All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Turn your Bibles to 1 Timothy 6 and verse 11. We're going to read through the end of the chapter. I have the privilege for the King James Bible Research Council to be giving this introduction. Now, the speakers after me have tremendous information, and we will be laying building blocks on proofs and reasons why we are exclusively King James Bible in the English language. So we'll be teaching some Bible doctrines, but at the same time, we'll be telling you the importance of using the proper text and the proper translations. And of course, we're the King James Bible Research Council, and so we're really promoting the King James Bible. So I titled this lesson, How Do You Approach How do you approach the Bible 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 11 through 21? But thou O man of God flee these things and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses and I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do communicate, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babbling, oppositions of science falsely so-called which some professing have aired Concerning the faith grace be with thee Amen Well a lot of people approach books differently, especially this book the Bible some people approach the book I Say in a silly fashion maybe religiously but in a silly fashion. I've been in so-called religious services where a book called the Bible is carried in over the head, candles before, candles behind, incense around it. Everyone stands and they kneel. Now, they don't really have a copy of the book. They don't really read a copy of the book, but they literally are worshipping the book. We would call that bibliolatry. We say that this is Christianity, we understand that that's a Bible, and yet it's approached in a fashion that it doesn't need to be approached in, that it doesn't call for people to approach it in, and yet it's approached in a silly fashion. Some people will approach the book in a scientific manner. Science always says that they're searching for truth. But they never can really declare it properly. And they observe things about the book, and they try to find mistakes. That's what experimentation is, trying to find mistakes, trying to prove or disprove. And so as of late, really the last couple of hundreds of years, men have been approaching the Bible in what they call is a scientific fashion. But the reality is it is in doubt. Some people that would approach the Bible, let's say by faith, will approach it in a very shallow fashion. In other words, they'll say, well, this book contains voices of God. It contains some words of God. But we can't really say that it's perfect. We'll pick and we'll choose and we'll take what we need. And we won't take it from Genesis to Revelation. We'll just get into it in a very shallow fashion. And so, how do you approach the Bible? Do you approach it with doubt? Or do you approach it by faith? People who approach it in silly fashions, or in scientific fashions, or in shallow fashions, really are allowing the element of doubt to enter in as they approach the Scriptures. Now, it's interesting here that in our text, Paul, by uh... way of of the holy spirit when we when god gave up all the word he did so by inspiration and uh... paul speaking to timothy and and uh... through the centuries to us and he says uh... in uh... verse timothy to avoid these profane in vain babbling these shallow, even seditious babblings about the Word of God, saying, well, we need to try to prove it, and so therefore we're going to really attack certain words or certain passages or certain concepts. He says, avoid all of this. Avoid the silliness and the shallowness. Avoid the oppositions of science, falsely so-called. In other words, when men approach with this doubt and they call it science, the Bible even says it's not even good science. It's not even right science. And so God tells us, as Paul was telling Timothy here, there is a right way to approach what God has to say. And so he's introducing that to us. And that really is at the very foundation when you're studying the Word of God and which texts are proper, which translations are proper, and then even the minutiae of what does this word mean? How should we translate this? What are the possibilities? that we ought to do so not with doubt. We ought to approach the Word of God as God intended for us to approach it. We ought to avoid the other things, and we ought to approach them, verse 21, which some professing have erred concerning the what? The faith. And so we err if we approach the Bible by doubt. And so from the very onset, from the very foundation, when we have publishers or translators or people who say that they're propagating the word of God in a scientific fashion, they're doing so really by default with doubt. And they're erring. And really, they're hurting the faith. They're not helping the faith. Now, we love men, don't we? Bible tells us we're to preach the gospel to every creature. And so we want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt that maybe they have a right heart or something like this. But in essence, really, they are going against the God of the Bible. They are going against the Bible's own intention of how we are to approach it. When I was a boy up in Alaska, I had an opportunity to work on a fishing boat. What an adventure that is. It's wonderful. Alaska is such a beautiful place. And most of the time, we could travel where we wanted to fish, and we could see particular buoys, or we could see the mountains, or we could follow the shoreline, and we could, by sight, navigate where we wanted to go. But there were a few times when darkness set in, and storms rose up, that the blackness of the night and the blackness of the sea and the shroud of fog and clouds around us made it absolutely impossible to approach where we wanted to go by sight. We didn't really see where we were going to go. And so then we were reliant upon technology and really X, Y charts and maps. And we were just kind of going, basing ourselves on a map that we would end up in the right direction. And let me tell you something, that is something we were doing by faith. We didn't know if there were rocks in front of us. We were trusting the map to tell us that there were rocks in front of us. We didn't know if we were going into shore or going out to sea. We couldn't see that. We couldn't even sense it. We had to exercise a real faith in the map that we had before us. And so, listen, if today we don't approach the Bible by faith, we could become shipwrecked. We could become absolutely lost, turned and throw and lose our way and not really knowing anything about where we're at or where we're going. And so the whole premise of this meeting is that we approach the book and listen to the book, what it says about God and what it says about itself. Three reasons on approach, why we approach the Bible by faith. First of all, it claims It claims to be the definitive word about God. Now, I have a huge library with lots of books that claim to be commenting on the book or commenting on God. I even have books that don't make any premise of being about God at all. I have books that don't even make a premise about being true. There are religious books that claim that they're religious or to be telling you something about God that really don't claim to be the definitive word about God, like the Bible does. And so if you were to approach the Bible, you approach it from the very first book, from the very first verse, from the very first words. Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, say it again, in the beginning. Now, in is a preposition. In the beginning is a prepositional phrase. It is answering the question when so we know that it is an adverb and that it is that it is really Pointing to the word created But what is the subject of the sentence the very first sentence of the Bible in the beginning? God is the subject of the book the book of introduces itself as being the God book. It introduces itself. It makes that presupposition. As you approach it, that's the very first thing. It is not a man book. It is a God book. It was not given by man. It was given by inspiration from God. It was a God book. We're going to be talking about the distinctions between inspiration and preservation. Both are necessary, but ultimately we approach it We have to listen to what it declares about itself God created what? everything God they're not not there's not anything that was made that that wasn't made by him He he created everything the tangible things that we can see I love looking up at the stars the Sun and the moon The Bible says that they speak The Bible says that those things that he created speak we call that natural revelation a man can look up at the Sun the moon and the stars and see divine order and They can see a creator and they speak. The Bible says that the trees and the rocks might cry out. Well, I'll be honest with you, out at sea, I can hear the wind blowing and howling through the trees on the land. I can hear the waves roaring and shouting as they crash in to the rocks. And so the natural man has a revelation through creation. We call that natural revelation. It's usually enough to make us realize we are created. We have a God. We need to know God. I love what the Bible says in Revelation chapter 22, verse 18. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. Now that's actually pretty scary. If you don't approach the book by faith and you approach it in some other fashion, you're not going to deal with it properly and you're going to perhaps come under its curses. If you approach it by faith, then you take seriously that as God created everything, God created this book, ultimately, as you read through it, it declares itself. And so, listen, I've been on the earth for 43 years, but the earth has been around a lot longer than me. The mountains and the seas have been around a lot longer than me. Now, man might be doing the best that they can to knock the earth out of its order. To mess up the creation and in some cases man's working hard at preserving it The fact the matter is god made it god preserved it and god will one day refine it with fire And really that's true of his word even god said heaven and earth shall pass away but my words Shall not pass away if you approach it by faith and you say god has created something that really cannot be Have men attempted to corrupt it? Yes. Are we able to look at corruption and recognize it as corruption? Yes. Not by enticing words of man, but because we have the canon and rule of its perfection. He made something that we have, and it speaks. Now, I love the argument of the nature of God. So somebody give me A word that would characterize the nature of God. We'd say it's an attribute of God. Give me a word Holy Omniscient Just we could go on and on with all the wonderful attributes of God Perfect How many of you would say God is perfect? Amen, okay by by amen. You say that God is perfect. So the nature of God is perfect He created the earth perfect One day he will refine it to make it perfect again, because it was fine. He made the Word perfect. We have the rule and measure of it so that we can see the corruption, and he promised that it would not fade. Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 4. He, God, is the rock. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment a god of truth and without iniquity Just and right Is he? Nobody would deny God's nature is perfect second samuel 22 verse 31 as for god his way Is perfect get this the word of the lord is tried He is a buckler to all them that trust in him linking God's nature with the nature of the word of God there God's perfection and the trying of God's word tied together linking them together Showing that God's nature and the nature of his word Really can't be separated now God men do their best to corrupt the image of God God says don't make any images unto me as soon as you make an image unto me. You're corrupting what I really am And so he slashes down idolatry. He rejects it and he judges it So men might try to corrupt it. We say we have this corrupted image of god, but god himself is not corrupted Men might try to corrupt the word of god But the lord always exposes it and by the way usually puts all those corruptions by the wayside over a period of time And in doing so shows that as his nature is perfect, so are his thoughts and his ways, the things that he wants us to know about him. So one of the reasons that we approach the word by faith is because that it claims to be the definitive word about God. Now, number two, it speaks as though it is his voice. Now there's another new version out today, one of the newer ones, it's called The Voice. And I'm not talking about that. But I like the concept of this being His voice. Now we talked about natural revelation, and we talked about direct revelation, if you will. Hebrews chapter 1. What does Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 say? and in diverse manners spake." In different times, God spake, and He spake in different ways unto the fathers by the prophets. Now, I like that. He spoke creation. He tells us by natural revelation, creation speaks to us. Even we that are born today in trespasses and sin, we have something inside of us that speaks corruption, that needs help, that says almost in a desperate way, what's wrong with me? And I think that's that fallen nature screaming out. God spoke directly through a burning bush. Wouldn't that be interesting? Lord, why don't you just do that to me today? Just speak to me directly through a burning something. God spoke through Balaam's ride God spoke through a donkey's mouth. God spoke in the still, small voice of the whirlwind to Elijah. God spoke when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, and a dove descended, and God's voice was heard. This is my beloved Son. I like the fact that God spoke to Samuel in the middle of the night. Samuel didn't quite understand how to approach God's voice. And so what did he do? He went to man. He went to Eli Right Samuel Samuel he gets up he goes to Eli he he thinks the voice is of man And so he goes to Samuel he goes to Eli Eli. What what do you want? Go to bed. It's not me He comes again. No Eli realizes this boy is Thinking that this is my voice, that it's man, but it's not. And so Samuel, I want you to know it's not me. This is God's voice speaking. We have natural revelation. We have what we call direct revelation. There's times I've prayed, Lord, speak to me directly. If I can't hear it with my audible ears, then hit me over the head with a two by four. There's times I feel like God has moved me with a two by four before. I've never heard his audible voice say, Doug, Doug. But I want you to know that as a born-again, believing, saved man, as I've gone to the Word of God expecting to hear Him, I've heard His voice as I've read it, as I've heard the preacher preach it. How shall they hear without a preacher? And so the reason that we approach it by faith is because not only does it claim to be the definitive Word of God, but it speaks as though it is the voice of God, not just through natural revelation, not just through direct revelation, but especially in written revelation. Isn't that interesting? God spoke through creation. He says creation speaks. God says He spoke in different ways and different times, and we could go on and on about the unique ways that God spoke, but ultimately, He brought it down to a written revelation. And there's a number of uh verses there on your screen. Let me um read some of those Uh to you exodus chapter 17 verse 14 and the lord said unto moses. This is direct revelation, but he said write this For a memorial in a book now, what is a memorial? It's something that you're supposed to remember Something that's supposed to last Write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it In the ears of joshua for I will utterly put out the remembrance of amalek from under And listen Amalek is yet to be totally put out from under heaven. I think God's gonna do that and So it's not just a looking back. It's a looking forward. It's a it's a promise it's a sure thing from time immemorial until it's actually done and So God said Moses. I intend for all of this communication to be written down and to be written down For a long period of time So God himself endorses written revelation. It's his plan. It's where he's going Deuteronomy 17 verse 18 and it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that He shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests of the Levites Any king that was going to be king of Israel was supposed to hand write the Word of God himself With the help of the scribes and the priests, isn't that interesting? You know it is the duty of government to serve god It is the duty of government to be his agent and god said if someone's going to sit as king They are going to have to know the word of god Wow, isn't that amazing? And so the kings of Israel were supposed to, commanded in scriptures, that you were to write this all out again. So not only did God say, Moses, I want you to write it, and that is inspiration, that original giving, but he was saying to the kings, I want you to make copies in every generation. As you switch leadership, I want there to be a transmission of this thought through time. So God himself endorses copies. Copying this is a royal Xerox. Amen, if you will that God himself Endorses Isaiah 30 verse 8 now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book That it may be for the time to come forever and ever this is the nature of of this written book. So we can approach this thing by faith. It claims to be the definitive word of God, and it actually presents itself as His voice. Natural revelation, direct revelation, but now written revelation. And in the New Testament, the apostles tell us we have a more sure word. This is a better thing that we have. If we were in the first century not having the New Testament, and I came and did miracles, you would say, boy, you better listen to that Doug fellow, because he's practicing miracles from God. But beloved, can I tell you something? In the 21st century, I don't have to work something that might be magically hocus pocused, repeated in a deceptive manner. I've got something that's even better than that. I've got the Word of God today. I don't have to perform a miracle. All I have to do is say 1 Timothy 6, and I'm speaking authoritatively, the voice of God. Isn't that wonderful? And so we approach it by faith because it speaks as to be His voice. I like Revelation 1, verse 11, Jesus saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write in a book. and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea." Listen. God intended this book to be copied. He intended it to be transmitted, even geographically. And so it was supposed to move over time and space. And so that doesn't make it doubly inspired. That makes it incredibly preserved. And and so beloved listen we can approach by faith knowing that this is the definitive word About God of God, but also it speaks as to be his voice psalm 95 95 verse 7 and 8 For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand today if ye will hear his You know what that means? Some men don't approach it by faith and they don't hear it as his voice. Now even if you approach it by faith and say maybe this is his voice, you're introducing doubt and you're not approaching the Bible by faith. And so God evidently has put this perfect thing out there, commissioned it to be preserved in time and space, but then actually put it up to us on how are you going to approach it. Listen, we're not to harden our heart and approach the Word of God by faith and say we're going to send it to the university and put it under the scrutiny of all the professors. That would be a hardening of our heart to do so. Now, I would say even when it's done so, it has proven itself. In other words, we have a lot of scientific proof of the perfection of the transmission and preservation of the Word of God. I don't think God's afraid of scientific scrutiny. I don't think the Bible is afraid of scientific scrutiny. But the fact of the matter is that's not the right approach. We've got to approach it by faith. It speaks as though it is His voice. And I want you to know something. I have confidence that every day I say, I want to hear God's voice, I can go to the Word of God. and I can hear his voice. Now here's the great thing. This definitive book about God is something that he's given us because he wants us to know about him. Not just through natural revelation, not just through direct revelation, but purposefully he wants it to be his voice through written revelation. And the reason that he does is not because he's haphazard, but because it has a very unique and special message from God. that no other book can have, that no other book, I think, ultimately, really even claims. And of course, that message is how we can know Him, how we can be saved. And I want you to know, this book, if I'm approaching it by faith, and it's the definitive word about God, and it's His voice, and therefore, it's not just giving me facts. In other words, this is not helping me win a trivia game. Hey, thanks, God, for your definitive voice on facts. It's not just a definitive voice on stories or pragmatic living. It has great facts and it has great pragmatic living. But it has the unique message of how I can be redeemed from my sinful state. And so therefore, it cannot err in that. It cannot even have a whiff or a scent of error. Because if it's wrong in the facts, if it's wrong in the stories, if it's wrong in the pragmatic truths, if it's wrong in its history, If it's wrong in its grammar, if it's wrong in those things, then maybe it becomes subject to error in this unique message of salvation. And beloved, we're not to approach it by doubt, we're to approach it by faith. Now, I think when you take it together, it directly speaks on how we can know Him. That's the most important message that we could give. It's the most important message that we could have in our mind. You know, you can get titles behind your name, and you can get lands, and you can get a measure of success and prosperity, and people could know you, and you could make a difference in time and history, but the most important mark that you could have upon your life is an eternal mark that's upon your heart. It's actually a wound. It's a bruise. When mankind has all kinds of money, it can make them miserable, it can ruin them, it can take them away from God. But when you have the greatest riches of this bruise and this mark upon your heart, that through the Word of God and His voice and His definitive message shows you, you're lost. You're a sinner. That's the greatest That's the greatest riches that you could ever have. Don't ever deny that when all of a sudden you're feeling that bruise and that mark and that scar. That's the greatest riches that God wanted to show you in His Word. That's why the Ten Commandments are there, to show you that you're a sinner. And when you have that, you look further, and His voice tells you, look unto Me. Amen? Come unto Me. And so this message is so important. Now, you all know John chapter 1. In the beginning, Was the word now. We just quoted genesis 1 in the beginning god. And so now we have this real equivalency It was the word and the word was with god And the word was god now. We know this to be jesus christ Jesus is called throughout the new testament and and and that's not really the message what we're preaching today We're trying to preach on how you approach the word of god, but We approach the word of god like we would approach jesus like we would approach god And it's by faith. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. All things were made by Him. Can I tell you something? He said the tangible things, the Word of God is a tangible thing, but also the intangible things were made. In other words, the machinations of how a man is saved was created by God. What a wonderful thing. I was 11 years old, and I went to a church next door. I was trying to earn a candy bar. Praise God for the churches that offer a candy bar. And I went there memorized Ephesians 2 8 9 and the and the gentleman that was working showed me about my sin and I went home that night so convicted uh about my sin and so the word of god did that which it was supposed to do and I had to crawl down on my face and fearing the flames of hell cry out to the lord jesus christ as he was presented to me in his written word Now, since then, I've grown tremendously in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and especially in knowing his word. And so to me, the word of God is the literary representation of Jesus Christ. And I go to it to hear his voice. He doesn't tell me that I'm to lift it up and bow to it and have incense and all these different things, but literally its message is so unique and that has to be approached by faith. In other words, why have a Bible that claims these definitive things That presents itself as his voice and yet not approach it by faith to approach it through science. It just becomes foolish Verse four in him was life and the life was the light of man and the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness Comprehended it not now Back to our text back to our text In first timothy and chapter six The message, this is God's definitive word about himself. That's what the subject matter is. It is presenting itself here as the voice of God. God is speaking to us. Now, Paul is speaking to Timothy, but God is speaking to us. And he tells Timothy this important message. Lay hold on eternal life. Lay hold. That means you can grab it. Amen? You can understand it. You can comprehend it. It can enter in it can stay lay hold on eternal life that's uh, verse 12 lay hold on eternal life and then in verse 14, he says Keep this commandment Now here's the message lay hold on eternal life Here's paul's command. Keep this commandment lay hold on eternal life. Keep laying hold on eternal life Lay hold on it today and lay hold on it tomorrow and lay hold on it in 2014 and lay hold on it as long as you live Keep this commandment, but look at the describing factors Without Spot Unrebukeable now if you're to keep that lay hold on eternal life without spot and unrebukeable then that Message, lay hold on eternal life, has to maintain its unspottiness and its unreducableness. The Bible, from its inception, has said, lay hold on eternal life, and it has not changed. You should not change those words, lay hold on eternal life. That commandment is without spot. It is unrebukeable and therefore you're to lay hold and you're to keep it without spot and unrebukeable. God would not speak his voice and give us this message if he couldn't uphold his end of the command, his end of the bargain. And that is to make that command right. Now I'm a human, I'm a man. There's times where I will tell my sons, listen, I want you to go out and I want you to mow the yard and I want you to stripe the yard as you mow it. You know what I'm talking about, striping it with a lawnmower. And I want you to mow it and slant it out to the west. And so the sons will do that, and they will slant it out to the west. And then one day I say, you know what? I want you to slant it differently. Now, I'm a human. And this is the unimportant task of mowing your yard. And so I've changed my mind, and I've given a different command. But God does not do that. He says, this is a command without spot, unrebukable, lay hold on eternal life. God is never going to change His slant. People come along today, every few years, they get some money behind them, they change some words. A very good way to make money, by the way, is to present a Bible. And they'll just put another slant on it. Well, maybe God is female, or maybe God is not as angry, or maybe these commands are really suggestions. Though it comes under the curses, men continue to do it over and over and over again. The people of God, the Church of God, continues to reject that because it is presented by the wrong approach, and therefore it is not something we can receive really by faith. And so we reject it as not definitive about Him. We reject it as it's not His voice. And we reject it as it doesn't really contain a right message. And so it's not just the external factors that hold us to our King James Bible, it's the internal factors and how it presents itself. And so this really screams, this passage screams, Paul as he says this to Timothy, it screams inspiration of the original and persecution until today. Verse 14 says that we're to do this until his appearing, which means Paul understood that what God had given him in inspiration Would be kept through preservation until the day of jesus christ And so therefore there's no other slant different in the 21st century than there was in the first century lay hold on eternal life Without spot and unrebukeable. It's the exact same for timothy as it is for us And that's the nature of god. That's the nature of his word. Anything else is just a book All these other books that present themselves differently, that make these other different approaches, become books that might contain certain words of God, but they are no longer the definitive word about God, they're no longer His voice, and they no longer carry with conviction that all-important message. And so, an organization like the King James Bible Research Camp, and a study like you folks, and many others who'll be watching this for classes and for credit, This study becomes paramount. It becomes the most important study that you could possibly know. What is the Word of God? Do I have it? Can I have it? How do I approach it? By faith until His appearing. Now, verse 16 is talking about Christ's light. A light which no man can approach. We're in the flesh. No man has seen God at any time. And we can't really make ourselves cross over into heaven. Or contrary to TV preachers, we can't bring God into our realm and corral Him and hold Him to His promises and command Him to make us rich and make us healthy and make us live longer and give us everything we want and all these other things. We really can't do that. But beloved, God has given us a way that we can see Him His own reflection of light in the mirror of God's Word. So I could see the reflection of my Lord Jesus in His Word. And so as I approach it, I approach it with the expectation of seeing and understanding Him. Now the other unique thing about the place that I lived in Alaska, and I'll close with this, is that we were on an island. And there was no place big enough for a runway. And so the government and the people of the island decided that they would build a runway. And it really was a artificial runway. They put stones down in the sea. And they paved it with asphalt. And they connected with a little bridge. And in Sitka, Alaska, if you're going to land a plane in Sitka, Alaska, you have to come around approaches in and through the mountains. You have to weave. And you have to turn. And you have to make just the right approach. Because as you're landing, it looks like you're landing in the water. And if you go too far, you're just going to end up right in the water. Now, on a clear, beautiful Alaskan day, the approach is fantastic. I've done it a number of times. And I'll tell you, those wings get right up on the mountains. You can see the footprints of the animals in the snow on the mountains as you get that close. You can look down, and you can look across the sea, and you can see the whales breaching as they're going in and out of the Sound. It is spectacular. And as you're coming in to land, you wonder if you're going to hit land at all, because it looks like you're going right into the sea, better than any ride at Disneyland. But beloved, when you're coming in in the darkness of night, when those storms are lifting up, just like on a ship, you want that pilot to have good instruments and to trust and have faith in those instruments. and to come in and not being able to see clearly, still be able to put that plane down precisely, miss all the mountains, and to miss the sea and land precisely so that you can get from your destination, so that you can be safe, so that you can arrive. Never in all my days have I ever gone up to the cockpit and knocked and said, listen, I don't really trust you. I want you to let me go ahead and land this plane. I was flying into Albany, New York one time. It was the worst landing ever. The plane was coming in every which way. People were screaming, and things were flying, and it was just a horrible weather pattern, and we landed very hard. And I was praying, and I was praying for the pilot. And as we were entering, exiting the plane, I went to the pilot, and I went to shake his hand and say, great job. And it was a gentleman who had come to church here a number of times. I said, man, I was praying for you. He said, I was praying for me. And he said, you know, when we don't have visibility, we're trained to put trust in our instruments. And the Lord has given us an incredible instrument. And this world is dark and it's stormy more often than not. You know that as you grow older and you need to have the definitive word about God and you need to have something that is clearly his voice that you can trust to go to it to hear from him. And you need to have something that will give you the definitive messages. The most important one being your eternal life. Verse 21 says concerning the faith. Don't approach the word of God without approach it by faith.