Well, if you would, turn with me to John, the Gospel of John, Chapter 5. Gospel of John, Chapter 5, this morning. I'll begin reading this morning in verse 30. And I want to read down through the end of the chapter, verse 47. I've entitled the message this morning, A Sinner's Only Source of Hope. A sinner's only source of hope. Well, let's look at this portion of scripture. The words of the Lord Jesus. Verse 30 of John chapter 5. The Lord says, I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that bears witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true. You said unto John, and he bore witness unto the truth, but I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say that you might be saved. He was a burning and shining light, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John. For the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. And the Father Himself, which has sent me, has borne witness of me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape. And you have not heard His word. You have not, you have not His word abiding in you. For whom He hath sent, for whom He hath sent, Him you believe not. You search the scripture. For in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me that you might have life. I receive not honor from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not, If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me. For he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how will you believe my words? Well, let's pause again if we could for just a moment and just pray specifically that the Lord might be pleased to make his presence known and bless remainder of our time here this morning in his word. Let's pray. Oh, Father, I'm grateful. Unworthy as I am, Lord, I'm grateful that you give me an opportunity, the privilege of proclaiming your word. Lord, I confess how much I need you, and I pray for your presence and your help here this morning, that I might just speak that which you put on my heart, nothing more, nothing less, just your word, plain, simple, pure, that which you put on my heart for your honor and for your glory. And Father, that's the desire of my heart. I request it and I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, the sinner's only source of hope Now as we begin this morning, I want to make absolutely sure that we understand who it is that needs this hope and why it is that they need this hope. Now, when we talk about hope, I'm sure as well that everybody here knows what hope is, right? And we've all had hopes, haven't we? I think back when I was a youngster. And it's been a while, but I can still think back to a few things when I was young. And at Christmastime, I can remember things that I hoped for, can't you? And birthdays would roll around. Again, I can remember that there were things that I would hope for. And I'm sure you were just like me. You hoped for things. And then as you grew a little bit older, if you were a young boy in your teenage years, you began to hope that some nice looking girl would be attracted to you. And if you were a young teenage girl, you might have like hopes that some good-looking athletic boy or something would be attracted to you. We all know what hopes are. We have these hopes, and we still do, don't we? We still do. And let's be honest, you know, we're not as young as we used to be, most of us here today. But come Christmas time, I still have some hopes. I still have, in birthdays, I still have, Donna will ask me, you know, well, Wayne, what do you want for your birthday? And I'll tell her, well, I don't need anything, Donna. I've got all I need. Truth be known, I still have some things that I hope for. I may not tell her. We have hopes. We all do, don't we? But that's not the kind of hope that we're talking about here this morning, is it? Not at all. Not at all. The hope that I speak of this morning is something far, far beyond all of these temporal things that I've just been mentioning. It's a hope that is of importance beyond even comparison with them. Doesn't even compare. Far beyond comparison with all of these hopes that we've had in our lives. and still have from time to time. Paul spoke of it when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica in his second letter. You may want to turn there and look at it with me. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 16. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And in verse 16, Paul spoke of this kind of hope that we're talking about here this morning, the kind of hope that I'm in reference to when I talk about the sinner's only source of hope. It's this kind of hope that Paul speaks of here. Let me just back up to verse 15. Get a run at verse 16. He says, Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which has loved us and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. good hope through grace. In other words, this hope that we're talking about here this morning is a hope that comes through grace. And grace is what? Grace is a gift. It's a special kind of gift, isn't it? Grace is an unmerited gift. It's something God gives that's undeserved. And even more, it's ill-deserved. It's ill-deserved when it's bestowed upon sinners like us. Good hope, Paul calls it. Good hope. That word good has a lot more meaning than we normally give it. A lot more. Good hope through grace. To the Apostle Paul, He talked about this, he spoke of this hope often in his writings. He spoke of it when he wrote his letter to the young man Titus. As he began his letter to him in the very first, what we have as a chapter, the first chapter of Titus, the first, well, the second verse actually, but here again, let me get a run at it by just reading verses one and two of Titus chapter one. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, in hope, of eternal life, in hope of eternal life, in the hope of eternal life, which God, the eternal God, the Creator, the hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. There's a special kind of hope in it. Special kind of hope. The hope of eternal life. The hope of eternal life. That's a hope that goes far beyond any hope that a kid had at Christmas time for something underneath the Christmas tree. This is a good hope. Good hope through grace. Well, let's back up just a little bit now. And let's consider who this is that we're talking about when we talk about the sinner. Needing hope. Paul's description of all of us as we come into this world is probably best made known to us in Romans chapter 3. If you'd care to turn there. By the way, I might just encourage you to keep your Bibles handy, because I've got a lot of scripture I'm going to be calling your attention to today. Preaching, to me, is exactly what God said it ought to be. It's preaching the Word. Preaching the Word. And so we're going to be looking at the word a lot today. But in Romans chapter 3, we find what I have for years now called Paul's portrait that he paints of unregenerate man. Paul's portrait of unregenerate man. Portrait in words, not in paint. but in words, his portrait in words of unregenerate man. What a picture he gives us. What a picture of the sinner. Listen to what he says. Begin with verse eight. Well, let's begin with verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understands. There's none that seeks after God. Already we're seeing things that are so contrary to what we so often hear a lot of so-called preachers say, aren't we? So many times we hear that everybody's seeking God. Well, they may be, but not this God, not this God. And we get the impression so often from what we hear from so many today that everybody's got a little bit of righteousness or goodness. You just got to work on it a little bit, polish it up a little bit or something, and God will be satisfied. Well, that's contrary to what God's Word says, isn't it? There's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understands. There's none that seeks God. They're all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable. There is none that does good. No, not one. None does good. Well, there again, that's a little different than what we often hear, isn't it? Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. There's poison of asps under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known." And then he tells us why. Why they are the way they are. It's because there's no fear of God before their eyes. They do not acknowledge God. They have no reverence for God. They have no respect for God. They live as if God were not. What does the psalmist says? The fool has says in his heart, there's no God. And that's the way the sinner lives his life, as if God were not. There's no fear of God before his eyes. Well, what a picture Paul gives us of unregenerate, sinful man. A little bit later, Paul says, all have sinned, verse 23. All have sinned and come short. of the glory of God. The glory of God being his sinless perfection. All of us have sinned and fall short of the sinless perfection of God, his holiness, his purity. And God demands holiness. Not satisfied with anything less. Jesus said when he preached in the Sermon on the Mount, be you therefore perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. That's a big demand, isn't it? That's a big demand. Be perfect as God is perfect. God himself said, all the way back in the book of Leviticus, be holy. For I, the Lord your God, am holy. Peter quoted him, didn't he? First Peter chapter one. Be holy. For I, the Lord your God, am holy. The writer in Hebrew says, without holiness, you're never gonna see the Lord. That means you're not gonna be in heaven. You'll never be in the presence of God. Because God is holy and you're not. How did we ever get in such shape? How did we ever get there? Adam and Eve, sinned in the Garden of Eden, didn't they? And Paul says in Romans 5, 12, wherefore as by one man sinned in the world, and death by sin, so death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned. We all inherited that sinful nature. We all come into the world with the same sinful nature that Adam had following his transgression, his disobedience, his rebellion. My, they had it made there in paradise, didn't they? They had it made. Only one stipulation. Only one. Don't eat of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge, good and evil. That's all. But they did. God said, if you do, you die. If you do, you die. Separate from God. Alienate from God. Lose life. And that's where we are when we come into this world. Because they said, we come into this world alienated from God, separated from God, dead to God, without hope. Without hope. But early, early in the Apostle Paul's letters, or letter to the Ephesians, He expresses his thanks to God for their faith in the Lord Jesus, their belief in the truth that gave them hope. Maybe we should turn there and look at that. Early in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1. Their faith that brought them salvation from sin and reconciliation. to holy God. Ephesians chapter one, beginning with verse 15. Verse 15 down through the first part of verse 18 of Ephesians chapter one. Paul says, Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, the hope that you may know what is the hope of his calling. And not only was he thankful for their faith and he expressed that to them, but he also reminded them, lest they forget, it's good that we always have some reminders ourselves about these things, lest we grow proud and forget where we came from, what we once were. He reminded them in Chapter 2 of Ephesians of what they were. He says in the first three verses of Chapter 2, these words, he says, were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience among whom also we all had our conversation or our manner of living in times past in the lusts of our flesh Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others Don't forget Paul said don't forget what you were you were dead You were dead in sin And you were facing the wrath of God Facing the wrath of God Oh, but verses four and five. But God, but God, he said, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you're saved. By grace, God's unmerited favor. you are saved. Then in verses 11 and 12 he goes back again and he says, Wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, without Christ, without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope, having no hope and without God in the world. Remember that, without hope, without hope and without God in the world. But now, but now in Christ Jesus, You who were once far off are made near by the blood of Christ. Well, you see, we need to remember. Oh, we need to remember. Some of you. have heard me so often quote the first few verses of the gospel according to John. I love these verses. John chapter one. John begins his gospel in the beginning. In the beginning was the word, the word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. The same was in the beginning with God. In Him was life. In Him was life. And the life was the light of me. In Him. In the Word. In the Word was life. Paul talked to those folks at Ephesus and he told them, you were dead. You were dead. How'd they get life? Came through the word, didn't it? Only place to find it. Their hope? Their hope of life? The hope of eternal life? It's only found one place, only one source for it. Only one source for the center to find life. And that's the word. That's the word. Jesus himself said, as he was praying in that high priestly prayer recorded in John chapter 17, verse 3, he said, this is eternal life. This is life eternal. That they might know you, the one true God, in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This is life eternal? This is eternal life, Jesus said. To know God, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sinned. Oh yes, Jesus Christ is the hope of eternal life. He's the hope of eternal life. that Paul mentions to Titus. And he's the only hope of eternal life. He's the source. He is the hope of eternal life. Now this brings me back to my text this morning in John chapter 5. I want us to go back there. the fifth chapter of John. I want to read verses 39 and 40 again. Jesus is speaking to these Pharisees, these religious leaders. The Pharisees, you see, were the preachers of Judea, of the Jews. They were, well, they were the preachers of Judaism, weren't they? The teachers. They were the ones that were to be proclaiming and teaching the word of God to God's people. And that's who Jesus is dealing with. That's who he's talking to here. And he says to them in verse 39, you search the scriptures. And they did. Oh, they searched the scriptures. As a matter of fact, the Pharisees, a big part of them had a lot of the Old Testament memorized. Jesus said, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me. You will not. You will not come to me that you might have life. And let me back up one verse, if I may, to verse 38. And I want you to listen to this. Where Jesus said, you have not His Word. Did you hear that? You have not His Word abiding in you, for whom He hath sent Him you believe not. Whom and word, and him. It's all the same subject. The word here is not a thing. It's a person. All right? Just like the whom and the him is a person. The word is a person. And Jesus is saying His Word, the Word, the Word that John spoke of in John chapter 1 in the beginning, was the Word, the Word that was God, the Word that is God, that created all things, the One in whom life is. His word isn't in you. His word is not in you. The one whom he sent is not in you. And you don't believe him. So when you search the scriptures that you think give you eternal life, Though they testify of me, you won't come to me that you might have life. Remember when Jesus spoke to another Pharisee in John chapter 3 by the name of Nicodemus? What did he tell Nicodemus? What did he tell him? Let's turn back there and look at it real quick. Just a couple pages back. He said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Then he said a little bit later, except a man be born again, or born from above, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. In other words, Jesus is telling Nicodemus, a religious leader, one of those who searched the scripture, thinking that in searching the scripture, he had eternal life. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he has to have life in him. from above, but to have life in him where you can't even see or understand the kingdom of God or the things of the kingdom. Well, that's really what Jesus is telling these in John chapter five as well. The word. It's got to be the word in you. Got to be life in you. Got to be life in you. Or you can't come to me and you won't come to me to have life. Well, and what is it that John It's in his first epistle in 1 John chapter 5, verses 11 and 12. Let's take a look at that. Something to the effect, this is the record that God has given to us. Life. His life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life. He that has not the Son has not life. Isn't that what it says? Yes, and this is the record that God has given to us, eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life. First John. First John, chapter 5, verses 11 and 12. But having said all of that that I've said thus far, let me come now, if I can, to the burden of my heart that God has placed on my heart that has led me, I believe, to this message this morning. And let me just say it plainly, if I can. The world, the world, and when I say the world, I mean the world lanes, the world lanes. That's everybody in the world. That's what the world really is, isn't it? Scripturally, the world, it's those of the world. The world around us is going to hell. You hear me? Carolyn will remember. Just a couple of days ago, we had our Bible study, and we talked about this there, about what it's like there in the apartment, and the burden that Some of the folks there that come to the Bible study are beginning to have for the rest of the population there in the apartments. Those people are dying. Mostly older people, right, Carolyn? Mostly older people there. And since we've started the Bible study two and a half years ago, I don't know how many people have died. And most of them have died without Christ. Going to hell. How many of your neighbors have died and gone to hell? How many in your family have died and gone to hell without Christ, with no hope? No hope. God's burned my heart. And it aches. And it hurts. Oh, that this good hope, through grace, might be proclaimed. The hope of eternal life would come in power. in power. And we'd see a moving of God's Spirit in our midst, and God's blessing upon the Word, because it's the Word. It's the Word, and the Word alone. It'll make the difference because the gospel is the word, and the gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation. And it's the source, and it's the only source of the sinner's hope. Oh, but there is good news. There is good news. The gospel, good news from God in heaven. This gospel tells us that there's sinners without hope and without God, if they'll believe, if they'll turn from their sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, with their heart and confess with their mouth, the Lord, that they'll be eternally saved, have the hope of eternal life. But I don't expect anybody to take my word for that. Because my word won't save anybody. This is the word of God. This is God's word. God's Word. There's nothing else like it. Nothing else like it. What's Paul say in Romans 10? Let's look at it. Romans 10, beginning with verse 8. What's it say? It says, the word, the word is near you even in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach. And if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Oh, but now listen. But how are they going to call on Him in whom they've not believed? And how are they going to believe in Him whom they've not heard? And how are they going to hear without a preacher? How are they going to hear without a preacher? And how are they going to preach unless they're sent? Now it seems that there are preachers everywhere. You know what it seems like? There are preachers everywhere. Or just turn on the TV. You'll find preachers preaching everywhere. Use your iPad or your computer or walk down the street. There's church buildings everywhere. Just listen. Creatures. Everywhere. Hmm. But the big question I have is how many of them have been sent by God? How many of them have been sent by God? Paul said, how are they going to preach unless they've been sent? And he didn't mean sent by mama. He didn't mean sent by their pastor at church. He didn't mean sent by some denominational leadership. He meant sent by God. How are they going to preach unless God sends them? Because all the preaching they do, if they're not sent by God, is not preaching. I think that I can safely say that I fear that a majority of these preachers are self-sent rather than God-sent. A majority of them. Some of you here today know how hard it is to find a church where there's a man who stands week after week after week faithfully opening the Word of God and taking the scripture and presenting an exposition of God's Word. declaring the truth of the Word of God as God has enabled him? Preachers, self-sent. The evidence of it, the proof of it, to me is clear in seeing who they exalt. You don't have to listen very long to see who they're exalting. It's not God. They're not declaring what they Declare they're not saying what they say to glorify God, to draw attention to Him. It's self. It's self. Listen to their message, what it's about. And it's interesting, what we're seeing in our day is not anything new, is it? It's almost always been that way, in some way or another. Jesus encountered the same thing with those who were supposed to be teaching God's people the Word, didn't he? Let me give you an example in Matthew. Quickly, we'll turn there, Matthew chapter 23. 23rd chapter of Matthew. Read you just a few verses as Jesus is talking about these leaders among the Jews, supposed to be the ones declaring to them, teaching them the word of God. Verse two, first of all, in chapter 23, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Okay? Verses five and six now. But all their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments and love the uppermost rooms of the feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues. That's very similar to what we see in a lot of these so-called preachers today, isn't it? Verse seven. And he liked greetings in the markets and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. Verse 13 and following. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against man. For you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." I wonder just how true that is of so many of these so-called preachers today. How many they're leading to hell, deceiving, deceiving. Well, on one occasion, Jesus spoke to a group of these men, and he said, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you'll do. John 8, 44. burdens my heart, grieves my heart. I read something this week that I think goes really well with our subject this morning. Let me share it with you, if I may, written by J.C. Ryle, a contemporary of Mr. Spurgeon's. Some of you may have read it. He first of all began with some verses in Luke, Luke 4, 33 and 34. He says, In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. And in verse 41, Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, You are Christ, the Son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew who he was. He entitled this, I Know This and I Know That. Well, Ryle said, who? or we should notice in this passage the clear religious knowledge possessed by the devil and his agents. Twice in these verses we have proof of this. I know who you are, the Holy One of God, was the language of an evil spirit in one case. You are the Christ, the Son of God, was the language of many demons in another. Yet this knowledge was a knowledge unaccompanied by faith or hope or love. Those who possessed it were miserable evil beings full of bitter hatred, both against God and man. Let us beware, Ryle said, of an unsanctified knowledge of the truths of Christianity. It is a dangerous possession, but a fearfully common one in these latter days. We may know the Bible intellectually and have no doubt about the truth of its contents. We may have our memories well stored with its leading texts and be able to talk glibly about its leading doctrines. And all this time, the Bible may have no influence over our hearts and wills and consciences. We may be, in reality, be nothing better than the demons. Let us never content us to know religion with our heads only. We may go on all our lives saying, I know this and I know that, and sink at last into hell with the words upon our lips. Let us see that our knowledge bears fruit in our lives. Well, he said more, but let me stop there. Around 56 years ago, somewhere around 56 years ago, God made it abundantly clear to me that I was to preach his word. And he did so in what was to me a quite extraordinary way. all those details of how God did that, but he very plainly led me straight to a portion of scripture. I was kneeling by my bed, my college dorm room, confused, burdened, designed to know God's will for my life, having run from the Lord for years about what in reality I feared God wanted me to do with my life. And I was crying it. to God to show me. My Bible was laying just open on the bed beside me, didn't know where, where I'd tossed it. And I prayed, and I reached up, put my hand on my Bible, and I looked up. and my fingers were on this passage. I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead as He has appeared in His kingdom. Preach the word. Preach the word. The instant in-season and out-of-season reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables. Watch thou in all things. And do thou the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Preach the word. Preach the word. That's what God spoke to my heart. And I knew that's what God had been speaking. From my teenage years, when I would go to bed every night, close my eyes, and be gripped with fear, because every time I'd close my eyes, I'd see myself behind a pulpit preaching. And I ran. I couldn't run any longer. So I said, OK, Lord. OK. And he said, to preach with long-suffering and doctrine, just keep it up. Stick with it. Stick with it. That's what the long-suffering is. Just keep it up. Don't quit, regardless of what is going on, when people want to hear it, when they don't want to hear it. When things are good, when things are bad, whatever the case might be, just keep it up. Keep preaching the word. Doctrine, teaching. Sound doctrine. I looked up the sound doctrine, and it's a theme that runs throughout the pastoral epistles. And the word sound implies that true doctrine preserves and promotes spiritual health, unlike false doctrine, which destroys spiritual vitality and spreads infection like gangrene. Isn't that something? Sound doctrine. The preachers that stick with it and preach sound doctrine are rare. They're rare today, folks. They're rare. But I want to tell you, folks, you've got one. You've got one. And some folks will say, oh, but Wayne, you're biased because he's your son. Well, you're right. You're right, I admit it. I am biased. But my bias is bathed, it's immersed, in the approbation of the Holy Spirit. And I believe, I firmly believe that my bias is justified. I can now lift Justin up as one taught of God who is faithfully teaching God's word as he preaches and stands before us each week with an exposition of scripture that the Spirit of God has placed in his heart for our hearing that we might increase in faith and grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we need to be praying for it. We need to be praying that God will visit us and that God's Spirit will take the word that's taught and proclaimed and use it for His glory and bring others to hear it for His glory. I'm thankful. I cannot tell you how thankful I am. Oh, I'd ask you, please consider what God has blessed us with as a church. The man who I believe that has taken to heart the same thing that God spoke to me there in 2 Timothy chapter 4. That's the desire of Justin's heart. That's what he wants. He wants to preach God's word. There's nothing he wants more. Pray for him. Pray for him. He searches the scripture. Oh, he searches the scripture. Just like those Pharisees searched the scripture. Oh, but unlike them. He does so with faith in his heart because the Spirit of God resides there in his heart. The Word is there. The Word is there. Pray for him. Pray that the Word of God, the Word of God, will work mightily. It's the power of God into salvation. The Word of God. It's the sinner's source, only source of hope. God's Word. That's it. Well, may God be pleased to stir our hearts, to stir our hearts. We're a small group. or a small group. But you know, it doesn't matter. God has done wonders in and through a small group. It might just be that God would be pleased to do a wonder in and through this small group. But let's pray. Let's draw near to God. Let's seek the God of grace, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to his power that works within us. Let's pray.