If you take your Bibles this morning, let's go over to the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk chapter two. As I mentioned, we put the message very early in the service today for a very special reason, so that as you sing the hymns of faith in response to that, you can worship the Lord, and I believe the hymns will be more meaningful because we have worked through this passage together. We're looking at Habakkuk chapter two in the Old Testament there, Habakkuk, as we are working through this series. Habakkuk chapter 2. Notice if you will the words of verses 1 through 4. Habakkuk chapter 2 verses 1 through 4. I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold, His soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Shall we pray together? I praise you, dear Heavenly Father, for the majesty of that simple phrase, that the just shall live by faith. Thank you for the good news of Jesus Christ. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the understanding from prophetic literature that you are bringing all these things about in order that your son may be glorified and the gospel may be magnified both in the Old Testament and here in the New Testament age. Dear Heavenly Father, I'm crying out to you now and asking that you would fill me with your spirit, that you would stir the hearts of God's people to pray while I am preaching that all of us together may be like Habakkuk's name, meaning to embrace or one who embraces. Help us today, Lord, to embrace you by faith, knowing that the just shall live by faith. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. As we were preparing to take the survey trip down to Clendenin, West Virginia on Friday morning, I got up about 2.30 in the morning and was having my coffee constitutional, just doing my best to try to be alive and awake, and I thought I would watch the news to find out more of what had happened in Niche, France over the last day or so before that. I was listening to the correspondents as they were conversing, and one correspondent named Margaret Brennan, she is a CBS News reporter, and she's on CBSN News, and they were dialoguing about this, just trying to grapple with it. Margaret Brennan asked this question, how do you kill an idea? How do you kill an idea? As I was having my coffee and thinking over that question, I realized that she was asking one of the most significant questions that all of us need to wrestle with. Because after all, if a crazed truck driver His name, Mohamed Larouge Boulel. If a crazed truck driver driving a semi-truck can drive even on the sidewalks of niche France. As the party goers were coming home from a fireworks display on Bastille Day, the National Day of Independence for France, July 14th, as they were coming back, here was this truck driver driving down and intentionally mowing down people. And so far, 84 people have died, and we believe there will be many more, including children who are right now on life support. What they were wrestling with, and I say this to their credit, what they were wrestling with is, what were the motives behind this murder? And Margaret Brennan began to go on to say, do we all realize this, that there are ideas that are out there, ideologies that are floated out there that are actually compelling and driving a number of terrorists to do what they are doing. And we'll see a little later in the message that the man who was behind the wheel, Muslim said, he wasn't even a very good Muslim. And so you wrestle with what is happening and why are they doing these things? So back to Margaret Brennan's question, how do you kill an idea? Dear friend, I believe today on the authority of God's Word that we have answers in this blessed book of answers that is before us here because the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, though we walk after the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. But we are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations. Hear the ideas there? Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Dear friend, that's what you have in your scriptures. you have the opportunity, not with physical violence. No, the Lord doesn't tell us to use physical violence, but he does tell us that what we have before us in the Word of God, the Word of God which is alive, it is powerful, It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart that we have the opportunity through the proclamation of the gospel to cast down imaginations, the idols of the nation, to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. I believe that the book of Habakkuk that we're going to look at this morning is uniquely suited to this particular task, the particular questions that were raised in just these last few days. As you well know from our series up to this point, Habakkuk was wrestling with the violence in his own society. You can see it in chapter 1 verses 2 through 4. He was really sickened by the violence in his own society in Judah. The strife, the contention, it was as if the law and justice had been completely set aside. And I raised the question in the last two messages, does that sound familiar to you right now about these United States of America? And in a classic representation of sowing and reaping, the Lord answered the prayer and said, yes, this is what I will bring upon Judah because of their violence. The Lord would bring the brutality of the Babylonians. He would bring greater violence. They have sown, they have planted violence. They will receive greater violence. And suddenly Habakkuk was terrified for his own people. He was asking, Lord, do we need to go that far? Lord, surely you wouldn't use a wicked instrument like the Chaldeans against your own righteous people. Lord, how can you do that? And I raised the question last time. What should you do if the God you know does not respond like the God you know? What should you do in a situation like that? And you can see in Habakkuk's prayer here as he wrestles with this. And as the Lord answers this in Habakkuk chapter 1, you can tell that Habakkuk is saying, I know that my thinking is not right here. There is something that I just don't get. I just don't understand. So in today's text, look at it, if you will, there in verse 1 of chapter 2, notice the very last word in verse 1, reproved. Habakkuk is saying, when I am reproved, that is, when the Lord corrects my thinking. So, isn't that an interesting way to look at this? Habakkuk is not saying, Lord, your ways are not equal, such as those said in Ezekiel chapter 8 and Ezekiel chapter 32 and 33. They accused the Lord of being out of balance. Habakkuk doesn't do that. What Habakkuk says is, I know there's something wrong with my thinking. Now, dear friend, there's a wonderful lesson there for you and me to really stop to think about the way that we process information, the way that we are thinking about life and reality, and asking ourselves, are we really right? Before we go and accuse God of being wrong, are we sure that we are right? You know very well that Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 9 teaches us that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The Lord says, I the Lord try the rains. And so as a classic model of humility here, what Habakkuk is saying is, I am going to stand on my watchtower." Now, it probably wasn't a literal watchtower. It's a symbol of what he was representing, the watchman who was supposed to stand up on the highest tower and to scan the horizon for any invasion, scan the horizon for any dangers. In Habakkuk's case, he is scanning the horizon for answers from God. He is saying, I am waiting for the Lord to speak to me and to reprove me." to explain it to him. But what you and I have in the Word of God is the completed revelation of God. We have the completed special revelation of God. He has given us everything that we need, and sure enough, what do we find about the Word of God? It is for doctrine. It is for reproof. It is for correction. It is for instruction in righteousness, according to 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. And so, in the very same way, you and I understand something. We understand that God's revelation is for reproof. The Word of God not only warns us, it also welcomes us. And this is why Paul would say over in Colossians 1, verse 28, that he was preaching Christ. He was warning every man and teaching every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. This is the task of any preacher, to be doing precisely that by preaching Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to keep Margaret Brennan's question in mind, how do you kill an idea? Because you are already, I think, beginning to see answers from 2 Corinthians chapter 10 about casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. You're already beginning to understand that we today want to wrestle with this specifically to ask, are we really ready to truly embrace God's answer? I used to love to go fishing with my dad on Pensacola Bay in Escambia County there in Pensacola, Florida. And I still remember one day we were out on the Santa Rosa Sound. This would be the sound side Santa Rosa Island between Santa Rosa and Gulf Breeze. the calmer water, not the gulf on the other side of the island. And dad was fishing that day from a boat with a fishing net. By the way, it was a fishing net he had made himself. My dad was really great with knowing exactly how to make nets by hand so they would spread correctly when they fell. And so he was casting his net and we were observing the fish as they came up. I remember that day he caught mullet. He also caught the puffer fish. They would blow up like this when you brought them to the surface. But on that particular day, he brought up a seahorse. What an unusual creature is the seahorse. Now, we had seen them in the Gulfarium, we had seen them in the other aquariums around, but we had never had one there where we could hold it in our own hands. What a funny little fish. It's designed in such a way that it can't swim very fast and very far, but its tail has a unique function for it. Those who study seahorses tell you that what they do, since they really can't swim fast and far, is they use that little tail to basically latch on to something solid. Many times it's plants that are on the surface or on the floor of the sea. They will latch on to that, and as their food swims by, they will grab their food. I'd like to point out to you today that you and I need to be like this in a very turbulent society What we're going to have to do is hang on we're going to have to embrace What the Lord would have for us The words in Isaiah 64 verses 6 and 7 are very helpful to us here because we know that all of us are like filthy rags. We are all as an unclean thing. Our righteousness there is in the sight of God like filthy rags. We all do fade as a leaf. And our iniquities like the wind have driven us away. And then very next verse, Isaiah says, and there is none who calls upon the Lord. There is none who takes hold of God. Habakkuk's name means to embrace. And I think it's specifically for us, embracing God, embracing him by faith, being like the seahorse that latches on and holds on. Because, as you saw in the text, the center of this text today is really that wonderful gospel message that's in verse 4. But the power of it is in this text. The power of predictive literature. The power of prophecy. We have to embrace, in order to do what this text tells us to do, and here it is in three words, wait for it. Wait for it. A brother this morning was asking me, he said, Pastor, I've been praying for some folks for so long. I've been asking the Lord to save them for so long. Should I keep on praying? The answer is yes. And in the words of God, wait for it. I'd like to remind you that Calvary Baptist Church was actually built on wait for it preaching. T. Richard Dunham, as he established our congregation now more than 80 years ago. He was very much part of the Winona Lake Conference, the Prophecy Conferences, sometimes as part of the Chautauqua Movement. They would preach the prophecies and people would take their vacations. They would vacate the hot cities to go out into the countryside and enjoy the cool countryside all the while learning what it meant to know that God had promised us certain things. One of the boys in our congregation wrote me a note recently and said, Pastor, I really want to understand the book of Revelation. Can you help me understand the book of Revelation? It's important to understand the book of Revelation. Why? Because it's the power of prophecy, as we shall see here demonstrated in just a few moments from the book of Isaiah. It's that power of prophecy to increase our faith and to help us truly trust in the Lord. But notice what Habakkuk says here then in verse one, I stand upon my watch, I set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he, that is the Lord, will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. In today's text, I think we find three ways to, in the words of the text, wait for it. Three ways that this text shows us to wait for it, and that ought to raise a question in your mind. Wait for what? What is it exactly that we are waiting for? Habakkuk knew that something was wrong with his thinking. God didn't make sense to him, and he knew well enough to know that God is not nonsensical. So he knew that no doubt the problem was with him. You can see it there in verse one. What is it we're waiting for? Well, first of all, we're watching for the Lord to correct us. That's what you're doing. Every time you go to the Word of God, you're waiting for and watching for the Lord to correct your thinking. I've said this before. I've been criticized for what I'm getting ready to tell you. I've said this before, but here's what I recommend you do. I recommend in your Bible reading, you read until something surprises you. Now, we have dear saints of God here in this congregation who've read the Bible many times, many, many times, and you're very familiar with it, so much so that many of you can almost quote in advance what you're getting ready to read. However, when you're reading along and you think, huh, Wait, that's not the way I was thinking at all. That's a great place to stop to say, wait, Lord, I want to be like Habakkuk in chapter two and verse one. I want you to change my thinking. So the first way to wait for the Lord and watch for him is watch for him and wait for him to correct you through the message of the word, to correct your thinking about him, to correct your thinking about his work. This is one of the most crucial questions for us. Now, I've begun to hint already at an answer for Margaret Brennan's question. How do you kill an idea? Think about it this way. How do you overturn a false truth in your mind? If it's your idea, it's the way that you were thinking, it's the way that you, in the words of Proverbs 3, lean to your own understanding, how do you overturn that? And of course, we're seeing here, we have answers about how to kill ideas. Notice, if you will, in verse 2 of the text here, because here it really begins to help us understand. He says, and the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. I want to remind you what the Lord is doing here in our hearts and lives. He is transforming us. He is changing us. In the words of Matthew chapter 22, what He is causing this change in us to be like is that we would love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our might and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We're not giving ourselves over to the kind of violence where we kill people. No. What we're talking about is the faith in God's kindness toward us. That's what makes all the difference. So here he says, look, in this vision I am giving to you, you must Wait for its fulfillment. You must wait for it. You must understand it and embrace it I love the way it's written here because look what he says He says write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run who reads it now now think about the message this way just a moment if How would you get a message across to someone or how would you share something with someone in such a way that they could instantly grasp it and say, I got it, and they could run with it? You know right off the bat that's not going to be a very complex message. It's not going to have a whole lot of parts sticking out. It's going to be a really basic simple message. I was really pleased to see a number of commentators when they're looking at this passage say that they believe what was actually written on that tablet was verse 4 of our text. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 4. that the soul of the upright, the soul that is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. That's an interesting way for you and me to think. Now notice what he's doing here though. He is giving people confidence through the way he's saying it. He's saying, write the vision, make it plain upon tables that he may run that reads it. In other words, in such a way that people can immediately embrace it. take hold of it, and run with it. Doesn't that remind you of 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 2? You may remember the message I preached about the first Sunday in May from 2 Timothy 2.2. It was called the Great Commitment. One of the reasons you might remember it is it had a true-false quiz right in the middle of it. And one of the things that we learn from 2 Timothy 2.2 is The same, the things which you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men. That raises the question, how are you going to do that? Well, it has to be simple. It has to be plain. It has to be in such a way that those who read it can run with it. This is really an interesting aspect of how do you kill an idea? How do you overturn it? It's because it was so simple. It was so right. It made so much sense out of reality that it gave those who were running confidence. And there's the second way. waiting on the Lord. The second way of waiting for it, wait on the Lord to give you confidence. Verse 1, wait on the Lord to give you correction. In verses 2 and 3, wait on the Lord to give you confidence through the message of His Word. And so, as you gain new confidence, For instance, in our Sunday School classes, going to be at 11 o'clock this morning, many of our classes are working through the foundation Bible study. Why are we doing that? Why are we working through that discipleship study? It is to give you confidence, and so that you will be ready in the words of 1 Peter 3 15, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks a reason of the hope that lies within you. That's the goal. That's the purpose. That's what we're desiring here. So the second way to wait on the Lord is wait on the Lord to give you confidence through the message of his word. Get ready to use your energies to spread his message. You can be certain of what he has promised, what he has promised he will do. But you must be patient. You must wait for it, waiting on the Lord to fulfill His word. As I said a few moments ago, what you're really seeing here is the power of prophecy, the power of predictive literature, God's promises as they are very specific. about future events. But it's so neat to see that this is the way that the Lord helps us to confidently stand on our own two feet and give an answer so that he may run who reads it. Do you remember reading when you were a child? Do you remember reading The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere on the 18th of April in 75. Hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year. You remember another famous part of that poem. He said to his friend, if the British march by land or sea from the town tonight, hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the north church tower as a signal light, one if by land and two if by sea, and on the opposite shore will I be ready to ride and spread the alarm. So Paul Revere was able to confidently ride through the streets with that simple message, the British are coming, the British are coming, and now they knew exactly which way they were coming from. I'd like to point out to you this morning that God desires that you would have that same kind of supreme confidence in His Word. so much so that he actually puts his authority and credibility on display for you. I'd like to show you this in the Word of God. Turn with me, if you would, over to Isaiah 41 just for a few moments. You might want to make notes about this one in your Bible so that you can remember why do we have biblical prophecy? Why were we given prophecy in the first place? Those answers actually come out here in Isaiah, and I'll show you Isaiah 41, 42, 48, and then I'll demonstrate it, illustrate it with Isaiah 45. Look what it says in Isaiah 41, verses 21 through 23. When the Lord sets forth this test case for credibility, He says to the false religions, to the idols, the pagans all around them, He says, Produce your cause, saith the Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring forth and show us what shall happen. You see it? He's talking about the future. He's talking about prophecy. What shall happen? Let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them, that is, the future results of even past events, and declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that you are gods. Do good or do evil that we may be dismayed and behold it together. See what the Lord's doing here. He is throwing down the gauntlet. He is saying, all right, let's see if they are really true gods or not. And he bases it all on predictive literature. He predicts it is basically on prophecy. Look, if you will, at chapter 42, verse one, I hope this will be a very familiar text to you because Back around Easter time, we work through the Servant Songs. His prophecy is about, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delights. Part of a Servant Song, part of a testimony about the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just so that we make this plain, now turn over with me to Isaiah 48. I just want to be sure that we're all getting this, and so we're going to go back and and repeat it one more time. Repetition is the key to learning, so let's be sure we got it right and be sure this is exactly what the Bible is saying. Isaiah 48 verses 3 through 6. The question again is, how does the Lord demonstrate His authority, His credibility, and in this case, demonstrate it to stubborn, obstinate people? That is, people who really don't want to believe Him. They really don't want His answers, but He's going to demonstrate for His glory He's going to demonstrate it to them. Look what it says there in verse 3 I have declared the former things from the beginning and they went forth out of my mouth and I showed them and I did them Suddenly that is it didn't seem as if there was any way in the world that prophecy could be fulfilled and the Lord says I brought them about suddenly I brought them out just like that so that you could embrace you could be like the seahorse you could be like Habakkuk you could embrace me and he says and they came to pass because I knew that you are obstinate and your neck is like an iron sinew and brow brass I have even from the beginning declared it to thee before it came to pass I I showed it to you, lest you should say, mine idol has done them in my graven image. I have showed you new things, he says there in the end of verse six, from this time, even hidden things, without it's not known. Now, let me see if I can illustrate that really fast. Go back with me over to Isaiah 45, and just notice the first phrase in Isaiah 45. Look at that first phrase, he says, thus saith the Lord, Thus saith the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus. Okay, who's Cyrus? He's giving you a prediction here, a prophecy. Who is this man, Cyrus? In this prophecy that was given around 720 BC, 150 years before it came to pass, in fact, 150 years before Cyrus was even born, the Lord named him by name. He predicted that a ruler would bring the brutal Chaldeans to their knees and the name of this Persian ruler who defeated Babylon was, wait for it, what do you think his name was? It was Cyrus, 150 years ahead of time. You see what the Lord is doing here is he is putting his credibility on display so that you can place your faith in it. When we sing in a few minutes, how firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word, this is what we are talking about. So as you go back over to Habakkuk chapter 2, I want to remind you about this. There are hundreds of prophecies, even in the New Testament, that have not yet been fulfilled. We're back to asking Habakkuk's question in Habakkuk chapter 1 in the opening words. He says, Oh Lord, how long? And now we're seeing part of the Lord's answer in Habakkuk chapter 2. His answer is, Wait for it. That is God is glorified by your faith He is glorified by your humbly Embracing his words that he that he says what he means and he means what he says God is glorified by your humble and victorious faith You and I can testify today, as we'll sing here in just a few moments, Jesus shall reign where'er the sun does his successive journeys run. We know this. We know it will come to pass, but how long wait for it? Now what this brings us down to is in verse four of our text. Again, let's raise the question. Can you make this message plain and simple so that everyone who reads it, even a little child, Coming in childlike faith, even a little child can really get this so that everyone who reads it can run with it. I said a few moments ago many commentators think that what was actually written on the tablet was verse 4. So let's read verse 4. He says, Behold, don't run past those words in your scripture. The Lord says pay attention. This is important. This is crucial. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith, by his faith. The just shall live by his faith. Now let's just sort of back away from the verse for a moment and just look at it in the broad spectrum. He says, first of all, There are those whose souls are lifted up in them. We would refer to them as proud. They are lifted up in them, but that is not upright. But the just shall live by his faith. So here's what you know. I mean, just looking at that one verse, you know that he is talking about a significant change. we would refer to it as a conversion. I mean, this is such a change that someone who was proud, who was lifted up, his soul is not upright in him, according to what God himself says. God is showing you his viewpoint on all this. But then he says, but the just shall live by his faith. Dear friends, that verse is so important that when we come together, Lord willing, next Lord's Day, we're going to spend the entire message on just verse four. It's quoted three times in the New Testament in some very crucial places. It is so important that those New Testament writers gave supreme importance to it. So there's no way that you and I can cover everything that needs to be covered today. So for our purposes, here's the third way to wait. We understand that we can wait and watch for the Lord to correct our thinking. We understood that He would give us new confidence through the message of the Word. Here we're understanding that we can wait on the Lord to give you a commission, a commission through the message of His Word. You see what He's doing? He's correcting your thinking. Then he's giving you new confidence so that you can stand on your feet and you can stand and deliver the message. He is giving you a commission. And the commission is the message of conversion. It's all right there in verse four. This is wonderful for us. So now let's see if we can begin to apply it and see if we can illustrate it. What was the real problem behind the violence, strife, and contention in Judah? According to verse 4, it was proud souls. That's what the real problem was. What was behind the brutality of the Babylonian assassins? Proud souls which were lifted up against God, according to verse 4. What was behind the violence of Muhammad as he drove his semi-truck on a killing spree through Niche, France? The answer according to Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 4 was, his proud soul was not upright in him. Now, I said earlier in the message, I'd come back and talk about this for a moment. Here's the really amazing thing. Those around him say that this Mohammed Bulel was not a very good Muslim. And that raises some questions for us we ought to ask because Fox News in an article yesterday said This man was radicalized very quickly. That tells you that there are ideas and ideologies that are out there. And that's why a Margaret Brennan is saying, how do you kill an idea? How do you deal a death blow to an idea and an ideology? So think about it this way. The really amazing thing about this last mass murder was this. Those close to him said he was not a very good Muslim. His cousin was quoted as saying he drank alcohol, he ate pork, he took drugs. He was, in their words, an unlikely jihadist who beat his wife and never went to the mosque. Now I'm gonna ask you to do something unusual here just for a moment, so hang with me. For a moment, I would like for you to put yourself in the murderer's shoes. Just for a moment. I'm not trying to be unkind to you or him, but put yourself in the murderer's shoes. You're not devout in your religion. You're not earning your way to heaven by your behavior. If there were just some way with one final act of devotion to ensure that you could enjoy eternal paradise, the question for you is, would you act upon it? Would you act, would you do that one last act, give your full measure of devotion if it meant that you could earn heaven? Well, along come the teachers of the Quran and the Hadith, quoting verses such as the Quran, Chapter 61 and verse 10, there's surah 61 verse 10, surah 474 and surah 9, 111. Here's what it says, you who believe shall show you, I will show you a bargain, a jihad that will save you from painful punishment. I will show you a bargain. I will show you something that you can do to earn paradise. James Arlington, as he was noting this, and the footnotes for this are in your notes for today. You can look it up for yourself. He said, in Quran 6110, the Arabic word jihad is the means or currency to trade in this life for the life to come. Do you see it? Do you see that here was this crazed man who wasn't a very good Muslim? According to Fox News, he was radicalized quickly. How was he radicalized? He was radicalized by an ideology, an idea, and it was this. If you would commit yourself as a martyr to kill, Isis calls him a soldier of Isis. If you would go out and do this deed, you could have eternal life. Do you understand now, while they were firing at his truck, why he had to get out of his truck and fire back until they killed him? He had to die as a martyr in his cause. Now we really understand why Margaret Brennan was asking, how do you kill an idea? How do you do this? Our answer from this morning's text is, the just shall live by faith. Listen friends, listen closely. The gospel that we proclaim is not a religion of doing, it's a religion of done. It was done by the Lord Jesus Christ, who on that cross cried out, it is finished. It is not a religion of fighting and killing infidels. The gospel is about faith in God's kindness. World religions generally are about things that people try to do to get close to God. That's not what the gospel is about. The gospel is not about trying to do things to get close to God. It's about trusting the things that God has done to get close to you. And there is all the difference in the world between those two statements. Our faith is not a faith in faith as if any religion will do. No. The just shall live by faith. And so here is my appeal to you today. Will you take this and run with it? Will you take the gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim it? As we sing here, will you sing gloriously and honor him and praise him, knowing that Jesus shall reign where'er the sun doth his successive journeys run? Shall we bow together to pray? Dear Heavenly Father, I praise you and thank you so much that we have the opportunity to honor our precious Lord, to glorify Him, that even as we sing here, Father, we have the opportunity just to magnify and praise our great and wonderful God. So Lord, even as we sing, even as we sing, how firm a foundation. Help us to understand today that your word will correct our thinking. It will give us new confidence. It will give us a commission. And we can honor you and praise you and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. I would invite you please to turn to number 465