and open them in to second Peter chapter one. Hopefully, you've gotten the point that we're talking about the Scripture this morning. And I want to start off this sermon by quoting to you the very first sentence from the London Baptist Confession of Faith. Now this is the document that this church holds as to guide us and direct us, hold us accountable to what it is that we believe. You can actually find it somewhere in the back of the hymnal. It's a confession that as the word suggests, confesses what it is that we believe. And it starts off, the very first sentence says this, The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. It must be pretty important. It's the very first thing that it's telling us. Six paragraphs later, it adds this, The whole counsel of God You hear that? The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit or traditions of men. So you can see here the high esteem and regard that we're to have for God's Word. These words tell you the essence of a Latin phrase that in the Reformation was very important, sola scriptura. This means scripture alone. The word sola is the word alone. And they called this the formal cause of the Reformation, since it is the source or the teachings that brought the church out of the dark ages. Calvin once put sola scriptura this way. He said, I do not ask antiquity to legitimate anything for us unless it is founded on the word of God. Now, I want you to notice Calvin didn't chuck tradition. Tradition is an important litmus test for truth, because if you are the first to come up with something, it's a fairly probable that you're just making it up. Ask Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism. The point is tradition cannot trump scripture, and that's what Sola Scriptura means. Now, today marks the 489th anniversary, actually two days from now does, but today is the Reformation Sunday where we celebrate it. When Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis on the church door at Wittenberg, Germany, and in celebration of this, we call today Reformation Sunday. It's a day that Protestants have long celebrated the recovery of the gospel and the authority of the Bible from those who would seek to hide both of them from God's people. I'm preaching to you today from Second Peter, chapter one, and I'm especially focusing on verses 12 through 21, because this text is all about sola scriptura. It's a text that ought to make Roman Catholics take a hard look at their doctrine of Peter. Because Peter, the supposed first pope of the Church of Rome, is here anticipating his own death and the great need that his churches will have for remembering the teaching that he is giving to them once he's gone. And so he says in verse 14, I know that the putting off of my body will be soon. In other words, I'm about ready to die. And he says he knows he's going to die because our Lord Jesus Christ made this clear to me. I was just going to move past this, but then I started thinking. Wouldn't it be strange to know with certainty that you are going to die very soon? We all know we're going to die, but wouldn't it be strange to know you are going to die very soon? It would be a sobering thought, wouldn't it? It would also be the kind of thought that would force you to put your house in order. Gone would be the time for playing games. Gone would be the time for petty fighting among brothers. You would stop focusing on all the complaints that you have about your family or your country or your church. You would also very quickly learn the metal of your faith. He would learn if it has all been a pretense or an honest belief founded on true faith in God's promises. I was watching the true story of two climbers who in 1985 set out to climb a 21,000 foot mountain called Ciudad Grande in Peru. After a climb that has never been repeated, by the way, on the way down, Joe Simpson broke his leg so badly that the lower part of his leg went straight through his knee joint. After an improbable rescue from his partner as he attempted to down climb him with a rope, Simpson was lowered unknowingly over a precipice where he remained dangling 75 feet above an enormous ice crevasse. The story goes after about three hours had passed and not knowing whether he was dead because they were in a howling blizzard and they couldn't hear each other's voices, his partner cut the rope. And Simpson fell not 75 feet, but 150 feet straight down, where he eventually came to rest 75 feet below the top of the ice crevasse. With no chance of rescue, Simpson knew he was going to die. These are his own words about the situation. He says, I was brought up as a devout Catholic. I'd long since stopped believing in God. I always wondered if things really hit the fan, whether I would under pressure turn around and say a few Hail Marys and say, get me out of here. It never once occurred to me. It meant that I really don't believe. I really do think that when you die, you die. That's it. There's no afterlife. There's nothing. I'm telling you, the first time I saw this, I was so remarkable to see this test of unbelief in the middle of this most incredible circumstance. It was so terribly sad. With a more certain confirmation than Simpson had because, as you should probably guess, he made it out of the crevasse. Else he couldn't have told the story. Peter's now having his faith medal tested too. What's his response going to be? Is he going to deny Christ? His response is, quote, I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall what I have taught you." See, Peter is certain of his future hope and he wants others to be as well. And I think it's interesting to note that Peter does not say, so what I'm about ready to do is give you another pope. Instead, his response is to write this very letter that we're reading today which is inspired by the Holy Spirit and eventually becomes part of scripture. Scripture, not a pope, is how he will impart lasting truth to the church. This verse and passage demonstrates sola scriptura. That's the background. Now, here's the teaching. And let me press this into your minds in an outline that has five points. The first one is that we have need for scripture. This is verses 12 through 15. The second one is that there is a heart of scripture. And that's verses 16 through 18. And then next is the usefulness of scripture, and that's verse 19. And then fourth is the origin of scripture. And that takes up the last two verses of this chapter. And then fifth is the danger of moving away from scripture. And that's basically all of chapter two. And let me deal with the last one first. because it actually permeates the entire first two chapters of this letter. It's the danger of moving away from the scripture. Back in verse three of chapter one, Peter says this, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He tells us that through election, God called us to his own glory and excellence. These are very precious promises indeed. And Peter even writes in verse four, God has granted to us his very precious and very great promises. Now, the Reformation was a recovery of this most beautiful jewel of God's electing love in Christ. The official teaching of Rome had virtually eliminated all traces of the doctrine of election. Only in certain monasteries like Luther's Augustinian monastery, Was the teaching still present? Rome was too busy telling people that they had to walk down an aisle and say a prayer to make Jesus Lord of their heart by an act of their free will. In the meantime, the reformers like Luther. And Zwingli. And Knox. And Calvin. And Beza. And your Simons. And Witsius. And many others that you've never heard of. spoke with one voice on this critical doctrine that preserved God's grace. They use the doctrine of election to comfort those whose guilty consciences never felt appeased because of their own sins. You see how they use election as comfort. The comfort did not come in presenting election as an abstract idea just to be thought about and far too often to puff yourself up with. Because you get it while so many other poor, pitiful fools don't. The comfort came in taking the doctrine and pointing you to Jesus Christ through it. Far too many people today who perk up anytime election is discussed, fall asleep when you start to talk about Christ. Are you among them? This ought not be beloved. Do we love a doctrine more than God himself? This is idolatry. In fact, it's the very same idolatry that Israel committed. For if they knew one thing with certainty, it was that they were God's chosen people. Peter's greatly concerned that his people learn to be very diligent to make their calling and election sure in verse 10. Now, election is a very precious pearl. But there's a problem that many people who hear the gospel absolutely fail to grasp. They cannot reconcile in their minds the doctrine of election with the doctrine of making your calling an election. Sure, it just doesn't make sense to some people. And in this way, they throw out a part of scripture that they can't make work in their system of theology. They very quickly begin to rest on something that they may, in fact, not even possess. They use the doctrine of election to make themselves feel good when there's no reason from their life that they should. Both prior to and after this verse, Peter raises the issue of holy living. In this way, it is very much like the teaching of Jesus in our series on the Sermon on the Mount. I want you to notice, where I started reading the Law this morning, Peter says, a very well-known passage, Add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control. and to self-control, perseverance and to perseverance, godliness and to godliness, brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. How's it interesting that he says you can actually be ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of Jesus Christ? We kind of say this every week in our worship service, when we say that belief may not lead you to trust in Christ, because even the demons believe that there's a God. The real question is, do you trust Him? What kind of a person has an unproductive life? The ESV that we have in our pew Bible says, an unfruitful life. Well, John the Baptist put it this way, produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus said it this way, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce fruit. In other words, those who do not produce fruit have no biblical basis for trusting in election. I'm not talking about producing perfect fruit by never sinning, and I'm not talking about I'm talking about having an increasing measure of love and joy. peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, goodness, faithfulness, having an increasing measure of those. Remember, this is about making your calling and election sure, which presupposes that you can have assurance, doesn't it? The doctrine is a comfort then for any who trust in Christ and who desire the fruit and have the fruit. even though they're continually plagued by feelings of God's displeasure because they sin. The good news is, as I have just told you, that God has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, Peter says. The good news is that in Christ we partake in the divine nature and have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of our sinful desires. Not that we become gods, but that we've been adopted into God's family. It is in this light of the truth that we learn to obey. We learn to obey because this is what God's people do. They obey. And this is how we make our calling and election sure. And so Peter says, if you practice these qualities, you will never fail. In verse 10. Always the order in the Bible is the same. Always. But always both of them are present. First comes the gospel. First, the promises. First, the calling. First, the granting of gifts pertaining to life and godliness. Then comes belief and repentance, which are the fruits that you do because the gospel has come. You hear how Philippians 1.29 says it? It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ to believe on Him. This isn't something you do, but it's a gift that God gives when the gospel makes you alive. Then you begin to produce fruit on an increasing order. If you reverse this order, then you no longer trust Christ. You trust your own righteousness and you revert it to works for your salvation and hope. But if you stop with the gospel only, then you show yourself to be faithless follower of Christ and a person who does not even love righteousness. So both of these have to be kept in tension. It's like this. You know the story of a Lazarus The gospel says, Lazarus, come out. That's the gospel. What does Lazarus do there? He doesn't do anything. Those born again are born, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, says Peter, through the living and enduring word of God. It's the power of the word to create life. That's the centrality of the word that we're looking at today. But the law then makes you look in that mirror. You see the stinking, rotting burial clothes, and what do you do? You come out. But without coming out, without obedience, were you ever really made alive? Who stays in the casket in the tomb? Dead people do. That's Peter's point. He's reminding you of it today. What happens when people forget to make their calling and election sure? I think Peter's describing it for us here. They begin to lack these moral qualities in their life. The very things that he talks about in that list. That is, they become ineffective and unfruitful in their knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fruit dies. And this is proof that trust in Christ was never genuine. It's always only an external thing for them. Peter says that they are so nearsighted that they are blind. And then he says that they have forgotten that they were cleansed from former sins. And again, the washing was only an external one, like water baptism without spirit baptism. So Calvin says here, those who do not strive for a pure and holy life do not understand even the first rudiments of faith. They do not see the right way, which is shown to us by the light of the gospel. All of chapter two, then, is taken up with this theme of not making your calling and election sure. And it's a long chapter, and I only want to highlight it for you. It begins this way. False prophets will rise among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. Paul adds that these false teachers gained wide popularity. To suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers who will say what the itching ears want to hear. And then Paul adds, they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. Now notice. that these men and women are popular because they tell you what you want to hear. They scratch where you itch. They make you feel good about yourself. They could care less about making you feel good about yourself in Christ. They want you to follow their teaching, not His. They want you to follow your own heart, not God's. So notice next that they turn aside to myths. Later, Peter tells us that he did not follow cleverly devised myths, and I'll talk about that when we come to verse 16. Myths are the exact opposite of the scriptures. Anything other than sola scriptura, then, is a myth in both Paul and Peter's mind. False teachers hate scripture alone. Now, there's an order that Peter gives for what their teaching does. First, they bring in destructive heresies. The climax of these heresies, he says in chapter two, verse one, is that they deny the master who bought them. In other words, the first step is to pervert the purpose of Christ's coming. It's the very first thing they have to do. I want you to think about how people can do this in our day. The most popular way today is to talk about Christ as anything other than the only way to the father. Talk about him as your helper. or your lover, or as a cheerleader, or as a good moral hero, or as an enlightened God-consciousness, as they probably teach you in Boulder. Talk about Him any way that you wish, as long as it's not offensive. But don't dare talk about Him as the only sacrifice that must be trusted to save you from the wrath of God. Don't talk about Him as the initiator of salvation and regeneration, because that takes away from me. and my free will." After Christ is put to the side bend, these false teachers begin to teach sensuality, it says in verse 2, with the chief motive of greed. Peter gives examples of how this happened in the past. Sodom and Gomorrah taught all sorts of perverse things, not the least of which was an affinity for homosexuality. So God condemned them. The ancient world of Noah's day was full of violence and immorality, so God sent a flood to destroy them. Even the angels got in on the hedonistic party, and so God doomed them to gloomy darkness until the judgment. Peter's very concerned about the consequences of giving up the scriptures and the faith, beloved. Very concerned about it. Indeed, three times in chapter 1, verses 12, 13, and 15, he tells the church that he greatly desires to remind them of these things. He's concerned chiefly with the visible church, not with the world. That includes every single person in this room who's made a profession of faith in Christ and who lives in community with God's people. This includes nearly all of you this morning. None of us is off the hook. We must all take seriously the fact that some who profess faith eventually turn away from the Lord, though they seemed so fantastically excited about God at first. We must not let ourselves be among those, but must diligently guard our hearts and must finish the race that we began. This is a sort of gospel message that people aren't preaching in our day, isn't it? They're saying, well, how do you know you're a Christian? Because you walk down an aisle and you said a prayer and that's all you need. That's not what Peter says. I want you to beware of those first roots of unbelief that open the door for your acceptance of false teachers and insensuality. They include inner diseases like discontentment, dissension that you cause in the body, and boredom with the word, and a spirit of complaining, and envy of others, and pride in your own spirituality, and selfish ambition and other sorts of things. If these things control you, then you're not being controlled by the spirit and you're not finding satisfaction in God. Paul warns that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. And Jesus says the same thing. And so Paul says, do everything without complaining or arguing that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation. Peter's chief concern here is to make sure that the people will have a way of remembering these things after he dies. And so he sets out to write down for future generations the truth of the matter. Hence, the need for Scripture. Though many complain about the word and how impossible it is to understand and how boring worship is and how they tire of sermons and how we need other things to energize us when we come together. This is a fundamental failure to understand the chief purpose of the Word of God. Peter says, I always intend to remind you of these qualities, though you know them, and are established in the truth that you have. Notice he says, even though you know them, I'm going to keep telling them to you. This verse is such a revelation from God. How many times have I heard people say, I've heard the gospel. It's time to move on, preacher. Let's get on with the business of doing things for God. Beloved, that's not Peter's reaction. Indeed, he says, even though you know these things, I intend always to remind you of them. The chief purpose of coming together is this. That's why we come together as a body. We need reminders because we forget. And we forget because we sin. And our sin makes us mistrust God's promises and His goodness towards us in Christ. Our sin hardens us to the need for an obedient life. We need corporate worship to renew our spirits and to hear the good news of God's forgiveness in Christ for us. And to be encouraged by other sinners who've been saved by grace and who are walking around in the same boat that we are. Hence, Peter greatly desires to stir you up by way of reminder in verse 13. How are we being reminded today of God's love in Christ and his requirements for holy living? Well, it's not by watching a movie and it's not by walking in the mountains on a nice sunny day. It's by considering the scriptures, isn't it? The truth, the truth that we have all heard so many times and a truth that can never grow old. I was reminded of the hymn that Emily Miller wrote 150 years ago. I love to hear the story which angel voices tell, how once the king of glory came down on earth to dwell. I am both weak and sinful, but this I surely know, the Lord came down to save me because he loved me so. I love to hear that story. That's why we so desperately need the scriptures. Only they can call us back to Christ and only they can call us back to repentance. If we start trusting in ourselves, we're only going to run away from the truth. Now, this, I think, is the most important part of the whole thing this morning. Why do they call us back? And how do they do it? They do it because Jesus Christ is the heart of Scripture. It isn't just words that's the Bible, it's living words. Christ is the word become flesh. Scripture is a bunch of words. They are God's words. They are Christ's words. They are living in active words because they emanate from Christ himself. Like the light and heat that emanate from a star, so the word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. I was amazed, frankly, when I was reading this and thinking about Peter's line of thought here. As we see everywhere in scripture, morality and theology are never far away from Christ. Men are not permitted to think about such things apart from Him. For how can we know about God and what He requires apart from Jesus? God is holy, and He dwells in unapproachable light. He is a consuming fire, and when He comes in glory, the earth shakes like a bottle, and our foundations melt like snow in Death Valley. How can you know what God requires apart from Christ? Only in Christ can we see and know the love of God. Only in Him. Nowhere else. And Peter revels in this thought. He doesn't just revel in the Word. He revels in Jesus, who is the Word. He doesn't just tell us principles to apply ourselves. He reminds his hearers of the facts of redemptive history and the person of Jesus, who, quote, is the power and he talks about the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 16. And like Paul, Peter says, we did not follow cleverly devised myths. Instead, we were eyewitnesses to his majesty. He was there at the moment of history. Many today try and turn Jesus into a myth of history, but the eyewitnesses testify to what they saw, heard and touched. Jesus was no Greek or Roman fable. He was a real man who performed real miracles in front of thousands of people, many of whom wrote down exactly what they saw. Peter's among them. In verse 17, he records the transfiguration that he was an eyewitness to. The pronouncement that came from heaven and said, This is my beloved son, and with him I am welcomed. These words are to captivate your imagination, quite frankly, for they are your very life. Because the father was well pleased with the son, he accepted the son's sacrifice as payment for the sins that you and I commit each day. Because the father was well pleased with the son, the requirements that God demands for perfection were fulfilled on behalf of all who are called according to God's purpose. Of all the syllables heaven has ever uttered, surely these are the most precious of all. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. That's our salvation and our life. Let me tell you again, though, you surely know, Jesus is the heart of Scripture. Doesn't that thrill you? How can it not change you? The sight of Jesus in unveiled glory was a sight that never left Peter. He knew the reality and power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you've not forgotten only to be taken over by the cares and troubles of this world. That leads me to the usefulness of the Scripture. This was the central recovery of the Reformation. Now, when I say the Scripture is useful, I don't mean to say that the Reformation was all about pragmatics. But in a very important sense, they did recognize the power of Scripture to change a person's life. The key here is that the power of Scripture comes because Scripture is the living word of Jesus Christ. Like everything else, it is never to be abstracted and thought about apart from him. Peter says in verse 19, we have something more sure, the prophetic word to which you will do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. I began this morning showing you that the confession teaches that the scripture is a guide for our faith and life. Here's the proof. What does a light shining in a dark place do? It tells you where you're going. If you lose the Word, you lose your sight. If you lose confidence in the Word, it's like dropping your glasses. If you lose faith in the Word, it's like going blind. The many sins I've detailed here today can be attributed to one thing, a loss in the confidence of God's word to be that light. This in turn reveals a loss in the confidence of God's Messiah to be your light. You must remember that Jesus has not returned. You still anticipate his coming by faith. So Paul says, the night is nearly over. The day is almost here. Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. We eagerly are awaiting the day when Jesus, who is the morning star, will return and rise in our hearts. But in this very thing is a warning. Because, Peter says, we have the word made more sure than it was for the people of old. Peter says, you do well to pay attention to this. In Jesus, when he was talking, when he was still alive, He talked about what this means to have something be made more sure and the ramifications of that for you. He said that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for those who have accepted the truth of his coming and then rejected it later on. That's what it means to make your calling an election sure. Professed faith has to be real faith, not just professed faith that you fool others with. So we eagerly desire to finish the race that we began. Peter's confidence in these things that he's telling the people comes because of the final piece of the outline today. None of us should forget this. He's already hinted at it when he said that he did not follow cleverly devised myths. People are often making up mythologies in the name of Christianity. We've already discussed the motives and teachings that result from this. Now we come to this. No prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So Peter here talks about the origin of the scripture. The purpose of this seems to be to strengthen the point that he's going to find a way to remind the church of these things after he's gone. The writing of scripture is in line with all other scriptures, which has its origin in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is an important point in a day when many appeal to so-called words of God to justify all manners of doctrines and practices. Men are not the origin of the Bible. That's why Peter could trust it. Though they were human instruments, it was the Holy Spirit that carried them along, he says. The image here seems to be one of thinking of the Spirit as a bird, which is a very popular thing to do in the Bible. God's Spirit carried the human authors to the exact place that they would arrive, inspiring their pens and minds at every turn. But, I need to say one more point here. The Spirit never works on his own. He is a member of the Holy Trinity, and he was sent by the Father and the Son to be a witness to everything that the Son did, to be a confirmation of the truthfulness of the Scriptures. The Spirit testifies to the Word and never speaks contrary to it. Chrysostom wrote some 1600 years ago that we are to reject all who, under the pretense of the Spirit, lead us away from the simple doctrine of the Gospel. The Spirit having been promised not to reveal a new doctrine, but to impress the truth of the gospel on our minds. That's his job. The Spirit's not a feeling, and he's not an intuition, and he's not a burning in your bosom. He's a person. His work is to confirm the truthfulness of the word of God, even as he authored the scriptures in the first place. He does not come to speak on his own, but only that which he was sent to confirm. That's why the spirit has to be secondary to the word. And if you mix that up, you've destroyed Sola Scriptura. Both the inspiration and interpretation of the scripture rests on a firm foundation. As the Reformers went to pains to demonstrate The interpretation of the word has become the corporate possession of the entire church. For the scripture is a public document that is easily understood and not some secret book of codes that only an elite group of people can interpret for other people or that you need a computer to figure out the codes of it or whatever else the case may be. The spirit does not reveal truth to only one individual or a small sect. This is what cults teach, not Christianity. Thus Calvin says, seeing how dangerous it would be to boast in the spirit without the word, he declared that the church is indeed governed by the Holy Spirit, but in order that government might not be a vague and unstable, he annexed the church to the word. This is the importance of the role of tradition. It confirms, but does not create truth. Beloved, Peter's given you a reminder of several things today. He's reminded his reminder is grounded in the scripture and a recovery in the faith and power of the scripture is desperately needed in our day. The heart of the scripture is the person of Jesus Christ, where mercy and judgment and grace and wrath all met together on a cross outside of Jerusalem. Its usefulness is singularly able to teach us how we can be saved and live in a way that pleases God. You can't find that out on your own, and you often forget it because of your sin. Its origin comes from God Himself, and so we can trust what it has to say. This was the legacy that the Reformation gave to her spiritual descendants. Let us never tire of hearing this story. Let us diligently seek to be found faithful, obedient children. Let us renew our trust in the Word of God and in the love of Christ for us. And let us seek to remove the filth that remains in our hearts because we have become partakers in the divine nature through the adoption that we have in Christ and the household of God, where we are co-heirs to the promises and brothers and sisters with the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, it's pretty clear to me that each one of us in here when we sin are rebelling against your word and that this sin causes us to mistrust your word and to become tired of it and bored with it. all of the other things that we see developing in our hearts and that this simple mistrust very quickly turns inward and we start to focus on our own doubts and insecurities and we start to complain and mumble and argue and bicker and pretty soon we open ourselves up to outright heresy and sensuality that comes from people who do not know the word of God. And we always seem to be on this sort of slippery slope. And I would ask that you would call us back to understand your word today to have a faith in it and to believe and trust in Jesus Christ and what the word says to us about him. Help us to know your promises and your love that you have for us and to be excited and renewed once more. We would ask that your spirit would apply these things to our heart because it's the work of the spirit to apply the word. And we trust that this will happen when the word goes out. We thank you for giving us the Bible and for preserving it down through these long ages. We thank you for the great testimony and witness and faithfulness of those who have gone before us. to have sometimes died so that we might be able to continue to have this truth proclaimed in our day. I would ask, Lord, that you would renew our minds and our thoughts upon these things. We thank you so very much for your electing love in Christ and for the confidence that we can have in knowing that we have this sure foundation that we were chosen before the foundation of the world. But I would ask that you would also help us to make our calling and election sure this morning. that you would help us to see if there is truly fruit growing in our lives and our hearts, that we're not growing cold towards your ways, but that we're being warmed by the embers and fires of the Word of God. We thank you for gathering us here together this morning in a corporate way to be able to hear these things and talk about them when we leave together. We anticipate the time of communion to come with great eagerness because it shows us as another reminder what Christ has done for us. And it also reminds us of the future that we anticipate in his glorious coming to return for us. And it's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.