Welcome to Trinity. I was thinking about babies and as we were singing and just hearing the babies and just thinking about how God has blessed us here at Trinity that we hear the sounds of life everywhere in this building. It is a blessing from God and I'm just so overwhelmed sometimes by it. I also get overwhelmed when we gather to pray and we have so many men gathering with us in the mornings to pray before service. It is just an overwhelming feeling at times. And so I just wanted to share that, that it is a blessing. from God to have little ones in the congregation. It is a blessing from God to have men in in our churches, men that desire nothing more than to be godly, to lead their families in truth, and to glorify God in all aspects of their lives, no longer thinking of our lives as secular, religious but only as Christian. We are Christian men. We are Christian women. We are Christians and our privilege is to gather and to worship a holy and God who is gracious and merciful and good and loving, and yet by no means will he compromise on his justice, revealing his wrath upon the ungodly. And so we have gathered today to worship him. Our Old Testament reading comes from Genesis chapter 17, And we will be looking at verses 1 through 14 of Genesis chapter 17. And so if you have a Bible, I would encourage you to turn there. I would also encourage you to read from your own Bible, whether it's on a device or whether it's a physical Bible. We prefer that you read from your own Bible. We prefer that your Bibles get used. I can tell you I don't know how many Bibles I've gone through. There is nothing sadder than to go into a home and see a Bible that's never been opened. Or you see it often on the back of cars, Bibles almost like good luck charms that have never been opened and never been read. But I prefer that you use your Bibles, read your Bibles, know your Bibles. And so if you're able to, please stand as we read together from the word of God, Genesis 17, verses one through 14. Now it happened that when Abram was 99 years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless so that I may confirm my covenant between me and you and that I may multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face, and God spoke with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations, and no longer shall your name be called Abram. But your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you and kings will go forth from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you, your seed after you, throughout generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your seed after you. And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. God said further to Abraham, now as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep. between me and you, your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. One who is born in the house or one who is bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed. A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. Thus shall my covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people, and he has broken my covenant. May the Lord bless the reading of his word, and you may be seated. What is going on here? We have seen the covenant of Abraham just be revealed progressively through chapters 12, 15, and now 17. We have seen God call Abram out of the land of the Chaldeans and told him to go and to sojourn. And he was leading him to the land which he is going to give him, which is Canaan. And he demarked the boundaries for that in Genesis 12. In Genesis 15, Abram is concerned about who his heir is going to be. He doesn't have an heir. And so God promises him a seed and walks through the carcasses of, or the carcass of the animal which was slaughtered as a covenant sign for him, as a sign of the covenant. And here, finally, we get to this last place where now we see all of it more clearly God is speaking to Abram, and I want you to notice when God speaks to Abram how he introduces himself. He is El Shaddai, God Almighty, and all that that implies. He is the God who is above all the so-called gods. He is the all-powerful God, the all-knowing God, the ever-present God. He is the God Abram, and he makes some promises to Abram. But I just want you to focus now here for a moment with me and consider this being that we call God. He is Almighty God. There is none like him in I was speaking yesterday with a brother, and he used the word terrible, and the way that is used in the Old Testament, and in the old usage of that word is talking about a being that is so beyond us, so awe-inspiring, so even when we consider him terrifying, who makes mountains quake. who tells the ocean, thus far you shall go and no further, who separates planets and stars and galaxies. We are talking about a being like no other. And above all these things, we know him to be holy. Isaiah cries out, and trembles, I am a man of unclean lips. I am a man among a people of unclean lips. In other words, I am a sinner among sinners. As the angels are shouting back and forth, holy, holy, holy. I want us to consider this being that we call God. We are so familiar with the Word of God. We are so familiar with the imminent presence of God that sometimes we need to just step back and do what Abram does here. I want you to notice what happens in verse three. Then Abram fell on his face. This is God. Sometimes in our desire to witness and to evangelize, in our desire to comfort ourselves, we forget the gulf that is between us. He is holy. He is unsearchable. He knows all things and we are all laid naked before him. There is nothing that is hidden from his sight. And we gather to worship him. We bring nothing. Nothing. And he gives us all things. This is whom we have to do with, our God. And Abram falls on his face. But I want you to notice the command that he gives them. Walk before me and be blameless. Walk before me, live your life before me, be blameless, be pure, be without fault, be blameless, be devout. Enoch walked with God and was no more. Abram is commanded to walk with God and to be devout, to be pure, to be blameless. It is interesting, and I don't think a coincidence, that Paul's main verb when he's encouraging us, exhorting us, is peripateo, walk, walk. If you think about Deuteronomy 6, as you are walking along the way, this idea of walk, which means to live, as you are living your life, live before me devoutly, live before me purely, We understand that in our finitude and because of a nature of sin that we have inherited, though we are created anew, we still battle with those old habits and desires. But the command is still the same. We are to walk blamelessly before God, and we do that in Christ by the Spirit of God. We often forget that we are to be living our lives in this way, in this manner, and we become so passive. We don't exert any effort. But we are commanded to walk. Abram was commanded to walk before Almighty God, and he falls on his face as God reveals to him that he's going to confirm his covenant and that he is going to multiply him. And he again reassures him in verse 4, As for me, God speaking, my covenant is with you, and you will be a father of a multitude of nations. And no longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you a father of a multitude of nations. And there's a word play there in Hebrew. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will go forth from you. Remember in Genesis 12 that the nations will be blessed in Abraham. The nations will be blessed in Abraham. And I want you to notice how God is going to fulfill that. And I will establish, I want you, this is the key that I really wanted to highlight here for us today in the passage that we're looking at in Hebrews. I wanted to highlight these verses here, and particularly this one phrase. And I will establish my covenant between me and you. Verse 7, and your seed, notice singular seed. Why is that important? Because Paul tells us in Galatians that the promise was given to the seed, a seed, a singular seed, and that is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The Abrahamic covenant is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. He is the seed of Abraham. And we are offspring of Abraham because we are children of faith. Paul tells us that in Romans 4. It is not the ethnic Jew, it is the spiritual Jew per se. We who have been circumcised, not in the flesh, but the circumcision of Christ in Colossians, who put off the body of sin in his body, he is our circumcision. But notice what is said here. for an everlasting, to be God to you and your seed after you. And I will give you and to your seed after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God. This is what I want us to focus on today. this promise that God has given to his people to be our God and we to be his possession. I don't want us to leave this place today without having that engraved upon our hearts. He is our God and we are his people. If you are in Christ, If you are found to be in Christ, then you are the possession of God. We are his inheritance. And sometimes we lose sight of that. We lose sight of it in the daily struggles that we have with our own sin natures, our own battles. We lose sight of it in the propaganda that is put out by the world that tells you you have to be like this, you should look like that, you should talk like this, you should dress like this, you should listen to this. We lose sight of how transcendent that is. And it is important that we don't lose sight of who says it. It is El Shaddai who says it. It is God Almighty who says it. So when you are in the pit of despair, when you are in the swamp of despondency, when you cannot even bear to look at yourself in the mirror, know this, that you are His possession and He is your God. And collectively, He is our God. and we are his people, and that is so important. We live in a culture that tells you it's all about you. It's me, it's me, it's me. The Bible tells us it's us, and it's about him. Once we get those things and we understand them and we let them soak deep into us, we have this assurance. We walk with a confidence knowing that it's already accomplished in Christ. And that is why I wanted to point out the singular seed. Because in Galatians, Paul explains that singular seed is Christ. And that is why I say to you, this covenant is done, it's fulfilled. And so I want us now to move on to our New Testament reading, because that is my emphasis today, is this idea of being of the people of God. And I want us to go to Revelation. Chapter 21, verses 1 through 9, Revelation. And I just want to correct a few of us. When I went to seminary, I had learned it as Revelations. And I was corrected. It's not the revelations. It is revelation. It is the revelation given to John on Patmos. The revelation of what? No, it's not the revelation of what. It's not about the future things, though it does speak of future things. It is about the revelation of Jesus Christ. That is what the book is about. It's not about whether you're going to be beamed up like Scotty on Star Trek. It's not about whether you're going to not go through suffering. It's not about locusts that look like helicopters. It's not about any of that. It is about the revelation of Jesus Christ and His glory and His kingdom and what is coming. It is about the Lamb who was slain from the foundations of the world and who opens up the scroll and sits at the right hand of God the Father. It's not about us not going through suffering. It's about Christ. It's about Christ. So I want us to just read these verses together. And so if you're able to, please stand as we read chapter 21, verses 1 through 9. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a voice, a loud voice, from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things passed away. And he who sits on the throne said, behold, I'm making all things new. And he said, Write, for these words are faithful and true. Then he said to me, They are done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Then one of the seven angels who have the seven bulls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me saying, come here and I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. You may be seated. I want to start here with just verse eight. Why is evangelism important? Why are we on mission for God? whether it is on mission in a foreign land or whether it is on mission on our own land, whether it is on mission in our homes, in our workplaces, in the market. Why are we on mission for God? But for the cowardly and unbelieving, the abominable or detestable, and murderers and sexually immoral persons, those who are promiscuous, those who are engaging in homosexuality, those who are engaging in adultery, those who are feeding the lust of the flesh via pornography, And sorcerers, those who are dabbling in witchcraft or new age or religion. For idolaters, those who are worshipping themselves, worshipping the world, really worshipping Satan and all liars, their part will be the lake that burns forever. Why are we on mission for God? Because we are seeking to proclaim the good news that God has made a way to be reconciled to him through his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and that in him there is peace with God because he is our peace. that we have been sealed as his inheritance by the Holy Spirit who indwells us and sanctifies us and unites us as the church of Christ who gifts us and leads us in all truth because we are proclaiming that so that we may gather the fullness of the family of God into the house of God by the power of God. We are a mission because it is our privilege to be instruments in El Shaddai's hands to bring forward our brothers and sisters just as we were brought forward by that beautiful and sweet proclamation of God's gospel. I want us to focus on two things here. And it would take a little bit longer than we have today to exposit this whole section, so I only want to focus on two verses here. And that is verse 3 and verse 7. Verse 3 and verse 7. I want us to look at verse 3. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, the throne of God. saying, Behold, the tabernacle, the tent of God, is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. That language should be familiar to us from the Gospel of John, and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us. That word should be encouraging to us. That word should lift us up because not only are we beholding the tabernacle of God, but we also are going to be dwelling with the tabernacle of God. He will dwell among us. And they, the church, the elect, the redeemed, the saints, will be his people, and God himself will be among them." God with us, Immanuel. God tabernacled among the Jews when they came out of Egypt. in the tabernacle made by human hands. The author of Hebrews will be talking to us about this tabernacle made by God's hands. And now we see that the end game for us as Christians is to dwell with God. I want you to pause with me for a moment, and I want you to think about all the things that are holding you right now in this existence, And I want you to understand that it is all rubbish. It is all rubbish. because what is the greatest benefit for us is to be in the presence of God eternally. Everything else is temporary. It will fade. Your affections for your spouse, temporary, they will fade. Your affections, temporary, they will fade. You, your desire for more power and position, that will fade. Your health, it will fade. The only thing that endures is the promise of God. that He will be your God, and you will be His possession, and that you will be tabernacling with Him. That's what endures. That's what has comforted hundreds and hundreds of saints through severe persecution. That is what comforted Polycarp as he was being set on fire. That is what comforted the saints that are being martyred today, is knowing whom it is that they have trusted and where it is that they will abide eternally. And this is what I want us to see today, that we have this promise from God Almighty, El Shaddai, who is bringing it about, and this is our end state. And then I want you to go to verse 7 with me. He who overcomes or is overcoming, it's a participle there, will inherit these things. And I want you to notice now, notice how personal this is. I will be his God and he will be my son. I will be her father and she will be my daughter. I will be his child and he will be my father. I want you to notice how I went from the people of God to the personal, to the individual person. to you and to me. We need to enjoy the things that God has given us, yes. I don't say that those things are not important, but the anchor of your soul is elsewhere. The anchor of your soul is in the heavenly Jerusalem. The anchor of your soul sits at the right hand of God the Father. Yes, enjoy everything He has given. Enjoy your marriage. Enjoy your kids. Enjoy your friendships. Enjoy your gainful employment. Enjoy those things. But they are not the main thing. He is the main thing. Once we get our priorities right, it makes it so easy to sort through our lives. Once we understand that I don't have to be commanded particularly not to do a specific thing, I need to do what I have been commanded and that is to glorify God. So if it doesn't glorify God, I don't need to be doing it. And that goes back to what he told Abram, walk blamelessly before me. It applies to us today as well. I want us to see these things because I want us now as we go to our preaching text to consider this thing, this idea that God reveals his grace by covenanting with his people to be their God and they to be his people. God reveals his grace by covenanting with his people. And that is significant. That is the underlying theme. that is the underlying theme of all the covenants, you can distill it into that terse statement, I will be their God and they will be my people. And then you can unpack that into the various covenants as God reveals his progressive redemption in time for us. And so now if you would, turn to Hebrews chapter eight, And we will read verses 7 through 13 together, then we will pray, and then we will walk through the text. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. For if that first covenant had been faultless, There would have been no occasion sought for a second for finding fault with them, he says. Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel. and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds, and upon their hearts I will write them. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all will know me. From the least to the greatest of them for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more When he said a new covenant he has made the first obsolete But whatever is become obsolete is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear Join me in prayer Father, we have gathered as your people today. We are fully aware of your goodness and your mercy toward us. And we're so thankful for that. But I do pray, Father, that you would let us experience your holiness today. Your holiness, God. that we may truly learn to reverence you, that we may truly learn to bow down and fall on our faces before you, that you would make our hearts quake and tremble as you made Mount Sinai quake and tremble. that you would bust the floodgates of our sin wide open, and that you would wash them away, and that we would fall before you and cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is full of his glory. O God, lead us, O Lord, teach us, O God, so that we may be changed and we may consider our walk. I ask these things in your name, Lord Jesus, in your power, Holy Spirit, for your glory and all the people of God said, amen. Please be seated. There are three main teachings in this eighth chapter. First, the difference between the Levitical high priest and our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the mediator of a better covenant. Second, the distinction between the heavenly and earthly tabernacles. And thirdly, the need for a new covenant to replace the old covenant, which God has made obsolete. Three main teachings in this chapter, and I want us to always be aware that when we open up our Bibles, it is not enough to go at random. We should not be doing that. We all do it when we are first converted. We open up the Bible, and it's kind of like you open up and you point to a verse because you're looking for some divine guidance, not realizing that what you're doing is pagan in practice and nature. but rather that we would open up our Bibles and methodically read through whole books of the Bible, that we would, in our family devotions, take turns reading through chapters at night through the Bible if we can, if our circumstances allow it, if our children are old enough, bearing in mind these things, but that we, as adults, should be reading through whole books of the Bible. We should be reading through whole chapters at one time so that we get the whole understanding of what is being taught, not just picking a verse at random and trying to tie things together, for God has already tied his word together in books, in chapters. And so we must approach it in that way. It is a good way. It is a way of the old scholars. It is the way that is true. It is the way that builds us up. It is the way that builds our families up in the word. And so these are the main teachings in this chapter. The need for a new covenant to replace the old covenant which God has made obsolete is really the key here in this section of verses. But the gem that is in here is this relational dynamic between God and his people. That is the gem that is just shining through this passage here. That is the gem that is throughout all the covenants is this idea of being isolated and sanctified and set apart from the milieu of sinful humanity, from the swamp of degradation and unregenerate humanity and being pulled out and being set into that beautiful setting, which is the kingdom of God. Being set into that beautiful tiara as another jewel that will be adorning the bride of Christ, which is the church. We need to see how beautiful it is that we are the people of God. And I think that that is the gem in this teaching that hold, you see it there in verse 10, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. That is the promise. And we see and have seen today that in revelation, that is the end game, the end game. is that complete and pure relationship with God. That is our end game, and nothing can compare to that. And as we live our lives, we should be walking in a way where daily you are more dedicated to God than you were before. It is beautiful to watch babies grow up in a congregation. I think about some of you that I knew when you were little. I think of some of you that I knew when you were like this and your parents were carrying you around. and to watch you grow over time, it is beautiful. And I think on a spiritual note, some of you were infant Christians, and to watch God grow you over time into mature, maturing men and women of God, that is beautiful. And so I go back to my statement, every day you should be looking more and more like a saint and less and less like a sinner. But the problem for us is that we have gotten so used to letting the influences of the world come into our homes. come into our churches, come into our lives that we can no longer distinguish between the profane and the holy. And so we just dump it all into the same tool chest. Good mechanics do not throw all their tools into the same tool chest. Not intentionally, they try to sort them out. And if you want to upset a good mechanic, go play with his tools and put them where they don't belong. We should be sorting out the unholy things from our lives. Whether it's Netflix, Hulu, oh, dare I say it, Disney. It doesn't matter what it is. It needs to go. It needs to go. See, we have the same problem that they had. roughly. It wasn't that the covenant that God made with them, that the covenant itself was flawed, it was given to them by God. It isn't that the new covenant is flawed, it's given to us by God. It is that human factor, it is that pining away For Egypt, it is the looking back upon Sodom and we become pillars of salt. It is our desire to hold on to the world and to customize the world around some vague idea of a compromise to what God has called us. We have been called to be holy as he is holy. We have not been called to make the world holy. We have been called to be holy. It is funny, we can try to make a mud pie into a chocolate pie, But at the end of the day, if you try eating it, you're eating mud. Look, and I'm speaking for myself as well, need to let go of the things that God has commanded us to toss away. It's an interesting thing with Moses, when God commanded him to throw his staff down, it became a serpent, but Moses didn't pick it back up until God told him to. And I guess the question for us is, as God has commanded us to let go of the things of the world, as he has commanded us to walk, as he has commanded us, has he told us to go back and pick it up? Did God tell you to go back and pick up that old sinful habit? Did God tell you to go back and fill your eyes with the PG version of whatever? I think this is the issue, the issue, the problem is not with God, the problem is with us. And so there you go, and you go to verse eight, finding fault with them. He found fault with them. He did not find fault with himself. He did not find fault with his covenant. He found fault with his people, with them. And notice what he says, and this is what I want you to see. I want you to see how the grace and the mercy of God is so overwhelming. It is so in your face. Notice, finding fault with them, The text doesn't say he killed them all. The text didn't say I'm gonna start all over again. The text doesn't say, hey, I'm done with them. I'm done with creation. I'm done with all of it. No, look what it says. Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete, I will perfect, I will bring to fruition a new covenant. God is doing that, not man. God is doing that with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. What is that? That is really just a way of saying with the people of God, he is going to bring a new covenant with the people of God. Remember that Paul teaches us in Romans that we are spiritual Israel, we are the people of God. It is not the ethnic, it is the spiritual, it is not the physical circumcision, it is the circumcision of Christ. on the cross of Calvary, the putting off of the body of sin. That is what matters. It is the circumcision of the heart. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them out by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant. Another way to translate that word continue is they did not persevere in my covenant. The problem was not with God. The problem was not with the covenant. The problem was not with the garden. The problem was not with the tree. The problem was with man. The problem is man. We are so busy sometimes looking at God and saying, He's ready to crush me, or I can't attain to this, I can't do this, I can't do that, that we forget who He is. He is God Almighty. And everything that you need for godliness, according to 2 Peter, has been provided to you, has been provided to me. Everything that we need for godliness, everything that we need to walk blamelessly before God has been given to us. It is already fulfilled in Christ. We need to be found in Christ. First of all, that is the first issue. If you're not in Christ, you are not in the people of God. And that's a question that we really need to all ask ourselves from time to time. Am I in Christ? And then the correlator to that would be, how do I know that? How do I know that I am truly in Christ? Well, the Bible tells you, evaluate your desires. Evaluate what you want. Evaluate how you live. Evaluate how you interact with people. Evaluate, do you have a love for the saints? Evaluate how you're living your life in the community of God. Evaluate how you're living your life in the community of man. We have to ask ourselves those questions. Evaluate how you're living your life with your children. Am I teaching my children? Are they learning about God? Evaluate how you're living in the church. Am I participating in the church? If I were to go missing today, would it make a significant difference in the church? If I were to leave today, Would the church notice my absence? Would it slow down? Would they even say, oh, wow, so-and-so, he was really, they were, oh, wow, they were involved? No. If you can leave a church and not be noticed, you ought to ask yourself a question. Am I a member of that body? Why not? We don't ask ourselves hard questions. And at times, because we don't ask ourselves hard questions, we live lives that are really shallow and really, to be quite honest, pathetic. They're pathetic. We go from one crisis to another. We go from one emotional rollercoaster ride to a down to another emotional rollercoaster ride. There is no even keenness of the peace of God in our lives because we don't ask ourselves the questions. We don't want to really know the answers because we really already kind of know. We don't need a government rating to tell us something ought not to be before our eyes. We don't need somebody to say it's PG 13, adult 14. You don't need that. Why? You have the mind of Christ. You have the mind of Christ. And you know, as I'm speaking to you, I'm convicted. I'll just fast forward through that scene. Your eyes are still wide open. Why are you even setting it before your face? The problem was not with the covenant. The problem was with man. Remember, God is the only constant. God does not change. We revolve around God. God does not revolve around us. And that is the problem, that we are looking at the universe in that way. It's all about me, and God goes around me, and I tell God when and where I'm going to need him, and when and where to stay out of my life. That's the problem. So look at the solution. Look at the solution for this covenant in verse 10 that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, and you see this in Jeremiah, I will put my law into their minds. I want you to notice that I will put my law into their minds. God has given us minds, and we are to engage those processes of deduction, induction, of reasoning, the very laws of logic that we all know. We may not know the fancy words for them, we may not know the nerdy terms for them, but we can all reason. God has given us that in our minds. We have been given, that's a gift from God. We are to engage our minds. In Isaiah 118, God doesn't say to the people, come, bring your emotions to me, and we'll sit down and we'll talk about them. God doesn't say, hey, let me be the touchy-feely God with you. No, what does he say? Come, let us reason together. Come, sit down, and let's look at the evidence together. We are to reason them. Here, God has put the law, we say, into our hearts, but he has written the law on our minds. We know that there's a God. Every single human being knows that there is a God. Every single human being can look out and say, I didn't make the stars, I didn't make the trees, I didn't make dirt, I didn't make life. We know that there's more. and yet we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That is what the Bible says. And we exalt ourselves or we exalt the creation over the creator who is God-blessed forever. Amen. And God turns us over to judgment. and to do those things which are not good. But I will put my laws into their minds, and upon their hearts I will write them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all will know me, from the least, the youngest, to the oldest of them, is another way to translate that text. From the youngest of them to the oldest of them, they will know me. And you think about what is the promise in John 14, that I will send you another helper. In the context, he's speaking to the disciples. In the greater context, he's speaking to us. I will send you another helper who will lead you into all truth, who will bring to remembrance everything that I say, or that I said. That helper, that Paracletus, that is the Spirit of God. And He is the one that leads us, the people of God, into all truth. Let me ask you, how often do you grieve the Spirit of God? And you will say, John, I don't. And I will say, liar, liar, pants on fire. Every time you watch something that you ought not to be watching and you know it, you're grieving the Spirit of God. Every time a coarse jest comes out of your mouth, you're grieving the Spirit of God. Every time you take the second glance, you're grieving the Spirit of God. Every time you excuse yourself from doing the right thing, you're grieving the Spirit of God. Look, we have to be honest with ourselves. The reason we're not holy is because we don't want to be. God's arm is not too short. The reason garbage comes into your house is because you pay for the subscriptions. The reason we lose some of our kids during the high school years is because we are so busy prioritizing everything else that we leave them to their own devices. We take on too much debt, we take on too many responsibilities. That's just the truth. We guise it when we're young men as I'm providing for my family. But the reality is you are providing for your ego. Because what your family needs is to know God. What your wife needs is to be shepherded. That's the need. And I know that what I'm saying may not be popular, may not be good to hear. but I'm including myself in it. We should resolve this day as the people of God here to be holy. We should resolve to go home and look at our subscriptions and say, why am I funding Disney when their agenda is to destroy the godly family? Well, I'm not subscribing to Disney Plus. Well, are you subscribing to Hulu because Disney owns them? Are you subscribing to Fox because Disney owns them? See, it doesn't start off with a big and thunderous thing. It starts off with that voice of God in each and every one of us that tells us, this is not of me. If you are here today and you are a man and you're looking at pornography, stop. If you are here today and you find that you are indulging in things that are ungodly, stop. And you say, well, I don't have the willpower. You have the power of God in you. Did we not start off this session with El Shaddai? El Shaddai, God Almighty, Almighty God. He's the one that we turn to. If you're not leading your home as a man, repent and move forward and understand that it's gonna be a little difficult to assert yourself in that way when your wife has been doing it for so long. And you as a wife, if your husband is moving in that direction, then praise God, hallelujah, and be submissive. Let him lead you, teach him how to lead you, and then watch what God does. I want to go and just finish here, because what I wanted to finish more than anything else is I want you to understand how far back this promise of being the people of God goes. I want you to see how it is writ all over Scripture, and I want you to know just the assurance that you have as a son and a daughter of God, that He will never leave you nor forsake you, and that He will lead you, and that He will bless you, and that He will multiply us in good things. I want you to know where this promise started. Genesis 17, eight, right there, you see it. I will give you and your descendants after the land, but notice, and I will be their God. Genesis 26, 24. I am the God of your father, Abraham. Exodus 29, 45. I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. Leviticus 11, 45. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt. "'to be your God, thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.'" I want you to look also as you consider Jeremiah and the promise that has been given in Jeremiah 31, 33, "'But this is the covenant which I will make "'with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord. "'I will put my law within them, and on their heart, "'I will write it, and I will be their God, "'and they shall be my people, they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 37, 27. My dwelling place also will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Zechariah 8, 8. And I will bring them back, and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness. And then you have Hebrews 8, 10. "'For this is the covenant that I will make "'with the house of Israel. "'After those days,' says the Lord, "'I will put my law into their minds, "'and I will write it on their hearts, "'and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.'" And finishing off with Revelation 21 7, he who overcomes or is overcoming will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. Paul applies that very verse to us in Corinthians, I will be their God and they will be my people. Hear me church, let's leave here today purposing I know people say, my dollar doesn't matter. I'm just going to correct you. It's not your dollar, it's God's dollar. Just walk away today knowing this, the old covenant of works is gone. we are, and to whom we have pledged our allegiance, in order to try out that he is faithful. And so it's my privilege. Father, I thank you for this day. where we are seeking to hold on to the things of this world rather than to take hold of you as you've taken hold of us. Lord, I pray that we would learn to live in the power of the resurrection and to understand what the meaning of life truly is in the order that you would revive us, the Holy One. They are in your world. You are in a true people of the world.