So we turn back to Exodus 20, and consider again just a single verse. Exodus 20, verse 16, hear the word of the Lord. I command you, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Our Father in heaven, we again offer you our selves, our bodies, our mouths, our tongues, and pray that you might again teach us the way of gracious speech. We long for our Savior's honor to be wisdom, to have words of grace seasoned with salt as your words hit us. And so it is we pray that you would lead us in these words of righteousness. and forgive us, we pray. Father, there is no sin that we are more frequently committing toward other people than sins of the tongue. We pray that you would forgive us for Christ's sake. Watch over us. We pray in His name. Amen. This morning, I read to you the verse from James, chapter 3, and it said that the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a fire. Now, fire is something which is, of course, very helpful and very good when used properly. We use fire for heating our homes, for cooking our food. But fire can also be something that's very destructive. Fire can be something that causes pain. Fires easily make a race out of control. So fire can greatly benefit us, or fire can greatly harm us. And so it is with our tongues. So it is with the words that we speak. Adolf Hitler and George Whitefield were both speakers. And what a mighty difference resulted from their words. One time, before he began to preach, George Whitefield was handed a note upon which was written a single word. The note said, fool. Whitefield read the note to the great congregation before him, and then said, I have often received notes of abuse with no signature. But this is the first time I have received a signature with no note. By our words, we are able to make people roar with laughter. With our words, we can make people weep. We can break their hearts, wound them, attack them. We can enrage people with what we say. We can calm them down. Speech is a most powerful ability. And as I said this morning, this is why it's very important that we learn to direct our words according to God. This morning, we mostly considered the negative aspect of this commandment and how we might learn not to lie, not to use our words in hurtful ways against our neighbor. But of course, that's only half the story, right? This commandment doesn't only forbid us to have our faults witnessed. It requires a truth. It requires not only not to hurt our neighbors. It requires us to edify. It commands us to speak, to speak what is right and good and true as duty requires. What does duty require in our speech? Well, somewhat by way of a review from this morning, I would like to consider positively what it means for us to fulfill our duty to speak what is good and true by reading a review from the larger catechism of our church. That excellent biblical summary has identified here, I didn't actually count it this time, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 persons dealing with our duty. What are the duties required in the Ninth Commandment? The answer is given here, the duties required in the Ninth Commandment are the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor as well as our own. Appearing and standing for the truth, and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly and fully speaking the truth, and owning the truth. In matters of judgment and justice, and in all things whatsoever, it requires a charitable esteem of our neighbors, loving, desiring, rejoicing in their good name, and sorrowing more in covering their infirmities, freely acknowledging their gifts and graces, defending their innocence, a ready receiving of a good report, and an unwillingness to admit of a bad report. It requires discouraging tail-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers, love and care of our good name, and defending what the need requires. Keeping long promises, studying and practicing whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and a good reward. And so this evening I'd like to present to you the need for God's people, particularly be faithful in appearing for and standing for the truth, as it says, from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly and fully speaking the truth. Or else. Or else what? Well, the name of my sermon this evening is Truth or Societal Consequences. Truth or Societal Consequences. There are other things besides societal consequences, of course, but my point this evening to you is that if we don't sleep, then we will see less and less of God's glory, the hallowing of His name in the world, the advancement of His kingdom, His will being done, and we'll get more and more of what we're getting now, more darkness, more corruption. We have a certain role to play, you see, with our words in the world. You are the salt of the earth, says Jesus, but if salt loses its flavor, how then is it going to be seasoned? Is it good for nothing? It's going to be thrown out and tangled and put by men. Where is the salt? The words of grace seasoned with salt, Paul says. You are the light of the world. The city that's sitting in the middle cannot be hidden. Let's respond to that. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. So societal consequences are the worst kind of consequences I grant you. But the point is, we as a people long for God's name to be hallowed. We long for His kingdom to come, His will to be done on earth. And so much, you see, of the hallowing, and the kingdom advance, and so forth, comes through our words. through a faithful testimony, a word in Caesar." My wife and I are reading a very interesting book together. There's an interesting book we're reading together called The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Converse. It's written by a former lesbian woman who was a tenured professor of English, a very talented administrator at a university much like ours, Syracuse University, top-ranked R1 university. She was an outspoken leader for the homosexual cause. And by the way, she has since completely changed by the grace of God. She is now the wife of a reformed Presbyterian minister who preached in this very pulpit 18 months ago. Kent Butterfield, you all remember him. His wife was that woman. Anyway, this is her analysis of the victory of feminism and the defeat of Christianity in the university. Seeing it now from both sides clearly, right? She writes, the truth is, feminists have been more successful rhetoricians at the core of major U.S. universities than have Christians. Even though most of these universities have Christian origins, feminists have a better reputation than Christians at all major U.S. universities. And this fact really bothers and confuses many Christians. Feminism has captured the soul of U.S. universities, and the Church has either been too weak, too ignorant, to know, to know better. And too often, she says, the Church has set itself up as a victim of a paradigm shift in America. She says, I think this is dishonest. Christians thought that they could rest in Christian tradition. Too often, the Church does not know how to interface with the university of culture. So, like it or not, in the court of public opinion, feminists, and not Bible-believing Christians, have won the war of intellectual integrity. And Christians aren't to blame for this. A failure of speech. The rhetoric of the other side has won, and where have the Christians been? And I simply point that out because what's truly her experience at the university level is, of course, true in the world at nearly every point. Are we bearing a faithful witness in the world? Are we just demoting the changes in society? While we do not use the words which God has given to us to bring change, are we bearing a true and faithful witness to our neighbor, or are we keeping a guilty silence? We live in a world that is saturated with false doctrine, confusion, untruth, deceit, The trickery of men who borrow the apostles' words, we live in a world that's not just non-Christian, but that's frequently anti-Christian, where oftentimes we find ourselves forbidden to speak the truth in many circumstances. Many do at work, for instance. Many of you will work, at least, in a context in which you are forbidden to speak about the most important truths in the world. Certainly in the business world, in the education world, in the world of television, and on and on, we are not only bereft of the truth, we are subjected to powerful persuasive falsehood. We live in a world where untruth is rhetorically effectively promoted. We live in a time in which we now expect our politicians to deceive, if not to lie outright We don't expect the whole truth anymore from television anchors and newspaper columnists. We expect them to be skewed and to have bias or spit. We live in a world that's awash with that. When was the last time you heard any politician or newscaster or commentator, whatever his politics, whatever side, say something like this? Now, I want to be careful not to represent the situation in any way. There is, of course, very sensible argument to be made on the other side. And here it is. And here is why I disagree with it. All right. That does not happen. We do not hear fairness and even handiness. The concept of truth itself, truth itself as a concept, is now denied by a majority of the US population. This is our untruthful world into which we are sent. Remember Diocese, right? That philosopher of the fourth century who was walking around Athens with a lamp. Why? He was looking for an honest man, he said. In such a world as this, Diogenes had a hard time finding people honest, faithful to the truth. And this commandment is given to us not simply because God doesn't want us to be liars, false witnesses who harm our neighbor's name in public. It is because positively we are to be good and true witnesses according to our duty for the good of our neighbor. We have a divine obligation to use the power of speech for good, for the good of our neighbor and to bear witness to the truth. Let us therefore I've read you before, there's a paragraph that the Westminster Divines have written to commend their work for their use among families. I've read it to you before, but here's a quote from their first paragraph. They say, look, the two great pillars upon which the kingdom of Satan is erected, and by which it is upheld, are ignorance and error. And the first step of our manumission from the spiritual throng consists of having our eyes open and being turned from darkness to light. If you're going to make a change, he says, if you're going to make any damage to the Kingdom of Satan, realize it's being held up by ignorance and error. And our hope is having our eyes turned from darkness to light. Acts 26, 18, this is why the Lord has sent His Apostles out. To destroy these pillars, we must speak. Now, it's not too hard for us to answer truthfully when we're asked, are you a Christian? Yes, I'm a Christian. Yes, I believe God exists. Yes, Jesus is the only Savior. But I don't know about you, people don't frequently ask such questions. It's easy to tell the truth if someone asks. It's easy to keep silent until you're asked to speak. It's much more difficult to bear faithful witness to the truth, to be faithful in appearing and standing for the truth, as I read to you earlier. And that is what this commandment requires. So, all this by way of a long introduction, I'd like to consider with you first our responsibility to bear witness And secondly, our reason for cowardice. And I'll conclude with some practical direction. First, this positive responsibility to bear witness. Now, people, if a policeman isn't doing his work, I mean, if he's supposed to be catching the crooks, He's sitting here in the church, spoken, not doing his job. Crime is getting stronger. As we speak now, crime is increasing because of Brother Policeman. He's advancing the cause of crime. The point is, if policemen don't do their work, they are advancing the cause of crime. And when the children of light are on speed, we can effect words of light and truth and grace, and we are advancing the kingdom of darkness. We are a people, again, committed to hallowing God's name, that His kingdom might come, that His will might be done on earth. We say this is more important to us than our daily bread, is our speech in line with such commitments. Are we being faithful to the commands that speak? For example, do you agree to contend for the faith? Not contending for the faith, doing nothing, saying nothing, would be a disobedience to the command. Or, let's say, suppose I lost everything in a recent hurricane, right? And a very generous man brought me into his house, he cared for my needs, Along with a few other people that provided all the meat. I lost my house, lost all my goods. He brought me in. He's feeding me, caring for me, giving me all that I need. And other people as well. One evening I'm sitting there in the warmth of his living room, enjoying the comforts of his hospitality by the fire. And one of the other guests comes over to me and starts saying all sorts of mean and cruel things about our host, right there in his own house, to me. And suppose he said he planned to murder him that night, steal all his goods. And I did nothing. I just sat there cramming myself full of his hors d'oeuvres and drinking his wine, living at his expense. What would you think of me? Calvin, whose illustration that is, says, we shall be taken for companions for the wicked. If we act like wine and death, when we should restrain wickedness by setting ourselves against it, as much as lies to us, allows God's honor to be so destructive that all decency is overthrown, that we say nothing about it. Therefore, we have to be the more attentive to this warning and review the evens. You see in the news, if one word is spoken against the Prophet Muhammad, even if it's not even a word, even if it's just like a cartoon or something, oh man, all the Muslims, it seems in the world, raise an uproar, and an apology is published. Why would you do such a thing? We are greatly offended by this. What about the honor of Allah? The honor is Prophet Muhammad. But you'll know, of course, at least if you watch anything, what people can do these days, I realize. So if you watch anything, you'll know that the name of Christ is spoken against many times a day, on every channel. Nothing is said, not one sheet of protest from millions of Christians. It's not like we're just called to make protests and be ugly about things. You understand what I'm saying? The point is, no one seems to care that his name isn't hallowed. Similarly, in Ephesians 5.11, we read these words, talking about our responsibility to speak. Ephesians 5.11 reads, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. That's the easy part of the verse. That's the part that doesn't take us very much effort, with the verse stopped there. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather Reprove, or expose, is what you have. Reprove in the margin. Many of you have exposed because the context is light shining in the universe. But the point is, it's a word that means to reprove, rebuke, convict, tell one's fault. We read in Luke 3, Herod the Tenth Harp was rebuked by John concerning Herodias, his brother's wife. So he put him in prison. Same word. Dictionary says it means to disgrace, to put to shame, to reprove, to convict, or expose. One scholar defines it as this, to rebuke another with such an effectual wielding of the victorious art of truth as to bring him, if not always to confession, yet at least a conviction of his sin. Paul may have had that in mind, writing that verse in Leviticus 19, 17. The same word is used in Greek translation. It says, you shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. Same word. We see evil being done, right? We see falsehood. People being lied about, exposed. We, as children of light, Our call, not simply to have a fellowship with the Brooks of Darkness, but we would call rather to recruit them, to expose them, to bring them to light, to bring their true evil character above board. That is our responsibility. At the end of the Second World War, the Germans were very embarrassed to see what they had done in the light of day. And Eisenhower demanded that the Germans who lived in the towns next to the concentration camps, that people in the towns come and help clean up those camps. They would see the reality of what they knew was happening. The order went out to Eisenhower. No one from the German towns came. We don't want to see it, they were saying. And Eisenhower was furious. You will see it, he said. And he picked out one of the concentration camps, and he marched his men to a nearby town, and he pulled every man, woman, and child out of the county to find, and made them walk through that concentration camp. You will see it. He brought it to life. They knew that the evil was going on, but they were living their lives saying, I would rather see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. And Eisenhower said, that evil comes to light today. Now the untruthful works of darkness fill our world. The world parades itself in front of our eyes. And we pride ourselves because we say, I'm not taking any part in these things. And we sit there with the man by the fire, and we sit there like the three monkeys, you know, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather recruit their evil. Once again, an obligation to speak, to oppose evil, falsehood, witness oppression, testify to the truth in righteousness. Jesus says to his disciples about the Gospel, Mark 10, whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. Whatever you hear in the air, preach on the housetops. Such should be the boldness of our testimony. Again, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, this indulgent and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. We can't just pride ourselves because we're doing nothing. Do you remember what happened when Babylon invaded Jerusalem? The Edomites did nothing, and the Lord severely condemned them. In the Book of Obadiah, we read that Edom stood on the other side and watched while evil befell their brothers. And so, when the wicked cast lots for Jerusalem, God says to Edom, you should not have gazed that day on your brother in the name of captivity. Look at that. And so the Lord says to Edom, now it's your turn. Now people are going to watch while Babylon takes you away. You had an obligation to speak when such things were done. You had an obligation to intercede for your brother. Proverbs 31.8 says, open your mouth and speak this, in the cause of all who are appointed to die, a positive requirement, to speak up. I mean, who was going to speak up when those people were dying in the German camps, if not Christians? Who's going to speak up today, we ask, when millions of babies die every year, not us. Who's going to speak up for the elderly? for the poor, for the foreigners, for the people who are being exploited, for the disadvantaged, for the women that are being abused. You know the famous line, all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is when good men do nothing. And the Bible is saying, rather, that when good men do nothing, when good men say nothing, they no longer are good men. We have an obligation to bear witness to our neighbor, to the truth of good. speak for those who have no voice to cry out, who are exploited or neglected or appointed to die. For one day, the brightness of God is going to bring every evil deed to light, and there will be shame like there has never been shame. There will be horror and dread, as it says in Revelation. The people will call to the mountains to follow them and to hide them from the face of the land. But our Lord Jesus said, the true light is shining. How much better that it shines now while there is a day of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ. We are called to expose the other people's works of darkness as a source of light. To bear witness to righteousness, grace, and the gospel of peace. That seems clear enough. This is our responsibility under this commandment. Speak truth to our neighbor in season, according to our duty for his good. Well, what's the problem, then, you ask? Why do we find such negligence, reluctance on our part? So let's consider secondly this evening the reason for our cowardice, the reason for our cowardice. People, I think that you're all with me and you're agreeing with me on this matter. So we have to face the question now, why is it that we read this theory and yet we find it so difficult to practice? I mean, there are practical difficulties. It's so hard to speak a good word in season, effective and winsome. But there is more to it than that. It's not just a technical difficulty. There is something within our hearts that wants to suppress the truth. We find, even within ourselves, we find there's an opportunity, there's a need to say something. Somebody should say something, we say. Why doesn't everybody say something? We start to get sweaty. We say, I don't think I'll speak the truth right now. I don't know about you, but it's a constant struggle for me. I'm always challenged. Wait, do I say something now, or do I know what I'm saying? Right? And I'm thinking about it, and I'm talking myself out of it, the more I may. And what a blessing it is for the world, for the Church, when we have men and women, and you are women. So what's the problem? Why don't we speak more of the truth? Why don't we oppose more of the falsehood and evil of the world? Well, we know what it will mean if we speak. That's the problem, right? I mean, Jesus said in John 7, the world hates me. Because I testify of it, that it works partly. The world hates me. That's hard. In the next chapter, you seek to kill a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. You say, if we tell people the truth like that, they're going to crucify us. Exactly. Amos 5.10, they hate the one who rebukes in the gate. They abhor the one who speaks abruptly. Don't want to hear that. Here are what King Ahab said of Micaiah, faithful prophet, 1 Kings 22. Ahab said, I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning people of evil. I hate that man. This is a big reason for our powerlessness in this area. We want people to like us. I don't know about you. I don't want to be nice. Anybody want people to hate them? Count them again. We are too low to provoke any man's displeasure against us. We have more of the shame of men than the fear of God. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the judgment that something else is more important than that fear. Pressing money, like in this case, the honor and glory of God. We can forgive our children when they're afraid of the dark. But so sad it is indeed when God's children are afraid of light. Jesus again, what I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What I tell you in the air, preach on the house top. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. It's only natural for us, of course, to be afraid, to be afraid to speak to be discouraged. We want to persuade, we want to speak graciously. And when it doesn't work out, it's discouraging. Paul was discouraging. Paul was a dictator. And do you remember one time in Corinth? And he was not having a good business. He was not being very persuasive. But the Lord spoke to Paul in that vision. And the Lord said, Paul, do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent, for I am with you. And no one was happier than her by as many people in this city. Even the apostles of the Gentiles needed to hear this encouragement, although me, I wouldn't. Nobody's going to kill you, don't worry. And I have plans for your ministry, for your works here in this place. Keep on speaking. I know it doesn't look very promising now, but I have plans. And when we begin to hear what people think of us and so forth, Let's remember that the Lord is with us always. And resolve that we should fear God rather than men. And so this is one major thing we need to get over. Simply fear God. But there's another reason I'd like to put before you. Another reason that we don't speak as we should. Speak of things well as we should. Our words are the revelation of our hearts, right? Jesus said that a good man out of the good treasure in his heart brings forth good. An evil man out of the evil treasure in his heart brings forth evil. Out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. So it doesn't take you very long to realize that the words people speak, at least over time, reveal the inner person, the inner man, the inner woman. The connection between the soul and the mouth is too intimate to be under perfect control at all times. So, for example, If someone never thinks of some people or some things, his speech will seldom turn to those people and those things. If a person's always thinking about other things, well, sooner or later, his speech will reveal it. So, you know, it's right, I mean, a person has a judgmental heart. It doesn't matter how careful he is, sooner or later, he's going to give it away. He's a judgmental person. It comes out in what he says. If a person is kind, and loving, and sympathetic, Well, you also know that from the way that he or she speaks, so here's the point of this. Whether we are thoughtless of God and God's honor and glory, or whether we think much of those things, is revealed by what we say, or what we don't say. It comes from within. And that's again why the Catholicism says that this commandment requires, from the heart, sincerely, freely, and fully speaking the truth. That's what it requires. That's just speech. From the heart. Sincerely, freely, fully speaking the truth. Does your speech reveal a lack of zeal for God's name to be hallowed, a lack of desire for his kingdom to come, a lack of longing for his will to be done on earth. Perhaps the sense of fear, that can be overcome, but perhaps the problem is deeper. The problem of the heart. And what you need is to draw near to God. You need to increase your love for God. in Jesus Christ. And the problem is not fear, ultimately, but spiritual decline. And with a greater love for your Saviour, fear can be much more easily overcome. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, Jesus. Perhaps these are the reasons then for our powers. Before we conclude, let me give you two important directions about speaking the truth. For Christ's sake, let me back up a little. First, I say briefly, don't forget to speak the truth in love. I'm speaking about the truth, and even saying hard things when necessary, but it's not enough just to speak the truth. It's not enough. The Bible tells you, speak the truth in love. Or as John Stott says here so well, truth becomes hard if it's not softened by love, and love becomes soft if it's not strengthened by truth. You need to hold them together. Again, Colossians 4, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer each one. And that's what's lacking severely in our day. It's not angry people up there, giving you the truth with no love. We seem to have too many of those in the Christian Church. We need people who are having words of grace and a sense of assault, knowing how to answer. That's what we need. Again, Ephesians 4.29, don't let any corrupt word proceed from your mouth, but what is necessary for education that may impart grace to the hearers. That's what we need, to impart grace. You say, that's hard. Oh, I know. Ephesians 4.31, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be cut away from you at all times. So don't separate this duty to speak from all these other commands which regulate our speech at all times in love and grace. We must speak the truth, but we must speak it in love. The second point here is, don't forget the Gospel. I've been speaking about various cultural things, illustrations tonight, alright? But we are not in a culture war, okay? We are not in a culture war. We are in a spiritual war, and the culture is just one of the many battlefields, or even the weapons, which combatants use to put out the light, or to help the light shine. We're not in a culture war, we're in a spiritual war. We are not out to win a culture, we are out to win men. We are not just, I shouldn't say we're not out to win, ultimately out to win a culture, ultimately it's men, people. We're not just speaking to oppose deeds of darkness. Paul preaches, quote, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, turning away and a turning to. Condemning deeds of darkness is necessary, as I've tried to emphasize to you at some points tonight, but that alone could bring about a change. I might stop for a time some of the open-flavored abuses, but it's grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace that my fears relieved," says John Newton, when we reprove the deeds of darkness and preach repentance for God, we also have to have hearts of love and words of grace and preach faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not simply trying to win the culture, is what I'm trying to say. We are ultimately trying to win souls. To bring the full light of Christ into a dark world. Look, if we could win the culture war and have people without Christ, we wouldn't want it. We wouldn't do it. We'll do it then. It's not worth it. The culture has to come in the wake of changed hearts. And therefore, we need to have the whole message of Christ preached. The kingdom of God is at hand, he says in Mark 1. Repent, and leave the goodness. Don't forget the gospel. So, in conclusion, so I'm going to have to ask myself, how much of the world I'm leaving to itself? Leaving the darkness in the dark, feeling no sense of responsibility. Blaming problems on other things, other people. Why doesn't somebody say something? Why doesn't somebody do something? And there's a tacit arrangement, you see, in our world. You can believe whatever you want in our world. You can believe whatever you like, as long as you keep it to yourself. And to pay for you to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, that's fine. But don't you say a word against it. Don't dare approve it. We say a prayer. We'll comply. We'll take half the commandments. Rome burns. And we're hiding out in the church, playing the piano. following the path of least resistance, quietly keeping to ourselves. It's been said that the path of least resistance is what makes both rivers and men crooked. The point is, we're staying holed up too much in our Christian ghettos, and we are having no fellowship with the other groups of warriors. That's great. But where is the word? If the house is dark, don't blame the house. Don't blame the darkness for being dark. Where's the light? I think it was before Rupert Hugh Ladner. He was a mighty, burning, shining light in his day. It was the custom in those days, 16th century, that every New Year's Day, the bishops would give the king a present. It was his turn, and because the king had recently taken some liberties with James Seymour, he decided to give King Henry VIII the New Testament, with a note from Hebrews 13 stuck in it, calling his attention to one verse, Hebrews 13, for 40 meters of adulterers God will judge. And later he got to preach before Henry, and the king was very greatly displeased with the boldness of Latimer's sermon, and the very close public application that he made about the king in the hearing of all. And he was furious, and the king ordered Latimer to preach again the following Sunday, and to apologize for the offense that he had given His Royal Majesty. The next Sunday, Latimer got up, and began this sermon, quote, Hugh Latimer, do you know whom, before whom you are to speak this day? To the high and mighty monarch, the king's most excellent majesty, who can take away your life if you offend? And therefore take heed, Latimer, that you do not speak a word that may displease. But then consider well, Hugh, do you not know from whence you come? And on whose message you are sent? Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present, and who beholds all your ways, and who is able to cast your soul into hell, and therefore take care that you deliver your message faithfully. And after that introduction, Lambert read out the same text as the previous week. He said, Jeremiah 22, 29, over. Earth! Earth! Hear the word of the Lord!" And he preached exactly the same sermon he had preached the previous Sunday, but with considerably more energy. And everyone was just certain that the heavy was about to have Vladimir beheaded, because they had certainly laughed at that whole thing. But the king was subdued by Vladimir's earnestness. I mean, the king was clearly publicly guilty. And afterward, he said, Blessed be God that I have so honest a servant." He lived. Does the Lord have an honest servant in you? True courage, again, is not the absence of fear, but it is the willingness to speak in spite of it. Or as Lewis says, courage is not simply one of the virtues. It's the form of every virtue, as it's tested. Are you willing to speak? If we are light of the Lord, are we willing to speak as true pilgrims? If so, then that is true courage. God has said, and in life, let there be light. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we again come before you with great sorrow in our hearts, mourning the confession that neither have we negatively or positively kept this night from ending, for we have said many things that we ought not to have said, and we have not said a great many things that we ought to have said. We long that we might become more faithful servants. in this more honest service, in this critical way. We long for courage and hearts that overflow with love for you, that sincerely and fully and freely we might stand in for the truth. Father in Heaven, we again pray before you and pray for you to forgive us and cleanse us of our iniquity. We pray that you would give us grace as we seek you and seek your face, that you would give us these words of grace seasoned with salt, that we might know how to answer every man. This is so difficult, and often this is our excuse for speaking nothing. Apollo, that by whose graces, words, Bible, Scriptures, which are our God, graces these words that we might speak the truth in one, that we might promote truth to our neighbor, appearing and standing for the truth, forming the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly and openly speaking the truth, and only the truth. in his great match for you. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.