All right, good morning, everyone. Let's go to Lord in prayer, and we'll go ahead and begin. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for another Lord's Day we can come here, and this additional hour where we can study our confession of faith, which we believe is a reflection of what the scriptures teach. So Lord, we pray as we discuss the doctrine of perseverance, that you can help us to see the different areas in scripture that attest to these truths, and that we can be more impressed with your saving work, we pray in Christ's name, amen. All right, so we are in our confession. We're in chapter 17. And just to kind of review a little bit about where we are and just how we got this, remember the confession is something we believe is a doctrine that is subordinate to the scriptures. It's something we believe is a reflection of what the scriptures teach. And so in the 16th, 17th century we had those the particular Baptists, our forefathers we could say, who wrote this and articulated different ways and different doctrines that they believe to show that they're orthodox. And so if you remember early in the 16th century, there was persecution amongst the churches of England. And the particular Baptist, which we would trace our lineage to, were those who were persecuted for the faith. And as a result, they want to show that we're orthodox with the reformed in Presbyterian. We believe the same things about the gospel, about central Christian doctrines, and so as a result they wanted to write a confession. And so we had the first London, 1644, came about. And so we saw in paragraph 1 of chapter 17 a reflection of the first London, right? And so that still happened and then in 1646 we have the Westminster Confession and then we have the Savoy Declaration. So years passed and then the Baptists wanted to look at these other confessions of faith that came out during that time and articulate what they believed in a similar way. And so as a result, because they were still being labeled as Anabaptists, and they were being accused as not being Orthodox, they said, let's just use the same language that the Reformed and Presbyterians are, say we believe the same things, yet we differ in certain areas. And so that's how the 1689 pretty much was formed, is you see there's a lot of congruent similarities between Westminster Savoy Declaration and the 1689. And so that's where we are here. And as we continue, we're gonna visit the differences and stuff like that as we see. Now the outline, big picture of the confession, we can say it's in four sections. The first section, we would say the first principles, doctrine of God, doctrine of scripture. What do we believe about the Bible and different things like that? The next one is dealing with of the covenant, chapters seven to 20. And if you recall chapters seven to 20, dealing with the covenant of grace in particular. So how are we made right with God? What then is his role in that? How then are we to respond? And so that's dealing with chapter seven to 20. So we find ourselves in chapter 17. Chapter 17. And so here we are in the section that we can call the covenant graces. So this is something that God does. It's his work that he does in us, but he also does it through us. So it's still his work, yet we are called to actually be active. It doesn't mean we're inactive, but it's all his work. The fruit of what we do Like we saw good works, those are the fruit of the things he does through us. Okay, so we find ourselves in chapter 17, chapter 17, and if you recall, this is Perseverance of the Saints. So let's just kind of review paragraph one a little bit. And then we'll look at paragraph two for the remainder of our time. So let's read paragraph one. Remember, this is a very in-depth kind of summary statement of the whole chapter. And then the rest of the paragraphs are going to elaborate more on what is said here. So it says, those whom God has accepted in the beloved, effectually called and sanctified by His Spirit, and given the precious faith of His elect unto, can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved, seeing the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, from which source He still begets and nourishes in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all the graces of the Spirit unto immortality. And though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, yet they shall never be able to take them off that foundation and rock, which by faith they are fastened upon, notwithstanding, through unbelief and the temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them. Yet he is still the same, and they shall be sure kept by the power of God unto salvation, Okay, so very nice and in-depth statement here, probably one of the longest paragraphs. our confession so far. And really what it's emphasizing here is the work of God in our perseverance. If you want to have assurance, if you want to understand how the Christian is to persevere unto the end, understand it's God's work. It's what God has done in them and what he's doing through the believer by the Holy Spirit. Okay, notice it tells us the subjects of who should have perseverance, who are able to persevere. It's those who have been accepted in the beloved. So who's the beloved? Christ. It's talking about union with Christ, right? If you've been accepted, you've been united to Christ by faith, if you're truly united to Christ, you can never lose that. He's never going to disunify you. He's never going to cut you off. If you are secure in Christ, if you're unified to Him, you will persevere to the end. Effectually called. Right? Effectually called. That's what we saw. There's a general call and then there's the effectual call. The general call is the preaching of the gospel that goes out. Everybody hears it, but it's only when the Spirit works in the life of a person to regenerate them and have them hear that and embrace that. That's called the effectual call because it's effective. The Spirit's doing its work. So those whom have been effectually called also the subjects of perseverance, right? If you've been effectually called, if you've truly been regenerated and embraced the gospel, and the Holy Spirit has opened your eyes to see and behold Christ, those are things that can give you the assurance that you will persevere to the end. Also, and sanctified by His Spirit. You can see this in a past sense in which we have been set apart for to be holy instruments for God by his spirit, but he also continues to sanctify us, right? And we'll see a little bit more of that in the next paragraph. He's continually to do these things in us. And if he's doing those things, you can know he's going to complete it, right? He will complete the work that he started. And if we have that kind of assurance in him, we can never lose it. We're reminded of John 3, all that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. And so that's the idea of the effectual call, he's gonna call, they're gonna come, and those who do come, he's going to secure them for all eternity. Also, what do we see here? He gives us precious faith unto his elect. So if he elects you, if he calls you, if he gives you his spirit and is sanctifying you, if you've been united to the beloved by faith, it is because he's given you that faith. He's given you that faith. Faith is a gift, right? We see Paul talk about quite a bit. Faith is a gift. He gives us precious faith. And he doesn't just give us faith and then abandon us. He's continually nurturing that faith. He continually strengthens that faith. And if he's doing all those things, notice it says, you can neither totally or finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end. So there is the recognition that there are times when believers go through hard trials, struggles, they might even fall, but they will not totally fall or finally fall away from that state of grace. So true believers are secure. They can't lose their salvation. They are resting in the faithfulness of Christ. And because he secured the salvation, you are secure in him. a result, you might still struggle in the flesh. You will still struggle in the flesh. You will sin. A true believer is going to repent of that. There might be even a time where you're persistent in that sin. We can say in the language of the Confession that you're clouded, right? And so here there can be a sense in which believers will undergo a state of You can say fallenness, but they're not completely fallen away. They haven't been completely lost or totally lost as our confession says. So an example of this would be David. David is one who fell, who fell greatly. committed adultery, he committed murder, and he didn't want to repent of that right away either. He stayed in that until he was provoked and confronted, and then what happened? The Spirit convicted him and he repented of that. But he wasn't completely away from the state of grace, you could say. during that time, you still had the Spirit who was convicting him. He would talk about in the Psalms that when he didn't confess, when he was quiet, it was like his inward parts were just wasting away. That's because the Spirit was convicting him and showing him, you're in sin, you need to repent of these things. That is a grace in and of itself, and how God is enabling the believer to persevere by having them draw near to repent. Okay, but not only that, notice it says they will never finally fall from that state of grace. Okay, so there might be a time where we are in that state of grace, but his spirit is still amongst us, he still convicts us, but in the end of our lives, the believer cannot be found in a fallen away condition. Why, because that would just say, well, God tried, but he wasn't able to accomplish his work. or Jesus did his best, but he couldn't fully do it. He couldn't fully finish it. But it's all his work from beginning to end. So we can struggle, we can doubt, but a true believer can know you will never fall away. Why? Because our standing is based on Christ, not our own. So John 10, Jesus talks about the sheep hear my voice. I know them, they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who gives them to me is greater than all." So, He's greater than anyone who might be able to make you be knocked off your course or make you fall. He's greater than yourself to where He's not going to allow you to stumble and fall away from the state of grace, if He's elected you. No one, not even yourself, are greater than the Father. No one's able to snatch them out of my hand. So despite our sin, despite ourselves, despite other people, God will see us through to completion. And so we will persevere until the end. So it's his work. It's not saying, oh, we're doing this by, you know, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, but it's all his work. And that's what we're gonna see going into the next paragraph. But let's just dwell a little bit more in this paragraph about the state in which there is a time in which we can fall, yet God still perseveres us through that fall. Okay, so if you look, the next part of this brings out, as we saw a little bit last time, the necessity of perseverance, right? There are allusions to passages we saw in the scriptures to certain things. So, though this many storms and floods may arise and beat against them, they shall never be able to take them off the foundation and rock by which faith they are fastened upon, right? And so what is that allusion to? Wise man built his house upon the rock, right? And so that's an allusion to that passage there to say, look, the storms of life might come, the floods might hit, it might beat against them, but the believer's foundation is Christ. He is that solid rock. And if that is true for the believer, they are fastened on that rock that is unmovable, right? And though storms and floods might arise and beat against it, it's gonna stay secure. nothing will be able to make it tumble. So that we can say is the enemies of the believer, we can say, are the world, the flesh, and the devil, right? So here is a sense in which we can say the world. The storms of life, trials, the different things that happen that are outside of us that bombard us, right? If we're fastened to Christ, if we're united to him by faith, they cannot shake in us. Also, notwithstanding through unbelief, this would deal with our flesh. The flesh struggles, we doubt, we can go through times of unbelief. And so here our faith at times, well we have faith in Christ, it can be a mix of unbelief because we struggle with sin. We should be constantly praying, Lord I believe, help my unbelief. And so as we do that, if we forget those things, if we take our eyes off Christ, that makes way for us to stumble. When we give into worldly wisdom as opposed to godly wisdom, what is in the word, we can stumble. We can be forgetful people. And as a result, we can stumble because of our own unbelief. And so we see this with many people within scripture, when they stumble and sin, it's because of their unbelief, right? You look at the disciples when they doubted, when they questioned Jesus, what does he tell them? You have little faith. You're unbelieving here, have more faith. And then the other thing, notice it says, and the temptations of Satan. So even though we might go through trials of this life, even though we might go through our own unbelief, even the temptations of Satan cannot make a believer fall. And so you can see, you have the threefold opposition, the world, the flesh, and the devil, yet God is going to have us be secured. From here on out, it continues to reflect the first London. Okay, so if you are following along in the Savoy Declaration or in the Westminster, you can see up to this point, up to where it talks about the storms and the rock, everything was pretty much a reflection of Westminster. Well, here on out, the particular Baptists really liked what they said in First London, and they were like, you know what, we're gonna keep it in here. No reason to get rid of it, that's why it's so long. So they're basically saying similar things, but in another, maybe more elegant way that they liked in their First London. So it's not that they disagreed with anything in Westminster Savoy, it's just that we want to further emphasize the struggle that there is in light of a sinful world that believers will struggle yet God will make them persevere. So again it says, The sensible sight and light of the love of God may for time be clouded and obscured from them, yet he is still the same, and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation. I really like this picture, as we talked a little bit about last time, is, you know, what is the thing that changes here? The thing that changes is the perspective of the believer, right? The one who is going through those struggles and doubts and different things like that. Notice it says, the light of God might be clouded or obscured during that season of a fall or season of regression, right? And so it might seem like his favor isn't upon us, and that's because of our own doing, our own sin, right? But God doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, right? And not only that, I like this language of clouded and obscured. Whose perspective is that? It's ours. Our perspective from below. And, you know, being here in Port Angeles, we have the mountains and everything, and we're in a very clouded area the majority of the time. and especially in this rainy season. And so from our perspective, it can look like, where is the sun? Does the sun even exist at times? But it's always there. It's just our perspective has been clouded, right? And you can just break above the clouds, go into the mountains and looks like a summer day, completely different. And so because of our sinfulness that we can have at times and dwelling in sin and giving into those temptations and falling in this way, we can be clouded and obscured from that. state of grace, seeing the light of Christ. And it's not because God has changed. It's because of our sinfulness. And so God might allow that to happen for a season for the purpose of having you see your need for him, right? He did that to, we see many people, they had to fall in order to truly see their need, right? You think of Peter. He thought he had arrived. He thought he was the one who's gonna stand for Christ forever and he had to be humbled. And during that time, he felt like he did not deserve to be in any of God's graces. When he fell, he fell hard. But what did God do? Christ restored him, and in so doing, allowed him to see the light and love of God once again. And so, through those ways, God allows us to persevere, even though we might fall into sin, even though we might have seasons where we are persistent in those sins. True believers will repent and turn from that, and embrace God once again. So I like what it says, yet he's still the same. He doesn't change. We will be kept unto the power of salvation. We are his purchased possession, right? If he's purchased us, he's not going to give a return receipt and say, sorry, I don't want it anymore. He's shed his blood, not to potentially save you, but to purchase you. To actually purchase, and if he's purchased you, you're secure. Notice what else? Engraven on the palm of his hands. Last time we looked at Isaiah 49, it's an allusion to that. Talks about he will never forget us because we're engraven in his hands. And then also the names written in the book of life from all eternity. That's going to Revelation 13, 8. So this is going back before the foundations of the world, God wrote our names in the book of life, and if that is true, he's not going to go and say, okay, well, let's take that out. No, you are secure. Why? Because your life has been purchased and secured by Christ. It's unified to him. So any questions on paragraph one before we look at the remainder here? Okay, let's look at paragraph 17. This is the three-fold, oh, sorry. Ellie, go ahead. Just a question on the faith. You're saying how He gives us faith first here, and He's right on the timeline of Jesus and things like that. Does God have, I mean, as part of our growth and our sanctification, is it personally, individually, when He gives us more faith, Yeah, I think it's all... understanding his sovereignty. He is the one who will grant you the opportunities in different ways in order to grow your faith. He's in charge of your faith, and he will give you a certain measure of that faith for the appropriate time and what you need, but he's growing that faith. And He promises through His Word to grow that faith through the means of grace, which is the preaching of the Word, baptism, Lord's Supper, through those ordinary means. That's what we are to continually be attentive to put ourselves under because it's those means He promises to bless to grow our faith. And so the more we're under those means and under good preaching and teaching, and as we read His Word and even in private and studying and in prayer, through those ways, he calls those graces, are how he grows our faith. And there's many other graces by which he grows our faith, but he does it according to really our lot in life, the measure that we have, and he ordains where we are at a certain point. So for me, like I recognize for me, when I was growing up, I only had a certain level faith and I think a lot of that is just because of the kind of teaching I was exposed to. It was very just shallow and so I never really grew much in that state until God brought me through and it was all in his providence that he did this, but he brought me to more expository preaching and more of an emphasis on his word and those means where my faith really started to blossom and grow and then put men around me who wanted to disciple me and help me grow and that's when my faith really started growing more and really it's his doing and understanding sovereignty you know he was the one who orchestrated all those things and so I think that's how God works individually in light of all of us, just what he has planned for the foundation of the world. And he's bringing that to completion, but he promises he will grow our faith. So if you have faith, he's not just going to leave you there and say, okay, rest is up to you, good luck. No, he's going to bring it about, but it's gonna be in his timing, so. Good, let's look at 17.2. This is the threefold basis of perseverance. So let's read it first. This perseverance, in other words the perseverance we just read about in chapter 17 paragraph 1, this perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will. but upon the immutability of the decree of election, the flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ and union with him, the oath of God, the abiding of his spirit, and the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace, from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof. So here we see eight truths that are meant to strengthen our understanding of our perseverance. The basis for our perseverance. Notice all these things are to say it's not dependent on you. Who's it dependent on? Completely on God. And that should, one, encourage you because if it was dependent on you and you could lose it, you would. You absolutely would. But it's dependent on God, and it's accomplished by Him. And what that should do is, one, produce a sense of joy. It's been accomplished, and you can rest in Him, and as you're doing that, that's not a call to just be inactive. This is a call to be active, but your perseverance isn't dependent on you. Okay, what else? This should produce humility. because we are sinners, because we fall. If it depended on us, we would lose it, but it's completely dependent on Christ and His righteousness, and that should also produce in us as we're trying to disciple people, come alongside people, that should also produce in us a sense of patience with them, too. Because like we said with Ellie, that should do a sense of God does it according to His own timetable. and he produces these things, and that produces joy, humility, and patience, but knowing it's his work, it's all his work, and he's the one who's gonna bring it about all the way to the end. So notice these eight truths as we do this to emphasize it's not dependent on us, it's dependent on God. So the first sentence is very straightforward, not dependent upon your own free will. Okay, well, so if it was up to you, in other words, If the option was, okay, you want to persevere, go do it. It's not dependent on that. But it's upon the immutability of the decree of election. Okay, so first, negatively, what it's not, not based on your own free will. Now, positively, what it is. Okay, let's consider 1 Thessalonians 5.23. Now, this is in the context of sanctification, but I want us to be thinking of the golden chain of redemption. God isn't limited to sanctification. He is bringing everything about, election, justification, sanctification, glorification, everything to the very end. And so it says, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. So who's the one doing the sanctification? It's God. And may the whole spirit and soul of the body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means you're active, right? But who's the one doing it? God. He who calls you as faithful, he will surely do it. Osman, you have a question? Right, so going back to Yeah, going back to the chapter of free will, remember it's based upon the state you're in. So everyone, we would say, you know, we as Reform, we don't reject the concept of free will. We believe in it. It's just not in a way in which most people think free will is. Free will isn't like, hey, Do good and try to do good and merit your own salvation and do these things. No, you're incapable. You're dead in sin. You're depraved, right? You cannot do that, but you can do free will according to your state, right? So a depraved person will always have the free will to choose what sin he wants to do. But they don't have the ability to choose God in and of themselves. Why? Because they're dead in sin. That's their state. But for us who are believers, whom he's addressing here, he's saying you now have a different state. You have been redeemed, you're in a state of grace, you're in a state in which you have the Holy Spirit, and you have the ability to do what pleases the Lord, and you also have the ability to still give into your flesh. at times, which is sin, right? We still wrestle with the flesh. And so in a sense, we have been redeemed from that state of bondage to where we are now in a state by which we can choose to do things that please the Lord and follow His will as He commands us in Scripture. But we can also choose to not do that. And as we'll see in our passage today, that looks like giving into worldly wisdom. Right, and so we can choose that, but when it comes to perseverance, he says it's not even based on any of that. Your perseverance, you are called to do good works and to obey, but your perseverance isn't even based on those things. But you are still called to do those things. That's called, right, it's not let go and let God and just flop and do nothing, right? God's doing the work through you by the virtue of the Spirit. You are called to be active, but that's the fruit of it, not the cause of this. That answer that. Yeah, I would say just. Yeah, it's defining your terms and understanding it's dependent upon what state you're in. And so your free will, we are in a state where we can choose to do good or choose to do evil, but our perseverance isn't based on any of that, even though we're in a state where we have been redeemed, right? So we will do things, but we're to see those things that we do out of our own free will as fruit, not a cause to persevere. Okay, notice also the immutability of the decree of election. So this is a big one here. It's on the unchangeableness of his decree of election. If he before the foundation of the world has chosen to elect you, right, he's not going to say, you know what, never mind. God is unchanging. if he has elected you before the foundations of the world, and he stirred in all those saving graces by which he is calling you effectually, he is giving you faith, he's unifying you to his Son, all that follows election, if he's done that, he's going to do everything else. He's going to complete it to the end. So Romans 8 30 kind of gets at this. It uses the word predestined. If those whom God predestined he also called, Those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. Notice he, he, he, not you and him. It's he completely. He's the one doing this work. Now, like I said, yes, that means we're active, but it doesn't mean that we are the ones doing that. God is doing that in and through us by the virtue of the Holy Spirit. That's why we call perseverance a grace. Chapter nine. He gives, this is kind of a classic doctrine of election. God elected you, he will accomplish it all the way to the end. So he gives the example of Jacob and Esau, though they were not born yet, or had done anything either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls. So it depends not on human will, there's that sense of free will, or exertion, in other words, working, but on God who has mercy. It's completely on him. Our election, and we can say all aspects of the order of salvation, depend on him. He chose us, not because you're such a good person, not because you chose him, but because he chose you, right? And we see that in numerous other passages, Ephesians 1 we could go to. Notice what else we see here. flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father." So this understanding of perseverance and why he has you persevere to the end, an election flows from this, is the love of God. The love of God. And that is completely necessary. Why? Because before this, how were we classified as? How does Paul describe us? Outcasts, what else? Enemies, dead, hostile, right? We're not gonna choose God. We need to be chosen by Him and He chooses us out of His love. We hated God. before he redeemed us. And he, out of his love, he chooses to love sinners, and he then sends his son to redeem. Because God's love is unchangeable, his love will not fail us. Now you can think of love in a human standpoint, right? We can love spouses, we can love children, we can love friends, and sometimes that love fails. Sometimes when other people hurt us, then love can be broken, right? But that's not so with God. His love is unchangeable, it's free-flowing, and if he loves you, he will always love you. And he has a special kind of love for his elect. Notice what else. Upon the efficacy and merit and intercession of Jesus Christ and union with him. Our perseverance is fully based on the work of Christ. Right? Fully based on the work of Christ. Efficacy and merit, right? And so we know he's merited our salvation. He's merited our right standing with God, right? How we need to get into heaven is absolute, perfect, personal, perpetual obedience. Faithful to the end. Well, that describes Christ. Christ was faithful to the end. Christ was the one who merited everything we need for a right standing with God. He's the one who merited the place of eternal rest that we are to long for. And so everything flows from that and is intercession for us. So he's continually interceding for us because we fall short, because we still sin, he's continually interceding for us. And he's reminding, not that he needs reminder, but he's reminding God that I paid for their sins. It's been paid in full. Because the accuser is coming to accuse us before God to say, yeah, look at all the sins. He's not really worthy to be called your child. But Christ said, no, he's been washed. He's been credited with the righteousness of Christ. He's secure. He's continually interceding for us. And it's a reminder that we're unified with him, right? If you're united to Christ, you can never be taken out. You can never be broken off. Let's look at a few passages here. Let's see, I've already read a few. Let's look at John 14, 19. Someone wanna turn to that one? And then we'll look at Romans 5. So if someone wants to turn to Romans 5, 9, and 10, and then someone else, John 14, 19. Who has John 14, 19? Okay. So this is also in line of the resurrection, and in light of Christ, he's merited life, he's defeated death, and that's in the context of eternal life that he's speaking of. We will live because he lives, and so if you're united to Christ, you will also live with him. Okay, Romans 5, 9, and 10, who has that one? Okay, go ahead. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him in the wrath of God. For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more now are we reconciled. Shall we be saved by His own? Yeah, so that's just giving us the understanding there that if you have been justified by Christ, which comes by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, right, your standing is secure. So when the wrath of God comes in this world and he's going to judge the living and the dead and the second coming of Christ is here, you have all the assurance if you've been justified you will be glorified. You will you will endure, you will be persevering to the end, you have no reason to worry about falling away if you truly have been declared righteous in His sight because you're united to Him. Then Hebrews 6, let's look at Hebrews 6, 17 and 18. I'll go ahead and read that one. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have great strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us." Right? So we see this language of striving, holding fast, persevering, pressing on, right? That means we're active, right? That's the activeness in which we have the security of perseverance, right? We are called to do these things, but it's He who is working these things in us. So when we understand perseverance, it's not to say, let go, let God, just don't do anything. It's rather to say, because you're in Christ, you will persevere, therefore press on, keep striving, yearn, run the race, right? And so all those are active words we are to do, but it's the fruit of what we have in Christ. Another thing we see here is the oath of God. Think of all the promises God has given to us. I will never leave you nor forsake you, right? You will never be lost. There's so many different promises we can look up and we don't have time to do that now, but next time we'll look at some of these promises that ought to ground your understanding that he will persevere you to the end. with regards to Ellie, earlier asked about building of our faith. And I think it's in my life, and I hope I won't be very wrong, it's human nature when we're faced with trials to grumble and to wonder why this is happening or to complain or murmur. And in these trials, James 1, 2, 3, 4 says, count it all joy, right? It's through these various trials, it's through these hardships that God is working in us and breaking down the strongholds of the heart, that He can glorify Himself. And in it, we see His fingerprints where He's working, and we say, that was Him. It wasn't me, but He's doing these things to refine me. You know, the potter does the clay to even out the uneven edges. And it says that when this takes place, it creates the steadfastness, building our faith so that we'll persevere. And I think it's really beautiful that through these trials, you know, that he's shaking and molding it. So we just need to be more active in seeing his fingerprints. Yeah, it's a lot easier to see that, you know, in hindsight and after the fact, but in the moment, yeah. That's what I think, you know, the confession like this helps us and these different promises is we're zooming out. Remember, God's working behind the scenes. It's not just these momentary events that we, with our limited perspective, see and think, well, God, what are you doing? Well, that's why we have his word. That's why I have his promises to remind us of his work. Yeah, good. Yeah, he'll grow us and there's maturity that grows from those things. Yeah. We're out of time, so let's go ahead and pray, and we'll finish the rest of this paragraph next time, and we'll get ready for worship. Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for this time and the great truths that you were at work in our salvation. Lord, help us to look at those things, to be grateful, to have a sense of joy and humility, and then out of gratitude, seek to love you and serve you as you call us to. We pray in Christ's name, amen.