throat from, I guess, the change of the weather. But we ought to be the happiest people because we know the Lord has shown us the truth that Jesus finished the work that God gave Him to do. He didn't come and try to save His people. He saved His people each and every last one without the loss of one. Matthew said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. My hope built us that song that we sing on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I can't approach unto God in my own righteousness or say, look how worthy I am because we all fall short of the glory of God. And we need, we need God's grace and we get it. He gives us a fresh supply of that mercy and that grace every morning that we live. But we're living in such a time, like I said, with all the technology, there's so many distractions. Now, I won't be offended if anybody picks up an iPhone because I know you're probably on your Bible. That's okay. But there was a time when I first saw that, I said, how rude that is. He's up there trying to preach and they're on their phone. Probably texting somebody. We're living in a time where everything around us changes. But the thing, or the one that does not change is God. He said, I am God, I change not. And I'm so glad it's that way. Right and wrong hasn't changed, even though we live in a society, and what they call a woke society. I've seen it while I've been here. We see it a little bit at home. But I've seen it a lot while I'm here. say that God has to give you people an extra dose of grace in order to get through living around all this stuff. It's almost like we're living not just here, but in Texas too. It's like we're living in a cesspool. And God help us. The Lord hasn't changed. Right and wrong hasn't changed. And we are told to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. That's not delivered over and over and over. It's delivered once. And I believe that the Lord gave the church everything that she needed before he ascended back to glory. And that's including the Holy Ghost. The apostles received the Holy Ghost on the day of resurrection. It was like 50 days later when they were in due with the power of it. But to say that the Spirit wasn't given until the day of Pentecost, I think is a little bit misleading. Because the Lord breathed on them the day of resurrection and said, receive it. If receive doesn't mean received, I don't want to know what else it does mean. But he gave the church everything that she needed before he ascended. And there's nothing that we should try to do to improve upon it. He gave the church a simplicity of singing praise and of praying and preaching. That's as bad as simple as it gets. We don't need a lot of pomp and circumstance. We don't need to try and prove on what the Lord has given. And in times past, when people try to improve on what the Lord has given, it causes trouble every time. All right, so I'm satisfied with the goodness of the Lord and His house. I remember the first time that I walked into an old Baptist church. It was in January in Texas. It was probably about 10 degrees outside, cold, and my car wouldn't start afterwards. But I walked in and I felt a warmth and a love like I've never felt before. And I knew this is where the Lord wants me to be. But we're living in a a society where everything thinks they've got to improve upon it. It's got to be better. Now, like I said, I know there are some things that technology has given us advantages. I could take my phone. By the way, if this were to apply to post-AD70, the mark of the beast in my right hand and in my forehead. But I'm not necessarily saying that it does. I'm what you call a partial praetorist. I believe that some things took place before A.D. 70, and there's some things to come. I know that the second death hasn't been cast in the lake of fire yet, and I know the Lord hasn't come back yet. Pray for me, if you will, because my mind's getting filled up with things. So you remember that Hymenus and Philetus taught that the resurrection was past and overthrew the faith of some. Well, he says, nevertheless, nevertheless, no matter what anyone would teach, He said, The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows those that He died for. He knows the ones that are penned in the Lamb's Book of Life. And I don't think He has to open it up and see, but it's, well, anyway. Maybe, perhaps, Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching You remember when Jesus was on the cross? He says there was an earthquake and the rock for rent and many of the saints came out of the grave after their resurrection and appeared in the holy city. Well, I don't think that holy city is the physical Jerusalem. I think that holy city is in glory. For what we have here is that Jesus died on the Feast of Passover. He was buried in unleavened bread. and He came out of the grave on the feast of the firstfruits, and the priest was to offer a wave offering before the Lord. It's my opinion, and I'm not going to be dogmatic or catmatic about it for that instance, but I believe that the Lord presented 144,000 as the firstfruits of the resurrection that's to come. Now, in the book of Revelation it talks about 12,000 out of each tribe. But here's the thing. I hear people say that he told Mary, trust me not, for I'm not yet ascended. And they say, well, he hasn't made the atonement yet. Well, the Scripture says that he made the atonement through the eternal Spirit. Right? that when He died and gave up the ghost and said it's finished, the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom. That's making the way open for you and I. We can come boldly before that throne of grace and ask for mercy and help in time of need. Now, I don't think that He told Mary, don't touch Me, I'm not yet ascended. I think it's because He was going to make that wave offering. Now we know that the priest had to be ceremonially clean and so on and so forth. But I digress. I wanted to talk about standing in the ways and the old paths. He said, Thus saith the Lord. Jeremiah 6.16. Thus saith the Lord. Now Brother Joe, I couldn't get away with saying that on my own. But these men were inspired of God. Maybe God from time to time may give me a little bit of light, but I can't stand up and say, thus saith the Lord. You know, I wish I was that close to the Lord like the prophets of old war. Jeremiah, bless his heart, Jeremiah had a pretty rough time. And Jeremiah was pretty much alone except for his scribe Baruch. And he was persecuted. And I imagine, I ask the question, if Jeremiah or John the Baptist were to come through the doors of this church, would we receive them? But you know, the message they had wasn't all peace and love. There was a message of repentance. And God's people do. They stand in need of repentance every day that we live in this life. Every day. Now, I know it's not... I don't want to get off into that, but he says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways. We've got to take a stand. The Lord has given us the truth. He said, Buy the truth and sell it not. You know, I could have the truth and if the Lord convicts me to get up before God's people and speak something and I don't do it, then I'm holding the truth in unrighteousness. And by the way, Brother Joe knows this, and I'm sure that you all do too, that we've been called to preach the gospel to please God and not man. But, you know, I'm afraid in too many old Baptist churches where I live, they're afraid to say anything that you might run somebody off and they won't come back. I had a situation. I don't know if this is going over the internet or not, but it's true. The church I pastored for 12 years, and I guess I'm a little slow. I didn't figure it out for a few years, but we would have visitors come in, and we'd greet them, I thought, with open arms and love and hospitality. But it comes to find out several years later, there was a woman in the church that was a charter member, would get the new visitors off in the corner and just say really ugly things. And I wondered why they didn't come back. I finally found that out, and I kept a close eye on it after that. But it's a shame. It's one of those situations where they say, well, it's us four no more. That's kind of the mentality, I guess, that they have. But God forbid that any of us should be guilty of treating strangers like that. Because the Lord says, you know, when you've done it to the least of these, you've done it to me. The least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. So we need hospitality. But the Lord says, stand. And we need to take a stand. If you don't stand for anything, you'll probably fall for everything. And we don't need to straddle the fence. We need to get on God's side. And I've seen it so many times where a lot of people just want to ride the fence. So they can, depending on situation ethics, they can tell whoever is around, tell them what they want and agree with them. But we're to take a stand. We're to stand in the truth. The truth, he says, you continue my work, my work will make you free. You'll be free indeed. And that's the way that I feel. I can lay down, put my head on the pillow at night and have peace with God. Now, even though some of the things I say sometimes, I believe them to be the truth, I'm convicted. But God gives me peace. And there's no price you can put on that. But the Lord purchased that for us. And He says, I believe it's Galatians 1.6, that He's given us self to deliver us from this present evil world. And believe me, there's evil all around us. And he did pray in the garden and said, Lord, I pray not that you take them out of the world, but you keep them from the evil. And God's done that for us. And how thankful we ought to be. Even though there are times we think that we'd like to lie down and fly away, that's not the Lord's will. But He's given us the protection. He said, in the world, you'll have tribulation. But in me you have peace. Well, hey, how do you remedy that situation? You get out of the world and get in Christ and start walking. Walking with Him day by day and seeking His face. I thought about this too. You know, the Lord told Moses, no man can see My face and live. Here, I'll show you my hinder parts. And that might be that the Lord showed Moses the beginning and Genesis and the history and all the way up. But He said, No man can see My face and live. I know that Jacob did. Jacob saw God's face. And do you know that we're continually told in the Old Testament, it's replete, He says, Seek My face. Well, if no man can see His face and live, that means you have to die unto self. If you want to get close to the Lord, you have to die unto self. He says, whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose it for My sake shall find it. If you want to have that peace and that joy. I know that we can't always walk on the mountaintop. I know sometimes we've got to go through the valley of the shadow of death. And I've heard people say, well, I'll just leap from one mountaintop to the next. You know, if it were that way, if we had those mountaintop experiences every day or every Sunday, we'd begin to neglect it and take it for granted. But we have to experience some of the bad in order to appreciate the good things of God. But he says, thus saith the Lord, stand. Stand in the ways. these young children that are here, and even some of us still are faced with different ways that the enemy might present to us. But there's only one way, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And He also said that I came that ye might have life and have it more abundantly. That's what I'm searching for. And I know that this life is It's because of what the Lord has done on the cross. And how that He died for His people. How that He laid it down. And how that He took it up again for us. And that same power that raised God from the dead is the same power that lives in us. When we're born again of the Spirit of God, we become one of His. Now, He lives inside. If the Kingdom of God is within me, In my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's, I mean, you think about that and contemplate it and chew on it. Dad, it's very sobering to know and understand that the God that we attempt to serve knows the thoughts and the intents of our heart. I'll tell you a little, it's not, it's a true story. When I was young, very young in the faith, my brother owned an airplane. a little SESTA-172, and the four of us, he and his wife, and myself and my wife, we were flying over a place called Comanche Peak, where my brother had an interest in helping build that nuclear power plant. But that particular Saturday, it was very, very choppy and very bumpy. And I thought, well, we're fixing to crash. And I had the thought, Well, whether you die in an airplane crash or not, your destiny is in God's hands. And that comforted me. And I was comforted, and I forgot all about it. Until Sunday morning, right in the middle of Elder Gerald Stanford. I don't know if you ever met him, Brother Joe. But he is what I would refer to as a shotgun preacher. And maybe some people call me that. It's like it shoots and it scatters everywhere, like birdshot. But I say in the middle of a sermon, somewhere in a sermon, he stopped, he turned, he looked right in my eyes, and he says, and you're right. Whether you die in an airplane crash or not, your destiny is in God's hands. And my heart like to sunk. God indeed knows the thoughts and the intents of your heart. You know what that ought to cause you to do? That ought to cause you to clean up your thoughts. Yeah, don't, don't, you know, like I say with the computer, garbage in, garbage out. Cast down, the Lord says through Paul to cast down imaginations and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Because God indeed lives within you. He knows what you're thinking. He knows your thoughts afar off. He knows them from the beginning. What a great God that we try to serve. God who has all power both in heaven and earth. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, I'm sorry, open your eyes. And he talks about your eye needs to be single. He's not talking about a cyclops. He's talking about your eye being, put, press toward the mark of the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus. And your eye beam signal. But we need to open our eyes. And it's the Lord that can open. He causes the blind to see. And He can cause those that are dead and trespasses and sins to live. And He gives them eyes of understanding. He said, He that made the eye, can he not see? Yes, he can see. He that made the ear, can he not hear? Yes, he is. But we're to stand and see. Contemplate all the ways that the world wants to trap you and forget about them. Don't choose that route. Choose the old path. We don't need, the church doesn't need a program. The church doesn't need a choir. The church doesn't need a Sunday school or a piano. You don't need an electric guitar. You know, I've never tried to, but I'm pretty sure if you take an electric guitar in the shower, you're probably going to get shocked. Right? But you can take that golden harp that God's given you and you can sing in the shower, you can sing while you're doing dishes, or you can sing driving down the road. Nobody can take that. Paul and Silas were in jail. Do you think they waited until the organ struck up before they started singing praise? No. God's given it to you, no man can take it from you. That's why you can't take prayer out of school. You can't do that. It's just an impossibility. But we stand in the ways and we see and He says, ask for the old paths, the proven path. And that path is the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask for His direction, for His guidance. Ask Him, you know, take His yoke upon you. He said, learn of me. And that's what we need to be doing. And we need to be reminded of that every day. I realize today is Hallmark's Father's Day. And no disrespect, if you're a father or a mother or a child, you know, God bless you. But I've never once tried to preach from a Hallmark gift card or a Hallmark Father's Day card. That's just the world. That's materialism. They just want you to go out and spend more money. And they've made up all kinds of days. Granddaughter's Day, Grandson's Day, but those haven't caught on like Father's Day and Mother's Day have. But he told us to ask for the Old Paths, where it is a good way. It's a good way. You know, in this way that the Lord would have us to go, we can find rest for our souls. He says, therefore it remaineth a rest for the people of God. But some didn't enter in because of unbelief. I've struggled for years about, well, can I be good enough to get into the church? Do I have to be there every time the doors are open and give money and do all these good work, get baptized, repent? But I found out that once, and I went back and forth with Oh, I've got to be good enough. I've got to keep trying. I've got to keep trying. And I went to, no, the Lord did it all. The Lord, he completed the work that God gave him to do. And you rest in that. And I think I was able to enter into that rest. I don't go about thinking, well, I've got to be good enough. I've got to give more money. I got to, you know, I don't think God, we are His workmanship created in Christ under good works. With God's forewarning that we should walk in them. But even when we've done the best that we can do, we're still on profitable servants. We're to walk in love. and do those things that God would have us to do. And I do them not in order to become a child of God, because I am. That's the reason that I try to do good. Out of gratitude and thankfulness for how great things God has done for us.