Psalm 89, Matthew 1 and 2, Matthew 22 there at the end. And we could go on and on in this way, Psalm 110. The Christ to come in the minds of his people would always be associated with David, that he would be the son of David. Indeed, on an occasion or two in the Prophets, he's simply referred to as David, although clearly a son because David is long dead by that point. He'll always be associated with David and the fulfillment of this particular covenant, the Davidic covenant. You will remember David in chapter six has just brought up the Ark of the Covenant. And then in chapter seven, He recognizes that there's a certain impropriety in the fact that he lives in a nice and nicely furnished house, but God's ark is still in a tent. And so it occurs to him that perhaps a temple should be built for the Lord. You remember Nathan initially commends the project to him. If you look at chapter seven, verse three, and Nathan said to the king, go do all that is in mine heart for the Lord is with thee. But then the Lord appears to Nathan at night and tells him not so fast. He commends David's desire. I mean, there is some legitimacy to his reflection that there is something strange. that the king would dwell in such luxury, but the king of kings would still be dwelling in a tent. But David had done well to consult with the Lord. You know, he had had that failing with respect to the moving of the Ark of the Covenant. He does not have that failing this time, and the Lord does send direction through Nathan that the building of the temple will not belong to him. It's going to belong to his son. We're going to see some of that tonight. But that the Lord was going, he wasn't going to permit David to build him a house, although he would lay a lot of the practical groundwork for that. He would gather resources. The Lord will give him the plan for how to do it. We learn about that expressly in Chronicles. But it won't belong to him to build the house. But God, in his great graciousness, the God who is willing to be served by having his attendants build him a house, is instead going to build David a house. And it's in that context that we get these very famous words, the Davidic covenant. So pick up with me. The final sentence there of 2 Samuel 7, beginning in verse 11, second half of 11. Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I took away before thee. and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever." According to all these words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. If you have spent some number of years walking with the Lord, you've probably had this experience or sensation. I am very happy and very grateful to the Lord for the way that he has taken me through life. Candidly, I would say that I have lived a really good life. I have had a sense of God's blessing. By saying I've lived a good life, that doesn't mean that I'm proud of my part in it. I'm certainly the most embarrassing and blameworthy character in my life story. But I do see the way that God has moved me, at least in parts, by his providence to touch upon this thing and touch upon that thing. And the order of the lessons has, it's made a difference. I'm grateful to the Lord and I'm grateful to the Lord for all of it. the pleasant, calm, quiet times, as well as the times of upheaval, difficulty, and pain. It has all been a walk with the Lord, and so all of it has been very precious. One of the lessons that the Lord taught me as far as a teacher, something that he forced me to focus my mind on, When I was in regular pastoral ministry in Northern Virginia, from the perspective of the preacher, I mean, you know that this isn't exactly right, but it seems as if you have almost endless Lord's Days to come back to the people for instruction, right? It always feels like you're gonna get another chance. Of course, that's not absolutely true. Eventually the preacher perishes from the earth, or the people do, or they leave, or whatever, but you don't work and live and minister with such a sense of a constriction on time. When I came to teach at university, really for the first time, I was forced to focus upon something in my mind as a teacher. If I'm on a particular fall, for example, teaching an Old Testament survey, I have 15 weeks. I'm going to get 40 total hours to talk to these students about the Old Testament, everything that's in the Old Testament. So what do I focus on? Because that's a lot. For most of you that have followed my preaching, you know that I could spend 40 hours working through a chapter, much less all of the Old Testament. So what do I focus on? And is there a way to get beyond mere opinion? Like I focused on that because I wanted to focus on it. That didn't seem like a sound method either. And so instead, I returned to the instruction of the Lord Jesus about the Old Testament and the things that were most important about it. And he taught us that if we were reading it and understanding it rightly, we would see him. We would see him in his humiliation, suffering for sins. We would see him rising again and descending into heavenly places in great and royal glory and majesty. And that this gospel would be preached to all nations, that he would be greatly glorified in the heralding of his good news to all of the peoples of the earth. So when we study the scripture, this is what we ought to get. And so my mind traveled to that and I thought, so in walking them through the Old Testament, what I ought to focus on from Genesis to Malachi is what we are learning about Jesus. So again, there's a lot of things you could say. You could teach about the 600 and some odd laws of Moses. You could focus on judicial construction. You could even focus on predictive prophecies and all of those kinds of things. But really, for the first time, I had to focus on what mattered most. And I also had the very sobering realization that this might be the only formal Bible training that some of these students will ever get They might not ever take another class in a school. They might not go to church. They might not, if they go to church, they might not hear a worthwhile sermon, which is also a lively possibility. Because a great many of the students that I encountered had spent a lot of time in church, maybe close to all of their lives, and nothing had happened in church that seemed to indicate to them that the Bible might be a thing to be studied. I would say my general impression of the young evangelical people that I got was there was a great veneration for the Bible. It was something that you respected as it sat on the shelf gathering dust the way a holy relic will. But there wasn't anything going on in their churches or in their homes that seemed to indicate to them that the pages ought to be constantly turning and that there ought to be a constant studying from the one end to the other. So I'm very happy to say that when we come to 2 Samuel chapter 7, in some very important ways, we get to the center of things. we hit a real focal point. Interestingly enough, if you look at the scope of history as it stands so far, about 6,000 years, this is about the midpoint. So this is about 3,000 years ago, the midpoint in all of history. And as I mentioned to you earlier, previous lessons and even earlier this evening, The general aspects of what's going to be developed under David have already been present, but in germ or in seed. I do think you could make a case in Genesis chapter three that already the Savior to come is portrayed as prophet, priest, and king. But if we just look, grab the one thread of kingship, Kingship is kind of faint. It's the Christus Victor motif, that he will be the one that crushes the head of the serpent. And the defeat of enemies, and thereby the rescue of the people, has always been part of his royal operation, as it were. But what was given there in a germ is then further elaborated in Genesis 49. So as Jacob is getting ready to die, and probably close to seven centuries before we get this further elaboration of these issues to David. So you're looking, if you associate Jacob with roughly 1700 BC or so, you won't be far off. If you associate David with about 1000 BC, you won't be far off, right? So you've got quite a span of time. But kingship was to pass into the family of Judah. But if we look at our historical orientation concerning things at this very moment, it's kind of strange. So if you rewind 700 years, kingship is promised to Judah, but then they descend. Well, Jacob dies in Egypt, so they're in Egypt, but they descended to misery in Egypt. They still have some kind of like family, kind of loose tribal organization among themselves, but nothing like a heavily organized civil government. That won't happen until their release from Egypt, their great deliverance. And then at Sinai, they are organized as a body politic. And they don't have a king. per se, but they do have an executive branch in Moses. A son of Judah? Nope. Son of Levi? Well, that's unexpected. So here we are about, you know, three centuries after the promise had been made to Jacob, Jacob to Judah, and government is beginning to form up, but then the executive branch, it belongs to Levi. Well, after Moses' very famous administration, and even some legislation concerning kingship, when he dies, the successor that is chosen by the Lord is Joshua. A son of Judah? Nope, an Ephraimite. And then after the passing of Joshua, there's not a consistent executive branch, government kind of devolves back into the tribal elderships. You might think of them as being kind of like tribal senates or parliaments. It's kind of loose, but that's the way that it is. But when they were sorely pressed, God would raise up something like an executive and the judge. So a judge would be raised. So when you hear judge, With respect to the Book of Judges, don't think about men in black robes making rulings about law. Think about military governors. And so for a little while, they would serve as an executive, either for the whole nation or some part of it. So they were kind of occasional, and from all different kinds of tribes. So government is not clearly settled in Judah yet. And so here we are about seven centuries after God had made this promise to Judah, and it's being wonderfully fulfilled. It's going to be fulfilled in David's family. And truth be told, when you look at the surrounding ancient Near Eastern nations, and even when you Even when you look at what happens in the Northern Kingdom after Israel splits in two, like an abiding dynasty in a family, far from being a certainty, was a long shot. David, as an ancient Near Eastern king, had more than a little reason to be concerned about what was going to happen to his family. Most families in a region wouldn't have this particular kind of concern, but when David's monarchy failed, as all of them ultimately would, usually the successor would come in and cut off all of the offspring so that there would be no other pretender from that family as competition for the throne. So go back and read through Kings and pay particular attention to what happens in the Northern Kingdom, and you'll find that the dynasties are very short-lived, and frequently when you came to the end of a dynasty after a couple of generations, the successor would come in and cut all the offspring off altogether. But God is going to settle government, he's going to settle kingship, in Judah as he had promised, and he's going to do it in David's family, and he's going to do something extraordinary for David's family. He's not going to suffer it to be cut off, which would indeed be a rare, a strange, and a wonderful thing. And ultimately, if we handle this well, we will see that ultimately the, I stutter, but the full fulfillment of what is promised to David can only happen in our Jesus, who's not just a priest forever, but is also a king forever, reigning not only on David's throne, but on a throne higher than that, as king of kings, the Lord of lords, the cosmic emperor of all things, if you will. This gives us an occasion to contemplate him in his royal character, to see him in his kingly majesty and beauty, and to adore him. So let's take a brief walk through this text. If you want more by way of detailed exegetical work, this section has already been posted for your use, the comments by Matthew Poole. But again, starting with the second half of verse 11, we get something very unexpected. It kind of makes me think of Pastor's recent sermons in Daniel. And you remember the strange thing where Daniel's meditating upon Jeremiah's 70 years of captivity. And then the angel comes up and says, you want to talk about 70 years, I will talk to you about 70 weeks of years. And so there's this great, this great elaboration. I feel like there's a similar kind of thing here. You want to, you want to talk about a house. You're not going to build me a house. I'm going to build you a house. And what's promised in the building of that house far exceeds anything that David could have dreamed of. And Lord willing, we'll start to look at David's response to what the Lord has said to him in the second half of chapter seven. But the Lord promises that he will make him a house. Now, verse 12. And when thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee. which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." So interestingly enough, a massive amount of interpretive work and discussion among interpreters historically, who specifically is involved? Is this just about Solomon? Is this ultimately about David's whole line, the successive generations of the kings? Is this ultimately about the Christ? And I think at the end of the day, when we look at all of the biblical material, we have to answer yes. that Solomon is clearly immediately in view, especially when we have the building of the house. David's not gonna build the house, but his son is gonna build the house. And historically, we know who that is. That's going to be Solomon. But 2 Samuel chapter seven is taken up in successive biblical literature quite a lot, sometimes very briefly, Sometimes you just, like beginning a Micah 5 or something, you might just get a few words. Sometimes at great length, like we saw in Psalm 89, the Gospels are full of it, the expectation that Messiah is going to be the son of David in fulfillment of this. Hebrews 1.5 attributes this text very directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the end of the day, what we see is that all three of these perspectives are in view. So Solomon immediately, he's going to build the house, but Psalm 89 makes it very clear that the expectation was that this didn't stop in Solomon's person, but that the succession of the kings would continue on. So the promise was concerning Solomon, but concerning the line of kings, and that ultimately, its full fulfillment would be in the Messiah Christ. And so then the question is, can we pick up on those, at least in germ here, because they're clearly developed later. So like I said, already in verse 13, you see that Solomon is in view, He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. All right, so we've got Solomon. Now look with me at verse 14. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he committed iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. Now, if history is the best interpreter of prophecy, or in this case, promise concerning future things, which amounts to a prophecy, then when you look at how God behaves with the Davidic kings, you see this, that they are frequently wayward the kings in the northern kingdom are. But God frequently cuts off those dynasties of the northern kingdoms in judgment, but he doesn't do this with the Davidic monarchs. They are chastened to be sure, but at least in this capacity they don't face him ultimately as an angry judge, but as a chastening father as he continues to preserve their line of kingship. But one thing that also begins to indicate that this is about more than just Solomon or like limited to his own person. In verse 15, God says that he won't take his mercy away from him, and we've had Solomon immediately in view, as I took it from Saul. But you remember, like Saul's dynasty did continue his whole life long and didn't perish until he went away. So what's being promised concerning Solomon has to be better than what had been given to Saul, right? So this is a promise not only to David concerning Solomon, but concerning offspring after Solomon as well. Saul's monarchy was cut off after him. David, unlike most kings in the east, didn't cut off his line, was somewhat tender in the way that he dealt with Ishbosheth, was positively affectionate with Mephibosheth. He didn't cut off that line, but they never reigned as monarchs again. But Saul, by God's providence, was a one-generation king. What's being promised and what's intended by the language of forever, which in Hebrew can just mean like a long time. You can do that. Sometimes the long time can be like the grand scope of things, like all time, all of it. So then the question becomes, what's in view? It can't be the long time of just a single life. Now, we're sure because the promise has to excel what had actually been given or granted to just to Saul. All right, pick up with me at verse 16. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. And I want you to notice the repetition of the forever. You see it there at the end of verse 13. At least negatively, I will not take it away. Verse 15, forever and forever twice in 16, which seems to be indicating that this goes on and on. When the Psalmist in Psalm 89 expounds this, He talks about the forever in terms of the endurance of the sun and of the moon. That's the way that he takes this and understands it, which is like forever properly speaking, not just a long time, but all of time. And so when you couple this with what was given in Genesis 49, so remember this Shiloh figure, however you take that, However you understand the word, clearly it's a reference to Messiah. He was going to make his appearance before government passed from Judah, before the Davidic line disappeared. That's fine-tuned in Daniel to the 490 years, which is why there was such messianic expectation in the time of Jesus Christ, why they were looking for the son of David, and there was so much reflection on the son of David and the expectation of his appearance at that particular time. So if Jesus is not the fulfillment, now that the Davidic line has been lost, then you would have to say that this promise, this pivotal promise, this central promise in history concerning the central figure, Jesus Christ, or the Christ to come, we would have to say, if it's not Jesus, then it failed. 490 years is long past. Government passed from Judah there in the first century. The Davidic line can no longer be traced. As the early Christians in their apologetic work with the Jews pointed out, All of the signs meet in Jesus. If he's not the one, then the promise has failed and he's not going to come. But here at least, and some of these elements become more expressed later, which we shouldn't be surprised of. That's a very normal biblical dynamic. We're advancing upon Genesis 49. And then subsequent texts will advance upon 2 Samuel 7, but we see that threefold application. Solomon, the entire Davidic line, and its culmination ultimately in the Christ. And then verse 17, according to all these words and according to all this vision, did Nathan speak unto David. And this speaks to Nathan's integrity. If you remember, just in his humanity, Nathan had commended the project. Sounded good to him, and he knew that God was with David, which is generally true. But when the Lord corrected Nathan, he did not hold back that information. in pride or to protect his vanity, but he went, and notice it's emphatic, according to all these words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. Probably either one of those according to would have been sufficient because they amount to pretty much the same thing, but it makes the rhetoric more powerful. No matter how it made Nathan look, Nathan went and told all of it, and told it exactly the way that he had received it. So let's take away some doctrine and some practical applications. So first of all, my point here is not primarily apologetic, although I think we've probably made it a tolerable outline defending the fact that Jesus is, if we can borrow the language of Matthew, he is called the Christ, he is rightly called the Christ, he is the Messiah, but Jesus is the Messiah. He is the King. And really, if Genesis 49 started to emphasize the royal aspect of his mediatorial office, The Davidic Covenant drives it home with extraordinary force. That kingship is going to be an important part of that office. If we just back up and look at the significance of this in world history, it's interesting that he is characterized as the desire of the nations in Haggai. Unbelievers have frequently pointed to other religions that have messianic figures. And we would say, well, of course they did, because the true religion has always been messianic. Originally, it was the only religion. The true religion was the only religion that came off the Ark just four and a half millennia ago. And so we wouldn't be surprised to find echoes of the messianic deliverer that had been promised way back in Genesis 3, even in the midst of the false religions. It's not surprising for us to see the longing and the yearning among the people for deliverance, even if they don't have any idea where that deliverance might come from or where such a deliverer might be found. But the desire of the nation has been found. More specifically and more expressly, he is the hope of Israel, the hope of his people. And we are indeed a happy people when you consider that he has been displayed before us with such clarity. We really do live in a privileged position in history. If you think about, you know, the vast untold masses of people who grew up, lived, and died, Maybe their religion, their idolatrous religion had some messianic concept, but it was so distorted and misshapen, such a terrible perversion of the truth that they hardly had any correct notion of it and had no clue where to look for him. Among the people of God of old, when you consider how little comparatively they knew about him, and how difficult it would have been to put the pieces of the prophecies together concerning him. I mean, something's just really difficult. Sometimes set side by side, like buried with the wicked and the rich. How's that going to happen? How's that going to be a thing? Those things kind of sound like they could be intention. One sounds really humiliating, and one sounds exalting both of those kinds of things at the same time. How do you have the suffering servant of Isaiah and the victorious Davidic king meeting together in one person? That's not easy to put together. That's a hard thing to understand. How can we find his goings forth to be from Bethlehem of Judah, but that it's going to be Galilee that sees that great light, right? These are not easy things to put together before he comes, but once he comes, it is very clear this is the Messiah. This is the hope of Israel. This is what the nations of the earth have been waiting for. the only thing ultimately that can answer the longing of the human heart and the actual needs. Now when we consider our Jesus, there will always be those, and in the culture becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity, There will be those that think little or speak ill of him or of his holy religion. There will still be those that will do what they can to place not a crown or a diadem on his head, but a crown of thorns instead. But as his people, let us be sure that he is enthroned in our hearts and that he is our delight. If I could illustrate for you the difference in dynamic, you remember when David was dancing before the ark, Michael despised him. as the cultured of this world frequently do. But then David says he'll be held in even more honor in the eyes of the maidens, the servant girls, a very different kind of evaluation coming from different people who value different things. So let the world do what it will with him. And ultimately, the world as a world will do better things with him. We look forward to that great day. But let us be sure that he is enthroned in our hearts, and out of the abundance of our hearts, let our mouths speak. I have a second doctrine, but I'm just going to be very brief concerning it. It is interesting that you have implied here Its use in this passage is a little different. I don't want to get into the weeds, but I think that the analogy will hold. There is a facing of the Lord concerning wrongdoing that is a facing of an angry judge unto ultimate destruction. But there's another kind of facing of the Lord in wrongdoing where we have been brought near to him by the grace of adoption. We face his displeasure, but we face the chasing of a father and not the judgment of a judge. And those two things, what they have in common, I guess, would be displeasure. But one is displeasure unto ruin and destruction. And the other is displeasure unto chastening and ultimate improvement and blessing. Rather than develop this at length, I thought maybe we would just read the chapter, especially if there are those out there that have been in the midst of a particular difficulty or hardship. in our fallen condition, and because our sins are many, it's very easy for us to think, you know, I've stumbled with that sin, that same old sin, that sin that has easily beset me far too often, and difficult things are happening. it can lead to a certain kind of frustrating despair or a despairing frustration. But Paul would point us in a different direction. If we are believing in Jesus Christ, we are covered by his blood taking away the guilt of our sins. There's no more condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. We are covered by his righteousness. We do not need to earn his good pleasure, we already have it. In our union with Jesus Christ, we have been adopted into his family, never to face the angry judge again. But if we are being chastened, we're being chastened at the hand of a loving father. But that's a very different thing. The judge might blow you away altogether. The father might have a furrowed brow, but the chastening is going to be for your improvement. So let us read and consider. Chapter 12, Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 1. Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed." Look with me again at verse 6, and I'll leave this point with this verse. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. We have occasion to be very thankful for that good and precious reality. And now one final use from the example of Nathan at the end of the passage. In my reading this week, and I don't remember which author, sorry, It was pointed out that once a person teaches something or says something publicly, our pride can become inflamed so furious and so fast that even when the error is demonstrated and pointed out, we won't retract nor return, not for the vindication of the truth and not for unity's sake. Just a really quick, there are a lot of ways that mistakes, errors arise, but a very common way is, kind of starts in sloth. I think we would all have to confess that we've not given the scriptures the attention that they deserve. Or when issues come up, we don't think through the scriptural teaching the way that we ought. We can be lazy about these things. But in spite of our laziness, that doesn't mean that we don't like to make determinations about things. But those determinations at that point would be presumptuous, right? We don't really know, but we're going to pretend to know. We don't really know, but we're going to make a decision one way or another. And then once that decision comes out of our mouths and rings in other people's ears, pride can settle it in cement, even after an evident demonstration that we weren't right about that particular thing. So this particular author said, you know, we get set and we'd rather have the church dwell in error or split simply so that we don't have to retract and admit the truth of a thing. And we know that that's real. It's one of the reasons we have denominationalism is we have generation after generation, usually leaders of some kind who say something and no matter what the evident demonstration that it wasn't right, correct, or biblical become ferocious in defense of their errant point. And so, The church must abide in error or it must shatter upon the rocks and splinter upon their error, but they won't retract no matter what. Nathan sets before us a very different example, one that's obviously virtuous. There's something really beautiful about it. What he said in verse three wasn't Some interpreters have been hard on him. I find it hard to be hard on him. It seems like he thinks it's pretty plain that this is motivated by a good thing and God's blessing is upon David's reign in a general way, which it is, and so he He speaks, maybe a little less prepared than he ought to be, especially since he's being asked as a prophet, probably would have been good to go. But what he says is not outlandish or whatever. But once he's corrected by the Lord, he goes and he says the truth concerning the thing and the whole truth concerning the thing. He humbles himself. And he'd rather have the truth than his reputation. So, obviously, this is more glorifying to God. This is better for us and for the people of God. It's more healthy. It's more edifying. If we can be self-conscious about this, be wary of our own pride and adopt this model. But I'll tell you something else about it. We are really peculiar creatures, and this is something else to think about, even with respect to your reputation, which is not the most important thing. It's not nothing either. But if you really want to defend your reputation, normally just fessing up and acknowledging the truth, people are way more impressed with that. So you were wrong at first, but if you're like, oh yeah, okay, I see what you're saying. I see what the scripture's saying there. You're right, I retract. Sorry, that wasn't the right thing to say. People are way more impressed than that, than our 50 idiotic reasons why we need to continue to hold onto this error. Everybody's like, yeah, you should probably just admit that the sky is blue and the grass is green, because they are. So you can try to come up with your other reasons why that's not so, but they are, right? And nobody's impressed. And so it's part of one of the many ironies of sin. We grab onto that, like, I don't want my reputation to fall. And we end up being doubly ruinous to our own reputation. We were wrong to begin with, which is not great. But then we become, doubly or triply ruin us to ourselves by holding on to the error in most unimpressive ways. Well, consider what I say, and the Lord grant you understanding in all things. Let us pray together.