seeking once again the help of God.

I'd like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read together, Deuteronomy chapter 1 and the text you'll find in verse 36. Really it's just the last part, because he hath wholly followed the Lord. But from verse 35, surely there shall not one of these men, of this evil generation, see that good land which I swear to give unto their fathers, save or except Caleb, the son of Jeph. He shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon. and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord.

We looked at this morning the warning or the preparation that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to his apostles, to his disciples and to those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ that he pre-warned them of the difficulty that they would experience in the world as they, as Christ was persecuted, as he was the green tree and they persecuted him and they, the perfect man,

So his followers would also be persecuted and not only would they be persecuted but their lives would be strewn with various trials, trials of faith, trials of doubt and fear, opposition, opposition in family, opposition in the world, opposition against the kingdom of, from the kingdom of darkness and so there was that preparation spoken to the Lord's people but also the encouragement that he told them that in him there would be peace and that he had overcome the world and that even though they experienced opposition and persecution that had no way of affecting their relationship with him.

They were in him, they were united to him, they are married to him, they are part of his spiritual body and therefore the trials and the difficulties that they pass through are in no means to be used as things to separate that relationship and so Christ sought to encourage them by saying that you are in me. Nothing can sever that relationship as I am in the Father and nothing can sever that relationship. I am going to the Father and therefore the believer also will in one day go to the Father, go to be with Christ which is far better, then even death itself doesn't sever that relationship.

But in a sense, it binds that relationship even stronger because we go from faith to sight. We go as we step across that spiritual Jordan into the promised land, then we go and see Jesus as he is. And so we can never be separated from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

And even though there are times we've just been singing when we believe that nobody is tried like we are tried. Our case is far more difficult than everybody else's case. We are experiencing much more trial than everybody else, yet even if we are, even if our lot seems to be the hardest lot, even if our pathway seems to be the most difficult pathway that any Christian has ever walked, we're called to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. and to see that his pathway was far, far greater, far, far more difficult than our pathway, and we're to be encouraged by that, that Christ who had done nothing wrong, chose to walk a life of poverty and suffering, then to be rejected by the Father upon the cross for the sins of his people.

His way was far more rougher and tougher than mine, that we sink and our pathway is strewn with blessing. that even in the midst of the storms of life, even when we, as I said about the cordial that sinks to the bottom, there's a sweetness there for the Lord's people. Christ appears in the storm. Christ appears in the difficult pathway. He appears in the fire. He is promised to appear in the fire, but we have to look for him. We can't just expect that all is going to go well when we abandon the word, when we abandon prayer, when we abandon the means that God has given, just like these people of Israel, just like the people of Israel.

It was Caleb only who wholly followed the Lord. It was Caleb only who came back with a good report and believed that the Lord was able to conquer the giants. It was the Lord who was able to conquer the difficult cities. It was the Lord that was able to deliver them into their hands. It was only Caleb. Everybody else came with a bad report, with the grumblings and complainings. Oh, we can't do this or we can't do that. They forgot the past mercies. They forgot all that the Lord had done for them before. And they looked at the problem at hand. And they made decisions based upon the problem at hand, rather than looking back to what the Lord has done and then bringing it all into the equation.

They forgot the plagues. Every single one of Pharaoh's gods was destroyed. They forgot the cloud of fire. They forgot the pillar of cloud by day. They forgot the separation of the Red Sea that they walked through on dry ground. They forgot all that the Lord had done for them. and had promised to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob that they would be brought into the promised land. And they rebelled against the commandment of the Lord. And after the Lord told them that they had sinned, then they, it's like changed their minds. and they girded on their weapons of war and they were ready to go up to the hill. But the Lord said, go not up, neither fight, for I am not among you.

What did they do? Did they listen to the voice of the Lord? No, they went up presumptuously. They went up in their own strength, in their own ability, without God. and they were defeated. You see, the Israelites were not necessarily the most powerful people. They were the smallest of people. They were not warriors. They had no strength in themselves. Their strength came from the Lord. Their strength came from the Lord who went before them and who dealt with their enemies. not in themselves. And so when they went up presumptuously, they went on their own and they were defeated. The Bible says that they were chased like they were running away from bees.

You see, they went up by themselves. They went up presumptuously, but only Caleb Caleb, the son of Jephneun, he would end up going into the land which was sworn unto the fathers because he wholly followed the Lord. In Numbers 13 from verse 30 we have Caleb's testimony after the The idea was given that they would send 12 men to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land to spy out the land, and as they walked around the land they saw the giants, they saw the walled cities, but they saw that it was a good and a prosperous land. And Caleb had a testimony that they should go up and they should possess that land in Number 13, from verse 13, Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, that we be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report against the land, which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, the land through which we have gone to search it, it is the land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature. And we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we are in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so we are in their sight. And so Caleb, he says, let's go up. The Lord is able to deliver us into the hands of these people.

But what do they do? They listen to the evil report. just as the Lord Jesus Christ tries to encourage his people by saying, these things have I spoken unto you that you might have peace. These things I've laid out all clearly for you that you might have peace. You may have that faith to persevere when the oppositions come. He speaks those words of comfort.

just like Caleb, let's go, let's do this, let's do what the Lord has commanded us to do and we will be able to overcome it. But words can either build up or they can pull down. Christ's words were meant to build up his people and encourage them. Caleb's words were meant to rally the people around the promises of God. We will overcome it. By the Lord's help, he will go before us and deliver us, but also words can pull down.

And people would rather listen to lies than they would listen to the truth. The Bible tells us that Satan is the deceiver of the brethren. He likes to go around lying, and how easy it is for us to listen to his lies, how sweet his lies are. If they can cause us not to do anything, if they can cause us to rest on our heels, we would rather listen to the lies of Satan than it would be for us to go forward and to obey God. It's very easy, isn't it? To do nothing. It's very easy to be lazy. You don't have to do anything. But to walk in obedience, you've got to exercise faith. You've got to exercise the, and to exercise faith, you exercise the word. It takes an action. But to relax and to be lazy is, and to go against the word of God is easy.

just like these people, look how easily they discouraged the whole congregation. Moses says that they were as the sand of the sea. 11, 12 men were sent into the promised land. And Caleb comes back with a good report that the others, they bring this evil report and the whole congregation of an innumerable amount of people lift up their voice and weep and begin to grumble and complain about God and his dealings with them. They say, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God that we had died in this wilderness wherefore hath the Lord brought us up into this land to fall by the sword and our wives and our children should be a prey were it not better for us to return unto Egypt and they said one to another let us make a captain and let us return to Egypt you see how easy it was to discourage whole congregation and for that discouragement to spiral out of control in the minds of the people, adding one thing to another thing and to another thing, how easy it is for us to swell things up in our minds. It's an impossibility. we keep adding and adding and adding and adding and that impossibility becomes greater and greater and greater.

But Caleb wholly followed the Lord. It shows us then his his faith, to wholly follow God is to have faith, to trust him in his word. In chapter 14, in Numbers it says, and Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb, the son of Jeff, which were with them that searched out the land, rent their clothes, and they spake unto the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to search is an exceeding good land, and if the Lord delight in us, Then he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not, but all the congregation bads stone them with stones.

the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before the children of Israel. Here is his faith, you see. His faith does not seem to see the problems that the other people see. He sees his God as far greater than the obstacles that are placed in the way, just like David.

All the people of Israel saw a great giant All the people of the army of Israel saw this one man that was greater than all of them, and nobody dared fight him. But David looked beyond the giant and saw the greatness of God. He saw the way the Lord had helped him before. He says, this giant, the Lord has helped me with the bear and the lion, and this giant shall be like one of those.

Oh, to have the faith of Caleb and the faith of David, to look beyond the trials and troubles and the impossibilities of this life and see a God with whom nothing shall be called impossible. A God who created this world out of nothing, who sits upon the circle of this earth, whose heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. Caleb saw him. And he looked back and he saw how the Lord had dealt with them and provided for them. And he says, fear not the land of the people. They're just bread.

What did the others see? The others saw giants and impossibilities, but Caleb sees them as bread, as nothing before an almighty God. Fear them not. Why? Because the Lord is with us. What does Jesus say? He says, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world, tribulation. But overlook the trouble. Look above the trouble. Look to the promise. Look to what Christ has done. I have overcome the world.

Caleb saw God as the one who overcomes. But he continued to follow God, even though he's the only one, or we can just see that there is Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, these two who wholly followed the Lord. In the midst of a innumerable amount of people, they're the only ones. who wanted to follow God.

It means believing and trusting in God, acknowledging that God is far greater than the impossibilities that we see in life. Acknowledging that God is able to deal with this situation. That because he has promised this is going to be the land that you're going to have, therefore God will give it. even if you are the only one.

Caleb and Joshua were the only ones who wholly followed the Lord. It's getting like that in our own country. Just a small group of people who follow God although they may be the many who call themselves Christians. Yet we can reduce that number down to those who are wholly following, those who are truly or completely devoted to God, those who are willing to turn their back upon the crowd, those who are willing to have Christ as their object, those who are willing to rest only in the word of God.

For it was the word of God that Caleb rested in. It was God who had said go forward and it was that word by which he rested in. There are others, aren't there, in the Bible who are willing to stand alone. And you children, we sing, don't we? Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone.

It's very difficult to stand alone. It's very difficult to be the odd one out, the one who is isolated, the one who everybody looks at as a weirdo or the Christian who doesn't want to join in with certain things. It's very difficult. to be the odd one out, to wholly, completely, devotedly follow the Lord Jesus Christ, to follow God. But Daniel is one that sticks out in the Bible as a young man who wholly followed God. In a foreign land, he made that decision that he would not defile himself. with the king's meat. He made that decision which could have cost him his life to separate himself from the other Israelites that had also been captured and to stand alone with his few friends. Yet God honoured that decision.

The Bible tells us that those that honour me, I will honour. And if you are willing to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are willing to stand like Daniel alone, God will honour and bless you as he did with Caleb. He says, because Caleb completely, wholly followed the Lord, he will see the land. and I will give him the land that he hath trodden upon his feet and unto his children. God was going to bless him. All of those that went with him, all of those that were over the age of 20, years of age amongst that vast multitude of people because of their unbelief, because they did not believe God and they turned their hearts against God, what happened to them? They all died in the wilderness, and none of them ever saw the promised land. Only their children inherited the promised land.

Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portions of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Wherefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. You see, again, God. God is always the answer. It is God who gave Daniel favour. We look at Joseph. God gave Joseph favour in the eyes of all those that he was under. Everything that he did prospered. Why? Because the Lord was with him. That makes the difference. It made the difference to the people of Israel when the Lord was with them. They won the battles. When the Lord turned against them, they lost the battles. The Lord was with Daniel. Therefore he found favour in the eye of the eunuch. And the eunuch listened to him.

And Daniel said to the prince of the eunuchs that had sent over Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants, beseech thee ten days, and let them give us pulses to eat and water to drink. Let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenances of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat, and as thou seest deal with thy servants was allowed. He gave them pulses to eat and water to drink. What happened? They they in the end looked better than all of those that were found, all of those that were there in the palace.

In verse 19, and the king commanded with them, and among them all was found unlike Daniel and his friends, therefore stood they before the king. Sorry, verse 15. And at the end of the ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh, and all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. You see, the Lord was with him. and even the meagre food that he took and his friends took, the Lord used that and they became fairer and fatter than all of the others. Why? He was willing to stand alone. He was willing to stand with God and not to defile himself with a portion of the king's meat, so the Lord blessed him. How many of us have made compromises in our lives? How many of us have defied ourselves with a portion of the king's meat, the things of this world, in order to fit in, in order not to be the spotted bird, in order not to be the weird Christian? How many of us have made compromises and are not willing to wholly follow the Lord, want to hold back?

Think of Job. Job, I know we looked at this the other day, but Job, after his second trial and covered with boils, and his wife says to him, does thou still retain thine integrity, curse God and die? But he said unto her, thou speakest as one of the foolish women, speakest what? Shall we not receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips? And this is the point.

Caleb wholly followed the Lord. Daniel wholly followed the Lord. Job, he accepted the Lord's dealings with him at the beginning, and he did not sin with his lips. Why does the Bible say he did not sin with his lips?

You see, David, you see, Caleb was not a perfect man. Daniel was not a perfect man, and Job was not a perfect man. What we see is the external. We see that Caleb wholly followed the Lord, but we don't see what's going on in his mind. We don't see what's going on in his heart. As the people are turning against him, we don't see the doubts and fears that take place in the thoughts of his mind. We don't think, we don't see whether he ever thought, you know, oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that or, oh dear, it looks like they're all going to stone me. Maybe I should run away or perhaps I should have sided with all the others and not been the odd one out. We don't see the thoughts that take place in his mind.

Same with Daniel, the nervousness he may have experienced as he was approaching the eunuch. If he doesn't accept what I'm going to say, he could kill me. What if I die? What's going to happen to me if I die? What's going to happen to my friends? We don't see what's taking place in the mind.

Just like Job, the reason why the Bible says he didn't sin with his lips. It's because he was able to retain what was taking place in his mind and what came out of his mouth was something that was godly, something that was right and acceptable in the sight of God. Shall we not receive? Shall we not receive good at the hand of the Lord? And shall we not receive evil? In all of this, Job said, not with his lips.

You see, as I've said to you before, I think it's Martin Luther who said, you know, you can't stop a bird flying over your head, but you can stop it making a nest in your hair. You see our thoughts and the processes of our brains are like birds flying over our heads. We can have evil thoughts, we can have evil imaginations, we can have horrible thoughts that may come across our minds when we're in trial. And no doubt Caleb, just a man like us, a person like us, passions like we have, there were thoughts that took place in his mind that were not godly, that were not right. Yet he was able to overcome those thoughts and to wholly follow God. He was able to suppress those thoughts and to walk in obedience to God.

Job was able to suppress those thoughts at the beginning and to not to sin with his lips. He never cursed God and died. He kept those things in his mind, like Daniel, those fears, those doubts that are part of human nature. Yet they can be overcome by the influence of the spirit. As we renew our mind, those thoughts do not have to manifest themselves on the external. So these were just men. And the Bible deals with just men and women as you and me. Though we may see them as wholly following God, walking in obedience, yet the Bible is also very clear that these were sinful people and their sins are written for us to see. And so just because that is written that Caleb wholly followed God does not mean that he was out without sin. There is only one man who wholly followed God. And that is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The only person who followed God in spirit and in body was the Lord Jesus Christ. And Caleb being a type really here of the Lord Jesus, as he wholly followed God, he is rewarded by the land that he would possess. The Lord Jesus Christ is rewarded. as through his perfect obedience and his death upon the cross, he is given a people to call his own, a people that will be with him in the promised land, the true promised land, without the Canaanites and the Amalekites and the Hittites, without the giants, the true promised land, which is heaven itself, the heavenly land.

Just as their pilgrim journey from the Red Sea to the River Jordan, it is as our pilgrim journey here upon earth. And sometimes we sing, don't we, we cross over Jordan's swirling tide. Although the River Jordan nowadays is just a babbling brook, not much to it, but in those days it was a great river. And the Lord has promised that he will be with his people as they pass through that Jordan, as they pass through that death and land safely on the promised land.

And so Caleb wholly followed the Lord. Daniel wholly followed the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ wholly followed the Lord, both in spirit and in body. There was no sin found in him. and believers are called to wholly follow the law. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are to walk in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. The whole of the Christian pathway is a call to follow. It is a call to discipleship, to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and to learn of him and to walk in obedience to him.

Jesus as they called his disciples as they were by the seashore he tells them follow me and they left their nets and they followed they became disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus tells us in Matthew 16 in verse 24 Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. There is that call, if any man will come after me, if any woman or boy or girl will come after me, then you are to deny yourself.

Just as Caleb had to walk away from his own doubts and his own fears, as he had to walk away from the evil report of those fellows that were with him, he had to walk out alone. And he had to wholly follow God, even in the midst of much opposition, even in the midst of people wanting to stone him, he had to deny himself. He knew what he believed. And what he believed to be right was that God would deliver them. And even if the people thought of stoning him, he was still going to follow God.

And we're called to deny ourselves, cast in our lot with the Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow him, to take up our cross, to crucify the flesh, and to follow the Lord Jesus. Are we tonight, this afternoon, holy following, Jesus Christ. Or are we like those who bring an evil report and we make excuses as to why we shouldn't follow, the reasons why, the problems, the difficulties, the oppositions, What reasons are you bringing into your own mind as to why you should not follow the Lord Jesus? If Caleb is set up as one who wholly follows the Lord, and in wholly following, he is blessed, surely the right thing for the believer to do is to wholly follow and to receive that blessing. We're not to be half-hearted. followers of the Lord Jesus. You cannot be in the kingdom of darkness and in the kingdom of light at the same time. You're either in one camp or you're in the other camp. You're either following the Lord Jesus or you're walking in disobedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many today who desire to walk in a way of worldliness, They don't want to wholly follow the Lord Jesus. They don't want to fully cast in their lot with the Lord Jesus Christ. They still want to have some of the kingdom of darkness. They still want to have some of the toys of Satan, the toys of this world. But Jesus Christ, he wants those who will wholly follow him. He wants those who will deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. He wants those who will walk in obedience to his commandments and not neglect his ways.

In 1 John 2, verse 15, it says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that doth the will of God abideth forever.

Just as Caleb. He did the will of God. He wholly followed the Lord. He trusted in what God was able to do. He had faith to believe in the word of God and was willing to be the odd one out, willing to go against his peers, willing to walk in the opposite way to everybody else and to stand out. But God noticed. God noticed him. them that honour me I will honour. God noticed him, he wholly followed the Lord. God noticed Daniel, that Daniel stood out amongst all the others because he wouldn't defile himself with the king's meat. God noticed Job, Job who did not sin with his lips and curse God. And God notices those who love the Lord Jesus Christ wholly and completely, who are willing to separate themselves from the mindset of this world.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, who is to be our object then? If we're not to love the things of the world, who is to be our object? The Lord Jesus Christ. The object of Caleb was God. The object of Daniel was God. The object of Job was God. The object of the believer, the one that he loves, the one that he is united to is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is him that they are following. He is their life. He is their love. He is their desire. They desire to please him. And if they find things in their lives that displease him, they want to cut it out. They want to wholly follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And they understand that this world is passing away. And so this world doesn't have their heart. Christ has their heart. They desire his word, his ways. They understand that this world is passing, fleeting. And it is only those who wholly follow Christ that will ever set foot in the promised land.

You see, you can't have both. You can't straddle the broad road that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life. It doesn't work. You've got to come off the broad road that leads to destruction and go through the door. the door that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you've got to walk on the narrow way that leads to life, which is the opposite way to the broad road that leads to destruction. So you can't have both. You can't be in the ship and on the land at the same time. It is to wholly follow, to walk in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be as near to him as you can, to obey his commands. And there is that blessing then to those who wholly follow, as Jesus says, that they will be with me. That's Christ's desire, and that's their desire.

This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. In Joshua, we read of the promise that, the fulfilment of this promise, that the Lord gave to Caleb. Save Caleb, the son of Jeph, he shall see it. To him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he has wholly followed the Lord.

Joshua 14, from verse 7, Caleb comes to Moses, after they've crossed over into the promised land, he says, 40 years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kedesh to espy out the land and brought him word against as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swear on that day saying, surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because they as wholly followed the Lord thy God. And now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, and has said, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain whereon the Lord spake in that day, for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there. and that the cities were great and fenced. If so be that the Lord will be with me, then I shall abide to drive them out, as the Lord has said.

And so that time came, the fulfilment of those words that were spoken, that the land whereon thy feet have trodden, it shall be given thee. Forty-five years later, everybody else is dead. The whole of that congregation that doubted God, they died in the wilderness. Only their children remain. And Caleb and Joshua. Why? Because God is faithful to his word, faithful to his promises. And so Caleb, he goes through into the promised land and he has the place where the Lord had promised him. So he is blessed. is blessed.

What does he say? He says I haven't got old. I haven't got old. What does that tell us? There's a land where the people never grow old and it's heaven. Where time will not exist And so as Caleb, he shows us that the Lord is faithful to his promises and that he retains his strength as he wanders through the wilderness, that we are the people of God, given that strength sufficient for every single day. But then we come to a point when we die and our strength of our body fails, but we are taken into the land, the land where we'll never grow old. No more tears, no more sorrow, no more sadness, no more struggling, no more doubts, no more fears. but it is only there for those who have wholly followed the Lord, who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, who are on the narrow way that leads to life and desire to walk in obedience to the Lord Jesus. May the Lord give us the spirit of Caleb, of Daniel, of Job, of the Lord Jesus Christ, who wholly follow, who walk in obedience, whose object is God, whose object is Christ. Even if everybody else is going the other way, even if other Christians are doing this and that, yet you are wholly following the Lord your God. Your eyes are fixed upon Christ Jesus, laying aside every sin and every weight that so easily besets you.

And even if everybody says, come with us, come with us, do this and do that, wholly follow the Lord your God, walk in his ways, walk in his commandments and walk in obedience to him. Amen.

Let's sing our final hymn, number 420, to the tune 69.

420, O bless the Lord my soul, that all within me join, and aid my tongue to bless his name, whose favours are divine.

420. And laid my tongue to rest his hand, His faith was not in vain. God bless the Lord, my soul, Yeah.

? To thy sinlessness ?
? And make thee all again ?
? Be now thy life with love ?
? Then, Master, for the grave ?
? Be now redeemed ?

He fills the poor with good, He gives the suffering wealth, The Lord has judgments for the proud,

Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you each now and for evermore. Amen.