Okay, let's go ahead and open with a word of prayer and we'll start our lesson on an overview and summary of the main teachings in the London Baptist Confession. call this basic doctrine, whatever you want to call this. Father, please help us tonight as we're going to dig deep and move quickly, trying to get as much of this done as we can this evening as our final class on this so that we can pick back up next semester in full force. I pray now that you would just bless our time together. I pray that you would give us understanding and quick ears to hear and an alertness about us that is better than normal. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright. So. See, we were left off. You answered your last question, right? Last week? So I guess I'm just going to have to lay it right there. All right. Now, the Bible is a big compendium of several different works from several different authors we know, but there's a main theme. I need to get you a napkin. And the main theme is the gospel all the way through it from beginning to end. We're going to see that tonight as we work through this. We might call it the five points of salvation. where we're talking about five key points that are taught over and over and over throughout the Bible. These great truths of salvation have been called a bunch of different names. One is Jehovahism. That's a term that's coined meaning it is the the overall teaching of Jehovah or God. Another group calls it Yahwehism. And these are just the names of God, the Great I Am. Now, just like, and I don't think anybody here would deny this, we're absolutely dependent on God for our very being of existence. We exist because of God. We can't exist without God. He holds the tides in place, He keeps the planets in orbit, He keeps everything as it is so that we can exist. then we have to also equally admit that we are just as absolutely dependent upon Him for our salvation. Go to 1 Corinthians 1. We're absolutely dependent upon Him for our salvation. So this five-point summary of God's salvation or grace, in it, God has to receive all the glory. since we are absolutely dependent upon Him for existence and salvation, then He must, by essence, in every point, receive all the glory. If anything else or anyone else receives glory, then obviously He is not necessary. So, we look to Him. 1 Corinthians chapter Number one, starting in verse number 26, the Scripture says, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. God has chosen the base things, and the base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Why? Verse 29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. So all that He has done, He has, and when you look at this, our calling, He's made sure He didn't call the wise men because of their wisdom in the flesh. That's not why He called them. Mighty men or noble men because they're mighty or noble, that's not. If they happen to be called by God, it's not because of those attributes. And He says it is to confound the mighty. It's to cause the strong to appear weak. It's why He does those things. He's chosen the base things of the world and the despised things to just approve this very point that no flesh should glory in His presence. You can't ever stand before God and say, I know why you saved me because of this attribute or this aspect. Saving grace, God receives all the glory, all of it. Now these doctrines are, one writer said, they are dear to the people of God because they describe how we are dearly beloved by God in that He didn't choose us because there was something owed to us based on our beauty, our wisdom, or anything else, but He chose us irrespective of all of those things. little mnemonics to remember things by. This writer came up with a really interesting one and it's D-E-A-R-P. Dear people is how he's done it. And he broke each one of these things down. And it's kind of a cute way to remember things. But he was saying that the people of God hold firmly to these truths. And they are these. There is the depravity of man under this dear P. Depravity, the depravity of man. There's the E in that, which is our election. God elected us from before the foundation of the world. There's the A, which describes the atoning work or the atonement. And the R is his regenerating work in us. And P, of course, are the people of God who persevere. So dear people is the way that this one writer looked at it. So depravity, election, atonement, regeneration, and the people of God will persevere. Now, another writer broke these down in a different way. He said these magnificent points that give all the glory to God should be called the Triune Gospel. Triune Gospel. He broke down the Triune Gospel as three central points that describe the saving relationship to the Trinity. He said because each person in the Trinity has a part, and without one there cannot be a whole, in our salvation. And this is how he described it. In this Trinity, he said, we are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Spirit. Now, so you think about that. Chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, regenerated by the Spirit. Those three things, very important aspects and things of our salvation. Now, when we talk about depravity, what does it do? It shows us the great need of our salvation and the reason that God must accomplish it Himself. Because in a depraved state, we're unable to respond to God's offer of salvation since we are utterly sinful in our lost state. We're not going to naturally seek after God in this state. And of course, going from the depravity to the very last point of perseverance, this shows the result of salvation. So we can't save ourselves, but the result is that a repentant believing people Continuing on in holiness and in spirit-wrought graces, we'll make it to heaven. So this is a picture. Now there's another one we're probably more familiar with. Another mnemonic called TULIP. T-U-L-I-P. And we know what that stands for, right? T stands for total depravity. That's just being depraved. U is unconditional election. Unconditional election, there's not a particular condition that had to be met by us that made God say, okay, you're electable, in other words. Limited atonement, and we're going to talk about that one because that's one that hangs up people the worst probably. Irresistible grace, that the grace of God, once he exercises his power toward a man, he will believe the gospel. And P, perseverance of the saints. So a lot of these are similar, although they're described differently all across the board in various evangelical circles. And concerning the term limited atonement, just a brief statement here. We know that the atonement of Christ is unlimited in its worth. We know we call it limited atonement, but the worth of it is certainly unlimited. It's infinite in grace. We know that about it. And everybody agrees that atonement, though, is limited in its application only to those who believe. It doesn't matter what your doctrinal view is, if you're in Orthodox Christianity, you would say God limits His atonement to those who repent and believe. He limits it to them. In other words, the only ones who deny a limited atonement is a universalist. A universalist would deny limited atonement. He would say, now everybody's going to eventually be saved. It's not limited. It's unlimited in that aspect. Well, we don't believe that. The atonement may be unlimited in how we preach it. We may preach, repent, and believe the gospel to every creature we meet. And that may be unlimited in that aspect. But its benefits are only for those who repent and believe. So on the final day, we're going to know who is included in this limited atonement. Today we don't know. That's why we preach the gospel to every creature. We don't know who God has limited His atonement to. Men are saved because God elected them to be saved. They were saved because Christ died for them in particular. God designed the atonement for them He determined to apply the atonement to them. In fact, the atonement is sure to save and it is the cause of salvation because it is limited. And it is limited and kept from those who will refuse Him. He's not going to save an unrepentant, unbelieving soul. He's just not going to do it. So it's absolutely limited. So when somebody tells you, I don't believe in that limited atonement, so you say, so God's going to save every last person. Because that's what we talk about when we say limited atonement. And just kind of keep that in mind. Now, the biblical order and structure and unity of God's revelation is seen best in the covenants. A summary promise of the Bible from the beginning to the end is kind of summarized in 1 Chronicles 17.24. You remember Solomon was building the temple, he was building the house to God, and in 1 Chronicles 17.24, this is what the Scriptures say. Let it even be established that thy name may be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel, and let the house of David thy servant be established before thee. So, I guess in summary, all that a God could be to someone, God promised to be to his people. So whatever a God could possibly be, God said that's what I'm going to be to my people. And it's true that the redemption summary, I guess, is in every covenant that God made in the Bible. You can see it in every covenant. And we're going to look at those. But Christ himself is the sum and substance of all of those covenants. Isaiah 49 in verse 8 says, Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause, to inherit the desolate heritages. He is our all in all. Christ is our all in all. He is our life. He is the essence of every covenant as can be defined. In fact, Galatians 3.14, turn over there and look at Galatians 3.14 with me for just a second. Galatians 3.14. Now, the essence of the covenant could be defined as possessing the Spirit of God. If a person has the Spirit of God either upon him in the Old Testament or within him in the New Testament, we would say that the covenant of God has been manifest to them and they possess the covenant of God. He applies the covenant blessings to us. He is the earnest of all. and what is to come. In Galatians 3.14, this is what the Scriptures say, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Now, a cursory reading of that, if you read this, you'll read that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith, as though we have to exercise faith in order to be possessed by the Spirit. But that is absolutely not the case. In fact, let me see how I can say this so that there's not an argument to it or a misunderstanding in this. I'll tell you what, let me read this to you so that I don't read it wrong or say it wrong. My summary is too summarized. Okay, we know that Christ being made a curse for us, the promise of the Spirit promises that it is not a spirit of regeneration, conversion, and faith. And here's what I mean by that. We cannot receive the Spirit by faith, since the Spirit is the one who imparts the faith." Does that make sense? We want to say, you know, the way that I'm saved is by grace through faith. Exactly. By grace. The gracious electing of God who then grants us faith so that we might believe. Apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit of God, you won't exercise faith. Now what do we call that? We call that the spirit of adoption. Being adopted into the family of God puts us in the realm where we now can exercise faith. But before we're adopted by God, there cannot be any faith on our part that has enough efficacious work to bring about salvation, or we get glory. If I can exercise something in my life to bring about redemption, then glory goes to me. So the way we know that God is glorified in salvation ultimately is that we don't exercise faith to get the Spirit, but we are adopted by the Spirit, put into the Beloved, and we can now exercise faith toward God. Because repentance and faith are both gifts of God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 clearly tell us that this faith is a gift of God, something that God gives us. Acts chapter 17 reminds us that repentance only comes as a gift from God. And so we want to be real careful in our reading and understanding of the Scriptures that we don't get the cart before the horse. Because we tend to do that in salvation and then we get glorified. If I in any way imagine myself to have some power, ability, or something that God notices as being receiving of a reward, then I'm actually glorifying myself. So we have to just admit readily we can't be saved apart from God. So, we see the summary of God's covenant grace. Go to Hebrews chapter number 13. Hebrews chapter number 13. And look at this one here. This is a benediction right here actually, starting in verse number 20. This is a benediction and We see the summary of God's covenant grace and that it is a saving relationship with each person because of the triune God. And here in Hebrews chapter number 13 and verse 20, He uses this benediction closing us out. He says, Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ. So you have God and you have the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of peace brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus. That great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do His will. working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. As He works through us with the promise of the Spirit, God Himself, the God of peace, who brought Jesus Christ from the dead, works through our lives by His Spirit to bring about what is well-pleasing to Him." Now, that's really the central message of the entire Bible. The dominant theme throughout it, the entire saving relation to the Trinity is what defines the people of God. We are elected the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Spirit. That ought to be something that is just settled in your head, and when you think of salvation, that's how you view it. I'm elected the Father, I'm redeemed by the Son, I'm regenerated by the Spirit. because these are the works of the Trinity. This makes us an Israelite indeed. This makes us the Israel of God as described in the Bible. This is the church that God purchased with His own blood. And if you miss the message, if you miss that message as the central message of the Bible, you're going to get sidetracked. You're going to get pulled into every kind of ridiculous argument that there is. The Bible is a single unifying book. Don't think that because there's an Old Testament and a New Testament, there's not an overarching unifying thing. The very first redemptive covenant occurs in Genesis 3.15. We know that redemptive covenant. We hear it preached often. It says, "...and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed. It, that seed of God, will bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." So the devil would bruise the heel and the son of God will bruise the head, crush the head of this serpent. And that is the, it's really the proto-evangelium as some have called it, the first giving of the Gospel, the promise that there would be victory from the seed of God and the seed of the woman, actually. And we can look to that as a beautiful promise. The Messiah will crush the serpent's head and He will redeem a seed from among humanity. I mean, that is the summary of the Bible from the very beginning. The covenant with Noah, then. There's the Adamic covenant. Now the covenant with Noah is sometimes called the covenant of redemptive preservation because what happened in that? The seed was preserved, was it not? Preserved through the flood. And so often times it is called that and if you go to 2nd Peter chapter number 3, if you were just to read 2nd Peter chapter number 3, which, let's do that. Go to 2nd Peter chapter number 3. What you're going to see is you're going to see how God is going to preserve this earth. And I think this is an encouragement and really a poke in the eye at the environmentalists and all the ones around the world. God intends to preserve this world and keep it going on in its present pattern and will keep it going on until all of his elect are brought in. This is what God's going to do. And so all of this thing about global warming and all the worry about this, that, and the other thing, the Bible has promised that there will always be the seasons. The seasons, it will always be summer, it will always be winter, it will always be springtime and harvest. This is what God's promised us. Now either God's wrong and the environmentalists are right, and I'm voting with God on this completely. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about the world ending in some strange cataclysmic thing and all humanity's wiped off earth and nobody's left. No, God promised he'd preserve the sea. He also promised he was going to bring in all of his elect. And in 2 Peter chapter number 3, this is what it says. He said, This 2nd epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets in the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." Wow, how about that? He said that's what's going to be said. Now, the Apostle's speaking prophetically here. He said there's going to come a time near the end that they're going to be making that statement. Everything is just like it was since the beginning of creation. Nothing has changed. So when everybody's talking about all this change we're supposed to be expecting and how it's going to destroy the world and the only thing that's going to be left alive are polar bears, well, they haven't read their scriptures. And it says this, it says, "...for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water." He said that they just don't want to admit that. They're willingly ignorant. "...whereby the world that was then being overflowed with water perished, but the heavens and the earth, which now are by the same word, are kept in store. Why? Because they're reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So everything else remain the same, but beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. In other words, don't get discouraged about the timeline. You know, it seems like every generation has been looking for the coming of the Lord. And Peter said, don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness. But as longsuffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." In other words, He's not going to lose any of His elect because He's talking about us. Not the lost world. He's talking about us. People argue this verse and they say, see, God's not slave. He's not willing that any should perish, that no man on earth should perish. That's not what He just said. Because if that's what He said, then He was willing that everybody perish, but Noah and his family. So why did He change His mind? God was very willing to destroy every soul that breathed air at one point, wasn't He? So that's not talking about unconverted people hopefully being saved maybe one day by the preaching of the gospel. That's not what he's talking about. It's to us-ward. Us. Who are the us? In 2 Peter he's writing to the brethren. Don't let biblical hermeneutics become a problem. Just read what's in the Scripture and you'll do much better. We have a tendency to do that. We have a tendency to read a passage of Scripture and then put our cultural idea or what we've been taught into it and make it say something completely different. But the overarching theme here is, hey, the end is coming and I want to tell you something. You're worried, but the Lord isn't slack concerning His promise. What's His promise? That He is going to redeem His elect. And even though at one time He wiped out every living soul, He preserved a seed. And He will have His seed. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. That's gonna happen. Seeing then, understanding that, getting that grasp, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and gollies?" So, is he talking about the unsaved world there when he says, what manner of persons ought ye to be? No, he's still talking to the brethren. He's saying, look, understanding that God's not slack concerning His promise and He's going to do exactly what He said He's going to do, and His promise was the promise that He gave to Abraham. What was that promise? That He would have a seed unto Himself, the Messiah would come, there would be a seed and He would prolong that seed and He will gather His elect from the four winds of the earth. This is the promise of God. He's gonna do this. So, how ought you to act understanding that? How ought you to be carrying on? Should you be hugging trees, trying to save the environment, worried about the polar bear, afraid the ice cap's going to melt, stop using underarm deodorant because you don't want to pollute the air with your spray, please continue to use it. It's my request. I don't look like I've used any today. I did not have time to get a shower or change, so if you hug me you may be exposed to some of the elements of sin and degradation. Verse 12, looking for and hasting unto what? The coming of the day of God. Remember we talked about the day of the Lord, didn't we, in the book of Amos? It's not going to be a happy day. Everybody talks about, you know, the return of the Lord. Well, what's going to happen? The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements will melt with a fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, here's this we again, this is not for the unconverted, this is for the saved. Nevertheless, we according to His promise, there's that promise again, look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, since that's what we're supposed to be looking for, be diligent. that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless, and account not the longsuffering of our Lord." What longsuffering? The longsuffering that He is not slack concerning His promise. This longsuffering, this continuing to gather in the saints. This longsuffering of God that He is waiting on this day of the Lord till the time He has determined. and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is what? Ah, so the waiting of God is salvation. It's salvation to His elect. Because there's people being born right now that very well, if God tarries and continues His timeline and it's beyond 20 or 30 years, there's people born right now are God's elect, and He'll be gathering them in. So His long-suffering is salvation. His waiting is salvation. It's not that He's waiting, it's that He has a prescribed time, a fullness of time. Even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking then in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood." I love Peter. Thank you, Peter, for saying that. Because if you ever read anything in the Bible, it's just hard to understand, especially from Paul. Yeah, me too. "...which they that are unlearned and unstable rest," twist, out of place, "...as they do also the other Scriptures under their own destruction." Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory forever, both now and forever. Amen. Amen. Now isn't that a beautiful passage of Scripture? I think that's one of the most beautiful books that we could read about the encouragement of the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord, and what's going to happen. We don't have to fear the day of the Lord. We're looking to it with great anticipation because we're looking for a new heaven and a new earth. So it's a great blessing. Do you remember the rainbow around the head, around the throne of God? And also in another place, I think it's Revelation chapter number 10, do you remember the rainbow around the head of the Lord? Do y'all remember this description? Go over to Revelation 4. It's in Revelation chapter number 4. Now this rainbow around the throne In one essence, it shows that the storm of God's wrath is over for God's people. What did the rainbow indicate? God would never again destroy the world with a flood. Remember that? What kind of destruction was that? It was almost absolute destruction. There was one family that floated through that thing in an arc. So the water was the picture of the wrath of God, was it not? What's the picture of the wrath of God in the future? Fire. Okay, so in the Old Testament we see that God used water as a picture of His wrath and He ran the people through. Now God's people passed through the waters, we are told, and came out on the other side alive. They passed through the wrath of God. But the only reason they were able to pass through the wrath of God is because they were in Christ. So we're in the ark, the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. This ark. Now I think it's no small what do you call it, a coincidence, that the Ark of the Covenant is where the Ten Commandments were placed and sealed to be sealed forever, the written Word of God, written with a pin of iron. It was written and kept in an Ark as well. And of course, God, Jesus is called the Living Word. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. You have literally these pictures, all these shadows that are just being splashed out there for us. These people passed through the wrath of God, which is represented by the water, they were in the ark, they came out on the other side, and then God puts a rainbow in the sky, and He said, now this rainbow is indicative of the fact that the wrath of God like this won't fall again. It will not do it. I'll not do it this way. Revelation chapter number 4, verse number 3, it says, And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper, and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. Now I have no idea what that looks like. I have no idea the way that's described. Now I think there was a three-year-old that had a vision and he saw all this and he drew the pictures with his crayons and showed his dad and made a movie and wrote a book. Don't buy it, don't watch it because he's a little false prophet. Bottom line is we've been given everything God intends for us for life and godliness through His Word. That stuff is nothing but sideshow circus antics for people who are hungry for signs. And there is no sign that is going to be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah. That was given to this generation. That's the sign. And we need to accept that. We don't want to accept that because we love novel things. We love fantastic things. We love emotionally gripping things. We love things that we think are going to help us. God's given us what He expects to help us. And He tells us there's going to be this rainbow around that throne. Go to Revelation 10. I think it's the very first verse. Yep, Revelation 10 verse number 1. And I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was up on his head. And his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. God made a covenant with Adam. And they were told in Genesis 3.15 the son of Eve would crush the serpent's head. And he did, on the cross of Calvary. God made a covenant with Noah. And he said, I am going to destroy the world, but I'll not do it with fire. Oh, water. Next time I'll do it with fire. And I'm promising you that that's not the way it's going to go. It's going to go with fire. He made a covenant with Abraham. The covenant with Abraham is a worldwide blessing, a saving union with the Messiah. In Genesis chapter 12 and verse number 3, he tells them in the, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. All the families of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham. Now, what people tend to do is they read that and they say, hey, that means through Israel. But that's not what was said. What was said is that in the, speaking of Abraham, shall all the families of earth be blessed because it would be from Father Abraham that the Messiah would be born. Coming through this line. Galatians chapter 3 is the apostolic interpretation of that covenant. And it would do us well to read Galatians chapter 3. So if you don't mind, turn over to Galatians chapter number 3. Once again, we need to do some reading to get this. Old foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How did you receive the Spirit? Was it because you kept the law perfectly or because of the hearing of faith? Remember, God uses means, faith comes by hearing, hearing how. of the Word of God, the preaching of the Word of God. Okay? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, that you are now made perfect in the flesh? So what was happening? Well, these Galatians, somebody, the Judaizers had come down and told them, hey, it's okay that you were saved by grace through faith, that's great, but if you really want to be perfect, you need to get circumcised, because you need this fleshly work done to you in order to be more perfect in Christ. So he said, are you so foolish that you began in the Spirit and you think now that a fleshly work is going to make you perfect? You know we do that in religion today, don't we? We get saved by grace and then we think if we keep some rules we'll be more holy. Now the only reason we keep rules is because we are being made holy by the Spirit of God. But we think those rules are the thing that makes us holy. But God promised us that a part of the working of the Holy Spirit is a sanctifying work, and that's a work of God, not a work of us. So you choose to do something that you think is holy, and your vain imagination says, hey, if I do this holy work, it makes me holy. But that's not the case. The Spirit of God sanctifies us and makes us holy and we do these works then intrinsically because that's who we are. I kiss my wife because I belong to my wife. I don't kiss Edith because I don't belong to Edith and she don't belong to me. I obey the Scriptures not so that I can be right with God, but because I am right with God. It's the characteristic that identifies the believer is that he's presently obedient. So if he's not obedient, He's either in rebellion against the commands of God, or he doesn't belong to God in the first place. Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the Lord, by the hearing of faith. How's he doing it? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham." Wait a minute, so the Gentiles are the children of Abraham? Yes. Saved by grace through faith, we're the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. There's that verse, in thee. That was Genesis 12, 3. In thee shall all the nations Be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with, along with, faithful Abraham. For as many are the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. Why? For the just shall live by faith. Did you know that the just shall live by faith, that little phrase is not first found in the New Testament, it's found in Habakkuk. The Old Testament prophet who tells us the just shall live by faith. They don't live by the law. But yet that's what we think. We think if we do holy deeds or don't do unholy deeds, that is our righteousness. Our righteousness is Jesus Christ. Not our doing or not doing. But our doing and not doing is predicated based on the fact of who dwells within us. These are the evidences of walking in the Spirit. And the law is not a faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Hmm. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now pay attention to this verse. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, how? Through Jesus Christ. That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. It's amazing to me, the people who claim that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior will deny that verse. They will not believe that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. They want to say Israel is Israel and the church is the church and the two shall never meet. Paul said they'd unmet. They met in Christ. He tore down the middle wall of partition, did he not? That wall is gone. We are children of Abraham. We are adopted into Israel brethren I speak after the manner of men though it be but a man's covenant yet if it be confirmed no man disknoweth or addeth thereunto now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made he saith not and to seeds as of many But as of 1, now here the Apostle Paul interprets the Old Testament for us. Where we read in the Old Testament where the promise was to Abraham and his seed, we read that and for some reason we put an S there and we make it all Israel. Paul said that's not what was said. In other words, he says, slow down and read it again. Now, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, and now the apostle, through his prophetic ministry, explains to us, he saith not, and to seeds, as of many, not talking about a bunch of people, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So when God in the Old Testament was telling Abraham this, He was speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know that? Well, this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. He said that promise that was given to Abraham was 430 years before there was ever a law given at Mount Sinai. So how can the law that wasn't even given disinvolve something that happened before? Does that make sense? So what happened to Abraham was 430 years prior to the law ever being given. So you can't look to the law and say the law is what saves a man, the law is what justifies a man. I can't do that. Why? It didn't even happen until nearly 500 years after Abraham. Well that makes sense all of a sudden. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? Well, it was added because of transgressions till the seed, singular, should come to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But there was not a law given that could give life. Yes? They were saved differently in the Old Testament when it's made so clearly here. The spirit of this age has blinded many, and we know that. Not everybody who claims the name of Christ are going to make it to heaven. In fact, at the judgment seat, he's going to say to the goats to go in his left hand and to the sheep to his right hand. And the goats are going to believe they're saved. Some of them are going to believe they're saved. Because they will say, Lord, Lord, have we not done many miracles in Thy name? Have we not cast out demons in Thy name? Have we not done these amazing things? But they're blinded. They know not Christ. He says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Why? You never knew me. See, again, it's not that they didn't know the law. In fact, they may have kept the law very well. Not perfectly, of course, but they probably kept the law better than you and I. They may have been fastidious in their religious exercises. But the one determining factor is, did you know Him? And Jesus said, you didn't. You didn't know Me. So the only answer for it is that they're just blinded by the spirit of this age. They're unconverted. but they imagine themselves to be right with God when they're not, which is a sad situation. That's why the truth needs to be preached to our people. That's why the gospel needs to be preached afresh into the ears of the saved, so we don't ever get drugged down in this. Have you ever doubted something that you knew was clearly taught in Scripture, and somebody had to come back along and say, now wait a minute, and you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right, I gotta remember that. There's certain truths in the scripture that I go back to every once in a while that just, okay, that's what the Bible says. I don't need to forget that. It's easy to do. Well, my question is, the people who believe that, who believe that they were saved differently in the Old Testament, do they clearly know about this scripture and yet they debate it? Or do they not know the scripture as well enough to know that this is it? Well, that's one of the accusations that Jesus threw at the Pharisees and Sadducees. He told them, that you not knowing the scriptures, that's what he told them. But these are the people that, the scribes, I mean, they copied the scriptures. Who knew the scriptures better than a scribe? But he says, you not knowing the scriptures. Even though you've got them and you've studied them and you maybe even have gotten a doctorate in theology and all of these things, they didn't know the spirit of it. They had the letter of the law, but remember Paul said the letter of the law does something that the spirit of the law doesn't do, and what is that? The spirit gives life, but the letter kills. That's what happens many times. We take the letter of the law and think that if we follow the letter rather than the spirit of it, then we're going to be right. It's just like somebody who says, I'm going to make sure I follow these particular rules very carefully, but yet they don't have charity. Paul says, you're nothing. Very legalistic. I mean, they may have been right on all their points. They kept the Sabbath perfectly, they did not lie, they did not murder, they did all of these things perfectly, but they were depending on the letter of that law rather than the Spirit of God. And it doesn't work. Well, verse 22 then says, But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law. Remember, how does faith come to us? Through the work of the Spirit. Remember, faith is a gift of the Spirit. Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Not justified by the law, but justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." So, that phrase right there to a Jew was offensive if you were lumping Gentiles into it. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. That's how we are. We belong to Him. by faith. For as many as ye have been baptized into Christ, I put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." I don't think it would be much clearer, but People will argue these verses heavily to say it's not what they mean. Let's see, where are we at? Okay, let's see. So Abraham was not just heir of Palestine but of the world, as Romans 4.13 says, for the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. So the promise that he was going to be heir to the world and was not through the law, it says in Romans 4.13, but through the righteousness of faith. So it wasn't by the law, Paul says. It was by the righteousness of faith, through the righteousness of faith. So Abraham was going to be the heir of the world. He was looking for a new heaven, new earth. The Bible tells us the meek will eventually inherit the earth, finally. Abraham did not look for an earthly inheritance, according to Hebrews chapter 11, and verse number 10, it says, for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But in verse 10 of that same, or 16 of that same chapter, he says, but now they desire a better country, that is, and heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. Circumcision, then in the Old Testament, was a sign of the need for the circumcision of the heart. All these Old Testament things that we look at, remember they are shadows. They are not reality. They are a picture of something that is to come. Circumcision was just that. You have that circumcision of the heart. That is the answer to the circumcision of the flesh. Baptism is not an answer to the circumcision of the flesh. It's not the foreshadowing. It's the foreshadowing of the circumcision of the heart. Go over to Colossians 2.11 if you can. I'm just going to read it to you now. It says, In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So, thus, a true Jew is one inwardly, not outwardly. Right? It doesn't have anything to do with if you can trace yourself back to Father Abraham, which there ain't a Jew that can right now. The dispersion that we're presently preaching about in the book of Amos ended all those abilities. People can argue all they want, but the truth is The Jews have been so watered down and spread along around the world, it would be hard to say, this is a Jew because I can trace him back to Father Abraham. But what we can do is say it doesn't matter if I can trace my bloodline back because a true Jew is not one outwardly, but inwardly. That's what makes a true Jew. Romans 2.28, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. It's not the circumcision that we're after. Listen to Romans 2.28. For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, verse 29, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. I don't know how many times Paul needs to say this to get it through our thick skulls, that a Jew is not one outwardly but is one inwardly so somebody who lives in Israel and is an Israelite can say I'm a Jew and Paul would say not really not unless your heart's been circumcised because a Jew is one which is a Jew inwardly Now, if you want to make a Jew mad, just tell him that. You're not really a Jew unless your heart's been circumcised, and until your heart's been circumcised, it doesn't matter what's happened to you physically. It wouldn't make them too happy, I assure you, but that's what the Apostle Paul said, and that's why they hated the Apostle Paul. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. He came into his own, and his own received him not, and they hung him on a cross because of this message of a promise that was given to Abraham. that the world would be blessed by His seed singular. That's why they can't stand it. That's why when we preach Christ, He is exclusive of all other religions. He is unique. There's not another one like Him. The exclusivity of the Lord Jesus Christ is a dividing rod in almost every Protestant religion and religions worldwide. Because when you say that it is Christ exclusively and that Jews will go to hell outside of Christ, you have just touched the golden calf. You have just messed with the very thing that the United States is fighting hard to make part of our policy, and that is we've got to save Israel. We've got to save physical Israel. Because the Scriptures say if you're not a friend to Israel, you're an enemy of God. Paul just told us who the Israelites were, those that are in Christ. I would tell Donald Trump, if you don't have that same admonition toward believers, if you don't have the same friendship toward the children of God, you're an enemy of God. You know how we know that? Because Jesus verified it for us. When he said, when you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. Was he talking about fleshly Jews? Nope. Couldn't have been. Not according to Paul. Paul gives us a clear interpretation of what that means. The person that is circumcised inwardly in the heart is the Jew. So I says, that's called replacement theology. Well, you call it what you want. I didn't replace it. I'm just telling you what the Apostle Paul said. Replacement theology is scorned by many. Well, good. Scorn it. But give your complaint to the guy who said this. Don't give it to me for simply reading what's said here. This is the Scriptures. And man, I want to stand on the side of Scriptures. The rest of the world can bark and shout and be all upset. tear up the woods over this, but it's Paul. Paul was beaten numerous times. He was left for dead. All because this is the stuff he was preaching to the Jews and they did not like it. Not one bit. Now the covenant. Now we have the covenant that was given to Adam. We have the covenant that was given to Noah. We've got the covenant that was given to Abraham. There was a covenant given to Moses. Now this was the one of the enduring moral law. this covenant that was given to him. The Ten Commandments were written in stone, never to be done away with. They were spoken by the voice of God, placed in the ark of the... What's it called? Oh, it's an ark of the covenant. It's an ark that bears the covenant. Like an ark that bore Noah and his family through a flood, now we have the ark of the... Covenant. It's not called the Ark of Aaron's Rod. It's not called the Ark of the Pot of Manna. All those little things were in there. It's called the Ark of the Covenant. The very stone tablets that God had and placed in that Ark. It is a believer's rule of duty when we think of the Ten Commandments. And we do it in response loving gratitude toward God as a Redeemer. Remember it was Exodus 20 and verse number 2 that God gave the reason that they should follow Him? I think it's kind of interesting. Because in Exodus chapter 20 verse 2, He tells them, I brought thee out of Egypt. So by implication, you should love Me. So why should you love God? Because He brought you out of bondage. He saved you and you ought by obligation love God and serve Him because He drug you out of Egypt. took you out of Egypt and has supplied manna for you your whole life. He has fed you heavenly food. So when somebody says, well, you follow the law because you're scared of God. No, I follow the law because I'm obligated to. I'm obligated to obey the moral law. It's the law of liberty that adorns the doctrines of Christ. It's 1 Corinthians 9.21 says this, "...to them that are without the law, as being without the law, being not without a law to God, but under the law of Christ, that I may gain them that are without law." Paul is saying, look, I'm going to be like people that have no law to win them. Now, this is what people say. Oh, then Paul was going to act like an unconverted man to win the unconverted. Wow, what a good man. That's not even what he said, in fact. God has graciously provided us a parenthetical phrase. He puts parentheses in there. Now, let's read it without the parentheses. To them that are without the law, as without law, that I might gain them that are without law. That's what he said. Now, if you just read that, you'd go, oh, wow, okay, so Paul's going to live like people without the law in order to win people who are without the law. So he's going to act like somebody without the law. But God sticks an eternally preserved parenthetical phrase in here and it says this, to them that are without the law, I'm going to be to them that are without the law as though I am without the law. Parentheses. Being not without law to God. Understand, I am going to be obedient to God, but under the law to Christ. I'm going to be completely submitted to God's moral law and to the law of Christ. I'm not going to be out from under that law, that I might gain them that are without law. We don't want to have anything to do with the people that are out from under God's law. We don't like them. We want to stay away from them. We don't want to chat with them. We don't want to sit at meet with them. We don't want to, you know, have anything to do with them. You know, we're just told not to sit at meet with those rebels that claim to be Christians and won't obey the law and they're underdisciplined in the church. That's who we're told not to sit and have a biscuit with. Because if you follow that ideology, you could never go to McDonald's and eat because you don't know who's in the law and who's not following the law and who's in Christ and who's not in Christ. I couldn't go to Cracker Barrel and sit down because more likely the waiter that's bringing me my food and sitting in front of me may be unconverted and I couldn't do that. That's not what he's talking about. In fact, if I'm not a light to the world, how can they see my works and glorify my Father which is in heaven? How can they do that if I'm not in the world? In fact, the priestly prayer in John 17 was that the Lord Jesus Christ was praying and He didn't say, Father, take them out of this world because, boy, it's awful here in the world for them because they can't rub shoulders with the world, they can't have anything to do with the world. He said right the opposite. He said, Father, I'm not saying take them out of the world, but keep them from Satan in the world. So when they're in the world, protect them. because they gotta be in the world. The Apostle Paul said, you know, I commanded you not to company with fornicators and covetous and idolaters and liars and all of these types of people. He said, now I'm not saying the fornicators, the covetous, and the idolaters of this world. I'm saying don't keep company with those that call themselves brothers and are fornicators, idolaters, and covetous. They're the ones I'm telling you. So when somebody tells you, oh, I'm a believer and they keep fornicating, they keep lying, they keep stealing, they keep cheating, they keep doing all these things, you're to separate yourself from them. They have nothing to do with brothers. Somebody that claims to be a brother and then lives like that. No, not, that's, nope. Not gonna do it. Especially if they're underdisciplined from their local church. Your church kicked you out. Yeah, there's jerks over there. They don't know how much I love the Lord. I'm doing whatever I want to do. I'm not gonna sit at a table with you then. You're dangerous. However, this old fornicator over here has never professed Christ or just think, you know, he says he knows Jesus because at three years old he prayed a prayer or something like that. I'd probably eat a biscuit with him. Church hasn't even touched him. He hasn't been in church since long. He doesn't know what church looks like. Then maybe I can give the gospel to a guy like that. Maybe he's one of God's elect. Like Spurgeon said, we should paint a yellow stripe on all the back of God's elects. I don't know exactly who to preach to, but I don't know. So we preach to every creature, don't we? Am I going too fast for y'all? If I am, just tell me. And I'll push the pause button for a minute and answer a question or two. So this covenant through Moses also contained a temporary and typical modes of worship under the Levitical priesthood until the Messiah came and offered the once-for-all sacrifice that did away with all of the shadows. So there was the moral law, there was the temporary and typical modes of worship, and this covenant also contained civil statutes that were for the nation of Israel to organize the tribes into a nation to keep them distinct from all the other nations of the world. Do you know that the church we have Confessions, creeds, bylaws, statements, and things of this nature that keep us separate from the rest of the world. They're not for the world. When I read the London Baptist Confession by a bunch of old Baptists that got together, over a hundred Baptists that assembled together, and I read a confession like that, that's not for the world. That's for the church. It's the same way with the civil laws that were given, the civil statutes that were for the nation of Israel, to help them to organize the ten tribes, keeping them distinct to the nations, until the Messiah came, Galatians 3.23. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which should be afterwards revealed. Now, the Jerusalem which is above, though, the Bible tells us is the mother of all. That Jerusalem is the Jerusalem we take our marching orders from, not Jerusalem over there in Israel. They don't decide our marching orders. Yet, if you look at the policies of the United States of America, it looks like they decide every policy we make for war, who we're going to be friends with, who we're going to buy oil from, who we're going to do whatever with. But our marching orders come from heaven. Galatians 4.26, but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. So when you talk about Jerusalem being the mother of us all, you're talking about the heavenly Jerusalem, the one that will come down as John said in the book of Revelation. So we've had the Adamic covenant. We've had the covenant with Noah, the Noahic covenant. We've had Abraham. God made a covenant with him. Do you notice all these covenants are all the same? Have you noticed that they're all pointing to a Messiah? Every one of these covenants have to do with the Messiah. You've got the Mosaic Covenant, this covenant that had both the moral laws and the typical laws and the civil laws and all of these things that were held within were all going to culminate in the Lord Jesus Christ who would keep the law perfectly, would be the final sacrifice, and we would organize under the heavenly Jerusalem. We would organize under the church universal. getting rid of the civil statutes of Israel and finding the statutes of the church herself and being committed to that body and that community of believers. Now we are at the Davidic Covenant. The Davidic Covenant. This is a reflection of a new stage in redemptive history when Israel now is ruled no longer by God but through a human king. Well, he was ruled by God as the king followed the commands of God. But a perfect king cannot be found in the fleshly realm, can it? You can't find a perfect king. The Messiah will be perfect. He'll be the perfect king over the people of God when He comes. That's what they were looking for, right? But when He came, they killed Him. Because that's not the kind of king they were looking for. Again, they were not looking for a king that was coming to circumcise the heart. They were looking for a king that was going to come circumcise the flesh. They wanted a king that would come and that would rule over the earthly kingdoms. They didn't want a king that would come and rule over the hearts of men. Well, in Psalms 110 in verse number 3, a prophecy says this, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, and the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast to do of thy youth. God's people will be willing in the day of His power. When the Messiah, the perfect King, comes to be over His people, men will then submit themselves through His Spirit. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us, born of a virgin. Here is our absolute confidence of the triumph and the victory of God's cause and kingdom. The government, we are told in Isaiah chapter 9, shall be upon his shoulders. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, Isaiah 53. He has begun and he now hath put all things under his feet to give him to be head over all things to the church, Ephesians 1.22. And when Christ returns, the end of all things will be at hand, 1 Peter 4, 7, and we will go into eternity, 2 Peter 3, 10-13. I love my eschatology because it's so simple. I don't have a chart 14 miles long showing you when this trumpet is going to sound and this vial is going to pour out and this plague is going to fall and all these kind of things. You say, Pastor Michael, that's exciting. You know what's exciting? How then should we live knowing that this world is going to be dissolved? That's exciting. How ought we be living? Should we be expressing charity to our brothers and sisters in Christ in a most gracious and kind way? Absolutely. Should we be giving the gospel to an unconverted world? Absolutely. Should we be ourselves being sanctified by the Spirit of God through careful attention to the Word of God? Should we be attending to duties that are before us rather than trying to go out and do something that someone has placed upon us? that's not even God's command. You see, the Davidic covenant is the Messiah's triumphant and glorious rule. And then we have the New Covenant. We had the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, now you've got the New Covenant, the New Testament. And in the order of things, this particular one will never be done away with. Hebrews chapter 13 verse number 20 tells us this, it will never pass away. This particular kingdom is forever. This is the covenant of the historic accomplishment of the long-awaited redemption. John 19.30 talks about this long-awaited redemption. The redemption is accomplished already on the cross, and all that remains, really, is for it to be applied. The risen, ascended Christ is presently at the right hand of God. He's poured forth His Holy Spirit. to accomplish a worldwide preaching of the gospel and a bringing into the kingdom of all nations. That happened on the day of Pentecost. If you're of the ilk that says, hey, we're waiting on all the nations to get the gospel, well, then you're kind of behind times because on the day of Pentecost, the scripture tells us very clearly that's exactly what happened. The gospel was preached to all nations. As soon as the last nation gets the word of God in their tongue, Jesus can return. We're restricting his return? Hardly. You think a virgin who refused to have intercourse before she got married could restrict the first coming of the Lord? Nope. Not hardly. You talk about upsetting some apple carts. When Mary showed up pregnant and Joseph got word that she was pregnant, his whole world fell apart. I can't imagine what her first thoughts were. But the bottom line is, it isn't about man restraining the Lord or allowing the Lord. God will do all of His holy will in His time. And in fact, He said it was in the fullness of time that she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. He came upon her and she gave birth to this Son. So, the New Covenant is a blessed thing. It's being accomplished right here before our eyes and there is Presently, we have the complete canon of scripture. We have all 66 books. There is a simplicity in our rituals within the church. There is only baptism and a Lord's Supper. We baptize those that are professed believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have a Lord's Supper until He returns. This is it! There's not all of these confusing rites. Jesus said His yoke was easy, His burden was light. It's not like the one that the Jews were trying to follow. They were having to keep up with every little thing they were doing and follow all these statutes and all these washings and all these things. He says, no. He said, my yoke is easy. You know, there's a yoke, right? He didn't say there's no yoke. That's what the modern evangelicals want to tell you. There's no yoke in Christ. You're free to do whatever you want. Grace is free. You can do whatever you want. No, no. Jesus said there is a yoke. My yoke. He said my yoke is easy. My burden is light. You're not without one. You're still pulling a plow. You're still laboring. You're still being obedient to the ordinances. We're still having the baptism. We're still having the Lord's Supper. There's still a Lord's Day. All of these things are still upon us. The commands of God, the moral commands of God have not gone away. It's still wrong to kill a man. It's still wrong to profane the name of God. All these things are true because there is a yoke. Don't try to cast off every yoke. as one of the modern pop Christian songs suggest. Now this corresponds to that which is fitting for a worldwide work in the spirituality of focus of the covenant and the ascended Christ in heaven. This takes away from a focus on the earth, doesn't it? Because if it was a focus on the earth, we'd still have all the pomp and ceremony of the Catholic Church. with all of their candles and the waving of their incense and their robes and all of the steps and all of the kissing of the feet and the kissing of the rings. It's all focused on the earthly things, but yet in the New Covenant, we're seeing such a simplicity in worship to God that it frustrates our religious sensibilities. We've got to add something to it to make it more, don't we? We can't hardly stand the fact that it is that simple. It seems to bother our religiosity. So, there is a New Covenant body of a church where Jew and Gentile are equal in status and privileges, even with all of the New Covenant. There's things yet to be applied. He yet holds in store for us the complete removal of sin. That's yet to come, isn't it? We haven't had all the sin from us removed yet as far as what I'm talking about is our practice. Yes, before Christ our sin has been removed, we've been forgiven, but our practice is still pretty bad. We still don't do a great job at that. There's going to be a resurrected body. That's yet to come. We're looking for that day. There's going to be our immediate presence with God. where we will immediately be in the presence of God one day. There will be a new heavens and a new earth, eternity. To come is under the new covenant, is to bring us incomprehensible union and communion with the triune God. Now, I'm going to have to stop there. I wish I could go on, but really, y'all have gone without a break for an hour and a half almost. And we're going to stop there. And I guess I'll have to pick up here in the spring. I wasn't planning on it. I really wanted to knock all this out because we get to what a biblically ordered life looks like under the new covenant. And after that, this coming spring, y'all come back in the fall. Not spring, in the fall. Y'all come back in the fall. And we'll see what a biblically ordered life looks like under this new covenant. And hopefully before the end of that semester we can actually get to the London Baptist Confession. Y'all have any questions? I hope not because I'm about to lose my voice. Yes. Well, let's pray. Father, we're very thankful for this evening. You've been quite merciful to us in that You have not only given us the Lord today, which we stopped to worship You, we set aside all of our secular activities, we put a pause on everything on that day, just to fellowship together, hear Your Word preached, Sing praises to Your name. Pray. Spend time together as a body. Then Wednesday night, Lord, we actually pause and hear the Word preached again and pray and sing. And then tonight, Thursday night, Lord, we gather together. Though the crowd gets smaller and smaller with each gathering, I pray that the intensity of teaching and the fellowship of the Spirit equally comforting to all of us as saints. I pray now that you would bless these dear saints as they travel home. Thank you for each and every one of them holding out through this semester. Thank you for Pastor Josh's diligence and study and teaching. I pray that you would bless him with many, many more years here in this congregation to lead and guide and direct these people through the preached Word. That you too would preserve myself and our health. In Jesus' name, Amen. God bless you, thank you all for...