In the sermon titled 'Biblical Church Government' by Jason Dohm, the speaker discusses the importance of how churches should be governed, emphasizing the Baptist perspective. He highlights two key characteristics that define Baptists: a credible profession of faith for baptism and the belief that church governance should be internal, without external authority from entities outside the local church. The sermon examines the qualifications for church leaders, specifically elders and deacons, as outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Dohm stresses the necessity of internal and external calls for eldership, where both personal desire and congregation affirmation are crucial. The sermon also differentiates between the terms used for church leaders, such as overseers, elders, and pastors, and argues for their interchangeable use. Dohm critiques the concept of external church authority, arguing that New Testament texts like Acts 15 and 1 Corinthians 5 do not support such authority. Instead, he advocates for independent but cooperating churches, encouraging collaboration without surrendering internal governance. The sermon concludes by asserting that church government matters, but a church's love for Jesus and its members is fundamentally more important.

The sermon this morning is a Biblical Church Government. How should churches be governed? You're here because it's Sunday and you go to church on Sunday. Not because we're having a message on biblical church government. If you were choosing a church based on the topic, you probably would have chosen another church.

Not a lot of people get excited about messages about biblical church government. But that doesn't mean that it's not important. It actually has a big impact on us. It actually matters a lot how we go about our corporate life together. There are primarily two things that make Baptists Baptists.

The first is our view of baptism and who ought to be baptized. We think that it ought to be people who have a credible profession, that they have entrusted themselves to Jesus and forsaken every other hope. That's who you ought to be baptizing, and that's only who you ought to be baptizing. The second is church government and whether churches ought to be governed from within, or whether an entity outside the local church ought to have the authority to direct. And I'll have to say, as I've prepared to preach on these two things over the last several weeks, I've gotten more excited than ever about being a Baptist.

I'm just a Baptist to the core. I think I'm probably too old to be anything else at this point. The more I study it, the more convinced I am of these things. So while it's not the most scintillating topic that we can take on, I know that it does matter. And I think if we give ourselves these things, we'll see the wisdom of God in it.

You really get to see the wisdom of God on display about the goodness of how our life can be together if we follow the patterns that we see in the New Testament. I would like to begin by reading 1st Timothy chapter 3, a bit of it, and then what is pretty close to a parallel passage, meaning a passage about almost exactly the same subject in Titus 1. And then I'll pray, and then we'll come to the subject. I want to begin by just probably the two flagship texts on biblical New Testament church government. 1 Timothy 3, I'll be reading 1 through 13.

Paul writes this to Timothy. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of a bishop, nope, overseer. So let me just stop there. I only do this on one word in the New Testament, which is to say this is a bad translation.

And I've crossed through it everywhere where you find Bishop in my New King James. By the way, I love my New King James. I think it's a great translation. I don't want to trade it for any other translation, but it makes me it makes me Want to get rid of this word and change in this place only. Why do I say that?

Because the word literally means overseer. It's a very literal translation of the Greek word and it doesn't have the baggage of bishop. So the ESV and the NASB and the NIV get this right. They translate it very literally. It's a person who oversees a local church.

And it doesn't have, it doesn't bring to mind any thoughts about the hat that they might wear or multiple churches that they might govern. None of that is in view in the Greek word that's being translated. So if you want to do like me and cross out this word and put in overseer I say go for it. All right. Wow I didn't make it very far there did I?

Let's try again. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of a bishop, nope, overseer, he desires a good work. An overseer then must be blameless, a husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?

Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside lest he fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double-tonged, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own houses well. For those who have served well as deacons, obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Then in Titus 1, just a few pages over, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, and then Titus. In Titus 1, Paul writes to Titus on very much the same subject, but there are there are some subtle differences that I think are helpful. So I'd like to read it to Titus 1, 5 through 9.

Paul writes to Titus, For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop, nope, overseer, must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. God, I thank you for these two texts and the rest of the places in the New Testament that teach us about how local churches ought to be governed. And I pray that you would press these truths on our hearts and that, God, that we would be governed according to your word, not according to our own designs or thoughts, but that your word would have it say and we would be content to do what we see in Jesus name.

Amen. To me a single verse in Philippians, actually the first verse of Philippians, is very valuable. So I want to start there. You can turn it if you want or just listen. This is just Philippians 1 verse 1, so it's the very first words that Paul writes to the church in Philippi.

Philippians 1 verse 1. And even though it's one verse, I think there's so much packed in here. Paul writes this, Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops, nope, overseers, and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you just follow this phrase by phrase, start to finish, you find that it isn't the church officers that matter most.

Church officers show up in the verse, but it's clear that they're not the priority here. They're not what matters most. They are actually addressed second. It is the saints in Christ Jesus, saints just means holy ones, or ones that God has set apart to himself. So it's the brethren that God has set apart to himself that Paul is primarily writing to and then he also mentions the officers of the church and there are two of them.

There are the overseers and the deacons. We learn here that the church officers exist for the welfare and progress of people that God has set apart to Himself. They exist for the welfare of the saints. The saints don't exist to carry out the wishes of the leaders in churches, but the leaders in churches exist for the care and welfare and progress of everyone that God has set apart to Himself. Now, my thoughts don't always conform to that ideal.

My actions don't always conform to that ideal. But you should never go to a church where the leaders don't at least aspire to that ideal. I tell you, I aspire to that ideal. You can find churches where it's as if the people exist for the leaders and not the other way around. And I want to tell you, in place after place after place after place in the New Testament, it's so clear the leaders exist for the welfare of the people who God has set apart for himself in those churches.

We have here the two offices, overseers and deacons, or elders and deacons, or pastors and deacons, or shepherds and deacons. Now, why am I taking this one word, overseers, and adding in other words? Because if you look across these texts in the New Testament that touch on biblical church government, what you find is that both Paul and Peter use these terms interchangeably. So we are translating different Greek words, but each of these translated words are used interchangeably by both Paul and Peter. So in one place, you might find overseers and elders used.

And you can tell he's talking about the same person, or overseers and shepherds, or elders and pastors. And so I will be during the course of the sermon using them interchangeably. Just know that I'm doing exactly what Paul does in certain places, what Peter does in certain places. These are speaking of the same person, overseers or shepherds, better yet under shepherds. We get that from 1 Peter chapter 5, when Peter addresses fellow elders, and then he says, when the chief shepherd appears, meaning No person in a church is the chief shepherd.

God places men in churches to be shepherds, but they are under the chief shepherds. So to think of this as an under-shepherd or an elder or a pastor or an overseer, all of these things we should think of interchangeably. According to Paul in 1 Timothy 3, which I just read, these elders or overseers or under-shepherds fill an official position in the sense that they must undergo qualification testing before they serve. No serving as an elder or an overseer or a shepherd until you pass the test first. There's a list of qualifications of 1 Timothy 3, a list of qualifications of Titus 1.

It's almost exactly the same, it's the same list. And a man must be tested against the qualifications and then he serves. So it's not like, well, you're old, you be it. Old's not on the qualifications. Although, I would say elder is a word with a meaning.

I think we would be reluctant, based on the word picked by the apostles to have someone who was overly young. The New Testament doesn't give us an age. I'm not going to say an age, but the word elder actually is significant. So this is an official position, and we know that because you can't serve until you've been tested to see that you meet this list of qualifications. If you look at these two lists of qualifications you'll find three categories.

So it's a long list. I'm not going to go through them one by one. I'm going to put them in buckets. So the first bucket or the first category is where most of them go into this bucket. It's character.

Does this man possess tried, mature Christian character? So we're not talking about a super Christian here. The New Testament doesn't know about super Christians. It knows about Christians who actually have come into some level of conformity to Jesus Christ but we're all called to the same character becoming conformed into the character of Christ And so that is the first category, mature Christian character. Not a super Christian, but a Christian who has come to a level of maturity in the things that we should all be striving towards.

Then the second category, the second bucket we're putting qualifications in is marriage and family conduct. This is so important. Listen to 1 Timothy 3 verse 5. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? What is Paul saying?

Paul is saying that the home is the nursery for church leaders. It's where you grow. It's the hot house. It's the greenhouse for church leaders. God puts people under a man's care, a wife under his care, children then under his care, and when they flourish, you can say because they flourish, he's ready for caring for others in the church.

And so a man whose house is out of order, you don't just put more people in the disorder. If a man's house is chaotic, he's not ready to be an elder, because then it'll just be that the church is chaotic. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Finally, the third category is able to teach. The King James renders it apt to teach.

So you have both level of competence. Can he do it? Is he good at it to some extent? And also tendency. Does he like to do it?

Does he tend to do it? In Titus 1.9, Paul says it this way, holding fast the faithful word as He has been taught that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. So this is a man who can define sound doctrine. He knows it when he sees it. And he knows unsound doctrine when he sees it.

And he can defend sound doctrine and contradict people who are teaching sound doctrine. That is obviously part of the ability to teach or the tendency to teach. On that point, able to teach, a majority of Presbyterians split this office into two offices, the office of elder or pastor into two offices, with teaching elders, usually one in a congregation, and ruling elders who are really an administrative board that make decisions and govern the activities of the church. So as reformed Baptists, we actually say no. There are elders.

Some might teach more than other elders, but we're not splitting this into two where we have teaching elders and ruling elders. No. We do acknowledge that elders who rule well and labor in the Word and doctrine should have double honor, which includes but is not limited to financial support. This is exactly what 1 Timothy chapter 5 says. It says, let the elders who rule well, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine, be worthy of double honor.

And then Paul unfolds this to say, that includes financial support. But we deny that that means that there are two separate offices, a teaching elder and then ruling elders. So it is likely that a church will have an elder or elders who receive financial support in order to buy the opportunity for that man to labor hard in teaching and preaching. In other words, we'll trade our money for your time. You go study, you go deep, and then on Sunday, and maybe another time of the week, you bring us with you into the things that you learn.

This is really what's happening here. It is a time for money exchange. Buying the time so that a man has the ability to go deep in study and then bring the church along with it. But that is not a separate or elevated office. Any and every elder must be able and have a tendency to teach.

Otherwise, he can't be an elder. There is no ruling elder. Well, you can't teach, but you've got these other qualities so you can be a ruling elder. No, this is contrary to what Paul is teaching in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. So these qualified men, not a lone senior pastor, but a plurality of men, oversee the church, shepherding, and do the bulk of the teaching and give themselves to prayer.

In Acts 14 23, this is the end of Paul's first missionary journey, says that Paul and his ministry companions appointed elders, plural, in every church, singular. Then in Titus 1 5, he just read Titus 1, Paul says to Titus, I left you in Crete to set in order the things that are lacking. So There are churches here in Crete, there are things that are lacking, and appoint elders, plural, in every city as I commanded to you." So the New Testament pattern is not a senior pastor, but a plurality of men who are qualified. Does every church have that? No.

Does that mean they're not a church? No. It means that they're a church where things that are lacking and need to be set in order. So Paul didn't wait until there was a mature state in order to say you're a church. He planted churches, and then he was moving towards this local church government where there were a plurality of qualified men who would govern together.

How does an elder become an elder? Well, there is an internal call, as Paul says it in 1 Timothy 3.1, If a man desires the position of an overseer, so there's this internal compulsion, I want to labor among the Lord's people in this way. I desire this position. I want to engage in this work. But there is also an external call.

The brethren must accept a man into the office by affirming that God has worked in his life to make him qualified. So you will find people with an internal call, at least they're convinced of that. I want to do this, but you don't have the external affirmation of the brethren that he meets the qualifications, and so the internal call is not merging with the external call that man cannot be an elder. Sometimes you have the opposite of that. You have people saying, you'd be a great elder.

We go down the list and you're everything on the list and the man says I don't have any internal sense of the Lord to have me do this I don't desire the work and so the internal call is not merging with the external call and that man shouldn't be arm twisted into being an elder. Sometimes that happens like we need elders really bad and you match the list, you should do it. If man doesn't have a sense that God would have him do this and an internal inclination towards the work, he should not be arm twisted into being an elder. Now the second office, deacons. The Greek word literally means servant, but again according to Paul and 1st Timothy 3, these men fill an official position.

So we all serve in the local church, whether we're given a title for it or not. We all do different things in our local church. But this is going beyond that to say, actually what's being spoken of here is an official position of service, official in the sense that they also must undergo qualification testing before they serve. Acts chapter 6 has the prototypes or the first instances of deacons. In Acts chapter 6, there's been a distribution to the widows, only it's not making it to the Hellenist widows or the Greek widows, it's only making it to the Jewish widows, and this is causing bitterness in the church and resentment in the church.

And the leaders in the Church of Jerusalem had the wisdom to say this is an incredibly important matter, But if we give ourselves to this matter, we'll have to leave the Word of God and prayer in order to take care of it. So we need a group of men who are full of faith and wisdom, men who meet qualifications of Christian maturity to handle this very sensitive issue. We're talking about disbursement of finances to widows. That is sensitive in about four different ways. So This is not something you would just turn anyone loose.

You want someone who exhibits mature Christian character. They have the wisdom to see that the church, in an ongoing way, is going to have needs that are sensitive, they're going to need attention, but that they shouldn't divert from the thing that God has specifically called them to do, to do it. And so that there wouldn't be a competition between should I prepare to teach or should I see to the care of widows in our church so that those things wouldn't be put in competition. There would be a second office of specifically qualified servants to the church and we know them as deacons. Acts chapter 6 verse 4 they say, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer in the ministry of the word.

You appoint men who fit this description and we will give ourselves continually to prayer in the ministry of the word not to be pulled away by these other things that are also important. Now do deacons do the sum total of all the service in the church? Of course not. We gave you a name, Your name means servant, so you do all the serving. No, that's not what's being taught here.

Is there a risk that they do so much that others are deprived of the need and the privilege of also serving in the church? Of course. So if you come to this church and you're here for a year then two years and you just soak up the service, you never serve, you'll be the most dissatisfied person here. You would think it was the other way around. You would think that would be the dream life in a local church.

I just come and I get served and I never have to lift a finger. Those are the most dissatisfied people in churches. Because we need to join in the service. It is a privilege to join in the service. And if you don't ever join in the service, you'll be disgruntled.

And I can't explain why. Because of our remaining corruptions, that's why I guess. Every church has particular sensitive matters that need to be handled by people who have passed the test of Christian character. So that these really sensitive matters involving money, involving widows, involving care of the sick. This is mercy ministry.

They are handled well. The people in a church are cared for well and cared for by the mature. Now let's consider whether individual local churches are self-governing, governed strictly from within according to the New Testament, or if the New Testament teaches us to have government from without the individual local church with with the authority to direct a church or group of churches. So that's the question on the table. Does the New Testament teach that Our local church, other local churches, ought to be governed strictly from within with no external entity with an authority to direct, or should it be the other way around, there is an external entity, not from the people who make up this church, that has the authority to direct us in doctrine and practice.

I want to begin by considering the two primary New Testament texts used to argue that there ought to be authority outside of local churches to direct a group of churches. So here we're talking about essentially a denomination or something like a denomination. I was going to say the worst and I do mean worse, but kind of the hyper condition of this would be to have a pope. One person who has the authority to direct all the churches within this group across the globe. That is the most extreme.

That's what I meant to say. It is the worst, but it is the most extreme also. Those two texts are Acts 15 and 1st Corinthians 5. I'll let you look them up on your own, but I'm going to talk you through what you actually find there. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas are in Antioch, and some men come from Judea, Jerusalem is in Judea, so they're coming from ground zero of the faith at that time.

And they and their teaching, you have to be circumcised to be saved. No salvation without circumcision. And Paul and Barnabas aren't having it. Not for a minute. They contradict them.

They come into conflict with them. And the church says, Paul and Barnabas, we're going to send you to the Apostles and elders in Jerusalem to get from them what they say on this matter. So what you have to know is that all of what happens in Acts 15 is initiated by the local church. No one is summoned from Antioch, Jerusalem, saying you come and we'll tell you they actually initiate it and they send Paul and Barnabas the church sends Paul and Barnabas to the Apostles and elders now I just want to say this, and this is so clear to me, this can never be reproduced. Because the apostles, as the New Testament defines it, were alive then.

They were discipled directly by Jesus. And they are the ones that the church is built upon with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, but they are foundation stones. You cannot send to the apostles now for reading. So what you find in Acts 15 is a lousy basis for a denomination which provides for authority outside the local church that has the power to bind the local church on doctrine or practice. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is heard of an instance of scandalous sin in Corinth.

The kind of sin that the Gentiles won't even speak about. Even the Gentiles whisper about this kind of sin. So Paul has heard, you got that kind of sin in Corinth. So He writes and says, you put that man out of the church. Again, this will never be reproduced.

This is a church planting apostle of Jesus Christ. We don't have those today doing that. Again, a lousy basis for an external authority outside a local church with the power to direct a local church. So that's the negative side of the coin. The text used to teach that binding authority exists outside of a local church don't actually mean what they're sometimes said to mean.

So when you find people who are arguing for denominations or for the pope, you find them using these texts and maybe others, but these are the big two. And when you see what they say and you look at the text, you end up saying, that doesn't mean what you say it means. There are internal evidences in this text that don't match up with what you say it means. On the positive side of the coin, it's clear to me from the New Testament eldership texts that one, no man can become an elder without the consent of the congregation, meaning that the congregation has to qualify these men. And it's actually not even supposed to be a fast process in 1 Timothy 5.

It says, don't lay hands on anyone hastily. So you have this list of qualifications. Do not rush through evaluating a man. Is he qualified according to this list of qualifications? So no man can become an elder without the consent of the congregation.

And no one in the congregation can be disciplined without the consent of the congregation. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul talks about discipline, or punishment that was inflicted by the majority. So these are really important texts. And two, the elders in these texts on eldership in the New Testament, the elders are invested with authority that is not subject to some entity outside of the church. So I challenge you, go look at these texts about New Testament elders and ask yourself, is this written in a way that even allows for these elders to be subject to an external entity outside the local church.

It makes those texts nonsense. If you go to them and say that these elders are actually subject to an outside entity, then those texts start to mean nothing, nothing at all. If you're interested in personal study and or discussing this further with me, start by taking a closer look at four texts. So if you're just like, I'm interested in this. I'd like to go look it up and sort of see where he's getting what he's saying from, I would just give you four chapters to look at.

Acts 20. In Acts 20, Paul exhorts the Ephesian elders. Go look at that text. 1 Timothy 3. I read it this morning, but it's about the qualifications, but also in the qualifications you get something about the function of leadership in the local church.

Titus 1, I also read that, and 1st Peter 5. Go look at those four if you want to study this further. If you want to discuss it with me, I would love to go look at those chapters and then say I've looked at those four places, let's talk about it. I would love to. All that said, the 1689 Confession, this is our confession of faith, exhorts churches, and I think rightly so, to nurture relationships and find ways to work together to advance the gospel.

So we are Baptists. We don't believe that there's an authority outside our congregation that has the right to direct us, but that doesn't mean that we want to be an island to ourselves. Those things don't have to be true at the same time. Not only is there not an outside entity with the authority to impose decisions on us, that means we don't want to have anything to do with anyone else. No, no, no, No, no, no.

We don't believe that anyone has the outside authority given to them by the New Testament to direct us on doctrine or on practice, but We do want to cooperate with other churches. We want to know them. We want to work together with them. We want to have fellowship with them. I want to read directly from our confession.

Listen to some parts of paragraph 14. So this is of the church is the chapter in our confession on this and it's I think it's the longest one Most of them don't have 14 paragraphs this one has a lot of paragraphs listen to a portion of paragraph 14 as each church and all the members of it are bound to pray continually for the good and prosperity of all the churches of Christ so the churches when planted by the providence of God so as they may enjoy opportunity and advantage for it ought to hold communion among themselves for their peace, increase of love, and mutual edification." Now you got a lot of language there from 1689. Sorry, it's 2024. We probably wouldn't say it that way. What were they saying?

Every Christian ought to be praying for all the churches, the real churches of Jesus Christ around the world. It's our duty to pray for each other. And when God has put us providentially, according to his own will, when God has put us in a circumstance where we can have communion among churches for our peace and increase of love and mutual edification, we ought to do it. Amen to that. I think you find ample basis for that in the New Testament.

Listen to some portions of paragraph 15. In cases of difficulties or differences, does the local church ever come into a time of difficulty or have differences? Wow, of course we do. In cases of difficulties or differences, either in point of doctrine or administration, many churches holding communion together, due by their messengers, meet to consider and give their advice in or about that matter in difference, to be reported to all the churches concerned. However, these messengers assembled are not entrusted with any church power properly so called, or with any jurisdiction over the churches themselves, to exercise any censures either over any churches or persons or to impose their determination on the churches or officers." That again is a deluge of words.

Sorry about that. I wanted you to get the language of the confession. What is that saying? It says, when there's a dust-up, when there's a problem, when there's conflict, either over doctrine or interpersonally, the churches who are in communion together, who know each other, ought to send people to get together to hash through these things and ought to give a report to every church that is represented there, but It does not give binding authority on any church. So we ought to avail ourselves of the benefit of each other, but that doesn't constitute an external authority on our church or on any other churches.

What the confession is calling for is independent but cooperating churches. Amen. That's what the New Testament teaches. Independent but cooperating churches. If you get independent without cooperating, I think you run into trouble.

You run into us being an island unto ourselves. And we begin to have blinders on, and everything begins to be too narrow. But if you only have cooperation, but no independence, you give up your ability to govern from within yourself, that's asking for trouble. So I think we need these two things together, independent but cooperating. Now a closing thought.

These things are important. I'm Baptist through and through. I'm enthusiastic about being a Baptist. I'm an excited Baptist. But they are not fundamental.

What do I mean? I think this is the clearest way I can say it. A Presbyterian church will be so much better off than us if they love Jesus more than we do, and they love each other more than we do. You'd be better off in a Presbyterian church that has church government wrong. I think they do.

They don't think they do, obviously. The nature of the debate. But let's say I'm right. Let's say they're wrong for the sake of argument. So we got it right, only we don't love Jesus as much as they do, and we don't love each other as much as they do.

You should go to that church. Be better off at that church. Important but not fundamental. I think we should be Baptist in our view of church government and try to love Jesus as much as they do. Try to love each other as much as they do.

Church government matters, but our heart before God matters most. See the problem with the different kinds of church government is no matter which system it is and how close it is to what you find in the New Testament, they're all run by sinners. You can get it perfectly aligned with the New Testament and have no heart in it for God or for each other. And it will not save you from conflict. It will not save you from sliding in doctrine.

So important but not fundamental. Let's pray. God, I thank you for saving me. I thank you for saving me young I Thank you that that affords me the ability to look back on 40 plus years of church life and to just see the wisdom of what you have in the New Testament how good it is God I pray that you would help us to be structured just as we see in the New Testament. But I pray, God, that you would push us so far beyond that.

That the structure would serve its purpose, which is to give your people a safe, good, healthy, stable place to grow. We would find ourselves growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for these truths. Pray that you would help us to understand them well, to love truth, and to use these truths to pursue the Lord Jesus. May it be so in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you very much. Have a great weekend.